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The role of clean-energy minerals (CEMs) in the modern non-carbon energy technology development is indispensable. The scarcity of CEM resources in India is a severe concern. Almost complete import dependence on CEM-producing countries makes India vulnerable to the supply risk that could arise due to various reasons. For example, for India to do business with countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China could be challenging given the geopolitical issues India have with China and the internal political and economic crises DRC have within. Situations like this call for securing domestic CEM resources and strengthening the bilateral trade agreements with friendly nations. India needs to focus on investing heavily in the domestic exploration and acquiring overseas leases of CEMs. Research and development promotion are crucial to finding reliable substitutes for priority CEMs such as graphite, lithium and cobalt.

"This book draws from multiple disciplines and uses mixed methods to explore how politicians in developing democracies provide urban land and services to the poor in exchange for political support, how this impacts urban growth, and how urban planners can try to be more effective in this challenging political context"--

In many rapidly urbanizing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, local politics undermines the effectiveness of urban planning. Politicians have incentives to ignore formal urban plans and sideline planners, and instead provide urban land and services through informal channels in order to cultivate political constituencies (a form of what political scientists refer to as "clientelism"). This results in inequitable and environmentally damaging patterns of urban growth in some of the largest and most rapidly urbanizing countries in the world. The technocratic planning solutions often advocated by governments and international development organizations are not enough. To overcome this problem, urban planners must understand and adapt to the complex politics of urban informality.In this book, Chandan Deuskar explores how politicians in developing democracies provide urban land and services to the urban poor in exchange for their political support, demonstrates how this impacts urban growth, and suggests innovative and practical ways in which urban planners can try to be more effective in this challenging political context. He draws on literature from multiple disciplines (urban planning, political science, sociology, anthropology, and others), statistical analysis of global data on urbanization, and an in-depth case study of urban Ghana.Urban planners and international development experts working in the Global South, as well as researchers, educators, and students of global urbanization will find Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics informative and thought-provoking

The tribal areas of central and eastern India have been under the intractable shadow of left-wing extremism in recent years, fuelling a serious internal crisis in the country. While the clashes between the Maoists and the State have been highlighted by the media, academics and others, the situation of the people caught between the crossfire has often been overlooked. Kindling of an Insurrection provides a gripping account of the lives of people in the conflict-affected district of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal as experienced by a District Collector. By focusing on the plight of the people of Junglemahals -- the term for the forested areas of the region -- the author draws attention to the harsh living conditions, unstable occupations and almost non-existent education, highlighting the people's lack of access to developmental schemes implemented by the government and non-governmental organisations. Based on extensive tour notes, the narrative attempts a subtle balance between a personal diary and official documentation, bringing to fore complexities, challenges and dynamics of the ground reality as also the administrative work carried out in the region. Accompanied by photographs, this book offers a rare chronicle of life in rural West Bengal, exposing the roots of the alienation of marginalised tribal communities, and the circumstances leading to the rise of an insurrection within the nation's heartland. Authoritative and lucid, the book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers in the areas of public administration, social work, development studies, social anthropology and politics. It will also prove useful to policy makers, journalists and the general reader interested in West Bengal and left-wing extremism.

Providing an ethnographic account of the everyday life of a household of artisans in the Telangana state of southern India, Chandan Bose engages with craft practice beyond the material (in this case, the region's characteristic murals, narrative cloth scrolls, and ritual masks and figurines). In situating the voice of the artisans themselves as the central focus of study, simultaneous and juxtaposing histories of craft practice emerge, through which artisans assemble narratives about work, home, and identity through multiple lenses. These perspectives include: the language artisans use to articulate their experience of materials, materiality, and the physical process of making; the shared and collective memory of practitioners through which they recount the genealogy of the practice; the everyday life of the household and its kinship practices, given the integration of the studio-space and the home-space; the negotiations between practitioners and the nation-state over matters of patronage; and the capacities of artisans to both conform to and affect the practices of the neo-liberal market

Study conducted in Māldah, Murshidābād, Nadia districts of West Bengal, India

The public sector in India has evolved over the past two centuries to adapt to contextual changes like political framework, economic conditions, and people`s expectations. Certain systemic and institutional changes reflect the ongoing transformation within the sector. One such change has been in the role of the District Officer (DO). Beginning as an area administrator-with the agenda of revenue collection and representation of colonial authority-in the 18th century, the office has today evolved into a multi-faceted functionary at the centre of district administration. Unfortunately, this proce