The New Economic Policy – 1921 of Lenin had influenced the policies adopted by India soon after independence. Evaluate.

Lenin’s NEP which temporally mixed socialist and capitalist features into the Soviet economy found echoes in India’s own post-independence economic policymaking. Facing similar challenges of kickstarting economic growth and development, India emulated aspects of the NEP in crafting its own state-led mixed economic model.

• Specifically, the NEP allowed small private enterprise, property ownership and market mechanisms in agriculture, manufacturing and retail sectors while the state retained control over banking, foreign trade and large industries. This pragmatic retreat from doctrinaire socialism boosted Soviet productivity and growth.
• Similarly, India adopted a mixed economy framework where key sectors like mining, banking and infrastructure development remained under state control via centralized planning for allocation of resources. Simultaneously, room was made for private sector involvement in less vital consumer goods production, retail and agriculture sectors to encourage competition and choice.
• Additionally, like the NEP’s focus on rural development through cooperative formation and agricultural taxation reforms, India too emphasized land reforms, extension of agriculture credit and incubating village and cottage industries to uplift rural economies integrated with urban progress.

Thus Lenin’s NEP provided a template for India’s planners to move away from the extremes of Soviet central planning or Western free market capitalism models. Blending socialist oversight of commanding heights with market economy tools forged a pragmatic mixed economy tackling similar developmental challenges as the Soviet Union once faced.