While economic
growth is welcomed by all, it is not championed by many. Many intellectuals
complain that progress hasn’t benefited rural or impoverished communities.
They worry that the technological boom is leaving hundreds of millions of
Indians behind in squalor. There’s reason for concern. Through India’s gross
domestic product has tripled in just 10 years—from $388 billion in 1996 to
$912 billion in 2006, its poverty rate still stood at 29 percent and its literacy
rate only reached up to 61 percent in 2006. The growth versus equality debate
continues today. As a result, politicians are under enormous pressure to protect
Indian companies and enact anti-poverty measures reminiscent of its socialist
past.
In India Unbound, Das exerts
great effort to uncover the reasons why India’s economy stagnated after it
won its independence in 1947 from the British Raj, which he describes as “the
most important event in the making of modern India—for better or for worse.”
Britain laid the foundation for India’s democratic institutions and invested
capital into building the country’s infrastructure—most significantly its
vast railway system. But Britain also perpetuated a system based on economic
disparity and an uneducated population.
When Jawaharlal Nehru became
India’s first prime minister, the country was awed by his idealistic vision
for a socialist economy based on democratic and secular participation. “Nehru
was a handsome man, and we all fell in love with him,” Das wrote. “The Indian
middle class had bought his dream wholesale. And why not? It was a good dream.”
Though the population was
enamored with the new leader who did create stable democratic institutions,
Nehru was an utter disappointment on the economic front, Das explains while
pointing to specific actions, such as the time-consuming and corrupt licensing
regime. “Almost everything that the government touched—certainly in the economic
sphere—would turn to dust,” Das said.
The list of fatal mistakes
is long and arduous. But the point of detailing them—and indeed of reading
them—is to know what not to do in the future.
Economic reforms did not
come until 1991, and they came from reluctant reformers who failed to sell
them to the public. The International Monetary Fund prompted India to make
many of the changes. Das does his best to explain how these changes occurred
and how they impacted Indian businesses.
Moving forward, Das suggests
there is every reason to believe the knowledge-driven global economy will
rapidly evolve in India. The reason is in part simple: the government “fortunately
has failed to fasten its claws onto knowledge-based products and services.”
Information technology is beyond the reach of government bureaucrats who could
impede its progress, Das says, and in effect not bound by politics.
Wise advice and idealistic
aspirations
India Unbound offers useful
insights about competitive practices and survival strategies for all actors
in the global economy. It is clear that Das’s 30-year career as a strategic
planner for P&G, Richardson Hindustan Limited, and Vicks India taught
him invaluable lessons. Though Das originally wrote and published India Unbound
for an Indian audience, his opinions are just as relevant to business leaders
in New York or London as they are to the politicians of Delhi.
Das peppered his book with
sound advice for companies large and small:
• Build on your strength rather than correct a weakness.
• Listen to the market rather than imposing your will on it.
• Employ a one-pointed focused strategy rather than a multipurpose design.
• Make use of a country’s low-cost local infrastructure.
• Benchmark yourself against the best in the world rather than the local competition.
• Cultivate local identification with and conviction in the company’s brand.
• Care for your customer with all your conviction.
India’s emergence on the
international trading playing field is drawing attention from many journalists,
business leaders and economists. New books and analyses about the India economy
materialize each month. As the Washington Post described in its review of
India Unbound, the list of books and analysis on the Indian “phenomenon is
long and distinguished.”
India Unbound is distinct
and a worthwhile read, mainly because Das paints a rich and insightful analysis
of the historic events shaping Indian politics and business sector. As a native
Indian who lived abroad in the United States as a student and later as a businessman,
Das is able to appraise the Indian culture as an insider and as an objective
observer. His anecdotal stories of his family’s experiences strengthen and
add significance to the informative passages. His study of India’s caste system,
cultural bias against business and team work, and religious rejection of materialism
are superb.
Though Das’s writing is
at times sprawling and repetitive, it is clear and fluid. Das takes the reader
on a journey through time and place, and he offers his perceptive insights
along the way. It’s clear that Das has a curious mind, which leads him to
examine every possibility before reaching a conclusion.
While Das’s view is firmly
pro-free market, it is interesting that he adopted that view only after having
undergone a comprehensive analysis of economics, philosophy and governance.
He studied philosophy and politics under John Rawls and other notable academics
at Harvard University and later attended Harvard Business School. It is perhaps
that educational background that allows him to argue his points objectively.
His findings are based on thorough research, which is well documented with
28 pages of end notes.
When Das says India must
continue to free its economy from overregulation and open itself up to trade,
he is clear and emphatic. At the same time, his assertions are delivered with
caution and care. So it is surprising that Foreign Affairs commented that
Das “seems to stray into fantasy” by suggesting that India would emerge as
a leader in the information revolution.
Das does offer optimism
that economic and education reforms can expand India’s middle class. But he
notes, almost as if speaking to himself, that “too much passion about one’s
ideals also encourages a moral self-righteousness, which is not pleasing to
behold.” With that, Das abates his earlier assertion that economic growth
will alleviate poverty:
“The consensus on capitalism
and democracy does not mean, of course, that we have solved our material or
social problems. Far from it…. We have given up the hope that the government
can solve our problems. It is still too early to say whether this consensus
will deliver human progress for all. That is why India’s is such an important
test of liberalism.”
Critics of India Unbound
note its one-sidedness. It does not examine the pervasive conditions of India’s
poverty—malnutrition, infant mortality and filthy conditions of the underclass.
While that’s true, Das does try to address these problems. Throughout the
book, he insists better education and health policies are needed to lift the
poor into the middle class.
India Unbound is a worthwhile
read for academics, politicians, economists and business professionals operating
in the global marketplace. Since its publication, Das has published a sequel,
Elephant Paradigm, which looks more closely at the economic reforms enacted
in the early 1990s. The original has much insight to offer.
Footnotes:
1. World Bank data shows a 9.2 percent increase in GDP for 2005 and for 2006, up from a 4 percent increase in 2000. (http://devdata.worldbank.org/external/CPProfile.asp?PTYPE=CP&CCODE=IND). World Bank “India
at a Glance.” 9/28/07 (http://devdata.worldbank.org/AAG/ind_aag.pdf) 3.
India Unbound, pg. 14 4.
India Unbound, pg. 50 5.
India Unbound, pg. 36 6.
India Unbound, pg. 327 7.
India Unbound, pgs.112-115; 233-234 8.
Washington Post, March 11, 2001 (http://ccs.in/gdas/?page_id=12) 9.
Foreign Affairs, September/October 2001, Review by Lucian W. Pye 10.
India Unbound, pg. 355 11.
India Unbound, pg. 354
