ABOUT THE BOOK In the wake of unprecedented external payment crisis of 1991, India has witnessed wide-ranging economic reforms encompassing various sectors of the economy. A critical ingredient of the reform process has been the gradual opening up of India?s external sector. The trade regime has been significantly liberalised with the abolition of quantitative restrictions and reduction in tariff rates. Non-debt creating flows are being encouraged. In short, the following, inter alia, have been the chief elements of the policy of external sector reforms since 1991: (a) maintenance of an acceptable level of current account deficit, (b) market determined exchange rate regime, (c) building up reserves by encouraging non-debt creating flows and de-emphasising debt creating flows, particularly short-term debt, and (d) creating a congenial environment for foreign direct investment. Against this backdrop and in recognition of the growing importance of the external sector in driving the economy, this book is focused on the developments of India?s external sector since 1991. It examines developments in the following segments of India?s external sector: foreign trade, export-import policy, tariff policy, current account management, capital account dynamics, foreign exchange reserves, exchange rate policies, external debt and aid, foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment.

Contributed papers presented at a workshop held in September 2001 in New Delhi.

This book offers an assessment of the performance, impact, and welfare implications of the world’s largest employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Launched by the Indian government, the programme covers entire rural area of the country. The book presents various micro-level analyses of the programme and its heterogeneous impacts at different scales, almost a decade after its implementation. While there are some doubts over the future of the scheme as well as its magnitude, nature and content, the central government appears committed to it, as a ‘convergence scheme’ of various other welfare and rural development programmes being implemented at both national and state level. The book discusses the outcomes of the programme and offers critical insights into the lessons learnt, not only in the context of India, but also for similar schemes in countries in South and South-East Asia as well as in Africa, and Latin America. Adopting inter-disciplinary perspectives in analysing these issues, this unique book uses a judicious mix of methods---integrating quantitative and qualitative tools---and will be an invaluable resource for analysts, NGOs, policymakers and academics alike.

Study, with reference to the Panchayati Raj set-up in Pudukkottai District, Tamil Nadu.

This work is an indepth analysis of the entire gamut of problems afflicting the rural economy. Some of the questions specifically looked into are: With how much of sincerity the plans were prepared, and how these were implemented? What were the effects on productivity and expansion of activities in different sectors of the rural economy? How much of attention was given to the problems of the weaker sections, and what improvements came over the years? What were the state of social and economic infrastructure? Did human resource development receive the attention it deserved?

The doctoral students of the economist and teacher Venkatesh B. Athreya organized a seminar in his honor in January 2016. This book is a collection of the papers presented at that seminar and a few invited contributions on the theme of agriculture and rural India with special emphasis on the experience of economic reforms since the 1990s.