ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Solar Energy

The failure of solar installations in India is not primarily due to poor maintenance or lack of money, materials and skilled manpower as argued in "Solar Energy for Rural Electricity in India: A Misplaced Emphasis" (EPW, 13 December 2014). Solar is still not a visible product for the consumer. Rather than see the failure of solar installations in terms of a rural-urban divide, the author could have done well to locate his arguments in the context of the "new economy-old economy" divide.

India's 'Dutch Disease'

A V Rajwade (EPW, 3 May 2014) rightly complains about how capital inflows are leading to an appreciation of the rupee, which, in turn, is rendering Indian manufactured goods internationally uncompetitive. Besides tackling this problem, the new government must put in place a micro, small and medium enterprise-focused development strategy to overcome the problem of "jobless growth".

Policy Prescriptions for Small and Medium Enterprises

Policy Guidebook for SME Development in Asia and the Pacific by Masato Abe, Michael Troilo, J S Juneja and Sailendra Narain (Bangkok: ESCAP), 2012; pp xviii + 223, $80.

Beyond Academic Honesty

In response to Rajeshwari Deshpande's "How Does the System Encourage Academic Dishonesty?" (EPW, 25 February 2011), it is argued that the solution to systemic problems in the social sciences lies in creating accountable researchers, and in channelising social science research funding to the needs of development policy.

Remembering K K Subrahmanian

The death of K K Subrahmanian in Thiruvananthapuram ends the story of a scholar in the galaxy of the “Bombay economists” who in their time burnt a lot of midnight oil on the pressing problems of development in the country, and also shaped the thinking of a generation of students and associates wh

Social Enterprises in the Competitive Era

This article analyses the international context of social enterprises, the country-specifics in a comparative setting and the strategic options available for the development of sustainable social enterprises

Kerala's 'Turnaround in Growth': A Note

The articles published in EPW earlier this year on recent trends in economic growth in Kerala have generated a considerable amount of comment. Here are three more interventions in the debate.

Small Industry and Globalisation

The report of the third all-India census of small-scale industries prompts some anxiety. The vibrancy and dynamism of the sector, anticipated under an era of deregulation and de-reservation, remains largely unrealised. While India will be negotiating on a number of issues that will effect small industries at WTO forums a lot of homework is yet to be done.

Return Migrants

While Kerala has experienced significant socio-economic changes through agrarian reforms, collective bargaining, growth of infrastructure and social capital, it is migration that stands out as a major change-agent in recent decades. But as a recent workshop highlighted, while the issue of migration, its sociological and economic aspects, has received some scholarly attention, the feasibility of utilising foreign remittances for the development of the state's internal economy remains to be debated.

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