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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in India using annual data from 1970 to 2012. The paper attempts to answer the critical question: does financial sector development lead to poverty reduction? Design/methodology/approach – Stationarity properties of the series are checked by using Ng-Perron unit root test. The paper uses the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to co-integration to examine the existence of long-run relationship; error-correction mechanism for the short-run dynamics and Granger non-causality test to test the direction of causality. Findings – The co-integration test confirms a long-run relationship between financial development and poverty reduction for India. The ARDL test results suggest that financial development and economic growth reduces poverty in both long run and short run. The causality test confirms that there is a positive and unidirectional causality running from financial development to poverty reduction. Research limitations/implications – This study implies that poverty in India can be reduced by financial inclusion and financial accessibility to the poor. For a fast growing economy with respect to financial sector development this may have far-reaching implication toward inclusive growth. Originality/value – This paper is the first of its kind to empirically examine the causal relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in India using modern econometric techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine income inequality and income mobility, which have been central to understanding India’s recent economic development.Design/methodology/approach This paper uses the first two waves of the India Human Development Survey data for the year 2004–2005 and 2011–2012 to analyze income inequality and income mobility using longitudinal data, and is the first to do so at a nationally representative level. In this research paper, we address three related research questions: How have been the patterns of income mobility in India? What are the trends, levels and sources of income inequality in India? and finally And What is the structure of household income mobility?Findings The paper examines the trends, levels, sources and factors of income inequality and income mobility in India between 2005 and 2012. The results further show the case for high persistence at the top of income distribution but lower persistence at the bottom.Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack spatial analysis. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.Practical implications The paper suggests that, in the end, the nature of longer-term well-being is crucial to designing policy interventions to effectively tackle inequality, and economic mobility can be seen as an avenue to long-term equality.Social implications This study can further be extended to look at polarization issues at the national and sub-national levels.Originality/value This paper shows the analytical framework of additive decomposition of income mobility out of two sources, namely mobility due to the transfer of income within given structure and mobility due to economic growth or contraction in rural and urban India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and income inequality in India using annual data from 1982-2012. Design/methodology/approach -- Stationarity properties of the series are checked by using ADF, DF-GLS, KPSS and Ng-Perron unit root tests. The paper applied the auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to co-integration to examine the existence of long run relationship; and error correction mechanism for the short run dynamics. Findings -- The co-integration test confirms a long run relationship between financial development and income inequality for India. The ARDL test results suggest that financial development, economic growth, inflation aggravates the income inequality in both long run and short run. However, trade openness reduces the gap between rich and poor in India. Research limitations/implications -- The present recommend for appropriate economic and financial reforms focussing on financial inclusion to reduce income inequality in India. Originality/value -- Till date, there is hardly any study that makes a clear comparison between market-based indicator and bank based indicator of financial development in India and those examining the relationship between finance and income inequality nexus. Further there is hardly any study to include gini coefficient as a proxy for inequality for India and apply ARDL techniques of co-integration, using the basic principles of GJ hypothesis and provide short run and long run dynamics for India. So the contribution of the paper is to fill these research gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose According to the 70th round of the National Sample Survey published by the Government of India in 2014, the incidence of indebtedness among households in the rural areas of Telangana state, India, is twice that of rural all-India. Around 59 per cent of rural households are indebted in Telangana as against 31 per cent all-India. