ABSTRACT
Comparisons of the overall economic growth of national economies both in terms of the aggregate and per capita GDP at constant market prices is the standard generally accepted position of the mainstream economics of growth and development. This proposition treating development as synonymous with the growth of GDP/GNP has been inviting many sharp critiques from the very beginning of this practice, showing its flimsy, essentially quantitative, misleading and anti-development foundations. It may be noted that as different from GDP, GNP is considered relevant in the context of the open economies as a part of the ongoing process of greater global integration by means of removal of national barriers and regulations. The debate over the prominent role assigned to a single number of GDP growth rate in global development discourse, macroeconomic, geo-political and "growth as panacea" seems to acquire growing relevance and finesse as its various dimensions are explored from a historical and contemporary perspectives.
