India's Economic Growth: How Fast? How Wide? How Deep?
by John Adams

This article explores three sets of questions about India's economic policy transformation and its impacts on the economy and on social welfare. First, has the pace of reform been too fast or too slow? What effect do reforms have on the rate of economic growth? What is an optimal, sustainable rate of growth? Second, how wide are India's economic reforms? What has happened to the regional dispersion of growth? Have India's states experienced convergence or divergence in their average levels of things? Third, how deep are India's economic reforms? How complete has participation been across income groups? Has poverty increased or diminished? Are social and economic disparities connected?

India's Long March to Capitalism
by Joydeep Mukherji

This article assesses India's first decade of economic reform and the prospects for further change. It reviews some of the key building blocks of a market-oriented economy, such as competition, efficient markets, the quality of governance, and the obstacles that constrain their full development. India's current development strategy rests on people and institutions in the private sector, driven by market forces, to increase the country's productive capacity and income. The ability of the private sector to meet such expectations is limited, however, by the many obstacles outlined in the paper. While India has recently glimpsed the prospect of rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, much of its pre-1991 economic regime remains intact.

Telecommunications Reform in India
by Rafiq Dossani

This article analyzes Indian public policy on telecommunications. India's telecommunications sector is still mostly state-run, despite a decade-long process of reforms that ended the state monopoly, allowed private entry and introduced independent regulation. The result has been inefficiency and underinvestment. Why has reform not delivered? The answers lie in the choices made by policymakers on reforming the existing institutions that provided telecommunications products and services and what was done to enable new institutions (especially from the private sector) to be created - in particular, the degree of competition allowed and the rules that govern both old and new institutions.


The Causes and Consequences of India's IT Boom
by Devesh Kapur

How did India achieve prominence and global competitiveness informational technologies (IT) when its record in other technology sectors has been lackluster? Conventional arguments emphasizing comparative advantage, export-led growth and the absence of state intervention, while important, have limited explanatory power. State policies, in particular, investments in higher education and public R&D institutions, a historical compromise on the English language, regulatory polices all played a role. In addition, the article emphasizes the positive network and reputational effects of the Indian diaspora (especially in Silicon Valley) to the development of the sector. It concludes by examining the broader consequences of this sector's success for India. An important direct effect is the likely emergence of India as a significant player in tradable services. However, the indirect effects such as legitimizing capitalism, spurring competition among Indian states, and giving the country a greater measure of self-confidence, may be more important.