Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy and the Future of Our World (Paperback)

by Mira Kamdar (Author)
Key Phrases: nuclear deal, United States, New York, India Imagines the Future (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Mira Kamdar takes the seemingly endless historical and cultural cross currents of India and weaves them together into a story that bears on the whole world. She combines her admiration and affection for India and its people with a keen eye for its contradictory impulses, taking readers deep inside an India that is fighting for modernity on its own terms, but also changing, for good and ill, in response to dynamics beyond its control. Indians, both within and outside their country, are changing the fates of people everywhere. "Planet India" is our planet." -- Ted Fishman, author of "China Inc." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
India is everywhere: on magazine covers and cinema marquees, at the gym and in the kitchen, in corporate boardrooms and on Capitol Hill. Through incisive reportage and illuminating analysis, Mira Kamdar explores India's astonishing transformation from a developing country into a global powerhouse. She takes us inside India, reporting on the people, companies, and policies defining the new India and revealing how it will profoundly affect our future -- financially, culturally, politically. The world's fastest-growing democracy, India has the youngest population on the planet, and a middle class as big as the population of the entire United States. Its market has the potential to become the world's largest. As one film producer told Kamdar when they met in New York, "Who needs the American audience? There are only 300 million people here." Not only is India the ideal market for the next new thing, but with a highly skilled English-speaking workforce, elite educational institutions, and growing foreign investment, India is emerging as an innovator of the technology that is driving the next phase of the global economy. While India is celebrating its meteoric rise, it is also racing against time to bring the benefits of the twenty-first century to the 800 million Indians who live on less than two dollars per day, to find the sustainable energy to fuel its explosive economic growth, and to navigate international and domestic politics to ensure India's security and its status as a global power. India is the world in microcosm: the challenges it faces are universal -- from combating terrorism, poverty, and disease to protecting the environment and creating jobs. The urgency of these challenges for India is spurring innovative solutions, which will catapult it to the top of the new world order. If India succeeds, it will not only save itself, it will save us all. If it fails, we will all suffer. As goes India, so goes the world. Mira Kamdar tells the dramatic story of a nation in the midst of redefining itself and our world. Provocative, timely, and essential, Planet India is the groundbreaking book that will convince Americans just how high the stakes are -- what there is to lose, and what there is to gain from India's meteoric rise. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743296869
• ISBN-13: 978-0743296861
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a must read on India and the world, February 24, 2007

By	Michele Wucker "Author of LOCKOUT and WHY THE... (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Planet India: How the Fastest Growing Democracy Is Transforming America and the World (Hardcover)

If you agree that it is impossible to understand America's future without engaging with what is happening in the rest of the world, I urge you to read Planet India. Interviewing a wide range of people, from Bollywood movie producers to indebted farmers committing suicide to tea merchants and U.S. software engineers working in India, Mira gives the flavor of India today, tells how it got there, and gives a sense of where it is going along with what its decisions will mean for the entire planet.
Mira is not afraid to break taboos, and she addresses both the tremendous optimism and potential in India as well as the Herculean challenges that the country faces. In Planet India, you'll get the human side of the story as well as that of the geo-political and economic implications of what is going on in India.

In my own work, I have written about the many Indian professionals make both entrepreneurial and philanthropic contributions to their country of birth. I also have had to tell the regrettable stories of many Indians who are contributing their tremendous skills to the United States but often have trouble negotiating our immigration bureaucracy, partly as a consequence of America's deep ambivalence about our relationship with the rest of the world. India's rise can be attributed in no small part to its leaders' understanding that engaging globally is the key to the future.

You also will want to check out Mira's beautiful first book, Motiba's Tattoos, which uses family memoir to shed light on history and the present.

Michele Wucker, Author of Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right (PublicAffairs Press, 2006)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I nearly gave up on this book about 1/3 through...., July 30, 2007

By	D. Chambers (Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Planet India: How the Fastest Growing Democracy Is Transforming America and the World (Hardcover)

...but then it really got good. The first 1/3 of the book is full of gee-whiz statistics on growth. It is also full of what I call "Reader's Digest" subchapters that gush excessively, in the genre of: ("Mr. X ushered me into his elegant office, high above the immaculate tech campus. Sales grew at 83% last year, mainly due to American outsourcing...") or ("the girls upon graduation could produce PowerPoint presentations;") just what the world needs more of.

