Prosperity and Connectivity

This chapter examines the Modi government’s foreign economic policy, focusing especially on its reform agenda – including signature projects like ‘Make in India’ – and its relations with other South Asian states. It argues that despite Modi’s rhetoric about globalisation, inclusion and connectivity, his government’s economic agenda was conditioned more by inherited Hindu nationalist ideas than by liberal principles. These ideas, the chapter contends, tethered the Modi government to a form of economic nationalism. It explores the limited reforms pursued, and the consequences for India’s economy and its trade and investment relations with other states. Finally, it discusses the Modi government’s evolving attitude to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which threatened to draw India and other South Asian states further into Beijing’s economic orbit.