Sustainable Economic Development

Human capital formation refers to the process of developing and improving the skills, knowledge and abilities of individuals. It is the process of acquiring and increasing the number of persons who have the skills, capacities, knowledge and experience which are essential for the economic and political development of a country. Thus, statement 2 is correct.

Intangible wealth of a nation is comprised of the skilled population, human resource base, culture, arts etc. Hence, statement 4 is also correct.

Statement 1 and 3 are incorrect because they are part of gross capital formation (GCF) representing physical capital.

Human capital is the skills, knowledge and experience possessed by an individual or population, viewed in terms of their value or cost to an organization or country. Skill development programme enhances human capital. India adds on about 12 million people to its work force every year. By 2030, one third of the world's working age population is going to be from India. There are as many as 711 million people in India in the working age group of 15-59 years, with the majority requiring new or additional skill to keep them relevant and productive in social and economic growth and development. This makes India the youngest and ambitious country in the world with skill and human capital development on top most agenda. For this, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The objective of this skill certification scheme is to enable a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood.

Human capital formation indicates the process of acquiring and increasing the number of persons who have the skills, education and experience which are critical for the economic and the political development of the country. Human capital can be developed through creation of skilled, trained and efficient labour force by providing better education, train- ing, health care facilities etc. Irrigation will not have a direct impact on human capital formation.

Increasing investment in human capital will lead to an increase in productivity. The gradual expansion of that is as follows : skill development ⇒ proper use of resources ⇒ increase in productivity, etc.

The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international metric that benchmarks the key components of human capital across countries. The HCI was launched by the World Bank in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project. Its latest 2020 update was launched in September, 2020. In this update, Singapore again ranked first among 174 economies with score of 0.88. In HCl 2020, India has been ranked at the 116th position (it was 115th out of 157 countries in 2018).

Inclusive growth entails comprehensive growth, shared growth and pro-poor growth. Inclusive growth means the access to resources and facilities to all sections of society. It is such economic growth that is distributed fairly across society and creates opportunities for all, Inclusive growth infers an impartial allocation of resources with benefits incurred to every section of society. So option (a), (b) and (c), all are correct.

Inclusive development is a multi-dimensional concept of development with totality. It improves the availability of better education, health and employment opportunities, with improved infrastructure. Its main dimension is to reduce poverty. Among the given options, only the high growth of national income can not be expected to increase inclusive development.

Inclusive governance means that all sections of the society should be equally provided with the facilities provided by the government. To establish effective District Planning Committees in all the district, to increase government expenditure on public health and to empower Mid-day Meal Scheme are all parts of inclusive governance. Permitting the Non-Banking Financial Companies to do banking can not be considered as part of inclusive governance.

The inclusive growth refers to the benefits of all the resources being equally distributed to all sections of the society, particularly its purpose is to reduce economic and social inequalities among the various sections of the society by giving special attention to the lower and deprived classes. In order to carry forward the inclusive development goal, where encouraging Self-Help Groups and micro, small and medium enterprises can be directly helpful, at the same time, children of disadvantaged sections will also be able to join the mainstream of the society by implementing the Right to Education Act, and accordingly will nurture inclusive growth

For the first time a new chapter on sustainable development and climate change was introduced in the Economic Survey of 2011-12.