India Unbound

Author: Gurcharan DasPublisher: Penguin/VikingYear: 2000Language: EnglishPages: 420ISBN/UPC (if available): 0670882658 DescriptionA riveting story of a nation's rise from poverty to prosperity and the clash of ideas that occurred along the way. Today's India is a vibrant free-market democracy, and it has begun to flex its muscles in the global information economy. The old centralized bureaucratic state, which stifled industrial growth, is on the decline; the lower castes have risen confidently through the ballot box; and the middle class has tripled in the last two decades. This economic and social transformation is one of the major themes of this book. Gurcharan Das recounts the hope and despair of the last fifty years. The License Raj created a work environment in which a cousin of the author, on his first day at work in the railways, could precipitate a strike just because he was honest. And on one occasion, the author, even though a seasoned executive, was driven to sit by the