Development Process and Development Industry

Development Process and Development Industry

The word Development has different meanings as it is complex, indefinite and elusive. There are different approaches to Development:

Economic Development Approach

Development means an increase in the size ($5 Trillion GDP) or pace (faster) of the economy. It is based on the assumption that economic growth leads to a higher standard of living.

Human Development Approach

According to UNDP, Human development is about expanding the richness of human life, not just the richness of the economy in which human beings live.

According to Amartya Sen, Development is the process of expanding human freedom. He pointed out that Development calls for the removal of sources of unfreedom: poverty, tyranny, poor economic opportunities, systemic social deprivation, and neglect of public facilities, intolerance or overactivity of repressive states. According to him, there are five types of interrelated freedoms, namely, political freedom, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency and security.

Development is a multidimensional activity to achieve a higher quality of life for all people. Economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development.

Social Development Approach

It refers to social progress or social change including changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. It denotes how people develop social and emotional skills across the lifespan, with specific attention to childhood and adolescence. It views that healthy social development allows us to form positive relationships with family, friends, teachers, and other people in our lives.

Sustainable Development (Systems) Approach

It views development is not just about human development, but also involves the natural environment. It is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Sustainable development is a systems approach to growth and development and to manage natural, produced, and social capital for the welfare of their own and future generations.

To understand simply, Development is nothing but bringing about social change that allows people to achieve their potential.

Development Process

Development is a process rather than an outcome. It is dynamic in that it involves a positive change from one state (or condition) to another i.e. improvement or progress of some sort (for example, an improvement in literacy or maternal health).

Also, development is often considered as something that is done by one group -such as a development agency- to another (such as artisans, rural farmers or women in a developing country).

Hence it tells that development is a political process, because it raises questions about who has the power to do what to whom.

Development Agency/Industry

Development Agencies are the agencies-local, national and international- that help support growth and social progress in the specific geographic region by providing the necessary resources and assistance. They play an important role in assisting the various development efforts in an area. They include government agencies, civil society, non-governmental organisations and voluntary organisations. They engage in directing development or facilitating development, through by providing inputs, guidance, finance, markets, technology, etc.

1. Government Agencies

Various government agencies play important roles in directing the development activities to be pursued in both the short and the long run.

Niti Aayog: A policy think tank to achieve sustainable development goals with cooperation and participation of state governments in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach.

Finance Commission of India

It is created every five years for the purpose of allocation of certain revenue resources between the Union and the State Governments. Finance Commission also plays a vital role in ensuring balanced regional development in India.

State Finance Commission

Since India is a federation in a federation, the Indian constitution envisaged constitution of State Finance Commission every five years. It decides the distribution of net tax proceeds between the state and the Panchayats. This way they contribute to the development of local areas.

State Planning Board

It formulates development plans based on the growth priorities and a systematic scientific assessment of the resources of the state.

District Planning Board

The board formulates a long term district perspective plan, and to evolve a strategy of planned development for the district, on the basis of locally felt needs of the people, and local priorities. It also ensures self-governance by the people through directly elected representatives.

2. Financial and Non-financial Agencies

Financial Agencies

NABARD: It is a refinancing agency for financial institutions like commercial banks and cooperative banks etc. offering production credit and investment credit for promoting agriculture and developmental activities in rural areas.
SIDBI: Promote the development of small industries by providing credit at affordable interest.
IDBI: It acts as a catalyst to industrial development by providing financial assistance, organising entrepreneurship development programmes, providing consultancy services for small and medium enterprises, assistance in upgrading technology and also economic upliftment of underprivileged.
Commercial Banks: To ensure food security and facilitate agricultural production, timely credit at reasonable rates of interest to the rural population was needed. Priority sector lending norms made this possible.
Cooperative Societies: The concept of cooperative societies owes its origin to the agriculture and allied sectors. Cooperative societies play a significant role in the country's socio-economic development. Farmers usually found the cooperative movement an attractive instrument for pooling their limited resources to solve shared problems relating to credit, supplies of inputs, and the marketing of agricultural produce.

Non-Financial Orgnisations

Non -Governmental Organisations:

Development is not just the activity of government only. It requires the participation of people from all segments of society. The government cannot deliver services effectively to each and every corner of the country given its limitations and difficulty in reach (delivering a service to people living in relatively inaccessible areas mountains or hills or lagoons etc.). Hence NGOs will fill this gap of government and citizen disconnect. The role of NGOs starts where the role of government ends.

Self Help Groups (SHG):

As the name suggests they are voluntary groups formed for initiating entrepreneurial activities at the grassroots level. SHGs helped realise women empowerment-economic, social and political empowerment at the local level. This lead to demand for 50% reservations in local governments.

3. Multilateral Financial organisations

The international financial institutions like the World Bank, IMF and Asian Development Bank provides vital technical and financial assistance for growth and development. They also provide economic assistance to specific projects.

Bilateral International Agencies

Individual countries like US (USAID), Japan (JBIA) and European Commission etc. also provide development assistance to India.

4. United Nations Organisation

The United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), UNDP, and WHO etc. also provides development assistance. For instance, the general mission of the UNDP is achieving sustainable human development by giving high priority to poverty alleviation, women's empowerment, and environmental protection.

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