Synopsis The current situation calls for wider intellectual understanding, deeper moral commitments and more effective policy measures. Without them, a half century of considerable progress could be undermined. Worse, all people of the world will live on a deteriorating planet, and will increasingly lose the ability to shape their destiny in a coherent way. The charter of UN makes possible a maturing elaboration of the crucial idea of sustainable development, but it has been left to us in the last decades of the twentieth century to try to bring the concept of development of fulfillment. The editor had provided an objective critique of the contradictions and consequences of the development and disparities among the countries. There are some definite linkages between development and disparities. Tackling as it does varies concerns which are of growing importance in most developing countries, the collection in this volume, is of thought provoking critical reviews/papers/articles from India and abroad which would appeal to a wide range of readers. The present work encompasses a wide range of content and approaches in its ambit and as such it is expected to be of much interest to a vast spectrum of scholars.