Economic Policy in a Liberalising Economy ― Indian Reform in This Century

This book follows up on the author’s popular previous volume on Indian development planning and policy, published under the UNU WIDER series in development economics. It first introduces an evaluation of the newly mandated policy body of India, National Institution for Transforming India (also called the NITI Aayog), which replaced the erstwhile Planning Commission. As per the government site, NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.The book goes on to critically describe and analyse the think tank’s policies in sectors like population, demographics and poverty; agriculture and industry; and infrastructure. Lastly, the concluding chapter discusses appropriate future policies. The approach is to analyse the policy stance of the present Government in India as stated in recent official documents and to see if it has any relationship with past plans in terms of concepts or program details. In addition to the policy makers, the book is a must have resource for students of development economics, particularly of India, and provides a critical account of policies for emerging economies. 

Yoginder K. Alagh is professor emeritus/vice-chair of the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research in Ahmedabad and chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat. He is also chair professor at the Punjab University. From 1996 to 1998, he was the minister of state (Independent Charge) in the Government of India, for planning and programme implementation, science, technology and power, and until 2001, a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was vice- chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a member of the Planning Commission, chairman of Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (BICP) and secretary to the government and chairman of Agricultural Prices Commission (APC), Government of India. Dr. Alagh’s professional experience is in research, policy-making and administration of large research/policy formulation professional groups relating to macro policy and planning, industrial policies and reform, and agricultural planning and policy. He holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia (USA), and has taught at that university, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta as well as at Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania, USA). He has published extensively in India and abroad and was awarded the prestigious V.K.R.V. Rao Award for Outstanding Research in Economics in 1982. He has been consultant/senior adviser to numerous national and international organizations such as FAO, UNDP, ILO, World Bank, ADB and chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of UNESCO’s Social Science Research Programme (MOST), member council of United Nations University, senior fellow of the World Institute of Development Research (WIDER) and of CIGI in Waterloo. His last book “The Future of Indian Agriculture” (National Book Trust, 2012) generated a lot of interest. He writes a column for well-known Indian newspapers such as the Express Group and the Business Line.