The simultaneous opening up of the Indian economy and the
liberalisation of procedures and controls makes the 1990s
a watershed in our history. Since then, the multidimensionality
of globalisation and its causal relationship with other
aspects of economic reforms have been widely debated in
the country. Narayana's collection of T. N. Srinivasan's
essays as well as ICRIER's (Indian Council for Research
on International Relations) compilation of articles on India's
liberalisation are both a part of that continuing debate.
Srinivasan's focus is on what ought to be the response of
developing countries like India to the contemporary wave
of globalisation, whereas the ICRIER book is an attempt
to locate the cause of India's economic reforms and liberalisation,
not in globalisation, but in the country's own domestic
compulsions.
For more than 60 years since Independence, our development
policies were primarily about State-led building of hierarchies
and mixed mechanisms for economic coordination and top-down
development. Since the mid-1980s, or at least since the
1990s, these mechanisms have given way to market-oriented
liberalisation policies and to limiting the role of the
State in economic coordination. By any standard, State-led
policies have had a mixed record in stimulating economic
growth, in developing the economy and, in achieving poverty
reduction. The record is indeed mixed since on the one hand,
we have had unique and dramatic spurts in growth like the
ones that accompanied the green revolution, and on the other,
policies that imposed unsustainable fiscal burdens and massive
structural distortions on the economy. On the other hand,
in spite of the well-marketed dreams, globalisation and
liberalisation policies too haven't broadly lived up to
the expectations, especially in promoting agricultural growth
and in reducing rural poverty.
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