Abstract

Ancient Indian economy has always been revered for its rich, glorious and ‘golden’ economic past. It is known to have flourished and enjoyed enormous economic prosperity for over 2700 years, especially during the era of Indus Valley civilization, Mauryan, Gupta & Mughal Empires among the others. It had emerged as the largest economy in the world starting from first millennium BCE until 1720 AD. But however, post-Independence, modern Indian economy is marred with numerous socio – economic problems such as poverty, unemployment, economic inequality, insufficient infrastructure etc. Successive governments from time to time have come up with various policies and measures to deal with these issues, but these problems continue to pose a challenge to our economy even today. Despite these challenges, Indian economy has managed to become fifth largest economy in the world. However, India’s performance on various development indicators such as Human Development Index (HDI) is not that encouraging. Going ahead, for Indian economy to emerge as ‘Viksit Bharat’, and regain its rich, glorious and golden economic status, it has to ensure that its economic growth is converted into ‘development for all’ on a sustained basis. For that, it has to reflect upon and learn from the strategies, policies and nature of governance of ancient India, and design suitable policies and measures for present time. The present paper aims to retrospect India’s economic past, deal with current economic situation and assess various possible measures that can be taken to ensure ‘fruits of economic growth’ reaches to various sections of the economy, so that Indian economy transitions from being a ‘developing nation’ to a developed nation. The current paper specifically focuses on areas of governance, which ensures increased transparency and accountability, needed for effective implementation of policies and skill – development which enhances employability and augments sources of livelihood.

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