Did central planning end in July 1991?

Government picking winners is alive and well

The 30th anniversary of the July 1991 Budget speech is a sombre reminder of the limited progress that India has made, towards greater freedom for the people and towards greater state capability on the legitimate functions of government. A recent ban on the storage of customer card data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) helps us think about the problems of central planning and of state capacity in regulation. July 1991 was a beginning that has yet to be translated into a full-fledged intellectual toolkit about how the Indian state should function.

The essence of Indian socialism, as initiated by