The social and economic systems of any country are influenced by a range of factors including income and education. As such, it is vital to examine how these factors are creating opportunities to improve both the economy and the lives of people within these countries. Socio-Economic Development: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications provides a critical look at the process of social and economic transformation based on environmental and cultural factors including income, skills development, employment, and education. Highlighting a range of topics such as economics, social change, and e-governance, this multi-volume book is designed for policymakers, practitioners, city-development planners, academicians, government officials, and graduate-level students interested in emerging perspectives on socio-economic development.

Economics is a social science concerned mainly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Beyond the various theories and models, however, economics has close relationship with day to day life. This book reviews the economic journey of India over the last seventy years, and seeks to stimulate the readers’ thinking on some major issues and potentialities facing the Indian economy. Five main themes flow through the book – India’s potential to be the World’s third largest economic power by 2030, the challenges of socio-economic equity that India faces, the several opportunities that India has in that journey, the critical role of governance, leadership, management and administration, and the importance of mindset changes to power India’s futureeconomic growth. A special focus is laid on the role of government policies and projects in socio-economic development. The book sensitises the readers, including college students in general, and students of economics in particular, to the happenings around us which have significant economic import. The book makes all through its seventy chapters several suggestions to power India’s growth as a global economic superpower, on a plank of socioeconomic equity. This book serves as an expansive thought primer and focussed execution guide for an economically independent and resurgent India.

This book offers a comparative analysis of the rise of India and China and their decisive economic and social roles in a global context. It presents a cumulative picture of the socio-economic challenges as well as the opportunities for growth and inclusive development before India and China. The volume analyses the performance of the two countries based on economic and human development indicators. It highlights the key achievements of the two countries in governance and financial growth, and the potential for further economic development. Drawing on government data and empirical research, the book examines India and China’s relative growth in trade, investments, renewable energy technologies, urbanisation, and employment and their policies on agriculture, land use, public health, and rural-urban inequality. Further, it discusses the shared challenges of inequality, poverty, gender disparity, and environment degradation which both countries face and contrasts their policy priorities and governance mechanisms. Comprehensive and insightful, this book will be of great interest for researchers and scholars of development studies, economics, international relations, comparative politics, sociology, public policy, and Asian studies. It will also be useful for think tanks, policy makers, and general readers interested in the India–China relationship.

With special reference to Santals of Bihar.

Based on a three-year joint research project, this book collects studies on the cultural basis of economic growth in India. Unlike the foregoing investigations on India’s economic growth from the economic perspectives, this book presents interdisciplinary discussions on India’s economic growth. The participants in this project consist of a cultural anthropologist who is an expert in the social and historical study on India as well as a group of researchers specializing in various fields of economics such as growth theory, public finance, income distribution, family economics, and economics of education. Our joint research yields new insights on India’s economic growth and social change. In addition, this book presents new findings of happiness in India obtained by our large-scale survey.