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The book provides insights into the economic and social transformation that China has undergone from 1979 to the present. Based on the author's research in China for over three decades, China's Transformation: The Success Story and the Success Trap shows how its 'reform and open door' policy evolved and helped achieve tremendous economic success. However, it also generated serious social and environmental problems. The book presents that the consequences of this success story of growth are so strong that it has been difficult for China to change its main development path to achieve a desirable level of equity and sustainability. The author describes this as the 'success trap' that China is currently grappling with.

Both India and China have experienced economic changes and growing social consciousness. which have generated new challenges for local institutions. This volume closely. studies the resultant grass-roots political experiences in these countries from. an interdisciplinary perspective. It examines the process of democratisation and. highlights the growing demands for participation and the complex power structures. interjecting them. The contributors to this volume discuss issues relating to institutional structures. and the dynamics of local governance in a changing socio-economic environment. t

The on going COVID-19 pandemic has succeeded in bringing before us many social, political fault lines which can no longer be ignored and must be addressed urgently. The first is the phenomenon of inequality in power, status, wealth and living conditions which has been growing rapidly in recent decades within countries and between countries. The second is the clear decline of publicness in society, economy and politics. Inspired by capitalism, individual enterprise and private initiative have been eulogised to such an extent that the state's investment in basic public goods such as health, education, housing and child welfare has remained woefully inadequate. The third fault line is an over-centralisation of power leading to a clear decline of democracy by manipulating institutional mechanisms and making full use of the technology of mass communication to mobilise votes. If these emerging fault lines don't engage global rulers immediately then the sufferings faced by humanity the world over will explode.

Deepak Nayyar, Employment, Growth and Development: Essays on a Changing World Economy. London: Routledge, 2017, xiv+260 pp., ₹895, ISBN: 978-1-138-03812-7 (Hardcover).

Not only did the great Odisha Famine of 150 years ago result in the death of a million people, it formed a tentative start of formulating an official response to major calamities in modern India. The Famine Commission Report of 1867 and the Indian Famine Code of 1880 were considered part of the relief and welfare measures to address the countless casualties caused by famines, food scarcity, starvation, epidemics and malnutrition. It is argued here that historical episodes, such as the 1866 famine and the Paika Rebellion of 1817, fought against the British, should be seen as a 'process' rather than simply as an 'event'. Therefore, we should examine deeper causes such as land relations, uncontrolled market and free trade apart from administrative failures as the common perception does. This conceptual discourse on the famine takes a human rights perspective to examine the role of the state, civil society organisations and the media in preventing disasters and alleviating human suffering. Over 150 years after the occurrence of the famine and 200 years after the rebellion, some of the structural reasons behind them still continue to deprive the masses to their right to life.