Kanakalatha Mukund and B. Syama Sundari. Traditional Industry in the New Market Economy: The Cotton Handlooms of Andhra Pradesh. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001. 169 Pages. Hardback. Rs 395.00.

The authors set out to examine the competitiveness of thehandloom weaving industry in modern India from the market point of view.The three themes, which the authors themselves point out in theintroduction, deal with cotton handlooms in the general context oftraditional industry, present a detailed description of the situation inAndhra Pradesh and evaluate the effectiveness of government policy. Anthe heart of the argument is the need for policy-makers to make theirdecisions on the basis of “empirical data rather than received wisdom”(p. 19). The fact is that in spite of being regarded as a “...residualsubsistence activity” (p. 16) handloom weaving has maintained its shareof output through the decades, competition from power-loomsnotwithstanding.