Globalisation and Development Dilemma

The issue of development in north-east region has been a challenge to planners since independence. The region has its own opportunities and constraints, strengths and weaknesses and needs and priorities, but the development initiatives follow the national perspectives of development. Of course, there are special packages and programmes, autonomous corporations, such as, the NERAMAC, NEDFi, NEEPCO, etc., and institutions like NEC (North East Council) and DONER (Department of Development of North Eastern Region), still the region is a backward region in the country. The development initiatives in the region have been shifting along with changing national development perspectives, which otherwise are influenced by changing international development discourse. Naturally, in this era of globalization and liberalization, there is a shift in development paradigm from top down approach to bottom up, from people around development to development around people, from emphasis on growth factor to the concern for sustainable development and from centralized initiatives to democratic decentralistion in making economic decisions. Associated with such a shift in development paradigm is changing development initiatives in north east region. The papers included in this volume initiate a comprehensive exploration of the strategies of development drawing upon field experiences on different issues. Broadly, the strength of the volume emanates from the analysis of the potentials, challenges of development. The essence of the volume lies in focusing attention on the distinct analytical issues and empirical findings in the realm of strategy formulation and policy-making in the context of globalisation and development. No doubt, the book will come handy among the students of development studies and development practitioners in general and in the north east region in particular to understand the content of development in the context of globalisation in a right perspective.

M.C. Behera (b. 1959), M.A., Ph.D. (Economics) from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, is a reputed scholar of Tribal Studies and Rural Economics. He has authored/edited/co-edited eight volumes on socio-cultural, economic-especially on agriculture-and religious life of tribal people. To his credit, he has about fifty research papers on national and international topics published in various national and international journals/ periodicals. He has presented about thirty papers in national and international seminars/ conferences in the countryand abroad. He has completed five projects sponsored by ICSSR, New Delhi; UGC, New Delhi; KVICK, Arunachal Pradesh and UNESCO-IGNCA, New Delhi. He is a member of many professional bodies and the General Secretary of the Centre for Research and Analysis on North Eastern Societies (CRANES), Itanagar. Presently, he is working as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Tribal Studies, Arunachal University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.