The Bombay Plan for economic reform

Mumbai is currently hosting the Make in India week. The aim is to attract foreign investors for economic development. Turns out economic policies in the aftermath of Independence were quite contrary. In fact, leading industrialists of the time supported the state centred model, as they believed that a strong state intervention was crucial for economic development. Proof of this fact can be found in the document called the Bombay Plan, published in 1946, said historian Ramachandra Guha in his talk in the city recently.
The signatories of the document were industrialists and economists of the time like JRD Tata, GD Birla, AD Shroff, Kasturbhai Lalbhai , Purshottamdas Thakurdas and John Mathai. “The industrialists of the time said, ‘We lack the capacity, technology, resources to invest in steel, highways, dams, etc. Just give us some consumer goods and you do the rest.’ And everyone at that time believed that a strong state intervention was crucial for economic development. (Jawaharlal) Nehru was merely ref lecting the consensus of the time,” said Guha.