ABSTRACT
The early 1990s witnessed the launching of the first-generation neoliberal reforms in India, with the right-wing Congress-led government in power opting for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of US$2.3 billion. A compliance with the built-in conditionalities involved two successive devaluations and the opening up of trade barriers. Other critical reforms subsequently followed, such as a reduction of fiscal deficit and tax reforms; however, public sector restructuring was left undisturbed for fear of compromising the state’s own ‘political standing’ (Killick et al. 1998: 97). The millennium, by and large, began with the second-generation reforms, which involved a sweeping liberalization cutting across public utilities such as power and water, these being treated as tradable commodities, fiscal responsibility and the withdrawal of the state from various public utility services. The two important features of these second-generation reforms included the central position accorded to the state as an agent/medium of change through structural reforms and, second, the role of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as one of the key sources of external finance.
