Routledge Interrogating Inclusive Growth: Poverty and Inequality in India

The high growth performance of the Indian economy since the launch of economic reforms in the early 1990s has been much lauded. But how much of this growth has made its way to the poor? In a radical assessment of ‘inclusive growth’, this book probes the impact of neo-liberal policies on employment, poverty and inequality. It critiques the claim that market-friendly economic reform policies ‘trickle down’ to the poor and reduce poverty and deprivation. The author uses exhaustive data ― from the formal and informal sectors ― to create a profile of the aam aadmi. He advocates the need for a broad-based growth and development strategy that alone will address the many-sided social and economic inequalities in India. The volume will be useful to scholars and students of economics, development studies, labour studies, and sociology. Review ‘Kannan's treatise on the informal economy is on the widening gap between the classes higher up and down below. His critical analysis challenges the inclusivity of the growth process unleashed by the neoliberal reform policies.’ ― Jan Breman, Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam ‘The book argues for a strategy of inequality-sensitive well-being of the people.’ ― D. Narasimha Reddy, ICSSR National Fellow and former Dean of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad ‘The book finds that India’s post-liberalisation growth has been accompanied by increasing inequalities and informalisation of employment.’ ― T. S. Papola, ICSSR National Fellow and former Director, Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow About the Author K. P. Kannan is Chairman, Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies, Trivandrum, and the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD), Thrissur, Kerala.