Book Review: Pushpa Sundar, Foreign Aid for Indian NGOs—Problem or Solution?
| DOI | 10.1177/0973598414524128 |
| Published date | 01 June 2013 |
| Author | Siuli Mukherjee |
| Date | 01 June 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
148 Book Reviews
Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, 17, 1 (2013): 129–152
Pushpa Sundar, Foreign Aid for Indian NGOs—Problem or Solution?
New Delhi: Routledge, 2010, pp. 363. Rs 795.
DOI: 10.1177/0973598414524128
Non-Governmental organizations (NGO)s are important organizations
that have witnessed substantial growth in recent years. To be more spe-
cific, in a developing country like India, NGO activities are manifested
in a number of spheres and wide spectrum of activities. With the passage
of time, the NGOs are gaining increasing recognition for attaining the
democratic space as well as promoting people-centered development. In
a number of development sectors, a variety of NGOs have established a
positive track record which are sometimes supported by the international
donors or the government or even by both. But no discourse on the NGO
sector can however be completed without understanding their finance
which they draw from a variety of sources. Foreign Aid is one of them.
However, the change in the voluntary sector is also matched by the
change in the aid architecture as both of them are standing at a crossroad
today. The author Pushpa Sundar has tried to analyze the NGO sector in
the changing paradigm of foreign aid and made a critical study of the
opportunities and threats that they are facing in the globalized world.
After a brief preface and acknowledgement, the book initiates itself
by defining the term non-government, non-profit organization and there-
after states the objectives, structure, and methodology in a precise man-
ner. The author has cited the reasons for undertaking this study by
advocating that India’s voluntary sector is one of the most dynamic in the
world and has now matured to a level where it is able to join the ranks of
Western experts in exporting development models to other developing
countries. Indian NGOs are also questioning Western paradigms and no
longer unquestioningly accepting donor viewpoints (p. 20). Thus under
such dynamism and complexity of the situation, the author has addressed
the aid debate and illuminated the changing contours of aid and aid
architecture. The chapter delineates to what extent the aid has made a
difference to the size, complexity, style of functioning, values, and future
moves of the NGO sector.
After introducing the study, the author has segmented his work into
two halves. Part I sets the stage for understanding the NGO sector
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