In this timely book—a festschrift for Dr. C. Rangarajan—top experts, policymakers and economists offer their assessments of India’s performance in the area of economic and financial reforms and analyse the successes and continued challenges. It provides an insight into critical macroeconomic and macro-finance issues of today. The book covers a broad set of topics, including fiscal, monetary and external sector policies, drivers of banking and financial growth, infrastructure and financial inclusion.

A strategy of gradual economic liberalisation combined with risk-averse prudential regulation in the banking and financial sector helped limit India’s exposure to the recent financial crises and the subsequent global economic slowdown. The improved economic performance in recent years encouraged the country to become more globally and regionally integrated. This process is unlikely to be reversed by the current global economic slowdown, given the economic and strategic benefits India has derived so far.

The authors in this festschrift share a critical, but overall positive, view of the country’s future and outline several areas and recommendations for bettering the lives of citizens. Empirically rich and topically diverse, the book is broad in scope and full of deep analytic insights and will serve as a useful reference and planning tool for administrators, planners, policymakers and students of development economics, monetary economics and finance.

Vijay Laxman Kelkar has been one of the most creative, contemplative and versatile public policy makers of India. Whether it has been articulating a vision for the role of markets and government, or stressing for the importance of a sound public sector balance sheet, or arguing for tax reform and fiscal federalism, or making simple and sound policies through consensus, his contributions are non-parallel. The essays in this festschrift are by some of the leading economists, bankers and policy planners of India. While saluting his visionary role in the government, they also provide an insight into some current and critical macroeconomic and finance issues. The writings cover a broad set of topics, among them fiscal, monetary and external sector policies, infrastructure, financial inclusion and education.

This volume commemorates the conferring of the Skoch Challenger Lifetime Achievement Award 2010 on Dr. Kelkar for his unique contributions to the Indian economy in general and his key role in financial sector reforms process in particular. This timely book will appeal to policy makers, political scientists, economists and other social scientists conducting research and teaching courses in political economy, fiscal and monetary policy, development studies, public policy and governance.

Putting the right infrastructure is critical to India’s plans for inclusive growth. Increasingly, responsibilities for infrastructure development will be decentralised to the local governments, whether rural or urban. There is now an increasingly urgent need for large-scale environmental improvement programmes and for strengthening governance and the capacity of local institutions to plan, implement, and finance infrastructure provision and service delivery.

Building from the Bottom: Infrastructure and Poverty Alleviation provides critical insights into infrastructure governance from different angles—policy making, urban and rural aspects, technology, connectivity, capacity building and participation. Some of the most distinguished scholars and practitioners have contributed to this volume that encapsulates the key issues in mainstreaming poverty alleviation strategies in infrastructure programmes. Some important questions it seeks to answer are: How can we ensure infrastructure access and affordability for the poor? What are the implications for development planning and decision-making processes? What are the financing options? The book also contains a number of best practice case studies to reflect community participation, innovation and commitment, all vital ingredients to the process of building from the bottom.

The book will serve as a useful reference and planning tool for administrators, planners, policymakers and researchers of development economics.

This compilation has emerged from a recent National Consultation on Infrastructure and Governance called India @ Work Summit, organised by Skoch Consultancy Services, providing critical insights into the subject of infrastructure and governance, all pointing to a common goal of inclusive growth.

The book opens with a chapter entitled: Participatory Democracy, Infrastructure and Empowerment. Offering the concerned reader the collective wisdom of eminent policy makers and distinguished experts, the content in this volume is organised under seven sections, namely:

This compilation is the result of action research and field visits across India spread over last 10-years that have been punctuated with seminars and workshops providing multi-stakeholder consultations. These were conducted by Skoch Consultancy Services with recently added support from Skoch Development Foundation. The compilation focuses on various facets of financial inclusion ranging from opening up of no-frills accounts to micro-credit to financial literacy, while emphasising the role of process changes, technology enablement, capacity building and outreach mechanism. It looks at examples of local bodies, post offices and tele-centres having been used effectively. It also proposes a model of inclusive development, emphasising that inclusive economics leads to inclusive governance and vice-versa. The book provides a holistic view based on practitioners’ perspective and grassroots learning. A must read for all involved in inclusive development of India.