Gandhinagar: World Bank cautioned India that an enduring “bias†on the basis of caste and other factors can impede its prosperity.
The government, however, is well aware of this issue and the World Bank sees India as “a bright spot in an otherwise mediocre global economic outlook,†the multilateral lending agency’s President JimYong Kim said at the Vibrant Gujarat summit on Sunday.
The World Bank chief said India could grow at 6.4% in 2015 and accelerate further next year.
“Indian society has an enduring exclusion that is based, among other things, on caste identities. This bias can impede shared prosperity, serving as a basis for discrimination in many spheres, including in employment and other markets, as well as in public services,†he said.
Acknowledging the government’s efforts to address such issues, Jim said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has focused on programmes to promote “broad-sharing of its benefitsâ€, in addition to action that will accelerate growth.
“Its (government’s) special allocation of a fund for entrepreneurs from among the Scheduled Castes, and its focus on fixing bottlenecks so that money earmarked for the Scheduled Tribes reaches them, are both ethically just and economically sound responses,†he added.
He said Modi and his government were quickly putting in place the building blocks for even more rapid growth, streamlining the national regulatory structure, using public funds more efficiently, and promoting social inclusion.
After slowing to sub-five per cent growth in the previous two financial years, the economy has started showing signs of pick-up as it expanded by 5.7% and 5.3% in the second and third quarter of 2015.