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.
India has been a growth champion in recent years and has succeeded in taming inflation, the current account deficit and non-performing loans. India's participation in the global economy has risen, with outstanding performances in some services, while the largest diaspora in the world is an asset in developing new markets. India has also lifted many millions of people out of poverty and has made access to housing for all a priority. Ambitious structural reforms -- including better targeted household support, financial inclusion initiatives, the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the new approach to federalism and the corporate income tax reform -- have played a key role.
Reforms and Economic Transformation in India is the second volume in the series Studies in Indian Economic Policies. The first volume, India's Reforms: How They Produced Inclusive Growth (OUP, 2012), systematically demonstrated that reforms-led growth in India led to reduced poverty among all social groups. They also led to shifts in attitudes whereby citizens overwhelmingly acknowledge the benefits that accelerated growth has brought them and as voters, they now reward the governments that deliver superior economic outcomes and punish those that fail to do so. This latest volume takes as its starting point the fact that while reforms have undoubtedly delivered in terms of poverty reduction and associated social objectives, the impact has not been as substantial as seen in other reform-oriented economies such as South Korea and Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s, and more recently, in China. The overarching hypothesis of the volume is that the smaller reduction in poverty has been the result of slower transformation of the economy from a primarily agrarian to a modern, industrial one. Even as the GDP share of agriculture has seen rapid decline, its employment share has declined very gradually. More than half of the workforce in India still remains in agriculture. In addition, non-farm workers are overwhelmingly in the informal sector. Against this background, the nine original essays by eminent economists pursue three broad themes using firm level data in both industry and services. The papers in part I ask why the transformation in India has been slow in terms of the movement of workers out of agriculture, into industry and services, and from informal to formal employment. They address what India needs to do to speed up this transformation. They specifically show that severe labor-market distortions and policy bias against large firms has been a key factor behind the slow transformation. The papers in part II analyze the transformation that reforms have brought about within and across enterprises. For example, they investigate the impact of privatization on enterprise profitability. Part III addresses the manner in which the reforms have helped promote social transformation. Here the papers analyze the impact the reforms have had on the fortunes of the socially disadvantaged groups in terms of wage and education outcomes and as entrepreneurs.
When Peter Drucker dictated to the US auto industry in the seventies and the latter followed suit with impressive gains for its constituents that costs must be price-driven he not merely repudiated the well established principle of marginal cost determining the price but also sent the strong message across that the economics that mattered to managers was what ruled over the market and not what academic theory laid down. The Ford Company priced its luxury limousine, Mustang, at $1995 on the basis of Drucker's diktat and made a huge profit. Indeed, it emerges that several US manufacturers acted on that very basis and made themselves largely competitive. The record of the eighties tells us that American industry paid a heavy price for its retreat after a decade or so to the regime of cost-based pricing. Drucker seemed to entertain a personal dislike for Keynes and had several harsh things to say about The General Theory. But, he generally accepted Keynes' demand side economics. Both Drucker and Tom Peters sought to dovetail economic theory to the compulsions of the market place. The key message that aspiring and practising managers alike get from these titans is that a good part of conventional economic theory is irrelevant to the demands that managerial functions make on their expertise and professionalism. Price-based costing, for instance, is the first step towards managerial excellence. Companies, which perform well, could have achieved a high level of competitiveness on that basis. The toppers in the corporate arena globally and in the limited Indian context could hardly be prospering with the backward looking cost-based pricing strategy. True management lies in managing costs so as to offer products and services at prices that the market can bear. Globally, the best working strategy is often differential costing and pricing for diverse markets, but excellence is identified only with competitive costing that is price-determined. In the early sixties, the joke one heard about the pioneering research institutions in the country was that the bigwigs there were still stuck with the classical economics of Alfred Marshall, but obviously this was quite unfair and the economic academia generally was well versed in Keynesianism. The Indian economist, Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao’s celebrated rejection in 1949 of Keynesian theory as inappropriate to developing economies, in fact, underlines this aspect. Finally, is there any scope for transplantation of the indifference curves theory, which dictates that the consumer is indifferent in regard to the choice of market baskets? Yes, we can do this in regard to all petro goods subsidised or otherwise although we should remember that differential State duties on these goods as much as the rates of excise overall contest the assumption of indifference. Generally, where subsidies are uniformly available to all consumers, this theory can be said to retain its validity. A uniform system of VAT which is the ultimate goal should uphold the theory. I would close this paper with this. I suppose, economics should be re-written on the basis of what happens in the market place, by how the market behaves as much as how policymakers and administrators as well as regulators play their game.
India is an emerging economy that intersects the supply chain of many companies and industries. This is the first book that allows you to learn about the state of the art of supply chain practices, innovative approaches, and the future outlook for India and its neighbors. The content is exceedingly rich and interesting, and will be highly valuable to academics and practitioners.
Since liberalization, Indian economy is going through some dynamic changes. From a primarily closed agrarian economy, India has become service-oriented open economy, becoming more and more susceptible to economic fluctuations. This comprehensive book, in its third edition, continues to equip the readers with the necessary skills to assess and analyze the evolving economic scenario in India and world over. The new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to incorporate the recent changes taking place in Indian and global economic environment. Every chapter is incorporated with a section on Understanding Economic Environment (UEE), in which the Indian economic environment is compared with the economic environment of its neighbouring countries, emerging markets and major players in the world economy. All chapters are well-supported with illustrative examples and cases to provide an analytical insight to the topics. The chapters also include the topic Implications for Managers, in which implications of a particular aspect of an economy are summarized for the managers. Besides, for an easy assessment of the data, most of the quantitative information is presented in a graphical form rather than in the conventional tabular format. Designed primarily as a textbook for the postgraduate students of management and commerce, this book is useful for the practising managers and policy makers as well. KEY FEATURES : Includes illustrations using latest data (upto 2011) Provides several numerical problems to strengthen the quantitative aspect of the subject Each chapter concludes with a Case Analysis to support the chapters with the applicative tools Companion website www.phindia.com/veenapailwar provides useful resources for the teachers as well as for the students and has been updated as per the current edition.
How interventions to mitigate climate-caused poverty and inequality in India came at a cost to environmental sustainability. In the monsoon regions of South Asia, the rainy season sustains life but brings with it the threat of floods, followed by a long stretch of the year when little gainful work is possible and the threat of famine looms. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, a series of interventions by Indian governments and other actors mitigated these conditions, enabling agricultural growth, encouraging urbanization, and bringing about a permanent decrease in death rates. But these actions—largely efforts to ensure wider access to water—came at a cost to environmental sustainability. In Monsoon Economies, Tirthankar Roy explores the interaction between the environment and the economy in the emergence of modern India. Roy argues that the tropical monsoon climate makes economic and population growth contingent on water security. But in a water-scarce world, the means used to increase water security not only created environmental stresses but also made political conflict more likely. Roy investigates famine relief, the framing of a seasonal “water famine,” and the concept of public trust in water; the political movements that challenged socially sanctioned forms of deprivation; water as a public good; water quality in cities; the shift from impounding river water in dams and reservoirs to exploring groundwater; the seasonality of a monsoon economy; and economic lessons from India for a world facing environmental degradation.
Population, Land Use, and Environment: Research Directions offers recommendations for future research to improve understanding of how changes in human populations affect the natural environment by means of changes in land use, such as deforestation, urban development, and development of coastal zones. It also features a set of state-of-the-art papers by leading researchers that analyze population-land useenvironment relationships in urban and rural settings in developed and underdeveloped countries and that show how remote sensing and other observational methods are being applied to these issues. This book will serve as a resource for researchers, research funders, and students.
