Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Lucas had remarked that once you
start thinking about economic growth, it is hard to think of anything
else. What are the causes of economic growth and how can the process
be enabled is a question that has obsessively occupied some of the
best minds in the world of economics and commerce.

The question takes on an unparalled urgency and importance when applied
to the rural Indian economy because it presents an enormous challenge,
and, consequently, presents an equally great opportunity for making a
difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of …