BANKING SECTOR REFORMS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
By DR . SASIKALA PUSHPA AND DR B. RAMASWAMY

Banks are the lifelines of the economy and they play a crucial role in activating and sustaining economic growth, especially in developing countries like India.

Product Innovation: Making Sanitation Accessible to All
By Sarthak Akshay

Today, sanitation in India has become a revolution in the wake of Swachh Bharat Mission launched by the Prime Minister almost three years ago. Sanitation assumes a great role when the impact on people is concerned.Lack of sanitation leads to physical and cognitive stunting in children, leading to a less potent and productive workforce.

Economic Risk and Uncertainty
by Ravindra D. Nandeppanavar

Market risk assessment is a very uncertain aspect of economic transactions. When people want to get profit in spite of this uncertainty there is always be risk.

The Millennium Development Goals, an Analysis of the Achievements
by Nandini Sahay

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the eight international development goals, which were set following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, as a sequel to adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES-EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
by Dr Manas Ranjan Senapati

Mankind is using up energy resources of mother earth in a way no other animal has ever done. The largest contributions to current energy sources in the world come from oil (31per cent), coal (26per cent) and natural gas (19per cent).

Role of Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to Manage Disaster
by Dibakar Lenka

It may be Government, non government, non -profit organization, NGOs, Banks, or private business entities - those who are providing goods and services to the customers or stake holders with different goals and objectives

ROLE OF TEXTILE IN MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE SECTOR
by Dibakar Lenka

Textile industry of our country is one of the oldest industries. This sector is one of the largest contributors to exports. It contributes around 11 per cent of total exports.

MICROBIAL INFECTIONS : COMING FULL CIRCLE
by Varun Dhamija, Ruchi Juneja

The most significant breakthrough of the medical sciences, antimicrobial drugs, the compounds used for growth inhibition of disease causing microrganisms, or for their killing, has started faltering. Many disease causing micro organisms no longer respond to the currently known antimicrobials.

Scientific Policies and Sustainable Development
by P. Srivatsa

Science coupled with Technology and Innovation is acknowledged to be essential components of social and economic development. Science is critical to help meet the challenges for sustainable development as it lays the foundation for new approaches, solutions and technologies to identify, clarify and tackle global challenges for the future.

Political Empowerment of Women and Panchayat Raj
by P. SRIVATSA

Woman is the builder of nation’s destiny. Though delicate and soft as lily, she has a heart, far stronger and bolder than of man. She is the supreme inspiration of man’s onward march

E-Governance: A Tool for Curbing Corruption in Indian Higher Education System
by Prateek Bhanti

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is used in many countries across the world to bring in transparency and operational efficiency in the working of government machinery. The concept of E-Governance encourages the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) in order to improve service delivery to the citizens and promote transparency in functional procedures. Higher education is one of the most complex structures and thus quite cumbersome to be governed.

Goods and Service Tax-The ‘flawless’ paradigm and thereafter
by Dr. Debdulal Thakur

The voters must be informed voters, and not all read economics. Therefore, from a citizen’s perspective it is important to understand about such critical public policies. It is well understood by all, that the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill is certainly the most sought after subject in Indian economy- at least as of date.?

Biofuels as Promising Substitutes for high Carbon Energy Sources
by Mayanglambam Ojit Kumar Singh

“Nature Runs on Sunlight.
      Nature uses only the energy it needs.
               Nature fits form to function.
                           Nature recycles everything.
Nature rewards cooperation.
        Nature banks on Diversity.
             Nature demands local expertise.
                Nature curbs exercises from within.
           Nature taps the power of limits.”

Energy at threshold – Imminent role of Infrastructure as energy carriers.
by Megha Jain

E conomic growth, increasing prosperity, a growing rate of urbanization and rising per capita energy consumption has widened access to energy in the country. One common cognizance is that 85% of the total energy requirements are met by fossil fuel (non-renewable energy sources) in India despite of unlimited growth potential for the solar photovoltaic industry. Energy consumption is closely correlated with the size of a country’s economy. Transport predominantly relies on fossil fuel based energy resources. Fossil fuels account for over 79% of the primary energy consumed in the world, and 57.7% of that amount is used in the transport sector and are diminishing rapidly . The World Energy Forum has predicted that fossil-based oil, coal and gas energy reserves will be exhausted in less than another ten decades (et al. 2010). Figure-1 provides energy usage (kg of oil equivalent per capita) for India from 1991 to 2012.

