India's Long Road: The Search for Prosperity - Hardcover

Joshi, Vijay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190610131 ISBN 13: 9780190610135

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2017

Synopsis

India's economic resurgence has been the subject of many extravagant predictions and hopes. In this powerful and wide-ranging book, distinguished economist Vijay Joshi lays out a penetrating analysis of the shaky foundations of the country's performance, and charts the course that it should follow to achieve widely-shared prosperity.

Joshi argues that for India to realize its huge potential, the relation between the state, the market, and the private sector must be comprehensively realigned. Deeper liberalization and more extensive privatisation will be necessary. But they will not suffice to achieve India's economic objectives. The state needs to perform much more effectively many core tasks that belong squarely in its domain. India needs more of the market as well as more of the state.

The road India takes will matter not only for the lives of its billion-plus people but also for the course of global economics and politics. In the course of his enquiry, Joshi examines in depth all the critical areas of Indian development policy, including employment and the 'demographic bulge'; investment and productivity; the markets for goods, resources, and finance; macroeconomic stability; public sector banks and enterprises; the infrastructure deficit; social protection and safety nets; education and health care; environmental sustainability; international economic relations; state capacity and accountability; and corruption and crony capitalism. His design for radical reform incorporates a fiscally affordable scheme to provide a regular 'basic income' for all citizens that would speedily abolish extreme poverty.

An authoritative work of tremendous scope and depth, India's Long Road will be an essential resource for anyone who wants to know where India is today, where it is headed, and what it should do to attain its ambitions.

About this title

About the Author

Vijay Joshi, a distinguished economist, is an Emeritus Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. His past books on India (co-authored with I.M.D. Little) include India - Macroeconomics and Political Economy 1964-1991 (OUP and World Bank 1994), and India's Economic Reforms 1991-2001 (OUP 1996). He has been Special Adviser to the Governor, Reserve Bank of India; Officer on Special Duty, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Director, J.P. Morgan India Investment Trust; and Consultant to various international organizations such as the World Bank.

Review

"...this book will remain a stellar contribution to the analysis of India's economy for a long time. It presents a clear vision of India's principal economic problems and provides well reasoned, sound advice on how to go about addressing these. The economics community the world over will thank Prof. Joshi for writing such a fine book." -- Raghbendra Jha, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia, Economic Record

"India's Long Road, is a work that anyone who has spent a lifetime thinking about their home country would be happy to have written. It is insightful, comprehensive, practical, and every page displays an impressive depth of knowledge and thinking... Joshi has provided a blueprint for policy reform in India that is compelling: thoughtful, well argued and drawing both on economic theory and realpolitik." -- Jeff Borland (University of Melbourne), Economic Record

"Bar-Joseph and McDermott develop a theoretical framework related to the human factor in explaining success and failure in three wars: the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941; the Korean War in 1950; and the Arab attack on Israel in 1973... Recommended" -- S. L. Rozman (Tougaloo College), Choice Reviews Vol 55.

"India could do far better. That, in a sentence, is the conclusion of Vijay Joshi's superb book. While the focus of India's Long Road is on the economy, its analysis is appropriately comprehiensive. It considers the post-independence growth record, the failure to create remunerative employment, the excessive role of publicly owned enterprises, the poor quality of Indian infrastructure and the inadequacy of environmental regulation. Joshi combines enthusiastic engagement with the detachment of a scholar who has passed much of his life abroad. No better guide to India's contemporary economy exists."

-- Financial Times

"At a time when the Indian scene is flooded with many books, Vijay Joshi's latest contribution towers above all others. India's Long Road will only add to Joshi's reputation for profound insight into India's economic problems."

-- Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor and Director of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies, Columbia University

"This is a very compelling book that makes a strong case for a comprehensive agenda of economic reforms that would enable India to emerge as a high income economy over the next quarter century."

-- Barry Bosworth, Economist, the Brookings Institution

"A brilliant book. It is broad and deep in its coverage, and balanced and judicious in its assessments. India's current position is viewed against its long history since independence. The author's academic objectivity cannot disguise his passionate engagement with India, its economy, and its future. Where the leading problems are to be found, and what needs to be done, are clearly revealed. A must-read for any student of modern India."

-- Christopher Bliss, Professor Emeritus in Economics, University of Oxford

"India has a complex economy; Joshi makes the issues intelligible in lucid prose, without compromising on the complexity. He also provides a balanced perspective on many controversial questions. In today's partisan and shrill policy debates this book will set an example of clear thinking."

-- Pranab Bardhan, Professor of Graduate School at the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley

"Vijay Joshi's analysis of the Indian economy is wide-ranging, thorough, detailed, and convincing. His policy prescriptions carefully balance concerns for alleviation of poverty, economic efficiency and sustainability, without carrying any ideological baggage. This outstanding book will become required reading for everyone interested in India."

-- Avinash K. Dixit, Sherrerd University Professor Emeritus, Princeton University

"A tour de force: a brilliant, lucid and comprehensive analysis of what could be put right in the Indian economy, and especially in government policy. The good news is that many of the proposed changes are surely feasible and have been practised in other countries. They might really lead India to fulfil its potential. For the world, the economic transformation of a nation of more than one billion people would be a huge event."

-- W. Max Corden, Emeritus Professor of International Economics, Johns Hopkins University and Honorary Professorial Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Melbourne

"India's Long Road by Vijay Joshi, a leading macroeconomist, deserves to be required reading for anyone interested in India's performance and prospects. While being strongly grounded in economic theory, it succeeds in setting out a superb descriptive and prescriptive analysis of India's political economy in a readable style, without jargon or algebra. Its sensible and firm policy recommendations are based on careful argument and evidence. In consequence, the book will be valuable not only for the general reader but also for policymakers. It would also make an excellent text for students of the Indian economy."

-- T.N. Srinivasan, Samuel C. Park Jr. Professor of Economics Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of International and Area Studies, Yale University

"I only wish that this book had been available 20 years earlier, when I was appointed Chief Economist for South Asia in the World Bank. To have had available such a well-argued and reasonable guide to the many problems confronting India in its quest to join the modern world by a leading member of the Indian diaspora would have been invaluable. I would particularly have valued the chapters on political economy."

-- John Williamson, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Peterson Institute for International Economics

"India's Long Road is a tour de force: it will be the new standard for those who want to learn about the Indian economy. Joshi provides lucid economic analysis and broad insights into the current and coming global context for India's future development."

-- Nirvikar Singh, Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Cruz

"A cogent and sobering analysis of the enormity of the challenges India faces in ensuring inclusive, enduring and sustainable economic growth. Vijay Joshi lays out with rare clarity the necessary reforms that India must undertake -- and the obstacles rooted in the country's political economy -- if it is to fulfill its historical responsibility to improve the well-being of a sixth of humanity. One of the best -- and most accessible -- books on a complex and contentious subject."

-- Devesh Kapur, Madan Lal Sobti Professor of Contemporary India and Director Center for Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania

"Josh's book is a concise, engaging and very personal review of much of the vast canvas of growth and poverty in contemporary India."--Matthew McCartney, South Asia Research

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0190610131
• ISBN 13: 9780190610135
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360