Launch of Vijay Joshi's book, 'India's Long Road: The Search for Prosperity'

NCAER in association with Penguin Random House India, hosted Vijay Joshi for the launch of his book, ‘India’s Long Road: the Search for Prosperity’, at India Habitat Center on July 14, 2016 to a packed house.

Vijay Joshi was in conversation with  Bimal Jalan, Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and former President and Honorary Fellow at NCAER,  Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Center for Policy Research and  T N Ninan, Chairman, Business Standard. The panel was moderated by Shekhar Shah, Director-General of  NCAER.

The Indian economy has been the subject of many assumptions and extravagant predictions. While outlining the shaky foundations of the rapid, sustainable and inclusive economic growth that India is seeking to achieve, Joshi pointed to some roadblocks in economic growth and prosperity in the context of the dynamic political landscape of the country.

Joshi argued for a comprehensive re-alignment of the relations between the state, the market and the private sector to optimize economic progress in India. Despite the call for greater economic liberalization, there is still scope for state level intervention in many key areas of public welfare and private entrepreneurship. Joshi thus laid out an innovative reform model for enhancing basic incomes and alleviating poverty in the country.

During his discussion, Joshi also alluded to three other countries, viz. China, South Korea and Taiwan that have achieved a per capita income of 6 per cent. Comparing India’s growth with these nations, he claimed that the state in India has a greater responsibility to deliver inclusive growth and employment not merely because of its democratic credentials but also to ensure the success of its ambitious workfare programmes at the grassroots level.

Vijay Joshi is Reader Emeritus at Oxford University and Emeritus Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. His areas of interest are macroeconomics, international economics and development economics; he has published widely in these fields in scholarly journals and elsewhere. He has written (jointly with I.M.D. Little) two major books on India, India’s Economic Reforms 1991-2001, (1996); and India–Macroeconomics and Political Economy 1964-1991 (1994).  During his varied career, Joshi has served as Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance and Special Adviser to the Governor, Reserve Bank of India.