On the night of 8 November 2016, at 8:15 pm, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced in a televised broadcast to the nation that with effect from midnight, currency notes of denominations Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would no longer be legal tender. In one stroke, this involved the de-recognition of over 86 per cent of the value of Indian currency in circulation with only four hours' notice. This important book provides a quick and concise explanation of the goals, implications, initial effects and the political economy of this major demonetisation move by the Government of India. It clarifies key concepts and offers astute economic analysis to guide the reader through the various claims, arguments and critiques that have been made; highlights the complexities of the processes that have been unleashed; and examines the likely outcomes in the long term as well as those that are immediately evident. Timely and lucid, this book will interest students and researchers in the fields of economics, finance, management, law, politics and governance as well as policy makers, legislators, civil society activists and the media.

On the night of 8 November 2016, at 8:15 pm, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced in a televised broadcast to the nation that with effect from midnight, currency notes of denominations Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would no longer be legal tender. In one stroke, this involved the de-recognition of over 86 per cent of the value of Indian currency in circulation with only four hours' notice. This important book provides a quick and concise explanation of the goals, implications, initial effects and the political economy of this major demonetisation move by the Government of India. It clarifies key concepts and offers astute economic analysis to guide the reader through the various claims, arguments and critiques that have been made; highlights the complexities of the processes that have been unleashed; and examines the likely outcomes in the long term as well as those that are immediately evident. Timely and lucid, this book will interest students and researchers in the fields of economics, finance, management, law, politics and governance as well as policy makers, legislators, civil society activists and the media.

The COVID-9 pandemic has generated human suffering and economic devastation across the world - but these reflect not just the impact of the disease but the policy failures of governments. Further, the trajectory of the disease and the human and economic outcomes has varied greatly, again because of how governments have responded and the institutional context. This volume brings together analyses of the public policy responses from many different countries, to evaluate what has worked and what hasn't, what has been done and what could have been done - and the potential directions for the future.

Prabhat Patnaik's academic insights and strong political commitment have stimulated intellectual activity and inspired personal regard across a multitude of people from all walks of life. This volume brings together contributions from some who have benefited from interaction with him over decades, in a tribute and continuing conversation. Patnaik, born 19 September 1945 in Odisha, India, is one of the outstanding economists of his generation and a leading Marxist theoretician in the world today. Versatile in his knowledge and mastery of different schools of thought but unflinching in his commitment to the use and extension of a Marxist approach, he has influenced several generations of social scientists through his extensive writing, his contributions to academic discourse, and his life as a tireless public intellectual. Born to parents who were deeply committed to the communist cause and were members of the Communist Party of India, Patnaik grew up in a commune in his early years, an experience that Ashok Mitra (his friend and comrade) believes deeply influenced who he became. His brilliance at all stages of his career is legendary. After studying at St Stephens' College and the Delhi School of Economics in Delhi University, he received a Ph.D. in Economics from Oxford University. He taught at the University of Cambridge, England, where he held a tenured position, which he chose to give up to return to India to join the founding faculty of the Centre for Economic Studies in the School of Social Sciences of Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he taught for around four decades. He is currently professor emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Through his work as an academic, as editor of the journal Social Scientist and as a columnist in People's Democracy, Patnaik has contributed immensely to developing a theoretical understanding of India's economy and society, and the tactics and strategy needed to change it in a socialist direction. His work has been recognized widely and he has been awarded several academic honors, including the V.K.R.V. Rao Prize in Social Science Research in 1986 and an honorary doctorate by the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London in 2012. But he is better known as a leading theoretician of the Left who has kept alive the need for advancing theory to support the struggle for an alternative society. He put into practice his ideas as a heterodox economist when he successfully served as Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board under the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala from June 2006 to July 2011.

Born in 1945 in Odisha, India, to parents who were deeply committed to the Communist cause as members of the Communist Party of India, Patnaik is one of the most outstanding economists of his generation and a leading Marxist theoretician in the world today. Through his work as an academic, he has contributed immensely to developing a theoretical understanding of India's economy and society, and the tactics and strategy needed to change it in a socialist direction. Patnaik is better known as a leading theoretician of the Left who has kept alive the need for advancing theory to support the struggle for an alternative society. He put into practice his ideas as a heterodox economist when he successfully served as Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board under the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala from June 2006 to July 2011. Prabhat Patnaik's academic insights and strong political commitment have stimulated intellectual activity and inspired personal regard across a multitude of people from all walks of life. Versatile in his knowledge and mastery of different schools of thought but unflinching in his commitment to the use and extension of a Marxist approach, he has influenced several generations of social scientists through his extensive writing, his contributions to academic discourse, and his life as a tireless public intellectual. This volume brings together contributions from some who have benefited from interaction with him over decades, in a tribute and continuing conversation.

Agrarian transition, exploitative production relations, bondage in the agriculture and informal sectors, food insecurity, and poverty are among the central concerns that have marked the work of the eminent economist and author Utsa Patnaik. She has sought to seek and define alternative economic models that address these concerns and that are therefore emancipatory in nature. This festschrift attempts to engage with the theoretical frameworks, historical analyses, and developmental questions that her remarkable academic contributions have raised. The volume delves deep into issues such as the agrarian question in contemporary India, the issue of primitive accumulation, displacement and land rights, the crisis of employment generation and women's work under present economic regimes, the challenge of environmental sustainability, and environmental constraints to development, left politics, issues of secularism and the social challenges of communalism-all of which are contradictions faced in the development process today. The editors hope that the volume will be useful to all whose praxis and work are anchored on the motivation to build a better and just world.