ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the performance of the Indian economy from the 1950s, focusing on the government's industrial policy, its measures to enhance competitiveness, trade policy, its support for agriculture and its protection of labour welfare. The economic reform of corporations since the operations of the East India Company in India from the 18th century held a form of legal pluralism, where customary law was interacting with English Company Law. The Companies Act of 2006, section 172, introduces 'enlightened shareholder value' as a response to improving corporate governance in Indian companies. The Indian state and its private capitalists never included efficiency in its calculations, never understood the relevance of moving from intermediate technology to higher technology, with Western and Japanese partnerships. The resurrection of Indian contract law failed while a series of contracts were tried but these too failed to grapple with trade disputes. Almost all Indian firms were either state-owned or family-owned, and some had stock exchange quotation.
