India's economic reforms: Progress,problems, prospects

Abstract

This paper is a review of India's progress in the 50 years of Independence, which is regarded as a mixture of the impressive and the disappointing. The country has managed to protect national unity, preserve democracy and dilute traditional social hierarchies. There has been economic growth and a reduction in the proportion of people falling below a standard poverty line. But the main requirement now is a sustained increase in the growth rate of national income that also increases the demand for labour. The relative failures of past decades are considered, and ways in which the reform programme begun in July 1991 could be strengthened are suggested.