Indian Perspectives on International Financial Institution (IFI) Reforms with Special Emphasis on the International Monetary Fund

Abstract

The approach of India’s political establishment toward economic reforms and economic policy-making may have undergone major changes in the last few decades, but its terms of engagement with international financial institutions, particularly with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), continue to be influenced to a large extent by the mindset that prevailed in the 1980s. More recently, some changes have been discernible in the Indian government’s official positions on issues pertaining to reforms in the governance structure of international financial institutions. This paper seeks to bring out the basic dichotomy in the way the political establishment in India continues to engage with international financial institutions and how the Indian government’s official views on reforms in the governance structure of these bodies have made a big difference to the way India has begun to see itself and its role in the global financial community.