Development in a Developing or Emerging Country
India: An Emerging Country in Detail
India is the world’s most populous country, with around 1.43 billion people in 2024, and the fifth-largest economy. It is classed as an emerging country. The Edexcel A specification asks for a country case study covering location, economic change, geopolitics and the impacts of rapid development. India fits well because the changes are recent, well-documented and very uneven inside the country.
Location and Context
India sits in South Asia, bordered by Pakistan to the west, China and Nepal to the north, Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east, and the Indian Ocean to the south. Its position links the Middle Eastern oil and gas markets with the East Asian manufacturing belt, and the Mumbai-Singapore shipping lanes carry around a third of global trade. Politically, India is the world’s largest democracy, a member of the BRICS group and the G20, with diaspora communities of over 18 million in the UK, the United States and the Gulf. Religiously and culturally it is mostly Hindu (around 80%) but contains one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. Environmentally, the Himalayas in the north, the Thar Desert in the west, the Ganges plain in the centre and the rainforests of Kerala in the south create huge regional contrasts.
India had a population of around 1.43 billion in 2024, an HDI of 0.644, and is the world’s fifth-largest economy. It borders Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and is a member of BRICS and the G20.
Core and Periphery: Uneven Development Within India
Development is very uneven across India. Coastal and southern states (Kerala HDI ~0.781, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra) form the core. Inland and northern states (Bihar HDI ~0.574, Jharkhand, Odisha) form the periphery. Reasons include access to ports for trade, longer histories of education investment (Kerala has had near-universal literacy since the 1990s), better infrastructure and stronger state governance. Bihar still has a child stunting rate of around 40% and a literacy rate of 70%, compared with Kerala’s 96%. The Modi government’s ‘Aspirational Districts’ programme targets the 112 weakest districts — mostly in the periphery — with health and education funding.
Economic Change Across the Sectors
India’s economy has shifted dramatically. In 1991, the primary sector (mostly agriculture) contributed about 30% of GDP; today it is around 17%, although it still employs around 42% of the workforce. The secondary sector (manufacturing) grew rapidly after 1991 economic reforms; sectors like pharmaceuticals (Cipla, Sun Pharma) and automotive (Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki) are now world leaders. The tertiary sector (services) is the largest, contributing around 55% of GDP — finance, retail, healthcare, tourism. The quaternary sector (knowledge industries: IT, software, research) has exploded around Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. Companies like Infosys and TCS make India a global IT services hub, employing more than 5 million people. The Modi government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative (launched 2014) aims to raise manufacturing’s share of GDP towards 25%.
India’s exports were worth around $770 billion in 2023, dominated by refined petroleum, IT services, gems and pharmaceuticals. Top trading partners are the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates. India once received large amounts of overseas aid; today it gives more than it receives, with $36 billion of foreign direct investment flowing in during 2023 from companies such as Apple (now manufacturing iPhones in Tamil Nadu) and Foxconn. Public investment by the state remains important — $26 billion for renewable energy and railway upgrades in 2023 — but private investment by TNCs is increasingly setting the pace. The shifting balance is part of India’s emergence: government provides infrastructure, corporations provide jobs.
Population, Society and Inequality
India’s population pyramid has narrowed at the base over the past 30 years. Total fertility has fallen from around 4.0 children per woman in 1990 to around 2.0 in 2023, slightly below replacement. Life expectancy rose from 58 in 1990 to 70 in 2023. The middle class has grown to around 430 million, fuelling demand for cars, apartments and tertiary education. But inequality has widened: the top 10% of earners take home around 57% of national income, while around 130 million people still live below the international extreme-poverty line. Female participation in the labour force is around 27% — one of the lowest in Asia — held back by social expectations, safety concerns and limited childcare. Education improvements (the Right to Education Act, 2009) have raised primary enrolment to over 95%, but secondary completion is still under 60%.
Geopolitics and Technology
India’s development is shaped by its neighbours and its global role. Long-running territorial disputes with Pakistan over Kashmir and with China over Ladakh have led to military skirmishes (the 2020 Galwan Valley clash) that absorb large defence budgets — around 2.5% of GDP. Cooperation agreements include the Quad (with the United States, Japan and Australia) and a free-trade pact with the UAE (2022). Technology has been transformational: the Aadhaar biometric identity scheme has enrolled over 1.3 billion people, allowing direct cash transfers and cutting fraud in welfare schemes. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed over 14 billion transactions in October 2024 alone, leapfrogging credit cards. Mobile internet now reaches 850 million Indians, although rural areas and women still lag.
Rapid development has produced positives (life expectancy +12 years since 1990, IT services hub, growing middle class) and negatives (top 10% earn 57% of income, child stunting 35% nationally, Delhi air pollution among the worst in the world).
Positive and Negative Impacts of Rapid Development
The positives are real. Hundreds of millions have been lifted out of extreme poverty since the 1990s. The economy is forecast to overtake Germany’s by 2027. Renewable energy capacity (solar especially) has grown from almost nothing to 73 GW in 2024, on track for 500 GW by 2030. The negatives are equally real. Air pollution kills around 1.7 million people a year, with Delhi’s PM2.5 frequently more than 15 times the WHO limit. Groundwater depletion in Punjab threatens long-term food security. Caste and gender inequalities still concentrate wealth in particular groups. The Indian government’s response includes the National Clean Air Programme (target: cut particulate pollution 40% by 2026), the Swachh Bharat sanitation drive (over 110 million toilets built since 2014) and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana housing scheme (delivering over 4 million urban houses for the poor by 2024).
Geographers debate whether India’s government can manage growth without locking in environmental damage and inequality. Top-down megaprojects (Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Solar Park at Bhadla in Rajasthan) deliver scale; bottom-up schemes (the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which guarantees 100 days’ paid work a year for poor rural households) deliver fairness. The most effective response combines them — using megaproject tax revenue to fund welfare. The country’s commitments at COP26 (net zero by 2070) and the Lifestyle for Environment movement add an environmental dimension that earlier development models lacked.