The paper engages with the debates of economic growth and environmental threats in India's North ... more The paper engages with the debates of economic growth and environmental threats in India's North Eastern Region
India's recent reform measures have transformed the socioeconomic landscape of many states; h... more India's recent reform measures have transformed the socioeconomic landscape of many states; however, it has left a few others behind. Development Disparities in Northeast India attempts to determine Northeast India 's place in the country's economic growth map. It examines whether India's liberalization has infused any hope into the Northeastern states of India. This book objectively analyses Northeast India's intra-regional variations and relates these to a pan-regional analytic grid thereby connecting it to the rest of India. The book opens a debate by examining critical issues like the colossal gap between supply steered policies of the central government and demands of the people in this region. It also addresses the issues of rampant corruption, dismal failure of governance and an insurgent economy that drives a sinister parallel economy within the region. This book will be of interest to graduate students, researchers, academicians and policymakers.
It deals with India's poverty and income inequality and has used NSSO unit level data for... more It deals with India's poverty and income inequality and has used NSSO unit level data for 66th and 61st rounds
... As mentioned by Lall the key to India's new policy is economic factor and its new foreig... more ... As mentioned by Lall the key to India's new policy is economic factor and its new foreign policy priority is also based on economic decision. ... As mentioned by Lall, India is becoming one of Myanmar's major export partners and it is keen on importing Myanmar's gas now. ...
This book describes the build-up to the event, assesses the development impacts of the 2010 World... more This book describes the build-up to the event, assesses the development impacts of the 2010 World Cup while focusing on urban impacts, and debates the probable African legacy. The book consists of 15 chapters presented in three sections. Section 1 describes Football World ...
The Journal of Comparative Asian Development, 2010
Economic prosperity, in both developed and emerging nations, has brought with it a new scourge — ... more Economic prosperity, in both developed and emerging nations, has brought with it a new scourge — economic disparity. Although the manifestations can vary in different countries, it cuts across the wide spectrum of social classes and geographic regions. Hence, it is a global phenomenon. This economic inequality has become one of the most formidable challenges to modern capitalism, resembling the
Linking India and Eastern Neighbours: Development in the Northeast and Borderlands. New Delhi, Sage International, 2021
Over the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, road building projects in the North Eastern Province/Fr... more Over the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, road building projects in the North Eastern Province/Frontier of Bengal constituted one of the essential imperial undertakings. The imperial routes and transport lines primarily were propelled through the undivided Bengal province in the prospect of an easy access to the adjoining areas and connecting to the global sites for gainful trade practices. This dire need of improved road system subsequently compelled the imperials to establish Public Works Department (PWD) in 1868 under a separate North Eastern Frontier Tract administration system. By the 1937-38, the imperials built about8000 km road network to provide access to the jungle laden, flood prone and mountainous frontiers of the North-East(Sharma, 2013, Das 2009, Ganguly, 2006). However this 'reworlding' of the frontier with imperial road transport network could neither provide any long standing territorial identity nor had proven the conventional wisdom to bestow any economic prosperity (Soja, 2000 and Demenge, 2015). Roads were primarily used for extraction, appropriation and transportation of the vast resources of the NorthEast to the making of the imperial metropolis. This geo-history of the NorthEast frontier subsequently was 'uprooted' in the post-Independent period. The long-drawn-out cartographic exercises produced about 4000 km international borders with a new imagination of the NorthEast as a borderland (Soja, 2000, Pachuau and Schendel, 2016, Rustomaji, 1983).These borders produced multilayered deadlocks and infrastructural asymmetry affecting mobility, connections, and everyday life of the NorthEast ;
As the hilly and far-flung periphery of Northeast India was excluded from an adequate road networ... more As the hilly and far-flung periphery of Northeast India was excluded from an adequate road network during the post-Independent period, it produced certain exceptional narratives of being a 'landlocked, cutoff , inaccessible and underdeveloped' region of India. In the postliberalization period however, trans-boundary road projects at this periphery became essential for India's transnational economic engagements. Subsequently, a central highway flagship programme SARDP-NE was introduced in 2005 to make the Northeast accessible and ensure its economic development. This became more nuanced since 2014 with India's Act East Policy, which centralizes the Northeast as a 'gateway' of India. Multiple road projects with major emphasis on highways were undertaken and completed to restore connectivity and integrate Northeast with 'mainland' India. This paper empirically maps this new road infrastructure and examines its impact on the region's economy and people's lives. It also unfolds how the road project has visibly proliferated to serve multiple national political and geo-strategic interests, symbolizing a new form of regional power relation and control.