Addressing the challenges of water: A perspective from Sustainable Development Goals.
by Mayanglambam Ojit Kumar Singh

Theoretical biologists and the experimental ones have proven time and again that living organisms evolved in the watery medium. Every metabolic activities in living organisms take place in a watery medium which again proves that living organisms cannot do any of the living process in the absence of water whether in the poles or in the equator, tropic or the sub tropical, mountains or the oceans..

Water Availability Crisis and Ways to Check the Depletion
Dr. Harender Raj Gautam

Water is the lifeline of human lives and the world needs to wake up to the ground reality that one day this nature's gift may dry up from this planet unless we take good care to nurture and replenish its sources. Water consumption of the world is doubling every 20 years, which is more than twice the rate of increase of our population. The United Nation predicts that by 2025, two thirds of us will experience water shortage, with severe lack of water affecting the lives and livelihoods of 1.8 billion. Central Water Commission estimated that only about 1,123 km3,

Disaster Management in India and Differently Abled
by Dr Dr. Sanjay Sharma

Disaster is generally understood as an event causing loss of life, destruction of infrastructure and creating social stress. Disaster renders people disabled in large numbers. But what about the person who are already disabled? Disaster management is expected to recognise that differently able cannot respond to disaster as quickly as other can. Therefore, disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery, rehabilitation should be inclusive of needs of differently abled. This paper deconstructs the various dimensions of policy framework and institutional structure of disaster management in India from the hitherto under researched perspective of differently abled. It also suggests potential reforms in this direction.

The Trouble With Being SMART
by Professor Amit S. Mukherjee

2016 is here. Worldwide, managers are setting SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely) goals, expecting these to make this 'the year' to revitalize or transform their businesses. Instead, most of these professionals should retire SMART – or at least rescind its standard operating procedure status.

Oral Health Status in India
by Dr Varun Kumar, Dr Ruchi Juneja

Oral health is critical but underserved and overlooked component of the overall health and well-being of an individual. It has always received step motherly treatment by health policy- makers. Lack of information about the actual burden of oral diseases and inadequate understanding of the connection between oral diseases and systemic diseases are some of the reasons why oral health has not been on a priority list of the health policy makers. Worse, oral health is not a priority for the individuals either. Neglect on the part of individuals and attitude to defer the treatment until it becomes urgent, is also a reason that it has not received the attention it deserves. All these factors have led to an appalling oral health status in India.

The Trouble With Being SMART
by Professor Amit S. Mukherjee

2016 is here. Worldwide, managers are setting SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely) goals, expecting these to make this 'the year' to revitalize or transform their businesses. Instead, most of these professionals should retire SMART – or at least rescind its standard operating procedure status.

FINANCIAL INCLUSION Vs. PAYMENT BANKS
CMA Dr. P. Siva Rama Prasad

The Reserve Bank of India’s latest initiative of introducing ‘Payment Banks’ finds resonance with Economist Adam Smith’s Theory* of employing Division of Labour to exponentially increase productivity. The new Business Model adopted will create a revolutionary trend in the Indian Banking Industry and will accelerate Government’s Mission of improving Financial Literacy and achieving Total Financial Inclusion (TFI), both vital for a country’s Economic Development.

Relevance of Human Rights Education in Indian Society
Dr. Kamlesh Kumar

Since the dawn of human civilization, education has been playing a significant role in awakening, educating and empowering human beings for imparting multiple tasks in society. Thus, education is widely acknowledged an indicator for human development and seen as a way to enable people to improve their quality of life, leading to desired transformation in the social, cultural and economic policies and practices. The conceptual core of human rights education is human dignity, its rec¬ognition, fulfillment, and universalization. As human rights are most readily adaptable to the study of positive peace, the social, political, and economic conditions most likely to provide the environment and process for social cohesion and nonviolent conflict resolution. Further more, The Vienna Declaration (2001) affirms that States should strive to eradicate illiteracy and should direct education towards the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The World Conference on Human Rights calls on all States and institutions to include human rights, humanitarian law, democracy and rule of law as subjects in the curricula of all learning institutions in formal and non-formal settings.

