Alternative economic survey India 2007-08

Alternative Economic Survey, India, 2007-08: Decline of the Developmental State is the fifteenth in an annual series that critically looks at the state of India's economy and development scenario.

The volume details with facts and arguments how the 'reformist' regime, caught in the web of contradictions and dysfunctional outcomes of its own making, has deformed the social fabric and its development process. It underscores the terrible costs the policies of total surrender to the market forces are imposing on the common citizens' right to livelihood and meaningful participation. The contributions to the volume examine various aspects of the functioning of the economy; assess the impact of reformist' policies; and underline near collapse of the neo-liberal 'growth-first and growth-last' policies. Ironically, this very failure is being used to push for more policies favouring big capital - both national and international, along with fraudulent claims of going in for 'inclusive growth.'

Threat to democracy and its constantly dwindling social content are built-in features of a market economy dominated by a few, especially because the economy is being asymmetrically integrated with the economies of the rich countries. As a result, an authoritarian transition has emerged as a real danger. This is attributable to the intense and multi-faceted discontent among diverse sections of society, particularly in the backward and tribal regions characterized by worsening social imbalance. This precipitates daily occurrence of a 'million mutinies' protesting callous disregard of public interest and rule of law.