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Balanced Growth using Ontology-based Tantra Framework

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DOI: 10.17821/srels%2F2019%2Fv56i4%2F145577

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 ISSN (Print): 0972-2467
ISSN (Online): 0976-2477
SRELS Journal of Information Management, Vol 56(4), August 2019, p.171-187 DOI: 10.17821/srels/2019/v56i4/145577

Balanced Growth using Ontology-based

Tantra Framework
Shreekanth Mooror Prabhu*, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy and Subramanyam Natarajan
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, PES University, Banashankari, Bangalore - 560085, Karnataka,
India; [email protected]

Abstract
Indian Economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, currently growing at around 7%. However, India’s
growth has been highly uneven and lop-sided. Sectors such as services relying on exports have grown far more whereas
manufacturing and agriculture have languished. As global trade environment becomes tougher, there is increasing
realization that India’s domestic economy needs to grow lot more. In this context, balanced growth theory proposed by
Ragnar Nurkse and many other Economists in 1950s is worth revisiting. Nurkse called for unleashing growth across
different sectors of domestic economy simultaneously. Nurkse identified productivity as key determinant of market size
and considered the poor as participants in the growth process than as mere beneficiaries. Even though balanced growth
model is an ideal to aspire for, there are very few success stories which laid a clear roadmap to achieve it. Further, we need
to reimagine the balanced growth model for today’s context to take into consideration newer challenges and opportunities
compared to 1950s. In addition, the role of the Government needs to be recalibrated to be a catalyst in market economy in
contrast to planned economies. To accomplish this complex task, we need an information framework that has an ecosystem
approach and looks at society holistically. We propose the use of Ontology-based Tantra Social Information Management
Framework to steer India towards the balanced growth ideal. This paper contains the description of Tantra Framework
and our approach to realize balanced growth using Tantra Framework.

Keywords: Balanced Growth, Balanced Scorecard, External Economy, Ontology, Zachman Framework

1. Introduction Different countries have taken different approaches

to achieve economic growth. Majority of success stories
Poverty and inequality have persisted in India in spite revolve around export-led growth. In contrast, Ragnar
of reasonable economic progress. Angus Deaton who Nurkse Estonian international economist developed
extensively studied poverty in India by analysing balanced growth theory (Nurkse, 1953; Nurkse, 1961)
consumption patterns said “India has been hugely in the 1950s, which particularly focused on growing
successful in building a better life for many. But there domestic economy of underdeveloped countries. Here
are also terrible dangers of inequality, if those who have growth is achieved by growing domestic markets across
escaped from destitution use their wealth to block those complementary sectors with a big push. He considered
who are still imprisoned by it” (The Wire, 2015). He productivity as key determinant for market size in
illustrated his point by comparing how escape of some developing countries. This model is worth revisiting,
prisoners makes the life of those who stay back harder. especially for India which has large domestic economy and
Chancel and Piketty (2017) have studied inequality in yet has low per-capita income. We probably need balanced
India extensively. One of the reasons for inequalities is trade along with balanced growth, to grow the economy
imbalance in real incomes among people, professions and in today’s world that is far too globalized compared to
sectors of economy. when balanced growth model was proposed. We also need

*Author for correspondence

 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

to reimagine the balanced growth model to suit today’s beneficiaries. We make a case that with right information
context. The balanced growth theory however has been framework and methodology, balanced growth ideal can
challenged by unbalanced growth theory propounded indeed be realized.
by Hirschman (1958). Neo-classical economic theory Rest of the paper is organized as follows. The Section 2,
that advocates the combination of labour, capital and Balanced growth and other Development Theories, does a
technology is the most dominant now. review of theories of development economics. The Section 3,
To arrive at the right model for growth, we need Reimagining Balanced Growth in Indian Context, covers
an approach that draws on economics, sociology and how balanced growth theory should be applied in Indian
computer science due to the following reasons: context. The Section 4 describes Tantra Good Governance
Framework. The Section 5, covers how to realise
• Traditional economic analysis looks at society either
Balanced Growth using Tantra Framework. The Section 6,
with macro or micro perspective. In reality much of the
Conclusions, concludes the paper.
economic life takes place in the continuum between
the two.
• Sociology traditionally looks at smaller groups where 2. Balanced Growth and other
data collection and analysis can be managed and Development Theories
behaviour can be studied. But today social interactions
span all over the globe in a digital and virtual manner, A recent article on development economics in Investopedia
which need newer approaches. (2018) examined different development theories including
• Today’s technologies make it easy to manage large mercantilisms of European powers which thrived by
amounts of data. The computer platforms are exploiting colonies, linear stages growth model that
becoming increasingly social where people provide was used to rebuild the European countries by public
feedback, share knowledge, express opinions, provide investment in industrialization and economic nationalism
suggestions for policy and get influenced by their that disallowed free flow of capital, goods and labour
communities. The social dimension has overtaken the outside national boundaries. After 1950s, the structural
technology dimension. change theory (Economics Online, Structural Change
In this paper we look at applying balanced growth theory Theory) became popular that included 2-sector Model
to Indian Economy with the help of ontology-based Tantra proposed by Lewis (1955) and 3-Sector Model proposed
Framework. Tantra Framework is conceptualized to (Clark, 1940; Fisher, 1939) that included Agriculture,
manage the entire governance and societal information in Industry and Services. As more and more colonies became
a comprehensive and holistic manner. Tantra Framework independent, the dependency theory that emphasized the
captures information on people, addresses and locations, dependence of developing countries (periphery countries)
assets and attributes, events, processes and objectives as over developed countries (core countries) and asymmetric
well as relationships and relators. Tantra Framework relationship between them came into discourse. This led
interoperates with balanced scorecard model to set goals, many countries to go for closed economies which made
theory of change framework to design interventions and matters worse. The neoclassical growth theory suggested
theory of separations to assess the impact of Governance use of technology in combination with labour and capital
on people. to create new waves of growth. Over the last two centuries,
The framework approach is particularly important the source of competitive advantage shifted from labour
to India now, as Indian economy is in the third stage of to capital to technology to knowledge. However, the
evolution, after embracing socialism in early decades imbalance within economies has persisted.
followed by liberalization in later decades. Currently the The advocates of balanced growth stressed that, for
challenges as well as opportunities are at the level of eco- an economy to grow, it needed all sectors to grow to
system and only state is in a unique position to catalyse support each other. In developed countries entrepreneurs
change. Tantra Framework is particularly suited for that. played a key role in developing complementary sectors
A key contribution of this paper is to bring balanced to unleash economic growth. In developing countries,
growth theory which has confounded economic analysts a big push might be needed by the government to help
back into discourse. We found balanced growth theory the economy grow in a balanced way; e.g., ensuring that
to be particularly striking in the sense that it looks at farming remains developed even when experiencing a
poor as participants in the growth process than as mere manufacturing boom.

