The Internal Mechanism Of The Evolution Of Industrial Structure In The Process Of Industrialization In India

In this thesis, India is selected in the case study and its industrial structure is the focus of the research. Through looking into the development trajectory and internal driving force of the industrial structure in the process of industrialization, the unique character of Indian's pattern of development is to be explained. The change of industrial structure is the internal force for economic development; a series of factors that affected the industrial structure change is the internal cause to define the country's development pattern. The change of industrial structure is the major substance of the economic development. The economic development meant not only the continuous expansion in economic scale and quantity, but also the qualitative change that brought about by the evolvement of economic and industrial structure. Such change is the core and essence for the economic development.One of the reasons for taking India's industrial structure change as a focus of the research is India's industrial structural evolution takes a different path other then that of the developed countries, and which is again different from that of China. India is pursuing the "third path", of which the change of industrial structure straying away from the conventional pattern. This made India become another example among the greatly diverse development patterns in the world, particularly as a typical example for the big developing countries.In this thesis, the theory of industrialization and the general theory of the industrial structural change are used as the framework of analysis; demonstrative method is applied to analyse the change of industrial structure for more than 50 years since India's independence. Two sets of indicators, namely, the change of ratio of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors to GDP, the change of employment structure respectively, are cited to analyse the trajectory and characters of the industrial structural change. The reason for the change of the three industries and how the change diverge from the conventional order of development, e.g. from the primary to the secondary and the tertiary sector, were argued in this thesis.The core of the thesis is the internal driving force for the evolution of the India's industrial structure. The three aspects have been involved to explain the reasons for this unique evolution.Firstly, the internal reason which covered the issues like the development ofsub-sectors, whether it was coordinating and harmonious development and whether it was updated to the advanced level.Secondly, the macro economic factors which are the external force for the industrial development will be analysed. Through the relationship between the growth of the gross economic value and the change of industrial structure, the degree of influence to the three sectors by macro economy is analysed. Then the course of the development of industrial structure in view of demand and supply is also covered. Of the demand, domestic consumption, demand for investment and international market demand are included, while the technology & investment flow and the policy trend are included in supply.Thirdly, besides the economic factors, the thesis makes the necessary analysis on non-economic factors that influence the development of India's industrial structure. These include the influence of political structure, political culture, interest groups, religion and culture to the economy. Although the non-economic factors are not the direct reason to influence the industrial structure and development pattern, they are the profound social foundation for the industrial structure as well as the basis for producing and forming the unique Indian development pattern.Chapter 6 of this thesis focuses on the existing problems of India's development pattern and its sustainability. On one hand, the process of industrialization in India has yet to be completed, but the problems induced from it have emerged and will adversely impact the future development. The sustainability of the Indian pattern would be in doubt without effective solution for the fault in the development of the three industries. On the other hand, India is the post-developing country that embodied a few advantages. The key point is how to intensify the advantages and weaken the disadvantages to create the suitable environment for sustainable development.Chapter 7 makes a comparison between China and India development patterns and sharing the experience each other. There are lots of similarities between the two countries and they started their own process of industrialisation almost at the same time since the establishment of new countries. They both experienced frustrations when exploring for the suitable development path and both gained remarkable achievements. There are valuable lessons to be shared and learned from each other.The methodology followed by this thesis is demonstrative approach and analyses for the development of industrial structure base on the 50-year statistical dataprovided by the Ministry of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Besides the statistical and quantitative methods, the qualitative method is also applied for the appropriate explanation to the influential factors, such as history, politics, religion and culture.This thesis is of the opinion that, although the goal of India's industrialization is far from being achieved, the development pattern has shaped and its achievement has attracted the global attention. Based on this, if its advantages could be properly utilized to make up the deficiency and to readjusted and optimize the present structure, it could be well expected that India to become another successful example of its development pattern in the world.