Is India's High Growth Sustainable?

Over the past four years India's economic growth has continued to exceed expectations, surging ahead at an annual rate of more than 8 percent, and India's recent five-year plan predicts that over 9 percent annual growth will be achieved in the coming years. Strong growth holds the promise of further reducing poverty and improving living standards. Yet there are concerns that India may be overheating, with consumer prices, asset prices, and wages all rising, capacity utilization at high levels, and skill shortages developing. What are the real prospects for India's economy and can growth continue in a balanced and sustainable way?

Join us for a discussion of economic prospects and downside risks for India at a forum hosted by the Brookings Institution and the IMF.

Moderated by:

Lael Brainard
Lael Brainard is Vice President and Director of the Global Economy Development Program at Brookings and holds the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in International Economics. She previously served as Deputy National Economic Adviser and Chair of the Deputy Secretaries Committee on International Economics in the Clinton Administration and also was an Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School. She has published widely in various areas of trade and development.

Featuring:

Charles F. Kramer
Charles Kramer is Chief of the IMF's division that covers India. He supervised the most recent annual review of India's economy, including special studies on asset prices and the macroeconomy, and financial market implications of India's pension reform. He has also covered the Japan, United States, and Canada desks at the IMF, and also has worked in the IMF's capital markets group in the Research and International Capital Markets departments. In addition to India, his recent research work has dealt with Asian equity markets, Japan's monetary policy framework, and Asia's investment slump.

Shantayanan Devarajan
Shantayanan Devarajan is Chief Economist of the World Bank's Human Development Network, and Editor of the World Bank Research Observer. Since 1991, he has been Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Bank's Development Research Group. Prior to joining the Bank, he was on the faculty of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His recent research has focused on public expenditure, including the links with growth, project appraisal, and foreign aid.

Nirvikar Singh
Nirvikar Singh is Professor of Economics, Director of the Business Management Economics Program and Co-Director of the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was also a co-founder of the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics. In 1998, he organized one of the first major conferences held in the United States on Indian economic reform. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BSc and MSc from the London School of Economics, where he was awarded the Allyn Young Prize, Gonner Prize and Ely Devons Prize. His current research topics include electronic commerce, business strategy, information technology and development, federalism and political economy, and economic reform in India. He has authored over 80 research papers and his book, The Political Economy of Indian Federalism, co-authored with M. Govinda Rao, has recently been published by Oxford University Press.