ECONOMY AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE - ESSAYS IN MEMORY OF ASHOK RUDRA  (Dasgupta and Co, Kolkata, Rs 395)  edited by Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Manabendu Chattopadhyay and Ratan Khasnabis

This book contains studies of the agricultural and industrial economy of India, the levels of living of the Indian people, the environmental dimension of the quality of life and the theory of the peasant economy applied to the condition of the peasants of the third world.

Amiya Kumar Bagchi has analyzed the influence of the work of the Russian agronomist A V Chayanov on research relating to the peasantry of developing countries. Manabendu Chattopadhyay has taken a fresh look at the old problem of relationship between farm size and agricultural productivity . Ratan Khasnabis examines the economic consequences of land reforms carried out in West Bengal under the rule of the Left Front Government. Debdas Banerjee brings an institutional approach to bear on the relationship between concentration in the Indian corporate sector and its impact on investment behaviour. Robin Mukherjee makes an appraisal of the performance of the unorganised sector in India since 1980. T Krishna Kumar draws up a policy framework for optimum trade policies of a developing country in a globalized economy.

In the part of the book on the quality of life, A.Vaidyanathan makes a re-appraisal, in the Indian context , of the relation between consumption and nutritional states as measured by various indicators. Nikhilesh Bhattacharya critically analyses the relationship between social consumption and measured poverty levels in India.

Finally, M.V.Nadkarni sets out the main issues in the area of the political economy of environment, with special reference to a developing country. The papers are written in such a way that they are accessible to economists and non-economists alike.

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