Economic growth in the five year period from 2004/05 to 2008/09, despite the crisis-affected year of 2008/09, was at an average of 8.5 per cent. This clearly represented an acceleration in the pace of growth and marks a distinct break from any previous five year period. Per capita GDP grew by an average of 6.9 per cent in these five years and by 7.8 per cent in the three years 2005/06 to 2007/08.

In 2008, four countries of South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Nepal) held significant elections. The paper highlights various pertinent issues in the political economy of these four countries and maps out the broad contours of the reforms they need to embark on.

Brazil, China and India have seen falling poverty in their reform periods, but to varying degrees and for different reasons.

Despite signs of recovery from the global financial crisis, the GDP growth rate for the Indian economy is likely to be between 5.8 to 6.1 per cent in 2009-10, below the 6.7 per cent recorded in fiscal 2008-09. While there has been an improvement in Indian

The climate is changing in more ways than one. Not only has an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere been wreaking havoc in the global biosphere, but there has also been a significant shift in the way the issue of climate change is debated. From being a marginal

The extent to which India

Although many millions of people have exited poverty in recent decades, much of the reduction in poverty has benefited people living close to the poverty line rather than those at the very bottom of the income distribution. This book is not focused on poverty per se but rather is focused on looking particularly at those most deprived in society.

Planning Sustainable Cities reviews recent urban planning practices and approaches, discusses constraints and conflicts therein, and identifies innovative approaches that are more responsive to current challenges of urbanization.