Author: Suresh D TendulkarT A Bhavani/Publisher: Oxford University PressYear: 2007Language: EnglishPages: 206ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195687116
Understanding Reforms traces the remarkable transformation of India from a slow growing economy to one of the fastest growing in the world. Reviewing the background, context, timing, and persistence of economic reforms since July 1991 it describes in fascinating detail the results achieved in the last fifteen years despite formidable hurdles.Discussing the events that led to a crisis situation in which reforms were initiated, the book describes how they were sustained in a low-income democracy with large diversities; how they successfully survived the emergence of several coalition governments at the Centre and the increasing regionalization of Indian politics. Overcoming the still widely prevalent hold of economic nationalism and Nehruvian socialism, the reforms continued through the last fifteen years despite the reforming leadership being in a political minority.The reforms unleashed India’s latent entrepreneurship through increasingly liberalized competitive markets and by enabling faster and sustainable economic growth. This contributed to improving living standards and reducing abject poverty. This textured view of the reforms process will interest all Indians who have experienced it as well as scholars , analysts, policymakers, and others who want to understand today’s India.
List of Tables and FiguresPreface and Acknowledgements 1. Questions in the Post-1991 Reforms Process2. The Analytical Framework3. The Development Strategy after Independence4. The Slow-growth Phase: 1950-1 to 1980-15. The Decade of the 1980s6. The 1991 Reforms: Context and Timing7. Continuing Reforms in the Era of Coalition Parties8. The Political Economy of Reforms: Some Individual Initiatives 9. Reforms in Perspective: General Issues for IndiaAppendix Bibliography Index