book review - india unbound

7/28/2019 Book Review - India Unbound

1/10

Presented by:

Swati Sudhakaran


2/10


3/10

Part 1 : Our Spring of Hope (1942- 65)

Part 2 : The Lost Generation (1966- 91)

Part 3 :Rebirth of Dream (1991-99)


4/10

The book starts with a brief history of 18th and 19th century of India

with the development of the railways in India, which was presumed to

push India into the industrial revolution.

Britain had laid the foundation for Indias democratic institutions and

invested capital into building the countrys infrastructure-most

significantly its vast railway system. But Britain had also created a

system based on economic disparity and an uneducated population.

This had lead to decline in the Indian economy under the British Raj.

Authors tries to uncover the reasons why Indias economy stagnated

after it won its independence in 1947 from the British Raj, which he

describes as the most important event in the making of modern

India - for better or for worse.


5/10

Spring ofHope (1942- 65)

At that time Jawaharlal Nehru was our Prime Minister, Nehru was

supported by some of the best economists from across India. He had set up

a 'mixed' kind of economy which was a middle path between democraticrights followed by the Western countries and socialist ideology of the Soviet

world.

Author clearly mentions that our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehrus

mixed economy, improper economic policies and strong clutch of

beaurocracy are the reasons why we failed to create industrial revolution inIndia.

After we got freedom, Nehru and his planners tried to create industrial

revolution through the agency of state which failed however we had

experienced the agricultural revolution.


6/10

Lost Generation'(196691) refers to the phase which saw fading of the Indian

dream.

The book cites an irony when it states that the 'Garibi Hatao' policies followed

by Indira Gandhi were actually working counter-productive and throwingmillions of Indian further into poverty rather than alleviating their plight and lead

India to very slow growth rate.

It was the year 1991, when Narsimha Rao along with then Finance Minister

Manmohan Singh brought the economic revolution, which well may be more

important than political revolution brought by Nehru. The act like MRTP and

FERA were scrapped and foreign investment was encouraged.

It was the time when many new age entrepreneurs realized their dreams and

got success. Internet played vital role in fulfilling their dreams. With a boom of

dot com companies ( Infosys, NIIT) many Silicon Valley engineers with Indianroot came back to their soil to start their own venture.


7/10

This period saw the emergence of middle class. Power and prestige was

seen in the terms of money you have. More and more people and mostly

from middle class went for higher studies.

Most of foreign companies found more skilled workers in India.

This is evident from the number of mergers and acquisition Indian

companies have undergone in the recent past. Author suggest that the

knowledge based economy will flourish in the Indian society as long as thegovernment does not intrude upon its development.

Throughout the book, he insists better education and health policies are

needed to lift the poor into the middle class.


8/10

India had adopted an inward looking, import substitution path rather

than outward-looking, export promoting route. Thus denying itself a

share in the world trade and the prosperity that trade brought in

postwar era

Setting up an massive, inefficient and monopolistic public sector to

which it denied the autonomy of working; hence our investments were

not productive and we had poor capital-output ratio.

Discouraged foreign capital and denied itself the benefits of

technology and world class competition.

Most important - ignored the education of half of its childrenespecially of girls.


9/10

Learn things from observation Ekagrata concept of one pointednesswhich means to direct ones energy at a point forms the basis ofdevelopment of core competencies of an Individual or an organization.

Consumeris supreme

It is better to build on your strengths than try to correct a weakness.

In consumer product companies if local managers believe a productis theirs then the local consumers will believe it too.

Great businesses are built through discontinuous ideas, and a goodmanager who is one-pointed knows when to seize them. If only resultsmatter then ordinary employees will surprise managers by doingextraordinary things.

It is important not to direct people too much let them find their waywhich will also bring out their creative urges.


10/10

The Elephant is the wisest of all animals/the only one who

remembers his former lives/and he remains motionless for long

periods of times/meditating thereon.

The inversion between capitalism and democracy suggests that India

might have more stable, peaceful and negotiated transition into the

future than say China. It will also avoid some of the harmful side effects

of an unprepared capitalist society such as Russia.

Although slower, India is more likely to preserve its way of life and its

civilization of diversity, tolerance and spirituality against the onslaught of

global culture.

If it does then it perhaps a wise elephant !

book review - india unbound

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