Mapping Indian Foreign Economic Policy

The article maps and assesses Indian foreign economic policy (FEP). It opens with a critical discussion of different phases of Indian FEP in the period after Independence. It is seen that with the inauguration of neo-liberal reforms in 1991 Indian FEP moved away from the Nehruvian framework that had as its goal an independent and self-reliant path of development. India is today lending uncritical support to a liberal international economic order in the belief that it will help sustain high growth rates. While this move enhances opportunities for India through greater integration with the global economy, it has also meant a loss of critical policy space with an adverse impact on the ability of the state to pursue the goal of ‘development as freedom’. This conclusion is sustained through a preliminary assessment of the record of Indian FEP in select areas, viz., financial, trade, investment and energy policies. In the circumstances it is regrettable that in the wake of the global economic crisis India made no attempt to articulate an alternative vision of the international economic order. It instead accepted to be co-opted by the developed world in exchange for membership in G-20 and other limited concessions that have been used to legitimize an unjust international economic system. The article concludes with a few recommendations that can be accommodated within the framework of India’s current FEP. These can yet enhance the possibility of realizing the vision of justice embodied in the Constitution of India.