Whether research can play a role in offering solutions to the challenges being faced by sustainable development is a much-debated question. Policy researchers at the Tenth Sustainable Development Conference, ‘Sustainable Solutions: A Spotlight on South Asian Research’, deliberated not only the predicament of formulating the right research questions, but also took the opportunity to discuss the political economy of research itself, i.e., is it supply or demand driven? What is meant by sustainable development and who are its stakeholders? Why are researchers not able to diagnose the problems correctly, or why after having diagnosed them, they cannot suggest the right solutions?

This anthology contains some of the papers presented at the Conference. Research on real life problems ranging from misconceived historical perspectives in South Asia, threatened livelihoods, policy-led disaster management, challenges and opportunities offered by trade liberalization and globalization, and the neglected role of women in coping with the challenges of non-sustainable development, are presented to give the reader an idea of the complexity and interdependency of these issues.