Economic Policy Reforms and the Indian Economy (Hardcover, 2nd Ed.)

India is the second most populous country in the world. It is also one of the poorest: from the 1940s to 1980, India's per capita income grew at an average annual rate of only 2 percent. Expansionist economic reforms during the 1980s boosted growth, but also resulted in high inflation and a balance of payments crisis. As a consequence, 1991 saw the announcement of sweeping new changes in economic policy.
This volume 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 both India and policy reform, high-level Indian administrators, and present and past policymakers.
As former Secretary of State George P. Schulz writes in his introduction, "The entire world economy will benefit from an open, successful Indian economy"-not least the quarter of Indians who live in poverty, and the nation's burgeoning middle class. This volume offers not only an examination of the progress that has been made, but also a sense of the problems still to be confronted, with much insight into how to address them.