ABSTRACT
After India attained independence, our policymakers sought to transform a backward peasant economy into a modern industrialized country by recourse to economic planning. The Indian planning was deeply influenced by the Soviet economic planning and the growth models constructed by Western economists. The impact of New Economic Policy was positive in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) growth. The fetish with GDP growth as a main indicator of the success of economic policies can have disastrous consequences for the common person, as it ignores its impact on the individual's economic and social well-being. In post-Second World War world 'economic development' has come to occupy an important place in national and international dialogues. In order to boost economic growth, governments in US and Western European countries turned Keynesian and have poured billions of dollars in the economy. The new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is pursuing the same economic model as the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, with some nuances.
