Book Reviews : Nasir Tyabji, Industrializatiort and Innovation: The Indian Experience, New Delhi, Sage Publications, 2000, 162 pp

Abstract

Economies progress from primary (agricultural) through secondary (industrial) to the tertiary (service) sector. The transition at each stage is facilitated by a mastery of the technology which goes beyond the basic minimum needs of manufacture/production, and enables innovation in the technology/process of manufacture itself. In other words, the economy should not only know ’how to make’ but also know ’how to make better’. It is common knowledge that the Indian economy has traditionally focused its attention more on securing the ’know-how’ of manufacture/ production than the ’know-why’, and in the process missed out on innovation and thereby the impetus for the real progress of the economy. Nasir Tyabji’s book provides a historical analysis of the evolution of the Indian industry with a view to highlighting the factors that have contributed to the lack of innovativeness in the Indian economy, especially its manufacturing sector. As mentioned in the preface, the book is an outcome of the research done by the author during a senior fellowship awarded to him by the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML). The six chapters of the book are articles (or parts of them) written by the author on differ-