Globalizing India: How Global Rules and Markets are Shaping India's Rise to Power (Business and Public Policy)

India's recent economic transformation has fascinated scholars, global leaders, and interested observers alike. In 1990, India was a closed economy and a hesitant and isolated economic power. By 2016, India has rapidly risen on the global economic stage; foreign trade now drives more than half of the economy and Indian multinationals pursue global alliances. Focusing on second-generation reforms of the late 1990s, Aseema Sinha explores what facilitated global integration in a self-reliant country pre-disposed to nationalist ideas. The author argues that the impact of globalization on India has affected trade policy as well as India's trade capacities and private sector reform. India should no longer be viewed solely through a national lens; globalization is closely linked to the ambitions of a rising India. The study uses fieldwork undertaken in Geneva, New Delhi, Mumbai and Washington DC, interviews with business and trade officials, as well as a close analysis of the textile and pharmaceutical industries and a wide range of documentary and firm-level evidence to let diverse actors speak in their own voices.

Dr Aseema Sinha is the Wagener Chair of South Asian Politics and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. Professor Sinha received a BA from Lady Shri Ram College, an MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University, a second MA from Cornell University, and an MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She received her PhD from Cornell University in 2000. She previously taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (2000–2011) and was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC (2004–2005). She has received both a junior award and senior award for her research from the American Institute of Indian Studies.