India pledges for non-fossil fuel-based energy
R.C. Sundriyal, S.K. Nandi & P.P. Dhyani

G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora- 263 643, Uttarakhand, India

Well ahead of the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) that is scheduled from 30 November to 11 December 2015 in Paris, France, India has voluntarily placed its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for climate justice that vowed its commitment in energy sector as well. It campaigns to increase non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by up to 40% by the end of 2030,

STOCK MARKET VOLATILITY IN INDIA
Dr.V.Pankunni

Indian stock market has been showing trends of volatility over years. The press media and the general public are showing greater amount of anxiety over it. The perceived volatility based on the changes in the stock indices and individual stock prices is considerably higher which has scared off the domestic retail investors from the market. The small and retail investors are still panicky and shy due to the felt volatility of the stock market.he market indices and the prices of individual stocks listed in the stock markets are subject to frequent fluctuations. The fluctuations in prices and returns are a greater concern for the investors. The changes in prices are the sources of return from stocks, if it is positive. If the prices change negatively, stockholders interest will be adversely affected. The predominant interest of the stockholders in the price change is the direction of change, whether it is negative or positive.

Sustainable indicators of food, nutritional and health outcomes in India
A Amarender Reddy

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 aimed at transforming the world by 2030 with 17 specific goals of which the second goal i.e. end hunger through achieveing food security and improving nutrition and promotingsustainable agriculture is specifically focused on food and nutrition. It aims at ending and ensure access by all people to food security, end of all forms of malnutrition, double the agricultural productivity and income of small scale food producers, ensure sustainable food production systems and maintain genetic diversity of seeds.

Abstract: Public Account funds being managed by the Government is a perpetual source of distortion in our public finances. It is time to separate all Public Account funds from the cash balances of the Government and entrust their management to professional trusts free from Government control. Apart from making these funds self-sustaining, this will also enforce much greater discipline in the management of fiscal deficits and public debt. .

The system of evaluation in India was almost simultaneously conceived at the time, when the country was gearing itself for a planned economy. During the post independence period, with huge resource constraints, government had intended to take development initiatives through the system of Five Year Plans. The planning exercises were geared to address the extreme socio-economic inequity and to bring in maximum welfare to the people at large. When the First Five Year Plan was launched in July 1951, the importance of creating of a systematic evaluation was felt and as such the central government proposed to establish an evaluation organization. The First Five Year Plan document highlighted the necessity as “Systematic evaluation should become a normal administrative practice in all branches of public activity. With the object of developing the techniques of evaluation a beginning has now been made with the establishment of an independent evaluation organization under the Planning Commission for community projects and other intensive area development programmes”.

Education in India has always been a symbol of pride and heritage. Delivery of quality education to all has been prolonged effort post independence. Presently, India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies in terms of GDP share (PPP), only behind China and US (World Bank Report 2011). The ‘Global Economic Prospects’ report published by World Bank in January’2015 forecasted that by 2017 , India will out-pace China in terms of GDP growth rate. The country sits on the most advantageous situation with 65per cent of its population being under the age of 35 and approximately 12 million individuals on an average are expected to join the workforce every year. With these demographics, it happens to be world’s youngest nation of median age 27years.

Prime Minister, in his Independence Day speech spoke of his Skill India Mission to promote holistic development, showing very intent on placing renewed emphasis on skill development in the services and manufacturing sectors. Skill development plays a-vital role in improving labour market outcomes and economic growth. World leaders understand the emergent need of skilled development. At the G20 Summit in Brisbane, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder urged G20 leaders to focus on policies that drive growth through more and better jobs.

