India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

A largest film industry when it comes to the # of films produced and tickets sold, Indian  cinema is popularly known as BOLLYWOOD. This is the name it derived from the name of BOMBAY (previous name of city of Mumbai, where the film industry is located), and HOLLYWOOD.

Feature films are being produced in India since 1912-1913. White R G Torney along with N.G. Chitre made PUNDALIK in 1912. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke produced RAJA HARISHCHANDRA in 1913. The era of silent films was overtaken by the talkie era in 1913 when Ardeshir Irani produced ALAM ARA, through silent movies continued to be produced till 1934. India now leads the world in the annual output of feature films.

The first fully indigenous silent feature film RAJA HARISHCHANDRA
made by DADA SAHEB PHALKE was released on May 3 1913. It has titles in Hindi and English and it ran for an unprecedented 23 days. It was cent per cent Indian whereas the earlier made Pundalik was half British in its make. Therefore Dada sahib phalke has been rightly acclaimed as the FATHER OF INDIAN CINEMA.

 

A Still from Raja Harishchandra (1913)

 

 The most remarkable thing about the birth of the sound film in India is that it came with a bang and quickly displaced the silent movies. The first Indian talkie ALAM ARA produced by the IMPERIAL FILM COMPANY and directed by ARDESHIR IRANI was released on March 14, 1931 at the Majestic cinema in Bombay.

The year 1931 marked the beginning of the talkie era in south India also. The first talkie picture in Telegu and Tamil i.e., BHAKTHA PRAHALAD and KALIDASA were released in the same year.

The thirties are recognized as the decade of social protest in the history of Indian cinema. A number of films making a strong plea against social injustice were also made in this period. V. Shantaram’s DUNIYA NA MANE, ADAMI, and PADOSI.   P.C. Barua’s DEVADAS and MUKTI, Debaki Bose’s VIDYAPATI and SEETA, and many more.

V. Shantaram

 

For the first time, producer Ardeshir Irani attempted a color picture in 1937 named KISAN KANYA. A year later another film MOTHER INDIA was also made. The world war which broke out in 1939 delayed the advent of color by several years.

The forties also witnessed the production of a few remarkable films such as Shantaram’s DR.  KOTNIS KI AMAR KAHANI, KALPANA, by    Uday Shankar’s, CHANDRA LEKHA by S.S. Vasan, Abbas’ DHARTI KE LAAL etc.   In 1949, Sohrab Modi set a new standard in historical film with Pukar.   Similarly, Vijay Bhatt earned plaudits for his two mythologicals, BHARAT MILAP and RAM RAJYA.

 The first international film festival of India held in early 1952 at Bombay had great impact on Indian cinema. For the first time, the industry and the film goers saw what a vibrant cinema existed, outside Hollywood.  Films like BICYCLE THIEVES, YUKIWARISOO captivated their imagination.

The big turning point came in 1953 with the arrival of Satyajit Ray, and his classic PATHER PANCHALI.  International recognition came to it with the CANNES AWARD   for the best human document followed by an unprecedented crop of foreign and national awards.  In Hindi cinema also the impact of new realism was evident in some distinguished films like Bimal Roy’s   Do Bigha Zamin, Mehboob’s Aan and MOTHER INDIA, K.A. Abbas’  Munna and Rahi, Raj Shantaram’s do ankhen barah haath, Guru Dutt’s pyaasa etc. apart from the production of these significant films , the fifties  opened a vast international  market for Indian films.

It was in the fifties that such films as baiju bawra , naya daur , devadas, shree 420 jhank jhanak payal baje,  sujata , madumati,  anair,  kanoon.  Kagaz ke phool
etc were made. The first indo soviet co production pardesi was also made by Abbas during the fifties.

The transition to color and the consequent preference for escapist entertainment and greater reliance on stars brought about a complete change in the film industry

 The sixties began with a bang with the release of K. Asif’s Mughal e Azam … which set a record at the box office. It was followed by Raj Kapoor’s JIS DESH MAIN GANGA BEHTI HAI.  And Dilip Kumar’s Ganga Jamuna. B. R Chopra’s waqt and many more hits of this decade.

The seventies had further widened the gap between multi star block busters and small budgeted off beat films. The popular Hindi hits of the decade include, JOHNY MERA NAAM , HATHI MERE SAATHI , MERA GAON MERA DESH , PAKEEZA BODBBY , ABHIMAAN , JUGNU , JANJEER, DEWAR MR NTWAR LAL and above all others  SHOLAY. Of these majorities of the films were actions oriented with revenge as the dominating theme.