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent and magnitude of indebtedness among rural households in the Medak district of Telangana state. Further, the authors wanted to identify the sources of credit to these households and for what purpose the loans were utilised.Design/methodology/approach To achieve the objective, the authors conducted a primary-level household survey in one of the distressed districts in newly formed state. The authors applied the Bayesian and the Lasso regression methods to identify the factors that impact indebtedness of a household.Findings The OLS results based on the Lasso regression results show that among all the explanatory variables, principal occupation, use of modern technology, the rate of interest, household medical expenditure and source of loan are significant, indicating that these variables significantly affect the loan taken by the farmers in the study area. The study shows that alternative sources of non-farm income and promotion of modern technology in agriculture can reduce the incidence of farmers’ indebtedness in India.Originality/value The paper contains significant information with regard to indebtedness. It focusses on the issue troubling the authorities the most. It provides the ground realities of the incidence of indebtedness in Medak, one of the most distressed districts of Telangana, a Southern Indian state. There have been very few similar studies done in the newly formed state. The paper has employed an advanced statistical technique, i.e. Heckman’s selection regression technique, to study farmers’ indebtedness in India. It provides a means of correcting for non-randomly selected samples, which otherwise can lead to erroneous conclusions and poor policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the labour force participation of older persons (aged 60 and above) in India from 1983 to 2011-2012. The paper also briefly reviews the conditions of work for the elderly and examines different socio-economic and demographic factors that are associated with labour force participation of elderly in India. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses data from repeated cross-sectional rounds of Employment and Unemployment Surveys of National Sample Survey Office from 1983 to 2011-2012. The author uses probit regression model to identify the socio-economic and demographic variables that are associated with the labour participation of the elderly in India. Findings – The results show that labour force participation rate of older persons in rural India remained almost stable between 1983 and 2011-2012, despite the rapid economic growth that India experienced during the same period. Further, the results show that among the elderly, those who belong to relatively poor socio-economic status are more likely to participate in the labour force. It is observed that large percentage of the elderly workforce are engaged in poorly paid jobs in the informal sector, either as casual workers or as self-employed in low-skilled or unskilled occupations. Research limitations/implications – This paper is mostly descriptive in its analysis and it only points to the possible socio-economic and demographic determinants of elderly labour force participation in India. Originality/value – Given that the studies on employment of elderly in India are scanty, this paper provides new evidence on changes in labour force participation of elderly over last three decades. Further, this study makes an attempts to understand who among the elderly most likely to participation in labour force in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose India is a developing nation where the marginal benefit of infrastructure development is tremendous. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between infrastructure development and poverty reduction for India using the yearly data from 1991 to 2015.Design/methodology/approach The authors use the principal component analysis to construct indices for four major sub-sectors, namely, transport, water and sanitation, telecommunications and energy, falling under the broad infrastructure sector and then using these sectorwise indices, the authors construct an overall index which represents infrastructure development. The authors provide evidence on the link between infrastructure development and poverty reduction by using the auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach.Findings The ARDL test results suggest that infrastructure development and economic growth reduce poverty in both long run and short run. The causality test confirms that there is a positive and unidirectional causality running from infrastructure development to poverty reduction.Research limitations/implications The study confirms that India’s Infrastructure development plays a vital role in reducing poverty and calls for the Indian Government to adopt economic policies which are aimed at developing and strengthening the infrastructure levels and bringing in more investment in the infrastructure sector in order to help the poor population by making them exposed to better opportunities of employment and income growth, thereby achieving the goal of poverty reduction.Originality/value This paper is a fresh and unique attempt of its kind to empirically investigate the causal relationship between infrastructure development and poverty reduction in India using modern econometric techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of female human capital on economic growth in the Indian economy during 1970-2014.Design/methodology/approach The paper employs Ng-Perron unit root test to check the order of integration of the variables. The study also used ARDL-bounds testing approach and the unrestricted error-correction model to investigate co-integration in the long run and short run; Granger’s causality test to investigate the direction of the causality; and variance decomposition test to capture the influence of each variable on economic growth.Findings The study constructed a composite index for both male and female human capitals by taking education and health as a proxy for human capital. The empirical findings reveal that female human capital is significant and positively related to economic growth in both short run and long run, while male human capital is positive but insignificant to the economic growth; same is the case for physical capital, it implies that such investment regarding female human capital needs to be reinforced. Further, there is an evidence of a long-run causal relationship from female human capital, male human capital and physical capital to economic growth variable. The results of variance decomposition show the importance of the female human capital variable is increasing over the time and it exerts the largest influence in change in economic growth.Research limitations/implications The empirical findings suggest that the Indian economy has to pay attention equally on the development of female human capital for short-run as well as long-run growth of the economy. This implies that the policy makers should divert more expenditure for developing support for female education and health.Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the relationship between female human capital and economic growth in the context of the Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of public expenditure on economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries like India. If poverty and inequality are high, the government may resort to distributive policies at the cost of long-term growth. The distributive policies and poverty alleviation measures fail to achieve success due to lack of good governance, lack of proper targeting and problems in the implementation of such schemes. On the other hand, if the nature of public expenditure is such that it enhances per capita income, it will help reduce poverty. Design/methodology/approach – After analytical digression and construction of hypotheses panel regression has been done using state-level data in the Indian context to empirically verify the above propositions. Both Fixed effects and Random effects models have been used for this purpose. Findings – The results show that in states where ratio of public expenditure on the development of infrastructure such as road, irrigation, power, transport and communication is higher, per capita income is also higher and incidence of poverty is lower indicating that economic growth is important for poverty alleviation and development of infrastructure is necessary for growth. Originality/value – This study demonstrates how public policy and public finance can be used as instruments for removal of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to employ a two-step approach to investigate the bi-directional causal linkage between: economic growth (measured by GDP) and public expenditure on health; public expenditure on health and infant mortality rate (IMR); and economic growth and IMR in the Indian context.Design/methodology/approach The present study uses econometric analysis, namely, panel cointegration and Granger causality on 20-year panel data on 16 major Indian states to investigate the causality.Findings The results suggest GDP to Granger cause public expenditure on health both in the short run and in the long run, but public expenditure on health to Granger cause GDP only in the long run. Further, public expenditure on health and economic growth were found to Granger cause IMR in the long run. However, the reverse linkage from IMR to public expenditure on health and/or economic growth was not significant.Research limitations/implications The present study provides support to the existing literature on the effects of economic growth on health expenditure and health outcomes but also raises a question on the time required to realize the same.Practical implications The findings have implications for policy makers on the time frame and application of health expenditure to achieve better results.Originality/value The present study is one of the first to test the tripartite linkage between economic growth, public health expenditure and health outcomes at a state-level analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The importance of banking and insurance, as an important part of the financial system, has been well accepted in the growth literature. Acting as financial intermediaries they perform important functions that may contribute in economic growth. Addressing this issue, the purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between banking, insurance and economic growth in India in the post-liberalized era when the private sector was allowed to operate banking and insurance business.Design/methodology/approach In order to find the long-run and short-run relationship between banking, insurance and economic growth, the study uses the VAR-vector error correction model (VECM) along with Granger causality test to explore any causal relationship.Findings The results indicate that there is the long-term relationship between banking, insurance and economic growth and the causality results show a bi-directional relationship between insurance activity and economic growth; however, banking is not granger cause of insurance or economic growth rather it is economic growth that cause banking development.Research limitations/implications The only limitation to the study is the non-availability of monthly figures of GDP. The study therefore, as suggested by RBI, uses monthly data set of Index of Industrial Production to measure economic growth.Practical implications The findings of the study give policy directions to the policymakers to make strategies that are conducive toward boosting development in insurance in order to achieve the targeted economic growth.Originality/value This work is the first attempt to study the conjoint relationship between banking, insurance and economic growth on the Indian economy after the reforms were initiated in the financial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to specify some historical and current issue regarding this subject. Like, what has been the relative importance attached to the different aspects of policy; what has been the pace and progress of reform process. Design/methodology/approach - The paper begins with a short discussion of the background of the study and overview of post-independence economic policy. Hence it is a descriptive study that it finds some data from government site. This paper is thought to provide more reliable information about above impacts for policy makers and State and Central