Nearly fifty years after independence, India remains a very poor country. It ranks near the bottom in terms of per capita income, and is similarly placed in the Human Development Index which measures social well-being. Economic growth in India has been less than half that of China or even other countries in Asia. And governments, at the Centre as well as in the states, are close to insolvency. The reason for our spectacular underachievement lies in the continuation of policies which had a certain validity as a response to the colonial experience, but which have long outlived their usefulness. The global economic scene has changed dramatically since they were formulated, and we must respond to the new realities. Bimal Jalan, the well known economist and present Governor of the RBI, in this lucid and well-argued book, makes a case for governments doing what they alone can best do, and less of what they cannot do effectively. 'One of the most lucid and lay-reader-accessible books to have been penned by an Indian economist.' --Outlook 'One cannot but agree with most of the suggestions made by Mr Jalan.' following the reforms process closely.' --Business India 'Jalan marshals a formidable array of facts to convey the general failure of the avowed mission of planning in India and the public sector's abysmal failure in particular.' --The Telegraph

India is the second most populous country in the world and also one of the poorest. From the late 1940s to 1980, India's per capita income grew at an average annual rate of only two percent. Expansionist economic reforms during the 1980s boosted economic growth but also unfortunately resulted in high inflation and a balance of payments crisis. As a consequence, in 1991 the government announced sweeping new changes in economic policies. Economic Policy Reforms and the Indian Economy evaluates the effects of those changes and identifies areas of the Indian economy still in urgent need of reform. After an overview of Indian economic policies and development since independence, papers focus on the country's fiscal situation, the environment for private economic activity, education, the reservation of certain activities for small-scale industry, and determinants of differentials in rates of growth across the different Indian states. Contributors include respected academic specialists on India and policy reform, high-level Indian administrators, and present and past policymakers.

1.Economic Development : Meaning, Measurement, Indicators and Determinants,2. Underdeveloped (Developing) Economy—Concept of Underdevelopment, 3. Human Development, 4. Indian Economy on the Eve of Independence (Colonial Economy), 5. Structure and Basic Features of Indian Economy, 6. Evaluation of India’s Economic Planning, 7. Import Substituting Industrialisation, 8. Economic Reforms in India : Liberalisation, Privatisation & Globalisation, Demonetisation and GST, 9. Growth, Development and Structural Change in India, 10. Various Means of Transport : Road, Rail, Water and Air, 11. Changes in Policy Perspective in the Role of Institutional Framework After 1991, 12. Economic Growth and Distribution in India, 13. Problems of Poverty in India, 14. Unemployment in India, Nature, Extent and Employment Policy, 15.Economic Development and Environment, 16.Agriculture Growth and Performance in India, 17. Land Tenure and Reforms : Agricultural Holding and Consolidation, 18. Plans and Agriculture Development : Green Revolution, 19. Technological Change and Development in Agriculture (Agriculture Mechanisation), 20. Agricultural Price Policy, 21. Food Problem, Food Policy, Public Distribution System and Food Security, 22. Prominent Large Scale Industries of India—Cotton Textile, Jute, Sugar, Iron and Steel and Cement, 23. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India, 24. Foreign Trade of India, 25. India and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), 26. Role of Foreign Direct Investment in India.

In this book, Sanjaya Baru, one of India’s most respected commentators on political and economic issues, pays close attention to the strategic consequences of India’s increasingly impressive economic performance. The new turn in India's economic policies and performance in the last decade of the twentieth century; the success of Indian enterprise in the post-WTO world; the emergence of a confident professional middle-class; a demonstrated nuclear capability; and the resilience of an open society and an open economy, in the face of multiple and complex challenges, have all shaped India's response to the tectonic shifts in the global balance of power in the post-Cold War era. In this collection of academic essays and newspaper columns, Baru explores the business of diplomacy and the diplomacy of business in a rising India. The role of India's cultural and intellectual 'soft power' in shaping global perceptions of India are examined. The book offers a panoramic view of the geopolitics and the geo-economics of India's recent rise as a free market democracy, and as such will interest both experts and lay readers.