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 Shreekanth Mooror Prabhu, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy and Subramanyam Natarajan

First to put forward the theory of balanced growth sectoral balance Sectoral balance means economic
(Fisher, 1939 & Economics Discussion..) was endorsed by development of all the sectors
Rodan (1943) and developed further by Nurkse (1953), in an economy. For example,
Scitovsky (1954) and Lewis (1955). Lewis emphasized the expansion of industrial sector will
importance of need for all sectors of economy to grow raise the demand for raw material
simultaneously and that domestic sector must grow in which will only be supplied by
balance with the export sector. He maintained that if these expanding of agricultural sector.
sectors are simultaneously developed, the relative prices
among them can be maintained. Kindleberger (1958) in There are caveats to Nurkse’s theory. There could be
his paper maintained that “balanced growth implies that overproduction and glut in the market that may depress
investment takes place simultaneously in all sectors or prices. This happens typically in agriculture sector in
industries at once”. “However, the most widely discussed India where some years there are shortages and other years
and accepted meaning of balanced growth is that there there is glut. Another caveat is easy availability of foreign
should be simultaneous and harmonious development of capital. The developing countries can easily access foreign
different sectors of the economy, so as to make available capital by opening up markets. However certain already
a ready market for the products of different sectors. Thus, well-performing sectors and regions tend to attract foreign
balanced growth is not a static term, but it refers to its capital. Hence, balanced growth theory continues to be
dynamism”. relevant.
Nurkse studied the problem of vicious cycle of poverty. Nurkse recognized the importance of innovation-
He found that low productivity affected both demand and based entrepreneurship, when he referred to Schumpeter’s
supply cycles. He recognized the need to expand markets theory of economic development, where rapid growth was
to induce investment. “One way the Governments can get achieved through the action of individual entrepreneurs
around this obstacle is to put more money in the hands of creating recurrent waves of industrial progress. He assumed
people, but that is inflationary and not sustainable. Other that developing countries may not have the wherewithal
way is to reduce prices to expand markets. This needs to be for innovation and entrepreneurship, which however is no
accompanied with increasing productivity which in turn longer true. Nurkse emphasized that “Innovation in one
can increase real incomes of people. So, from a vicious industry can create a wave that impacts many others. The
cycle we can move to a virtuous cycle”. He characterized the rate at which one industry grows is inevitably conditioned
virtuous cycle thus. “Increase in productivity->Increase in by the rate at which other industries grow. Any investment
flow of goods and services into Economy->Consumption in isolation may seem to have dismal returns”. As far as
Rises->Size of Market increases->Inducement to invest for Nurkse is concerned, whether balanced growth happens
firms-> Economic Growth and development”. due to entrepreneurs or with public investment, the nature
The doctrine of balanced growth requires the balance of solution remains the same.
of three types (Table 1). In current age the Government’s role may be more as a
catalyst to promote simultaneous investments in multiple
Table 1. Type of balances in balanced growth theory sectors. Our belief is that Government has an ecosystem
level role to work with private businesses to achieve the
supply-side balance In underdeveloped countries, low balanced growth objective.
Income—>low Savings—>low When an industry produces a product of higher quality
Investment—>low capital forma- at lower cost, it in turn can trigger growth in another
tion—>low productivity—>low industry by making it possible for it to operate with greater
income. To give impetus to entre- efficiency. For example, efficient transportation industry
preneurs to invest, set up several can boost tourism. This notion is referred to as “external
industries simultaneously. economy”. An external economy may be created in a
demand-side bal- In the underdeveloped countries, different country and can help balance the trade.
ance Low Income → Low Purchasing Sheahan (1958) did a critique on balanced growth
Power → Low Investment → Low theory and argued that resources have to be directed to
Productivity-> Low Income. The those sectors that can use them more efficiently and the
concept of balanced growth from balancing should be about coordinating investments
the demand side is that several internationally rather than domestically.
industries should be developed In contrast, unbalanced growth theory, associated with
simultaneously the German political economist Albert Hirschman (1958),

