India Unbound

"India will never be a tiger. It is an elephant that has begun to lumber and move ahead. It will never have speed, but it will always have stamina" 

When, during subprime crisis and subsequent recession in world economy, India and China performed much better that their developed counterparts, suddenly everyone started saying... this century belongs to India and China. Some went further predicting fall of USA and emergence of India and China as superpowers. But now as the world economy is recovering, there is a sense of realization that these predictions were just rhetoric. Both these so called future powers are struggling with their problems and as far as India is concerned, I am pretty sure we are not going to be even near that dream in next 3-4 decades.

But it doesn’t mean that everything is wrong with India. India is progressing at a rapid rate, size of middle class in increasing and there is hope in the air. People have started to think that there are opportunities in the country and they can make a fortune in-spite of many hurdles. Many Indians are returning to their mother land to try their luck. It won't be wrong to say that all these started with 1991 economic reforms. India Unbound tries to highlight this point only. It tries to capture the history of post-independence Indian Economy.

I have always wondered whether Nehru’s policies were practical or they were just the result of his idealism. After independence he had a mammoth task of uniting India, stabilizing democracy and instilling secularism. Whole world was looking towards India and there was no dearth of people saying that India won't survive. But Nehru proved them wrong and insured that these goals, crucial for survival of India were achieved. At that time if he chose for socialist structure and then mixed-economy, it can be justified considering India was in rule of a capitalist nation for 200 years and all the newly independent nations were implementing similar economic policies. Even intellectual class of that era was supporting government control over economy. But our failure to liberalize economy during 70-80’s cost us dearly. Lal Bahadur Shastri made some attempts to restructure Indian economy but his sad early demise pushed us back again. Indira Gandhi's failure to deliver on economic front what India needed at the time made sure that we will not be front runner in this race of economic development.  

I have always admired Indira Gandhi for her leadership, defeat of Pakistan in 1971 war and first Pokhran Test-1974. During my school days I used to think she is the best prime-minister, India has ever had. But now, Indira Gandhi symbolizes dismantling of democratic system, political corruption, nepotism, strengthening of red-tapism and destruction  of each and every avenue of free public and economic life .

We have always been taught that uniqueness of Indian society is Unity in Diversity. But this diversity has not always played a positive role. Some sections of Indian society have fallen behind in this race of development. Their success is of utmost importance for inclusive growth. As Das mentions a new middle class is rising, we can be hopeful. During license and Inspector Raj, few like Dhiru Bhai Ambani, who were able to bend law in their favour could do something. Indian bureaucracy has always opposed reforms and even now, they try to ignore the reality.  But now reforms are creating level playing field. The lines demarcating our so called elite classes are now getting blurred. There are new rules governing the game.

Gurcharan Das is Harward educated and former CEO of P&G India. This gets perfectly reflected in the book and sometimes, I feel that he hasn’t done justice with opposite ideas. But as Das himself said that this book is about his personal encounters with Indian economic system.

A lot of things have happened since this book was first published in 2000. So some ideas may feel old. Nevertheless, it is a must-read for everyone who is even slightly interested in the story of Indian economic progress. It gives us a hope ...India will rise and one day, we may become superpower in true sense.