India Unbound

A few years back, I decided to read a book titled “India Unbound” written by
Gurucharan Das. I read the book in one sitting flat. A couple of months back I gifted a copy to one of my friends. The book changed many hands and fortunately it came back to me. One afternoon (when I had nothing much to do), I decided to write a review. I would like to clearly state that this is not a promotion campaign of any sort and I have no connections with either Mr. Gurucharan Das or Penguin publishers.

India Unbound
-an independent review by Ram Kumar R

The word India brings mixed reactions among people around the world. If we analyze the reactions since independence to the current day, a lot has changed including this country we live in. The book has changed the way I look at India in more ways than not. Gurucharan Das takes us on a journey from Independent India of fifties to modern liberalized Nation of today. Before you start reading the book, order a dozen pop corns, get yourself your favorite drink and make yourself comfortable. If you are like me, you will be hooked to the book for hours.

Many people wonder what changed in the year 1991. Constant references to the economic reforms of 1991 are bombarded by the media on more than one occasion. Manmohan singh was the then finance minister and he did something which changed the course of our country. We had low foreign exchange reserves and the finance minister showed courage and opened our economy to the world. Wait a minute… What do you mean by opening the economy? Is the economy a box which can be opened by the Government? That was my thought process before I read the book. I am assuming that all the people reading this text are better informed. However, if you have similar questions or at least some questions about liberalization, this book is for you.

The book reasons the constant 5 to 7 percent post liberalization growth of the Indian economy for over fifteen years. As a consequence to this growth, Indian middle class has tripled. The market has widened and a large consumer base has created more opportunities for growth.
My forecast: we have a hundred Kishore Biyanis waiting to be unleashed in various sectors, thanks to increased demand and competition. Now, every company wants a share of the Indian market. The vibrant India of today would have been much different if we had not taken those path changing steps in the nineties. We are fortunate to live on the cusp of historic change. Today when 7 percentage growths are considered mediocre and we strive for a double digit growth, it is fascinating to understand why this country was not doing well for over 4 decades after independence.

Nehru’s dream of an ideal socialist economy collapsed after great promise. My generation will have several questions of why we could not create an Industrial revolution in India. Time will question the disillusioned leadership on its failure to awaken India. Someday India will wakeup to know that leaders in the 70s and 80s even after knowing that the path they are taking is no good continued in that very path in the name of eradicating poverty. Ironically they were in place to uplift the poor and remove poverty. Gurucharan Das is strongly opinionated and proves his point with a lot of vigor.
What was wrong with India’s economic strategy? I have not taken any formal education in economics or other allied areas. In spite of my not so informed background (if I may say so), I found the book very interesting and thought provoking. Before I move on, I would like to list the six things which went wrong.

1. Indian economy adopted an inward looking, self- sustainable growth path. Nothing wrong with import substitution but what we forgot to include was an export encouraging outlook thus denying our self a share in world trade.
2. The Nehru government setup massive inefficient and monopolistic public sector. It denied any freedom in running its business resulting in poor performance.
3. Overregulation of private enterprises to an extent that the output of an enterprise was dictated by the government.
4. The Indian government discouraged foreign capital, denied itself world class competition and thus protected the Indian enterprises from becoming competitive.
5. The Indian government pampered the organized working class to an extent where job security was given and productivity was abysmal (helped them win elections for sure).
6. Last but not the least; India ignored the education of half its children. Girls.

Hard to believe isn’t it? India was not self sufficient until the green revolution but why did that stop us from exporting the output from other sectors.
Indian government till recently (1985) dictated how many scooters should be produced by automobile companies. License raj was prevalent in every walk of life. We have got rid of license raj to an extent but corruption continues to persist in India.

In the same era (1950 - 1990), many countries including China did much better. Today India has got back on track. We are performing on par with China and on occasions even better.
India is not in malls and multiplexes. India is not about high rise building in Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore. India is more about the rural population where a huge percentage of the people still reside. This book is a reality check to the affluent urban middle class which I am proud to be a part of. About 30 percent of India is poor according to the international poverty line defined as one dollar per person per day. We have done well considering a strong rupee rally against a weakening dollar (April, May 2007). That should offset the scales a bit. The purchasing power parity of India is not something to be proud of as we stand on the 25 percentile mark against 205 countries. I would not like to mention few other statistics such as child mortality, illiteracy and so on. For the sake of this discussion, its better to say, we are not doing great even today. It is interesting to note that when this book was written, half of India was under the poverty line. Thank India and thank those NGOs and few leaders who have brought this change.

The weak socio-economic classes in India are being transformed. Sufficient proof for this is seen in Uttar Pradesh with the leader who strongly backs the backward classes coming to power for the fourth time. India’s growth should not be symbolic but should percolate in to the grass roots and all sections of the society. The author believes in “Obvious” all inclusive growth. Many of the examples to prove his point are examples of his interaction with sections of the society. However there is a growing concern that the growth is not all inclusive. Fears of clashes between the haves and the have-nots are gaining momentum. My only point against the book is that the all inclusive growth topic needed a greater handling in the book. The author could have come close to “Future Shock” fame but fell a little short. If you haven’t read this book, pick your copy today. Beg, borrow or steal, I don’t care. But read!