ABSTRACT
During the 1980s the Indian economy reached and sustained a pace of growth well above that of the first three decades of independence. At the end of the decade, as agriculture has recovered from the extremely severe drought of 1987, an unprecedented surge of output has catapulted the national economy into the 1990s. India has not only broken away from the slower rates of the past but has laid the foundations for continued rapid growth. Because nothing in India is ever simple, however, and the economy is certainly no exception, the citation of these positive developments must be balanced by notation of the persistence of chronic deficiencies. These include regional economic imbalances, growing governmental deficits, and continued failures to achieve what is expected in health, primary education, and the reduction of poverty. In addition, preliminary statistics suggest that in 1989 the economy mostly held onto rather than extended the broad achievements of 1988 in agriculture and industry, giving rise to concerns that the gains of the 1980s might be impossible to match in the 1990s.