Government. Findings - The paper specifically focuses upon economic reforms and social justice in India, issues relating to the progress of economic reforms, need of reforms for human face. More generally, the paper suggests that government should make relatively limited use of key performance Indicators for economic reforms and have high-level participation rates benchmarking for social justice exercises. Research limitations/implications - Some implications are the timing of the various policies and, more importantly, their sequencing and the relative importance attached to the different aspects of policy, in as much as domestic priorities relating to the provision of education, health and employment, globalization of the economy. Practical implications - The paper can help to promote administrative, managerial, and financial support for economic reforms and social justice in India and emphasis the responsibility to the state and central to enlarge reforms opportunities and encourage economic development. Originality/value - Indian Government decides to accelerate the rate of economic growth and to speed up industrialization, to develop heavy industries, to reduce disparities in income and wealth through economic reforms and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this study is the empirical measurement and analysis of economic size and performance of dispersed and clustered small-scale enterprises (SSEs) in India. Design/methodology/approach — Methodology is descriptive and comparative, using a combination of different official databases. Economic size is measured by distribution of SSEs by employment, output, fixed capital investment, and export variables. Measurement of economic performance is focused on output/capital ratio, output/labour ratio, and labour/capital ratio. Findings — The results offer evidence for economic diversity in the size compositions and performance variations of dispersed and clustered SSEs; and bigger economic size and higher economic performance of clustered than dispersed SSEs. Research limitations/implications — Subject to the comparability of economic structure, the results and implications for India are of relevance for promotion and development of clustered SSEs in other developing countries. Practical implications — From the viewpoint of policy formulation, the results offer a strong empirical basis for a cluster approach rather than a dispersed approach for promotion and development of SSEs in India. The cluster approach has implications for establishing linkages between formal and informal SSEs and for elimination of smallness of dispersed SSEs. Originality/value — The paper provides a comparative analysis of economic size and performance of the dispersed and clustered SSEs by consolidating the diverse databases in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to present a review of the main features of India's economic growth and human development during nearly 50 years of India's planned development. Design/methodology/approach - The paper examines all major aspects of India's growth such as growth in net total national product and per capita product, changes in the production and occupational structure resulting from growth, changes in government revenue, infrastructure and social services, in income distribution and in poverty. Findings - Although the growth was uneven and low up to 1980, the country recorded a reasonable and steady improvement in most aspects of growth. Nevertheless the effects of growth have not produced better results in poverty alleviation. Originality/value - Reviews the main features of India's economic growth and human development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The author studies the determinants of public trust in government doctors and hospitals (DH) – a crucial indicator of the quality of a country's healthcare system – in India by analyzing the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2011–2012. Design/methodology/approach: The author uses descriptive statistics and a set of ordered probit regression models controlling for a set of individual-specific, household-level and other covariates and analyze across heterogeneous contexts (national/rural/urban/male heads/female heads/social groups). Findings: Across contexts, people reporting a great deal of trust in private DH (PDH) are significantly more likely to report a great deal of trust in government DH. Those people with a great deal of trust in government schools to provide good education (vis-à-vis people with only some trust in government school) have significantly higher likelihood of reporting a great deal of trust in government DH. Visiting a private doctor last time (vis-à-vis a government doctor) makes reporting higher trust levels in government DH less likely. Practical implications: India's healthcare system is afflicted with several resource allocation problems and low public trust issues are indicative of misgovernance. In presence of limited state capacity, ubiquitous corruption and underwhelming institutional trust, understanding the factors influencing public trust in healthcare providers is critical to designing appropriate trust-enhancing public health policies. Originality/value: Given the sparse empirical literature on public trust in healthcare systems in the developing countries such as India, this study is a pertinent contribution as the study explains the determinants of public trust in DH using a comprehensive unit-recorded household survey dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to aim in general to understand the perception of industries in India – a fast growing economy, towards green philosophy and to investigate further what initiatives those industries have taken for becoming green. Design/methodology/approach – The study is exploratory in nature and attempts to understand the behaviour of three types of industries, namely, durable, non-durable and