There is a popular emotional appeal in favour of the environment while positing a trade-off with growth–development comes from the consumption of scarce natural resources that release greenhouse gases and damage the environment for centuries to come; green is clean and economic growth is dirty. But when the same issue is queried as a trade-off between fighting poverty and preserving the environment, the response is not as easy.

Patents in India are granted to encourage inventions and to secure that it is worked on a commercial scale. The Indian Patent Act ensures that a Patentee should not be able to enjoy a monopoly for the importation of the patented article. The Patent Act provides measures by way of compulsory licensing (CL) to ensure that the patents do not impede the protection of public health and nutrition and the patent rights are not abused by the patentee. The CL therefore serves to strike balance between two disparate objectives- rewarding patentees for their invention and making the patented products, particularly pharmaceutical products, available to large population in developing and under developed countries at cheaper and affordable cost.

Linking the agricultural farmers of India with technology and institution has always been the priority since the planned development of the country. In this direction, several experiments using different methods and means of communication have been done. Since sixties, a large number of studies were conducted on farmers and extension interaction, and it was mostly focused on the communication behaviour of these two important elements. Most of the Indian reports reveal diverse communication channels/sources utilized in the different stages of the innovation decision process. It was found that personal cosmopolite channels were more important and followed by personal localite channel at the knowledge stage. Similarly, importance of these channels/sources was also recognized at persuasion stage and at decision making stage in the innovation decision process.

From 2001 to 2011, India’s urban population increased by 9 million. According to 2011 Census, 31per cent of India is urbanised, the first time since independence where the absolute population growth of urban is higher than the rural. The pace of India’s urbanisation, though argued by many scholars as slow, is bound to increase the stress on our already overstretched cities.

Despite ensuring ample availability of food, existence of food insecurity at the micro-level in the country has remained a formidable challenge for India. The recently introduced National Food Security Act (NFSA) aims to address this and marks a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security—from the current welfare approach to a rights based approach.

The paper is based on secondary data, collected from Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), Govt. Of India and attempts to explore the performance of Khadi and Village Industries (KVIs) in India during the period 1994-2010 with respects to the performance variables like production, employment and sales. The statistical tools like percentage, compound growth rate and correlation coefficient has been used to study the association between the variables. Also, the projection has been made in respect of the performance variables through the use of least square principles.

The contribution of housing & construction sector in the GDP of India has almost doubled during 2000-2011 with synchronisation in growth rates of the two. The modern housing in India has mainly been confined to urban areas as revealed by census. The policy changes since 1998 with rebate on interest and repayment of principal of housing loans. As a result , the share of credit for housing in GDP increased from 2 % as on March in 2000 to about 8% as on 2008 and thereafter. The comparison between the annual growth rates of housing loans from SCBs and GDP clearly depicts the former as a pull factor for the growth of the economy during the study period.

According to the United Kingdom Commission on Public Private Partnerships, ‘A Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a risk-sharing relationship between the public and private sectors based upon a shared aspiration to bring about a desired public policy outcome’. In the case of infrastructure, PPP generally refers to the Concession or Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contracts, or any variant of them, i.e., contracts where risks and responsibilities transferred to the private sector are much wider than in traditional public projects. Concession (BOT) is an exclusive right granted by the Government Authority, under which private sector builds an infrastructure project, operates it and eventually transfers the project to the government. Company continues to run the facility, and the government acts as the regulator, while being the owner of the facility.

An emerging feature in public policy circles around the world has been the increasing incidence of State agencies entering into various forms of partnerships and coalitions with non-State actors and agencies including the private sector, NGOs, civil society organizations and academicians ostensibly to benefit from their wide and diverse resources in fulfilment of public goals. While some analysts believe that this implies a ‘decline of the State’ with the State ceding its powers to non-State actors, others are of the view that this in fact indicates a transformation towards a more commanding role of the State while benefitting from a wider knowledge base. Proponents of the New Public Governance hold that meaning of the term ‘governance’ has also been undergoing several changes in its interpretation and inference in response to the challenges being posed in the present milieu.

Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian foreign policy has placed Eurasian integration or integration of the former Soviet states on top of its agenda. This idea has dominated most Presidential elections in Russia since 1996, not only because of its popularity among the masses. It is important to note that President Vladimir Putin in 2005, in his address to the federal assembly referred to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and introduced the concept of a new integration project for Eurasia, stressing the need for greater economic cooperation amongst the post Soviet states. However, this idea championed by Putin was essentially the brainchild of the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev who in his speech at the Moscow University in 1994, suggested the creation of an Eurasian Union. In a nut shell, he talked about a political and economic union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and other post-Soviet states. The idea was based upon the integration of the European Union

Since last few years the use of surrogacy has gained currency in not only India but the world over. Yet we must not forget that India along with Russia , Ukraine and certain states of the US are among the few countries that allow commercial surrogacy. It is imperative to understand first what exactly it means . Surrogacy basically refers to a mutually agreed contract in which a woman carries a pregnancy in lieu of money or anything else agreed upon for another couple who want a child but the woman is either infertile or physically incapable of carrying a developed foetus . Let me bring out here that the word surrogate is derived from Latin term “surrogatus” ( substituted ) which basically means “appointed to act in the place of” .

The growth story of India during the last two decades has been exhilarating barring a period of economic slowdown which persisted from 2008-10. The inclusive growth model-adopted by the government during the 11th Plan strives for educational, financial, technological and political inclusion of masses which are being termed as ‘demographic dividend’ by economists of the world-may take the credit for persistent growth of Indian economy even in the global slowdown phase. The emergence of civil society and NGOs during the recent past and the passage of important bills like Food Security, RTI, RTE and Pension Funds Regulatory Authority bills are live manifestation of inclusive growth philosophy of the government at centre. Some states are growing but not developing as far as other social parameters are concerned while others may not seem to be growing but on parallel have good governance. There is a need to compare and analyse the growth and development performance of the states and how governance has an impact on these variables.

The growth story of India during the last two decades has been exhilarating barring a period of economic slowdown which persisted from 2008-10. The inclusive growth model-adopted by the government during the 11th Plan strives for educational, financial, technological and political inclusion of masses which are being termed as ‘demographic dividend’ by economists of the world-may take the credit for persistent growth of Indian economy even in the global slowdown phase. The emergence of civil society and NGOs during the recent past and the passage of important bills like Food Security, RTI, RTE and Pension Funds Regulatory Authority bills are live manifestation of inclusive growth philosophy of the government at centre. Some states are growing but not developing as far as other social parameters are concerned while others may not seem to be growing but on parallel have good governance. There is a need to compare and analyse the growth and development performance of the states and how governance has an impact on these variables.

Common Property Resources (CPRs) provide a regular source of income and employment to a large section of society across age groups. It acts as a safety net for the poor, particularly during the lean season, drought or floods. It is a vital and reliable source of livelihood for elderly people who cannot work as wage earners. It offers equal opportunities to different members of a disadvantaged family to supplement the family income. In addition to main earning members, children, women, elderly people and even the partially disabled find opportunities to collect non-timber forest products. CPRs help to improve economic efficiency by providing alternative income generating activities, direct inputs to the home for daily needs and agriculture and acts as a safety measure to carry on during the calamities.

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” Lord Acton

The above statement by Lord Acton needs to be reframed and expanded in the present context of governance as follows:-

Arunachal Pradesh is situated on the eastern most corner of India having international borders with Bhutan, China and Burma. It is the largest state among all the north eastern states, namely Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. Its total geographical area is 83743 sq km with the population density just over 17. Total population of the state, according to the Census of India 2011 is 1, 382,611, among which the tribal population is about 64 percent. The size of rural population is 10, 69,165 while the urban population is 3, 13, 446 which is 77.33 percent and 22.67 percent respectively.

Basic education is the primary agent either to improve the immediate living condition or to increase the potential for future living. The Millennium Development Goals has emphasized to ensure that all girls and boys must complete a full course of primary education and that gender disparity is eliminated at all levels of education by 2015. As a natural follow-up action, the Parliament of India enacted The Child Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE Act 2009) and it came into force in April 1, 2010. This study attempts to explain how methods adopted in fifth schedule of Constitution of India based on colonial tribal policy of isolation and status quo to guarantee right to land repressed right to education of present day tribal and non-tribal students of Santhal Parganas division of Jharkhand State.