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 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

suggests that “overall growth is faster when it is unbalanced. Secondly there has been significant distress in
The role of government should be to help support those agriculture sector not only in drought years but even
industries with the strongest  linkages  to the growth when production of crops was high as farmers suffered
industries or strategically selected industries”. due to depressed prices. The third issue is increasing
Bhatt (1964) contended that balanced and unbalanced protectionism in the world and India’s inability to expand
growth strategies are complementary to each other. He exports or reduce imports. Here again there is need to
looked at unbalanced growth as a motivator to economy develop domestic markets.
to widen its horizon with respect to growth potentialities, India is now considered the fastest growing economy
which naturally must focus on specific sectors. in the world. However, India faces many challenges.
Firstly, India needs to grow at 10% rate for many years
to substantially increase per-capita income. Secondly the
3. Reimagining Balanced Growth trickle-down theory where high growth is supposed to
in Indian Context benefit masses has not operated optimally. Many times,
growth is jobless or has resulted in huge inequalities.
Between 2008 and 2011, India’s GDP grew between 8 to
Thirdly global trade is increasingly competitive, and
10%. Afterwards it dipped to low numbers in 2013 and
India is a late-comer. Considering all these aspects, there
then has remained largely range-bound between 6 and 8%
is belated realization in India to substantially expand the
shown in Figure 1.
domestic economy. In this context, we believe balanced
growth theory is particularly relevant to India of today.

3.1 Motivating Factors to Apply Balanced

Growth Theory in Indian Context
The following factors make a strong case to consider
balanced growth theory in Indian context:
• The Government can act as a catalyst in this drive.
• India gave precedence to manufacturing over
Figure 1. GDP growth rate of Indian economy. Agriculture in the first two decades after independence.
Then a crisis led to refocusing on Agriculture in the
During 2008-2011, there was high GDP growth due to form of green revolution. There are disparities in
huge investment in private and public sectors. Lot of this income between these sectors and in general between
investment was done using reckless lending with excessive domestic and tradable sectors. India continues to have
optimism. The due diligence on profitability was not problem of under-development in many districts and
adequate. As a result, Indian banks are saddled with huge among large sections of society.
amount of bad loans. After 2014, Government has been • India has had some success in higher education and
fiscally conservative and managed to keep inflation low IT sector that acted as complementary to each other
and macros stable. There have been many administrative leading to growth of both sectors. IT employees with
reforms including GST leading to India getting high higher wages made growth of higher education sector
rank on ease of doing business by World Bank. However more viable.
private investment is lagging. India did attract record level • India has a large aspirational population. However, this
of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the last few years; alone will not result in big markets and the real incomes
but nor adequate to compensate slow-down. Balakrishnan of people should rise and awareness and appetite for
(2018) in an article in The Hindu (Smith, 1776) makes differentiated and niche products also should rise.
a strong case for reviving private investment, while This can be corrected through balanced growth across
emphasizing its dependence on anticipated profitability. sectors.
He wrote “Arguably, investment is another, mainly private • The IT outsourcing industry in India has enhanced
investment, for governments can always raise their capital operating efficiencies in the developed world. India can
outlay ignoring the calculus of profitability. For a private create more such ‘external’ economies in developed and
investor, on the other hand, financial commitments are developing countries.
based closely on anticipated profit”. Anticipated profit in
turn depends on anticipated vigour in the economy.

174 SRELS Journal of Information Management | Vol 56(4) | August 2019

 Shreekanth Mooror Prabhu, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy and Subramanyam Natarajan

