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.

A profound analysis of a broad range of issues, providing a masterly overview of rural development in India.

This book aims to bring forth and address the major issues confronting the irrigation sector of India and also to suggest policy pointers to sustain it. As the policy and reform canvas is large for a huge and diverse country, this book has particular focus on the most important and immediate issues and future options. The chapters not only focus on new research, in-depth analysis and technical details, but also provide a balanced review of the state of irrigation sector and comprehensive presentation of major issues, challenges and future options. With the presentation of in-depth analysis and synthesis of available knowledge, the work can act as a handbook for major irrigation water issues, actual policy changes, and potential reform that could turnaround the sector. Given the temporal and spatial data analysis of the irrigation sector, this book will be effective and useful as a research and teaching tool to students and researchers both in India and globally. Besides its professional audience within the academic, research and policy community, the non-technical format of the book will appeal to a general audience in the media, policy, and donor circles