The development experience of India has been a matter of much interest in recent years. India is home to a sixth of the world s population, and about a third of the country is acknowledged to be living below the officially determined poverty line. After more than six decades of planned economic development the levels of achievement in education and health are poor. After three and a half decades of moderate growth following India s Independence in 1947, a period characterised by centralized planning, the pace picked up in the 1980s with some opening up of the economy. It gathered further...