3.2 Limitations to Application of Balanced 3.5 Productivity Balance

Growth Theory Generally, focus on improving productivity is higher
The limitations to application of balanced growth theory in newer sectors such as high-tech. There needs to be
to Indian context are as follows: conscious effort to boost productivity in all sectors whether
agriculture, manufacturing or services. In addition,
1. Experience in India has shown that mere increase in lot of land and capital is locked up in unproductive
productivity and consequent increase in production ventures. Finally, supportive environment requires better
does not help improve the lot of people. infrastructure, transportation, logistics and governance.
Secondly even if high productivity leads to high Figure 2 depicts different facets of productivity. Success
profitability at the level of a firm or employer, it does story of China to become a global manufacturing hub
not necessarily mean high wages to all people. Over the owes a lot to achieving high productivity systemically.
years, export led sectors and some domestic sectors have
far higher per-capita income compared to other domestic
sectors. The sectoral imbalance has led to high degree
of urbanization with poor standard of living. Even if
domestic economy is balanced, if the country has a weak
currency then people may be particularly vulnerable
to price increases in imported items such as crude oil.
Weak currency can also come in the way of expanding
consumer markets with greater depth and differentiation.
Even when a country has a strong currency (the way Figure 2. Different facets of Productivity.
India had many decades back), if the profits/wealth
disproportionately accrues to small elite, it will not be 3.6 Innovation Balance
beneficial to people at large. In India people have a selective approach to innovation,
compared to developed countries that use it in all walks of
3.3 Reimagining Balanced Growth for life. India needs to boost innovation across sectors.
the Present
Balanced Growth theory was product of a different time 3.7 Sectoral Balance
where the developing countries had difficulty expanding We need to reimagine the sectoral balance to be competitive
markets on their own or in attracting foreign investment. with other nations. This needs better exploitation of
On top of that countries such as India chose to have a complementarities between sectors. We propose that India
closed economy focused on import substitution. Indian move from current 3-sector model of economy consisting
economy has opened up and imports are allowed freely. of agriculture, manufacturing and services to a 5-sector
On supply side, India has significant capability to achieve model. Here the five sectors are agriculture, Knowledge-
high levels of production whether it is in agriculture or Design-Innovation (KDI), manufacturing, trade and
manufacturing. , India has a much higher capacity for services. In this model, agriculture and manufacturing
innovation and entrepreneurship now. Hence, we need to are focused on production and services are focused on
reimagine the balanced growth model for contemporary fulfilment. The knowledge-design-innovation sector can
milieu. encourage intellectual and creative pursuits. With the help
of an information framework, we can track deployment of
3.4 Investment Balance people, their productivity as well as innovation quotient
across sectors. We can monitor investment distribution and
In India, there is underinvestment in agriculture and contribution to GDP based on 5-sector model. The KDI
manufacturing. The public investment should be balanced sector can help increase the productivity and innovation
across sectors. The policy framework should facilitate the across all sectors. Figure 3 illustrates role of different
growth of all sectors. sectors in ‘value creation to value capture’ process.

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 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

3.8 Market Balance
Sectors such as agriculture face vagaries of weather.
Other sectors also face business cycles. Using an
information framework, it can become easier to
predict and monitor demand and plan the supply and
distribution strategy in a fine-grained manner. Figure
4 illustrates the Market Network. Here supply and
demand may flow through the whole network or parts
of it. If each of these entities is modelled and networked,
Figure 3. Role of different sectors in value chain. we can measure demand across the network, identify
demand hot-spots and supply bottlenecks. In summary
Sectoral balance also can be thought in terms of an information framework can help achieve market
harmonizing Public, Private, Informal and Social sectors. equilibrium and achieve optimal outcomes to market
Custom products/services are another area India has a participants.
natural advantage (Debroy, 2018).

Figure 4. Market network.

Figure 5. Profitability virtuous cycle.

176 SRELS Journal of Information Management | Vol 56(4) | August 2019

 Shreekanth Mooror Prabhu, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy and Subramanyam Natarajan

3.9 Profit balance lack of jobs. His solution to the problem is to formalize

jobs and companies as much as possible. Acemoglu (2012)
The investors invest primarily based on anticipated
differentiated between extractive and inclusive philosophy
profitability. Profitability can initiate a new virtuous cycle:
of colonizing powers in his book “Why nations fail”. This
Anticipated Profitability -> high investment -> high wages
applies to businesses and industry sectors as well. The
-> better products and services -> higher profitability.
inclusive businesses prosper by sharing their wealth with
Here the assumption is that ability to give higher wages
employees.
can result in attracting better products that can command
better pricing. Another virtuous cycle it can unleash is
high investment -> high wages -> high savings -> high 3.11 Opportunity Balance
investment. Figure 5 depicts these virtuous cycles. In India Even when markets grow, the unemployment levels may
certain sectors such as agriculture end up having lower remain high due to skill, education, gender, age and
profitability thus blocking further investment. Then there cultural barriers. With some re-training, repurposing or
are sun-rise sectors such as renewable energy, telecom, reconfiguring jobs and flexibility on part of employers,
e-commerce and civil aviation that end up making losses employment levels can be significantly increased. Lack
due to price-wars and aggressive cost-cutting/discounting. of adequate jobs is part of prevailing political discourse
It is a matter of time investment declines in these sectors. in India. There needs to be balanced access to job
Then there are also core sectors and infrastructures which opportunities, without which even wages may experience
have to make do with lower profits due to high over-heads huge skew. Another way to look at opportunity balance
and low productivity. Only if profits are balanced across is locating more of the economy in social sector. In the
sectors, markets can grow in a sustainable manner. The social sector, self-employed people and small businesses
profitability criteria have become all the more important can deal directly with end-users over internet or through
in India as banks are no longer lending liberally. Lot an intermediary platform. These may be e-commerce
of investment was done earlier without due regard to platforms or intermediaries such as Uber and Ola,
profitability. In many cases there is flight of capital overseas where the platforms can help increase the opportunities
using illegal means. All these issues have impacted the significantly. They may also give flexible work options.
value of Indian currency, in turn affecting purchasing
power.
4. Ontology-Based Tantra
3.10 Wage Balance Framework
Despite firms doing well, wages for large sections of The name Tantra Framework is chosen to reflect enormous
people remain low, keeping them out of consumer connectivity of information through the framework.
markets. In addition, there may be high supply of labour Etymologically in Sanskrit “tantram”, literally means
and the labour market may dictate wages than sectoral “loom, warp,” hence, figuratively, “groundwork, system,
profitability. Wage/income imbalances also manifest due doctrine”.
to disparities within sectors. In higher education sector Tantra Framework extends Zachman (2003, 2007)
pays of teachers may increase only nominally when the by adding three additional columns namely relators,
fees paid by students increase in leaps. A farmer may get relationships and separations. The relationship column is
only Rs 2 for produce when consumer pays Rs 20 for the used to represent any relationship which may correspond
same. Jaffrelot (2018) wrote about the issues of landless to a data-map or structured map, between framework
labourers (or peasants) getting lost in the narrative on columns. A relator column is added to represent any
agriculture distress. He says the landowning farmers entity/concept that is integral part of any relationship.
seldom bothered about labourers. A fine-grained analysis Relator column is inspired by Unified Foundational
with a social information framework can help address Ontology (Santos Jr, et al. 2013). Separations are used to
wage paradox. Income disparities exist due to asymmetry represent lack of relationship or the level of difficulty to
of bargaining power. Here understanding the structure access the relationship. The idea of separations is inspired
and nature of society is important. India has huge number by the Bartels’ Theory of Separations (Bartels, 1968). The
of small enterprises and many of them are viable only with Table 2 gives the view of Tantra Framework.
self-employment. Manish Sabharwal (2018a & 2018b) has The aspects of Tantra Framework can be used to
been vocal that India’s real problem is low wages and not expresses social information as follows:

