Scholar on Industrialisation

The early tradition in the sub-discipline of development economics was essentially one of Western scholars researching the developing economies of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The principal characteristics of underdevelopment were explained in terms of the so-called developmental issue of “late-industrialisation.” Hence, the problems of industrialisation stood out in research and policy advisory services. In India, the early industrialisation strategy, which also included the creation of a huge institutional structure, was the outcome of the recommendations of the Ford Foundation Committee, appointed by the Government of India, in 1951. Naturally, several scholars from North America and Europe began to take significant interest in the developmental issues of industrialisation in India. The contributions of the noted American economist, George Rosen, who passed away in January, to the debates on India’s industrialisation strategy, need to be understood against this background.

The early writings on industrialisation in India were essentially on the lines of employment promotion and regional development. The idea of “modern industrialisation” was largely considered a foreign concept, influencing economists of the Bombay school, which subsequently made pioneering contributions in the subject area. Among them, the contributions of scholars like P R Brahmananda, J C Sandesara and B V Mehta, stand out. While Sandesara, who made pioneering contributions to the sub-discipline of small-scale industry, remembers the late scholar (EPW,3 March 2018), such early history brings back to my mind the academic legacy of the pre-1990s, during which the discipline of economics in India grew out of cross-cultural initiatives.