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 ...

Imagining India created ripples with its perspective on India’s recent history and the core issues plaguing the country’s development. Cogently argued and packed with Nilekani’s own experiences and interactions with hundreds of opinion leaders, it offers a comprehensive blueprint for India in the twenty-first century.

Getting India Back on Track brings together some of India’s most accomplished analysts to spur a public debate about the reform agenda the new government should pursue in order to return the country to a path of high growth. It explores the challenges and opportunities faced by one of the most important–yet least understood–nations on earth and convenes some of India’s most leading policymakers to recommend policies in every major sector of the Indian economy. These seventeen focused and c...

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...

For a nation that has one of the highest growth rates in the world, India is plagued by poverty and corruption. Sixty years after Independence, India accounts for around 36 per cent of the world’s poor. The deepening fault lines between the haves and the have-nots have given rise to skewed development and widespread discontent. William Nanda Bissell, managing director of the successful Fabindia chain, believes India’s poverty is a direct result of its poor management by ruling elites who h...

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?

The world stands so dazzled by India’s meteoric economic rise that we hesitate to acknowledge its consequences to the people and the environment. In Churning the Earth, Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari engage in a timely enquiry of this impressive growth story. They present incontrovertible evidence on how the nature of this recent growth has been predatory and question its sustainability. Unfettered development has damaged the ecological basis that makes life possible for hundreds of ...

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...

In contrast to other investigations, which have taken a top-down view of the developments in the country, Krishna presents a ground-up perspective, delving into the lives of ordinary individuals. Through decades-long research conducted on the ground, living in villages and studying slum communities, he reveals the heartbreaking and eye-opening details of missed opportunities and immense, but untapped, talent which, if honed, can have a significant impact on both growth and equity. From pre...

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 ...