Kamala Prasad entered the Indian Administrative Service in May 1957 and has served in various capacities with the government of India. He has been India's permanent representative to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations and a member of the Programme Committee of the FAO. Having been a member-secretary of the Peoples Action for Development India (PADI), he has had extensive interaction with the development sector. The author retired as Chief Secretary to the government of Bihar. Since then he has been closely associated with the civil society. He has travelled extensively in India and abroad, and lives in Delhi with his wife. Mr Prasad is a fellow of the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank in Washington DC. He has written extensively, with more than a hundred published papers in general, technical, professional and management journals. His articles have also appeared in a number of edited books. This is his first book.