NEW DELHI: The Economic Survey 2017 tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday revealed that delivery of essential services such as health and education, which are predominantly state subject are weak and suffering.
However, though it said that India’s low level of expenditures on health (and education) which have been the subject of criticism, the good news is that India doesnot fare too badly in the 2000s as compared to other countries. It is worth understanding states’ health and demographic outcomes since the 1980s. “Two such key indicators are life expectancy at birth and infant mortality rate,” it said.
Significantly, it said that India does not fare too badly in the 2000s compared to other countries. “This is consistent with last year’s Survey finding that children and women perhaps bear the burden of deficient systems of health delivery,” it said.
Adding that “the fact that convergence is occurring in key health indicators within India suggests that there are no traps of the sort described earlier that prevent technologies from flowing freely within the country”.
The Economic Survey said that a distinctive feature of the Indian economic model is the “weakness” of state capacity, especially in delivering essential services such as health and education.
