Slip, Stitch And Stumble: Financial SectorReforms In India

Manmohan Singh’s speech of 1991 changed the trajectory of the
Indian economy, especially its financial sector. His budget measures
infused the Indian financial sector with a competitive element, sketching
out a roadmap for it that promised a somewhat level playing field for
both the state-owned and private financial intermediaries. But why these
reforms? What were the motivations behind these reforms?
This book answers these and many other such questions and focuses on
the trajectory of financial sector reforms in India, given that they became
the foundational basis for many other economic reforms. The strategy
behind the financial sector reforms, and their design and structure, thus,
had a direct bearing on the outcome of reforms in other segments of the
economy. While this book does not purport to present a history of
financial sector reforms, it demonstrates that many key reform initiatives
were, by no means, part of a long and planned series of measures or
integral components of a grand design. They were, instead, inspired by
some immediate event, like a crisis or a scam.
This book, therefore, narrates the untold story behind India’s financial
sector reforms and captures the transformation of a closed economy
into one of the world’s fastest growing economies.