Asia

Industrial policy has been rehabilitated globally despite the ideological bias.

COVID-19 has widely affected global supply and value chains, and specific sectors around the world. In this scenario, the options for India to optimise its regional and global value chain linkages with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership are examined, which in turn could aid in its post-pandemic recovery.

Resurgent Asia: Diversity in Development by Deepak Nayyar, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019; pp xx + 295, ₹ 895.

Asian Transformations: An Inquiry into the Development of Nations edited by Deepak Nayyar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019; pp xxiv + 577, price not indicated.

Asia’s Journey to Prosperity: Policy, Market, and Technology Over 50 Years by Asian Development Bank, Manila: ADB, 2020 (ebook), http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/TCS190290.

The 1990s witnessed a significant deceleration in growth of rice productivity. The productivity potential of the existing modern rice varieties is getting exhausted especially under irrigated environments. This raises a serious concern about Asia's ability to sustain its food security in the 21st century. To find solutions to reverse this trend in irrigated systems, and raise yield levels in rain-fed areas, many public sector R and D institutions across Asia have invested huge public resources to explore new frontiers of rice science. However, many farmers, who grew hybrid rice initially, have started dropping out from hybrid rice cultivation. Can the currently available hybrid rice technology sustain productivity growth in the Asian tropics? Why has it not been possible to replicate in the Asian tropics China's success with hybrid rice? The paper provides a synthesis of major findings of a multi-country evaluation of farmers' experiences with the adoption of hybrid rice varieties.