NEW DELHI, Oct 17, Reuter: Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Monday rejected as a big mistake India’s concentration on Import substitution a cardinal principle of its post-independence economic policy.
He said India’s efforts to reduce imports by creating its own indigenous industry had condemned India to inferior technology, the United News of India (UNI) news agency reported.
“We should recognize our mistake of trying to do import substitution,” he told a science awards ceremony in Delhi.
Since independence from Britain in 1947, a basic plank of India’s economy has been its efforts to build’ its own industry by protecting it from external competition.
But Gandhi said invariably these efforts had left India with obsolete technology.
By the time Indian technology found its way to the market, the most advanced producers in the world are one or two generations further ahead.
“We must concentrate on fear areas and the areas should be carefully selected and provided with full backing and funds so that scientist can achieve a breakthrough in those areas.”
Since becoming Prime Minister in 1984, Gandhi has tried liberalizing the country’s economy by easing import regulations to allow in technology needed to modernize industry.
But he has been heavily criticized by the opposition for buckling under to the demands of big business at the expense of the vast majority of Indians.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 21, 1988
