Enthusiasm about finding the magic route to development and economic emancipation of the deprived masses of the Third World seems to have yielded place to cynicism, inertia and an air of resignation. No wonder, the world has gone back to the two hundred years old Adam Smithian philosophy of market mechanism, and unbridled capitalism ------ a “systemless system”. The present “back-to-the-market” wave, of course, has been expertly marketed by donor agencies and governments. But the meek way in which the developing countries have accepted it is also the product of frustrations resulting from assorted strategies and programmes implemented in the last few decades. Rural development, basic needs, population planning, import substitution, export-led growth, nationalisation, public sector corporations, agricultural extension, heavy industry ---- the list of half-backed policies is long. These were supposed to have been delivered by bureaucracies which lacked imagination, energy and empathy for the poor. But their appetite for corruption and capacity for inaction and lethargy were enormous.