This essay contends that the economic liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) model of development in India is virtually depriving the tribal peopl and other agriculture dependent poor people of their traditional means of sustainable livelihood by promoting the unregulated growth of mineral-based industries in the tribal regions of India. In the name of modernization and the country’s economic development, the elites in India are taking over the life sustaining resources of the poor and pushing them into a further marginalized state of living as a result of displacing them from their land and homes. Such development serves the interests of these elites while it impoverishes the tribal people and poor peasants in these regions who are dependent on the life sustaining resources of the ecosystems in which they live. The mining and other industries that are taking over the resources of the ecosystems of these tribal people and poor peasants fail to provide them with an improved and sustainable means of making a living. The very nature of the present development paradigm does not provide for the absorption of these poor people into the organized non-farm sector economy by either developing their skills or providing them with technical education.

The article seeks to analyse the causes of low growth/failure of small-scale industries (SSI) in a poor and industrially backward state like Orissa, notwithstanding its rich mineral resource endowments and a good number of professionally qualified and well experienced people heading the SSI units of the state as entrepreneurs. Based on a survey of the SSI units and interview of Oriya entrepreneurs by using a structured questionnaire in three of the largest and important cities of Orissa, the researchers have analysed the social, cultural and political factors that have stifled the growth of a conducive industrial climate for the success of SSI units in the State. Also, the factors that are responsible for the deficiency of good entrepreneurial quality among the Oriya entrepreneurs of the SSI sector have been looked into from the political economy and socio-political angles.

Learningfrom the Western experience of economic development, the developing countries of the world, after their liberation from colonial rule in the 1940s and 1950s, pinned their hopes on industry and urbanisation to stimulate accelerated economic growth and the social transformation of backward regions. However, in many cases industrialisation of backward regions has generated unintended social and ecological consequences resulting in the involuntary displacement of human populations, the loss of traditional sustainable livelihoods, the marginalisation of the locals, especially the tribals, and the increasing environmental pollution of the region. As the process of development is usually designed at the top, it mostly serves the social and economic interests of the elite and privileged sections of society at the cost of the poor and downtrodden. The present art icle analyses the processes of industrialisation and economic development as causal factors in ecological degradation in Rourkela, the site of the India's first public sector steel plant and a region which, in the past, was predominantly inhabited by indigenous peoples.

Since its liberation from colonial rule, India, a largely populated country, has always banked on mega projects to accelerate its economic development. However, such mega-development projects are found to generate very limited socioeconomic benefits for the very people for whom they were initially designed and planned. On the other hand, many such projects are benefiting the rich 'omnivores' and adversely affecting the livelihood of the land-dependent 'ecosystem people'. This article deals with just such a story of ephemeral development, that of Independent India's first mega project, the Hirakud Dam on the Mahanadi River. By making its main focus the issues of irrigation-water management and the plight of the tail-end farmers in recent years, this article highlights how the key objectives of India's multipurpose river dam project, Hirakud, have failed during the last 50 years of its operation in terms of flood control, irrigation coverage and electricity generation.

Health is an essential component of economic development and there is a strong correlation between health of human population and societal well-being. We cannot just think of the development of the human capital without the development of health and education of the people. However, it is found that although India has made large gains on the health front of its population, there exist wide variations between and within states. While states such as Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu have a very developed health sector and the health indicators of these states are comparable to those of developed middle-income countries, states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, etc., are almost at the level of Sub-Saharan Africa. By using a few of the key health indicators the present article makes a critical analysis of the health status of people in the 17 major states of India, the ongoing health development programmes and the present state of public health care services in different parts of the country. The article further delves into an arena of specific policy intervention measures that are required to be undertaken in order to increase the health status of people.