A key figure in India's economic reforms from the early 1980s onwards, Montek Singh Ahluwalia's fingerprints can be found in policies from economics to education reform, and he has been a driving force in the liberalisation programme of the past 20 years or more. The Oxford-educated economist spent 11 years with the World Bank in Washington before returning to India in 1979 to work as an economic adviser to the government. His commitment to poverty alleviation and inclusive growth can be found in his early writings and as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, he has managed to translate this into the country’s Plan process.

He is also the harbinger of participatory planning wherein for the first time Planning Commission started inviting suggestions and feedback for the 12th Five Year Plan. This festschrift comprises a range of essays covering different drivers of economic growth and development, providing not only an insight into policymaking and its impact, but also directions for India if it is to become a major player in the global economy. This book is a must-read for students of development economics and political economy and is highly recommended for graduate students, academics and professionals interested in economic issues of developing countries.

Sameer Kochhar  is Chairman, Skoch Group. He is President, Skoch Development Foundation which is the leading think tank on digital, social and financial inclusion issues in India. He has been passionately working towards promoting participatory democracy, empowerment, and bringing improvements in delivery systems. He is CEO, Skoch Consultancy Services, and is an industry veteran with a multifaceted career spanning over two and a half decades. He is India strategy and management consultant to several Fortune 500 as well as large Indian companies for over a decade. He is also Chief Editor of Inclusion—a quarterly publication focussed on development economics issues. He is considered to be one of the most respected independent voices on inclusive development and citizenship issues in India. He is a member of several expert groups and committees and his research opinion and writings have shaped many a public policy dialogue. He is also a Member of the Expert Group constituted by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India advocating a case for strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions (village councils) through use of technology. He is also a Planning Commission nominee on the committee formulating the national ICT plan for the 12th Five Year Plan. This is in addition to the e-Inclusion Committee constituted by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT.

He has written extensively on areas of emerging management practices, infrastructure, governance, technology, finance, economics, e-governance, Panchayati Raj and ICT for development. He has recently published seven widely acclaimed books, titled Infrastructure and Governance (2008); Financial Inclusion (2009); Urban Renewal: Policy and Response (2009); Speeding Financial Inclusion (2009); India on the Growth Turnpike: Essays in Honour of Vijay L. Kelkar (2010); Building from the Bottom: Infrastructure and Poverty Alleviation (2010) and Growth and Finance: Essays in Honour of C. Rangarajan (2011)—all published by Academic Foundation.