While most of the advanced capitalist countries are reeling under a severe financial crisis, the rapid growth of India and China, the two largest and fastest growing economies in the world, are contributing to the realignment of the world economy. At the same time, the transition in these countries is characterized by deep rural poverty and underdevelopment, and plagued by unprecedented forms of social and economic inequality, reliance on volatile export markets, brutal land grabs, and forms of crony capitalism.

This volume brings together twelve wide-ranging essays that collectively engage in discussing key areas of transformation and development, including agriculture, industry, global finance and outward direct foreign investments, science and technology, and R&D policies of these nations. Using an interdisciplinary and multi-level analysis, the volume provides comprehensive and critical insights into the dynamics of the development process in the two countries while exploring the realignment of east-west and north-south relations as well as regional balance.