15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Business Perspective on India (until about 2001), October 5, 2006
This review is from: India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (Paperback)
This book presents a picture of India's Economic and Business stroy from just before Independence in 1947 till about 2001. Mr Das uses his family members as a chorus to present the story in the early days, and then transitions to his own experiences as a manager in Richardson Hindustan, where he had a ringside view of the business climate in India during the 70s and 80s and later.
He captures the initial euphoria over independence and the sense of control Indians felt over their own destiny, which led to Nehru's implementation of a centrally planned economy, with most important industries nationalized, and private enterprise being severly shacked, and "profit" being a dirty word.
Some of the chapters in this book are almost like business cases/narratives which present the journey of different business houses, like the Tatas or the Ambanis as they tried to run business and navigate the suffocating bureaucratic maze that the planned economy gave rise to. His contention is that while Nehru may have made a mistake, the real blunder was in continuing with the planned economy model after his death even when it was abundantly clear that it was not working.
He leads up to the balance of payments crisis, with the resultant changes in the Indian economy caused by liberalization by Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, who appear to him to be apologetic reformers almost unaware of the monumental changes they were unleashing. Finally, he notes the frustration that the economy has not continued to open up as quickly as it had started to, now that the crisi has passed. However, he notes that there is a sense of widespread optimism that is driving change all over India.
Therefore, this book is a businessman's perspective on business history in post-independence India.
(Some of the reviewers have noted that this book does not present a balanced picture, by not presenting either the roadblocks still present, of the tremendous social and economic inequities. True, but that is not its purpose. Unless India has a vibrant business environment, it cannot generate enough opportunities for those willing to work, or enough surplus for those who need help. Thus, in that sense, I think that allowing business to do its job (with adequate institutional supervision for ethical and environmental behaviour) is the foundation on which other social objectives can be built. Anyway, Mr Das is not foremost a social entrepreneur, nor is he a social activist, even though his work must touch upon those areas. He has written about what he knows first hand, and done a great job.)
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Only Half the Picture., April 11, 2005
This review is from: India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (Paperback)
This book gives an in-depth look at the follies of past governmental policies in India while tracing substantial changes in the nation's economic plans within the last ten years--allowing for the opening of markets and a competitive stance in the global arena by India. He outlines the failures of Nehru's idealistic approach, along with Mrs. Gandhi's autocratic regime. It also shows the potential for further opportunity with the change of the economic environment via globalization. It does have a few weaknesses--capitalism is exhorted as a panacea for India's dilemmas. And the image presented is overly rosy--the book only gives half of the picture and is unfounded in its optimism with regards to India's future via its current path. Abraham George's "India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty" and P. Sainath's "Everybody Loves A Good Drought" are excellent counter-points to the issues presented in this volume.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Indian economy - Explained, April 9, 2002
This review is from: India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (Paperback)
This book covers India over a broad enough frame of time .. the last 50 years since Independence. Since the author has worked in industry .. his views have a practical perspective. It also throws light on doyens of Indian industry the Birlas, the Tatas , the Amabanis.. and their efforts to power growth and simultaneously battle the bureaucracy.
The author has made a convincing attempt at pointing out the ills of bureaucracy and licensing .. and their effects in keeping economic growth down.
The book makes good reading , an understanding of fundamental economics is unnecessary and anyone who has an interest in India should find this book a very good read .
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