Michael Carter, who was the World Bank’s Country Director for India from September 2002, retired in July 2006. He looks back at the four years he spent in India.
I came to India four years ago at an exciting time in India’s recent history. Change was palpable and a new sense of confidence was in the air. India’s extraordinarily energetic private sector was propelling the country to new heights of growth, and the nation was beginning to emerge as an economic powerhouse, a strong player in the increasingly knowledge-driven world of the new millennium. Although India was still home to the largest number of the world’s poor, it seemed that poverty’s worst features could be vanquished in the coming generation.
Shortly after our arrival in India, my wife Jenny and I went to stay with a low income family in the Kolar district of Karnataka. Mahatma Gandhi said that India lives in its villages, and in that one week in rural Karnataka I glimpsed what life was like for the common people of the country. As we ate with the family and slept like them on straw mats, I began to understand the magnitude of India’s rural development challenge. The village had no health centre, a school that barely functioned, and a road that was more of a dilapidated track. This is not to say that no public resources were being provided. The government was, for example, subsidizing power for agriculture – although this was fostering a fall in the water table that deeply worried the farmers.
Those early days vividly impressed upon me the huge gaps in the government’s delivery of basic services; yet, the people worked so hard to secure a better future for themselves and their families. That image, which I was to see repeatedly across the country, has remained with me ever since, underpinning my work here these past few years in many ways.
I saw the extraordinary spirit of India’s people again in the aftermath of the tsunami. As the survivors picked up the pieces of their lives, they were helped by an administration whose competence in handling the disaster has been recognized world-wide. Though I have seen many examples of the failure of governance and service delivery by governments across the country, I have also come across many public servants of immense ability and commitment, often unrecognized, battling against all odds to get their jobs done. My experience has left me in no doubt of the enduring strength of India’s people.
It looks increasingly likely that the global economic environment will be less favorable for India than it has been in the past few years. While some resulting slowdown in India’s growth over the next few years would not be a surprise, I believe that the country can continue to be one of the world’s fastest growing economies. But the sustainability of that growth over the longer-term will depend on a number of factors which require urgent thinking and action now.
To name a few: Adapting to increasing water scarcity in a way that meets the reasonable needs of all; ensuring adequate energy supplies, especially through the difficult reforms that are needed to improve energy efficiency; adapting to climate change, which could impact India more than most countries; coping with accelerating urbanization, for which strengthened urban governance is surely essential; creating high quality job opportunities; protecting India’s fragile environment in the face of the ever increasing pressures created by economic success; and making India a driving force in technical innovation. My hope is that the World Bank will be able to contribute to ways forward in all these areas, especially by bringing to the table the lessons of experience from around the world.
My experience has also convinced me of the importance of a second and, perhaps even more difficult agenda: Finding ways to make growth more inclusive, so that India’s recent successes improve the lives of all its people. There are no easy solutions, but there are promising experiences to build on. All have the common theme of empowerment – if people are given the opportunity and confidence to develop new avenues for improving their livelihoods, and a role in the governance of the services they receive, the face of poor communities across the country can be changed.
This is certainly a tough challenge. For empowerment, by its very nature, implies a shift in the balance of power. It means a change from the topdown ways of centralized governance to a more participatory, grassroots-led system of decision-making. It means a greater responsiveness on the part of the country’s political system to the needs of its common citizens. It means an emphasis in policymaking on strengthening competition, so that poor producers get a fair reward. And it means transparency in public dealings, an openness to scrutiny, and an unequivocal right to information – all crucial to fighting the scourge of corruption.
But I am convinced that it is eminently doable. The women’s self help groups in Andhra Pradesh, for example, have shown that if poor and marginalized people are given the confidence to improve their lives, they can increase their families’ incomes within months and perhaps even give rise to a quiet social revolution in the process. In Uttaranchal and Kerala I have seen how giving poor rural communities a role in overseeing the construction of their drinking water schemes, as well as the responsibility to operate and maintain them, reduces construction costs, improves construction quality and greatly strengthens the prospects for sustainability.
Given India’s complexity and diversity, scaling up these local successes is a formidable challenge. Efforts to empower local governance institutions right down to the village level, which the government is rightly emphasizing, will surely help. But it will also be crucial to monitor developments on the ground, ensure that government programs are really designed to foster empowerment rather than respond to vested interests, and to constantly learn as reform proceeds. The World Bank will need to keep these challenges in mind for its work in India, all the time looking for ways to strengthen its contribution to India’s own development efforts.
I will certainly be watching, with respect and affection.
(This article was originally published in the New Delhi edition of The Economic Times on 7 August 2006)
