ABSTRACT
Global perceptions of the Indian economy have been prey to swings that are almost as volatile – and as irrational – as the behaviour of unregulated financial markets. The celebration of India as one of the significant ‘success stories’ of globalisation along with China has more recently been replaced by a more pessimistic and negative assessment of its rampant crony capitalism, growing inequality and current tendencies towards stagflation. Yet both perceptions miss the point. Indeed, the extreme assessments on either side are not just inadequate but flawed: they fail to capture the basic tendencies that generated both growth and inequality and do not understand why the growth model that was so celebrated was unsustainable in the first place.
