Archives: Books

The major contribution of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit was to raise global consciousness on environmental issues. That event brought together global, national, and local officials; experts; activists; academics; and concerned citizens to pose many questions about the Earth’s future. Despite its intended comprehensive character, Rio did not sufficiently focus needed attention on the urgent problems facing people living in urban environments. Yet, about half of the world’s population lives in cities, and the Earth is rapidly becoming urbanized. To focus global and national attention on this problem, the Bank convened its Second Annual Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development, “The Human Face of the Urban Environment,” in September 1994. This was the first global conference to bring together leaders representing four different perspectives – international institutions, national and local governments, and community groups – to examine the current challenges posed by urban environmental problems; to identify models of good practice in environmental management; and to mobilize global, national, and local energies and resources to address these problems. In response to this event the World Bank pledged itself to: (i) expand its urban environmental assistance to its member countries; (ii) assist governments to integrate urban environmental issues into national environmental action plans; (iii) work with national and local governments and nongovernmental organizations to develop indicators for monitoring environmental progress; (iv) work with the Global Environmental Facility to strengthen the linkages between global and urban issues; (v) work with other international institutions to focus attention on these problems; and (vi) carry this message forward to the United Nations’ Habitat II Conference in Istanbul in June 1996.

India has taken a series of steps following the report of the Backward Classes Commission popularly known as the Mandal Conmmission in the 1990s. The Mandalisation of’ the country since around 1990 especially in the Hindi heartland has had a profound effect on the Indian polity and the Indian economy. It has been essentially a journey into backwardness.

The Politics of Backwardness is the central theme of the present book. Mandalisation is not a new theme in India. Many states in the South began the process in earlier times. Some before independence and some after. The Mandal Commission Report and the actions taken after 1990 have made the politics of backwardness a major national phenomenon. The principal architects of this policy have advocated a transfer of power to the backwards. This political development was in many ways inevitable given the notion of the electoral politics of the country.

However the backlash of this politics of backwardness has affected the vitals of the Indian state. In 1997, the Home Miinister of India stated in the Parliament that Uttar Pradesh, the epicentre of the movement along with Bihar, was ‘moving towards “anarchy, chaos and destruction”. The present book presents both sets of views on the issue of the reservation policy. Its basic objective is to help better understanding of the process of the reservation policy in India, and its merits and demerits.

This study deals with comprehensive development of the vast and varies land and water resources of the enormously rich Ganga-Brahmaputra-Bark basin which is paradoxically the locus of the world\’s single largest poverty-hunger belt. The study is informed by two broad themes: first, integrated development of the manifold resources in each of the five countries encompassed in the basin – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and the Tibet region of China – to generate wealth and employment and reverse the environmental degradation of decades and centuries; and secondly the need for regional cooperation in ensuring optimised solutions. Though this will entail some give and take, the sum of the benefits derived by each country would far outweigh the “concessions” seen to be granted by each to the others. This lesson comes through.

This book edited by one of India’s leading strategic experts is designed to initiate a wider public debate on the diverse instruments of national security and help develop a strategic culture and an institutionalized, integrated approach to national security. Chapters have been contributed by seven advisors to the National Security Council — K. Subrahmanyam, Maharajkrishna Rasgotra, J N Dixit, Jasjit Singh, Ved Marwah, General S F Rodrigues and Brahma Chellaney — besides other experts such as L P Singh, A K Verma, P V Indiresan, Frederic Grare, J Mohan Malik, Vice Admiral K K Nayyar, Aabha Shankar, Pran Chopra, Uday Bhaskar and Admiral Suren P Govil. This volume is the first comprehensive study of the different facets of India’s national security which looks ahead at the challenges of the coming years. It examines India’s national-security requirements in a broad, multidisciplinary manner, focusing on how the country can achieve true strategic autonomy and comprehensive security. The book covers the whole gamut of defence-related issues, including classical military Instruments — land, air and maritime forces — as well as new emerging instruments. It studies proxy and covert war, including subversion, terrorism and the Kargil land grab. It also examines larger issues, such as energy security, the role of science and technology, instruments of diplomacy, intelligence assets, India’s relationships with major countries and regions, and geostrategic developments, with a view to making policy-relevant recommendations.

