WHY INDIANS ARE ECONOMICALLY POORER THAN SRI LANKANS

In comparison of the two countries, Kerala, one of the smallest state of India is 0.59 the size of Sri Lanka, an independent country. The current estimated population of Kerala is 3.57 crores whereas Sri Lanka has 2.19 crores. The climatic conditions of both places are more or less similar. There are many similarities in geographical area too. While making an economic comparison with India,  the following figures stand testimony. 2022-23 GDP of India is $3.30 trillion. GDP of Sri Lanka during 2022 was $94 billion. While going back to 1960 the GDP per capita income of Sri Lanka was $152 (South Korea $153, Malaysia $280 and Indonesia $60) and India $303) GDP of India about half a century ago was double the amount of Sri Lanka. GDP pci of India in 1990 was $368 (China $318) In the same year GDP pci of Sri Lanka rose to $565. The same of Sri Lanka became $1,065, India could come upto $1,913. Sri Lankan GDP pci in 2021 was $3,994 (Rs 3,19,520), 2022 was $3,393 and estimated for 2023 is $3,908. The same for India is 2021 - $2,257 (Rs 1,80,560),2022 - $2,389 and 2023 - $2,221. This shows that GDP per capita income of Sri Lanka is 1.7 times higher than that of India.

What makes Sri Lanka's per capita income almost double the amount that of India is something we must observe in detail. The prime explanation of this would be that India has a much larger population than Sri Lanka and when the large GDP is divided by a large population, the per capita share becomes low. This is not a justifiable argument as more population should have contributed much more GDP. The GDP is supposed to be the total value of the natural resources exploited by the total man power available. When we take into account the unemployed and under employed people of the country the wide gap of PCI will come into light. Therefore, the simple way to enhance the PCI is to deploy the entire unemployed and under employed properly.

When we make a general comparison of both people, we may find that the educational achievement of an average Sri Lankan is much higher than that of an average Indian. Human development of Sri Lanka is also higher and upto the level of Kerala. More women take up paid employment in Sri Lanka. These are prime factors that makes Sri Lanka higher in GDP per capita income  higher than that of India. Further to these  Sri Lanka is a small open economy with access to International trade enabling exports and foreign investment. This also make advantageous for attracting more tourists. In a comparative study, India has a very large number of unemployed and under employed people making no contribution to the national exchequer or any self earning.

However the continuous civil war and the consequent administrative failures terribly shattered the Sri Lankan economy in the recent times. In spite of it Sri Lanka has enough positive factors that can bring the country back to economic stability. All said and done we Indians have more negative elements to retain it below in GDP per capita income. Most important among those is the widespread corruption in our country. For instance, huge amount of accounted money is deposited in banks in other countries. This money, if left with our own people here it would have, in one way or the other, generated more earnings to a good number of unemployed people.

If these types of comparative studies are to make anything good for our economy, we must try to rectify the issues that pull down our economic development. If we focus our whole attention initially on corruption in our country and try to take necessary steps to ward off this destructive and deep rooted trends from this country, that alone will reinstate us the right path of economic development.

K V George