A Sixth of Humanity: India's journey between democracy and economic growth

This narrative about India's development is described as an odyssey, perhaps because of the policy shortfalls and mishaps in the development voyage

A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey

by Devesh Kapur & Arvind Subramanian

Published by HarperCollins

760  pages ₹1,299

 

India’s economic evolution since independence has been the subject of several recent books. This rather long but readable book is special because it connects economic development with political and administrative evolution and is the joint product of Devesh Kapur, a professor of South Asian Studies in the United States, and Arvind Subramanian, best known as a policy analyst.  

Their judgement on the policies that shaped the economy is exceptionally critical for the pre-1980 period, but also argues that the required