6.10           ndian     onom
     deepening as well as broadening of the political                   reforms were announced by the governments.31A
     process in this sense.29                                           total of three generations of reforms have been
           India became one of the founding members                     announced till date, while experts have gone
     of the WTO and was obliged to promote the                          to suggest the fourth generation, too. We may
     process of globalisation, though its economic                      substantiate the components of the various
     reforms started with no such obligations. It is a                  generations of reforms to properly understand
     different thing that India started the process of                  the very characteristics and nature of the reform
     globalisation right after the reforms 1991.30                      process in India.
           Now we may connect the three simultaneous
     processes—the LPG with which India launched its
                                                                        first generAtion reforms (1991–2000)32
     reform programme. The process of liberalisation                    It was in the year 2000–01 that the government,
     shows movement of the economy towards the                          for the first time, announced the need for the
     market economy, privatisation is the path/route                    Second Generation of economic reforms and it
     through which it will travel to realise the ultimate               was launched in the same year. The ones which had
     ‘goal’, i.e., globalisation.                                       been initiated by then (i.e., from 1991 to 2000)
          It should be noted here that the Indian idea                  were called by the government as the reforms of
     of globalisation is deeply and frequently inclined                 the First Generation. The broad coordinates of the
     towards the concept of welfare state, which                        First Generation of reforms may be seen as under:
     keeps coming in the day to day public policy as
                                                                        (i) Promotion to Private Sector
     an emphatic reference. The world, including the
     IMF, the WB and the developed nations have now                     This included various important and liberalising
     increasingly shown their recognition to the fact                   policy decisions, i.e., ‘de-reservation’ and ‘de-
     that the official goal of globalisation of the world               licencing’ of the industries, abolition of the
     economies would not take place without giving                      MRTP limit, abolition of the compulsion of the
     the poor of the world a better standard of living.                 phased-production and conversion of loans into
     Even if globalisation is complete without including                shares, simplifying environmental laws for the
     almost one-fifth of the world population, i.e. the                 establishment of industries, etc.
     poor, will it be called development of the world?
                                                                        (ii) Public Sector Reforms
        GEnEratIons of EconomIc rEforms                                 The steps taken to make the public sector
                                                                        undertakings profitable and efficient, their
     Though there were no such announcements or                         disinvestment (token), their corporatisation, etc.,
     proposals while India launched its reforms in                      were the major parts of it.
     1991, in the coming times, many ‘generations’ of
       29.   As put by the Oxford’s Dictionary of Politics, N. Delhi,     31.  It should be noted here that many economists regard
             24 pp. 222–25; Andrew Heywood, Politics, p.138.                   the economic reforms of the mid-1980s as the First
       30.   It should be noted here that the whole Euro-America               Generation reforms. However, the governments of the
             has already started promoting globalisation by the mid-           time have not said anything like that. It was only in
             1980s as the WTO deliberations at Uruguay started.                the year           that ndia officially tal s a out the
             The formation of the WTO only gave globalisation an               generations of reform for the first time.
             official mandate in       , once it started its functions.   32.  Based on the New Industrial Policy, 1991 & several
             It means, for India, globalisation was a reality by 1991          Economic Surveys as well as many announcements by
             itself—one has to move as the dominant forces move.               the governments.