Conference on 'Neo-liberalism in India' at TISS
- Tata Institute Of Social Sciences, Mumbai -
- 12th to 14th of March 2009 -

International conference on
"The Crisis of Neo-liberalism in India: Challenges and Alternatives"
organised by
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and
International Development Economics Associates (IDEAS)
12th to 14th of March 2009, Mumbai

Introduction: The context

The current global economic crisis - reflected in stock market crashes, growth slowdowns, banking crises, capital flights and large job losses - has indeed halted the march of neo-liberalism as the dominant ideology of our times. It marks the end of a phase in which finance enjoyed historically unprecedented rights and privileges in deciding economic policy.

The crisis has forced Western governments to intervene, regulate, and even nationalise financial institutions. Though the process of financial liberalisation began much later in Asia than it did in Latin America, recent decades had witnessed rapid liberalisation leading to a restructuring of financial sectors in the region. The first indication that this can have adverse macroeconomic and welfare effects came with the severe financial crises that afflicted several South-East Asian countries in 1997.

While these countries have substantially recovered ground since then, that experience did not slow the pace of subsequent financial liberalisation. As a result, financial volatility has been a persisting phenomenon and has finally culminated in the global financial crisis, triggered by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States.

While much has been written on the financial crisis per se, its effects on the real economy and the mechanisms—international and domestic—through which those effects are transmitted are only now being understood. Analysing these processes and outcomes is, needless to say, crucial to the formulation of appropriate responses to the crisis globally and individual countries.

In India, financial liberalisation was the centrepiece of the larger programme of "economic reform." Much of the prescriptions of the WC found their echo in the post-1991 economic reform programme in India. The programme began with a radical programme of stabilization and structural adjustment, assisted by the World Bank and the IMF. Immediate measures of macroeconomic stabilization, fiscal correction, exchange rate adjustment, monetary targets and inflation controls were announced.

These stabilization measures were to be supplemented by structural reform measures, which included industrial deregulation, liberalisation of foreign direct investment, trade liberalisation, overhauling of public enterprises and financial sector reforms. In the initial period, the liberalization of the agricultural sector proceeded only slowly. However, over the years, the pace of reforms in the agricultural sector was also accelerated.

The onset of the global financial crisis provides an ideal opportunity to discuss the effects of the new economic regime, with financial liberalisation at its core, on the real economy, with special focus on the living and working conditions of the Indian people. The proposed conference has been conceptualised with this broad objective in mind.

Objectives of the conference

The conference would aim at bringing together scholars, activists and students who are committed to understanding the political economy of neo-liberal governance in India. The conference would focus on four broad sets of issues:
(i) The threat of global stagflation and recession in India, as a result of the global and domestic financial crises;
(ii) The sectoral dimensions of the effects of the crisis - in agriculture, industry and services;
(iii) The impact of the real sector crisis on welfare, both directly and through its effects on government expenditure; and
(iv) The appropriate responses at the macroeconomic and sectoral level to combine economic recovery with human development benefits.

The papers at the conference would specifically deal with the following themes:
1. The context to the conference: the crisis in contemporary global capitalism and its spread to the periphery;

2. An analysis of how the Indian economy has been linked to the international economy in the last two decades: What are its implications as emerging from the developing experience with the crisis?

3. How has the agricultural sector fared after 1991 and how would the current crisis affect the sector and the livelihoods it provides? What are the reasons for the lack of viability in Indian agriculture? How are different socio-economic groups within agriculture affected by the recent policy changes and the crisis?

4. What are the impacts of the slowdown in agriculture on food security and nutrition of India's population? What is the status of the PDS? In what ways is strengthening of the PDS and ensuring food security an integral part of dealing with this crisis?

5. What has happened to the trends in public expenditure in the social sectors after 1991? How have the specific social sectors - education and health - fared under reforms? What would be fall-out of the current crisis for these sectors and what can be done to combat those effects?

6. What are the changes in the labour market that have taken place under the new policy regime? In which sectors have such changes taken place? What would the crisis do to this market and to aggregate employment? What policies are needed to counter these effects?

7. What were the sources of the recent growth momentum in the Indian economy? How were the benefits and costs of this growth distributed across social groups? Given these sources, would the effect of the global crisis be greater than would have been the case under an alternative growth trajectory?

8. To what extent can States in India formulate their alternatives in development? In what concrete ways have constraints emerged in the freedom to govern in States?

9. What are the possibilities of, and constraints to, developing concrete democratic alternatives in India?

The conference would also include three panel discussions. These panels would be on
(a) The Chinese Economy in the New Era;
(b) Political and Social Movements and the Resistance to Neo-liberalism; and
(c) The Crisis and the Way Forward. Much research has already been undertaken on different aspects of the reform process and its impacts on different sectors and sections in the Indian context.

This conference would (a) try to bring together scholars who have worked on different aspects of the reform process; (b) attempt an updated compilation of such research; (c) try to place this accumulated body of research in the context of a theoretical and empirical critique of the ongoing global financial crisis; and (d) facilitate a dialogue between political and social activists on formulating alternatives.

Specifications

The conference would be held at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai between the 13th and 15th of March 2009.

A TISS-IDEAs academic collective would invite the contributors to present their papers in the conference. The Conference Organizing Committee would provide to-and-fro air travel (economy) expense and accommodation to the invited contributors. The possibilities of bringing out an edited volume from the conference would be seriously pursued.

The conference is open to all.

The nodal persons for the conference are R. Ramakumar from TISS, Mumbai, and Jayati Ghosh and C. P. Chandrasekhar from IDEAs, New Delhi.

(For further details, contact
Dr R. Ramakumar, Assistant Professor,
School of Social Sciences
at [email protected])