India Unbound by Gurcharan Das

I hardly read books on economics, politics, etc. So I thought, a few pages in to this, I will probably abandon the book.But the book didn't let me do that. After a couple of pages, I could not put down the book until I completed it. The book is like a orator who grabs the attention of a totally disinterested audience by his/her power of speech.

I remember reading about this liberalization, MRTP Act, etc. for my MBA. When I read them, it were mere acts, which had a set of laid down policies. I never understood the impact these acts and policies had on India Inc and the common man. I knew corruption exists in India but never knew the firm root cause ( I thought it was people's greed coupled with opportunity). I have seen private sector is efficient and public sector is not but never wondered why such a big umbrella should be present under public sector; I knew Japan's ecnomic/industrial growth rate is high but never did it strike to me that it was not less population and more hardwork alone that led to it - it was planning and the right policies. I have always considered India's population is detrimental to its growth but didn't realize we had "human capital" which could be our boon and not bane. I can go on and on regarding the clarifications I got about "India" itself from this book. My total outlook has changed.

I liked the way Gurcharan Das has brought about the point, where in India tried to embrace the goodness present in democracy, socialism and capitalism and ended up embracing the worse things in all.

Some of the key points in his book:
1. Giving services and things like power, rice free of cost will not end poverty. Bcoz it will just result in short-term relief and also empty government treasury.
2. Making people capable of earning by educating them and creating employment opportunities is the only way of eradicating poverty. By creating employment oppotunities, he doesn't mean creating a lot of government jobs and keep paying salaries. He means to encourage enterpreneurship by reducing the obstacles to the enterpreneurs and create jobs in a competitive environment, which will generate "quality" employment.
3. Unless a lot of bureaucratic controls cease to exist, the corruption is there to stay.
4. We cannot replicate any nation's economic policies, as every country is unique(We are unique). Its like there is no particular panacea for all diseases.
5. And a set of policies aren't suitable for a country always. We should keep changing them with requirements and place proper monitoring systems to check the results and modify them if they aren't helping in anyway.

In my humble and earnest opinion, the contents of this book should be prescribed to academic curriculum (I am not sure if it already has been included)!

A must read for every Indian if he/she has to know what our country has underwent after independence!