India’s Economy and Society (eBook)

This book is a collection of fifteen contributions that undertake a detailed analysis of seven broad dimensions of India's economy and society. All the contributions approach the problems in their respective areas empirically, while being theoretically informed. The book begins with a section containing detailed and empirically supported chapters on the recent crisis in India's agricultural sector and the reforms in the agricultural markets. Another section is dedicated to the issue of infrastructure financing, and new ways of financing large infrastructural projects are critically examined. Other sections are related to innovations and technology impacts on industry; international trade; health and education; labor and employment; and the very important issue of gender.  The selected discussion topics are both of contemporary importance and expected to remain so for some time. Most of the chapters introduce readers to data in addition to methods of analyzing this data, to arrive at policy-oriented conclusions.  The rich collection carries learnings for researchers working on a wide range of topics related to development studies, as well as for policymakers and corporate watchers. 

Professor Sunil Mani is Professor, Reserve Bank of India Chair, and Director of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram. Formerly, he was a member of the faculty and the head of graduate studies at the United Nations University-Institute for New Technologies (now known as UNU-MERIT) at Maastricht in the Netherlands. He obtained his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and has done postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford on a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, New York. He has held Visiting Professorships at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, and University of Toulouse Jean Jaures, Toulouse, France, and at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Further, he serves on the editorial boards of two international journals, Research Policy, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, and the International Journal of Technology and Globalization.
Dr. Mani has published several articles in refereed international and national journals, authored and edited books, and contributed chapters in books. His latest books include the one co-edited with Franco Malerba and Pamela Adams, Rise to Market Leadership, New Leading Firms from Emerging Countries, and Kerala and the World Economy.

Chidambaran G. Iyer is an Associate Professor at CDS. He has completed his PhD from IGIDR, Mumbai. He works in the area of Technology and Innovation. He has published papers on innovation in the Indian refining industry, and the impact of satellite and internet in Indian education in refereed journals.  His interest in technology stems from his work experience as an engineer in the Indian chemical and biotechnology industry.

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This book is a collection of fifteen contributions that undertake a detailed analysis of seven broad dimensions of India's economy and society. All the contributions approach the problems in their respective areas empirically, while being theoretically informed. The book begins with a section containing detailed and empirically supported chapters on the recent crisis in India's agricultural sector and the reforms in the agricultural markets. Another section is dedicated to the issue of infrastructure financing, and new ways of financing large infrastructural projects are critically examined. Other sections are related to innovations and technology impacts on industry; international trade; health and education; labor and employment; and the very important issue of gender.  The selected discussion topics are both of contemporary importance and expected to remain so for some time. Most of the chapters introduce readers to data in addition to methods of analyzing this data, to arrive at policy-oriented conclusions.  The rich collection carries learnings for researchers working on a wide range of topics related to development studies, as well as for policymakers and corporate watchers.