Reforms, Rural Development and the Human Face : Perspectives, Perceptions, Prescriptions

Contents: Preface. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Presidential address: 1. Emerging challenges of the post-reform period : some facets of the deprivation scenario in India/Ashok Mathur. Special theme paper: 2. Structural adjustment and rural development : real or residual/Kamal Nayan Kabra. I. Paradigmic perceptions: 3. Economic reforms in India: looking backward and forward/T.R. Kundu. 4. Vicissitudes of economic reforms in India: a shift from democratic governance to market governance/Prem R. Bhardwaj. 5. Emerging challenges of post-globalization period and how to tackle them/V.S. Mahajan. 6. Economic reforms and the state : empowering the poor/Nisha Garg and Neera Verma. II. Development profiles: 7. Human development process in the context of globalization and liberalization/R.P. Singh. 8. Economic reforms process in India : challenges and implications/Raj Kumar. 9. Human development in rural India: status after a decade and half of economic reforms/Smita Sirohi and Pralay Hazra. 10. Economic reforms, development and women in India : a critique/Rajinder Kaur. 11. Social sector development after 1991 : with reflections from West Bengal/Dilip K. Ghosh. 12. Economic reforms and rural development : lessons from China/Suresh Dhanda and Rajinder Punia. 13. Impact of economic reforms on rural industries: SWOT analysis/Y. Gangi Reddy. 14. Post-economic reforms : challenges for rural India with reflections on the Andhra experience/C. Umamaheswara Rao, Yogananda Sastry Chaturvedi and Y. Sivaramaiah. 15. Post-reform scenario in India : tackling poverty, inequities and unemployment/Nirmala Chaudhary and Meenu Dutt. III. Good governance for good development: 16. Economic reforms and good governance in Panchayati Raj/Mohinder Singh and Vijay Kumar. 17. Reforms, rural development and the good grass-roots governance : perspective, percept and practice/K.K. Mor. 18. Governance sans corruption : Sine Qua non for rural development in the post-reforms period/Atul Dhingra and S.D. Chamola. 19. Corruption and good financial governance : agenda for India/Sanjeev Bansal. IV. Meeting the WTO challenge: 20. WTO and trade related intellectual property rights: some issues of concern for India/L.N. Dahiya, Sumanjeet and Seema. 21. India's agri-export sector : status, challenges and opportunities/Suresh K. Bedi. 22. WTO, agriculture and economic reforms/Sunil Phougat and Pradeep Duhan. V. Augmenting agriculture for sustainable development: 23. The state of Indian agriculture in the post-liberalized regime: some issues for policy interventions/S.P. Singh. 24. Agriculture and economic reforms/Mandeep Singh and Yugesh Kumar Sablok. 25. Emerging challenges in the post-reform period : necessary interventions for augmenting agriculture/A.K. Chauhan. 26. Strengthening the agri-sector in the old green revolution regions in the emerging scenario : some reflections/S. Kaushil. 27. Liberalization and Indian agriculture/Ranbir Singh and Anupama Arya. 28. Role of transfer of technology in agri-business development/Sube Singh, Joginder S. Malik and Sushila Dahiya. VI. Growth and jobs : the employment dimension: 29. Economic reforms vis-a-vis employment in India : a critical analysis/R.K. Rana. 30. Economic reforms and employment in India/Jagdish Chauhan and Shyam Parshad. 31. Training of service employees : a challenge for service sector in the post-reform period/Divya Malhan and S.C. Kundu. 32. Prolonged unemployment, health and development/Rajbir Singh, Shalini Singh and Manju. VII. Regional Kaleidoscope: 33. Diversification to horticulture in Haryana : a socio-economic and psychological perspective/R.S. Malik, P.S. Shehrawat, Ashok Kumar and R.K. Punia. 34. Impact of economic reforms in agri-rural sectors in Assam : some issues/Pabitra Kalita. 35. Trends in inter-regional divergences in electricity consumption during the post-reforms period : a case of Punjab and Haryana/Amarjit Singh Sethi. 36. Implications of the liberalization and globalization for agriculture in Haryana/Saroj Malik. 37. Nai Disha--an e-governance initiative in Haryana/Vikram Singh and Dalbir Singh. Index.

"There has always been an on-going debate on the necessity or otherwise of the state sector as an entrepreneur and as a welfare provisioning agency responsible for ensuring adequate availability and equitable distribution of basic social-public goods, services and utilities, of housing and shelter, of general and technical education, or primary and specialised healthcare, of sanitation and hygiene, of roads and transport, of safe drinking water, of irrigation, of power, and the like, all of which go as crucial inputs into defining, variously, the general living conditions, physical quality of life, human development, and similar other indicators and indexes of development as perceived and the new paradigm.

The winning view in this debate has been the one favouring the need for curtailing the state/public sector's role and replacing it by the liberalized market-governed regime as a necessary pre-condition for development as now perceived, especially in the Third World countries. This alternative is being prescribed and peddled, and accepted too, as a panacea for all their socio-economic maladies.

This book brings together contributions of eminent thinkers, scholars and practitioners from all over the country, who have, through their analytical deliberations, amply and ably elaborated upon the various sub-scenarios and facets of India's experience in the pre and post-reform period and generated an evaluative profile and perspective which, expectedly, would be helpful and useful for academics, administrators and activists alike in their respective domains of concern pertaining to reforms, rural development, social and human development." (jacket)