This is Tamil Nadu's first Human Development Report. Tamil Nadu has fared very well in human development among the States in India. It needs to be noted, however, that there are vast variations in the indicators of Human development within the State itself. Factors contributing to human development are disaggregated in this Report, and analysed at the district level. This will enable readers to understand the regional disparities in Tamil Nadu and the reasons behind them. The Report not only puts within one cover all the various aspects of human development in Tamil Nadu but also seeks to explain why the State has fared well in certain areas and not in others. It also highlights the policy interventions that will be required to correct the imbalances.

In this anthropological history, Mary E. Hancock examines the politics of public memory in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Once a colonial port, Chennai is now poised to become a center for India's "new economy" of information technology, export processing, and back-office services. State and local governments promote tourism and a heritage-conscious cityscape to make Chennai a recognizable "brand" among investment and travel destinations. Using a range of textual, visual, architectural, and ethnographic sources, Hancock grapples with the question of how people in Chennai remember and represent their past, considering the political and economic contexts and implications of those memory practices. Working from specific sites, including a historic district created around an ancient Hindu temple, a living history museum, neo-traditional and vernacular architecture, and political memorials, Hancock examines the spatialization of memory under the conditions of neoliberalism.

Chapter I - Introduction, Chapter II - Rural–Urban Disparity Scenario in India, Chapter III - Rural-Urban Disparity Scenario in Tamil Nadu, Chapter IV - Profile of the Study Regions, Chapter V - Social Dimensions of Rural-Urban Disparity: Micro Level Study, Chapter VI - Economic Dimensions of Rural-Urban Disparity: Micro Level Study, Chapter VII - Summary of Major Findings, Policy Options and Conclusion.

Why do poor people often vote against their material interests? This puzzle has been famously studied within wealthy Western democracies, yet the fact that the poor voter paradox also routinely manifests within poor countries has remained unexplored. This book studies how this paradox emerged in India, the world's largest democracy. Tariq Thachil shows how arguments from studies of wealthy democracies (such as moral values voting) and the global south (such as patronage or ethnic appeals) cannot explain why poor voters in poor countries support parties that represent elite policy interests. He instead draws on extensive survey data and fieldwork to document a novel strategy through which elite parties can recruit the poor, while retaining the rich. He shows how these parties can win over disadvantaged voters by privately providing them with basic social services via grassroots affiliates. Such outsourcing permits the party itself to continue to represent the policy interests of their privileged base.