By 2018, India will be home to 3.58 lakh millionaires, doubling its tally from 1.5 lakh in 2013. In a country where risk is fast proving to be its own reward, a new cadre of wealth creators is building large fortunes at a breakneck pace. Not only do their successes mirror a bolder nation, they reflect new attitudes to generating, managing and leveraging wealth in a changing India. Gold biscuits, cash stuffed in mattresses and swathes of land are passé; aspirational India is no longer at the mercy of old conduits to more wealth. India is creating wealth differently and faster than any other economy in the world. This book chronicles the story of the country's new wealthy and the people helping them manage these riches. It also traces the journey of a young wealth management company that has in less than a decade become an industry frontrunner by building a business catering to the new wealthy. In a post-2008 world, the story of IIFL Wealth and its three founders is also a story of entrepreneurial dynamism in India. Much like the clients they service, these three are also riding a perfect storm of opportunity.

Cutting the Gordian Knot discusses India's quest for prosperity through job creation. The underlying pieces of this quest are complex and intertwined-an education system that has outlived its shelf life with misplaced aspiration for white-collared jobs. India got educated before it got skilled. Skilling along with micro-entrepreneurship needs to be rejuvenated. Rapid developments in technology are changing the nature of jobs and employment itself. We are living in truly interesting times. The country's youth bulge makes it one of the youngest nations in the world. A youthful demographic profile is necessary but not a sufficient condition for economic growth. It needs to be harnessed well. Some miscalculations and wrong moves could very easily transform a demographic dividend to a recipe for mass discontent. The country has a long way to go, and global disruptions due to rapidly changing technologies are creating hazards on the way. New ways will have to be found, and dominant narratives will have to be challenged. The book presents these views, data and insights with an intent to spark dialogue, awareness and, eventually, change.

Dundee had an interesting role to play in the jute trade, but the main player in the story of jute was Calcutta. This book follows the relationship of jute to empire, and discusses the rivalry between the Scottish and Indian cities from the 1840s to the 1950s and reveals the architecture of jute's place in the British Empire. The book adopts significant fresh approaches to imperial history, and explores the economic and cultural landscapes of the British Empire. Jute had been grown, spun and woven in Bengal for centuries before it made its appearance as a factory-manufactured product in world markets in the late 1830s. The book discusses the profits made in Calcutta during the rise of jute between the 1880s and 1920s; the profits reached extraordinary levels during and after World War I. The Calcutta jute industry entered a crisis period even before it was pummelled by the depression of the 1930s. The looming crisis stemmed from the potential of the Calcutta mills to outproduce world demand many times over. The St Andrew's Day rituals in Calcutta, begun three years before the founding of the Indian Jute Mills Association. The ceremonial occasion helps the reader to understand what the jute wallahs meant when they said they were in Calcutta for 'the greater glory of Scotland'. The book sheds some light on the contentious issues surrounding the problematic, if ever-intriguing, phenomenon of British Empire. The jute wallahs were inextricably bound up in the cultural self-images generated by British imperial ideology.