Headwinds and opportunities in rural India

Rural India 'critical' to election results

clock • 4 min read

Mahatma Gandhi was a great advocate for rural India, once noting that, "if the village perishes India will perish too."

India's economy has transformed since his death in 1948 - then agriculture was 50% of GDP and now it is 15%. Yet, according to the agricultural census of 2011, 60% of India's population - and therefore its voter base - is rural and largely reliant on agriculture. A ‘green revolution' in the intervening decades saw sharp improvements in yields for rice and wheat. Production kept pace with rapid population growth, banishing major food shortages. More enterprising farmers in some States subsidised fertilizer and government intervention in food procurement contributed to this success. The...

To continue reading this article...

Join Investment Week for free

  • Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
  • Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
  • Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
  • Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
  • Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes

Join now

 

Already an Investment Week
member?

Login

More on Markets

Investors turn defensive in January as rate cut expectations change

Investors turn defensive in January as rate cut expectations change

State Street Risk Appetite index

clock 08 February 2024 • 1 min read
London remains 'key destination' for IPOs

London remains 'key destination' for IPOs

KMPG survey of ECM leaders

Cristian Angeloni
clock 15 January 2024 • 2 min read
Market Movers Blog: S&P 500 hits 5,000 mark for the first time

Market Movers Blog: S&P 500 hits 5,000 mark for the first time

Latest news and analysis

Investment Week
clock 09 January 2024 • 1 min read
Trustpilot