An end of planning era in India in the 2014 had halted the production of any official poverty dat... more An end of planning era in India in the 2014 had halted the production of any official poverty data and pushed poverty debate that dominated country's political economy for several decades to the margin. This subsequently was filled up by the international narrative, which credited India's poverty to be reduced significantly to claim it as 'no longer a poor nation'. The paper argues that
the paper investigates the issues of poverty and inequality in North east India and state expendi... more the paper investigates the issues of poverty and inequality in North east India and state expenditure pattern
The paper engages with the debates of economic growth and environmental threats in India's North ... more The paper engages with the debates of economic growth and environmental threats in India's North Eastern Region
India's recent reform measures have transformed the socioeconomic landscape of many states; h... more India's recent reform measures have transformed the socioeconomic landscape of many states; however, it has left a few others behind. Development Disparities in Northeast India attempts to determine Northeast India 's place in the country's economic growth map. It examines whether India's liberalization has infused any hope into the Northeastern states of India. This book objectively analyses Northeast India's intra-regional variations and relates these to a pan-regional analytic grid thereby connecting it to the rest of India. The book opens a debate by examining critical issues like the colossal gap between supply steered policies of the central government and demands of the people in this region. It also addresses the issues of rampant corruption, dismal failure of governance and an insurgent economy that drives a sinister parallel economy within the region. This book will be of interest to graduate students, researchers, academicians and policymakers.
It deals with India's poverty and income inequality and has used NSSO unit level data for... more It deals with India's poverty and income inequality and has used NSSO unit level data for 66th and 61st rounds
... As mentioned by Lall the key to India's new policy is economic factor and its new foreig... more ... As mentioned by Lall the key to India's new policy is economic factor and its new foreign policy priority is also based on economic decision. ... As mentioned by Lall, India is becoming one of Myanmar's major export partners and it is keen on importing Myanmar's gas now. ...
This book describes the build-up to the event, assesses the development impacts of the 2010 World... more This book describes the build-up to the event, assesses the development impacts of the 2010 World Cup while focusing on urban impacts, and debates the probable African legacy. The book consists of 15 chapters presented in three sections. Section 1 describes Football World ...
The Journal of Comparative Asian Development, 2010
Economic prosperity, in both developed and emerging nations, has brought with it a new scourge — ... more Economic prosperity, in both developed and emerging nations, has brought with it a new scourge — economic disparity. Although the manifestations can vary in different countries, it cuts across the wide spectrum of social classes and geographic regions. Hence, it is a global phenomenon. This economic inequality has become one of the most formidable challenges to modern capitalism, resembling the
Linking India and Eastern Neighbours: Development in the Northeast and Borderlands. New Delhi, Sage International, 2021
Over the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, road building projects in the North Eastern Province/Fr... more Over the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, road building projects in the North Eastern Province/Frontier of Bengal constituted one of the essential imperial undertakings. The imperial routes and transport lines primarily were propelled through the undivided Bengal province in the prospect of an easy access to the adjoining areas and connecting to the global sites for gainful trade practices. This dire need of improved road system subsequently compelled the imperials to establish Public Works Department (PWD) in 1868 under a separate North Eastern Frontier Tract administration system. By the 1937-38, the imperials built about8000 km road network to provide access to the jungle laden, flood prone and mountainous frontiers of the North-East(Sharma, 2013, Das 2009, Ganguly, 2006). However this 'reworlding' of the frontier with imperial road transport network could neither provide any long standing territorial identity nor had proven the conventional wisdom to bestow any economic prosperity (Soja, 2000 and Demenge, 2015). Roads were primarily used for extraction, appropriation and transportation of the vast resources of the NorthEast to the making of the imperial metropolis. This geo-history of the NorthEast frontier subsequently was 'uprooted' in the post-Independent period. The long-drawn-out cartographic exercises produced about 4000 km international borders with a new imagination of the NorthEast as a borderland (Soja, 2000, Pachuau and Schendel, 2016, Rustomaji, 1983).These borders produced multilayered deadlocks and infrastructural asymmetry affecting mobility, connections, and everyday life of the NorthEast ;
As the hilly and far-flung periphery of Northeast India was excluded from an adequate road networ... more As the hilly and far-flung periphery of Northeast India was excluded from an adequate road network during the post-Independent period, it produced certain exceptional narratives of being a 'landlocked, cutoff , inaccessible and underdeveloped' region of India. In the postliberalization period however, trans-boundary road projects at this periphery became essential for India's transnational economic engagements. Subsequently, a central highway flagship programme SARDP-NE was introduced in 2005 to make the Northeast accessible and ensure its economic development. This became more nuanced since 2014 with India's Act East Policy, which centralizes the Northeast as a 'gateway' of India. Multiple road projects with major emphasis on highways were undertaken and completed to restore connectivity and integrate Northeast with 'mainland' India. This paper empirically maps this new road infrastructure and examines its impact on the region's economy and people's lives. It also unfolds how the road project has visibly proliferated to serve multiple national political and geo-strategic interests, symbolizing a new form of regional power relation and control.
An end of planning era in India in the 2014 had halted the production of any official poverty dat... more An end of planning era in India in the 2014 had halted the production of any official poverty data and pushed poverty debate that dominated country's political economy for several decades to the margin. This subsequently was filled up by the international narrative, which credited India's poverty to be reduced significantly to claim it as 'no longer a poor nation'. The paper argues that
the paper investigates the issues of poverty and inequality in North east India and state expendi... more the paper investigates the issues of poverty and inequality in North east India and state expenditure pattern
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Papers by Rakhee Bhattacharya