Synopsis One of the major objectives of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, which imparts training to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, is not only to sensitize them towards the plight of rural people, but also to equip them with an in-depth understanding or rural issues. The IAS officer trainees are required to prepare a village study report as a part of their district assignments after conducting extensive questionnaire based house-hold survey. The South India volume of the series on Socio-Economic Profile of Rural India contains papers of the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, prepared by eminent bureaucrats and academicians. The basic ingredients of these papers are borrowed from the village study reports of the IAS officer trainees. Undoubtedly, the state papers are of high quality because they are enriched by inputs from the long-experiences of the authors in the field of rural development. The other four volumes of this series are also in the pipeline. They cover North-East India (Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland), Western India (Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan), North and Central India (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh) and Eastern India (Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh).