Development policies are sine qua non for development aiming at reduction of poverty and inequality, implementation of fundamental rights and promotion of sustainable development. In 2015, the United Nations has adopted the Agenda2030 for realising sustainable development goals aiming at the eradication of extreme poverty and ensuring overall wellbeing in an environmentally sustainable manner. In order to achieve these goals governments need to formulate necessary policies. One of the important features of a sound development policy is that it should be amenable to periodic reviews to judge its appropriateness in achieving desired goal. This edited volume includes sixteen papers selected from the papers presented at the conferences organised by the Department of Economics and Politics of Visva-Bharati (A Central University) under its UGC Special Assistance Programme in 2019 and 2020. These papers critically analyse different policy issues pertaining to environment and sustainability, macroeconomics, agriculture and rural development and finally, health, education and basic services. While majority of the papers analyse policies concerning Indian economy, there are case studies of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
Apurba Kumar Chattopadhyay is Professor in Economics at the Department of Economics & Politics and Coordinator of the Departmental Research Scheme, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. He was a Visiting Chair Professor at the Centre for Contemporary Indian Studies, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has also taught at University of Calcutta, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata and S R Lahiri Mahavidyalaya, Majdia (University of Kalyani). He has worked extensively on various development issues such as poverty and income distribution, gender, WTO, sustainable agriculture, rural development, etc., and has published several research articles in various national and international peer-reviewed journals in Economics as well as edited quite a few books. Soumyadip Chattopadhyay teaches at the Department of Economics and Politics, Visva Bharati University. He holds a PhD from University of Calcutta. He was associated with Graduate School of Geography Clark University as a C V Raman Fellow and Department of Urban Studies and Planning University of Sheffield as a Commonwealth Academic Fellow. His research interests lie in the field of development studies and more specifically focuses on urban finance, urban inequality and ongoing transformations in urban governance in Indian cities. He has worked with Institute of Rural Management Anand and Government of West Bengal as a researcher or consultant on various developmental issues. His research works have been published in the Progress in Development Studies, Development in Practice, Environment and Urbanization ASIA, Journal ofInfrastructure Development, South Asian Survey, Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Journal of Economics, Urban India, Local Government Quarterly, Journal of Rural Development, International Journal of Regulation and Governance and Journal of Development Policy and Practice, as well as in other Journals and edited volumes. He has written several short articles in international media/web portals such as The Diplomat, URBANET, Medium, Ideas for India and Urban Planning International and in national media/web portals such as The Pioneer, Observer Research Foundation, Mainstream Weekly, Counterview, Delhi Post and Ei Samay (Bengali Daily of Times of India Group). He is currently serving as one of the Associate Editors of International Journal of Rural Management.
