REDHOTCURRY.COM REVIEW
Rating: (5 flames)

This is the sort of book you'll bore all your friends with once you've read it. Packed with the minutiae of Indian business life past and present, Gurcharan Das explains the history and background of the personalities behind some of India's most successful business ventures like Reliance (the Ambani family), Tata, the Aditya Birla Group and a host of other well-known names. My favourite chapter is devoted to the 'Merchants of Marwar'. Anyone who knows about the business reputation of the "marwardis" should take time to read about how their formidable business prowess developed and is sustained even today.

Das's narrative style makes this book easy reading for a business tome and although it will not tell you how to go about creating a successful Indian business venture, it offers the unique insight of one who has "been there and done that". Should be compulsory reading for anyone thinking of doing business in India.

SYNOPSIS

India today is a vibrant free-market democracy and has begun to flex its muscles in the global information economy and on the world stage. In this acclaimed book, Gurcharan Das tells the stories of the major players in a period of rapid and profound change, and makes comprehensible and compelling the economic and political developments responsible for these changes. Das argues that the changes of the past 50 years have, at last, amounted to a revolution in India. By weaving his personal story, as former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, into the larger context of contemporary history, Das provides a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: The Wise Elephant

Part One: Our Spring of Hope (1942-65)
1. Ranting in English, Chanting in Sanskrit
2. Smells of the Bazaar
3. The Train to Nowhere
4. Blind Then, Blind Now
5. If We Were Once Rich, Why Are We Now Poor?
6. The Paper Route
7. Capitalism for the Rich, Socialism for the Poor

Part Two: The Lost Generation (1966-91)
8. Bazaar Power
9. Lerma Rojo and Taichung Native No. 1
10. Caste
11. Multiplying by Zero
12. Merchants of Marwar
13. Dreams in Kabutarkhana
14. Licensing Blues

Part Three: The Rebirth of Dreams (1991-99)
15. The Golden Summer of 1991
16. A Million Reformers
17. New Money
18. Old Money
19. The Rise and Rise of a Middle Class
20. Modern vs. Western
21. Democracy First, Capitalism Afterwards
22. Knowledge is Wealth
23. A New Country

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gurcharan Das is a columnist for the 'Times of India' and other newspapers. He is former CEO of Proctor & gamble India. He is currently also a venture capitalist and a consultant to industry and government leaders. He lives in New Delhi.

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