A facet reflected at a panel discussion at the launch of the book, Special Economic Zones in India - Myths and Realities by Amitendu Palit, visiting fellow at the Indian Councilon International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, resident editor, The Financial Express.

The panelists, Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen,economist Bibek Debroy and ICRIER chief executive and director Rajiv Kumar, agreed that the debate on SEZs needed to go beyond theemotionalangle.

"SEZ saret he system'ssecond best response to a critical bottleneck," said Kumar, pointing that the two critical bottlenecks in industrialisation have been infrastructure and uncertainty of outcome when any process intersects with a government system.

Kumar said that SEZs only occupied 0.069 per cent of all arable land in the 18 states where they have been set up in India."The ruckus is probably because it cuts out a lot of the intermediaries, who would be otherwise a part of thesystem."

Pointing out that India had its first SEZ way back in the 1960s at Kandla, Debroy said the debate needed to be far wider. "SEZs are about green-field urban planning, and more transparency is needed,"hesaid.

Sensaid the SEZs were not just about exports, but the ramifications went far wider, as they were also about infra structure, private development of land, urbanisation and therefore about land and settlement."It raises the question of where the industries should come up. The positive news is that this issue has again got people thinking aboutland acquisition and rehabilitati on issues,"he said.

The first book of its kind in India, it examines critical issues like financial viability, land requirements, extant rules and the political economy of SEZs. The book also contends that the issue will beatest of strength for the country's social and political consensus on its economic policies and future reforms."