India’s Economic Development, Policies and Current Problems

After the comparatively less radical economic reforms of 1990/1991, India experienced a rapid economic upswing that catapulted the country into the ranks of the fastest-growing economies and significantly increased its once modest integration into the global economy. However, a number of slower-implementing reforms have been tackled only reluctantly, leading to a recent slowdown in development momentum. This applies in particular to fiscal consolidation, infrastructure development and agricultural and financial sector reform. The main shortcoming of the growth acceleration achieved so far, however, is that it has not, or only insufficiently, generated broad employment effects, i.e. it has created too few low-skilled jobs for the mass of new labour market entrants and has significantly worsened the previously moderately unequal distribution of income and wealth.