Q.India is a developing country. – Discuss.

India is still a developing (not developed) economy: real national income is rising and industry and services are expanding, yet per-capita income stays low, a large share of workers remain in low-productivity agriculture, and poverty, unemployment, inequality and weak human-development indicators persist. This is a core idea in AP Intermediate 2nd-year Economics (growth versus development), where India's status is judged by both quantitative and qualitative features.

A developing economy is one that is in the process of change from a traditional, agriculture-based, low-income state toward a modern, industrialised, high-income one, but has not yet completed that transition. Judged against the usual yardsticks, India clearly belongs in this group.

Features that mark India as developing:

1. Low per-capita income. India's average income per head is far below that of developed nations, so the general standard of living remains modest despite a large total national income.
2. Over-dependence on agriculture. A very large proportion of the workforce still depends on agriculture, which contributes a much smaller share of national income than the people it employs, indicating low productivity and disguised unemployment in the sector.
3. Rapid population growth. High population growth eats into the gains from higher output, keeping per-capita income low and creating pressure on land, jobs and public services.
4. Poverty and inequality. A significant section of the population lives below the poverty line, and income and wealth are unequally distributed between regions, between rural and urban areas, and between social groups.
5. Unemployment and underemployment. Open unemployment in towns and disguised and seasonal unemployment in villages are both widespread.
6. Weak human-development indicators. Literacy, health, nutrition and other social indicators, though improving, still lag behind developed countries.
7. Low capital formation and backward technology. Savings and investment, though growing, are inadequate, and much production still uses traditional techniques. …