Author: A Vaidyanathan
Publisher: Academic Foundation
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 504
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8171883052
Description
Rapid economic growth and eradication of abject poverty have been the core concerns of India's polity and government. The essays in this collection provide an overview of evolution of this process culminating in the far-reaching orientation of strategy and policies during the nineties.
Co-ordinated planning with the state playing the leading role in initiating and regulating the process of development in pursuit of these objectives has been a distinctive feature. Specific targets, perceptions of the problems involved and their solutions have been changing over time. This book contains a critical assessment of rationale of new strategy and policies, implementation and impact from the political economy perspective.
The essays are divided into two sections: Those in the first part, mostly written in the nineties, focus on key elements of overall development strategy being pursued from the early nineties, the rational and the thrust of the structural adjustment package soon after it was unveiled by Dr. Manmohan Singh, issues relating to subsidies and foreign direct investment and broader issues of the role of the state generally and of planning in particular in the changed context.
The lead piece in this section pulls together the assessment of different aspects and attempts an overall assessment of the antecedents of the reforms of the nineties, their halting and meandering course and the reasons for their less-than-expected achievement. It also reflects on the prospects for the future.
Selections in the second section spanning over a much longer period discuss issues relating to poverty - concepts, data and measurement and regional variations, evolution of poverty alleviation programmes, critical commentary on their design, implementation and measures to improve their efficacy.
The general thrust of the essays is critical of the design and implementation of the reform package and skeptical of its impact on growth and socio-economic inequality.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
SECTION - 1
Planning, State and Development
A Decade of Reforms
Structural Adjustment in the Indian Economy
Attitude Towards Multinationals
Subsidies in India
Planning, State and Development
Planning in India - Retrospect and Prospect
Development Planning Models: The Indian Experience
Growth of Indian Industry: Role of Demand Factors
Cottage and Small Scale Industries in India: Policy and Performance
SECTION - TWO
Poverty, Inequality and Development Policy
Poverty and Development Policy
The New Economics of Poverty
The Political Economy of the Evolution of Anti-Poverty Programmes
Restructuring Poverty Alleviation Programmes
Some Aspects of Inequalities in Living Standards in Rural India
The Validity of NSS Consumption in Rural India
Asset Holdings and Consumption of Rural Households in India: A Study of Spatial and Temporal Variations
Poverty and Economy: The Regional Dimension
Assessment of Nutritional and Health Status