Data-driven and purposeful action will get India there: Prof. Karthik Muralidharan

Bengaluru, August 1, 2024:  The Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at University of California San Diego (UCSD), Prof. Karthik Muralidharan, gave a talk as a guest speaker on “India's State Capacity: Accelerating Growth, Improving Health and more” at IIMB on Wednesday where he stressed the importance of state capacity for economic growth and effective governance using examples from the health sector. The talk was the part of  ‘Healthcare Economics: Theory and Practice’ course, a Term 4 Elective offered by IIMB faculty of the Public Policy area, Prof. Allen P Ugargol and Prof. Arnab Mukherji, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management.

Prof. Arnab Mukherji delivered the welcome address offering an overview of the session and introduced the guest speaker. While talking about the book, Prof. Mukherji said, “While most other books on related topics talk about why development stagnates, Prof. Karthik Muralidharan’s book gives us a roadmap for development and what it takes for humankind to do better. It talks about actionable ideas and how to move forward.”

Addressing the gathering, Prof. Karthik Muralidharan, said “India is doing reasonably well, now the question is how we can do even better making the country achieve its full potential”, he said, while discussing the crucial role of state capacity and effective governance for economic growth, across multiple sectors and for the entire nation, using examples from the Health sector. He listed the key challenges in the Health and Healthcare sectors in India as asymmetric information between providers and patients; inability of patients to negotiate prices during health emergencies, and behavioral biases away from preventive towards cure, which he said gets reflected in policy, leading to poverty trap.

He focused on improving state capacity with respect to his book ‘Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance.’ The professor dived into education, child development, farmer welfare, judicial vacancies among other things backed up by data from his studies.

Prof. Muralidharan placed much emphasis on purposeful and data-based actions to address challenges. He also talked about building an effective state through issues such as data measurement; personnel management; public finance; federalism and decentralisation. Other strategies included in this aspect are strengthening state capacity to improve outcomes in diverse sectors. 

The discussion wrapped up with a discussion on the focus on prioritizing preventive public health policies, improving policy effectiveness, and enhancing the quality of public expenditure. Prof. Muralidharan expressed "realistic optimism" that data-driven action would lead to progress.