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 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

• People/Communities/Businesses (Who). Formal Credit. Table 7 covers metrics that are important to
• Places/Addresses/Locations/Zones (Where). economy. Similarly, events that occur during lifetime of a
• Assets/Attributes (What). person can be reified and given a unique ID. These include
• Events (When). birth, attaining maturity, migration, enrolment, emigration,
• Processes (for enrolment, intervention) (How). immigration and death. The processes can similarly be
• Metrics to measure development (Why). covered. The objectives are covered in the next section.
• Relators (enable relationships). Tantra Framework is implemented using Neo4j graph
• Relationships (between aspects). and database which gives it power of visualization.
• Separations (express lack of or difficulty of establishing Tantra Framework can be a great resource to Social
a relationship). Scientists supporting research methods. It is particularly
suited to grounded theory method. According to Martin
4.1 Tantra Good Governance Framework and Turner (1986) grounded theory is “an inductive,
theory discovery methodology that allows the researcher
In Tantra Framework as in Zachman Framework every aspect
to develop a theoretical account of the general features
goes through the process of reification. Table 3 describes
of a topic while simultaneously grounding the account
how People Domain is reified. Similarly Addresses and
in empirical observations or data”. The grounded theory
Zones can be reified under ‘Where’ aspect and Assets under
suggests that there should be a continuous interplay
‘What’ aspect. Table 4 covers income perspective. Loans
between data collection and analysis. Myers (1997) has
can be similarly tracked to get complete financial profile
comprehensively covered different social science research
of people. Table 5 covers the reification of relationships
methods in the context of information systems.
and relators and Table 6 covers separations with access to

Table 2. Tantra framework

Aspects
Perspectives
Who Where What When How Why Relationships Relators Separations
Contextual
(Named and
Scoped)

Conceptual
(Defined)
Logically
Designed
Physically
Configured
(Schema)

Detailed/ In-
stan-tiated)

Tantra Framework can be positioned as Knowledge balanced development (Prabhu, Murthy & Subramanyam,
Management Framework (Prabhu, Murthy & 2019c). In (Prabhu, Murthy & Subramanyam, 2019d)
Subramanyam, 2018a). Tantra Framework is applied to entropy was proposed as an instrument of validation for
varied application scenarios such as transforming India’s Tantra Framework.
electoral democracy (Prabhu, Murthy & Subramanyam, Tantra Framework as defined above can be converted
2019a) intelligent social banking (Prabhu, Murthy & into a normative framework by interoperating with models
Subramanyam, 2019b) assisting in revenue capture that can help achieve Good Governance (Figure 6).
(Prabhu, Murthy & Subramanyam, 2018b) and realizing

178 SRELS Journal of Information Management | Vol 56(4) | August 2019

 Shreekanth Mooror Prabhu, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy and Subramanyam Natarajan

Here Goals can be set using Balanced Scorecard Goals (Balanced Scorecard)
Framework (Kaplan, 2010 & Tarafdar & Singh, 2011)
Interventions (Theory of Change)
and interventions can be modelled and managed
through Theory of Change Framework (Weiss, 1995). Separations (Disconnects)
The Separations can be expressed by drawing on Bartels’ Social Information Space
Theory of Separations (Bartels, 1968).
Figure 6. Tantra good governance framework.

