HOW ECONOMIES CHANGE? - A STUDY OF SPAIN AND INDIA

Abstract

Comparing economies is a tricky affair because though the parameters are the same yet, the conditionality differs. It is like a comparison of dissimilar attributes. How to juxtapose attributes of one economy vis-à-vis another when the two have entirely different histories, cultures, geographies and other socio political conditions is quite a task. However, the task before the authors of this paper was to do this very job–comparing economic development of Spain and India with the help of the evolution of industrialization. The present paper is based on the result of research done between July 2015 and January 2016 in the Department of Management Studies, IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, in the context of post-doctoral Fellowship from the European Union program Erasmus Mundus AREAS+. The interesting aspect of this study is that despite all constraints Indian economy has grown commendably in comparison to the leading economies of the world, particularly the Western Europe. It may be recalled that the Industrial Revolution that was a game changer for Europe, gave certain inherent advantages to the European countries where it originated. But over the years Indian growth story has been a transformational one, despite a sluggish growth and disadvantaged history of exploitation and subjugation. Moreover, a large and rapidly growing population plagued by illiteracy and poverty has been a further stumbling block. But, the Indian economy has grown despite these difficulties and compares well with many developed economies. The paper details the evolution of
Spanish and Indian economies.