Permanent Black

“Jean Drèze is one of the world’s finest development economists. He works in a space that is widely but incorrectly ignored by most. The practical implications of evidence-based economics cannot be worked through without engaging all of society in democratic discussion, including (especially) those who are working for change. Economics itself fails without that engagement. In this collection of beautiful essays, some previously unpublished, Drèze uses economics, philosophy, and his extensive practical experience to illuminate the whole range of social policy in India. Read on!” ANGUS DEATON Nobel Laureate, Economic Sciences, 2015 Photograph of Jean Dreze copyright Anuradha Roy   Jean Drèze has a rare and distinctive understanding of the Indian economy and its relationship with the social life of ordinary people. He has travelled widely in rural India and done fieldwork of a kind that few economists have attempted. This has enabled him to make invaluable contributions not ...

If you missed these books when they came out in hardback it's time to get them now. Bodies of Song by Linda Hess Buy at Rs 595 Text and Tradition in South India , by Velcheru Narayana Rao Buy at Rs 695 Beyond Caste , by Sumit Guha Buy at Rs 595 Print and Pleasure , by Francesca Orsini Buy at Rs 595 Dalit Studies, edited by Ramnarayan S. Rawat and K. Satyanarayana Buy at Rs 595 Unconditional Equality , by Ajay Skaria Buy at Rs 595  Nature and Nation , by Mahesh Rangarajan Buy at Rs 595  Writing the First Person , by Udaya Kumar Buy at Rs 595 The Gender of Caste , by Charu Gupta Buy at Rs 595

Jean Dreze was gifted the first copy of his new book, Sense and Solidarity: Jholawala Economics for Everyone , at a pine-cone studded book-launch yesterday. The launch took place at the corporate headquarters of Permanent Black in Ranikhet, Uttarakhand.  A huge audience of deodar trees attended, listening to every word in rapt silence. Chief Guest Prakriti Mukerjee has been among Jean's band of road scholars, being one of the many students who camped for days in remote villages working on NREGA and PDS surveys through baking summer weather. She is now Research and Communication Officer at Lok Chetna Manch, Ranikhet, and she took time out of her busy schedule to hand over a be-ribonned copy of the book to Jean, as pictured below. Jean's new book, a superb combination of scholarship, passion, and commitment, is that rarest of things: a work of scholarship that is gripping and accessible. Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate, who calls Dreze "one of the world's f...