Q.39 “Improving the performance of social sector will make India achieve three goals in one move—fiscal consolidation, better human capital formation and enhanced welfare”. Comment on the statement and also give your advices to improve the situation of the social sector.

Ans. The whole gamut of expenditures the governments do on the social welfare falls under the social sector. It has a significant role in the economic development and welfare of a country. It is empirically proven and widely

recognized social sector expenditures impact the growth of an economy. Investing in human capital by way of education, skill development, training and provision of health care facilities enhances the productivity of the workforce and welfare of the population. In this regard, contemporary documents suggest the following actions for the governments in the country:

• Improving the quality of education provided in schools to arrest and reverse the decline in enrolment in government schools. An important contributor to improvement in the quality of education would be an increase in the percentage of qualified teachers.

• Overcoming the development challenges through innovative models of delivery of services. It has a critical role to play in India’s march towards double-digit growth.

• Improving the quality of human capital will be necessary to capitalise and leverage the advantages of the demographic dividend—through better healthcare, education and skill.

• Overhauling of the subsidy regime is needed with faster pace. It will not only rationalise the subsidies but bring in variety of other benefits in the service delivery system—inclusion of the needy population; exclusion of the fake accounts; prevention of corruption and leakages; traceability; authentication of delivery; transparency and accountability.

The idea of technology-enabled Direct Benefits Transfers (DBT), namely the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) number trinity solution, introduced by the GoI in this regard is believed to be a game-changing move.

• India needs to include the behavioural dimensions of the target population in its framework of policy-making to realise desired results in the area of promoting the cause of the social infrastructure.

• There is a need of integrating the social sector initiatives of the Centre, states and the local bodies. The new ‘think tank’ NITI Aayog can play a suitable platform in this regard.

• Strengthening of the local bodies (the PRIs) will not only boost the social sector but it will have an effect of externality in the form of an aware, awakened and participative citizenry. Through them, India can garner the support of civil society and the NGO.

• There is need to motivate and orient the private sector (corporate world) towards this cause. Their inclusion in this area will not only bring in additional funds to this fund-scarce sector but enable the country to use their expertise in the promotion of the social infrastructure.

This way, improved performance of the social sector serves three purposes

— fiscal consolidation (by rationalising subsidies), better human capital formation (by better education, healthcare, skill, etc.) and enhanced welfare (by being free delivery of services to the poor masses).