Why is life quality so poor in India?

While per capita income is quite low in India, that is not the sole reason why life quality is poor. Countries with similar or even lower per capita income offer better life quality. The tourism potential of India remains almost untapped due to poor-quality infrastructure. Here is my perspective.

My school-time friend is a village-level politician. His father is the largest landowner in our village. Every time I talk to him when I am on vacation, he tells me about new government schemes for farmers. You dig a pond for fish farming, you get a 50% subsidy. You buy a tractor, you get a similar deal. A few years back, he took me to a technologically advanced cattle farm worth ₹3 crore. The owner of the farm, who has a business in Dubai, received a 50% subsidy. For almost every type of farming, there is a government scheme with very attractive benefits. It should be noted, however, that most of these investments do not help in increasing production or generating employment. A person in our locality took a huge subsidy to set up a cold storage facility, which was never functional.

Do these schemes really benifit farmers? There is a catch, though. For every scheme, there is a set of conditions that need to be satisfied, and it is very hard for a marginal farmer to tick all the boxes to receive benefits, apart from lacking information to approach the right official. The benefits are effectively consumed by large landowners who are already rich. This is not a random outcome of thoughtless policymaking but rather a conscious design by our leaders, who received power from the British. Our current leaders are more than happy to perpetuate this system. After the British left India, feudal landlords who had earlier served the British retained their power and influence. Most of our elected leaders either directly come from this class or rely heavily on them to get votes.

In the last three decades, however, the media has helped elected leaders directly connect with the marginalized sections of the population. Hence, we saw schemes such as the mid-day meal for school children, which have made a positive impact. The health insurance policy of the Odisha government has undoubtedly helped thousands avoid falling prey to loan sharks. Seeing the potential, our leaders are now engaged in competitive welfare. If one party promises NYAY, the other party responds with Ladli Behna.

Essentially, there is a scheme for almost everyone now in rural India now. The budget for such schemes is steadily increasing, which makes sense as our GDP is growing at a decent rate. However, resources have been largely utilized for unproductive activities, leaving important basic aspects of life, like clean air and pothole-free roads, largely ignored. Our leaders are not bothered about the decreasing R&D budget (as a percentage of GDP, see the pic) because they don't see it as a factor in the electoral math.