A comprehensive study on the phenomenon of Indian urbanization, and what comes with it.Indian policy has been characterised by a denial of urbanization. This has prevented us from meaningfully addressing the blizzard of policy issues that come with the phenomenon: from governance deficit to infrastructure shortfall, from effective management of land to lack of focus on growing city economies; from access to potable water to incessant flooding; from traffic congestion to sufficient ...

As India enters its seventy-fifth year of independence, conventional policy is unlikely to combat the breadth of its economic challenges. Across a range of areas-human capital, technology, agriculture, finance, trade, public service delivery and more-new ideas must now be on the table. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only cost India many lives and livelihoods, it has also exposed major structural weaknesses in the economy.A huge farm and jobs crisis, rising and massive inequalities, ...

Well-known economists and policy makers look at the Bihar model of development and discuss the challenges ahead During the 1990s, Bihar's development failed to benefit from the acceleration in India's economic growth, principally because of a steep decline in the already low standards of governance. this changed dramatically after November 2005, when The Nitish Kumar government came to power. Within a short time, major initiatives were launched in improving governance, infrastructure, educ...

A lot has changed in Indian social and economic planning since the introduction of the grand rural employment guarantee scheme, now known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA). The act has been implemented, suffered setbacks, established land-marks, drawn criticism, and collected accolades in all these years. But most significantly it has profoundly changed the character of the Indian women at large. Whether these changes are good for Indian democracy is a matter of...

Politicians and economists fixate on “growing the economy”—measured by a country’s gross domestic product. But this yardstick counts harmful activities such as greenhouse gas emissions, plastic waste, and cigarette sales as gains, and it ignores environmental protection, voluntary community work, and other benefits. What we measure is a choice, and what is and isn’t counted determines what sorts of policies are enacted. How can we shift the focus to well-being and quality of life?

Indian software entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani has written the definitive book about modern India.Nilekani gives us a fascinating new perspective for the twenty-first century, defying received and imported wisdom, and showing us what is really at stake in the world's largest democracy. He reveals why India's huge population has now become her greatest strength; how information technology is bringing the benefits of globalization; why rapid urbanization is transforming social and poli...

The difficulty of finding solutions After six decades of policy-making and planning that appear perfect on paper, vast pockets of poverty persist across the country, accompanied by low human development indices. In Poor but Spirited in Karimnagar, Sumita Dawra recounts her experiences as collector in the district of Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh, and grapples with the question of why even with crores of rupees of government funding, well-meaning implementing agencies and constructive action...

This bookexamines the politics behind, and the socio-economic and ecological repercussions of, the making of a new township, variously called New Town, Megacity or Jyoti Basu Nagar, in Rajarhat near Kolkata. Conceived by the West Bengal state government in the mid-1990s, in pandering to the vision of urban planners of creating a hi-tech town beyond an unruly, crowded Kolkata, and feeding the hunger of realtors and developers, the city is built on the foundations of coercive, even ...

This book is a clarion call to every Indian citizen and the world at large, looking at India with a keen eye as it gallops on the path of inclusive growth, aimed at unleashing the unlimited potential of a billion young minds.For the last 8 years, India has been in fast gear, roaring, leading, learning, giving, sharing, winning, digitizing, inventing, and developing its infrastructure along with other sectors such as energy, production, exports, and finance.There has been a gr...

In 1998, a book was published that was surprisingly ahead of its times. It wascalled India 2020 and proposed that India could soon be one of the top fiveeconomies of the world. The nation had set off a series of nuclear tests andwas facing worldwide sanctions. A new government had taken charge, andthe economy was facing a tough time. It was not the best of times to predictthat India had it in her to get on the fast track to development. The visionp...

Women as a group have often been divided by a number of intersecting inequalities: class, race, ethnicity, caste. As individuals - often isolated in reproductive or other home-based work - their weapons of resistance have tended to be restricted to the traditional weapons of the weak: hidden subversions and individualised struggles.Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy explores the emergence of an alternative repertoire among women working in the growing informal sectors...

Over the last 50 years, Nepal has been considered an experiential model in determining the effectiveness and success of global human development strategies, both in theory and in practice. As such, it provides a rich array of in-depth case studies in both development success and failure. This edited collection examines these in order to propose a novel perspective on how human development occurs and how it can be aided and sustained.Aid, Technology and Development: The lessons from...