services towards green philosophy. Findings – Results of the study reflect that industries in India, in general have a positive view for practicing green philosophy. They feel becoming green will help them in gaining the competitive advantage and will support them in sustainable growth. Also the industries that have a positive attitude towards greening have taken some measures and initiatives in this direction to establish a sustainable competitive advantage for succeeding in today's highly challenging and dynamic global markets. Research limitations/implications – The present exploratory study provides a starting-point for further research. Researchers can further explore whether industries using green philosophy were able to register a competitive advantage and could gain added market share and profits by becoming green. They can investigate the reason behind this green attitude, whether industries are using green practices for cutting costs in turn to increase their profits or whether they have a genuine concern for environmental protection and society's welfare and therefore adopting green practices in their industry. Originality/value – Most of such studies in the field of green marketing and social economics are done in developed countries and remain conspicuously missing in the context of fast developing Asian countries. This research is a step to filling this gap and providing a platform for further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — China and India, increasingly referred to as the world's emerging giants among emerging economies, represent the second and fourth largest economies in the world, respectively. This paper seeks to provide a comparative assessment of these two countries on selected measures on economic growth and social development. Design/methodology/approach - The paper's approach is a discussion, providing a brief introduction to the approach taken by India and China in pursuing economic growth and social welfare measures. The discussion then focuses on the relationship between economic liberalization and social development against a backdrop of relevant concepts and arguments from the literature. Comparative profiles of India and China on select dimensions using data from World Economic Indicators and other sources are provided. Findings — The paper finds that it is clear that there are areas where India can learn from China and vice versa. Originality/value — The paper illustrates that these two countries offer a potentially rich and useful canvas for exploring the social implications of free market capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The paper seeks to assess the influence and effectiveness of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in targeting and aiding ‘communities’ to reduce their socio-economic vulnerability to infrequent large-scale and common everyday crises in coastal Andhra Pradesh. Design/methodology/approach — Data collection included 342 questionnaires with village inhabitants, local and regional government officials and personnel managing and working for local NGOs. To add qualitative detail to the quantitative data that were collected, 308 ‘everyday’ sociograms, 294 ‘crisis’ sociograms, and 34 semi-structured interviews were also conducted. Findings — The research identifies that NGOs in the study areas do not operate in multi-caste villages, apparently because they prefer to operate in relatively homogeneous single-caste villages. The implications are that some of the most vulnerable members of society, such as the marginalised ‘communities’ that partially constitute multi-caste villages, do not receive the support they need. Research limitations/implications — This study focuses on a specific region of Andhra Pradesh with the consequence that the findings are potentially very context-specific. Nonetheless, the findings highlight a fundamental flaw in the way many NGOs operate in this region, through the targeting of perceived ‘easy cases’, and this is a matter that development agencies should consider and further investigate. Originality/value — This paper will be of value to researchers and practitioners seeking to gain a better understanding of NGOs and the way some of them operate. The paper recommends a number of ways that the observed inefficiencies could be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — An understanding on the linkages between financial development and economic growth in general and the stock market with economic activity in particular is imperative in emerging economies. The objective of this paper is to find out the causal linkages between stock market and economic activity in India. Design/methodology/approach — The paper applies recently developed Granger non-causality tests by Toda-Yamamota, Dolado and Lutkephol (popularly known as the TYDL model) for an empirical exercise. Findings — The notable finding of the paper is that both the stock price (BSE Sensex) and economic activity (IIP) are integrated of order one, i.e. I(1). The Johansen-Juselius co-integration tests suggest the existence of one co-integrating vector. This rules out spurious relations and suggests the presence of at least one direction of causality. The TYDL model suggests that there is bi-directional causality between stock price and economic activity during the post-liberalization period, implying that a well-developed stock market could enhance economic activity and vice-versa. Research limitations/implications — In the broader framework of financial markets, the presence and role of the stock market is minuscule in the context of India. Despite this, it could play a considerable role in the process of the economic development of the country. However, to analyze the cause and effect relationship between stock market and economic activity, it is essential to analyze the issue in greater detail and depth. The main limitation of the paper is the use of IIP as a proxy