Table 3. Reification of people domain

Pers-pective All people Citizens Residents Resident Aliens Resident Citizens

Named (Iden- All the people People who t are People who are People who are Resident Citizens
tified & Con- known and to citizens residents resident but alien
textualized) be known to the
framework.
Defined What makes What makes one What makes one What makes one What makes one
(Conceptually one a member a member of this a member of this a member of this a member of this
Structured) of this domain/ domain/role domain/role domain/role domain/role
role
Logically De- Related attri- Related attributes Related attributes Related attributes Related attributes
signed butes that map that map to other that map to other that map to other that map to other
to other aspects aspects aspects aspects aspects
Configured Representation Representation in Representation in Representation in Representation in
in Graph data- Graph database as Graph database as Graph database as Graph database as
base as nodes nodes and edges nodes and edges nodes and edges nodes and edges
and edges
Instantiated Instantiate with Instantiate with Instantiate with Instantiate with Instantiate with
unique ID unique ID unique ID unique ID unique ID

Table 4. Reification of incomes

Income Salary Business Agricultural Other

Named Name of the income Name of the Name of the income Name of the income
income
Defined Concept of income Concept of in- Concept of income Concept of income
come
Logically De- Related Attributes Related Attributes Related Attributes Related Attributes
signed
Configured Schema Schema Schema Schema
Instantiated Instantiate with unique Instantiate with Instantiate with Instantiate with unique ID
ID unique ID unique ID

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 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

Table 5. Relationships and relators

Banking (Savings) Loans

Named (Identi- Name of the idea and Name of the idea and context Name of Name of the idea and
fied) context for relationship for relator (Bank) the idea and context for relator
(Savings account) context for (Housing Finance
relation-ship Company)
Defined (Con- Concept of Relation- Concept of Role of relator Concept of Concept of Role of
cep-tually Struc- ship Relation-ship relator,
tured)
Logically De- Related Attributes Related Attributes Related Related Attributes
signed Attributes
Configured Network Schema Network Schema Network Network Schema
Schema
Instantiated Account No. Instantiate with unique ID Account No. Instantiate with
unique ID

Table 6. Separations that come in the way of formal credit

Informational Capability Spatial Temporal Financial Social

From borrow- Capability to Not all bank Banks may take People may not Communities
er’s view-point utilize funds may branches lend. rather long to have access to col- that are not
information on not be there. For Getting a loan disburse loans. lateral. Only some considered
processes may example, starting may need multiple The people may banks may accept as trust-wor-
be hard to access a small business trips to remote need to work with gold as collater- thy end up
and understand. requires lot more locations Micro-finance al. If they pledge getting less
than mere access companies who land, they may loans.
to funds. may charge higher. lose their source of
livelihood.

5. Balanced Growth using Tantra Balanced Growth, the strategy we use to realize it and how
we validate the Balanced Growth hypotheses.
Framework
Balanced Growth theory undoubtedly has great promise. 5.1 Model
The hypothesis we need to validate is “Balanced growth Table 7 deals with how the social information modelled
depends on investment balance, productivity balance, in order to support the balanced growth case. Tantra
innovation balance, sectoral balance, market balance, Framework captures social information using 9
profit balance, opportunity balance and wage balance”. dimensions. Table 8 details the metrics and measures that
Tantra Framework can help validate the hypothesis and need to be modelled under objectives aspect.
design interventions. This section describes how we model

Table 7. Modelling balanced growth using Tantra framework

Aspect/ Role Remarks

Who: People People domain is divided into overlapping roles as consumers, producers, intermediar-
ies and labour/workmen/employees. People are associated with professions, businesses,
sectors and social groups based on skills, education, employment status, marital status,
background, age, gender, place of origin, residence and so on.

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Aspect/ Role Remarks

Who: Businesses A business may be in production, trade, distribution, fulfilment or high-tech. A business
is associated with sectors and categorized as domestic, export and so on (again in over-
lapping manner). A business may be Government-owned, private, informal or social.
Where: Locations, Zones All geographic locations and zones of different granularity are modelled here.
Where: Sector The sectors and sub-sectors are modelled here
When: Events Events of interest to economy are modelled here
When: Periods Durations of study such as financial year, quarter or seasons are modelled here
What: Products & Services The products and services as part of eco-system are modelled here. This may include
plain products or offerings.
What: Assets Assets owned by businesses can be tracked here.
What: Attributes Any attributes of interest pertaining to people, businesses, products or any other aspect
are modelled here.
How: Process Intervention processes to arrive at different kinds of balances can be tracked here.
Why: Objectives High level objectives are tracked here by linking to metrics and targets
Why: Metrics Typically, ratio between measures
Why: Measures All measures of interest related to market or society are tracked here.
Why: Target Target required to meet an objective
Relator
Intermediary Any intermediary such as trader can be considered relator depending on the context
Service-provider KDI sector may be considered a service provider to boost innovation and productivity.
Relationships
Networks Supply Networks, Market Networks, Virtuous Cycles and Vicious Cycles can all be rep-
resented as networks. Social Sector can be modelled as a network.
Separations
Separations for Businesses Financial, Informational, Temporal and Spatial separations in marketing context for
businesses.
Separations for people All separations including social and knowledge/capability can be modelled here.

