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Devaki Jain, Close Encounters of Another Kind: Women and Development Economics

This collection of 15 essays by Devaki Jain represents her journey as a pioneering scholar, activist and advocate of development alternatives and gender equality on the national (Indian) and international stages for over five decades. It elaborates the iniquitous and gendered implications of macroeconomic policy in different contexts as Jain dons multiple hats—as an economist who participated in laying the foundation of scholarship for women’s work, a member of expert groups on gender constituted to advise the planning process, and a passionate and tireless advocate of economic cooperation among developing countries and for gender equality. The essays speak directly about the present economic impasse in India and policy measures that, despite the evidence of the distress on the ground, look to corporate sector capital to turn around gross domestic product growth rates. Three broad concerns cut across the essays: (a) the importance of laying ethical foundations for economic growth, (b) the desirability of economic cooperation among developing countries for poverty reduction and (c) the significance of women’s work and livelihoods to enhance the social and economic security of the poor. The guiding force for an ethical approach to development is Gandhi, whose ideas are evoked constantly.