Trade and Dependence : Essays on the Indian Economy

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Dimensions of external economics transactions: some remarks on the Indian experience. 2. Managing the constraints in balance of payments during the eighties. 3. External economic constraints and domestic economic policy in India during the mid-eighties. 4. Tied loans, liquidity gap and the two-gap models of aid: an exercise on Indian data. 5. A financial reclassification of balance of payments based on the liquidity gap. 6. Theory and practice of international credit ratings: the case of India (with Byasdeb Dasgupta). 7. Strategy of export-oriented growth: a theoretical note. 8. From import substitution to export promotion. 9. Import liberalization as a tool of economic policy (with R. Upendra Das). 10. Structural linkages between foreign trade and national income: devaluation and trade liberalization in India (with Hiranya Mukhopadhyay). 11. Smuggling and exchange controls in India. 12. Trade as a handmaiden of colonialism: India between the late 19th century and the first world war. Index.

"The book provides on in-depth analysis of numerous issues which are being currently debated with regard to India's external economic transactions. These include import control and liberalization, the liquidity gap in India's balance of payments; the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on trade; external constraints on domestic economic policies; debt indicators and international credit ratings; and capital account convertibility. The last chapter discusses the mechanisms of surplus creation and transfers from India during the colonial period and provides a framework to understand similar transfers from developing countries in the present-day context.

"Professor Sen observes that external trade and payments do not necessarily lead to growth in developing nations. This is because such transaction do not always generate net inflows of real resources from abroad. Instead, she argues that integration with global markets may unleash uncontrolled volatility in a developing country such as India. The author advocates positive regulation and surveillance by the state to stabilize the domestic economy in the face of the instability which is a likely consequence of gloablization and of the implementation of certain conditionalities often demanded by the international community. Additionally, this analysis of India's experience provides lessons for other developing countries which are in the process of opening up their economies to global markets.

"Dealing with a large number of issues of current concern, this insightful book will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of international trade and finance, India's economy, development studies and political economy as also to planners and policy makers."