The Stigma Matrix: Gender, Globalization, and the Agency of Pakistan's Frontline Women by FauziaHusain, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2024, xi + 290 pp.
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: of the book revolves around pitching a case for the renouncement of the practice of copying developmental models from the rest of the world that succeeded in different historical contexts.Instead, the book argues that India needs to look within.Going in the same direction, Tandon validates the need of utilizing the youth bulge of India and using indigenous labor toward the development of a labor-intensive manufacturing sector.The book as one of its main contributions pitches the case for strengthening the growth and development of the capital goods sector of India, which is referred to as the mother of the manufacturing industry.Simultaneously the book disapproves of the trend of importing intermediate goods used by the manufacturing industry of the country.Strong policy recommendations are advocated in favor of restructuring the formal manufacturing segment as labor-intensive.Serving the dual motive, this will improve the employment potential of the sector and simultaneously enhance the sustainability aspect by making use of indigenous factor endowments.The informal segment being low on value addition needs a push in the direction of enhancing its capital-labor ratio so that efficiency and increasing returns are endorsed therein.The empirical evaluations of the book pitch a strong case for the development of indigenous technology and in-house research and development that is relevant to the contemporary nature and needs of the Indian economy in general and the manufacturing sector in particular.Though empirically strong in approach, the theoretical premises of the book are based on the axioms of the Kaldor's model of development, which was propounded in the 1960s.The model, in its true sense, does not endorse the existence of the informal sector, which is but a hard-core reality of the Indian economy.This factor makes the theoretic premises of the book a little weak.The book is also silent on the two main aspects of Indian manufacturing-entrepreneurship and innovation-thus, limiting its scope in a major direction of understanding and policy intervention.The empirical analysis of the book is predominantly based on the ASI and the NSSO data.The two datasets use different scales and methodologies, and both are sample-based surveys, which limit the certainty of the coefficients and numbers.However, despite these limitations, the book is an appreciable and timely effort advocating a strong and bifurcated policy intervention in the manufacturing sector of India.It is a must read for the students and researchers of Indian economy.The book is also a must reference for the policymakers architecting the pathway to Viksit Bharat@2047.
Source: The Developing Economies
DOI: 10.1111/deve.12431
Author: Maria Rashid
Institution: SOAS University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4405808931