INDIA'S DEVELOPMENT SCENARIO: Challenges and Prospects

India after sixty years of independence has witnessed many achievements and simultaneously encountered many nagging problems. We can boast of our performance in some specific areas like self-sufficiency in foodgrains, structuring of strong industrial base, raising expectancy of life and higher percentage of literacy. On the negative side, we can count the perennial problems of unemployment, illiteracy and poverty accentuated by an ever-increasing population with inadequate infrastructure.

This volume is an attempt to identify, document and comprehend the broad trends in development emanating across the states. It is important to understand and analyze the process and direction of pace and pattern of the development, which would have a significant impact and could draw critical lessons for charting out the future course of action for effective people-centric development across the country.

Besides a crisp introduction by the editor, the book is thematically divided in four parts, viz., Review of India’s Development Policy and Strategy in the Preceding Decades; Policies, Strategies and Programmes for Basic Amenities; Decentralized Governance and Responsive Administration; and Development and Issues of Trade, Agriculture, Industry and Environment. The book promises to be a valuable reference for all concerned researchers, bureaucrats, policy makers, planners and those concerned with the development of India.

Yatindra Singh Sisodia is Professor at the Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Research, Ujjain. His areas of interest are decentralized governance, tribal issues and developmental issues. He has authored/edited eight books including “Experiment of Direct Democracy, Rural Development: Macro-Micro Reality and Functioning of Panchayat Raj System.” Besides this, he has written five monographs and published over thirty research papers in journals of repute. He is associate editor of “Madhya Pradesh Journal of Social Sciences.” He has also undertaken research projects for various central ministries and government organizations like Planning Commission, ICSSR and ISRO on the issues of topical importance.