[Dec 2007, Volume 4 Quarterly Issue] Pdf File size - The IIPM Think ...

REIMAGINING INDIA
mean a slow down in pushing the economic
agenda. A lesser reliance on market
forces of the type that emerges as
with a market economy and coupled with
an intensifying bureaucratization of
processes can bring in a slow down making
the transition that much more difficult
to execute. Bhagwati points out to
the overhang of the State leading to ‘the
inability to trust the market when scarcities
are acute and the tasks are challenging’.
21 The impact of this overhang on
the market had certain long term effects
for the practices of the State in the economic
sphere. A ‘combination of industrial
licensing and controls at home with
import and exchange controls externally,
effectively cut off rigours of competition
from all sources and made the creation
of a rentier, as against an entrepreneurial,
economy more likely.’ 22 An overhang
of this type has an adverse impact on the
creation of the market and on agents, or
entrepreneurs, who constitute an important
part of the market. The movement
from early post-colonial period and into
latter day envisages the highs and the
lows of the State and its influence on the
economy and the polity. This has not
been a period of the routine; it has instead
been a period that can be characterized
by the term ‘change’.The economy
progressed from early reaching of
high notches as at the end of the early
plans, to a leveling of the growth and
whereby the economy was described as
one that was inflicted by a Hindu rate of
growth. The economy periodically recorded
weaknesses in its ability to deliver
as much as was demanded of it. In
a manner of speaking the overstretched
State which depended on large scale
controls to be able to deliver the promises
that were made now faced road
blocks in its way forward. The liberaliza-
The process of debate is augmentative. The need is to
engage the State by the civil society. Debates are expected
to enhance an understanding of the way that the intricate
relationships between the triad of actors and also to help
determine the way forward from the current relationship
tion of the 1990s and thereafter, accordingly,
focused on dismantling the economic
controls that had been instituted
during the course of the journey after
independence. The growth rates that
have been realized, and the prospects
that have come to be expected, has
prompted a re-look yet again at what
could be the best solution for moving
forward. The market has expectedly become
an arena to be looked into with
more than usual interest.
Debates Are Contributive
We started with the observation that the
debate on the market has progressed
beyond the confines of the few. It now
includes the many instead, and this for
the simple reason that the market concerns
all. Markets, then, turn out to be
constructs that are influenced by the
manner in which economic activities are
handled in society. Markets have that
quality which encourages the many to
arrive at answers about its construct.
This happens because of the relationship
that individuals have with the market.
This is important because it also
brings in the role of democracy and following
the adoption of which there is an
influence by members of society who opt
for a political governance of the type
that is shaped by this political mode of
participation. It is about the influence
that civil society has on the political terrain
and also about the influence that
civil society can have on that terrain.
The influence that matters in the context
that has been drawn out here is that on
the State and Market relationship and it
is here that the influence could be one
of moving forward such that the outcome
is that of consensual gain. The
political influence that leads to the
putting up of a confrontationist barrier
is of negative consequence. It is here
that the process of debate is augmentative.
The need is to engage the State by
the civil society. The debates are expected
to enhance an understanding of the
way that the intricate relationships between
the triad of actors, namely, the
State, the market and the civil society
works and also to help determine the
way forward from the current status of
existing relationship. A preponderant
30 THE IIPM THINK TANK