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Development Perspectives, Contexts and Historical Trends

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Foundation Core NA 4

Semester and Year Offered:                                    Semester Two

Course Coordinator and Team:                  Professor Deepita Chakravarty

Team                                                               Professor Deepita Chakravarty

Email of course coordinator:                       deepita@aud.ac.in

The changing contexts and realities of development from the second world war period will be the context of this paper. At a general level it will cover alternative perspectives on the phenomenon of underdevelopment, beginning from the interventionist discourse to the market-led discourse in more recent times. The general discussion will be conducted in a seminar mode, with students taking the lead to presenting and discussing a specific chapter of a book or books.

The specific case of India will be brought in the context of the relevant international debates. The course will introduce students to the main themes of development experiences in the Indian context and how this has evolved since independence.

 

Module 1: Development – Concepts, Measures and the centrality of economic development

Module 2: Some important models of development economics that dominated the development practices of the developing countries

Module 3: Historical Trends

Module 4: Industry as modernity: The interventionist approach- policy debate of the early post Independent India- Nehru Mahalanobis model and Indian Industry: Was agriculture neglected? Was trade neglected?

Mahalanobis model: similarity with Feldman’s exercise? Relevance of Keynes and Lewis The growth and development experiences of the Nehru era

Module 5: How was agriculture treated in the Indian development exercise? Land reforms and green revolution: efficiency vs. equity in a backward agrarian set up, implementation? The case of Kerala

Module 6: Liberalization and the Indian economy

The debates around the reasons and the time of entry of the liberal trends in the policy makings of India

Liberalization as such and its impact on Indian industry, agriculture and the services sector implications for income and employment; Question of social sector

 

Reading List: (See below for indicative readings, a detailed reading list will be provided in class):

Ray Debraj : Development Economics, Oxford India paperbacks, 1998, Chapter 1.

Dreze, J and A.Sen: India: Development and Participation, Oxford India paperbacks, 2002: chapters 1 and 2.

Ha-Joon Chang: Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective, Anthem Press 2002

Ha-Joon Chang (ed): Rethinking Development Economics, Anthem Press 2004

Ha-Joon Chang (ed.). Institutional Change and Economic Development, Anthem Press 2007.

Chang Kyung-Sup, Ben Fine and Linda Weiss (ed): Developmental Politics in Transition : The

Neoliberal Era and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan 2012

Chakravarty, S (1987), ‘Development Planning: The Indian Experience’, Clarendon, Oxford University Press, Chapters, 1, 2, 3 and the conclusion.

Balakrishnan, P (2010), ‘Economic Growth in India: History and Prospect’, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, Relevant Chapters.

Guha Ramchandra (2008): India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest    Democracy, Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan: Part Two: Nehru’s India

Bardhan, P (1984), ‘The Political Economy of Development in India’, Oxford University Press. Patnaik, Prabhat: ‘Some Indian Debates on Planning’ in Byres, T.J (Ed.) (1998), ‘The Indian

Economy: Major Debates Since Independence’, Oxford University Press.

Chibber, V (2003), ‘Locked In Place: State-Building and Late Industrialisation in India’, Princeton University Press, Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 6.

Corbridge, S and J.Harriss (2000), ‘Reinventing India: Liberalisation, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy’, Polity Press, Relevant chapters.

Gerchenkron, A (1962): Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press

Sundaram, K. (2007), “Employment and poverty in India, 2000-2005’, Economic and Political Weekly 42: 3121-3131.

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