The special Economic Zones (SEZs) Bill, 2005 introduced in the Lok Sabha by Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, on 9th May, 2005 and passed by the Lok Sabha. The SEZ Act., 2005, supported by SEZ Rules, came into force on February 10, 2006 and is excepted to give a big thrust to exports and @ Foreign Direct Investment @ (FDI) inflows into the country. The new regime is aimed at encouraging public-private partnership to develop excellent infrastructure and attract private investment-domestic and foreign-boosting economic growth, exports and employment. Clusters in the form of SEZs marked by special economic systems and policies have the ability to tremendously boost export performance and FDI investment. For example, today China has six Special Economic Zones and more than 500 Economic Development Zones that receives over 75 percent of FDI and drive over 50 percent of country @s exports. However, it is quite unfortunate that over these years, the debate on SEZs in India has been acutely political, resulting in a lack of understanding regarding their ability to accelerate employment generation and export growth. If India were to have robust policy framework, around SEZs, the country could stand to gain. This book presents a critical appraisal of the origin of the concept, objectives, the Indian scenario of investment employment, exports the outstanding issues like land, labour and environmental problems raised by different quarters of the society and suggestions, etc.,. More or less all aspects of the Special Economic Zones are covered in this book. It is hoped that the book would be found useful to Government Authorities-both Centre and States-concerned with the implementation of SEZs, the SEZ Developers and Multinational Corporations-both within and outside India-who are waiting for investing in the SEZs, Political, Social and Natural Scientists, Social Organizzations, Faculty Members, Students and Research Scholars. About Author : P. Arunachalam is Reader in the Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi-22, Kerala State, India. He was the Head of the Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology during the period April 2004 to April 2007. He has Nineteen Years of Teaching and Research Experiences. He took his PG Degree from Loyola College, Madras, a world-renowned college in Southern India, affiliated to Madras University and M.Phil and Ph.D Degrees from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, Kerala State. Pondicherry University, a Central University, Awarded him Doctoral Fellowship in the year 1988. He joined as a Lecturer in the year 1989 and become Reader in the year 1997. He was Awarded Post Doctoral Training Fellowship by the NUFFIC (Netherlands Council for Co-Operation in Higher Education, Government of Netherlands) for six Times under Septra-MHO-Programme between the Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology and the Development Research Institute (IVO), Tilburg University, the Netherlands during the period 1999 to 2004. part of his Research Training Programme, he visited France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, England, Switzerland, Srilanka and most of the Gulf countries. He is specialized in Quantitive Techniques and International Economics. He is teaching Business Statistics at Master of Business Economics (M.B.E.) level and Quantitative Techniques at M.Phil level. He was a member of the Academic Council, CUSAT from April 2004 to April 2007. He is a visiting Faculty Members of Many Universities in South India. He is a Member of several Academic and Professional Bodies at National and International Levels. He has done a Minor Project on @India@ s Spices Exports to the Netherlands@ under UGC Un-Assigned grant and jointly done a major project on @Global Based Commodity Chain: with Special Reference to Cardamom@ funded by NUFFIC through Development Research Institute, Tilburg University, the Netherlands, with Dr. Wim Pelupessey, Senior Economist, IVO, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He did his Ph.D. work on @India@ s Engineering Goods Exports: Growth, Concentration and Diversification. He has to his credit 40 Research Articles in various reputed journals and magazines and also contributed articles to 9 textbooks. Participated as an expert and also presented research papers in more than 58 National and International Level Conferences, Workshops, Symposiums and Seminars. He has produced 3 Ph.Ds and several more students are doing Ph.D. under his supervision. Now doing a major research work on @Special Economic Zones@ in India. He has been selected for the Professor post in the Department of Economics, Bharatiyar University, Coimbatore. Member as Partner of Dr. M. Rajarajan@s Digital Identity Management, City University, London, England. Contents : ContentsPrefaceForeword1. Introduction2. Special Economic Zones in India: Rules and Regulations3. Export Processing Zones and Special Economic Zones4. Special Economic Zones in India and China5. Special Economic Zones and Foreign Direct Investment6. Special Economic Zones and Employment in India7. Special Economic Zones and Exports8. Special Economic Zones and Land Issues in India9. Special Economic Zones and Labour Problems in India10. Special Economic Zones and Environmental Issues11. Special Economic Zones and the Outstanding issues to be addressed12. ConclusionReferencesIndex