Subject(s): Economic Development -- Social Opportunity -- India and China -- Political Issue -- Populatun; Health; and Enviornment -- Gender Inequality and womens -- Introduction and approach : Freedom, inequality, comparative perspectives, women's agency and social change, institutions and opportunities, democracy, environment and militarism, solidarity -- Economic development and social opportunities : Education and health, government, state and market, interdependence between markets and governances, market excluding and market complementary interventions, market mania and market phobia, cooperative action and social context -- India in comparative perspective : Indian and the world, growth mediated progress, human capital, India's internal diverstities, selected regional perspectives, political action and rural development in Bengal, Kerala - scrutiny and significance, social opportunities in Himachal Pradesh -- India and China : Health care, pre and post reform, population fertility -- Basic education as a political issue : Social change,, state of school education, educational hopes and discouragement effects, female education, universal elementary education, public expenditure and education policy, school quality and accountability, right to education , education and political action -- Population, health and environment : Malthusian fears, gender equality and demographic transition, health care as social responsibility, reproductive health and beyond, environment and development -- Gender inequality and women's agency : Female deprivation and missing women, female - male ration, women's agency and child survival, fertility and women's emancipation, gender bias in natality, widowhood and gender relations, criminal violence, gender equality and social progress -- Security and democracy in a nuclear India : Wages, moral and pragmatic, sources of strength and dangers of underestimation, deterrence and security, nuclear debt, social costs of militarism, defence expenditure and social needs, militarism and democracy -- Liberalization : Radical needs and moderate reforms, growth and development in nineties, economic reforms and social policy, hunger amidst plenty, globalization and inequality -- Practice of democracy : Inequality and empowerment, decentralization and local democracy, transparency and corruption, accountability and countervailing power, human rights and democracy, democracy and participation