The Effects of Economic Reforms  in India in the Early 1990s

Vijay Narayanan; Ikemefuna Allen; Nahidah Naser

Published : 2015-12-30

Vol. 6 No. 17 (2015)

The Effects of Economic Reforms in India in the Early 1990s

Vijay Narayanan

Ikemefuna Allen

Nahidah Naser

Section: Thematic Articles

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to understand the economic reforms that were undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s in India and their relevance today. The study is based on a literature review. The findings from the literature review are validated from data on growth at the national and regional levels. It was found that much of the effects of the reforms are relevant even today in the Indian context. There has been a positive impact on growth due to liberalisation policies. Economic indicators such as GDP and FDI have been on an increasing trend. The removal of trade barriers has had a positive effect on industry. Employment opportunities have increased in both rural and urban areas resulting in a reduction in unemployment. On the negative side, the observed growth is not inclusive. There has been regional a disparity in growth among the different states with some states growing faster than others. Moreover, not all sectors enjoy the benefits of liberalisation. The agriculture sector, for example, has not seen any or at least very few reforms. Thus to sum up, the government of India needs to continue the reforms and ensure that the benefits of an open market reaches one and all.

Keywords

India ; reforms ; liberalisation ; economic growth

Details

References

Indicators

Authors

Download files

PDF (Język Polski)

Zasady cytowania

Altmetric indicators

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CC BY-ND licence that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are asked to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). We advise to use any of the following reserach society portals:

References

Anand, P.B., 1999, India's economic policy reforms: a review, “Journal of Economic Studies” 26(3), pp. 241-257.

Baddeley, M., McNay, K., Cassen, R., 2006, Divergence in India: Income differentials at the state level, 1970-1997, “Journal of Development Studies” 42(6), pp. 1000-1022.

Barro, R.J., 1991, A cross-country study of growth, saving, and government, in: Bernheim, B.D., Shoven, J.B., (eds.), National saving and economic performance, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 271-304.

Dash, R.K., Sahoo, P., 2010, Economic growth in India: the role of physical and social infrastructure, “Journal of Economic Policy Reform” 13(4), pp. 373-385.

Ghosh, M., 2012, Regional economic growth and inequality in India during the pre-and post-reform periods, “Oxford Development Studies” 40(2), pp. 190-212.

Haidar, J.I., 2014, Can the Euro Survive?, “The World Economy” 38(3), pp. 1-15.

Kalirajan, K., Singh, K., 2010, Economic liberalisation strategies and poverty reduction across Indian states, “Asian‐Pacific Economic Literature” 24(1), pp. 26-42.

Kohli, A., 2007, State, Business, and Economic Growth in India, “Studies in Comparative International Development” 42(1-2), pp. 87-114.

Krueger, A.O., 2008, The Role of Trade and International Economic Policy in Indian Economic performance, “Asian Economic Policy Review” 3(2), pp. 266-285.

Lardy, N., 2003, Trade Liberalisation and Its Role in Chinese Economic Growth, Paper prepared for the conference “A Tale of Two Giants: India’s and China’s Experience with Reform and Growth,” International Monetary Fund and National Council of Applied Economics Research, 14-16, November, New Delhi.

Lewis, W.A., 1954, Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour, “The Manchester School” 22(2), pp. 139-195.

Mehlum, H., Moene, K., Torvik, R., 2005, Institutions and the resource curse, “Economic Journal” 116 (508), pp. 1-20.

Planning Commission, Government of India, 2015, <http://planningcommission.nic.in/data/datatable/index.php?data=datatab> (access: 02.10.2015).

Prathivadi, B.A, 1999, India’s economic policy reforms: a review, “Journal of Economic Studies”, 26(3), pp. 241-257.

Ranis, G., 2004, Arthur Lewis's contribution to development thinking and policy, “The Manchester School” 72(6), pp. 712-723.

Sabade, S., 2014, India’s Foreign Trade and Socio-Economic Development (Trio of WTO compliance, Currency Depreciation and Global Crisis, “Procedia Economics and Finance” 11(4), pp. 341-347.

Sapir, A., Wolff, G.B., 2015, Euro-area governance: what to reform and how to do it, “Bruegel Policy Brief” 1, pp. 1-8.

Schumpeter, J.A., 1934, The theory of economic development: An inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle, “Harvard Economic Studies”, January, pp. 1-255.

Schumpeter, J.A., 1946, The decade of the twenties, “The American Economic Review” 36(2), pp. 1-10.

Shaheen, S., Ali, M.M., Kauser, A., Ahmed, F.B., 2013, Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Economic growth in Pakistan, “Inerdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business” 9(5), pp. 228-240.

Singh, J., Jha, S. R., Singh, Y., 2011, Impact of Liberalisation on Foreign Direct Investment: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Economy in Post-Reform Period, “IUP Journal of Public Finance” 9(3), pp. 23-33.

Solivetti, L.M., 2005, W.W. Rostow and His Contribution to Development Studies: A Note, “Journal of Development Studies” 41(4), pp. 719-724.

Stanek, P., Wach, K., (eds.), 2015, Europeanization processes from the Mesoeconomic Perspective: Industries and Policies, Cracow University of Economics, Kraków.

Storm, S., 2003, Transition Problems in Policy Reform: Agricultural Trade Liberalisation in India, “Review of Development Economics”, 7(3), pp. 406-418.

Thanawala, K., 1989, Social Economic Aspects of India's Development.International, “Journal of Social Economics” 16(7), pp. 34-47.

Thanawala, K., 1994, Schumpeter's theory of economic development and development economics, “Review of Social Economy” 52(4), pp. 353-363.

Theobald, R., 1961, Towards a Practical Theory of Economic Development, “American Journal of Economics and Sociology” 20(3), pp. 327-331.

Thirlwall, A.P., Pacheco-López, P., 2009, Has Trade Liberalisation in Poor Countries Delivered the Promises Expected?, “Studies in Economics” 9(11), pp. 1-30.

Topalova, P., Khandelwal, A., 2011, Trade liberalisation and firm productivity: The case of India, “Review of Economics and Statistics” 93(3), pp. 995-1009.

Tussie, D., Aggio, C., 2003, Economic and social impacts of trade liberalisation social impacts of trade liberalisation, <http://www.unctad.info/upload/TAB/docs/TechCooperation/fullreport-version14nov-p106-119.pdf> (access: 01.09.2015).

United Nations, 2010, Report on the world's social situation, <http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/rwss/docs/2010/fullreport.pdf> (01.09.2015).

Wach, K., 2014, Internationalisation and Globalisation as the Wider Context of Europeanisation Processes

from the Macro- and Microeconomic Perspective, “Horyzonty Polityki” 5(1), pp. 11-30.

Woodward, D., 1992, Debt, Adjustment and Poverty in Developing Countries, Pinter Publishers/Save the Children, London.

World Bank, 2015, While India’s Economy has Turned the Corner, Wider Reforms are Needed to Boost Economic Growth, <http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/04/28/india-economy-turned-corner-wider-reforms-needed-boost-economic-growth> (access: 02.10.2015).

Vijay Narayanan

Affiliation

Cracow University of Economics Inter-Faculty PhD Studies in English Poland

Ikemefuna Allen

Affiliation

Cracow University of Economics Inter-Faculty PhD Studies in English

Nahidah Naser

Affiliation

Cracow University of Economics Inter-Faculty PhD Studies in English