Victoria W. Miroshnik – författare

A response to the ongoing global discourse against planning and the Soviet system, Planned Economies: Their Lessons for Developing Countries focuses on the experiences that the Soviet Union and several other economies had with planning and the lessons therein. In the first part of the book, Basu and Miroshnik discuss national economic planning aimed at maximizing the welfare of the people, as it was in the Soviet Union. In the second part, they focus on the management issues of the Soviet Union and several other planned economies to explore how organizations should be managed to maximize efficiency and effectiveness for public welfare. The third part elaborates upon the experiences of countries such as Hungary, Yugoslavia, China, and India, specifically, how they developed and the crises they underwent. As income inequality creates social tensions, potentially leading to war and conflict, the main objective of a planned economy is the equal distribution of income. Combining macroeconomic welfare maximization and microeconomic efficiency maximization approaches, Basu and Miroshnik analyse the underlying philosophical dimension of these problems, as well as their practical applications, to provide insights relevant to the future of developing countries.

This book examines the creation of Pakistan and the economic rationale for partition. The authors analyze other factors as well and look at the politics and influence of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru.

A regular feature in almost publication has been a comparison of India’s slow economic growth and, until recently, China’s rapid progress. Yet, in 1988, both countries had similar living standards. As things stand, it is undoubtedly a tale of two countries and two systems. Supporters of India can point to the democratic nature of the country’s development while ignoring the slow pace of change. China’s supporters point to exceptional poverty reduction, urbanization, and infrastructure developments while ignoring the social, religious, and environmental costs these efforts have created.However, popular media has ignored the fact the individual starting points of the two nations, a gap which this book fills. This study examines how China’s economic reforms was initiated with Deng Xiaoping’s fang-shou (‘letting go’ and ‘tightening up’) efforts between 1978 and 1989. However, until 1989 China had nothing much to demonstrate compare with India. Both countries had similar per head national income but India was technologically much superior to China. The reforms in China then accelerated in a sustained manner—be it the Family Responsibility System that transformed agriculture, the opening up of the industrial sector for the growth of local enterprises and foreign investments, or the substantial effort to make state-owned enterprises more efficient.

India, Citizenship, and Refugee Crisis: Political History of Hatred and Sorrow examines the effects of the Partition of India in 1947. The partition as suggested by the British to satisfy the Muslims, who formed the bulk of the British Army during the 2nd world war, could not stop the communal riots but instead led to their intensification. The effects were tremendous flows of refugees, Muslims from India to Pakistan and a few non-Muslims from Pakistan to India. That refugee problem was solved in Pakistan as the flow was limited due to the protection of the Muslims granted by India, but it is still a problem in India due to inability of the Indian government to provide enough security and facility to the refugees. This book analyzes the diverse issues surrounding this political history from economic and social points of view.

Using primarily Russian sources, this book explains the political and economic aspects of nuclear power. The nuclear fuel cycle is described, from the mining of natural uranium to the ultimate power generation, and to reprocessing to produce plutonium which is essential for both electricity generation and for weapons production. Historical aspects of nuclear developments in Germany, the USA, India, China and the Soviet Union are also considered and explained. The book then proceeds to argue that Russia is more powerful today in its nuclear weapons system and delivery than ever before, and that it is precisely this which has provoked President Trump to cancel the strategic nuclear weapons reduction treaty.