2 - The economic policy of the Government of India

Summary

The behaviour of private investment depends as much on government policy affecting various sectors of the economy as on the general condition of the people and the state of development of techniques. Governmental policies in India were rarely conceived with a conscious view to affecting the economy as a whole, partly because the information available to the government was often very meagre. There were only some parts of the economic life of the country which chiefly occupied the attention of the bureaucrats ruling India. Nevertheless, other areas of the economy were affected, if only because some aspects of policy such as the encouragement of foreign trade or keeping up the reputation of the Government of India in the London money market would rule out certain options for the encouragement of modern industry. In order to study the impact of different aspects of government policy in different periods of the era we are covering, governmental policies are classified in accordance with the variables which were being immediately manipulated: we study under fiscal policy the major features of the expenditure policies of the Government of India, under commercial and industrial policy the impact of import tariffs or subsidies for the development of industry, and under monetary policy the impact of the banking organization and the currency system of India, both of which could be affected intimately by the actions of the government.