Over the last fifteen years, two of the most contentious issues faced by the World Bank have been its involvement in the forest sector and its structural adjustment lending.

This report addresses the intersection of these two arenas by asking:

“To what extent, and under what conditions, can the World Bank be an effective proponent of forest policy reform through adjustment lending?”

The report focuses on experience in a few exceptional cases where the World Bank has explicitly included forest policy reform conditions in adjustment lending operations: Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, and Indonesia. In addition, the report includes an analysis of what happened in Kenya, where the World Bank proposed, but did not move forward on, an adjustment operation focused on environmental policy reform.

This book analyses the institutions of governance – the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive, including the cabinet and the civil services, in the five South Asian countries – Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India. It also seeks to examine whether – notwithstanding the differences – there emerge areas of commonality of experiences, interest, problems and possible policy options in the matter of building of institutions and their inter-relationships as contributing to good governance.

The book is of interest to all concerned citizens and those involved in policy making for good governance in each of the South Asian countries.

This book is a wrap-up volume of a project which was initiated a decade ago to study on the problems of governance in the South Asia. On the basis of experience of five country-studies published as separate volumes on Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, the present Volume seeks to identify the major problems that are common to the region and puts forth a common agenda for good governance.

A number of eminent scholars from the South Asian region have contributed to the volume: V A Pai Panandiker, Subhash C Kashyap, K.Subrahmanyam, Ved Marwah and K C Sivaramakrishnan from India; K M de Silva and G H Peiris from Sri Lanka; Rehman Sobhan and Muzaffer Ahmed from Bangladesh; Akmal Hussain from Pakistan and Lok Raj Baral from Nepal. Between them, the contributors to this volume have covered a wide range is issues in Governance in South Asia – from demography, democracy, institutions of governance and political parties to the affects of military, violence, sub-national identities, development-deficit, economic underdevelopment, urbanisation, in the problems of governance in South Asia.

On the basis of a detailed study of the various strands of the issues at hand, the book concludes that the “essence of governance lies in delivering to the citizens of South Asia the rights, privileges, and provisions enshrined in the Constitution of each of these countries with respect to political, economic and social life” and identifies fifteen major problems in achievement of these goals: population growth, poverty and deprivation, slow economic development, high illiteracy, high infant mortality, poor health care and sanitation, inadequacy of democratic processes, poor quality of institutions of governance, failure of political parties, politicisation of armed forces, rise in ethnic conflict, rise in violence, growth of urbanisation, degradation of the environment and corruption in public life.

While admitting that many of these problems of governance require country-specific action plan, the book endeavours to seek out a common minimum agenda for governance in South Asia and focus on eight remedies: recognising the sovereignty of the citizens, controlling population growth, economic growth with equity, restructuring institutions of governance (executive, legislative and judicial), redefining the role of the state, Social development, emphasising common culture and south Asian regional co-operation.

The book offers a rare window into a decade-long fruits of labour of eminent analysts in South Asia across a varied range of issues. This a volume which is a necessary reading for any individual who is interested in the affairs of contemporary South Asia.

The 73rd and the 74th Amendments to the Indian Constitution which came into effect in 1993 represents a major systemic change in the structure of government in India. It has the potential to provide for multi-level governance ensuring empowerment of local governments and their accountability to the people.

After tracing briefly the past efforts towards decentralisation in the country under stalwarts like Nehru and its decline and derailment in the subsequent years, the book discusses the progress of the amendment exercises during the government of Rajiv Gandhi, V P Singh and Narasimha Rao. The book is based on an extensive and in depth study of the debates in the Parliament and critical review of the various state laws enacted to conform to the Constitutional Amendment.

The book identifies the pending issues in the functional and financial domain of the local bodies, the ambivalence and contradictions in the state laws and their implementation, the conflicts emerging already between different levels of elected leadership and how state control continues to hinder progress. The prospects for the future are also discussed.