Articles by Atul Kohli

For the last quarter of a century Indiaâ??s economy has grown at an average rate of nearly 6 per cent per annum. The widely embraced argument that this growth pick up is a result of the Indian state's adoption of a pro-market strategy is inadequate for three reasons: the growth pick up in India began a full decade prior to the liberalising reforms in 1991; post-1991 industrial growth has not accelerated; and uneven growth across Indian regions defies any simple market logic. Instead, Indiaâ??s economy has grown briskly because the Indian state has prioritised growth since about 1980, and slowly but surely embraced Indian capital as its main ruling ally. This pro-business growth strategy is likely to have adverse distributional and political consequences. The political economy argument for the growth in the 1980s is developed in Part I, and for the post-1991 period in Part II, which will be published next week.