Articles by N S Siddharthan

Understanding FDI Assisted Economic Development edited by Rajneesh Narula and Sanjaya Lall; Routledge, London and New York, 2006;
N S SIDDHARTHAN This book is dedicated to Sanjaya Lall (1940-2005) and was published soon after his death. The book was earlier published as a special issue of The European Journal of Development Research. Sanjaya Lall was professor of development economics at the University of Oxford and a leading scholar in the areas of foreign direct investment (FDI), multinational enterprises (MNEs), technology transfer and technological capability. His phenomenal productivity resulted in the publication of more than 33 books and about 75 papers in refereed professional journals. He was the course director for MSc in economics for development at Oxford university. He also acted as an advisor or consultant to a large number of international organisations that included the World Bank, IFC, UNCTAD, ILO, UNIDO, FAO, ADB, ESCAP and EC. I had the privilege of collaborating with him in the early 1980s that resulted in the publication of two papers

of a tea plant is about five years and it takes Perspectives on Indian about seven years for the plant to attain full maturity. The average life of a plant in India is about 50-60 years. Therefore, quick Industries The Structure of Indian Industry edited by Subir Gokarn, Anindya Sen, and Rajendra R Vaidya; Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp i-xxi, 1-366, Rs 645.

In analysing the impact of FDI spillovers on the productivity of Indian enterprises for the postliberalisation years 1993-2000, this study argues in favour of using an unbalanced (full) panel that takes into account the entry and exit of firms. Furthermore, it also advocates the estimation of separate firm level cross section equations for each year to analyse the possible changes in the values of the spillover coefficients over time. The results show the presence of significant spillover effects from FDI. During the initial years of liberalisation, the spillover effects were modest, but increased sharply later on. Firms with better endowments in terms of productivity and technology benefited from liberalisation and MNE presence. Firms with large productivity gaps became victims.

This study analyses the impact of the liberalisation policies on the growth of firms in India. It analyses the inter-firm differences in growth rates over a seven-year period. The basic unit is the firm and the study allows for the entry and exit of firms during the sample period. Further, the authors show that not all firms have benefited from the liberalisation measures. There were gainers and losers. The impact of the determinants on growth has not remained constant over the years but has changed during the process of liberalisation.

Evidence from literature and data on inter-state differences show that FDI inflows and investment by domestic firms depend on a common set of variables. To drastically increase the investment rates, the government should increase the spending on infrastructure - both physical and social, introduce major administrative reforms to improve efficiency and reduce delays and bottlenecks. These are not possible unless the size of the government is reduced and transparency and accountability in decision-making and administration introduced. Hard and harsh decisions should start with the ruling class, namely, reducing the pecuniary benefits to the parliamentarians, introducing a ceiling on the size of union and state cabinets, and closing down of several government departments that have no role to play in the new economic regime.