What should be the contours of public policy for crucial sectors in the Indian context? The real debate today is about finding the right balance between market forces and government for Pareto efficiency. Stiglitz posited “that government could potentially almost always improve upon the market’s resource allocation.” In reality, besides the institutional inertia, fragmented design and action often impedes execution of rational policy. The lack of non-governmental inputs, absence of debate and systematic analysis prior to policy making results in ineffective policy formulation and action, obstructing the process of economic development. The study of public policy in commodity production (agriculture, industry), as well as tertiary sectors (services, trade and transport) is important to arrive at efficient and people friendly governance structures.  

The collection of papers in the present volume, attempt at the development of an analytical framework for the formulation of  development policy, bearing on crucial segments of the economy and society mainly,   agriculture sector, industrial development, employment and entrepreneurship, urbanisation, weaker sections,  and governance issues.
Nineteen chapters comprising the volume are organised under four sections: Section 1 Issues in Agriculture Sector; Section 2 Industrial Development, Employment and Entrepreneurship; Section 3 Issues in Sustainable Urbanisation; Section 4 Governance Structure and Development Outcomes.

The papers appearing in the volume  were presented at a seminar funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

Niti Mehta is Professor and officiating Director at the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research (SPIESR), Ahmedabad. Prior to this, she was associated with the Agro-Climatic Regional Planning Project of the Planning Commission, wherein she was involved in formulating resource based decentralised agro-climatic plans for the country. Her research interests are: agriculture development, employment, agrarian growth and rural transformation, urbanisation and related areas. She has authored and co-authored several research papers in journals and books on these areas. Her books relate to hired labour in agriculture, sources of agricultural growth and total factor productivity, and human development at the district level. Prof Mehta is also a visiting faculty at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. She has an MA in Geography from Delhi School of Economics, MTech (Planning) from CEPT University, and doctorate in Economics from Gujarat University.

Anita Arya is an Associate Professor of Economics at SPIESR, Ahmedabad. Her areas of interest are: macroeconomics, agricultural economics, development economics, rural development, agricultural marketing, human development and industrial economics. She has coordinated courses in macroeconomics at the Institute for doctoral students/lecturers, and has been a resource person/observer in the research methodology courses, and macroeconomic courses sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science (ICSSR), New Delhi. She has authored/co-authored several research papers published in reputed journals and 
in edited books. Dr Arya is chief editor of the house journal, Anvesak.