Pattern of Public Expenditure on Social Sector in India

Abstract

Human capital also enhances the productivity of high-technology physical capital. Available empirical evidence indicates that all countries that have managed persistent growth in income have also had large increases in the education and training of their labor forces. Empirical studies in the Indian context also reveal investments in human capital have a significant impact on economic growth. Like many other developing countries, the Government of India’s key policy documents, including economic reforms, have identified poverty eradication/alleviation and social development as two main challenges and expressed the government’s commitment towards social development and eradication of poverty. Indian government’s gradual adoption of marketoriented economic reform policies in the mid-1980s was accompanied by an expansionist fiscal strategy to counterbalance the redistributive effect of liberalization. These economic and political developments have tended to strongly influence social sector policies in India. If the expenditure is diverted towards development activities, it will promote the process development of the state. It becomes essential to study the patterns of social sector expenditure in India at national and state levels to ascertain how the social sector has been managed by the governments in India and to what extent the central and state governments in India have fulfilled their responsibility of developing the social sector in India.