Sanjay Baru 75 years of Indian economy Is part of a series covering the last 75 years of independent India. But Baru’s book is not limited to just this time frame. He sees India’s current economic boom as part of a longer story.
The book begins with a reference to British historian Angus Madison and his book The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective (2001), which estimates that China and India together accounted for half of the world’s national income in 1700, and by 1950 combined The proportion was less than 10 percent. Viewed from such a historical perspective, India is like no other “emerging” economy – as Baru puts it, it is an economy that is “reemerging” worldwide.
There are 14 chapters in the book, but they are intentionally not written in chronological order. Baru begins by explaining the various aspects of economic thinking that inspired our freedom fighters. This is significant because the early economic prospects of independent India were heavily influenced by these ideas. The two great ideas at the time of independence were Gram Swaraj, or the protection and promotion of cottage, village and small-scale industry, and the push toward large-scale and modern Soviet-style industrialization.
The script went awry in the 1960s and 1970s as wars with China and Pakistan, unsuccessful monsoons and political unrest made the economy increasingly isolated. Government regulation and control became more pervasive and undermined the growth of Indian companies. Although India began to make some changes in the 1980s to open up the economy and move away from “bureaucratic socialism”, there was a severe balance of payments that forced India to reset its economic policy framework. crisis came. The 1991 reforms were the turning point for India’s economy, and Baru appropriately devoted an entire chapter to the details of the changes and how they came about.
Since then, the Indian economy has grown from strength to strength. “During the 30 years from 1950 to 1980, India’s gross domestic product (GDP), or national income, grew at an average annual rate of 3.5 percent; And over the next two decades, 1980-2000, it grew at a rate of 5.5 percent… (between 2000 and 2015, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.5 percent, with the so-called “golden years of growth,” 2003) –2008 and showed a growth of about 9 percent,” writes Baru.
The rapid progress means that India is now the world’s third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, after the United States and China. In US dollar terms, it is now the sixth largest economy in the world after the US, China, Japan, Germany and the UK.
Yet India, entering its 75th year of independence, still raises serious concerns about poverty, unemployment, inflation and the loss of global competitiveness. Baru tries to include the latest policy options like the Make in India program, demonetization and production-linked incentive schemes.
Baru clarifies that the book is aimed at the post-millennial generation – someone who is reaching adulthood and is over 75 in India. Overall, it’s a simple, non-technical rethinking of the strains and strains that define India’s economic record as an independent country.
Interpreted books are exhibited every Saturday. It summarizes the basic logic of an important work of non-fiction.
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