ECONOMIC-POLICY REFORM - MINDSETS, OLD AND NEW

Granting the need for radical reforms in our industrial/economic regime, this paper explores some of the possible consequences of the reforms initiated by the government and the implications of the underlying ideas. It points out that many of the components of the new approach, such as the scrapping of industrial licensing, the unquestioning faith in market forces and the virtues of competition, the strong advocacy of FDI, the liberalisation of imports and the denigration of the old ideas of import substitution and self-reliance, while partially valid, have certain implications for the future. It projects a possible scenario of that future. It urges that the concerns that it voices should be recognised as legitimate and addressed, without necessarily reverting to excessive regulation and bureaucratic control.