Seminar with Professor Bidyut Chakrabarty

The Asia Research Centre invites you to a seminar with Dr. Bidyut Chakrabarty

Understanding Economic Reforms in India

With the onset of macroeconomic reforms in India in the early 1990s, the state-led developmental plans seem to have lost its significance in a situation where the non-state actors became critical in redefining the state agenda. Yet the Indian response to economic liberalization defies the copybook description, if judged contextually. The Nehruvian socialism of the pre-reform era cannot be so easily dispensed with for historical reasons while globalization may not be an appropriate strategy for an all-round economic development in a poor country like India. A few people may have become wealthier, but for most of the people, closer integration into the global economy has brought greater volatility and insecurity, and more inequality. Economic liberalization is thus a double-edged device which while improving the lives of some Indian has also left millions more untouched. Hence it has been rightly pointed out that the essence of economic liberalization in India can be captured by a Buddhist proverb suggesting that ‘the key to the gate of heaven is also the key that could open the gate to hell’.

Bidyut Chakrabarty holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics and is now Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science and also the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi, India. He has several publications on India’s socio-economic and political profile and has lectured extensively on these themes in India and abroad besides being visiting professors in universities in Britain, USA, Australia and Singapore

Confirmation of attendance would be highly appreciated. Contact: Lise Peitersen, lp.int@cbs.dk