Contents: Introduction and Methodology, Position and Development of Handloom Industry During Five-Year Plans, Organisational Pattern and Socio-Economic Profile of the Handloom Weavers, Employment Generation and Income Generation of Handloom Weavers, Capacity Utilisation and Indebtedness of the Handloom Weavers, Problems and Prospects of the Handloom Industry.

This title was first published in 2003. Since independence in 1947, India has undergone a phase of rapid urbanization. New planning laws have been passed, new organizations established, public policy documents and discussion papers prepared and a host of land and housing schemes have been implemented. Still, however, the vast majority of urban expansion is an unplanned process that takes the form of squatting and illegal or semi-legal land subdivision. By looking in detail at two rapidly growing cities in Andhra Pradesh (Vijayawada and Viaskhapatnam) this book explores cultural, physical-spatial, political and economic determinants of the allocation of urban land and of urban growth in India in historical context. It focuses on the interplay between the government and the organizations in charge of their implementation, and the private sector on the other. Special attention is given to the conditions of the urban poor, with the changes in their socio-economic conditions.

In developing economies and particularly in rural areas, many activities that would be classified in the developed world as financial are not monetized: That is, there is no money used to carry them out. This is often the case when people need the services money can provide but do not have dispensable funds required for those services, forcing them to revert to other means of acquiring them. People find creative and often collaborative ways to meet the needs, primarily through creating and exchanging different forms of non-cash value. Common substitutes for cash vary from country to country but typically include livestock, grains, jewelry and precious metals. In the 2000s, the micro finance industry’s objective is to satisfy the unmet demand on a much larger scale, and to play a role in reducing poverty. While much progress has been made in developing a viable commercial micro finance sector in the last few decades, several issues remain that need to be addressed before the industry will be able to satisfy massive worldwide demand.