India’s Tryst With Destiny

Policy discourse in India is dominated by assertions unsupported by facts. Often, the result is the creation and perpetuation of myths of all kinds. Thus so many believe today that poverty, illiteracy and ill-health afflict India because its leadership ignored them in favour of growth for its own sake; that theeconomic reforms that focused on growth have failed to help the poor, especially the socially disadvantaged; that any gains claimed in poverty alleviation derive from the use of progressively lower poverty lines; and that even if gains have been made, with one in two children suffering from malnutrition, reforms have done precious little to improve health outcomes. In this definitive book on economic reforms in India since Independence, Bhagwati and Panagariya decisively demolish these and other myths, which critics use as weapons to wound and maim the reforms. Their basic premise: Only growth can provide sufficient revenues to lift the masses out of poverty.