Seminar by Prof. Surajit Mazumdar

Topic: The Twin Crises of Globalization and Development: What Way Ahead for India’s Economy?

Abstract
The Indian economy became an integral part of the process of globalization since 1991. Globalization also, however, provided the context for changes in the global economy that have pushed the process itself, and not merely the global economy, into a crisis. The inability to sustain or revive the momentum of expansion in the world economy seen in the brief boom before the 2008 financial crisis, and increasing geo-political tensions and tendency towards fragmentation, are expressions of this crisis.
India’s trajectory since its insertion into the global economy has reflected this larger history in two ways. On the one side India has been part of the global shift as a result of maintenance of growth rates well above the world average, during which it made a transition to lower middle income status but still remained very far from acquiring the characteristics of a developed economy. On the other hand, it has also experienced not only an increase in internal inequality, but one that has worked through a change in the economic structure in a direction which keeps large sections of the population trapped in a low income situation. This anomaly, instead of being self-correcting, has seriously threatened the long-run sustainability of Indian growth and this has clearly shown up in the economic trends of the second decade of the 21 st century. Does the current global crisis and the potential reconfiguration the global economy present opportunities for India to benefit from globalization in ways it has managed to only a
limited extent so far, for instance in becoming a major centre of world manufacturing? Or is that crisis likely to aggravate further India’s own crisis if she does not insulate herself by choosing a more autonomous path of development?

About the Speaker
Surajit Mazumdar is a Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP), Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has previously served on the faculty of Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD), Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi, and Hindu College, University of Delhi. Surajit Mazumdar has taught a wide range of courses over his career covering Economic Theory, Political Economy and Economic Development. His research has focused on the Indian Corporate Sector, Indian Industrialization and on the impact of Globalization on the Indian Economy.