Published in the silver jubilee year of its existence the ninth edition of this book has been thoroughly revised. Apart from the regular updating of information and statistics throughout, two chapters have been totally rewritten as “Education in the Tenth Five Year Plan” and “Recent Initiatives in Educational Development in India”, and one new has been added, namely, “Comparative Data on the Development of Education”. Updating has been done using the following publications: (i) The State of the World’s Children 2007, UNICEF; and (ii) Elementary Education in India-Progress Towards UEE, NUEPA. 2007, and following publications of the Government of India: (i) Annual Report 2004-2005, UGC; (ii) Economic Survey 2006-2007, Ministry of Finance; (iii) India 2007, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; (iv) Annual Report 2006-2007, Ministry of HRD; (v) Selected Educational Statistics 2004-2005, Ministry of HRD. The book covers a wide range of issues and themes relating to development and planning of modern education so as to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It also provides an in-depth analysis of the efforts made to revitalize education.