Economic Growth
Economic development is defined as a sustained improvement in material well
being of society. Economic development is a wider concept than economic
growth. Apart from growth of national income, it includes changes – social,
cultural, political as well as economic which contribute to material progress.
It contains changes in resource supplies, in the rate of capital formation, in size and
composition of population, in technology, skills and efficiency, in institutional and
organizational set-up. These changes fulfill the wider objectives of ensuring more
equitable income distribution, greater employment and poverty alleviation. In
short, economic development is a process consisting of a long chain of
interrelated changes in fundamental factors of supply and in the structure of
demand, leading to a rise in the net national product of a country in the long run
The economic growth is a narrow term. It involves increase in output in
quantitative terms but economic development includes changes in qualitative
terms such as social attitudes and customs along with quantitative growth of
output or national income.
