Social impact assessment (SIA) emerged about fifty years or so ago as a tool to anticipate and manage potentially negative social impacts of building dams, power stations, urban infrastructure, highways, industries, mining and other development projects. It has since been widely in use in planning to improve development outcomes, especially in developed countries. Generally, development planners in Asia have been hesitant to adopt SIA in the planning process but the situation is gradually changing. Focusing on India, this volume also looks at SIA experiences in half a dozen other Asian countries that include Bangladesh, China, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. With contributions from an array of leading scholars and experts, this book is a tremendous resource on SIA, indispensable for policymakers, planners and practitioners in government, international development agencies, private-sector industry, private banks, consultants, teachers, researchers and students of social sciences and development studies and also NGOs everywhere, not in Asia alone.