India's incomplete Odyssey

BOOK REVIEW

- NITIN DESAI

India's economic evolution since independence has been the subject of several recent books. This rather long but readable book is special because it connects economic development with political and administrative evolution and is the joint product of Devesh Kapur, a professor of South Asian Studies in the United States, and Arvind Subramanian, best known as a policy analyst.

Their judgement on the policies that shaped the economy is exceptionally critical for the pre-1980 period, but also argues that the required structural transformation has not taken place fully in the post-1980 period of higher growth. This is reflected in their chapter titles listed below in the main part of their economic evaluation for the entire period:

· Misunderstood and Misdiagnosed: India's Growth and Policy Regime . Planning Failure: Neither Growth nor Structural Transformation

. Failure Amid Success: Robust Growth Without Structural Transformation

· The Kamadhenu Fiscal and Redistributive State

· Globalisation Skewed and Ambivalent