Abstract
India’s development policy shows at one and the same time many important continuities and some significant changes. Perhaps the most noticed break from the past is the adoption of the Structural Adjustment Programme in 1991 which opened up the economy to global influence and also made economic policy much more market-friendly than at any earlier point of time. However, as we shall attempt to show even this epochal event has roots in the past. It would not be altogether correct to assert that the adoption of SAP referred to generally as the commencement of economic reforms was a sudden event which was almost wholly caused by a crisis in the economy, in particular on the foreign exchange front. The aim of the discussion here is to situate India’s development strategy in a historical perspective with a view to identifying the principal landmarks and also that it has followed an evolutionary trajectory.
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