After the roller coaster of boom and bust, Indian economy seems to have attained a grip on the development mode. However, the country must pay attention to its ballooning public debt and inflating high fiscal deficit.

Every trough has to be followed by a crest. India faced a severe balance of payments problem in the year 1990-91 due to the Persian Gulf dispute. The financial crisis stimulated the Indian economy and propelled it to go for some major economic reforms. These reforms brought about many instrumental changes like deregulation and privatization of various industries, eliminating the hindering factors like quota and tariff mechanisms, and removal of government regulations on investments. Despite these implementations, the growth was found to be sluggish due to the erstwhile political disturbances. Currently, India is benefitting from a resilient industrial sector, a reform-minded government taking active part in the new economy boom. There has been a consistent improvement in the growth rate of imports and exports. The year 2003 has recorded a GDP growth rate of 4.4% and the various sources like CMIE expect the rate to improve by around 2% in the year to come.

Analysts have been predicting prosperous days ahead on the agricultural front. Despite the delay in rains and slow growth in sowing activities in June 2003, the primary sector is expected to grow at 7.5% in 2003-04. Susmita is very optimistic about the agricultural front and says, "a good monsoon will be indeed good for the drought areas of India, but in the east and north-east, floods have caused loss of land and massive erosion of soil. I am not sure how the east will fare. There has been damage to life and property in Himachal Pradesh. So we will have to work out the net effects." The recently held bilateral agreements between India and Israel are also expected to add an impetus to the agricultural productivity of the country. India has entered into an understanding with Israel during the recent visit of Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, according to which India would adopt the advanced techniques of farming being implemented by Israel that would enable the farmers to cultivate more with less usage of water.

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