Rajesh Chakrabarti

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? How did it evolve over the years and what is it going to look like in the future? What are the opportunities and risks associated with AI? Where does India stand among the global AI ecosystems? This book answers these questions and gives a bird's eye view of the field of AI, with a special focus on India. In clear, jargon-free language it explains what is and, more importantly, what is not AI. It provides a well-rounded summary of the on-going debates on ethics, regulation, bias, and data privacy surrounding the development and use of AI technology. Using up-to-date data, the book looks at India's contributions to and adoption of AI, as the country has a significant stake in the AI revolution as one of the fastest growing economies.

The book provides readers with a clear understanding of infrastructure challenges, how Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) can help, and their use in practice. Infrastructure bottlenecks are generally considered the most important constraint to growth in many countries worldwide. Historically, infrastructure projects have been financed and implemented by the state. However, owing to the fiscal resource crunch, time and cost over-runs, and the general poor quality of publicly provided infrastructure, many emerging market governments, including India, have increasingly adopted PPPs with billions of dollars of investment riding on them. The results have been varied – from spectacular airports like the Delhi International Airport Limited with the associated controversy over land use, to the renegotiation of contracts as in the case of Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project. Illustrating concepts with relevant case studies, the book makes the challenges of PPPs understandable to industry and management practitioners as well as students of management, public policy and economics. It is useful to practitioners wishing to avoid the pitfalls in the tricky terrain of PPPs and policymakers wanting guidance in crafting proper incentives. It also helps students gain a holistic and “applied” understanding of this increasingly important and popular model.“Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in India are currently under stress. A comprehensive treatment of the subject by a long-time and erudite practitioner and a management academic, this book should be useful to students trying to learn the basics, while also being valuable to professionals and policy makers. The book suggests that the Government should hold bidders accountable to their submitted bids, thereby preserving sanctity of contract. This will discourage aggressive bidding which has become a serious and endemic problem. The book also suggests the use of better bidding criteria to mitigate traffic risk in transport projects. Policy makers should pay heed to these suggestions as they consider improvements in the PPP policy regime going forward.”—Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, India“For a fast-growing India, infrastructure creation and operation is a great challenge and opportunity. This excellent book combines theory and practice on PPPs, and is very useful for professionals and students alike. With case studies and current developments, the authors bring out issues in India with global experiences as well. A must-read for infrastructure practitioners.”—Shailesh Pathak, Chief Executive (Designate), L&T InfrastructureDevelopment Projects Limited “India’s program of private participation in infrastructure attracted worldwide attention as it became one of the largest programs in emerging markets. As well as the volumes of finance mobilized, it garnered interest because of some of the innovative approaches developed, such as Viability Gap Funding. The Indian PPP story is well captured in this book, which also makes the point that India is seeing project cancellations and failures rise. The authors analyze the factors behind this and point the way to a more robust PPP market that learns from the experiences of the past.”—Clive Harris, Practice Manager, Public-Private Partnerships, World Bank

The book provides readers with a clear understanding of infrastructure challenges, how Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) can help, and their use in practice. Infrastructure bottlenecks are generally considered the most important constraint to growth in many countries worldwide. Historically, infrastructure projects have been financed and implemented by the state. However, owing to the fiscal resource crunch, time and cost over-runs, and the general poor quality of publicly provided infrastructure, many emerging market governments, including India, have increasingly adopted PPPs with billions of dollars of investment riding on them. The results have been varied – from spectacular airports like the Delhi International Airport Limited with the associated controversy over land use, to the renegotiation of contracts as in the case of Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project. Illustrating concepts with relevant case studies, the book makes the challenges of PPPs understandable to industry and management practitioners as well as students of management, public policy and economics. It is useful to practitioners wishing to avoid the pitfalls in the tricky terrain of PPPs and policymakers wanting guidance in crafting proper incentives. It also helps students gain a holistic and “applied” understanding of this increasingly important and popular model.“Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in India are currently under stress. A comprehensive treatment of the subject by a long-time and erudite practitioner and a management academic, this book should be useful to students trying to learn the basics, while also being valuable to professionals and policy makers. The book suggests that the Government should hold bidders accountable to their submitted bids, thereby preserving sanctity of contract. This will discourage aggressive bidding which has become a serious and endemic problem. The book also suggests the use of better bidding criteria to mitigate traffic risk in transport projects. Policy makers should pay heed to these suggestions as they consider improvements in the PPP policy regime going forward.”—Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, India“For a fast-growing India, infrastructure creation and operation is a great challenge and opportunity. This excellent book combines theory and practice on PPPs, and is very useful for professionals and students alike. With case studies and current developments, the authors bring out issues in India with global experiences as well. A must-read for infrastructure practitioners.”—Shailesh Pathak, Chief Executive (Designate), L&T InfrastructureDevelopment Projects Limited “India’s program of private participation in infrastructure attracted worldwide attention as it became one of the largest programs in emerging markets. As well as the volumes of finance mobilized, it garnered interest because of some of the innovative approaches developed, such as Viability Gap Funding. The Indian PPP story is well captured in this book, which also makes the point that India is seeing project cancellations and failures rise. The authors analyze the factors behind this and point the way to a more robust PPP market that learns from the experiences of the past.”—Clive Harris, Practice Manager, Public-Private Partnerships, World Bank

The book explores the interaction of political parties, bureaucracy, media, judiciary, and civil society groups in shaping policy in contemporary India. By researching the evolution of nine major legislations using a consistent lens, the work interrogates the suitability of existing political theories to explain the policy development process in an emerging economy like India. It covers recent events such as the agitation for the Jan Lokpal Bill and the Nirbhaya case that have underlined the role of non-government players in law-making in India as well as long-standing movements like for right to information, right to education, and food security. The authors have used the case study method to undertake a holistic study of the policy decisions made in the last two decades. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book borrows tools and concepts used in business studies, political science, and sociology to bring a new understanding to the process of policy in India.