This booklet was jointly sponsored by Project for Economic Education and Friedrich Naumann Stiftung. It is the textual summarization of the seminar held at Mumbai in April 1997, on the topic ‘India – Fifty Years After’. It discusses the various developments that have taken place in the nation since its independence. Issues persisting since 1947 such as widespread illiteracy, regional disparity in availing basic healthcare infrastructure, water scarcity, corruption in the bureaucracy and government, and so on are discussed in the course of the seminar. Political developments, including the Emergency period, nepotism within the Congress, rise of alternate political parties signalling the end of the one-party era and the emergence of coalition politics are also addressed. A related issue is the development of vote bank politics and caste and communal tensions. On the economic front, the policy shift from centralized control over all aspects of the economy to a more liberalised economic order, and its implications are also discussed.