Bridging the HRD gap in reforms

Former IAS officer Sanjay Kaul's book sheds light on the crucial missing link in India's reform agenda and the challenge of achieving inclusive growth and gender equity

AN ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA FOR INDIA

Author: Sanjay Kaul

Publisher: Routledge

Pages: 224

Price: Rs 1,295

This book has not come a day too soon. It covers the most vital missing link in India’s reforms agenda: Human resource development. Excessive focus on physical infrastructure, capital market institutions, digitisation, taxation, and so on will not yield optimal returns without the simultaneous development of human resources. This is where Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines have forged ahead of India in many human development indices and their overall economies.

This is the gap that the former IAS officer of nearly three decades, topped up with private sector