The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) which is popularly known as the Mid-day Meal Scheme was launched by the Government of India in 1995. NP-NSPE states that it aims to address “classroom hunger” and encourage poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities. The mid-day meal programme is a multi-faceted programme of the Government of India that, among other things, also seeks to address issues of food security, lack of nutrition and access to education on a nationwide scale. The Scheme is the world’s largest school feeding programme reaching out to about 12 crore children in over 12.65 lakh schools/EGS centres across the country.

India’s economy has grown by an average of 8 % annually over the past few years, and yet a quarter of its population of 1.1 billion still lives on less than a dollar per day. The number of people living in slums in India has grown up rapidly in recent past and more than the population of Britain. Besides health, education and wedges, housing to the urban poor is a big challenge and cause of concern for the governments. Central and State Governments are trying to provide housing to the people from low-income-groups/slums of urban areas.

The roots of Human Development thought are found in “Swasti mantra” (a prayer seeking Blessings for all) by Adi Shankaracharya who shows great concern for human well being in the following prayer -

Population ageing is a global issue, which has been recognized to have implications on the health care and social welfare systems. The process whereby the proportion of children in the population decreases and those of old persons increases is known as the “ageing of population”. The global population of elderly has constantly been increasing during the second half of the last century. This has been possible due to easy availability of life saving drugs, control of famines, and various communicable diseases, better awareness and supply of nutrition and health facilities and comparatively better overall standard of living.

The evolution of any civilisation depends on the formations and functioning of its institutional systems, the interplay of which allows the constituents of the society to pursue prosperity and happiness. The nature of these institutional systems and structures provide the fountainhead for ideas like democracy to germinate and flourish. However, as witnessed all over the world especially after the World War-II, preaching and eulogising about democracy as the ideal political system is much easier than practising and adopting it with all its limitations-political and otherwise.

There can be few ways to get success and many reasons of failure. But unfortunately, human being has the tendency to exaggerate success and read failures as ‘gaps’. The same thing has happened with the ‘planning’ of our country, which is guided through five year planning pattern. How the situation of different sectors is visualized, conceptualized and planned can be best understood through the Five Year Plans (FYPs) of India, which gives an account of the post independence development of the country.

Assam is idyllically located as an entry point to Northeast India. It has a blend of population belonging from diverse cultures and beliefs. However troubled relations have emerged between different communities (tribes and non-tribes) of the region which have been exacerbated by various militant activities.

TV broadcasting in India is about 54 years old. UNESCO promoted it as a great tool for education and so it was primarily school television telecast by All India Radio. It was initially limited to Delhi. Teachers and, at times, students in the studio beamed in black and white to the few TV sets on an experimental basis. Regular telecast started only in 1965.

The fast changing patterns in global diamond trade caused by the acute shortage of the gem stone has considerably altered the position of India and China as the major cutting and polishing centres besides hitting them in trade revenues.

Howard Cosell hit the nail on the head when he stated, “Sports is human life in microcosm”. Have you ever witnessed the ebb and flow of the Mexican wave in a stadium? The crests and troughs of a graph charting heartbeats during a game? The shrill yet inebriating sound of the vuvuzela? The sheer passion that is enthused in all who watch the game even though they may not be playing it?

Climate change is a global environmental problem which has been receiving intense political attention both at domestic and international levels. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines ‘climate change’ as a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

Environmental Governance is the means by which society determines and acts on goals and priorities related to the management of natural resources. This includes the rules, both formal and informal, that govern human behaviour in decision-making processes as well as the decisions themselves. Appropriate legal frameworks on the global, regional, national and local level are a prerequisite for good environmental governance.

India is on a threshold of becoming a lead economy of the world as her demographic dividend will be the highest-i.e. the largest population between the age group 18-59 years - within not so distant future. While talking of the return from this vast working human resource known as demographic dividend, it would be pertinent to look into another big opportunity which has recently emerged and likely to grow in what is termed as information driven economy.