This volume seeks to unravel and contextualize the so-called dichotomy of ‘old’ and ‘new’ India and what binds them together. To understand this complex process, it attempts to apply a long-term historical perspective, a different conception of the economy and cross-disciplinary approaches. The exceptional feature of this volume is the large historical canvas of essays and its sensitivity to the regional dimension in a country as large and diverse as India. They deal with issues ranging from land and agriculture, entrepreneurship, industry and demographic trends to a critical anatomy of modern Indian economic historiography. Together these essays contribute in providing significantly new and enriching insights into the complex process of transition from colonial to post-colonial economic development. There has been a conscious effort in most cases to capture the influence of the colonial economic structures and processes in shaping the trajectory of growth and development in the post-independence period. Drawing upon a large amount of extremely rich and varied data and information on the socio-economic trends, the book is lucid, well-crafted and reader-friendly.

In recent decades, new endogenous growth theory has become popular but the ideas are not new. They go back at least as far as Adam Smith, and the subsequent contributions made notably by Alfred Marshall and Allyn Young. This book critically discusses and provides an historical perspective to the entire spectrum of endogenous growth theories starting with Adam Smith and ending with Paul Romer. It fills an important gap in the literature. While contributions of individual authors are readily available, there is no comprehensive study on the subject covering such a vast ground, critically discussing these authors in a comprehensive framework. It collates all the arguments and economic viewpoints in one collection, providing both the seasoned economist and a graduate economist with a critical comparison of origin, mechanisms, conclusions, and policy implications of these models.

This study of economic growth in India is both an interpretation of its trajectory since 1950 and an evaluation of its prospects in the near future. It is marked by theoretical integrity, historical perspective, thick description, discriminating use of econometrics, and definitive conclusions. Commencing with a favourable appraisal of the growth record of early independent India and an account of how this advantage was lost, the author proceeds to argue that by now it is more than just delayed liberalizing reforms that stand in the way of sustained double-digit growth rates. The prospects for high long-term growth in India are instead linked to the progress in the areas of agriculture and education, particularly schooling. Further, the author proposes that achieving inclusive growth, currently high on the Indian government's agenda, would be not merely politically rewarding but pivotal to maintaining the dynamism of the economy. The possibility of such an outcome, he shows, is tied more to the state's capacity to govern our public institutions than to its command over resources. To that extent the future of growth in India lies as much in the space of politics.

This book investigates the roots of rapid economic growth of India in recent decades, by exploring historical processes from the late colonial period. Based upon decades-long archival and field research, this book deals with the period from the late nineteenth century to 2013 and offers an integral viewpoint of the economic history of India. While critiquing the conventional understanding that links recent economic growth only with the development of high-tech, export-oriented service sectors under the liberalised economy, the book suggests deeper and wider roots of development that had a cumulative effect in three stages. First, the agrarian development and rural socio-economic changes from the end of the nineteenth century. Second, the state-led import-substitution industrialisation since 1950 that established the industrial foundations for future economic growth. Third, the economic reforms since 1991 that helped technology-intensive industries find new markets with improved quality of production. For the first time available in English, this book by the late Professor Haruka Yanagisawa, who was a leading figure in the South Asia studies collective in Japan, is an important contribution to the academic tradition of economic history of India. It will be of interest to researchers in the field of social and economic history, sociology, anthropology and economies of South Asia.

Much has been written on the Indian economy but this is the first major attempt to present India's economic history as a continuous process, and to place the development of agriculture, industry and currency in a political and historical context.

Tracing the spectacular trajectory of Ahluwalia's life from its humble beginnings in Secunderabad to the corridors of power in New Delhi, this book is a classic insider's account of how the India story was shaped and script Ahluwalia played a key role in the transformation of India from a state-run to a market-based economy, and remained a constant fixture at the top of India's economic policy establishment for an unprecedented period of three decades.

Volume 2 of The Cambridge Economic History of India covers the period 1757-1970, from the establishment of British rule to its termination, with epilogues on the post-Independence period.

Much has been written on the Indian economy but this is the first major attempt to present India's economic history as a continuous process, and to place the development of agriculture, industry and currency in a political and historical context.

"This two-volume work provides an account of how India has been meeting its myriad of economic, political and social challenges and how things are expected to evolve in the future. Despite enormous challenges at the time of independence, India chose to address them within a secular, liberal, democratic framework, which guaranteed several fundamental rights. Challenges included intense mass poverty and hunger, very poor literacy and educational abilities of the population, the task of uniting a country with scores of languages and ethnicities ruled by different entities for decades and persistent threats of external aggression, to name just a few. Over time, incomes and opportunities have expanded enormously and India has regained her self-confidence as a nation."--

Why India's problems won't be solved by rapid economic growth alone When India became independent in 1947 after two centuries of colonial rule, it immediately adopted a firmly democratic political system, with multiple parties, freedom of speech, and extensive political rights. The famines of the British era disappeared, and steady economic growth replaced the economic stagnation of the Raj. The growth of the Indian economy quickened further over the last three decades and became the second fastest among large economies. Despite a recent dip, it is still one of the highest in the world. Maintaining rapid as well as environmentally sustainable growth remains an important and achievable goal for India. In An Uncertain Glory, two of India's leading economists argue that the country's main problems lie in the lack of attention paid to the essential needs of the people, especially of the poor, and often of women. There have been major failures both to foster participatory growth and to make good use of the public resources generated by economic growth to enhance people's living conditions. There is also a continued inadequacy of social services such as schooling and medical care as well as of physical services such as safe water, electricity, drainage, transportation, and sanitation. In the long run, even the feasibility of high economic growth is threatened by the underdevelopment of social and physical infrastructure and the neglect of human capabilities, in contrast with the Asian approach of simultaneous pursuit of economic growth and human development, as pioneered by Japan, South Korea, and China. In a democratic system, which India has great reason to value, addressing these failures requires not only significant policy rethinking by the government, but also a clearer public understanding of the abysmal extent of social and economic deprivations in the country. The deep inequalities in Indian society tend to constrict public discussion, confining it largely to the lives and concerns of the relatively affluent. Drèze and Sen present a powerful analysis of these deprivations and inequalities as well as the possibility of change through democratic practice.