Under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule led by the charismatic Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bihar, one of the poorest states in India has seen a spectacular turnaround since 2006 so much so that some see the potential of the next green revolution in India sprouting from this Gangetic plain.

The book, Structural Innovation for Inclusive Development in Bihar: The Navodaya Shahar Model explores this recent resurgence in Bihar and shows that policy options in the medium term are highly limited. The usual route of rural-urban transformation stands blocked and the vast rank of the rural landless continues to swell in this second most populous state in India. Floods of outmigration have provided a safety valve. But unless internal mobility is generated through rapid structural transformation, the human development baseline will not budge, nor will the specter of mass poverty begin to thaw.

This book outlines the concept of Navodaya Shahars (new age rur-ban habitats) based on a new ‘land reform plus’ agenda to converge ownership of assets by poor households and feasible solutions for services, and lay a solid foundation for identity and livelihood with dignity. Could Navodaya Shahars be the Twenty-first Century incarnation of Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Gram Swaraj’ vision?

This question is likely to engage scholars, policy makers and the common man alike. This book belongs to the category of ‘game-changers’.

Harsh Singh has a rich cross-institutional background. He served in the Indian Economic Service for a decade and in UNDP India from 1992 to 2009. As Assistant Resident Representative and later as Programme Advisor in UNDP, he led various divisions such as Strategic Planning, Pro-poor Livelihoods and Private Sector Partnership. He also served as an advisor in the High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. He now heads the consultancy, Market Solutions for Inclusion. In 2010, he authored the book, Creating Vibrant Public-Private-Panchayat Partnership for Inclusive Growth through Inclusive Governance published by the Academic Foundation.