The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an international organization comprised of the eight countries in South Asia. This work aims examine the institutional structure, objectives and effectiveness of the SAARC in its role as South Asia's leading regional institution. Drawing on original research it offers a fresh and accessible account of SAARC, arguing that South Asia forms a unique regional security complex that enables certain forms of regional cooperation and bars cooperation on other issue areas. The text provides a comprehensive introduction to the SAARC, describing the historical developments that lead to its formation and examining key issues such as: The inner workings of Regional Centres and, their success in implementing the decisions reached at SAARC summits. How SAARC has sought to address critical new security challenges, such as health pandemics, terrorism, energy security South Asia's economic cooperation and the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) Challenges that expansion pose to the organization, particularly China's suggestion to expand beyond the traditional borders of South Asia The work aims to evaluate what scope there is for formal institutions like SAARC to provide a permanent regional security architecture within which South Asian countries can effectively address important issues, and will be of great interest to all students and scholars of Asian security studies and institutions in general and students and scholars of international relations in South Asia in particular.

Following India 's general election in May 2009, this book undertakes a critical evaluation of the performance of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It presents a thorough analysis of the UPA coalition government, and by providing an understanding of the new innovations in the UPA 's policies, the book goes on to evaluate the effectiveness of these policies against their aims and objectives.

This book suggests that there is an analytical framework for assessing the political consequences of the policies and the UPA 's success, both at the national and state levels, with particular reference to new policies in governance, secularism and security. These three areas constitute important fault lines between the main national political parties in India, and provide an interesting point of departure to explore the new emerging trends, as well as the strong underlying continuities between the UPA administration and its predecessors. The book offers new insights into the structure of Indian politics, and is a useful contribution to studies in South Asian Politics, Governance and Political Parties.

This new collection examines the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India and the ways in which its Hindu nationalist agenda has been affected by the constraints of being a dominant member of a coalition government. Religious influence in contemporary politics offers a fertile ground for political-sociological analysis, especially in societies where religion is a very important source of collective identity. In South Asian societies religion can, and often has, provided legitimacy to both governments and those who oppose them. This book examines the emergence of the BJP and the ways in which its Hindu nationalist agenda has been affected by the constraints of being a dominant member of a coalition government. The collected authors take stock of the party's first full term in power, presiding over the diverse forces of the governing NDA coalition, and the 2004 elections. They assess the BJP's performance in relation to its stated goals, and more specifically how it has fared in a range of policy fields - centre-state relations, foreign policy, defence policies, the 'second generation' of economic reforms, initiatives to curb corruption and the fate of minorities. Explicitly linking the volume to literature on coalition politics, this book will be of great importance to students and researchers in the fields of South Asian studies and politics.

This edited collection examines the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India and the ways in which its Hindu nationalist agenda has been affected by the constraints of being a dominant member of a coalition government.
Religious influence in contemporary politics offers a fertile ground for political-sociological analysis, especially in societies where religion is a very important source of collective identity. In South Asian societies religion can, and often has, provided legitimacy to both governments and those who oppose them. This book examines the emergence of the BJP and the ways in which its Hindu nationalist agenda has been affected by the constraints of being a dominant member of a coalition government. The collected authors take stock of the party's first full term in power, presiding over the diverse forces of the governing NDA coalition, and the 2004 elections. They assess the BJP's performance in relation to its stated goals, and more specifically how it has fared ina range of policy fields - center-state relations, foreign policy, defense policies, the 'second generation' of economic reforms, initiatives to curb corruption and the fate of minorities.
Explicitly linking the volume to literature on coalition politics, this book will be of great importance to students and researchers in the fields of South Asian studies and politics.

Following India's general election in May 2009, this book undertakes a critical evaluation of the performance of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It presents a thorough analysis of the UPA coalition government, and by providing an understanding of the new innovations in the UPA's policies, the book goes on to evaluate the effectiveness of these policies against their aims and objectives. This book suggests that there is an analytical framework for assessing the political consequences of the policies and the UPA's success, both at the national and state levels, with particular reference to new policies in governance, secularism and security. These three areas constitute important fault lines between the main national political parties in India, and provide an interesting point of departure to explore the new emerging trends, as well as the strong underlying continuities between the UPA administration and its predecessors. The book offers new insights into the structure of Indian politics, and is a useful contribution to studies in South Asian Politics, Governance and Political Parties.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an international organization comprised of the eight countries in South Asia. This work aims examine the institutional structure, objectives and effectiveness of the SAARC in its role as South Asia's leading regional institution. Drawing on original research it offers a fresh and accessible account of SAARC, arguing that South Asia forms a unique regional security complex that enables certain forms of regional cooperation and bars cooperation on other issue areas. The text provides a comprehensive introduction to the SAARC, describing the historical developments that lead to its formation and examining key issues such as: * The inner workings of Regional Centres and, their success in implementing the decisions reached at SAARC summits. * How SAARC has sought to address critical new security challenges, such as health pandemics, terrorism, energy security * South Asia's economic cooperation and the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) * Challenges that expansion pose to the organization, particularly China's suggestion to expand beyond the traditional borders of South Asia The work aims to evaluate what scope there is for formal institutions like SAARC to provide a permanent regional security architecture within which South Asian countries can effectively address important issues, and will be of great interest to all students and scholars of Asian security studies and institutions in general and students and scholars of international relations in South Asia in particular.

Banking Reform in India and China seeks to explore the ways in which banking reform is conditioned by a variety of institutional mechanisms. To uncover these dynamics, Saez draws primarily from analytical tools developed in modern game theory and institutional economics. He provides a multidimensional analysis that covers microeconomic, macroeconomic, and institutional aspects of these two countries banking systems. It ties together three themes of corporate governance, financial deregulation, and central bank independence to banking reform. These unique approaches make this an important contribution to the literature o comparative banking reform in transitional economies.

Banking Reform in India and China seeks to explore the ways in which banking reform is conditioned by a variety of institutional mechanisms. To uncover these dynamics, Saez draws primarily from analytical tools developed in modern game theory and institutional economics. He provides a multidimensional analysis that covers microeconomic, macroeconomic and institutional aspects of these two countries banking systems. It ties together three themes of corporate governance, financial deregulation and central bank independence to banking reform. These unique approaches make this an important contribution to the literature on comparative banking reform in transitional economies.