Beyond a Breadbasket: Aligning Economic Reform and Education Policy in Punjab

The era of globalization, amid the post-Cold War order, has catalyzed significant economic growth in the developing world. Deregulatory measures have accommodated the desire to expand ubiquitous access to labor, capital, and markets, thereby thrusting countries and their economies into global competition. After implementing its own neoliberal economic reforms in 1991, India has gradually witnessed its economic fortunes rise, albeit unequally among states and Union Territories (UTs). Whereas states with ambitious industrial policy began to mobilize their manufacturing base and nurture growth in the services sector, the state of Punjab began to show habitual signs of middling growth and underwhelming performance as a result of declining productivity and market pressures on the agricultural sector. Though it remains India's breadbasket, Punjab continues to endure hardships through its high fiscal deficit, acute youth unemployment, and mediocre mechanisms for developing human resources through the existing primary, secondary, and tertiary education systems. The publication of the central government's National Education Policy (NEP 2020) features reforms and guidance that, if implemented in earnest, will undoubtedly transform the learning process for Punjab's students and equip them with the necessary skills to thrive in the 21 st century economy. The objective of this study is to analyze the historical context and present conditions that have fomented Punjab's economic and education woes, and how closer alignment and coordination can remediate these deficiencies. Coupling economic and education policy, as well as their respective local, state, and national initiatives, is imperative to Punjab's development, particularly as it seeks economic diversification that can absorb labor from the agricultural sector.