Recasting India How Entrepreneurship is Revolutionizing the World's Largest Democracy

by Sengupta, Hindol

• ISBN13: 9781137279613
• ISBN10: 1137279613
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-11-18
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

Twenty years after India opened its economy, it faces severe economic problems, including staggering income inequality. A third of its citizens still lack adequate food, education, and basic medical services, while Mumbai businessman Mukesh Ambani lives in the most expensive home in the world, which cost over a billion dollars to build. Despite the fact that India now has a Mars mission, there are still more mobile phones than toilets in the country. In most places, such a disparity would have the locals pounding at the gates. So why no Arab Spring for India? Hindol Sengupta, senior editor of Fortune India, argues that the only thing holding it back is the explosion of local entrepreneurship across the country. While these operations are a far cry from the giant companies owned by India's ruling billionaires, they are drastically changing its politics, upending the old caste system, and creating a "middle India" full of unprecedented opportunity. Like Gazalla Amin whose flourishing horticulture business in the heart of Kashmir has given her the title 'lavender queen.' Or Sunil Zode, who stole the first shoes he ever wore and now drives a Mercedes, thanks to his thriving pesticide business. Sengupta shows that the true potential of India is even larger than the world perceives, since the economic miracle unfolding in its small towns and villages is not reflected in its stock markets. Recasting India reveals an India rarely seen by the larger world—the millions of ordinary, enterprising people who are redefining the world's largest democracy.

Author Biography

Hindol Sengupta is the senior editor for the Indian edition of Fortune magazine and the founder of India’s only open-government nonprofit, the Whypoll Trust. He has worked as a political interviewer on Bloomberg TV and as an anchor and reporter with the Indian editions of CNBC and CNN. He is the author of The Liberals, which won praise from globally renowned economists and public policy experts. The online ideas platform IdeaMensch included him on its list of 33 global social entrepreneurs who make the world a better place.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1   The Businessman Called Tagore
Chapter 2   Business Models in the World's Most Dangerous Place
Chapter 3   The Socialist Moneylender
Chapter 4   Gujarat, Riots and Economics
Chapter 5   In the company of Maids
Chapter 6   Models in Villages
Chapter 7   The Not Untouchables
Chapter 8   The "Pervert" Pad Maker
Chapter 9   Facebook for the Poor and the Village Center
Chapter 10  From Dung to Detergent
Conclusion  Was the Mahatma a Socialist?

Notes
Index