Future of the Indian Economy

The history of the post-independence India through its Ten Five Year Plans has been mixed story. In the first thirty years, the average GDP growth hovered around 3%, and with the population growth rate at over 2%, making annual per capita income rise only marginally. No doubt rapid strides were made in building up centers of educational excellence, creating a strong industrial base and achieving self-sufficiency in food grains, but these were no substitute for enhancing the economic well-being of the average India. The process of economic liberalization in the 1980s enhanced the growth rate to over 5%, but it was only in the 1990s that the growth rate of around 6.5% for a decade was achieved. The 1990s also saw a major policy of deregulation and reforms during which the trade sector was fully liberalized with removal of quantitative restrictions and major reductions in peak tariff rates, deregulation of the industrial sector, reforms in banking and financial sector with increasing compliance to Basel norms, and healthy debate on the future of the privatisation programme. This book focus on every aspect of the Indian economy.