Central to the dynamics of India's post-interventionist era has been the performance of its corporate sector. A lot of hope has been placed on its ability to deliver increased growth rates and levels of 'development'. In the light of this view, the author here examines critically the nature of the Indian corporate sector as a specific socio-historical and political-economic formation. Particular emphasis is placed on the nature of corporate profitability in India, its historical roots and its effects on development.

Much of the analysis of the impact of globalization remains preoccupied with the state rather than the corporate sector. There has been relatively little detailed analysis of the role of firms, especially the large multi-national conglomerates that have come to dominate South Asia's industrial landscape. This volume examines the South Asian corporate economies in terms of their history and evolution, their modes of corporate governance, and their relationship to the broader political economy.

In South Asia and beyond, human development continues to be in a state of crisis. Each successive Human Development Report (HDR) and the pervasive global failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goals are constant reminders of this crisis. An equally, and even more distressing dimension of human development is its great unevenness. Even in countries with high levels of human development it was noted that gender differences were significant. Levels of educational attainment and incomes remain significantly unequal between social groups, constituted along other categories of difference such as race, ethnicity and religion, as do levels of economic and political participation. This book explores the unevenness of human development with respect to the question of difference. The author develops a conceptual framework that focuses on social power, whereby human development is seen as a process/es of reconstruction of the matrices of social power. The approach builds on three main components: a relational rather than an identity-centric view of difference; a transformative notion of social justice - as opposed to a distributive understanding of justice; and the notion of agency. These are applied to the South Asian reality, where important insights into structural aspects of human development can be obtained in terms of religion, gender and caste. Written accessibly and lucidly, this book will be of interest to students and researchers in development studies, political economy, political science, public policy, governance, security studies, human rights, social and religious studies and South Asia.

This volume presents a comparative and comprehensive discussion of corporate economies in South Asia today. It approaches the theme from a socio-historical perspective that examines corporate economies in relation to the state, state formation, globalization and economic reforms and the nature of corporate ownership. It also looks at some of South Asia's well-known but inadequately understood institutions such as caste, thus questioning some major tenets of the conventional wisdom that shape our thinking about contemporary Asia.

Central to the dynamics of India's post-interventionist era has been the performance of its corporate sector. A lot of hope has been placed on its ability to deliver increased growth rates and levels of 'development'. In the light of this view, the author here examines critically the nature of the Indian corporate sector as a specific socio-historical and political-economic formation. Particular emphasis is placed on the nature of corporate profitability in India, its historical roots and its effects on development.

In South Asia and beyond, human development continues to be in a state of crisis. Each successive Human Development Report (HDR) and the pervasive global failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goals are constant reminders of this crisis. An equally, and even more distressing dimension of human development is its great unevenness. Even in countries with high levels of human development it was noted that gender differences were significant. Levels of educational attainment and incomes remain significantly unequal between social groups, constituted along other categories of difference such as race, ethnicity and religion, as do levels of economic and political participation. This book explores the unevenness of human development with respect to the question of difference. The author develops a conceptual framework that focuses on social power, whereby human development is seen as a process/es of reconstruction of the matrices of social power. The approach builds on three main components: a relational rather than an identity-centric view of difference; a transformative notion of social justice - as opposed to a distributive understanding of justice; and the notion of agency. These are applied to the South Asian reality, where important insights into structural aspects of human development can be obtained in terms of religion, gender and caste. Written accessibly and lucidly, this book will be of interest to students and researchers in development studies, political economy, political science, public policy, governance, security studies, human rights, social and religious studies and South Asia.