This book challenges the notion of a 'new' India, not by dismissing it as an imagined India, but by engaging in the debate as to what constitutes the new. It acknowledges that India is changing remarkably, while also acknowledging that in the overzealous enthusiasm about the new India there is collective amnesia about the other, older India. The essays argue that the increasing consolidation of capitalist markets of commodity production and consumption has unleashed not only economic growth and social change, but also introduced new contradictions associated with market dynamics in the economic and social spheres such as agrarian crisis, slow growth of employment, and the persistence of low-caste exploitation.

The volume also investigates the emergent tensions in art, architecture, and citizenship. In transforming India into an IT valley with corporate campuses, appealing to a westernized audience of technology entrepreneurs, including non-resident Indians abroad, architecture arguably is not addressing India's economic and social plight. Art too has taken a commercial turn by catering to the new middle classes spawned by the global and Indian technology revolution. The extraordinary economic values they command seem to jar with the grim economic and social polarization underway. The book unravels contemporary India in its complexities and uncovers some of the hidden tensions plaguing the country, and points to the significance of a widely shared development outcome as an alternative for social transformation.

This volume critically examines the notion of a 'new' India by acknowledging that India is changing remarkably and by indicating that in the overzealous enthusiasm about the new India, there is collective amnesia about the other, older India. The book argues that the increasing consolidation of capitalist markets of commodity production and consumption has unleashed not only economic growth and social change, but has also introduced new contradictions associated with market dynamics in the material and social as well as intellectual spheres.

This book examines the critical themes of employment, growth and development to focus on challenges and opportunities, both old and new, in the contemporary world economy. The essential theme that runs through the book is that there is a strong relationship not only between employment and growth, but also between employment and development, where the causation runs in both directions. The author shows how employment transforms economic growth into meaningful development by providing livelihoods and incomes to people. While the book is primarily concerned with developing countries, it considers industrialized countries as points of reference or comparison, since the latter are a large part of an interdependent world, in which problems faced by the two sets of countries are frequently connected and sometimes common. The ten essays in this volume also provide a macroeconomic analysis of development problems situated in the wider context of a changing world economy, exploring possible solutions, to understand the implications for countries and for people. A timely collection by an eminent economist, this book will be useful to teachers, students and researchers in economics, especially those interested in macroeconomics, political economy and development studies.

This book examines the critical themes of employment, growth and development to focus on challenges and opportunities, both old and new, in the contemporary world economy. The essential theme that runs through the book is that there is a strong relationship not only between employment and growth, but also between employment and development, where the causation runs in both directions. The author shows how employment transforms economic growth into meaningful development by providing livelihoods and incomes to people. While the book is primarily concerned with developing countries, it considers industrialized countries as points of reference or comparison, since the latter are a large part of an interdependent world, in which problems faced by the two sets of countries are frequently connected and sometimes common. The ten essays in this volume also provide a macroeconomic analysis of development problems situated in the wider context of a changing world economy, exploring possible solutions, to understand the implications for countries and for people. A timely collection by an eminent economist, this book will be useful to teachers, students and researchers in economics, especially those interested in macroeconomics, political economy and development studies.

This collection of essays, collected and published in tribute to the economist Ashok Mitra is inevitably diverse, given the wide range of interests of his professional friends and colleagues. There is, however, one common threat that runs through the articles; a shared belief that ideology and experience, just as much as theory and policy, are inseparable in economics. The biographical sketch, written by the editor, outlines the extraordinary life and career of Ashok Mitra - academic, administrator, parliamentarian, columnist, and cricket enthusiast.

