1st Edition
India’s New Economic Policy A Critical Analysis
Conventional interpretations of the New Economic Policy introduced in India in 1991 see this program of economic liberalization as transforming the Indian economy and leading to a substantial increase in the rate of India’s economic growth. But in a country like India, growth is not enough. Who benefits from the new growth regime, and can it significantly improve the conditions of livelihood for India’s 800 million people with incomes below $2.00 a day? This edited volume looks at international policy regimes and their national adoption under strategic conditions of economic crisis and coercion, and within longer-term structural changes in the power calculus of global capitalism. The contributors examine long-term growth tendencies, poverty and employment rates at the national level, regional level and local levels in India; the main growth centers; the areas and people left out; the advantages and deficiencies of the existing policy regime, and alternative economic policies for India. Bringing together the leading figures in the discussion on India’s economic policy, this volume is the authoritative critical study of India’s New Economic Policy.
Introduction Waquar Ahmed, Amitabh Kundu and Richard Peet 1. Neoliberalism, Inequality and Development Richard Peet 2. From Mixed Economy to Neo-liberalism: Class and Caste in India’s Policy Transition Waquar Ahmed 3. Urban System in India: Trends, Economic Base, Governance and a Perspective of Growth under Globalization Amitabh Kundu 4. New Urbanism, Neoliberalism and Urban Restructuring in Mumbai Swapna Banerjee-Guha 5. Economic Liberalization and Urban Governance: Impact on Inclusive Growth Shipra Maitra 6. The Right to Waste: Informal Sector Recyclers and Struggles for Social Justice in Post-Reform Urban India Bharti Chaturvadi and Vinay Gidwani 7. From Red Tape to Red Carpet? Violent Narratives of Neoliberalizing Ahmedabad Ipsita Chatterjee 8. Neoliberalism, Environmentalism and Urban Politics in Delhi Rohit Negi 9. Coping with Challenges to Food Security: Climate Change, Biofuels and GMOs Suman Sahai 10. Imperialism, Resources and Food Security, with Reference to the Indian Experience Utsa Patnaik 11. Special Economic Zones: Space, Law and Dispossession Rupal Oza 12. Thinking Militant Particularisms Politically: Resistances to Neo-liberalism in India Dave Featherstone 13. Radical Peasant Movements and Rural Distress in India: A Study of the Naxalite Movement Raju Das
Biography
Waquar Ahmed is a visiting assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Mount Holyoke College.
Amitabh Kundu is Professor of Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India..
Richard Peet is Professor of Geography at the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, US.
"...A good read for anyone whose intellectual curiosity is piqued by neo-liberalism and its discontents."
- Sirisha C. Naidu, Economic and Political Weekly
"The volume on the whole offers a sustained and searing critique of neoliberal economic policies and their intrinsic hostility toward social and economic justice. That alone is a worthy enterprise..."
-Rowan Ellis, Economic Geography
