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This book presents the state-specific dimensions of the governance of higher education in Bihar, India, based on a real-case perspective. It discusses the policies of the center and state governments, and their implications on the state'shigher education system. It addresses theissues and challenges faced by the higher education sector from the point of view of multiple stakeholders at center, state, university and college levels, while examining influential power centers. The volume focuses on select universities in the state and looks at how they manage policies, schemes and regulations. It deals with key themes such as the role of state and regulatory bodies such as the University Grants Commission; thebalance of power; resource scarcity; the inadequacy of top-down governance models; governance failure; and theautonomy of universities. It explores the conflictbetween the politics and economics of governance and efficiency; the promotion and recruitment of senior office-bearers and teachers; the privatization of colleges; and financing, admission and examination systems. Through an in-depth study using empirical unit-level data from the All-India Survey of Higher Education, examples and theoretical frameworks, the book analyzes the reasonsfor theunderperformance of the governance system of higher education in Bihar. It also offers suggestions and policy recommendations to help improve its planning and management via participative and responsible governance and informed institutional leadership. This book will be of interest to students, teachers and researchers of education, higher education, economics, governance and public administration, and development studies. It will also be useful to educationists and experts, education administrators, policymakers, bureaucrats and the governing bodies of higher education institutions.

India's Foreign Policy Dilemma over Non-Alignment 2.0 presents the story of India's quest for renewed focus on the doctrine of Non-Alignment. It begins with a discussion on the evolution of India's Foreign Policy along with the origin of its most important pillar, Non-Alignment, and its cumulative effect in India and abroad. It further discusses challenges, compulsions and constraints for India's Foreign Policy in context of the current instability and insecurity due to mounting Chinese and Pakistani collusion against India's rising profile in Asia, the emerging Pyongyang-Beijing-Moscow axis against the US, the evolving US-China bipolar world order in the background of eastward shifting geopolitics, economic recession and terrorism. The book argues that it is incumbent upon India to take a fresh lead today to reinvent the doctrine not only for its own national interests but also for the entire Third World. It proposes various steps to revitalize India's Foreign Policy so that India can play a desired role in the present global order.

1. Judicial activism : making justice accessible or a power game? -- 2. Balance of powers between the legislature, executive and judiciary -- 3. Appointment of judges to the higher judiciary -- 4. Truth is above contempt : people's right to criticise judges -- 5. Legislature's privileges and the power to expel its members.

Occupational competence and division of labour in India have historically been linked to social institutions of caste, class and gender. Labour related to sanitation and waste disposal has perpetually been assigned to the most backward caste groups. The reality of the caste system and the revulsion of upper caste groups from any physical contact with dirt and human waste, or with people dealing with waste and sewage, has had many implications for the state of sanitation and cleanliness in India. The national policy on sanitation and its flagship program the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), seems to ignore this caste reality and the conditions of people involved in waste and sanitation-related activities. SBM focuses on infrastructure building for ownership and access of toilets and not on dealing with sludge and sewage, conditions of sanitary workers and their rehabilitation. The technology used in the toilets being constructed, their sustainability, safety and retrofitting needs also requires critical assessment. Any policy for a sanitised India or Swachh Bharat will only be successful if it considers the notion of caste, of ritual pollution associated with human waste and dirt in India and removes the shackles of caste that have chained few marginal communities to such occupations, thereby making the enterprise of sanitation and cleaning in India truly egalitarian and democratic, in the sense of opportunities and participation.