India Unbound

India today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future.

Indians wryly admit that ‘India grows at night’. But that is only half the saying, the full expression is: ‘India grows at night... when the government sleeps’, suggesting that the nation may be rising despite the state. India’s is a tale of private success and public failure. Prosperity is, indeed, spreading across the country even as governance failure pervades public life. But how could a nation become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies when it’s governed by a weak, ineffective state? And wouldn’t it be wonderful if India also grew during the day—in other words, if public policy supported private enterprise? What India needs, Gurcharan Das says, is a strong liberal state. Such a state would have the authority to take quick, decisive action, it would have the rule of law to ensure those actions are legitimate and finally, it would be accountable to the people. But achieving this will not be easy, says Das, because India has historically had a weak state and a strong society. About the Author Gurcharan Das is a well known author, commentator and public intellectual. He is the author of the much acclaimed The Difficulty of Being Good, and the international bestseller India Unbound, which has been translated into many languages and filmed by the BBC. His other works include the novel, A Fine Family, a book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm, and an anthology, Three Plays, consisting of Larins Sahib, Mira and 9 Jakhoo Hill. Gurcharan Das writes a regular column for a number of Indian newspapers including the Times of India and occasional guest columns for Newsweek, Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affairs. Gurcharan Das graduated from Harvard University and was CEO of Procter and Gamble India before he took early retirement to become a full time writer. He lives in Delhi.

This book tells the story of how two of America's closest allies, Canada and Britain, have sought to reconcile their security concerns with their legal obligations during two of the most significant international conflicts since the Second World War.

This majestic novel by the author of India Unbound is the extraordinary chronicle, rich in passion and incident, of a Punjabi family that is uprooted from its settled existence in Lyallpur by the violence of Partition and forced to flee to India. Everything is lost in the transition, but when a son is born into the family, hopes revive of rebuilding the family's fortunes, the efforts towards which mirror those of India itself as it struggles to build itself anew.

The Elephant Paradigm: India Wrestles With Change Is, Quite Simply, About An Ancient Civilization&Rsquo;S Reawakening To The Spirit&Mdash;And Potential&Mdash;Of Its Youth. Following Up On The Success Of India Unbound, Which Took Up The Process Of India&Rsquo;S Transformation In The 1990S From A Closed To An Open Economy, The Elephant Paradigm Ranges Over A Vast Area&Mdash;Covering Subjects As Varied As Panchayati Raj, National Competitiveness, And The Sacred And Philosophical Concerns Of The Average Indian Consequent To India&Rsquo;S Entry Into What The Author Calls The &Lsquo;Age Of Liberation&Rsquo;. While India May Never Roar Ahead Like The Asian Tigers, Das Argues, It Will Advance Like A Wise Elephant, Moving Steadily And Surely, Pausing Occasionally To Reflect On Its Past And To Enjoy The Journey. Gurcharan Das Employs The Essay Form To Sew Together Varied Facets Of This Remarkable Transition. Divided Into Three Sections, The Book First Establishes A Context For The Changes That Have Occurred, And Then Assesses How We Have Changed&Mdash;Or Not Changed&Mdash;In Our Public And Private Lives. As He Sweeps Over The Major Political, Social And Economic Developments, He Does Not Forget To Examine The Individual Beliefs And Aspirations That Underpin The Process. Crisp, Insightful And Witty, These Essays Capture Both The Disappointments And The Joys That Resulted From The &Rsquo;90S Revolution And Serve As An Essential Guide To The New India. &Nbsp;

When Jet McDonald cycled four thousand miles to India and back, he didn’t want to write a straightforward account. He wanted to go on an imaginative journey. The age of the travelogue is over: today we need to travel inwardly to see the world with fresh eyes. Mind is the Ride is that journey, a pedal-powered antidote to the petrol-driven philosophies of the past. The book takes the reader on a physical and intellectual adventure from West to East using the components of the bike as a metaphor for philosophy, which is woven into the cyclist's experience. Each chapter is based around a single component, and as Jet travels he adds new parts and new philosophies until the bike is 'built'; the ride to India is completed; and the relationship between mind, body and bicycle made apparent.

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