Two Decades of Market Reform in India

Sudipta Bhattacharyya

Description

An edited collection of essays that demolishes the accepted myths surrounding the perceived benefits of India’s neoliberal governmental policies concerning growth, agriculture, industry and poverty.

Have neoliberal policies truly yielded beneficial effects for India? ‘Two Decades of Market Reform in India’ presents a collection of essays that challenge the conventional wisdom of Indian market reforms, examining the effects of neoliberal policies enacted by the Indian government and exploding the myths that surround them.

The volume addresses three key areas. Firstly, it investigates how the high growth rate of the Indian economy has made it uneven, vulnerable and liable to poor employment generation and agrarian crises. The text refutes the hypothesis that growth in India has been driven by domestic factors, and argues against the notion that the Indian economy has remained unaffected by the global economic meltdown. The volume also investigates the reduced demand for food grain during the reform period, questioning whether it was indeed a result of increased income, as suggested by the government, or rather a consequence of increasing poverty and agrarian crisis. [NP]Secondly, the text counters the neoliberal myth that a fiscal deficit is essentially bad, and examines how the government’s focus on preventing a deficit caused a large-scale decline in development expenditures, which in turn had a negative impact on the well-being of the poor. Finally, the volume also argues that there is no evidence that supports denationalization as an effective way to reduce fiscal deficit, as the public sector, it argues, is not necessarily less efficient than the private sector.

Striving to hold India’s market reforms – and those responsible for their implementation – to account, ‘Two Decades of Market Reform in India’ bravely shines a light on the true implications of India’s neoliberal governmental policies. With its rich and insightful analysis, it provides a revealing indication of how policy reform since 1991 has, at times, detrimentally affected the Indian populace, and will serve as an invaluable resource for students, professionals, activists and policymakers interested in the socioeconomic future of the country. 

List of Tables and Figures; Foreword by Prabhat Patnaik; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1: Introduction: A Critical Look at Two Decades of Market Reform in India – Sudipta Bhattacharyya; Chapter 2: Development Planning and the Interventionist State versus Liberalization and the Neoliberal State: India, 1989–1996 – Terence J. Byres; Chapter 3: Predatory Growth – Amit Bhaduri; Chapter 4: On Some Currently Fashionable Propositions in Public Finance – Prabhat Patnaik; Chapter 5: The Costs of ‘Coupling’: The Global Crisis and the Indian Economy – Jayati Ghosh and C. P. Chandrasekhar; Chapter 6: Theorizing Food Security and Poverty in the Era of Economic Reforms – Utsa Patnaik; Chapter 7: Globalization, the Middle Class and the Transformation of the Indian State in the New Economy – Anthony P. D’Costa; Chapter 8: The World Trade Organization and its Impact on India – Parthapratim Pal; Chapter 9: The Changing Employment Scenario during Market Reform and the Feminization of Distress in India – Sudipta Bhattacharyya and Uma Basak; Chapter 10: Privatization and Deregulation – Ashok Rudra; Chapter 11: Macroeconomic Impact of Public Sector Enterprises: Some Further Evidence – R. Nagaraj; Chapter 12: Liberalization, Demand and Indian Industrialization – Surajit Mazumdar; Chapter 13: On Fiscal Deficit, Interest Rate and Crowding-Out – Surajit Das; Chapter 14: Going, Going, But Not Yet Quite Gone: The Political Economy of the Indian Intermediate Classes during the Era of Liberalization – Matthew McCartney; Contributors 