for economic activity, which neglects the agricultural sector, being the primary sector in India and also the service sector. This is of course due to the non-availability of GDP data on a monthly basis. Further, a detailed study on the issue could be highly appreciable from the perspective of policy implications. Originality/value — The findings of the paper have some valuable implications. It could give some insight for policy makers about the possible linkages between stock market and the economy. Coming to empirical parts, this is perhaps the first paper in the context of India to apply the TYDL model to examine the relationship between stock price and economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This paper aims to attempt to compare the development strategies and achievements of India and China in the last 50 years and to analyse the challenges lying ahead if the trend continues. Design/methodology/approach — The paper critically evaluates the growth strategies of the two economies. Changes in approaches, achievements and failures are analysed using materials from past research and secondary data. Impacts of economic reform process and economic management capabilities have been evaluated. Critical analysis is the main approach of the paper. Findings — Based on the experiences of economic growth so far with reformed and open economies, India can learn several things from China. China has achieved better results based on investment-driven export-oriented policies that may not be sustainable in the long run. It has so far ignored the socio-political issues, which can have very serious consequences in the future. Relatively slower economic growth in India is based on stronger socio-economic foundations. Mutually beneficial economic cooperation between the two economies and rising interdependence with regional and global powers should provide a better future. Originality/value — The paper provides a comprehensive picture of strategies, outcomes and possibilities. It links past development strategies to future challenges. It may be of value to researchers and policy makers in both economies while considering future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This paper aims to investigate the possible co-integration and the direction of causality between financial development, international trade and economic growth in India. Design/methodology/approach — Annual data covering the 1965-2004 period have been used to investigate co-integration and Granger causality tests between financial development, international trade, and growth after employing unit root tests to see if the variables under consideration are stationary. Findings — Results reveal that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between financial development, international trade and real income growth in the case of India. Furthermore, unidirectional causality was investigated that runs from real income to exports and imports, from exports to imports, M2 and domestic credits, from M2 to imports, from imports to domestic credits. Bidirectional causality has also been obtained between real income and M2, and between real income and domestic credits. Finally, no direction of causality has been obtained between M2 and domestic credits. Research limitations/implications — Expanded data can be used for further comparison. Practical implications — This study has shown that the supply-leading and the demand-following hypotheses cannot be inferred for the Indian economy alone themselves. And furthermore, the export-led and the import-led hypotheses again cannot be inferred for the Indian economy based on the sample period, 1965–2004. Originality/value — This study is the first of its kind which investigates the possible co-integration and the direction of causality between the financial development, international trade and economic growth triangle not only in the case of India but also in the relevant literature to the best of one's knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to test the Malthusian and Kremer theories by exploring the relationship between population and economic growth in a low middle-income economy of India. Design/methodology/approach: The autoregressive distributed lag approach is employed based on the nature of time-series data to achieve the study objectives. In this study, regressand is economic growth measured by real GDP, and the regressors are population growth rate, investment, life expectancy and inflation rate from 1980 to 2018. Findings: Empirical results confirm the applicability of Kremer's theory. In this theory, population growth has a significant and positive impact on economic growth in the short and long run. Moreover, investment and life expectancy variables have a positive and significant impact on economic growth, whereas inflation rate has a negative association with economic growth. Empirical results support the population-growth-driven economic growth hypothesis, which indicates that population growth stimulates economic growth and development. Practical implications: Empirical findings in this study provide guides for management authorities in formulating the right and relatable policies on population growth whilst promoting economic growth and social welfare. Originality/value: Achieving a desirable level of economic growth is the prime objective of every country. The role of the population in the process of economic growth and development cannot be overlooked. Malthus' and Kremer's views are opposite. Extant literature exhibits that scant research has been carried out on this significant topic in developing countries. Therefore, empirically investigating the effect of population on the growth performance of India as a developing country is necessary and will significantly contribute to the literature. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2019-0496 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]