Business and politics in India

Abstract

The cover of Business and politics in India features Narendra Modi, India's Prime Minister, shaking hands with a smiling Mukesh Ambani, the country's richest man. It is not a subtle image. Still, it illustrates nicely the main theme of this timely and carefully argued book, namely that under Modi and his recent predecessors, ties between India's business elite and its political leadership have grown ever closer. ‘Over the last three to four decades politics and policy have moved in a steadily pro-business direction’, the editors write (p. 8). After independence in 1947, India developed a statist economic model cut off from international trade. But beginning in the 1980s, and accelerating thereafter, the authors suggest that business reclaimed a privileged position, in the process elbowing out potential rivals, including a once-powerful labour movement. India's history provides good evidence to support this claim, from the fortunes amassed by its new billionaires to the corruption scandals that have besmirched its image. Much of Modi's success in his 2014 election landslide, and to some extent in his more recent 2019 re-election, stems from his pro-business image. ‘With Narendra Modi as India's Prime Minister at present, it would be difficult to deny the slow but definite transformation of India from a socialist political economy to one that sharply prioritizes economic growth and business interests’, the editors suggest (p. 8).