India Economy

India's economy is the eleventh largest in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). The country's per capita GDP (PPP) is $3,176 (IMF, 127th) in 2009. Economists predict that by 2020, India will be among the leading economies of the world. A revival of economic reforms and better economic policy in first decade of the 21st century accelerated India's economic growth rate. In recent years, Indian cities have continued to liberalize business regulations. By 2008, India had established itself as the world's second-fastest growing major economy . India ranks 51th in the Global Competitiveness Report.
History
Maritime trade was carried out extensively between South India and southeast and West Asia from early times till around the fourteenth century AD. By the end of the eighteenth century, the British East India Company entered the Indian political theatre and established its dominance over other European powers. This marked a determinative shift in India's trade, and a less powerful impact on the rest of the economy. Company rule tended to promote commercialization of agriculture with a focus on trade. India's colonisation by the British created a single currency with fixed exchange rates, standardised weights and measures, capital markets. At the end of colonial rule, India inherited an economy that was one of the poorest in the developing world, with industrial development stalled, agriculture unable to feed a rapidly growing population, a largely illiterate and unskilled labour force, and extremely inadequate infrastructure. Calcutta and Madras grew rapidly. Later, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao along with his finance minister Dr. Manmohan Singh initiated the economic liberalization of 1991. Since then, the overall direction of liberalisation has remained the same. By the turn of the century, India had progressed towards a free-market economy, with a substantial reduction in state control of the economy and increased... [continues]

Read full essay