Synopsis The contents of this volume add useful dimensions to the ongoing debate on various issues relating to India's transition to the new economic policy regime, The papers in this volume were written specifically for the National Conference on Industrial Development and Economic Policy Issues, organized by the institute for studies in Industrial Development during June 27-28, 2008. The conference was held in honour of Professor S.K. Goyal and was anchored on his research interests. While some of the contributions deal specifically with the Indian scenario, others provide an overall context for the debate. They are thus an interesting mixture of specifics and the general. Section I deals with the issue of industrialization and employment especially in the context of increasing importance of the services sector and deceleration of the agricultural sector. Section II examines the historical context of the development of corporate sector in India as well as the present ownership pattern of the sector which has direct implications for industrialization and distributional aspects respectively. This section also deals with the developments in the banking sector. Section III focuses on the role of foreign direct investment in development and innovations, the performance of different constituents of the corporate sector in terms of exports and India's preparedness for a Free Trade Agreement with China. Section IV is about globalisation issues in general and India's experience in this context in particular. Section V focuses on issues relating to poverty and inequality. Section VI covers a different set of issues namely, political and cultural dimensions of the new era.