ABSTRACT
India's colonial past, huge population of 850 million people, zealous concern for self-sufficiency, and self-perception as a regional power put constraints on the extent and kind of business activities that foreign enterprises may pursue in India Population exerts a strong pressure toward maintaining and enhancing high levels of employment which encourages labor-intensive measures in the economy. The insistence on self-sufficiency does not allow a total freedom of investment for foreign capital and makes protection for native industry obligatory; and the perception of regional power necessarily requires large defense expenditures in the foreseeable future. These factors should temper the comparison of India with the newly industrializing Pacific powers.