 

The emergence of the NEW INDIAN CINEMA in the late sixties a s a recognizable movement was partly a reaction to the popular cinema’s “other worldliness”

Satyajit ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak are the founding fathers of the new cinema in India. Ray had a special vision of the Indian reality-hard, implacable, piercing to the heart of the matter in an unbearably feature films and a few documentaries. Pather panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar, Charulata, Devi Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne, Seemabadha, Ashani Sanket and Jana Aranya are some of his outstanding films.  Agantuk his film also won international acclaim.

From the new cinema group there came Basu Chatterji’s Sara Aakash, Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Dastak, Mani Kaul’s Uski Roti, A
shad ka ek din, and Duvidha. 

The south won national attention when Malayalam film Cheemmeeen (1965) by Ramu Kariat bagged the presidents gold medal.

The Hindi avante grade made it to the top by the end of seventies with director Govind Nihlani’s Aakrosh, Saeed Mirza’s Albert pinto ko gussa kyon ata hai. Sai pranjpe’s Saparsh, Mujaffar Ali’s Gaman.

Also from the South came film makers such as K. Balachandran, Jayakanthan, john Abraham, Bharathan, and Padmarajan presented significant films like AVARGAL, URNAI POL ORUVAN, AGRAHA- ATHIL KAZHUTHAI.

 THE NEW WAVE master Adoor and Aravindan consolidated their position with
Elippathayam, Mukhamukham where Elippathayam won the British film institute award for 1982.

The late eighties saw the revival of the musical love stories in Hindi Mr. India, Nagina, Tezaab, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Tridev, Maine Pyar Kiya.  Vinod Chopra’s Parinda and Adithya Bhattacharays Raakh were impressing.

The early 1990s saw notable films like Dristhi, Marupakkam, Anjali, Ek Doctor Ki Maut, and Kasba. A young director Meera Nair won the golden camera prize at Cannes for her maiden film “Salaam Bombay”.

Films can be exhibited in India only after they have been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification. The films division is the largest national agency devoted to the production and distribution of documentaries and news magazines.

For most Indians, movies are the only accessible, inexpensive form of entertainment. India’s film industry, the world’s largest, produces an average of 700 features a year. The majorities of Indian films satisfy the popular desire for romantic escapism and are glossy, spectacular drams featuring music, dance, and the fortunes of charismatic stars.

It was not just disenchantment with this system gone haywire but also with the industry’s values and its essential vulgarity that led to a break way group of filmmakers, often referred to as the new wave. Unlike the French NOUVELLE VOUGE, this was not a cohesive group united by a single ideology; the new waves members often did not share speak the same language. The one language they did share the reality of India. Almost all of these film makers also wanted to get away from the star system although ironically, many new wave actors and actresses have now become stars of the larger film industry.

Whether or not you enjoy these fantastic films, it’s important to recognize the substantial presence of Bollywood in the modern film industry.

An under developed county is one in which per capita real income is low then compared with the per capita real income of USA CANADA AUSTRALIA AND WESTERN EUROPE.

This is the definition for an under developed country by UNO.

The World Bank classified various countries on the basis of GNP per capita. This classification includes three categories of countries:-

(1) Low income economies

(2) Middle income economies

(3) High income economies

As defined in WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT-2002 “Low income economies
are those where GNP per capita is either $755 or lower to it in 2002. Middle income economies possess GNP per capita between $756 to $2995. Lastly upper middle income economies with GNP per capita between $2996 to $9265 and high income economies with GNP per capita $9266 and above.

The Indian economy is currently one of the fastest growing economies in the world and encompasses an agriculture sector that sustains much of the rural population. A modern and varied industrial sector and a sizable service sector.

Since the initiation of economic reforms and the subsequent liberalization in 1991 the economy has been growing at an average annual rate of around 6% as compared to 5.4% in the 1980s and 3.5% prior to that. This in turn has led to a sizable growth in GDP and a reduction in poverty.

According to planning commission estimates, the percentage of India’s population living below the poverty line has declined substantially from 51.3% to 26.1%. However there are wide rural- urban and state wise disparities in poverty reduction. There is a lot of work to be done, mainly in the rural areas, home to the biggest portion of India’s population and some of the worst living conditions and incidences of poverty in the county. It is perhaps with a view to this that the new UPA government has announced a wide variety of plans and schemes to improve the conditions in rural
India. The country also needs large doses of infrastructure additions- roads and highways, power plants and distribution networks, airports and ports, if it is to sustain rapid growth and attract sizable foreign direct investments.

Being the third largest in the world when measured by PPP (purchasing power parity), the economy of India comes at #10, when checked on in USD exchange-rate terms.

