Where is India going today? Is it surging forward, having just overtaken the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world? Or is it flailing, unable to provide jobs for the millions joining the labour force? What should India do to secure a better future?
India is at a crossroads today. Its growth rate, while respectable relative to other large countries, is too low for the jobs our youth need. Intense competition in low-skilled manufacturing, increasing protectionism globally and growing automation make the situation still more difficult. Divisive majoritarianism does not help. India
broke away from the standard development path-from agriculture to low-skilled manufacturing, then high-skilled manufacturing and, finally, services-a long time back by leapfrogging the intermediate steps. Rather than attempting to revert to development paths that may not be feasible any more, we must embark on a truly Indian path.
In this book, the authors explain how we can accelerate economic development by investing in our people’s human capital, expanding opportunities in high-skilled services and manufacturing centred on innovative new products, and making India a ferment of ideas and creativity. India’s democratic traditions will support this path, helped further by governance reforms, including strengthening our democratic institutions and greater decentralization.
The authors offer praise where the Indian establishment has been successful but are clear-eyed in pointing out its weaknesses. They urge India to break free from the shackles of the past and look to the possibilities of the future. Written with unusual candour, and packed with vivid examples and persuasive arguments, this is a book for anyone who has a stake in India’s future.
About the Author
RAGHURAM G. RAJAN is a world-renowned Indian economist who is currently a distinguished service professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His past policy positions include governor of the Reserve Bank of India and chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. His bestselling books include Fault Lines (winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award), I Do What I Do, The Third Pillar and Saving Capitalism from the
Capitalists (with Luigi Zingales). His widely cited research focuses on the underpinnings of economic growth. His numerous awards include the Fischer Black Prize and the Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics, Euromoney’s Central Banker of the Year award and the Banker’s Global Central Banker Award.
ROHIT LAMBA is an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University and a visiting assistant professor of economics at New York University Abu Dhabi. He received a PhD in economics from Princeton University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge. He publishes regularly in leading academic journals and newspapers. He has also worked as an economist at the office of the chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
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