Prior to the 2016 Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations (UN) had eight 'global goals' set out to all 191 UN member states at that time, and at least 22 international organizations. Seven out of the eight United National Millennium Development Goals are social goals. The attainment of such goals would require a substantial proportion of public sector expenditure. Without a robust rate of economic growth, whatever is achieved cannot be sustainable. Developmental State and Millennium Development Goals argues that this is the main reason why some of the largest developing countries fell short in achieving the goals.

'Roy's book is a rich and detailed study of various facets of economic and social development in ten countries, both democratic and authoritarian. Researchers and students will find here a wealth of information and statistics that can be mined to explore fundamental questions around state interventionism and modes of governance, around democratisation, authoritarianism and economic development, around the factors driving the differential developmental performance of specific countries, and around the desirability of economic growth at all costs. It also provides a very useful starting-point for considering the future of Asia as China's economic, political and military strength continues to grow.'Jude A HowellProfessor London School of Economics (LSE), London, UKFrom the Foreword With over three decades worth of research and analysis, Roy compares ten countries - India; Brazil; Indonesia; China; Japan; South Korea; Singapore; Vietnam; Thailand; and, Malaysia - in the role of the state in economic development. Comprising of a rich body of work on state intervention and developmental states, Roy postulate on the idea of 'virtuous' and 'vicious' interventionist states.

This book highlights several important issues which policy makers as well as state and private sector agents are confronted with while implementing different types of programs to improve social and economic conditions for beneficiaries of these programs. However, the process of implementation of one development project may produce unfavourable effects on several other projects and on beneficiaries for some other projects. In such a situation, project implementing agents will be required to take measures to ensure that adverse externalities stemming from the implementation of each project are minimised.