Table 8. Measures and metrics for balanced growth case

Economy Sector Business/Market People

GDP, external trade, investment, GDP, Investment, Produc- Supply, demand, reve- Income, savings, produc-
consumption, savings, per- tivity, Income, Profitabili- nue, profit, innovation tivity, innovation, con-
capita Income, poverty level, un ty, innovation sumption, investment
unemployment Level, inequality
measures, innovation

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 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

5.2 Strategy may be regulatory to avoid price-wars. Others may

be supportive. Find avenues for differentiation and
We can use the following strategy to enable Balanced
creation of new markets.
Growth.
• Analyse social indicators regarding unemployment,
wage and disparities in each sector. Identify groups to
5.2.1 Have a Process to Assess Metrics Related to target and design interventions to expand opportunities
Hypotheses and Set up Action Plans to Meet for them. Mobility metrics can be handy here.
Individual Goals
Given below are indicative actions to validate hypotheses 5.2.2 Use Balanced Scorecard Framework to
and realize goals. Bring about Change
• Make assessment of productivity, innovation levels and The balanced scorecard framework has two guiding
professionalization. Design appropriate interventions principles. An Enterprise (in this case Government)
in the form of training programs and other policy needs to pay attention to all the perspectives in a balanced
actions. Have a process to evaluate the intervention manner. Secondly paying attention to other perspectives
starting from planning stage itself. in turn boosts the Financial Performance. Gomes and
• Assess market equilibrium for sectors such as agriculture Liddle (2009) made use of balanced scorecard to create
and develop projection for demand and supply levels. a strategic map that linked perspectives. Same exercise
• Transition to 5-sector model where the sectors work is attempted below in governance scenario (Figure 7).
synergistically. Identify investment required in each Here we use learning and growth as the foundational
sector and plan the investment. Promote social sector perspective, which can boost productivity, engender
enabled by internet economy and social platforms. innovation and inculcate work culture of excellence. This
• Have a model to assess anticipated profitability to guide in turn has cascading effect over higher perspectives
and encourage investment. Take corrective action for finally leading to prosperous nation with well-to-do
sectors that are not attractive enough. Some actions people.

Figure 7. Strategic map of balanced scorecard perspectives in governance scenario.

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 Shreekanth Mooror Prabhu, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy and Subramanyam Natarajan

5.2.3 Track Progress using Indices Aligned to Using process perspective, we look at whether
Balanced Scorecard Perspectives government policies are fair and equitable in intent
and implementation. Then we measure leanness and
Table 9 gives a list of indices that give a comprehensive agility of Governance processes. Finally, using learning
view of the economy aligned to balanced scorecard and growth we look at adoption of new behaviours and
perspectives. The indices defined using financial technologies by people. This is followed by measuring
perspective look at how we get out of resources at disposal, social innovation, diversification of economic activities
efficiency of tax recoveries, productivity and so on. Along and leverage of networks to grow economy. Finally,
citizen/community/perspective we look at metrics that ethical perspective focuses on ethical behaviour and
directly touch the stakeholders. Mobility index measures strong work ethic. Table 9 details the indices and the
economic, social and occupational mobility of people. method of computation.

Table 9. Balanced scorecard perspectives and Indices

Financial Perspective
Capitalization Index Ability to monetize national resources C(x) = ∑ Monetization Rate*Resource Quanti-
ty/ ∑Input Rate*Resource Quantity
Competitiveness Index As defined and tracked by global insti-
tutions
Productivity Standard Economic measure
Revenue Capture Index Ability to measure extent of revenue R(x)= Revenue Captures/Revenue Due
collected
D(x) = Defaulters/Total
Out of what is due to Government.
Citizen/Community/Business Perspective
Mobility Index Social, Economic and Occupa- M(x) = # of people experienced Mobility per
tional Mobility thousand people
Citizen Satisfaction Index % of inputs, complaints and CSI = % of Issues Addressed (with weights)/
suggestions addressed Total number of issues (with weights)
Community Satisfaction Index

Business Satisfaction Index

Process Perspective
Fairness Index Ability to deliver benefits, ser- ith user gets xi allocation among n users, then
vices and opportunities fairly fairness index
across the society. Fairness
Index can be tuned to measure F(x) = ∑ | xi | 2 /n ∑ xi2 for i = 1 to n
whether somebody gets fair
share as per their entitlement
(in place of equal share)
Leanness Index Re-engineer the process to L(x) = Diameter of Process Network. Diame-
only essential steps based on ter is largest geodesic i.e. largest shortest path
causality
Agility Index Track the process for timeliness A(x) = % of process executions that met Ser-
vice Level Criteria
A(q) = Average Process Execution Time/ Lean
Process Execution Time
A(p) = % of paths that can meet SLC/ Total
Paths in process network

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 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