With a GDP of US $1.0 trillion (2007, India is the second fastest
growing major economy in the world, with a GDP growth rate of 9.2% at the end of the second quarter of 2006–2007

The World Bank classifies India as a low-income economy.

INDIAN ECONOMY: AN OVERVIEW OF THE PRESENT SITUATION:-

The Indian economy is currently one of the fastest growing economies in the world and encompasses an agriculture sector that sustains much of the rural population. A modern and varied industrial sector and a sizable service sector.

Since the initiation of economic reforms and the subsequent liberalization in 1991 the economy has been growing at an average annual rate of around 6% as compared to 5.4% in the 1980s and 3.5% prior to that. This in turn has led to a sizable growth in GDP and a reduction in poverty.

According to planning commission estimates, the percentage of India’s population living below the poverty line has declined substantially from 51.3% to 26.1%. However there are wide rural- urban and state wise disparities in poverty reduction. There is a lot of work to be done, mainly in the rural areas, home to the biggest portion of India’s population and some of the worst living conditions and incidences of poverty in the county. It is perhaps with a view to this that the new UPA government has announced a wide variety of plans and schemes to improve the conditions in rural India. The country also needs large doses of infrastructure additions- roads and highways, power plants and distribution networks, airports and ports, if it is to sustain rapid growth and attract sizable foreign direct investments.

Indian economy could be termed as a developing economy which is characterized by the coexistence, in greater or lesser degree, of utilized or unutilized manpower on the one hand and of unexploited natural resources on the other. A developing economy  bears the common features of technological backwardness, low per capita income coupled by widespread poverty, heavy population pressure, low grade productivity, high unemployment , low level utilization of country’s natural resources, rigid  social structure, predominance of orthodox religious beliefs, lack of opportunity for capital formation , predominance of agriculture, scanty participation in international trade etc. but all this is amidst a possibility of economic development, small pockets of high rates of economic growth and affluence.

It is a gain saying truth, what the world economy has experienced that colonization directly lead to the exploitation of the colonized country by the colonial rules.

Colonization is also a factor for the under development f a country’s economy. India was a victim to the colonial feature of economic exploitation for more than 150 years.

The basic aim of British administration in India was to transform Indian subcontinent as a consumer market for British finished goods. Technological up gradation and development of infrastructure as well as social infrastructure were negligible.

During the time of independence Indian economy had almost all the features of an underdeveloped economy. In the last fifty years of self rule a lot of policy initiatives have been taken up by the government of India to upgrade the economic base of the county. Still Indian economy is gripped under poverty, population explosion, backwardness both in agriculture and industry , low grade technological development , high unemployment and wide difference between the high and low income levels. Now in India, incidence of poverty is coexisting with sophisticated nuclear technology.

The policy measures taken within the last five decades metamorphosis Indian economy to break the stagnant per capita income, achieve self sufficiency in food grain industries, wide expansion of infrastructural sector, liberalization and globalization of Indian economy and some drastic economic measures to maintain a constant high GDP growth. 

Indian economy is unique blend of public and private sector, otherwise known as mixed economy. It is also a dualistic economy both modern industry and traditional agricultural activities exist side by side.

INDIAN ECONOMY: UNDERDEVELOPMENT:-

 India with its population of more than 1.2 billion (approx) and with its low per capita income is one of the poorest of the economies of the world. It has a share of 17% (approx) in the world population but accounts for only 1.5 %( approx) of the world GDP.

The poor countries have been variously described backward, underdeveloped, developing, low income and third world countries. Third world was used to describe the countries which were neither in capitalist block nor in socialist block and members of non aligned movement. Some try to classify these least developed countries, non oil exploring developing countries, petroleum rich OPEC countries.

The term fourth world is one times used to describe the poor in the underdeveloped countries and sometimes to least developed countries.

FACTORS IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

1. capital formation
2. capital output ratio
3. population growth
4. human capital
5. technological progress
6. infrastructure

INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT:

1. per capita income
2. PPP
3. NNP
4. NNPfe
5. HDI
6. Sustainable development

STRUCTURAL CHANGE AND GROWTH OF INDIAN ECONOMY

(A)   INDIAN ECONOMY DURING PRE – BRITISH PERIOD

The economic conditions of India before the British came around the middle of 19th century were almost similar to these which prevailed in other countries at a comparable stage of industrial development. The agricultural sector as also the industrial sector was in a high degree of development. While trade and transport sectors were just satisfactory, banking was quite a developed sector. India was predominantly an agricultural country. Agriculture was quite advanced as Indians cultivated wheat centuries before the English did. Its main features were:

