Offering a detailed account of the background to the present political crisis in Thailand, this article argues that Thai people can prevent themselves from becoming a failed state only by reversing the custom of allowing the state bureaucracy to exploit the institutions of monarchy for the purpose of legitimising suppression. Further, for ensuring sustainable development, the emphasis in Thai politics must be on making sure that the demands of the new urban classes are satisfied without further undermining the livelihoods and lifestyles of the agrarian community upon which the future of Thailand depends. It should also be recognized that the political stability and welfare of the whole region depends on establishing full parliamentary democracy in Thailand.

This Report is an update of the Rural Food Insecurity Atlas of 2001 released by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Since then, numerous new programmes have been initiated by the central and state governments for achieving food security in the country. Giving a broad indicative picture of the level of food insecurity in different states and the operation of the nutrition safety net programmes, the Report concludes that the State has to play a crucial role in augmenting foodgrain output, ensuring wider access to food through expansion of livelihood opportunities as well as increasing access to non-food factors that have a direct bearing on food absorption and health, like safe drinking water, sanitation etc.

IDEAs showcases five books edited by Jomo K.S. along with Ben Fine and Erik. S. Reinert; three published by Tulika Books, New Delhi and Zed Books, London, that attempt to rediscover and reinterpret the significance
of 'Development Economics' as well as two more published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi, on the process of globalization and its outcomes in terms of increasing economic diversity. This is part of IDEAs' attempt to draw critical attention to these overwhelmingly important issues of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

A recent government report on FII inflows into the Indian stock market reflects the growing chasm between the view points of the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank on the matter. While the report advocates the cause of the FIIs, the RBI, concerned about the macroeconomic implications of excessive capital inflows and outflows, has virtually disowned much of it. In this critique, the author looks at the various arguments.

Examining the nature and sources of the international imbalances in balance of payments performance in a set of two articles, the authors argue that the major reason for the apparent excess of capital in developing countries which is then being exported to the US and other developed countries is the deflationary policies adopted by these governments to support of financial liberalisation and export-led growth.

Since the mid-1990s, foreign direct investment into the banking industry in many emerging market economies has been growing at an unprecedented scale. The paper examines the consequences of this phenomenon on banking sector's efficiency, credit aggregates, and stability in the context of the Latin American economies.

A critique of David Dollar's recent paper argues that Dollar's argument for globalization on the ground that it has led to increasing growth in the developing world and a reduction of poverty and inequality, cannot be sustained on a closer examination.

Providing an overview of the trends towards global harmonisation of economic policies, this paper argues that the challenges faced by developing countries in addressing their local developmental concerns call for sub-federal governance structures and strategic re-engineering of federal finances.

Agriculture around the world is witnessing an unprecedented change. The manner in which food was and is still grown in many parts of the world and made available to the people for consumption is fast changing.

The rising prominence of FDI inflows into Japan - a traditional top global outward investor, has to be seen against the backdrop of the historically sweeping reforms in the country's corporate and financial sector laws. This portends ownership changes in several dominant sectors of the economy as well as changes in Japan's traditional bank-based corporate financing practices.

As the March 31 deadline for completing the "modalities" stage of the proposed new round of negotiations on global agricultural trade passed without any consensus, hopes of an agreement within the timeframe set by WTO are increasingly waning. This paper examines the various factors and players on the issue.

This paper takes a look at the implementation problems of WTO Agreement on Agriculture and investigates how the implementation problems have affected the developing countries.

New evidence from the US Bureau of Economic Affairs indicates that, despite accelerated globalisation and liberalisation, there are no clear signs of a change in the production and expansion strategies of US multinationals during the 1990s.

Water tensions and water conflicts are increasing with the rapid conversion of water from a fundamental right and necessity for survival to a product of profit in the market. The potential for merchandising water is enormous, and thereby the potential for water tensions and water conflicts, with only 5 % of the world's population currently getting its water from water corporations.