In today’s complex and fast evolving environment, understanding India’s economy is not just an intellectual challenge, but, with the country emerging as a major global player, also a requirement. This unique volume, the first comprehensive resource of its kind on the contemporary Indian economy, aims to address this need. Culled from the collective wisdom and experience of over 200 distinguished contributors, that include economists, business leaders, policymakers, and analysts, the Companion covers the evolution of the Indian economy from relative obscurity to an emergent global force. The more than 200 entries span the recent cover stories of India’s high growth, leadership in software and information technology, and outsourcing success, and also document the backwaters—the widespread poverty, farmer suicides, child labour, and the large and impoverished informal sector that houses a majority of India’s labour force. The revised edition, a testimonial to the dynamism that epitomizes ‘the Indian economy’, includes several new topics that have grown in significance since the first edition was planned; and several revised entries on topics that have undergone rapid transformation during the short time since the first edition was written.

CONTRIBUTORS
• A.K. Shiva Kumar • A. Vaidyanathan • Abhijit V. Banerjee • Abhirup Sarkar • Aditya Bhattacharjea • Ajay Mahal • Ajay Shah • Ajit K. Ghose • Ajit Mishra • Alaka Malwade Basu • Amaresh Bagchi • Amartya Sen • Amitabh Kundu • Amitava Bose • Amiya Kumar Bagchi • Amrita Dhillon • Anandita Philipose • Anindita Pujari • Anindya Sen • Anirvan Banerji • Anjini Kochar • Anup Kumar Sinha • Anuradha Bhasin • Arindam Banik • Arindam Das-Gupta • Arjun Sengupta • Arkadev Chatterjea • Arnab Basu • Arvind Panagariya • Arvind Subramanian • Arvind Virmani • Asani Sarkar • Ashima Goyal • Ashok V. Desai • Ashok Guha • Ashok Gulati • Ashok Kotwal • Ashok Lahiri • Ashok Mitra • Ashwini Deshpande • Asim K. Dasgupta • Basudeb Chaudhuri • Bharat Ramaswami • Bhargavi Rao • Bhaskar Dutta • Bibek Debroy • Bimal Jalan • Bina Agarwal • B.P.R. Vithal • Charan Singh • C.N.R. Rao • C. Rammanohar Reddy • D. Narayana • David E. Bloom • Deb Kusum Das • Deena Khatkhate • Deepak Nayyar • Devesh Kapur • Dhushyanth Raju • Dilip Mookherjee • Dilip M. Nachane • Dilip Subramanian • Dipjyoti Majumdar • Divya Minisandram • E. Somanathan • Esther Duflo • G. Balachandran • Gary S. Fields • Gayatri Ambika Menon • Gurcharan Das • Hθlθne Chevrou-Sθvθrac • Hiranya Mukhopadhayay • Ignatius Chithelen • Ila Patnaik • Indrani Gupta • Ira N. Gang • Isher Judge Ahluwalia • Jaivir Singh • Jayashree Watal • Jayati Sarkar • Jean Dreze • Jeemol Unni • Jeffrey Hammer • Jishnu Das • Jugnu Bagga • K.L. Krishna • K. Navaneetham • K.S. Krishnaswamy • K. Seeta Prabhu • Kaivan Munshi • Kala Seetharam Sridhar • Kameshwari Shankar • Kanhaiya Singh • Kanti Bajpai • Karthik Muralidharan • Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay • Laveesh Bhandari • M.S. Swaminathan • Madhura Swaminathan • Maitreesh Ghatak • Mandar P. Oak • Mausumi Das • Medha Malik Kudaisya • Mihir Pandey • Mihir Rakshit • Milind Kandlikar • Mirai Chatterjee • Mohammed Zakaria Siddiqui • Monica Das Gupta • Montek S. Ahluwalia • Mrinal Datta Chaudhuri • Mukesh Anand • Mukesh Eswaran • Mukesh Gulati • N.R. Narayana Murthy • Nagesh Kumar • Nancy Chau • Narendra Jadhav • Nirvikar Singh • Nitin Desai • Omkar Goswami • P. Chidambaram • Pami Dua • Pankaj Chandra • Partha Ray • Parthasarathi Shome • Payal Malik • P.C. Kesavan • Prabhat Patnaik • Pradip K. Bhaumik • Pranab Bardhan • Prasanta K. Pattanaik • Pratap Bhanu Mehta • Prital Sailesh Kadakia • Pulin Nayak • Puran B. Mongia • R. Nagaraj • R.A. Mashelkar • R.K. Pachauri • R.S. Deshpande • Rafiq Dossani • Raghav Gaiha • Rajesh Chakrabarti • Rajnish Mehra • Ram Singh • Ramprasad Sengupta • Ranjan Ray • Rashmi Banga • Ratan Tata • Ravi Kanbur • Reema Nanavaty • Renana Jhabvala • Ritu Anand • Roger Jeffery • Rohini Pande • Rohini Somanathan • Ronald J. Herring • Ruchira Bhattamishra • Rupa Chanda • S. Neelakantan • S. Subramanian • S. Mahendra Dev • S.L. Rao • Saibal Ghosh • Sajal Lahiri • Sanjay Banerji • Satya Priya Moulik • Saumitra Chaudhuri • Sebastian Morris • Sharit K. Bhowmik • Sharmistha Self • Shikha Jha • Shubhashis Gangopadhyay • S.R. Osmani • Sonalde Desai • Stefan Klonner • Subir Gokarn • Subrata Sarkar • Sudip Chaudhuri • Sudipto Mundle • Sugata Marjit • Sugato Dasgupta • Suman Bery • Suman Sarkar • Sunil Khilnani • Sunil Sharma • Suresh D. Tendulkar • Susan Thomas • T.N. Ninan • T.S. Papola • T.C.A. Anant • Tamal Bandyopadhyay • T.C.A. Srinivasa Raghavan • Tirthankar Roy • U.R. Rao • Utsa Patnaik • Vani K. Borooah • Velayoudom Marimoutou • Vijay Krishna • V.S. Vyas • Vijayendra Rao • Vinay Bharat-Ram • Wilima Wadhwa • Y.V. Reddy • Yoginder K. Alagh

Authoritative yet accessible, the companion will be an indispensable tool for anyone seeking to understand India today, including researchers, policymakers, corporates, bankers, business and financial analysts, journalists, and students.

‘…this book is not only a “what’s what” on economics in India, but is also a “who’s who” of economists on India!...I hope that this volume will contribute to greater awareness abroad about the unique experiment underway in India and the global significance of the success of India’s development experiment…I hope this volume will help them understand India better.’ —Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

‘The most impressive A to Z on information concerning Indian politics, economics and social change. The range of authorship is truly stellar. From Ratan Tata to Amartya Sen, P. Chidambaram to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, all are represented.’ —Business Standard

‘…a very good and informative volume…Kaushik Basu has done a great job in giving economics a broader scope and assembling authors who write expertly but in accessible style.’ —Lord Meghnad Desai, former Professor, London School of Economics

‘The book is a unique and important guide to the dynamic Indian economy, and also a collection of penetrating essays by many of the world’s true experts.’ —Stephen P. Cohen, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies,The Brookings Institution

‘For years to come, this book will be an essential reading for anyone seeking to understand India’s economic development and political economy.’ —Ashutosh Varshney, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan

‘Too many economists may spoil the policy broth, but they can certainly produce a good encyclopedia on the economy!’ —Outlook

‘India’s first companion to economics is certainly among the more impressive additions to the catalogue of Indian encyclopedias.’ —The Financial Express