India used to contribute approximately a quarter of the world's GDP until 1700 CE. As recently as 1820, this share was a hefty 16 per cent. But the Industrial Revolution shifted the centre of gravity of the global economy towards the West. The pernicious, indeed exploitative, policies of the British added to this shift by greatly impoverishing India.India's own policies during the first four decades following Independence denied it a rapid return to prosperity. But now that it has left those policies behind, opened up its economy and created a large GDP base, India can aspire to return to the prominent position it enjoyed in the global economy for so long. In The New India: A Reformer's Guide, one of the country's foremost economists, Arvind Panagariya, sets out a detailed pathway for India to regain its lost glory.

This book is a clarion call to every Indian citizen and the world at large, looking at India with a keen eye as it gallops on the path of inclusive growth, aimed at unleashing the unlimited potential of a billion young minds. For the last 8 years, India has been in fast gear, roaring, leading, learning, giving, sharing, winning, digitizing, inventing, and developing its infrastructure along with other sectors such as energy, production, exports, and finance. There has been a growing collaborative movement ranging from almost 8 million plus self-help groups to over 8 lac cooperative societies getting digitized to nearly 100,000 successful startups. There is a race to do research, develop indigenized technologies and increase exports, even in defence.The more we think about our potential, heritage, unique culture, and patterns of growth, the more cemented we feel about a brighter tomorrow. Why stop at microfinance? How about nanofinance? If we have to spur the consumer economy at ten to twenty times the present scale, nanofinance to the lower 50 per cent stratum of India is the only way forward. This is actual financial inclusion. Let even the poorest Indian today be dignified so as to be able to access the buy now pay later (BNPL) facilities. Open credit enablement network (OCEN) (pronounced as O-ken) needs to be socialized at lightning speed.

Published on the occasion of India Chem 2002, organized at New Delhi, India; includes listings of chemical manufacturers and companies.

Special research report on how to do business in India, including (one page on) taxation.