Commercial Activities and Rural Development in South Asia: A Geographical Study

In the context of the foreseeable future of commercial activities, a Study Group was created under the title ‘Geography of Commercial Activities’ at the 25th Congress of International Geographical Union (Paris, 1984). The Study Group held its first conference outside the European countries in India at Gorakhpur from December 21to 23, 1985. The theme of the Conference was ‘Commercial Activities and Rural Development’. The Conference was attended by renowned scholars from India and abroad. The papers then presented have been concisely published in this volume with the aim of enabling wider dissemination of the views presented. The papers fall into four major concerns. These relate to current status and trends of researches in commercial geography and rural development, analysis of commercial activities, rural-urban linkages and development, and rural development issues, strategies and planning policies. The papers are fairly representative of the work being done in this field the world over. This is a valuable contribution in the field of commercial activities and rural development and should interest students, research scholars, planners and policy makers in the field of agriculture, economics, commerce, geography, landuse planning rural and urban development.