RAS question
The term 'Hindu Rate of Growth' was coined by:
Correct answer: (C) Raj Krishna.
The term "Hindu Rate of Growth" was coined by the Indian economist Raj Krishna to describe India’s long phase of low economic growth.
Explanation
Raj Krishna is the economist associated with the phrase "Hindu Rate of Growth". The expression was used for India’s persistently low annual growth rate, roughly 3.5%, during the decades after Independence up to the 1980s. The cited Indian Express explainer describes it as a polemical phrase meant to draw attention to India’s meagre long-run growth, not as a religious category. That is why Raj Krishna is the substantive answer here: he named a pattern in India’s economic performance, where growth barely kept pace with population growth. The later acceleration after the 1991 reforms is the contrast that makes the phrase important in Indian economy questions.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Amartya Sen is associated with welfare economics and the capability approach, not with coining this phrase for India’s slow post-Independence growth.
- (B) P.C. Mahalanobis is linked to the Second Five Year Plan model, so he belongs to planning strategy rather than this later description of India’s low growth trend.
- (D) Manmohan Singh is associated with the 1991 economic reforms, which came after the low-growth phase that the phrase was used to describe.
Concept
This tests the vocabulary of post-Independence Indian economic development, especially planning-era growth performance and the shift after liberalisation. It recurs in RAS because short phrases like this connect economic history, policy models and reform debates in one examinable fact.