This edition of the book is brought out in response to the feedback that I got from some of the teachers, students and my colleagues about the second edition as well as my own realisa- tion of the need to update some of the information and reorganise some of the chapters. The overwhelming success of the fi rst two editions of the book, which together had a long innings of over two decades, provided me the rationale for revising the book. This edition comprises 15 chapters as against 16 chapters in the second edition. The major changes incorporated in this edition include (i) the addition of a new chapter (Chapter 7); (ii) reorganisation of fi ve chapters (Chapters 8–12) of the second edition into three chapters (Chapters 9–11) by deleting some unnecessary details of the rural development programmes included in earlier chapters but adding a few new programmes; (iii) updating of the data and information presented in the second edition to the extent possible with the available information, including internet resources; (iv) addition of new tables presenting latest avai- lable estimates of poverty lines and incidence of poverty in India by state; (v) addition of two new sections—‘Main Points’ and ‘Questions for Discussion’—to each of the 15 chapters; and (vi) inclusion of 15 new boxes highlighting the salient features of some of the important programmes.