Challenge of Sustainable Development : The Indian Dynamics

Contents: Preface. 1. Population, life support and human development/Ramprasad Sengupta and Anup Sinha. 2. Beyond population projections: critical issues in relation to life support and human development/Ashish Bose. 3. Population: a new paradigm for old and new concerns/Gita Sen. 4. Population and water resources in India: crucial gaps in knowledge for sustainable use in future/Jayanta Bandyopadhyay and Bidisha Mallik. 5. Water resource development: scarcity and conflict/A. Vaidyanathan. 6. Sustainable land use for foodgrain production and environmental protection/C.L. Acharya and A.K. Sharma. 7. Food and land use: sustainable development in India in the context of global consumption demands/Utsa Patnaik. 8. An alternative people based system for health care and population stabilization/N.H. Antia. 9. Health, health services and family planning in India/Debabar Banerji. 10. Investment in the education sector in India for human development: the past and the future/Tapas Majumdar. 11. On universalisation of elementary education in India: prospects and constraints/V.N. Reddy. 12. Urban growth, basic amenities and waste management in India/Annapurna Shaw. 13. Institutional innovations for infrastructural development in India and the emerging urban scenario/Amitabh Kundu. Name index. Subject index.

"This volume is the outcome of a symposium held at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) in February 2001. A number of well-known scholars participated from all over India. The editors, Ramprasad Sengupta and Anup K. Sinha, organized the event under the aegis of CDEP (Centre for Development and Environment Policy) at IIMC.

The interdisciplinary symposium was set in the backdrop of the 2001 Census, with a focus on population trends. Vital questions regarding the availability of adequate land for food, sufficient water, the provision of education and health services for all, and the increased need for urban space were raised and discussed. In the twenty-first century access to education and health are considered to be as crucial life-support systems as food, water and clean space. The challenge of sustainable development can only be addressed by resolving basic issues of technology, as well as the problems of social institutions and policies that create the priorities for, and distribution patterns of, existing and new resources. The concern for sustainable development along with the environmental and technological complexities that constrain human development, lie at the core of this volume." (jacket)