The Economy of Modern India

Abstract

Rapid economic growth has put India at the centre of current debates about the future of the global economy. In this fully revised and updated text, B. R. Tomlinson provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging account of the Indian economy over the last 150 years. He sets arguments about growth, development and underdevelopment, and the impact of imperialism, against a detailed history of agriculture, trade and manufacture, and the relations between business, the economy and the state. The new edition extends the coverage right up to the present day, and explains how one of the largest countries in the world has sought to achieve economic progress and lasting development, despite institutional weaknesses, rigid structures of political and social hierarchy, and the legacy of colonialism.

Firms, Markets, and the State: Institutional Change and Manufacturing Sector Profitability Variances in India

“…This process created a premium and additional requirements for firm-specific skills in managing greater political and economic complexities (Sengupta 1992). Attempts at liberalization floundered (Tomlinson 1993). The uncertain institutional climate could negate the benefits of an industry presence so that industry effects might not materially explain profitability variances.…”

Co-evolution, opportunity seeking and institutional change: Entrepreneurship and the Indian telecommunications industry, 1923–2009

“…27 Indigenous enterprise may have been constrained by British hegemony, limited domestic purchasing power, and the rigidities of caste and traditional culture, but there was sufficient flexibility in mindsets and practices for Indian business to embrace the potentialities of mass production and new technologies. 28 The indigenous business community, which conspicuously grew in confidence between the end of World War I and Independence in 1947, might best be described as polymorphic, with many divisions based on race, caste, religion and province. It would be mistaken to think of the Indian business elite as united by common values or objectives.…”

“…50 It is more accurate to think of India under the premierships of Nehru (1947-64) and his daughter Indira Gandhi (1966-77 and 1980-84) as a mixed economy governed by politicians and members of the elite who periodically contested, adjusted and affirmed responsibilities and rules of engagement between the state and business. 51 In the first decade after Independence, the precise details of the settlement between the state and business were resolved through dialogue between the Nehru government and the Indian business elite represented by FICCI, which in return for its support expected government to promote the interests of Indian business through the exercise of positive discrimination (tariffs, regulations, licences etc.). 52 Industries included in schedule A of the government's policy statement of April 1956, 17 in all, were assigned to the state; those in schedule B, a further 12, were projected to have Business History 37 state participation in new ventures; and the remainder in Schedule C fell solely within the private sector.…”

N-player costly contracting

“…The tenant's share of output has been observed to be as low as 20% in Southern India [Tomlinson, (1996), p.81] or as high as 80% in Argentina in the 1890s [Adelman, (1994), p.137]. 2 Grossman and Hart (1983) discuss the conditions under which such an optimisation is well-defined.…”