Synopsis This book has been designed to meet a long-felt need for a compendium of papers contributed by writers, authors, subject experts, academicians and consultants and those who have been related with agro-development, rural development, social development, overall entire infrastructure promoting rural bases. The book contains papers on the following subjects: Participation and empowerment; Rural infrastructure in telecommunications; Empowerment of women and marginalized groups in panchayats; Women’s self-help groups; Women’s welfare and social development; Communication needs for rural women; Women corporate leadership; Women in commercial poultry, Status of women in India; Women’s role in gram sabhas; Self-employment as a career; Child labour in India; Electronic media for agro and rural development; National social assistance programmes; Internet in India: an oversight; Decentralisation – new agency of the World Bank and Panchayats and child labour. This book will prove useful not only to students of Commerce, Economics and Sociology but also to those who are appearing for CA, CS, Cost Accountant, CAIIB and other professional examinations and in addition to the teaching community, researchers, policy makers, government officials, academicians and so on.