After more than three decades of economic restructuring and reforms, the consequences of that momentous decision of 1991 are still playing out in India. Meanwhile, the global economy has seen significant shifts—a slow recovery from the destruction of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, China’s rise as a formidable economic force, the steady retreat from WTO-led multilateralism in tandem with a gradual but noticeable erosion of faith in democratic institutions.
The Post-Reform Indian Economy: An Unfolding Story brings together eminent economists of the country who deliberate on issues plaguing the contemporary Indian economy. The essays investigate the theoretical and methodological pitfalls of the many official and unofficial studies of India’s economic performance; the phenomena of growth cycle; and India’s post-reform growth volatility. The volume also analyses wealth inequality, fluctuations in the exchange rate of the rupee in response to capital flows, insights gained from the yield curve and the RBI’s intervention in the forex market. The nature of inflation in India, and the ramifications of the RBI’s newly adopted policy of inflation-targeting are also critically examined.
The book raises several key questions: Can the rise/fall of the stock market indicate real economic performance? It looks at movements in India’s trade and foreign investment policy, and the federal fiscal dynamics in recent times. It also emphasises the urgent need to check myopic, gain- and optics-driven approaches to protecting the natural environment of the country, and recognises that without essential life support systems, even GDP growth cannot be sustained.
This volume will interest students of economics, and informed readers curious about the performance of the modern Indian economy.
Soumyen Sikdar is retired professor of economics, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. He is visiting faculty at Presidency University, Kolkata, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, Osaka University, Japan and Aarhus University, Denmark.
List of Tables and Figures List of Abbreviations Publishers’ Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Introduction SOUMYEN SIKDAR
1. India’s Growth Cycles—Resolving Some Theoretical and Empirical Issues MIHIR RAKSHIT 2. The Volatility of India’s Catch-Up Growth A Discussion ASHIMA GOYAL 3. Measuring the Trend of Economic Well-Being in India in Recent Decades ASIS KUMAR BANERJEE 4. Do Stock Markets Signal Real Economic Performance? A Theoretical and Empirical Note ABHIRUP SARKAR and AGNIRUP SARKAR 5. Yield Curve and Economic Activity ABHISHEK NARESH, JONG KOOK SHIN and CHETAN SUBRAMANIAN 6. Inflation and Stabilisation Policies in India DEBASHREE CHAKRABORTY and AMBAR GHOSH 7. Indian Inflation An Econometric Exploration with Disaggregated Price Data DIPANKOR COONDOO and PARAMITA MUKHERJEE 8. India’s Trade and Foreign Investment Policy Evolution and Current Issues ALOK RAY 9. Balancing the Pushes and Pulls of the Impossible Trinity Capital Flows, RBI Intervention and Exchange Rate in India PARTHA RAY and PARTHAPRATIM PAL 10. Changing Dynamics of Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in India Emerging Issues and Challenges PINAKI CHAKRABORTY and SHUBHAM GUPTA 11. The Natural Environment in India Good Laws, Bad Practices ANUP SINHA Notes on the Contributors Index