Over the last few decades politics in India has moved steadily in a probusiness direction. In this volume we seek to analyze the growing power of business groups in the Indian polity. In this introductory chapter to the volume, we first set the scholarly context to analyze these changes, describe the historical background of India’s probusiness shift, discuss the probusiness tilt beginning in the 1980s and its implications for business power, and provide a summary of the chapters that follow in the volume.
For millions of poor people in the developing world, economic growth offers prospects for improved well-being. But what are the political and social conditions conducive to growth-oriented policies in poor democracies? This book addresses this highly consequential question by focusing on a specific empirical puzzlepolicy variation across Indian states in the competition for private industrial investment, a phenomenon that came to the fore after the country adopted market reforms in 1991. Through the analysis of investment policies, this book offers a novel explanation, which links social identity, class, and economic policy outcomes. Its main findings highlight a link between pro-business policies and exclusionary political trends in India's high growth phase, and offer a sobering perspective on the current model of growth in the country. It adds to our understanding of Indian political economy as well as to the dynamics of economic development in poor democracies.
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