Poverty amid Plenty in the New India

Abstract

India has one of the fastest growing economies on earth. Over the past three decades, socialism has been replaced by pro-business policies as the way forward. And yet, in this 'new' India, grinding poverty is still a feature of everyday life. Some 450 million people subsist on less than $1.25 per day and nearly half of India's children are malnourished. In his latest book, Atul Kohli, a seasoned scholar of Indian politics and economics, blames this discrepancy on the narrow nature of the ruling alliance in India that, in its new-found relationship with business, has prioritized economic growth above all other social and political considerations. This thoughtful and challenging book affords an alternative vision of India's rise in the world that its democratic rulers will be forced to come to grips with in the years ahead.

Targeting Accuracy of the NREG: Evidence from Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu

“…3. Using a political economy perspective, Kohli (2012) argues persuasively that state-business alliance has resulted in greater emphasis on growth and neglect of poverty. 4.…”

Symbolic politics, legalism and implementation: the case of street vendors in India

“…To a great extent this is driven by the nature of Indian democracy -the electoral turnout of poor or lower income groups is usually higher than that of higher income groups (Kohli 2012). Despite the recent resurgence of the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and its free market agenda, welfare and socialist thinking is still widespread.…”

“…4 First, there is some evidence of a particularisation of government schemes. It seems that some progressive states in India can implement progressive national policies, while others cannot or do not (Kohli 2012;Dreze and Sen 2013). Indeed some states which might be described as 'neopatrimonial' -including MP -are criticised for a lack of "public purpose" (Kohli 2012, p. 153) Second, policy implementation is likely to reflect the prevailing political economy, class and caste composition of each state and location.…”

Democratization in the Global South

“…Tariffs have remained -even now -relatively high, there continue to be restrictions on international investment in some sectors of the economy, such as the retail trade, privatization of state-owned enterprises has not gone nearly so far as the liberalizers would have liked and the establishment of a more 'flexible' labour market has still not been achieved. A strong case has been made as well, particularly by Atul Kohli (2012), that it has been 'pro-business' politics rather than 'promarket policies' that have been more significant. Certainly the pursuit of economic growth as an end in itself, rather than broader development objectives, has taken precedence among senior political leaders from the major national parties, both the Indian National Congress (henceforth Congress) and the 'Hindu nationalist' Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).…”