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Healthy population is considered to be the engine of economic growth. A healthy person can work with efficiency to earn wealth. Collective wealth of all those persons gives rise to the wealth of the nation. Against this backdrop, the present paper analyses health infrastructure and health outcome in India by constructing composite indices. To have a wider implication at ground level and also to identify the regional disparity in health infrastructure and outcome, the study has been conducted at district level across all general category states of India using data from District Level Household Survey (DLHS-III) and National Sample Survey (NSS). Using appropriate econometric tools, Health infrastructure has been critically viewed from the basic aspects of availability and accessibility of Promotive, Preventive and Curative health services, whereas health outcome/status has been analysed using three basic indicators of Reproductive & Child Health., Morbidity and Mortality. The paper further extends the analysis by discussing the interlinkage between health infrastructure and health outcome as well as that between health status and economic wellbeing. Relative position of the districts within the states is explored to identify the determinants of health status using simple econometric exercise. Results indicate strong relation between primary health infrastructure and preventive & curative health achievements. Close relation between health and economic status/wellbeing of a district underlines the role of health in determining socioeconomic situation of a region. Gaps in health infrastructure in the region needed to be taken care of to tap the full economic potential of the region has also been estimated and highlighted.

Industrialization is perceived as inseparable part of economic development and developing economies adopt policies for transformation of agro-based underdevelopment regions to industry-based developed regions. However, public awareness about environmental problems emanating from industrialisation has swelled significantly and researchers have been trying to evaluate the consequence of pollution through field studies and quantitative analysis. It is now accepted that the benefit from industrialisation in a region needs to be examined against the perceived costs of increasing pollution and has to be carefully studied before allowing any further industries to come up in that area. This paper attempts to evaluate monetary costs of environmental damages in the rapidly industrialising locality of Durgapur Municipal Corporation in West Bengal. Using WTP and WTA methods, it is inferred from the study that the residents are quite aware of the problems caused by pollution from the present phase of industrialisation in the locality and are willing to pay to protect / clean the environment. The estimated valuation of environment in the area comes out to be around Rs94 million, if the residents seek to protect current environmental standards. If however, the residents want to go back to the situation prevalent before the neo-industrialisation process was set in, then the cost comes out to be a whooping Rs272 million. This is a pointer to the fact that we must look at such costs before embarking on further industrialisation process in the region to protect ecological/environmental balance and keep the system sustainable.

Technological upgradation and increasing capital intensity in organised manufacturing sector in India has been championed on grounds of improving productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness. In a developing economy this is a costly proposition due to capital scarcity, and the effect of technological changes on productivity and efficiency levels have to be estimated before taking such policies. This paper seeks to estimate trends in Factor Productivity, Technological Progress, and Technological Efficiency in this sector and examines their relative importance also. Technical Efficiency is observed to be moderate and further declining in the nineties. Substantial disparity exists among regions and product groups regarding Efficiency, Technical Progress and Efficiency changes. It is found that increasing capital intensity has been associated with falling productivity, efficiency, and technological deceleration in the nineties. Wider diffusion rather than greater capital use is thus recommended for productivity rise. Regional efficiency matrix is also prepared so that states can focus on specific areas where they have comparative advantages.

Debate over Growth and Development are quite old in the history of economic thinking. It is argued that development encompasses comprehensive issues like health, education, equality, and liveability while growth is too narrow a concept. This paper analyses the growth and development experience in India using multiple indicators. Development seems to have lagged behind growth in recent times. Disparity seems to have increased in the post-reform period, caused mainly by further slowing down of low-income states. Imbalances seem to have percolated across economic groups also. This leads us to believe that the remarkable growth that has occurred recently has not been egalitarian and hence development has failed to keep pace with it. Important reasons behind this may be imbalances in Infrastructural facilities and Public Investment, as well as differences in governance. Still, developmental level seems to be higher in the high growth regions, indicating the necessity of the latter for the former.

Imbalances in regional infrastructural availability have been a major reason behind lopsided development in India. This paper examines the veracity of this argument in light of empirical results at the district level using a multidimensional approach with sub-sectoral, sectoral and composite indices of development and infrastructural availability. Significant association between infrastructural and development levels of regions is observed, though the magnitude has declined in recent years. This association is different for regions at different stages of development. The findings suggest that identification of specific requirements of different regions, benefit-cost analysis, followed by infrastructural expansion are major planks of balanced regional development.

Development literature in the past decade has become more people centric with human development being projected as one of the 'ends' of development planning. The present paper tries to explore the trends, patterns and regional dimension of human development (HD) in India through construction of alternate HD indices for the districts of India. The association between HD indices and conventional measures like per capita income has been explored. Substantial inter-regional disparity in HD is observed. Probable reasons for such disparity have been inquired. Suggested policies to enhance HD include greater role of the State in provisioning of social infrastructure, especially to the hitherto marginalized groups.

Wide regional variation has been a major characteristic of development experience in India. In the present study, the multidimensional facet of development is sought to be reflected through composite indices of development. It deals with the development trends exhibited at the National as well as Regional level during the period 1971-1995 with special focus on regional disparity in development levels. Considerable variation in the levels of development - both across states and also within each state is perceived. The disparity seems to be widening over time, specially in the post-reform period. Providing adequate infrastructural facilities, shift from Central Planning to Multilevel Planning, and breaking the myth of trade-off between growth and equity are some of the emerging policy suggestions.