India’s growth story in various sectors—industry, services, mining, and power—particularly since the dawn of the new millennium, though impressive, has not been inclusive. Whereas urban areas have developed fast, the rural areas still lack the basic infrastructure of connectivity, marketing and adequate means of employment generation.
Poverty remains a major issue with our huge population living in rural areas, particularly in BIMARU states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. In addition to low income, problems of violent conflicts, food insecurity, illiteracy, ill health, unemployment, gender inequality, unhygienic living, etc. are various aspects of rural society. It is therefore imperative to analyse the prevailing conditions and draw strategies for rural development to make the country’s growth broadbased.
Agriculture is still the mainstay of rural economy. The sector provides livelihood to over sixty per cent of labour force. Besides, it contributes nearly twenty-two per cent to India’s Gross Domestic Product, accounts for eighteen per cent of our exports and supplies the bulk of wage goods and raw materials for several industries. It is necessary to address agrarian distress through effective policies which are able to deal with the problems of low productivity, overdependence on nature, inadequate credit and marketing facilities.
The book contains articles from erudite scholars and experts in the field of rural development, who have deeply analysed the pertinent issues and made valuable suggestions thereon. It will prove very useful to the researchers and students of Economics, government executives concerned with the formulation and execution of policies for rural development, parliamentarians and legislators, and the common readers interested in rural development.
K.R. Gupta is a well known Economist. He has published over a dozen of books and more than hundred papers in reputed journals, being published in India and abroad. He had been teaching postgraduate classes and guiding research for about two decades in the University of Jammu and Kurukshetra University. He has also worked as an Economist in private as well as in public sector. His last assignment was as Economic Advisor to the Modi Enterprises.
Prasenjit Maiti is a political sociologist. He taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Burdwan before joining the development sector. He was on the secondment as a Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Federalism of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He also served as an evaluation consultant to TERI while working on the National Green Corps Project.