Learning and Growth Perspective

Learning and Growth Index Learning new behaviours LG (x) = # of people who have switched over
to new behaviour per thousand people
Social Innovation Index Innovation intensity across Social Innovation Index = # of innovators per
society thousand in India
Diversification Index Restructuring of Economy be- Div(x) = Investment in Sun-rise areas/Size of
tween traditional and new areas Economy
with potentialities
Networking Index Growth of Economy due to Net(x) = Platform based GDP/Total GDP
Internet/peer to peer transac-
tions (uber-like or any internet
discovered relationship)
Ethical Perspective
Ethical Behaviour Index Proclivity to behave ethically E(x) = # of people are tax compliant per thou-
sand people
E(x) = # of people who pay back the loans per
thousand people
Work-ethic Index Excellence as an ethical value Work-Ethic Index(x) = # of people who excel
per thousand people
E(x) = # of people who are ethical per thou-
sand people

5.3 Validation
Table 10 explains how the validation of balanced growth
hypotheses is done.

Table 10. Validating balanced growth hypotheses

# Hypothesis Validation Method

1. Investment Tantra Framework can track investment in different sectors and validate if investing in neglect-
Balance ed sectors boosts not only that sector but also the economy as a whole.
2. Productivity Productivity of all sectors should be tracked and gaps found. Interventions designed and
Balance outcomes evaluated to validate the hypothesis. Government in coordination with industry can
have initiatives to improve productivity. This may cover sectoral skills, soft-skills, work-ethic,
better processes, work environment etc. Productivity measurements should include labour,
land, capital, logistics and processes and interventions identified.
3. Innovation Innovation should be encouraged in all sectors not just in emerging sectors. It is suggested
Balance a separate KDI sector for better products and a trade sector to come up with better business
models, and value-added offerings. In addition, we need to look at complementarity in value
engineering across all sectors including services. The outcome of innovation in terms of growth
in economy, profitability or trade balance can be measured.
4. Sectoral Bal- Advantage of 5-sector model working in complementary fashion can be validated using growth
ance metrics. Encourage social sector and support informal sector.
5. Market Bal- Demand and supply throughout the market network can be monitored and inputs given to
ance plan future production.

184 SRELS Journal of Information Management | Vol 56(4) | August 2019

 Shreekanth Mooror Prabhu, K. N. Balasubramanya Murthy and Subramanyam Natarajan

# Hypothesis Validation Method

6. Profit balance Each sector and sub-sector should be analysed so that all can have fair profits. This in turn can
make all sectors grow in balanced manner.
7. Wage-balance This needs fine-grained analysis of professions. At limes greater professionalization through
training can deliver higher wages to the workmen. There may be other mind-set related issues
of paying certain professions lowly and certain others highly irrespective of value generated.
Certain wages may be negotiated at group level and there may not be mechanisms to pay high
performers more.
8. Opportunity The growth in employment opportunities can be analysed for sectors, social groups, age
Balance groups, etc. The interventions needed may include matching opportunities, change of mind-
sets, and removal of entry-barriers and review of job qualifications and so on. This should
be looked at from the point of view of using a resource in the best possible manner and fair
monetization. Invigorating social sectors that uses internet economy can play an important role
in opportunity balance.

5.4 Operationalizing Balanced Growth 6. Conclusions

Model using Tantra Framework
Balanced Growth theory was developed and critiqued
Here we envisage that Tantra information framework will by large number of Economists in 1950s. However, it is
operate as part of larger digital governance framework closely associated with Ragnar Nurkse who positioned the
that looks at information at societal and eco-system scale. theory to eliminate vicious cycles of poverty in developing
The whole process needs to be well-governed. Here we use countries and put them on path to growth. For that he
high level ideas from TM Forum’s Frameworx (https:// suggested a big push investment in multiple sectors that
www.tmforum.org/tm-forum-frameworx-2) and conceive are complementary to each other. His assumption was that
Tantra Digital Governance Framework (Figure 8). if we leave growth of economy in developing countries to
individual entrepreneurs the results may be dismal. The
same however may not apply to developed countries where
waves of innovation uplifted economists. He considered
productivity as key determinant of market growth. In this
paper we have reimagined the balanced growth model and
suggested that market equilibrium is more important than
just ramping up supply, achieving sectoral balance using
5-sector model in place of 3-sector model, importance
of anticipated profitability than just productivity and
market size. In addition, we have discussed the challenges
of improving wages and employment levels and reducing
disparities within sectors. To achieve this mammoth task,
we have proposed use of ontology-based Tantra Good
Figure 8. Tantra digital governance framework. Governance framework that models the entire social
information as a multi-modal network. Tantra Framework
Here Governance layer addresses information governance.
inter-operates with Balanced Scorecard, Theory of Change
It lays down procedures for information sharing and
and Theory of Separations. Tantra Framework provides a
service level agreements. Integration layer provides tools
fine-grained way to keep track of economic, market and
and guidelines for information agents to collaborate
social indictors. Finally, Tantra information framework
through applications at application layer. Information
needs to evolve to Tantra Digital Governance Framework
champions are personnel who feed information to Tantra
to manage and sustain the new paradigm.
framework as well as have access based on authorizations.

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 Balanced Growth using Ontology-based ...

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