World economic environment and prospects for India

This book is a compilation of lectures delivered by the author at various national and international fora during the period 1984-1986. The lectures cover a broad spectrum of subjects, including diagnosis of the world economy and prospects for India. The author refers to currency values being based not on the inherent trading strength of the economy but on destabilising capital movements resulting, among other things, in capital inflows to the richest country at the expense of the rest of the world. On the basis of recent trends he questions the conventional wisdom of explaining the unsettled state of the world economy in terms of oil prices, interest rates and dollar value. He emphasises its structural characteristics in monetary and commodity terms as well as trading environment.

Against this background, the author analyses India's situation in the context of the assumptions of the Seventh Plan and recent trends and pleads for a drastic revision of some of its estimates. He identifies the major elements of public investment, fiscal and trade policies that require rethinking in a sense, towards "economic liberalisation".