Standing on the crossroads: The Indian economy in the 21st century

Indian economic development in the recent period has attracted both favourable and unfavourable attention abroad. The development community including academics and activists regards the record of the Indian economy during the last twenty years as being extremely good by international standards. On the other hand, workers and trade unions in advanced countries, particularly the US, have been alarmed by the outsourcing of service sector jobs to India by many large companies. There has certainly been an attitudinal change in assessments of the Indian economy over the last decade. This is partly because of the country’s huge advances in Information Technology (IT); but it is also due to new thinking with respect to the theory of economic development.