India's Economic Survey shifts the narrative to 'quality of life'

India's Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran has combined government initiatives such as health and education and other facilities and has started a conversation on the 'quality of life' — a first of its kind approach in India, which is still an emerging economy.

"Social welfare is not an afterthought for the government but its leitmotif," the CEA said, adding that the government has adopted a comprehensive and 'leave no one behind' approach for social welfare and the same is mentioned clearly in the Economic Survey Report.

Source: Economic Survey Report

The CEA said that as the economy develops, the concept of quality of life has also enlarged to include more elements other than the traditional metrics of income and education. "It now encompasses access to clean drinking water, sanitation, employment prospects, health care, social security, connectivity, etc. All these together determine the quality of life," he said.

It is important to note that India's rank in the Human Development Index 2021 slipped by two spots to 132 and continued to be lower than China (79), South Africa (109) and Indonesia (114). In 2020, India ranked 130 on the index.

The human development index is a composite index of education, life expectancy and per capita indicators on the basis of which countries are ranked.

According to the Human Development Index, the life expectancy in India is 67.2 years, expected years of schooling is 11.9 years and an average years of schooling is of around 6.7 years.

Rs 21.32 lakh core was spent by the Centre and states on social services. Of which, the education sector spent Rs 7.57 lakh crore, health sector spent Rs 5.48 lakh crore and Rs 8.26 lakh crore was spent under the 'others' category, which comprises labour welfare, sanitation, housing.

In last year's Budget, the spending on 'medical and public health' was reduced from Rs 74,820 crore FY22 to Rs 41,011 crore in FY23 due to "lower requirement of vaccination," according to Budget documents. The health sector was allocated Rs 86,200.65 crore in the FY23 Union Budget, a hike of 16 percent over Rs 73,931 crore in 2021-22.

The Ministry of Education was allocated 1.04 lakh crore for FY23, a 11.86 percent jump from the previous fiscal's Rs 11,053.41 crore.