WTO stands for World Trade Organisation.


(i) It is the successor of GATT from January 1995. It is only international organisation dealing with the global rules of trade between nations.

(ii) It sets the rules for the global trading system and resolves disputes between its member nations.

(iii) WTO also covers trade in services, such as telecommunication and banking, and others issues such as intellectual property rights.

India has had a growing problem with food output and availability for the mass of the population since the inception of neoliberal economic reforms in 1991. A deep agricultural depression and rising unemployment rates resulting from “reform” policies have made the problem especially acute over the past decade. Rising food prices would further undermine the food security and livelihoods of the most vulnerable by eroding their already limited purchasing power. ... Apart from the problem of rise in food prices, India is also facing the adverse impact of global financial crisis since the 3rd quarter of 2008.

The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was a series of relief programs initiated in 1948 aid in the recovery and reconstruction of Western Europe. It is named after George Marshall, who was the U.S. Secretary of State.

India's role in Non-Aligned Movement was significant for reasons mentioned below :
(i) First Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the five founders of NAM.
(ii) As a leader of NAM, India stayed away from the two camps. Not only this, India asked the newly decolonised countries not to become part Of those alliances.
(iii) It was a policy not of ‘being neutral’ but of active intervention too. India intervened in the Korea war. India tried to involve other members of the non-aligned group with her. India repeatedly tried to activate those regional and international organisations which were not part of the alliances led by the US and USSR.

India was criticised for signing the Treaty of Friendship in August 1971 with the USSR as virtually joining the Soviet alliance system. But in fact India needed diplomatic and possibly military support during the Bangladesh crisis. Moreover, it did not stop India from having good relations with USA and other countries.

Shock Therapy was a painful process of transition from an authoritarian socialist system to a democratic capitalist system. This transformation system was influenced by the world bank and the IMF in Russia, Central Asia and East Europe. Though the term "communism" can refer to specific political parties, at its core, communism is an ideology of economic equality through the elimination of private property. The beliefs of communism, most famously expressed by Karl Marx, center on the idea that inequality and suffering result from capitalism. A sudden and dramatic change in national economic policy that turns a state-controlled economy into a free-market one. Characteristics of shock therapy include the ending of price controls, the privatization of publicly-owned entities and trade liberalization.

The Soviet system gave primacy to the state and the institution of the party. This system centred around the Communist Party and no other political party was allowed. The economy was planned and controlled by the state.

 Features of the Soviet system:

 (i) The Soviet System was very bureaucratic and authoritarian.

 (ii) Lack of democracy and the absence of freedom of speech.

 (iii) Tight control over all institutions and was unaccountable to the people.

 (iv) Russia dominated everything and people from other regions felt neglected and often suppressed. 

The foreign policy that India followed after independence was one of non-alignment. The non-alignment movement (NAM) was started in 1961 in the Belgrade summit by Josip Broz Tito, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kwame Nkrumah and Gamal Abdel Nasser. It proposes a formal non-alignment with the major power blocs of the world. The major objectives that Nehru wished to achieve through this strategy are:

• Preserve the sovereignty of the country

• Protect the territorial integrity of the country

• Promote rapid economic development in the country

The U.S. and the Soviet Union had different ideas about how to run an economy (business) and government. The U.S. believed in Capitalism – a system where ordinary people and businesses control the production of goods and services. The Soviet Union influenced Eastern Europe, while the U.S. influenced Western Europe. The economy of the Soviet Union was based on a system of state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, industrial manufacturing and centralized administrative planning. During this period, the Soviet Union saw rapid industrial growth while other regions were suffering from crisis.

The integration of the princely states raised the question of the future of the remaining colonial enclaves in India. The imprecise doctrine of paramountcy allowed the government of British India to interfere in the internal affairs of princely states individually or collectively and issue edicts that applied to all of India when it deemed it necessary. The Rajput princely state of Jodhpur was a strange case of tilting towards Pakistan despite having a Hindu king and a large Hindu population. The British ruled India with two administrative systems: British Provinces and Indian "princely" states; about 60% of the territory of the Indian sub-continent were provinces and 40% were princely states. The first step in this process, carried out between 1947 and 1949, was to merge the smaller states that were not seen by the Government of India to be viable administrative units either into neighbouring provinces, or with other princely states to create a "princely union".

Agriculture along with its allied activities forms the main source of livelihood for majority of the Indian population. For rural people it is their main source of income. Along with this, the livestock species in a rural household contribute to improve income and wellbeing of their owners by providing labour, food and employment in other allied activities. Although India had the largest number of cattle in the world, the produce from them was of inferior quality. To correct this, the government launched an integrated programmed to increase milk production and create better breeds of cattle. The rapid increase in milk production through integrated systems is called White Revolution. It was launched in 1970 by the National Dairy Development Board as a part of Operation Flood which is the world’s largest integrated Dairy Development Programme. Dr Varghese Kurien is considered as the father of White Revolution in India. The following are the significant benefits of the revolution –

• Increase in milk production – production of around 140 metric tons of milk in 2013-14 has enabled India to become the largest milk producing country in the world.

• Increase in rural employment and income of farmers – Increase in animal husbandry has enabled the employment of the landless and marginal farmers and rural women. It has also increased the income of rural households.

• Impact on urban areas – milk supply has increased in urban areas as the rural areas practicing animal husbandry found a ready market.

• Improvement of cattle breed – the white revolution included the proper management of the animals and prevention of diseases in them thereby improving the cattle breed in India.

The Planning Commission is a non-constitutional and non-statutory body and is responsible to formulate five years plan for social and economic development in India. The composition of the Planning Commission has been mentioned below: (1) Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the commission. To determine the conditions which need to be established for the successful execution of the plan within the incumbent socio-political situation of the country. To determine the nature of the machinery required for securing the successful implementation of each stage of the plan in all its aspects.

Dependency theory uses political and economic theory to explain how the process of international trade and domestic development makes some LDC's ever more economically dependent on developed countries ("DC's"). Dependency theory refers to relationships and links between developed and developing economies and regions. The United States has the best economic model, because it has no economic model. If you look at the Constitution, it does not dictate any economic model. And that is as it should be. A system that allows any voluntary and informed transactions or interactions is a 'free-market' system. An economic model is a simplified version of reality that allows us to observe, understand, and make predictions about economic behavior. The purpose of a model is to take a complex, real-world situation and pare it down to the essentials. ... Sometimes economists use the term theory instead of model.

The dearth of unifying sense of nationalism and patriotic feelings was one of the cogent contributing factors to the foundation and consolidation of the British rule in India . This unity and diversity growth helps in the rising of Indian national movement. The Indian Independence Movement was a series of activities with the ultimate aim of ending the British rule in India. The movement spanned a total of 90 years (1857–1947). The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal.

The administration of British India was divided into three Presidencies that had developed from the East India Company's factory bases. At the time of the partition, the British India had 17 Provinces. Out of thses 17, 3 provinces - Baluchistan, North-West Frontier and Sindh joined the Dominion of Pakistan, 3 provinces - Punjab, Bengal and Assam were partitioned between India and Pakistan.