1. Self sufficiency and isolation
2. Subsistence farming
3. Lack of specialization
4. Dominance of customs and traditions
5. Highly immobile labour

(B)    COLONIAL EXPLOITATION : FORMS AND CONSEQUESCES

The coming of British in India was a misfortune for its people. The country was treated as a colony of England. Much of its wealth was drained out of it. As a result economic conditions became really very bad. Exploitation by the British rulers had taken many forms. It can be studied in three phases

1. 
   THE PERIOD OF MERCHANT CAPITAL:  Indian economy being feudal at the advent of British, the East India Company indulged in direct plunder in the guise of trade. After battle of Plassey, the Company captured the political power which enabled it to exercise pressure to tilt the balance of exchange in its favor and secure maximum goods for minimum payment.
2. INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL: The industrial revolution brought new kind of exploitation. The partisan implementation of free trade policy served two purposes. On the one hand it restricted the imports of Indian cotton textiles in England and on the other hand the exports of British goods to India increased.
3. THE FINANCE CAPITAL: this is the period of massive investments of the British capital in India. Most of the capital was plundered from the Indians only and was invested in India as British capital.

PRINCIPAL FORMS OF EXPLOITATION ARE:

1. Unfair Trade Practices
2. Fleecing of Producers
3. Extraction of Gifts
4. Misuse of Land Revenues
5. Legalized Draining of Wealth
6. Colonized Trade
7. Securing Supplies and Markers for Britain
8. Loot through Investments
9. Big Payments for the British Personnel
10. Fraud through Foreign Exchange
11. Imperial wars at India’s Expense

IMPACT OF BRITISH RULE ON INDIAN ECONOMY:

 

The rate of growth of per capita income during the hindered year period before independence was just 0.5% per annum. The drain of resources from India to the United Kingdom consisted of various payments or which India did not get any return.  India remained primarily an agricultural country and its agriculture became commercialized to serve the interests of Great Britain by exporting tea, coffee, spices, oil seeds, sugarcane, and other raw materials. Handicrafts were destroyed and India became an importer of manufactured goods. The British employed the policy of discriminating protection along with imperial preference to have complete control over Indian market.  Well developed railways, irrigation and electricity works with a view to promote foreign trade and exploit natural resources to their advantage. The net result of the policies was poverty and stagnation of the Indian economy.

(C)   STRUCTURAL CHANGES:

1. Changing Sectoral Contribution to Domestic Product:  the important indicator of development is declining contribution of agriculture to NNP. The importance of agriculture and allied sectors has declined during the five decades of economic planning from 56.5% (1950-51) to 26.1% (2001-2002). the output in the secondary sector comprising industries, construction, electricity etc accounted for 13.3 %( 1950-51) and 24.4 %( 2001-2002). The tertiary sector moved form 27.5% (1950-51) to 49.5 %( 2001-2002)

   

2. Change in the Occupational Distribution of population:  the agriculture accounted for 69.7% workforce as compared to 57%. It also improved in secondary sector from 12.7% to 17.5% and in tertiary sector it has come up to the level of 26%.
3. Expansion of Social Overhead Capital: social overhead capital comprises transport facilities, irrigation system, energy production units, and educational system and organization and health facilities. Their development creates favorable conditions for growth and also for better human living. The transport system in India has grown both in capacity and modernization. Though the country is presently facing an energy crisis creating an impression that much development has not taken place in this sector, the fact, however, is that over the past four and a half decades there has been a massive increase in installed electricity generating capacity. Similar is the situation in the other fields which indicates the level of growth acquired on graph.

   

4.  Progress in Banking and Financial Sector: in this period, organization of money and capital markets has improved, specialized industrial financial institutions have been set up, banking services have increased and modern banks have reached small towns and villages.
5. Growth of Basic Capital Goods Industries: among the large number of industries which have developed during the planning period on a big scale, iron and steel, heavy chemicals, nitrogenous fertilizers, heavy engineering , machine tools, locomotives, heavy electrical equipments , aluminum, and petroleum products are of strategic  importance.  These industries now account for more than fifty percent of the industrial production.

To conclude, the Indian economy, though economically still backward, is no longer caught in a low level equilibrium trap, where it remained for a long period under the British. Since independence it has recorded a not too significant level of national income and per capita income, though one cannot be equally sure of the trickle down effects of growth. The Indian economy, during the past five decades has progressed structurally when we consider the growth of capital goods industries, expansion of infrastructure, performance of the public sector, changes in the financial organization and the progressive transformation of the agrarian scene. These factors over the years are believed to have created an element of dynamism in the country’s economy and one can now hopefully say that it would sustain development in the future.