Today, in India there exist eight operational trade zones with another ten underway. These zones are called Special Economic Zones that are a modernized version of the old Free Trade Zones and Export processing Zones. Special Economic Zones were established when India shifted to the status of a semi-periphery region. Although such zones promise big bucks, they are still far from achieving their economic goals. This essay will look over the working nature of such zones to see if they will actually provide an helping hand in the country's economy and at what cost, by using A. Thothathri Raman and Prof. Parag Diwan's "Free Trade Zones (FTZs) to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) : The Great Indian Dream ." Most of the statistical numbers used in the essay follow from this book and few popular Indian newspapers.
I start with the definition of these zones, as given in the book.…