In the conventional discourse on macroeconomics, the subject of human development is at best marginal and at worst irrelevant. In the unconventional discourse on human development, macroeconomics or its constraints are seldom recognised, even if its consequences are often highlighted. There are, however, intersections and interconnections, which provide the rationale for this book that seeks to map some broad contours of an unexplored, yet important, domain. Macroeconomics is important for human development because it determines levels of employment, the degree of social protection and the public provision of services such as healthcare or education. Human development has implications and consequences for macroeconomics, for it can mobilize or claim resources to enlarge or diminish space for macroeconomic policies. The relationship exists, and matters, not only in poor countries but also in wealthy ones. Employment, even if neglected, provides the critical link. This book shows that causation runs in both directions and can be either positive or negative. It reveals similarities and differences between developing countries and industrialised countries. The political context is significant everywhere as interests, ideology and institutions influence economic policies in both spheres to shape outcomes. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.

In the conventional discourse on macroeconomics, the subject of human development is at best marginal and at worst irrelevant. In the unconventional discourse on human development, macroeconomics or its constraints are seldom recognised, even if its consequences are often highlighted. There are, however, intersections and interconnections, which provide the rationale for this book that seeks to map some broad contours of an unexplored, yet important, domain. Macroeconomics is important for human development because it determines levels of employment, the degree of social protection and the public provision of services such as healthcare or education. Human development has implications and consequences for macroeconomics, for it can mobilize or claim resources to enlarge or diminish space for macroeconomic policies. The relationship exists, and matters, not only in poor countries but also in wealthy ones. Employment, even if neglected, provides the critical link. This book shows that causation runs in both directions and can be either positive or negative. It reveals similarities and differences between developing countries and industrialised countries. The political context is significant everywhere as interests, ideology and institutions influence economic policies in both spheres to shape outcomes. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.

The issue of institutional development has come to prominence during the last decade or so. During this period even the IMF and the World Bank, which used to treat institutions as mere details', have come to emphasise the role of institutions in economic development. However, there are still some important gaps that need to be filled before we can say that we have a good grip on the issue of institutions and economic development, both theoretically and at the policy level. This book is an attempt to fill these gaps. Recognizing the complexity of the issues involved, this book draws together contributions from scholars in economics, history, political science, sociology, public administration and business administration. These experts discuss not only theoretical issues but also a diverse range of real-life institutions political, bureaucratic, fiscal, financial, corporate, legal, social and industrial in the context of dozens of countries across time and space from Britain, Switzerland and the USA to today's Botswana, Brazil and China. The contributors show that there is no simple formula for institutional development. Instead, real-life examples of institutional development which has been achieved through a mixture of deliberate imitation of foreign institutions and local institutional innovations are discussed and studied. While arguing there is no set formula for institutional development, this book will assist developing countries to improve their institutions by providing sophisticated theoretical discussions and helpful policy ideas based on real-life cases.

Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, in 1968. He was deeply pessimistic about development prospects in Asia. The fifty years since then have witnessed a remarkable social and economic transformation in Asia - even if it has been uneven across countries and unequal between people - that would have been difficult to imagine, let alone predict at the time. Asian Transformations: An Inquiry into the Development of Nations analyses the fascinating story of economic development in Asia spanning half a century. Asian Transformations sets the stage by discussing the contribution of Gunnar Myrdal to the debate on development then and now and providing a long-term historical perspective on Asia in the world. It then uses cross-country thematic studies on governments, economic openness, agricultural transformation, industrialization, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, education and health, employment and unemployment, institutions, and nationalisms to analyse processes of change while recognizing the diversity in paths and outcomes. Specific country studies on China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and sub-region studies on East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, further highlight turning points in economic performance and demonstrate factors underlying success or failure. Including in-depth studies by eminent economists and social scientists, Asian Transformations comprehensively examines the phenomenal changes that are transforming economies in Asia and shifting the balance of economic power in the world and reflects on the future prospects for this continent over the next twenty-five years. It is a cohesive and multi-disciplinary study of a rapidly changing economic landscape, and makes an important contribution to understanding the complexities and processes of development from different perspectives.

This book examines India's export performance and export policies in the 1960s. The author analyses the causal factors underlying the trends in exports and evaluates the government policies which affected them. This authoritative work will be of interest to all those concerned with Indian economic problems, international trade and development economics.