Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and other Asian countries already face very serious challenges in infrastructure, agriculture, State owned enterprises and environment. Inspite of the increase in private investments, local or from outside, the situation could get worse in the next decade or so for lack of public finance. Such a shortage is bound to slow down future growth, particularly in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, and prevent an acceleration of growth in South Asia. One major remedy would be to reduce seepage and leakage of public money which has taken on such enormous proportions, that it looks like being the most critical issue for the coming decades. The leakages so often referred to in Pakistan are, in fact, far from confined to that country, as shown below. However, such leakages have worse effects in Pakistan than in India and China, because of the much more precarious financial situation of Pakistan
KEYWORDS: Seepage, leakage, Asia, corruption, misallocation, resources, public expenditure.
JEL: N/A.

Satu Kahkonen and Mancur Olson (Eds.), A New Institutional Approach to Economic Development; Vistaar Publications, New Delhi, 2000. pps 354. Price Rs. (Indian) 595/-. Recent successes attributed to the field of economics have been outside the theoretical conservative boundaries of the subject. Modern economic thought is expanding rapidly in all directions: in the study of politics, law, and sociology, economists and other specialists using theories of economic thought and models have had significant influence. The book focuses on ideas that have driven the expansion of economics, namely collective choice, new institutionalist and neo classical political economy. The book has been divided into two main parts. The first deals with “the broadening of economics and emergence of an integral approach to social science” that are fundamental to any economy. The second part includes “some applications of the integrated approach” to India
KEYWORDS: Book review, economic development, India, Indian economy.
JEL: N/A.

S. Akbar Zaidi, Transforming Urban Settlements, The Orangi Pilot Project’s Low-Cost Sanitation Model, City Press, Karachi, 2000, Price: Pak Rs. 225/-. This book is the story of the formulation and implementation of the Orangi Pilot Project’s Sanitation Model, and it is told with clarity and intelligence. Indeed, in this age of self-seeking and egoism, indifference and callousness, it is heartening to note that at least some amongst us somewhere still show a modicum of concern for the marginalised and less privileged in our societies. It is ample indication of the author’s empathy and identification with the human condition in its entirety.
KEYWORDS: Orangi pilot project, Orangi, Pakistan, sanitation model, OPP, Water Aid.
JEL: N/A.