Akademie Frankenwarte, Würzburg
16 - 17 December 2013
Contact: Barbara.lotz@uni-wuerzburg.de

The Indian economy is projected to grow at 6 to 7 percent per annum in the next three decades, despite its temporary slowdown in recent years. The growth rate is likely to be about twice that of the global rate. Yet, as grand as India`s growth potential are the political, social and cultural challenges and questions related to this scenario.
This is particularly true if one takes a look at the inconsistent interplay in between the economic rise and the socio-political developments of India. While economic growth is predicted to result in the emergence of a strong middle class and the reduction of poverty, it is also associated with growing rural-urban as well as regional inequalities. Changes in consumption expenditure, poverty and employment indicate that the opportunities of growth have not been shared in an equal manner. Opening up to global competition may further increase disparities. On the other hand, traditional patterns of socio-economic discrimination in India, particularly those related to religious and social values and institutions, are interacting with the economic development and might act as a drab on India’s growth potential. While traditional values and norms are undergoing a profound transformation as the country gets increasingly linked to global markets and imbibes western values, the process of socio-cultural “modernization” remains ambiguous and a matter of contention. Conflicts in between tradition and modernity may also turn into violent manifestations. Finally, India is not only emerging as a global economic power but also a major source of pollution, due to its large population and the absolute size of the economy. Even with a very low figure for per capita CO2 emissions - much below the world average or that of the emerging economies – India ranks the 4th behind China, the US and the European Union (EU). It is argued that the question of the ecological sustainability of India`s growth model is not figuring in as importantly as it should in domestic debates.

India`s rise to a global power is closely interlinked with its integration into the global economy. Therefore the above mentioned challenges should be analyzed both from a domestic and an international perspective, putting local developments into a global context. A European-Indian Dialog on the Indian economy opens up new perspectives and potential for comparative analysis. The present workshop would focus on these critical issues and examine the convergence and conflict between the changes in the political economy and the socio-cultural processes of the country.
Besides the inaugural session wherein the broad framework of the workshop will be presented, identifying the key areas of concern, a perspective for research collaboration between India and Germany will be discussed, it is planned to have four other sessions, as noted below

1. India in the Globalised world: The session will examine the differential growth scenario, in the context of investment pattern and distribution of growth within India across sectors and global demand and discuss the problems and possibilities of maintaining this over a long time.

2. Competition for Resources and Regional Inequality: The national and global companies would be looking for competitive locations and the governments in India at provincial level are likely to react with different incentive packages to attract them. This would have an impact on regional disparity within the country. Similarly, Indian and European companies are likely to enter into global competition for getting commitment of resources and market in other countries. How that would shape India’s role in the global economy.

3. Socio-religious Inequality, social tensions and Violence: The session will focus on limited impact of the growth process in bringing down social inequities including the gender gap in India. Currently, there is growing awareness about the problems but the interventions are generally designed in the context of electoral politics that tend to touch only peripheral issues. Values and norms are undergoing rapid transformation as the country gets increasingly linked to global market and imbibes the western values. Assertion of traditional values and institutions are resulting violent manifestations. The tensions and conflicts created as a result need to be understood and addressed.

4. Regional and Rural Inequality and Environmental Degradation: Growing regional inequality, accompanied by spatial segmentation of the cities and towns from rural areas has resulted in serious environmental issues in India. The cities are able to send their ecological footprints into distant regions. While Indian per-capita emissions remain low, it is growing rather rapidly, primarily due to change in the consumption pattern of the elites and upper middle class. The complex interdependencies between emergence of powerful middle class, regional and socio-economic inequality and overexploitation of natural resources for the benefit a select developed regions and powerful in metro cities and the politico-economic factors behind this, must be analysed in a cross cultural context in order to find meaningful solution to these.