Sujets

• General officer
• Industrial organization
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780857283351
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Two Decades of Market Reform
in India India and Asia in the Global Economy
In the last few decades a ‘new’ India has surfaced – an India that is
socially confdent, globally active, economically visible, technologically suave, and
youthfully smart. Its expatriate professionals, students, and computer engineers and its
entertainment industry have placed India in the global economy in profound ways, while
its regional engagement with Asia, quiet collaboration with China, and growing bilateral
relationship with the US is realigning the global political architecture. Yet India still
faces numerous challenges, including its large absolute poverty level, social
injustices and inequalities, political fragmentation and
uneven development.
Anthem’s India and Asia in the Global Economy series invites scholars
and researchers to undertake bold projects exploring the internal and external dimensions
of a ‘new’ India, and its economic and political interactions with contemporary global systems.
Titles in this series examine India’s economic development and social change in global and
Asian contexts, with topics including the politics of globalization, Indian middle class
revolution, the politics of caste, India–US relations, India in Asia, emigrants and
diaspora, economic policy and poverty, and changing gender relations.
Series Editor
Anthony P. D’Costa – Australia India Institute and the School of Social and Political Sciences,
University of Melbourne, Australia
Editorial Board
Govindan Parayil – United Nations University, Japan
Kunal Sen – Manchester University, UK
Aseema Sinha – Claremont McKenna College, USA
E. Sridharan – UPIASI, IndiaTwo Decades of Market Reform
in India
Some Dissenting Views
Edited by
Sudipta BhattacharyyaAnthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition frst published in UK and USA 2013
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
© 2013 Sudipta Bhattacharyya editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters © individual contributors
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Two decades of market reform in India : some dissenting views / edited
by Sudipta Bhattacharyya.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-85728-326-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. India–Social policy–20th century. 2. India–Social
policy–21st century. 3. India–Economic conditions–20th century. 4.
India–Economic conditions–21st century. 5. Fiscal policy–India.
I. Bhattacharyya, Sudipta. editor of compilation.
HN687.T96 2013
306.0954–dc23
2013020051
ISBN-13: 978 0 85728 326 9 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 0 85728 326 X (Hbk)
Cover photo courtesy of Rik Rudra Mandal.
This title is also available as an ebook. Dedicated to two great dissenting economists, the
late Professors Krishna Bharadwaj and Ashok Rudra, who were pioneers
in interpreting the Indian economy from alternative perspectives.CONTENTS
List of Tables and Figures ix
Foreword by Prabhat Patnaik xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Chapter 1 Introduction: A Critical Look at Two Decades of
Market Reform in India 1
Sudipta Bhattacharyya
Chapter 2 Development Planning and the Interventionist State versus
Liberalization and the Neoliberal State: India, 1989–1996 27
Terence J. Byres
Chapter 3 Predatory Growth 55
Amit Bhaduri
Chapter 4 On Some Currently Fashionable Propositions in Public Finance 65
Prabhat Patnaik
Chapter 5 The Costs of ‘Coupling’: The Global Crisis and the
Indian Economy 77
Jayati Ghosh and C. P. Chandrasekhar
Chapter 6 Theorizing Food Security and Poverty in the
Era of Economic Reforms 93
Utsa Patnaik
Chapter 7 Globalization, the Middle Class and the Transformation
of the Indian State in the New Economy 125
Anthony P. D’Costa
Chapter 8 The World Trade Organization and its Impact on India 143
Parthapratim Pal
Chapter 9 The Changing Employment Scenario during Market Reform
and the Feminization of Distress in India 159
Sudipta Bhattacharyya and Uma Basak
Chapter 10 Privatization and Deregulation 177
Ashok Rudraviii TWO DECADES OF MARKET REFORM IN INDIA
Chapter 11 Macroeconomic Impact of Public Sector Enterprises:
Some Further Evidence 187
R. Nagaraj
Chapter 12 Liberalization, Demand and Indian Industrialization 197
Surajit Mazumdar
Chapter 13 On Fiscal Defcit, Interest Rate and Crowding-Out 213
Surajit Das
Chapter 14 Going, Going, But Not Yet Quite Gone: The Political
Economy of the Indian Intermediate Classes during
the Era of Liberalization 243
Matthew McCartney
Contributors 260LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables
5.1. Selected economic and productivity indicators for the USA, China and India:
1995–2004 79
5.2. Personal loans as per cent of total outstanding credit of commercial banks 87
6.1. Policies followed by 78 countries under fund-guided reforms 95
6.2. Reduction in rural development expenditures under economic
reforms, selected years 1985–90 to 2000–01 95
6.3. Decelerating growth rates of agricultural output 96
6.4. Employment decline in rural India 96
6.5. Prices of some important traded primary products, in US dollars 101
6.6. Suicides of farmers in Andhra Pradesh by district 102
6.7. Summary of annual per capita foodgrains output and availability in
India in the 1990s (3-year average) 107
6.8. Percentage distribution of persons by monthly per capita expenditure
(MPCE) groups and average calorie intake per diem, 1999–2000, all-India 110
6.9. The rural poor as percentage of rural population in India 112
6.10. Offcial poverty percentage by states and associated calorie ‘norm’ 117
6.11. States with one-third or more of rural population with less than
1800 calories daily energy intake 118
7.1. Employment in the Indian IT and ITES industry 132
7.2. Indian students and technical professionals in the US by nonimmigrant
visa category (percentage share) 134
8.1. India’s foreign trade (in millions of US$) 146
8.2. Share of developing countries in world agricultural exports
by region, 1990–2003 (in percentage terms) 149x TWO DECADES OF MARKET REFORM IN INDIA
8.3. Policies followed by now-industrialized countries during their phase of
development and current WTO rules which prohibit them 153
9.1. Percentage distribution of households by household type (rural and urban) 161
9.2. Labour force participation rate (LFPR) in India 163
9.3. Age-specifc worker participation rate (WPR) principal
and subsidiary status 163
9.4. Percentage distribution of persons not in labour force 167
9.5. Status of rural and urban employment from 1987–88 to 2009–10 171
9.6. Structural change in workforce: Rural males and females in agriculture 172
12.1. Annual average rates of growth industrial real GDP in India at 2004–05
prices (per cent per annum) 199
12.2. Organized manufacturing sector employment (in lakhs) 202
12.3. Shares of private organized sector NDP and its components in aggregate
NDP, 1990–91 to 2009–10 (percentages) 206
12.4. Annual rates of growth of real private corporate and registered
manufacturing gross fxed capital formation (per cent per annum) 207
13.1. Regression of real interest rates on fscal defcit to GDP ratio, India
1980–81 to 2006–07 229
13.2. Regression of real government bond yields on fscal defcit to GDP ratio 232
13.3. Regression of real treasury bill ratio 233
13.4. Regression of real deposit rates on fscal defcit to GDP ratio 235
13.5. Regression of real (prime) lending ratio 238
13.6. Regression of real money market ratio 240
Figures
5.1. Net foreign institutional investors’ stock of equity investment
and Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index 84
7.1. The process of internalization 129
7.2. Globalization and expansion of India’s IT industry 131
8.1. Composition of India’s export basket (in millions of US$) 148
9.1. Age-wise WPR, all ages: India (rural and urban) 165
9.2. Age-wise WPR, 30–59: India (rural and urban) 165 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES xi
9.3. Age-wise WPR, 60 and above: India (rural and urban) 165
9.4. Outside the labour force: Rural males 168
9.5. orce: Rural females 168
9.6. orce: Urban males 168
9.7. Outside the labour force: Urban females 169
11.1. Public enterprise sector defcit and fscal defcit as per cent of GDPmp 190
11.2. Budge