India's Political Economy @75 Opportunities & Challenges of Development

This book provides a comprehensive exploration and reflection of the opportunities and challenges that have shaped India’s growth trajectory in past seven decades. The book contains rigorously researched articles on various contemporary issues and debates around four broad key themes on—political economy appraisal, sectoral challenges, employment, labour and informality and social sector performance, offering conceptual understanding, critical analysis and policy implications. In addition to offering significant insights into recent emerging issues such as the agrarian crisis, non-performing assets (NPAs), post-COVID-19 transformations, shifts in the labor market due to artificial intelligence (AI), digitalization, and more, the book also explores the dominant theoretical discourses essential for comprehending India's political economy since independence till recent. The book offers actionable policy recommendations to address existing gaps between policies and practices of India’s development trajectory. The book is particularly intended for research scholars and students, of economics, political science and development studies. Also, policymakers, institutions, general reader and academics worldwide who are interested in understanding the political aspect of Indian economy, its development trajectory, and the challenges and opportunities that nation faces at the cusp of completing 75 years of independence.  

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Political Economy Appraisal of Indian Economy.- Chapter 2: State, Capital and Some Socio-Economic Outcomes in India at the Current Juncture.- Chapter 3: The Standstill, Movement and Transformational Aspects of India's Development Experience.- Chapter 4: Dilemma in Development: India’s Development Experience and the Challenges Ahead.- Chapter 5:  A Political Economy appraisal of liberal reforms in India by Rahul De.- Sectoral Challenges in Indian Economy.- Chapter 6: The State, Market and Agrarian Crisis: Political Economy of Agricultural Price in India.- Chapter 7: What Might Have Suppressed the Industry led-growth? by Arup Mitra.- Chapter 8: Exploring the interdependence between the commodity-producing and tertiary sector: Evidence from India.- Chapter 9: Public Finance Trajectories in India Since Liberalization: An Assessment.- Chapter 10: The Political Economy of Non-Performing Assets in Indian Banks during the Neo-Liberal Reform Period: An Analysis of Persistence of GNPAs.- Employment, Labour and Informality.- Chapter 11: An Assessment of India’s Employment Policy.- Chapter 12: Indian Labour Market in the Era of Automation and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities.- Chapter 13: Whither for Work? Tracking Migration, Perceptions and Labour Market Outcomes in Post-COVID India.- Chapter 14: Informality in the Indian Labour Market: Recent Evidences.- Chapter 15: Labour flexibility and employment protection legislation in India's formal industrial sector: issues and perspectives.- Chapter 16: Self-Employment in India: Entrepreneurs or Working Poor.- Social Sector Performance.- Chapter 17: Political Determinants of Health: The Indian Case.- Chapter 18: Shifting Priorities in Financing of Higher Education in India.- Chapter 19: Being Connected: Evaluating the Digital Divide in India.

Praveen Jha is Sukhomoy Chakravarty Chair Professor at Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has completed his Ph.D. from same center. Prior to this he has also taught at St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi and at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. He has also been Visiting Fellow at University of Bremen, Germany; Tianjin University of Finance and Economics Tianjin, China, and Visiting Senior Research Economist at International Labour Organisation, Geneva. His areas of interest/specialization are labour economics, agricultural economics, development economics, economics of education, resource economics and history of economic thought.

Puja Pal is Assistant Professor at G.B Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. She attainted her bachelor’s degree, i.e., B.A. (Honors) Economics from Miranda House, University of Delhi. She completed her Master’s in Economics, M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. Her research area includes labour economics, employment, informality and development economics. She has a book, chapters in books and research articles to her credit in national and international repute journals. She writes on contemporary issues in form of opinion pieces, blogs and commentaries in various platform. She has presented several research papers at both national and international conferences over the years.

Bhaskar Majumder has retired as Professor from G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj. He got his Ph.D. degree from University of Calcutta. He has taught in different universities and Institutes in India including Calcutta University, Sri Sri University, Cuttack and Central University of Bihar, Patna. He was Visiting Fellow in different universities and Institutes in India including Banaras Hindu University.  He has worked for Planning Commission, India, World Bank, Indian Council of Social Science Research, National Commission for Women, Tata Chemicals. He has authored 13 books, edited and co-edited two books. He published 85 papers in journals of repute. He published 36 articles in books on social science edited by eminent scholars. He is a member in many professional bodies in India.