Since the Indian economy was liberated from
bureaucratic, socialist controls in 1991, it has
developed rapidly. A country once renowned for the
backwardness of its industries, its commerce and its
financial market is now viewed as potentially one of the
major world economies of the twenty-first century. But
there are many questions which need to be asked about
the sustainability of this rapid economic growth and its
effect on the stability of the country. Have the changes
had any impact on the poor and marginalised? Can India's
democracy contain the mounting resentment of those left
out of the new economic order? Can a high growth rate be
sustained with India's notoriously corrupt and
inefficient governance? And, can the development of its
creaking infrastructure be speeded up? How is India
going to feed itself unless agriculture is reformed?
This timely book will answer these questions through
interviews with industrialists and cricketers, God men
and farmers, plutocrats and former untouchables.Full of
fascinating stories of real people at a time of great
change, it will be of interest to economists, business
people, diplomats, politicians, as well as to those who
love to travel and who take an interest in the rapid
growth of one of the world's largest countries, and what
this means to us in the West. |
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