India’s Trade Policy in the 21st Century

Amita Batra is Professor of Economics at the Centre for South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Her previous publications include Regional Economic Integration in South Asia: Trapped in Conflict? (2013), also published by Routledge.

• Preface; List of Tables; Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Going Back: tracing the history of trade policy reform in India: 1978-1990s; Chapter 3 The 2000s: Global trade shifts: Rise of GVC led trade; Chapter 4 The 2000s: India in global trade; Chapter 5 Situating India’s Trade Policy in the 2000s; Chapter 6 GVC specific elements in India’s Trade Policy; Chapter 7 GVC restructuring and India’s Trade Policy imperatives; Chapter 8 Conclusions and reform priorities

"Noted trade policy expert and professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Amita Batra, presents a riveting account of how India missed the bus on trade in the last two decades [...] Her central point is that the most significant development in global trade in the 21st century has been the rise and rise of global value chains (GVC) as a key trigger for propelling trade among countries. [...] Apart from lucidly articulating her assessment of what went wrong with India’s trade policy, Dr Batra provides a mine of data on global trade, with particular emphasis on India. [...] no serious trade economist or trade policymaker in the government should give this book a miss." - AK Bhattacharya, Business Standard, July 2022."It would do well to give careful consierations to Amitra Batra's just published book India’s Trade Policy in the 21st Century (Routledge, London 2022), which has important messages for policy. The book highlights the role played by global value chains (GVCs)." - Montek Singh Ahluwalia, liveMint, July 2022."Batra’s extensive research on GVCs provides rare insights into a highly complex web of backward and forward integration in manufacturing that created regional ‘factories’ of production in specific sectors in the U.S., Japan and Germany." - Dammu Ravi, Ministry of External Affairs, Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, Sept 2022.