Contributed articles.

With reference to Bihar State, India.

The Green Revolution resulted in spectacular advancements in Indian agriculture. Having achieved food security for its citizens, the country has now become a net exporter of different agricultural commodities. But sadly, this does not reflect the real state of the Indian agricultural sector. In truth, our farmers are plagued by crop failures, poor income, and indebtedness. Such is their misery that they are of late driven to commit suicide. In this book, the author identifies poor returns from crop cultivation as the root cause of farmers' problems. Using vast temporal and spatial data, the author explores further and attempts to address some very pertinent questions facing Indian agriculture today: What is the current trend in farm income? Are the returns from irrigated crops better than un-irrigated crops? Does increased productivity guarantee increased income? Has the agricultural price policy benefitted farmers? To what extent does rural infrastructure development help in increasing farm income? Has the rural employment guarantee scheme affected farm profitability? The answers will help us determine if we can double farm income by 2022–3, a target set by the present union government.

With six essays exploring different aspects of economic growth, poverty, inequality and social security, this book offers a critical perspective on India's development experience since independence. Incisive and empirically rich, the book opens up new vistas in development discourse and informs current policy debates.

Hunger is an issue which has been subject to much rigorous intellectual examination by economists, philosophers, sociologists, NGOs and governments. This volume provides a critical overview of current academic and political perspectives and then compares these views from thenon-hungry people with those of thehungry particularly from a broad range of poor communities in India. Their views are gathered using participatory rural appraisal techniques and the scale of the material presented is unprecedented. Not surprisingly, the comparisons show that the perceptions of the hungry are fundamentally different from those of the non-hungry. It makes compelling suggestions about how best policy makers can attempt to eliminate hunger based on what the hungry themselves suggest. The book also draws attention to the critical role of Common Property Resources and women in the fight against under-nutrition, which have so far been largely ignored.

Federal Dynamics aids understanding of how federal systems change over time. It assembles contributions from leading scholars in the field of comparative federalism to discuss the value of different analytical tools and theoretical approaches for exploring the dynamics of federal systems.

G20 members bring together the world’s major advanced and emerging economies, as well as the European Union. Together they represent some 90% of global GDP, 80% of global trade and two-thirds of the world’s population. In recognition of educational development as a key driver of economic development, the G20 members have put education reform high on their policy agenda in order to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities ahead. Their experiences and lessons in education reform will not only showcase the global trend of education development, but also will provide valuable reference and inspiration for undertaking education reform to advance national development in China as well as other countries. This book documents recent policy reform in G20 members’ systems, showcases the global trends in education policy, serves as a valuable reference tool and also provide inspiration for undertaking education reform to advance development in related countries.​