New Economic Policies for a New India

There is considerable discussion in India on the urgency of second generation economic reforms. The turn of the century is seen by many as an opportunity to further accelerate India’s growth rate from 6 percent to upwards of 9 percent per annum; and to reduce absolute poverty in India to single digits over the next five to ten years. India is a thriving Democracy, with a considerable amount of political freedom. However, economic freedom for its citizens has bot been considered a priority. This is changing, and mostly because the politics of the new age economy demands more openness, greater transparency, and above all justice. The papers in this volume have been written with the political economy explicitly at the forefront of analysis. The papers in this book touch upon several aspects of policy e.g. what kind of monetary and interest rate policies are necessary for an accelerated growth rate; how agricultural subsidies and policies can be made more open and transparent; how poverty programmes can be better targeted; how the government should confine itself to financing and not the production of public goods, including health and education; how the legal system in India is in dire need of reform.