Indian Economy

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Mixed Economy of India (1951–1991)

Introduction

When India attained independence, our political leaders had to arrive at a consensus on the kind of economic system to be adopted to achieve rapid economic growth and reduce the disparity in the incomes of the rich and the poor. The then per capita income of an Indian was abysmally low at less than USD 5 while there was tremendous inequality of income and wealth. Our leaders, led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, aimed to achieve the quickest possible growth to compensate for the time lost during the British rule. At the same time, they did not want inequalities of income and wealth among people to increase with time. An ardent admirer of the type of socialism practised in Soviet Russia, Nehru was ...