Then we get into the really great parts of the book. All of India's shortcomings are examined realistically, from pollution of the groundwater and air, caste differences, religious hatred, a dozen or two languages, the bomb, the lack of any real education or medical care or opportunity for most of the vast population, corruption, the suppression of women, lack of electricity and airports, global warming, ethnic uprisings, Pakistan, China, etc, and no punches are pulled.

In short there is a real question as to whether success in India will be like success in Mexico: a widening gap between rich and poor that grows worse each decade. Several reviewers have inferred from the book that global success for India is inevitable. Perhaps, but not necessarily.

The book is really superb. I liken it to "Guns, Germs, and Steel" which explained how physical and cultural geography determined why certain areas of the globe prospered in centuries past. Planet India gives us the physical and cultural elements to try and deduce India's future. Frankly, it's not looking good, except for a small oligarchic class. But good luck to them, and good luck to America.

Just because I am not as positive on the outcome does not make this book any less fascinating. Enjoy!

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to India, July 26, 2007

By	Sahra Badou "Bibliophile" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Planet India: How the Fastest Growing Democracy Is Transforming America and the World (Hardcover)

This is really a great book not to miss. India might very well be the political balance to China when the United States declines and eventually falls.

I did go to Bombay some years back for a friend¡¦s wedding, but I honestly never viewed India as a major economic or military power. Poverty was rampant, and I heard of stories of families killing female babies because they are a financial drain to them (infanticide).

Corruption is also rampant in India, and the author tells the stories of famous Indians who were harassed when they spoke out against corruption. Corruption is rampant in my country as well and I learnt to keep my mouth shut.

The author points out the many tragic challenges facing Indians. HIV is a major problem in India now, with probably 20 million Indians already infected with AIDS. Poverty, infanticide, corruption, and crime are problems that can be solved through education, caring, and policing. India can easily surmount those challenges if the government puts its mind to it.

India is now a nuclear nation, and this worries some that this could lead to an arms race, especially with Pakistan and China. The US is counting on India as a military balance in the region. There has been many instances where the possibility of nuclear war between India and Pakistan was at a critical point.

India is the world's fastest-growing democracy. It also has the youngest population on the planet, and a middle class as big as the population of the entire United States. Its market has the potential to become the world's largest. As one film producer said, "Who needs the American audience? There are only 300 million people here."

Although most Indians highly respected the US in the 90s, most don¡¦t anymore after Bush junior took office. Many are against the offensive strategies of the US, especially the war in Iraq.

The number of American Indians is increasing, which is giving India a powerful voice in its lobbying attempts in Washington. Some say India¡¦s lobbyist in D.C. will attain the power of the Jewish lobbyists in the near future.

The author does warn that India must not follow the American system, but rather invent its own. That concept is very interesting.

I was fascinated by the chapter on how polluted the water is in some regions of India, and of the thousands who die as a result of poisoning and of cancer. According to the author, this water pollution has entered packaged food.

There are also stories of suicides due to the inability to pay back loan sharks who charge 10% a month!

The author also describes how in cities the rich live next to poor neighborhoods and manage to completely ignore them or pretend like they did not exist. The nature of man is the same everywhere.

Here are some facts about India taken from the book¡¦s back cover:

Þ India is the world's fourth-largest economy.

Þ By 2034, India will be the most populous country on Earth, with 1.6 billion people.

Þ One out of three of the world's malnourished children live in India.

Þ 600 million people are under the age of 25.

Þ 72,000,000 cell phones will be sold in India in 2007.

Þ India just edged past the United States to become the second-most-preferred destination for foreign direct investment after China.

Þ In 1991, Indians purchased 150,000 automobiles; in 2007, they are expected to purchase 10 million.

Þ By 2008, India's total pool of qualified graduates will be more than twice as large as China's.

Þ By 2015, an estimated 3.5 million white-collar U.S. jobs will be offshored.

Þ India is the largest arms importer in the developing world.

Þ American corporations expect to earn $20 to $40 billion from the civilian nuclear agreement with India.

Þ In 2007, there are 2.2 million Indian Americans, a number expected to double every decade.

Þ Twenty-nine percent of India's population speaks English -- that's 350 million people.

One reviewer on amazon.com had the following to say:

"This book reads more like a dream of what India could be rather than an objective assessment of what it is. It is proof that Indians continue to suffer from a serious inferiority complex with the constant need to assert their "greatness" without down-to-earth critical assessment of reality facing the country."

I personally enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.