The thought of doing a book on SEZs was nowhere in our scheme of things till about a year ago. We were merely following the twists and turns in the SEZ story like most others. By end 2006, however, SEZs ceased to remain academic controversies. As SEZ-related developments became murkier, the debate assumed larger sociopolitical dimensions. Slowly it turned emotional and propagandist. Finally, the story took a fatal turn with violent clashes over SEZs leading to loss of property and lives.

We were shocked by the ugly turn of events. We were also taken aback by the amount of hype being fed into the debate by both its supporters and opponents. In practically all forums, particularly the popular media, SEZs were portrayed as either angels or demons. Somehow, somewhere, the debate on SEZs has compromised heavily on logic and sanity. We also feel that the hysteria and emotion surrounding the debate has been used by some sections for implementing narrow divisive agendas.

As SEZs continued to create ripples and grab headlines, we got increasingly disillusioned by the quality of the debate. Indeed, the rampant rabble-rousing was not only diluting the intellectual content of the discourse, but was also doing grave injustice to the common man by imparting distorted impressions. This is what provoked us into writing this book. We felt it important to examine popular perceptions on SEZs, as thrown up by the ongoing debate, in a dispassionate, factual manner.