On the sectoral linkages and pattern of economic growth in India

Abstract

This study examines the linkages between agriculture, industry, and services sectors, and analyses the pattern of economic growth in India. The vector autoregression model is estimated on annual data for the period 1950–1951 to 2009–2010. The results provide strong support for the long-run and a weak support for the short-run linkages among sectors. The development of rural sector is generally synonymous with the growth of agriculture and that of urban sector with the growth of manufacturing and services sectors. The services sector bypassed the successful completion of the process of industrialization, and prematurely emerged as the dominant driver and key lever of economic growth. The development strategy needs to be rebalanced to revitalize agriculture to generate rural employment, support industry, and provide the wage goods and food security. The revitalization of agriculture needs to be complemented by the development of highly productive and internationally competitive manufacturing sector to boost the manufacturing goods exports, stimulate the positive productivity spillovers, provide productive job opportunities to surplus labour in agriculture, generate urban employment, reduce underemployment and disguised unemployment in the informal sector of the urban economy, and accomplish the process of industrialization.