Development, Displacement and Disparity : India in the Last Quarter of the Twentieth Century

Contents: Introduction. 1. Inequality, deprivation and displacement/Amiya Kumar Bagchi. 2. The history and geography of regional development theory: a futile search for a paradigm/Sanjoy Chakravorty. 3. Political institutions, distortions and regional disparities/Santanu Gupta. 4. Political lobbying and discretionary finance in India: an aspect of regional political influence in a representative democracy/Rongili Biswas and Sugata Marjit. 5. Who should provide public goods? a perspective from the theory of organisations/Maitreesh Ghatak. 6. Notes towards a theory of industrialisation in the developing world/Abhijit Banerjee. 7. Does the presence of surplus labour hinder production in Indian manufacturing?/Subhash C. Ray and Kankana Mukherjee. 8. Infrastructure, income and regional economic development in India/Buddhadeb Ghosh and Prabir De. 9. On the effects of trade in foodgrains/Abhirup Sarkar and Sukanta Bhattacharya. 10. Post-reforms export growth in India: an exploratory analysis/Saikat Sinha Roy. Index. "This volume marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, one of the premier institutions of social science research in the country. It is a collection of essays on the economic and social imbalances that emerged in the process of India's economic development in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The papers discuss a wide range of issues that the existing literature on India's economic development has somehow failed to reflect on. These include interregional disparity in infrastructural development and industrial growth, locational disparities and economic reform, political lobbying and centre-state fiscal relations, changes in institutional and industrial organisations, international trade, commodity composition of exports and intersectoral development. This volume also explicitly recognises the inherent diversities embedded in the notion of 'disparity and displacement'. Development, Displacement and Disparity is original not only in its subject matter but also in its methodology. In particular, the papers dealing with the role of state, politics and institutional change employ tractable quantifiable methodologies. They emphasise a balanced view of theoretical and empirical research in these areas. This volume brings to the fore, fresh topics and ideas, with open-ended treatments which will help future research." (jacket).…