Economic Development

The word development is from the Latin root ‘Voloper’ which meant wrap up, envelop. The English used this word along with ‘des’ meaning ‘undo’. The word used was ‘disvelop’. The French replaced this word in 1656 with ‘develop’ which meant unfold or unwrap. The act of unwrapping may also be interpreted to mean expanding, diversifying, redistributing the contents. The popularity of the term development began with decolonialisation.

Going through several conceptual metamorphosis through the decades, currently development is taken to mean economic growth that is contributed by a large cross-section of the population which in turn would also mean large scale employment, increasing incomes and a resultant appreciation in the quality of life of the people. The distributional effects of growth [i.e. ‘growth with and through justice’ policy or the ‘equality in growth’ dimension] are incorporated in the current conception of development.