The first volume traces the post-Independence evolution
of the industrial sector in India by delineating changes
in policy regimes, capturing structural shifts, identifying
periods of growth and stagnation, and assessing the
factors that explain these trends. It highlights the
principal contributions in the economic literature that
enrich the contemporary understanding of India’s post-Independence
industrial history. The volume covers the development
of Indian industry prior to and after 1991, when a balance
of payments crisis led to a major regime change marked
by the dismantling of the interventionist structures
that were set up during the immediate post-Independence
years. The essays in this volume revisit the evidence
and the debates on India’s post-Independence industrialization;
critically examine the role of the government, the strategies
it adopted, and the effectiveness of implementation;
and seek to provide an understanding of why the expectations
that India would successfully make the industrial transition
have been belied. The second volume provides a comprehensive
analysis of India’s economic integration with the global
economy through trade, investment, and finance, and
its implications for domestic economic processes and
outcomes. It looks closely at the different industrial
sectors and at the changing patterns of India’s engagement
with the structures governing the global economy as
well as with its trade and investment partners. While
India’s increasing share in global trade and the growing
inflow of foreign investments are important indicators
of the country’s integration with the rest of the world,
the essays in this volume also provide the other side
of the story—that of the loss of policy independence
and increased sensitivity to external shocks. The third
volume is a critical review of macroeconomic issues
such as monetary policy, fiscal policy, financial liberalization,
intersectoral linkages, open economy macroeconomics,
labour conditions, and intergovernmental fiscal transfers.
It surveys these themes from varied intellectual positions,
in the process, not only informing readers, but also
challenging them to engage with these viewpoints. The
essays in this volume are a diverse collection of ideas,
some theoretical and some empirical, which help to understand
the macroeconomic reality of India in the post-reforms
period. |
