The Indian renaissance : India's rise after a thousand years of decline

India's recent economic performance has been attracting world attention, but the phenomenon needs to be appreciated in the larger context of its long history. After a thousand years of decline, India is re-awakening not just as an economy, but as a civilization. The country now has a genuine opportunity to re-establish itself as a major global power. Since the beginning of its journey of economic progress in the 19th century, India has been passing through difficult phases.From times when there seemed to be no road ahead during the decades of socialism, to the pain of restructuring in the 1990s, India has seen it all. Economic and social forces such as demographic shifts and rising literacy levels are promising India's transformation beyond recognition. A significant change has been in terms of broader thinking and attitude towards innovation and risk. This book showcases India's journey towards the present historic juncture, its challenges ahead and its prospects for a better tomorrow, from the perspective of the new generation of Indians. India's Rise After a Thousand Years of Decline Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 1. Waiting for a Thousand Years 10 The “Golden” Past 14 The Decline 23 Why Did the Indian Civilization Go Into Decline? 25 The Importance of a Culture of Openness 32 The Story of Sanskrit 34 The 19th Century Re-awakening 37 2. From Independence to Freedom 42 Mahalanobis and His Mechanical Toy 43 The Failure of Vision 52 The Price of Geo-politics 56 The Eighties and the Promise of Reform 60 The Collapse 64 3. The Entrepreneurial Explosion 70 The First Phase: The First Breath of Freedom 71 The Second Phase: The Pain of Restructuring 78 The Third Phase: Take-Off 85 The Indian Growth Model 90 Why the Indian Model? 95 4. The Great Indian Middle Class (and its Limitations) 102 Origins 102 Independence and After 107 The White-Collar Boom 113 Manpower Shortages! 115 How Big is the Middle Class? 118 5. Poverty, Inequality and the Last Bastion of Control 122 The Debate over Poverty and Jobless Growth 123 Liberalization and Rural India 126 Inequality and Unemployability 132 A Brief History of Higher Education in India 135 The Problem with Higher Education 137 The Last Bastion of State Control 141 6. The Two Revolutions 150 The Demographic Revolution 151 Savings and the Asian Miracle 155 India’s Savings Boom 158 The Primary Education Revolution 159 A New Trajectory 164 Can Poor Infrastructure Stop India? 169 Can India Generate Enough Jobs? 173 7. The Importance of Institutional Reform 180 Governance and Second Generation Reforms 180 The Role of the Legal System 182 The Rules 185 Enforcing the Rules 190 The Importance of Legal Reform 195 8. How India will Change 200 Inevitable Urbanization 201 The Middle Class and Institutional Change 206 Westernization versus Modernization 218 The Environmental Cost 222 India’s Future Place in the World Economy 226 Hard versus Soft Power 230 9. Is India’s Rise Inevitable? 234 The Decline of Kolkata: A Cautionary Tale 237 Is the World Flat? 244 Index 248 India,Economy,Social Conditionas India's recent economic performance has attracted world attention but the country is re-awakening not just as an economy but as a civilization. After a thousand years of the decline, it now has a genuine opportunity to re-establish itself as a major global power.In “The Indian Renaissance”, the author, Sanjeev Sanyal, looks at the processes that led to ten centuries of fossilization and then at the powerful economic and social forces that are now working together to transform India beyond recognition. These range from demographic shifts to rising literacy levels, but the most important revolution has been the opening of mind and the changed attitude towards innovation and risk.This book is about how India found itself at this historic juncture, the obstacles that it still needs to negotiate and the future that it may enjoy. The author tells the story from the perspective of the new generation of Indians who have emerged from this great period of change.Published and distributed worldwide by World Scientific Publishing Co. except India, UK and North America India's recent economic performance has attracted world attention but the country is re-awakening not just as an economy but as a civilization. After a thousand years of the decline, it now has a genuine opportunity to re-establish itself as a major global power. In "The Indian Renaissance", the author, Sanjeev Sanyal, looks at the processes that led to ten centuries of fossilization and then at the powerful economic and social forces that are now working together to transform India beyond recognition. These range from demographic shifts to rising literacy levels, but the most important revolution has been the opening of mind and the changed attitude towards innovation and risk. This book is about how India found itself at this historic juncture, the obstacles that it still needs to negotiate and the future that it may enjoy. The author tells the story from the perspective of the new generation of Indians who have emerged from this great period of change