OUR CONTRIBUTORS Dr SUSANTHA GOONETILAKE is in the research division of the Peoples Bank, Sri Lanka. Dr BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA is associate prof essor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. N KRISHNAJI is fellow. Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum. Dr ASHOK MITRA is national fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research. E M S NAMBOODIRIPAD is member of the Polit Bureau, Communist Party of India (Marxist). Dr PRABHAT PATNAIK teaches economics at the Centre for Economic Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Dr G RAMACHANDRA RAJ teaches sociology in the University of Kerala. Dr R RADHAFCRISHVA is professor of economics, Sardar Vallabhai Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahmedabad. T G SANKARAN is an economic analyst from Trivandrum. Dr A TUL SARMA is economist at the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahmedabad. Dr M J K THA VAR 4.J is senior professor of financial administration, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, FROM THE EDITOR THIS double issue is devoted to the inflationary crisis which has overtaken the economy. Ashok Mitra opens the discussion with what he calls "random paragraphs containing some comments which make no pretence of being tightly correlated ... All the same, they reflect at least one particular point of view." Other articles highlight the reasons for the crisis in the overall political economy of Indian development; fiscal policies; state intervention and foodgrain prices; impact on different social groups; and the glaring contrast between the capitalist and socialist worlds.