C Rangarajan​

In this timely book—a festschrift for Dr. C. Rangarajan—top experts, policymakers and economists offer their assessments of India’s performance in the area of economic and financial reforms and analyse the successes and continued challenges. It provides an insight into critical macroeconomic and macro-finance issues of today. The book covers a broad set of topics, including fiscal, monetary and external sector policies, drivers of banking and financial growth, infrastructure and financial inclusion.

A strategy of gradual economic liberalisation combined with risk-averse prudential regulation in the banking and financial sector helped limit India’s exposure to the recent financial crises and the subsequent global economic slowdown. The improved economic performance in recent years encouraged the country to become more globally and regionally integrated. This process is unlikely to be reversed by the current global economic slowdown, given the economic and strategic benefits India has derived so far.

A strategy of gradual economic liberalisation combined with risk-averse prudential regulation in the banking and financial sector helped limit India’s exposure to the recent financial crises and the subsequent global economic slowdown. The improved economic performance in recent years encouraged the country to become more globally and regionally integrated. This process is unlikely to be reversed by the current global economic slowdown, given the economic and strategic benefits India has derived so far.

The authors in this festschrift share a critical, but overall positive, view of the country’s future and outline several areas and recommendations for bettering the lives of citizens. Empirically rich and topically diverse, the book is broad in scope and full of deep analytic insights and will serve as a useful reference and planning tool for administrators, planners, policymakers and students of development economics, monetary economics and finance.