Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR have observed and researched on the relationship between India’s economic growth story and the gender equality conundrum from close quarters. Academicians at Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, one of the top MBA colleges in Delhi NCR have begun working on the issue by collecting data published by reliable business research and consulting organizations. The question in place has a lot to do with assessing and improving India’s economic growth potential and also understanding the relationship between free market democracy and the working of social institutions. While it is common for students pursuing courses like MBA and PGDM to ask for the differences between economic growth and development, it is now becoming crystal clear that economic growth and development exist have a circular relationship with one fostering the other. In this piece we take a look at why gender equality is central to India’s ambitions of sustaining the economic growth story and identify those states that fare relatively well on the metric of gender equality. We conclude with observations on finding consistency between policy thoughts for directly productive activities (DPA) and social overhead capital formation (SOC).
Forecasts for Gender Equality and Economic Growth in India
India’s economic growth potential and gender equality case is strengthened by many research publications. The latest of these research works is “The Power of Parity: How Advancing Women’s Equality Can Add $12 Trillion to Global Growth?” published by McKinsey Global Institute in November 2015. The report categorically asserts the following. If all countries were to achieve gender parity with those that are high on gender equality, it would enable the addition of U.S. $12 trillion to the global GDP by the year 2025. Moreover it also asserts that India could pocket an additional GDP of U.S.$ 700 billion by the year 2025 by laser focusing social and institutional reforms aimed at improving gender equality. This would translate into India increasing its annual GDP growth rate by 1.4 percentage points. Broken down into quantitative metrics to fix and achieve targets of gender equality, it means that India can achieve 70% of this “best in region” potential by adding another 68 million women to its labour force. The addition of these 68 million of these women would raise women’s participation by 10 percentage points. 70% of this increase in women’s participation in the labour force can come from bridging the economic and social gaps in just nine states. The assertions are based on the India Female Empowerment Index (Femdex) that the company has created.
Based on the findings of the research, McKinsey Global Institute came forward with scores of all Indian states for its Femdex.
The results produce some very important insights according to the researchers Jonathan Woetzel and James Manyika. The India Femdex scores show that the state at the top of the list that comes closest to gender parity is Mizoram with a score of 0.70 and the state at the bottom of the list is Bihar with a score of 0.42.
In recent times the Government of India has launched several schemes for women empowerment to save and educate the girl child. The sex ratio has improved to 943 females per 1000 males. India continues to rank on the lower side of the Gender Inequality Index of the UNDP at 127 out of 146 countries with a value of 0.563.
At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, one of the top MBA and PGDM colleges in Delhi NCR, we have included 2 case studies each on women empowerment and gender parity in business environment and business ethics and corporate governance. The academicians have integrated the works of Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen on the “missing women mystery.”