ABSTRACT
The pace of Indian economic development in the postindependence period has been impressive, compared not only with its own colonial period, but also with other low-income countries. India ranks thirteenth in industrial output and is projected to move to eighth over the next two decades. India's foodgrain production trend has been some 30 percent faster than China's and has gradually accelerated over time. The relatively unsuccessful Indian strategy for meeting the needs of the poor in the 1950s is also similar to the development fashions of the 1970s. Failure to reduce poverty was the most striking deficiency of India's strategy. Nevertheless, socialist India has continued to pay lip service to reduction of income inequalities and elimination of extreme poverty. India's relatively slow growth in exports from 1955 to 1975 stems primarily from the capital-intensive growth strategy and secondarily from the bureaucratic restraints which, at least initially, were a product of that strategy.
