Has India’s economic growth over the last decade led to an Improvement in the country’s public health Profile? Economic

The Indian economy has been catapulted out of the mire of low economic growth over the last decade. As compared to the Hindu growth rate1 of 2 to 3 % which had dominated the economic scenario since independence, in 2000s India wit-nessed a phenomenon which it had never seen before i.e. un-precedented economic growth at an average rate of 7 % (Fig-ure 1). Has this growth improved the quality of life measured in terms of Public health indicators? This paper wants to explore whether India’s economic growth has been inclusive or not, with a specific focus on public health outcomes. In Public health also, the focus is on child and maternal health care. The distinguishing feature of this paper is that, 1) it accomplishes this by doing cross- regional analysis across different Indian states, of key health indicators as well as variables that capture the government’s commit