ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the changing global situation and the resulting need for India to change. It describes India's obsolete position and policies in light of the post cold war situation. India had in effect 'tapped' some of the revenues coming from the Non Resident Indians (NRIs), yet almost exclusively from those who were temporary expatriates and had remained Indian citizens. India's economic policy had primarily been based on industrial self-sufficiency with a dominant public sector. The reason of a dominant public sector was based on Nehru's conviction that the disinterested 'hands of the state' would take care of the Indian population rather than Indians or foreigners with the intent of making any sort of profit. The argument that 'national economic sovereignty' was threatened by liberalisations that opened India to the world and not only to the NRIs, was the standing argument of the political left and the Hindu nationalists.
