ABSTRACT

In 1991 India launched a New Economic Policy. The new policy framework mirrored standard structural adjustment measures, advocated universally by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, following a basically neoliberal approach to economic policy. Conventional interpretations see these measures of economic liberalization transforming the structure of the Indian economy and resulting in substantial increase in the rate of economic growth. Aggregative growth fi gures, however, cannot be taken to be the sole, or even main, indicators of the developmental performance of a large and socioeconomically diverse country like India. For, the question also has to be: who benefi ts from the new growth regime? And can it signifi cantly improve the conditions of livelihood for India’s 800 million people whose incomes are below $2.00 a day? The present volume looks at the international neoliberal policy regime, and its adoption at the national level in India, under strategic conditions of economic crisis and coercion, and within longer-term structural changes in the power calculus of global capitalism. It looks at long-term growth tendencies, poverty and employment rates at the national, regional, and local levels in India; the main growth centers; the areas and people damaged; the advantages and defi ciencies of the existing policy regime; and alternative economic perspectives for India.