Sharade Marathe. Regulation and Development: The Indian Policy Experience of Controls Over Industry. New Delhi: Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. 1986. 328 pp.Price: (Hardbound edition) Rupees (Indian) 195.00.

This book documents in a comprehensive manner the ‘twists and turns’ in India’s industrial policy and strongly suggests the need for a re-orientation of this policy to overcome the weaknesses in the industrial structure and to utilize the sources of its strength. The author has had a distinguished career in the Indian Economic Service and brings this experience to bear on his analysis of the evolution of industrial policy in India. In India, the primary objective of planned development has been the creation of a technologically mature society capable of sustaining a process of self-propelled growth without extreme concentration of wealth in a few hands. It is rightly pointed out in the book that this objective is possible only in the context of rapid growth, which is the ultimate test of industrial policy. The book traces the origins of India’s industrial policy and analyses its evolution during the past thirty years, showing how there has been an increasing gap between the objectives of this policy and the performance of the industrial sector.