The state and industrialisation in India: successes and failures and the lessons for the future

Abstract Among the non-socialist developing countries, the Indian economy has long been regarded as being a classical case of heavy state intervention. In the eyes of the powerful and influential neo liberal critics of the country's economic development, particularly the Bretton Woods institutions, this intervention, if not disastrous, has certainly been inefficient. It is thought to have resulted in a sluggish pace of industrialization and a relatively slow growth of the economy. The majority of India's indigenous economists on the other hand, although critical of many aspects of the state planned economic regime, generally regard it in a more favourable light.