License Raj
License Raj (in German "license rule") is a derisive name for the complicated network of state permits, requirements and bureaucracy to which the Indian economy was subject from 1947 to 1990.
India was a managed economy at the time . The entire economic life was subject to state control. Anyone wishing to open and run a business required state approval. If a private company was finally allowed to start production after applications to up to 80 authorities, then this was also under state control. Imports also required a license and were also hampered by high tariffs.
This system stifled initiative, encouraged corruption, stagnated the Indian economy and repeatedly brought India to the brink of national bankruptcy .
Since Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took office in 1984, but above all from 1991, when the later Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was Minister of Finance, India's once more or less socialist economic system has been noticeably deregulated. This has led to an economic miracle with high growth rates. However, compared to other more market-oriented countries, India's economy is still heavily regulated.
The term "License Raj" was coined by the Indian politician C. Rajagopalachari , who with his Swatantra party fought against central planning, nationalization and monopoly of the Indian economy as well as the isolation of the Indian market.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marc Stüssel: The evolution of IT offshoring. (PDF; 483 kB) Syntesion GmbH, April 2009, pp. 43–44 , accessed on April 23, 2010 .
- ^ Wolfgang-Peter Zingel: India on the way to a post-industrial society . Infrastructure, Services and Deregulation. In: India 2004 . Institute for Asian Studies, 2004, ISBN 3-88910-306-5 , ISSN 1436-1841 , p. 319–338, here pp. 323–324 ( uni-heidelberg.de [PDF; accessed on September 22, 2012]).