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The editors urge the need for human development since “no democracy is sustainable if large sections of its people remain poor, underfed, uneducated, unhealthy, with poor resources and assets, human and material, to obtain a decent living standard.” They use an extended framework of human development and as we would expect seek widening of access to those instruments that can make possible well-being for the people. This concern is reflected in the variety of subjects covered in this volume of formidable length.

The introduction contains some prescient observations. Three are singled out for special attention. One is the Indian ability to live with paradoxes such as the combination of Westminster style administration, Soviet style planning and a token obeisance to Gandhism. While this is commendable the editors have not given attention to the fact that this blend must have helped the political leadership to make state intervention both respectable and acceptable. The second is a welcome and critical reference to the plethora of works on the measurement of poverty as if these exercises are an end in themselves. The third is a note of caution on decentralisation. The editors argue that decentralisation can be beneficial only if it increases local autonomy without weakening national institutions which can balance the interests of different groups in society.

Almost all the papers provide information which is ably presented. Also several of them question, and in some cases disprove accepted explanations and conventional wisdom. For example, gender differences in expenditures on education are not systematically related to economic or educational factors. Further, there is less gender bias in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as compared with Kerala and Himachal Pradesh (Tilak ). Another example relates to fertility: a substantial fall has occurred in recent years in fertility among illiterate women and “couples have begun to reduce their family size in order to invest more on child schooling.” (Mari Bhat ) A third one is specific to the situation of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Uttar Pradesh. While on the whole this group has lower returns than the non-SCs on assets including education it enjoys higher returns in the case of land. It may be added though that the explanation offered, namely, that this may be due to the application of more labour (family labour) to land is open to contest. An interesting observation is found in Jeemol Unni’s paper on earnings and education. She observes, following Jean Dreze, that estimations made of returns to education miss out by not capturing the increased returns that become possible as a result of improved occupational choices. This is important since the avowed purpose of development is widening access.

In a generally well-argued introduction it is a little odd to come across a discussion on “social capital” in which its virtues are described without much attention to the critique that the concept has received at the hands of writers like John Harriss. Also it is surprising that despite the brief but incisive attention to decentralisation the subject itself is not dealt with in any of the papers. That may of course be because the papers are based on a survey conducted by the NCAER and this aspect of governance was not part of the survey. Again on a general plane there is no paper that addresses directly two of the three concepts that form part of the title, namely, markets and inequalities. This is not to deny that in many of the contributions the theme of state intervention as well as that of the shares of public and private expenditures on health and education are discussed but given the title, and more importantly the core concern of the book, it would have been appropriate had these two questions received direct and exclusive attention.

One rather disappointing feature is that several papers, after quite probing analysis end up with tame conclusions. A final point. One cannot help feeling that the length of the papers could have been reduced. A good many traverse the historical or evolutionary path before coming to the crux of their contribution. Attention to this aspect of editing would have made the book more readable; as it stands too it is worth a read.

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