Social sector expenditure and human development in north east India:

Abstract

The qualitative aspects of human life in developing countries, like India, and backward regions, like North East India, leave much to be desired as there has been rapid quantitative addition to the population on the one hand and wider human deprivation on the other. The success of all economic policies and programmes should, therefore, be evaluated in terms of their ability to generate human capability, since all such policies are based ultimately for the betterment of the quality of lives of people. It is in this context the present study tries to explore existence of any short run or long run causality between human development index and social sector expenditure particularly in north east region. On the basis of panel data analysis based on secondary source, the study concludes that the region witnesses lopsided distribution pattern in terms of human development accessibility across its states along with the evidence of co-integration between human development index and public spending on social sector. The study justifies the utility of public spending on social sector to promote human development in the region.