Has the still-threatening global financial crisis really signalled the weaknesses of Economics, the scientific discipline as we know it? This question has inspired a volume of essays from Y. V. Reddy.

Navigating through the debates between 2010 and 2012 on the continuing global financial crisis, Economic Policies and India’s Reform Agenda: New Thinking reflects the confidence of the former central banker who steered the nation’s banks to safer waters.

Reddy seeks a change in economic thought and policy-making. Arguing for a three-fold shift in the discipline, he calls for broadening the focus of policy-makers, improvisation in the tools employed by economists and an emphasis on empirical evidence. This ‘new thinking’, he says, will contribute to India’s accelerated development.

New Thinking addresses three concerns of economic thought for a developing economy: public policy after the crisis, the role of the financial sector in development, and the lessons learnt from world economies. Novel in approach, this volume critically examines India’s development strategies and suggests a ‘redefining’ of the role of the financial sector in accelerating development. The author’s observations on other developing economies and analyses of the diverse uncertainties enable a comprehensive understanding of the influence of global factors on the reform agenda for India.

Reddy’s New Thinking is built on experience that is gifted with foresight and understanding of theory. His language is fluid, his ideas objective, his prescriptions visionary. This collection will inspire debates, and encourage fresh perspectives on attaining the desired growth rate in India.  As it addresses a readership committed to developments in the Indian economy, his analyses are certain to question some popular convictions on the country’s economic thought and policies.

Dr Y. V. Reddy was Governor, Reserve Bank of India, between 2003 and 2008. He has recently been appointed Chairman of the Fourteenth Finance Commission.

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part 1: Economic Policy

1. Revisiting Central Bank Governance
2. Management of Public Debt: Evolving Tasks
3. New Thinking on Economic Policies and Thoughts on the Indian Economy
4. Financialisation and Macroeconomic Policies
5. Differences, Disconnects and Divergences in New Public Policy
6. New Challenges for Public Policy
7. India: New Strategies for Economic Development

Part 2: Finance

8. Financial Intermediation: Asking New Questions
9. New Approach to Public Sector Banking
10. Future of the Financial System: Emerging Issues
11. Inequalities, Shared Societies and the Financial System
12. Society, Economic Policies and the Financial Sector
13. Trust in Banking

Part 3: The Global Economy

14. Developing Economies: New Realities
15. Revisiting Capital Account Management
16. Experiences with and Lessons from Capital Account Management
17. India, EU and the World Economy
18. Global Economic Developments and India

Index