Ever since its inception in 1960, Gujarat has followed a strategy focussed on industrialization and urbanization with an open door policy. Economic reform measures introduced by the Central Government with an explicit emphasis on trade and industry have c
India today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future.
This open access book provides an evidence-based roadmap for revitalising Indian agriculture while ensuring that the growth process is efficient, inclusive, and sustainable, and results in sustained growth of farmers’ incomes. The book, instead of looking for global best practices and evaluating them to assess the possibility of replicating these domestically, looks inward at the best practices and experiences within Indian states, to answer questions such as -- how the agricultural growth process can be speeded up and made more inclusive, and financially viable; are there any best practices that can be studied and replicated to bring about faster growth in agriculture; does the prior hypothesis that rapid agricultural growth can alleviate poverty faster, reduce malnutrition, and augment farmers’ incomes stand? To answer these questions, the book follows four broad threads -- i) Linkage between agricultural performance, poverty and malnutrition; ii) Analysing the historical growth performance of agricultural sector in selected Indian states; iii) Will higher agricultural GDP necessarily result in higher incomes for farmers; iv) Analysing the current agricultural policy environment to evaluate its efficiency and efficacy, and consolidate all analysis to create a roadmap. These are discussed in 12 chapters, which provide a building block for the concluding chapter that presents a roadmap for revitalising Indian agriculture while ensuring growth in farmers’ incomes.
This book discusses the continued emphasis on development gains in India’s national policies and its quest to meet sustainable development goals. It offers an analysis of the laws and infrastructure for environment protection in the country and their ineffectiveness in dealing with the water pollution which has had dire consequences on India’s ecological landscape. The book, while highlighting the need and importance of industrial development, argues for sustainable measures to moderate and monitor such developmental efforts in light of severe environmental degradations. Focusing on the state of Gujarat, it looks at published and un-published data on industrial development and water pollution levels and data obtained via applications filed under the Right to Information Act. It also offers a detailed account of the concentration of red industries which release the most hazardous pollutants and their effects on the environment. The authors look at the data from a theoretical and empirical perspective, offering insights into how the checks and balances levied by the state have been violated. They highlight the patterns and trends which emerge from the study of these developmental efforts and underline the need to improve the effectiveness of policy instruments, and the need to diversify the existing mechanisms. The book will be of great interest to students and researchers of environment and development studies, public policy, sociology, law and governance, human ecology and economics.
Containing almost 250 entries written by scholars from around the world, this two-volume resource provides current, accurate, and useful information on the politics, economics, society, and cultures of India since 1947. With more than a billion citizens—almost 18 percent of the world's population—India is a reflection of over 5,000 years of interaction and exchange across a wide spectrum of cultures and civilizations. India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic describes the growth and development of the nation since it achieved independence from the British Raj in 1947. The two-volume work presents an analytical review of India's transition from fledgling state to the world's largest democracy and potential economic superpower. Providing current data and perspective backed by historical context as appropriate, the encyclopedia brings together the latest scholarship on India's diverse cultures, societies, religions, political cultures, and social and economic challenges. It covers such issues as foreign relations, security, and economic and political developments, helping readers understand India's people and appreciate the nation's importance as a political power and economic force, both regionally and globally.
Critical of the economic and political power relations in contemporary India, this book is written from the vantagepoint of the working masses whose basic economic and democratic rights remain unmet. Written for a broader audience beyond the academic community, the essays that make up the book provide short critical commentaries on different aspects of Indian society undergoing significant changes in recent times. The essays are conceptually driven and include empirical details, but they generally avoid the usual perils of academicism, by expressing complicated ideas in a relatively simple language and by drawing out their practical implications. This book is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print versions of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
In 2012 Narendra Modi became the first Hindu nationalist politician thrice elected to lead a state of the Indian Union, his stewardship as Chief Minister of Gujarat being the longest in that state’s history. Modi and his BJP supporters explained his achievement by pointing to economic growth under his leadership, yet detractors point out that Modi has been more business-friendly than market-friendly—to the benefit of large industrial corporations, and at the cost of great social polarisation. In 2002, an anti-Muslim pogrom of unparalleled ferocity occurred in Gujarat, leading to the biggest number of Muslim deaths since Partition. The state’s Hindu majority immediately rallied around Modi. No serious riot has occurred in Gujarat since, but polarisation was key to Modi’s strategy there, and he has deployed that strategy again and again since he became Prime Minister of India in 2014. For Modi has cultivated a communal image. A marketing genius, his messaging combines the politics of Hindutva with economic modernisation, to the clear appreciation of Gujarat’s middle class. Christophe Jaffrelot’s revealing book shows how Modi’s Gujarat served as the laboratory of Modi’s India, not only in terms of Hindu majoritarianism and national populism, but also of caste and class politics.
The agricultural sector is impacted by and impacts the society, economy, and environment. No study of the Indian economy can afford to neglect the agricultural sector. Although its share in the national product has declined, it harbors not merely half of the labor force; it has also vital supply and demand links with the manufacturing sector. This is the third volume in the series of eight such volumes. Each volume seeks to present an analysis of a specific area or sector of the Indian economy. This volume examines various aspects of India’s agricultural sector. Three of the basic foundations needed for building a sound agricultural economy are a productive technology package, efficient delivery services, and remunerative and stable market prices for produce. The federal structure of government and policies belong primarily to the realm of political economy. Policy interventions need to focus on ensuring remunerative prices for farmers, credit, supply chain, and marketing and make the farmer market ready. Though policymaking is difficult, the toolkit of good governance of agriculture becomes more important and regulations need improvement. For better policy planning, there is a need to improve upon the database on agriculture, considering that the existing data is unreliable.
This book follows up on the author’s popular previous volume on Indian development planning and policy, published under the UNU WIDER series in development economics. It first introduces an evaluation of the newly mandated policy body of India, National Institution for Transforming India (also called the NITI Aayog), which replaced the erstwhile Planning Commission. As per the government site, NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.The book goes on to critically describe and analyse the think tank’s policies in sectors like population, demographics and poverty; agriculture and industry; and infrastructure. Lastly, the concluding chapter discusses appropriate future policies. The approach is to analyse the policy stance of the present Government in India as stated in recent official documents and to see if it has any relationship with past plans in terms of concepts or program details. In addition to the policy makers, the book is a must have resource for students of development economics, particularly of India, and provides a critical account of policies for emerging economies.
The world stands so dazzled by India’s meteoric economic rise that we hesitate to acknowledge its consequences to the people and the environment. In Churning the Earth, Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari engage in a timely enquiry of this impressive growth story. They present incontrovertible evidence on how the nature of this recent growth has been predatory and question its sustainability. Unfettered development has damaged the ecological basis that makes life possible for hundreds of millions resulting in conflicts over water, land and natural resources, and increasing the chasm between the rich and the poor, threatening the future of India as a civilization. Rich with data and stories, this eye-opening critique of India’s development strategy argues for a radical ecological democracy based on the principles of environmental sustainability, social equity and livelihood security. Shrivastava and Kothari urge a fundamental shift towards such alternatives—already emerging from a range of grassroots movements—if we are to forestall the descent into socio-ecological chaos. Churning the Earth is unique in presenting not only what is going wrong in India, but also the ways out of the crises that globalised growth has precipitated.