This book emphasizes the need for experimenting with more deliberate and rigorous policy processes to attain balanced regional development, which can promote both equity and efficiency in India’s development discourse. The institutional mechanisms for dealing with regional imbalance in India have not been very successful so far.With rising discrepancies in development, demand for autonomy continues along with a new dimension of regionalism arising from submerged identity along with political and economic aspirations, which demanded new channels for solution. So far, attempts to create space for autonomy have possibly not optimally accommodated the conceptual mechanisms like equity and democratic process. Thus democratizing policy process using six pillars of voice: knowledge, objective, fundamental values, implementation framework and public awareness can ensure a better policy outcome for dealing with the persistent challenges of regional disparity in India. This book further focuses on the need for democratizing the policy process for regional development through discussion and inclusion. Such a transition needs innovation in policy regime, which can be attained through following six pillars (i) Democratic voice of stakeholders in policy development and implementation; (ii) Clear policy objectives that advance the common good, based on voice; (iii) Unbiased, sound and comprehensive knowledge and data bases; (iv) Consistency with constitutional values; (v) A sound implementation framework ensuring user-friendliness,transparency and rationality of decision-making processes, effective grievance redress, clear accountability and independent evaluation; (vi) Public awareness and support of policies with relevant and public participation in implementation. CONTENTS 1. Introduction and Overview / Rakhee Bhattacharya 2. India’s Growth Performance 2000–2012: Region-Based Perspective / Biswa Swarup Misra 3. Poor Versus Prosperous India / Madhusudan Ghosh 4. Poverty and Inequality in India: Regional Disparities / Rakhee Bhattacharya and J. P. Bhattacharjee 5. Miseries of the Red Corridor Region of India: What Do the Data Tell Us? / Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay and Nilanjan Banik 6. Intra- and Interstate Inequality in the Northeast Region with Special Reference to Assam / Meenakshi Rajeev and Azharuddin Akhtar 7. Growth, Development Outcome and Fiscal Balance: How Have Indian States Performed? / Pinaki Chakraborty 8. “Inclusive Growth” and Income Inequality in India Under Globalization: Causes, Consequences and Policy Responses / Amitabh Kundu 9. Examining the Regional Imbalance in China: Comparison with India / Amitendu Palit 10. The Way Forward: Public Policy to Address Regional Imbalances in India, Process and Outcome / Rakhee Bhattacharya ABOUT THE AUTHOR / EDITOR Rakhee Bhattacharya is currently the Associate Director and a fellow at Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi. She is working on various economic challenges of contemporary India. Prior to this assignment, she has worked at others institutes across the country and was Endeavour post-doctoral fellow in Australia. Her research interests are development, disparity, regional economies & conflicts. She has worked on many such issues in India’s Northeast and authored ‘Development Disparities in Northeast India’. In addition to this, she has edited a number of volumes and has written several articles in both national and international journals.