“Sustainable development” and “sustainability” may be among the most used phrases across discourses, both mainstream and radical, on “development.” As in any conceptualisation, disciplinary frameworks and value judgments matter here as well.
Post-growth Thinking in India: Towards Sustainable Egalitarian Alternativesedited by Julien-François Gerber and Rajeswari S Raina,Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2018; pp xxii + 365, ₹1,075.
Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era edited by Giacomo D'Alisa, Federico Demaria and Giorgos Kallis, New York and London: Routledge, 2015; pp xxii+220, Rs 2,600.
This paper offers a critical discussion of the rich source of information on farm-level data, the Cost of Cultivation Survey datasets, collected by the central and state governments. The paper also analyses a recent proposal to modify the schedules and mode of collection of data and concludes with a few specific suggestions on collection, documentation and dissemination.