An idea of India's economic reforms

Can a researcher make an impact on economic policy debates and formulations even while staying outside the government or academia? Indeed yes, and Isher Judge Ahluwalia was a shining example of that

A New Reform Paradigm: Festschrift in Honour of Isher Judge Ahluwalia

Editor: Radhicka Kapoor

Publisher: Rupa

Pages: 584+LV

Price: Rs 995

Of all the contributions in this festschrift, brought out in honour of well-known economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia (1945-2020), the one that is the shortest and yet the most impactful comes from India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This is a four-page long foreword to the festschrift, where Dr Singh makes three important observations.

One, he describes how Ahluwalia carved out a space for herself as a “policy-oriented researcher” outside the government and academia, batting for liberalising economic controls that had strangled India’s industrial growth. His