Rural Development: Principles, Policies and Management

Rural Development: Principles, Policies and Management, Third Edition, has been revised and repackaged as a comprehensive textbook on Rural Development and Planning. This book is primarily targeted at graduate and post-graduate students of Rural Development, Agricultural Policy and Planning and Rural Management. New chapters have been added, keeping in mind the curricula taught in most colleges, academic institutes, and universities in India. The updated content also takes into account training programmes in Rural Development, Rural Economics, Rural Management, Agricultural Policy and Planning.

The book focuses on the basic concepts, policy instruments, strategies, policies and programmes, and the management of rural development. In particular, it emphasises the pivotal role of human resources as both a means and an end of development. Recent developments and progress of rural development programmes like equity and growth-oriented programmes and natural resources and infrastructure programmes have been well-documented and analysed. Some new pedagogical features introduced in the book include:
- `Learning Outcomes` at the beginning of each chapter
- Two new sections, namely, ‘Main Points’, and ‘Questions for Discussion’ at the end of each chapter

Aspirants of competitive examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission and State Public Service Commissions and the admission tests conducted by academic institutes offering post-graduate programmes in Rural Management and Agri-business Management will also find this book useful. The book will also be of much interest to governmental and non-governmental organisations including donors and other funding agencies engaged in rural development.

Katar Singh is currently Honorary (Founder) Chairman, India Natural Resource Economics and Management (INREM) Foundation, Anand, which is a nongovernmental academic organization committed to promoting teaching, training, and research in natural resource economics and environment management, and improving natural resource management policies and programs. He holds a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign, USA, and has done postdoctoral research and advanced coursework in natural resource economics in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA and in the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington, USA.

He has over 50 years of teaching, training, research, and consulting experience in the areas of agricultural and rural development, and natural resource economics and management. He was the director and RBI Chair Professor in the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), India, and also had a short stint as Director, Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow. He has also taught at G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India.

He has coordinated and conducted several research and consultancy projects funded by national and international agencies. A prolific writer, he has published over 120 articles and papers in professional journals of repute and has authored/co-authored nine books, including a textbook, Rural Development: Principles, Policies, and Management, second ed. (SAGE, 1999), and another entitled Environmental Economics: Theory and Applications (SAGE, 2007), coauthored with Dr Anil Shishodia. He has also co-edited three books, namely, Co-operative Management of Natural Resources (SAGE, 1996), Natural Resource Economics: Theory and Application in India (1997), and Designing and Managing Rural Development Organizations (2000).

Professor Singh is a life member of numerous professional bodies, including the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (ISAE), Indian Society for Ecological Economics, and International Society for Ecological Economics. He is a recipient of several awards and honors, including Rathindra Puraskar 2003, awarded by Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, in recognition of his significant contribution to education in rural development and Sir Chhotu Ram National Award for the year 1996–97, awarded by CSS Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar, in recognition of his outstanding research work in the field of agriculture and rural development.