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Punjab

The state of Punjab in India represents an important case study of development gone awry. Partition in 1947, which wreaked havoc on the region, was followed by surprisingly rapid recovery and progress. An infrastructure of roads and market towns was created in the 1950s, followed by the Green Revolution of the 1960s, which saw Punjab become the breadbasket of India. Punjab became the richest state in India, measured by per capita income.

Current condition

11 April 2013

More recently, Punjab’s growth has lagged the rest of India, and it has slipped down the league table of states. This is not worrisome in itself, since the state’s growth has not stopped, and it remains one of India’s better-off states. The bigger worry is looming ecological disaster that will harm Punjab irretrievably, and with it, the whole nation of India.  Rajinder Sidhu of Punjab Agricultural University emphasised the criticality of the groundwater situation in Punjab, with rapidly falling water tables, and the distortionary policies, such as free power for farmers, that have accelerated the problem. Upmanu Lall of Columbia University noted that drinking water pollution has also become alarming, so a health disaster will accompany the desertification that comes with groundwater depletion. Lakhwinder Singh of Punjabi University discussed a range of issues, including poor governance, falling investment, monopolistic middlemen, poor educational outcomes, Pritam Singh argued that the lack of an effective opposition party in Punjab has hampered the workings of normal politics as a mechanism for responding to constituent needs and wants. It is certainly plausible to argue that the political economy of the Green Revolution model has trapped Punjab in an unsustainable and undesirable equilibrium of depleting its natural resources and neglecting its human resources, to keep growing grain for the country’s public distribution system. The seeds of the Punjab crisis, which included issues of...