The post 2000 period for India has been quite eventful for Indian economy. The Book examines the implications of growth for inequality and some of the major drivers of growth like infrastructure, health and credit. The book discusses the key challenges as well the game changer initiatives that will shape India's growth in the medium term.

This book emphasizes the need for experimenting with more deliberate and rigorous policy processes to attain balanced regional development, which can promote both equity and efficiency in India’s development discourse. The institutional mechanisms for dealing with regional imbalance in India have not been very successful so far. With rising discrepancies in development, demand for autonomy continues along with a new dimension of regionalism arising from submerged identity along with political and economic aspirations, which demanded new channels for solution. So far, attempts to create space for autonomy have possibly not optimally accommodated the conceptual mechanisms like equity and democratic process. Thus democratizing policy process using six pillars of voice: knowledge, objective, fundamental values, implementation framework and public awareness can ensure a better policy outcome for dealing with the persistent challenges of regional disparity in India. This book further focuses on the need for democratizing the policy process for regional development through discussion and inclusion. Such a transition needs innovation in policy regime, which can be attained through following six pillars (i) Democratic voice of stakeholders in policy development and implementation; (ii) Clear policy objectives that advance the common good, based on voice; (iii) Unbiased, sound and comprehensive knowledge and data bases. (iv) Consistency with constitutional values; (v) A sound implementation framework ensuring user-friendliness, transparency and rationality of decision-making processes, effective grievance redress, clear accountability and independent evaluation; (vi) Public awareness and support of policies with relevant and public participation in implementation.

Notwithstanding the improved growth performance of India, development disparity across its states has widened in the first two decades of the 21st century. This book examines development drivers of Indian states and what the necessary course corrections could be to achieve balanced regional growth. The book begins with a discussion on the evolution of growth and inequality across the states and delves into decomposing growth. It looks at three broad themes which are decomposition of growth and determinants of TFP, impact of Infrastructure on growth and inequality, and the institutional dimension of growth and explains why they are pivotal for sustainable growth in Indian states. This book will be a useful reference to those interested in understanding growth and inequality in India.

Economic development of frontier and remote regions has long been a central theme of development studies. This book examines the development experience in the northeastern region in India in relation to the processes of globalisation and liberalisation of the economy. Bringing together researchers and scholars, from both within and outside the region, the volume offers a comprehensive and updated analysis of governance and development issues in relation to the northeastern economy. With its multidisciplinary approaches, the chapters cover a variety of sectors and concerns such as land, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, finance, human development, human security, trade and policy. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of economics, public policy, governance and development, geopolitics, geography, development studies, politics and sociology of development and area studies as well as observers and policymakers interested in the Northeast.

Comparativist scholarship conventionally gives unbridled primacy to external, material interests–chiefly votes and rents–as proximately shaping political behaviour. These logics tend to explicate elite decision-making around elections and pork barrel politics but fall short in explaining political conduct during credibility crises, such as democratic governments facing anti-corruption movements. In these instances, Baloch shows, elite ideas, for example concepts of the nation or technical diagnoses of socioeconomic development, dominate policymaking. Scholars leverage these arguments in the fields of international relations, American politics, and the political economy of development. But an account of ideas activating or constraining executive action in developing democracies, where material pressures are high, is found wanting. Resting on fresh archival research and over 120 original elite interviews, When Ideas Matter traces where ideas come from, how they are chosen, and when they are most salient for explaining political behaviour in India and similar contexts.

This book examines the responses of the Indian states to economic reforms, and addresses a wide range of issues, such as growth dynamics, income inequality, the fiscal behaviour of the states, the role of the banking sector, and the emerging institutional structure aimed at catering for social banking and strategies for agricultural growth.

Economic development of frontier and remote regions has long been a central theme of development studies. This book examines the development experience in the northeastern region in India in relation to the processes of globalisation and liberalisation of the economy. Bringing together researchers and scholars, from both within and outside the region, the volume offers a comprehensive and updated analysis of governance and development issues in relation to the northeastern economy. With its multidisciplinary approaches, the chapters cover a variety of sectors and concerns such as land, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, finance, human development, human security, trade and policy. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of economics, public policy, governance and development, geopolitics, geography, development studies, politics and sociology of development and area studies as well as observers and policymakers interested in the Northeast.