Articles by P R Dubhashi

In the post-cold war world, issues of equality and social justice still remain vital concerns. As the increasing gap between rich and poor countries, and the growing desperation of the poor and the unemployed reveal, market economy is not an all-encompassing panacea and it thus becomes necessary to find an alternative. It is here that civil society and the local community must have the space to act and where necessary even solicit the state's intervention - a moving idea behind those protest movements seen earlier this year. The challenge of the new century is to bring these ideas together in a new consistent design, towards a "mobilisation against globalisation" through which a more humane and equitable economic and social order will possibly take shape.

Quality and Pricing' covers familiar ground. Like India, China is also (and even more) internationally competitive in steel. One point that is not sufficiently stressed is the relation between growth of demand and technological development and diffusion. In this reviewer' s view, China's technological dynamism in steel and in contrast, India's technological dependence, can largely be explained in terms of the fact that in contrast to India, steel capacity has been growing steadily in China since 1949 in response to rising demand for steel. It is this that has given Chinese technologists, scientists, engineers and workers ample opportunities to replicate and update plants, engage in reverse engineering, commercialise R and D results (e g, coal dust injection systems, etc). Indeed, Chinese small blast furnace designs and coal dust injection systems technology have been imported by Simplex Engineering (Bhilai) and MECON respectively.

VILLAGE panchayats arc the foundations of rural local self-government in India. On the satisfactory functioning of village panchayats depends the success of the experiment of decentralised development and democracy. It is, therefore, necessary that the functioning of village panchayats be studied, their difficulties and shortcomings identified, and measures taken to support and strengthen these institutions.