The future of northern British Columbia, a vast, resource-rich region of vibrant cultures and diverse communities, could be either driven by a narrow economic agenda or guided by innovative, place-based solutions that seek to build viable communities and resilient local and regional economies. Investing in Place is about creating the foundations for renewing northern British Columbia’s rural and small-town economies. Markey, Halseth, and Manson argue that renewal is not about nostalgic reliance on the policies and economic strategies of the past – rather, it is about building a pragmatic and innovative vision for development, one that acknowledges both the opportunities and the challenges posed by resource development and global and technological change. For policy-makers and residents alike the path to renewal lies in place-based development, which consists of people working together at all levels of the community and region to take advantage of local opportunities in a sustainable, responsible way.

Agriculture and Irrigation sectors except for national food security and federal agriculture research have been devolved to the provinces following Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment in 2010. The Government of Sindh has approved and notified its first ever Agriculture and Livestock Policy in April 2018. To achieve objectives outlined in the Policy, it is imperative to increase investment in agriculture sector substantially to unleash the full potential of agriculture both for inclusive growth and economic development in the province. Moving towards this desirable goal of enhancing investment in agriculture and irrigation, it is vital to understand current resource sharing between the federation and federating units in Pakistan, gross resources available to the province in a financial year, dynamics of public expenditure allocations at sub-national level, and interplay of diverse interests during the budget process (Fan, Yu, and Saurkar 2008; Mogues 2015). Similarly, budget institutions, electoral system, and political institutions, apart from population composition, play their role in influencing public spending allocations during budget process and imposing constraints. The evidence suggests that budget process and institutions have substantial influence on budget allocation across different sub-regions and sectors. Despite huge transfer of resources to the provinces following the 7th National Finance Commission Award of 2010, the provinces have been underscoring increasing tight fiscal space. Given these pronounced binding constraint and rigid allocation of resources, it is challenging to enhance allocations to achieve desirable policy objectives. In these environments, insight regarding political and budget institutions will help in structural analysis of the budget, rationalization of existing public spending across sectors, and exploring the possibility of fiscal space through resource allocation restructuring. This paper reviews the interaction of political and administrative institutions, allocation of available resources as well as public spending trends and identify the fiscal space that could possibly be made available for enhanced allocation to agriculture, livestock, fisheries and irrigation in Sindh. Section 2 provides the structure of province of Sindh’s economy and various challenges confronting it. Section 3 reviews resources available, inter-mediation of budget institutions for resource allocation, public investment and structure of spending in Sindh; both recurrent and development. Section 4 highlights the subsidies in agriculture, particularly the subsidies on fertiliser, wheat farmers and millers, and irrigation. Section 5 looks at the taxes related to agricultural land and revenues collected. Section 6 estimates the fiscal space within existing resources that can be made available for enhanced investment in agriculture and irrigation.

As the world continues to recover from one of the most dramatic financial crises in a generation, expanding corporations are increasingly, yet cautiously, seeking out international investment opportunities. At the heart of this fragile investment recovery lie trust and confidence. With an unprecedented number of investment promotion agencies and economic development organisations now competing for the attention and business of a more cautious and discerning investor audience, smart approaches to strategic differentiation, communication, engagement and investment services are becoming increasingly critical if these agencies and organisations are to succeed. At the same time, transparent and responsible approaches to investment, coupled with effective, compelling advocacy, are increasingly important to the success of companies’ investment projects. Daniel Nicholls’ Foreign Direct Investment offers an exploration of some of the key trends, issues and practices that are shaping the global FDI landscape. Along the way he provides insight into how economic developers and investors alike can make the most of their opportunities and mitigate reputational and communications challenges that can impede or hinder a successful investment. By presenting perspectives and priorities from both sides, Daniel Nicholls’ book bridges the ’investment gap’ by giving its readers an important insight into what matters to the other side. This book represents a smart investment for anyone involved.

​This volume decentres the view of urbanisation in India from large agglomerations towards smaller urban settlements. It presents the outcomes of original research conducted over three years on subaltern processes of urbanization. The volume is organised in four sections. A first one deals with urbanisation dynamics and systems of cities with chapters on the new census towns, demographic and economic trajectories of cities and employment transformation. The interrelations of land transformation, social and cultural changes form the topic of the “land, society, belonging” section based on ethnographic work in various parts of India (Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu). A third section focuses on public policies, governance and urban services with a set of macro-analysis based papers and specific case studies. Understanding the nature of production and innovation in non-metropolitan contexts closes this volume. Finally, though focused on India, this research raises larger questions with regard to the study of urbanisation and development worldwide.

An updated examination of what's weakening the U.S. economy, and how to fix it The Committee to Destroy the World: Inside the Plot to Unleash a Super Crash on the Global Economy is a passionate and informed analysis of the struggling global economy. In this masterfully conceived and executed work, Michael Lewitt, one of Wall Street's most respected market strategists and money managers, updates his groundbreaking examination of the causes of the 2008 crisis and argues that economic and geopolitical conditions are even more unstable today. His analysis arrives in time for the impending economic and geopolitical debates of the 2016 election season. Lewitt explains in detail how debt has now overrun the world's capacity, how federal policies of the past few decades have created a downward vortex sapping growth and vitality from the American economy, and how greed and corruption are preventing reform. The financial crisis created tens of trillions of debt, leaving investors to pay a huge price for these policy failures: The highest asset inflation we've seen in our lifetimes, although the government claims there isn't enough inflation More than $2 trillion of stock buybacks funded with low cost debt that are artificially inflating stock prices The Federal Reserve and other global central banks becoming the largest buyers of government debt in order to suppress interest rates An M&A boom resulting from companies needing to find growth outside of their core businesses While the financial media misses the story, Lewitt pulls no punches explaining how all of these trends are leading to the brink of another crisis. Lewitt lays out a survival plan for the average investor to protect their assets when the debt bubble bursts. The first edition of this book expressed hope that policymakers would not let the financial crisis go to waste. This book urges investors to learn from the crushed hope and take action before the next crisis.