Perspectives on new economic policy

For a long time, there has been a per sistent demand for relaxing the controls exerted in the Indian economy and many a critics have been blaming the controls for the impediments to faster economic growth in India. A powerful lobby has been created from the industrial and political circles with the aid of many senior economists and experts to plead for the removal of these controls. Even during the regime of the late Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi some carly steps to relax controls had been taken. How ever, during the last Lok Sabha elections, many in the industrial circles felt that with Shri Rajiv Gandhi at the helm of affairs of the country many innovative steps in the economic policy will be possible and relaxation of controls will be a beginning to achieve this. Certainly, Shri Rajiv Gandhi with his dynamic approach has proved to be a Prime Minister bold enough to take some steps in this direc tion and since 1985 with the assumption of the office of Prime Minister by him some significant changes in the policies on taxation, industrial licencing, imports, technology etc. have been made. These policies together are commonly named as the 'New Economic Policy'
The present work is a compilation of articles on these lines. It is hoped that the materials given in this work will be of considerable help to graduate and post-graduate students of Indian Universities reading for courses in Indian Economy and Economic Policy as also for general readers who would otherwise find the material scattered in many places.