From central planning to market reforms : India's political economy in comparative perspective

The socioeconomic and political implications of India's economic reform and the characteristics of India's liberalization program are examined. The respective roles of the state, the private sector, and foreign enterprise in India's central planning during the late 1940s and early 1950s are discussed. Rather than perceive India's planned industrialization as a socialist venture, it is contended that the program established the basis for capitalism-oriented industrialization. Several explanations for the failure of India's central planning to produce economic growth are identified including the absence of collaboration between the state and emergent bourgeois classes. The P. V. Narashima Rao administration's recognition of central planning's failure and implementation of a macroeconomic liberalization program characterized by reduced state intervention, market orientation, and widespread financial reform are discussed. The need for India to infiltrate global markets, increase employment opportunities, and augment expenditures for public service programs that assist the indigent is articulated. J. W. Parker.