Economic Growth and Development in India Since Independence: A Review

Abstract

A voluminous literature notwithstanding, a widely shared consensus still needs to be discovered in India's economic growth and development discourses. This study attempted to engage with the extant literature on economic growth and development in India to review them critically. For doing so, the study devised an analytical framework wherein the extant body of literature is dichotomised into conventional and non-conventional narratives. The much-trumpeted rhetoric of either pro-market or anti-market appeared a false dichotomy. Instead, the obtained dichotomy was that of market-complimenting and market-supplementing. Hence, the mainstream debate on economic growth and development in India since independence had never been between orthodox and heterodox economics. The argumentation had always located itself firmly within the orthodoxy of neoclassical economics. We drew two broad conclusions from this review. First, India's economic growth and development analysis appear to be in flux to this day. Moreover, the hegemony of orthodox economics is yet to be challenged in any consequential way. Keywords: Economic planning, economic reforms, economic growth, development, economy. JEL Codes: O40, O53