Indian Development Selected Regional Perspectives

India is a country of great diversity. The commonly used indicators of 'quality of life' (such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy) vary tremendously between the different states, rivalling international contrasts between very low performing countries and very high achieving ones.

This volume of essays reflects an attempt to draw lessons from the disparate experiences within India, rather than from contrasts with the experiences of other countries. It supplements Dréze and Sen's India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity, which studies what we can learn from international comparisons of policies, actions, and achievements.

Jean Dr?ze, Visiting Professor, Department of Economics, Ranchi University, India,Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University

Jean Dr?ze, development economist, has taught at the London School of Economics and the Delhi School of Economics and is currently Visiting Professor at Ranchi University. He has made wide-ranging contributions to development economics and public policy, with special reference to India. He is co-author (with Amartya Sen) of Hunger and Public Action (Oxford University Press, 1989), An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions (Penguin, 2013), and Sense and Solidarity (OUP: 2019).


Amartya Sen teaches economics and philosophy at Harvard University, and was previously Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has served as President of the American Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association, the International Economic Association, and the Econometric Society. His awards include the Bharat Ratna (India), Commandeur de la l?gion d'honneur (France), the National Humanities Medal (USA), Honorary Companion of Honour (UK), Ordem Nacional do M?rito Cient?fico (Brazil), and the Nobel Prize in Economics.

1. Radical Needs and Moderate Reforms, Amartya Sen
2. Uttar Pradesh: The Burden of Inertia, Jean Dr?ze and Haris Gazdar
3. Agrarian Politics and Rural Development in West Bengal, Sunil Sengupta and Haris Gazdar
4. On Kerala's Development Achievements, V.K. Ramachandran
5. Mortality, Fertility and Gender Bias in India: A District Level Analysis, Mamta Murthi, Anne-Catherine Guio, and Jean Dr?ze