| Why You Should Read This Book? |
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Understand why India is still largely a poor country |
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Know how India can become a prosperous, developed nation by 2040 |
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Learn about possible solutions to some of India's biggest problems |
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See how you can help in transforming India |
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| Reviews |
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“The Third Eye” |
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Atanu rightly argues that the key component for economic development is freedom. This is not just political freedom which India gained in 1947 but also personal and economic freedom. In the post-independent socialist milieu, the government decided what people should produce, buy and consume. While we have liberalized our economic landscape, much needs to be done as the government still controls large swathes of the economy such as education, transportation and telecommunications. Indians’ personal freedoms continue to be curtailed in the name of national security. Websites and books are periodically banned. The irony is that the government thinks that the people are smart enough to vote them in but not smart enough to decide what to read.
Most of the ideas in the book are familiar territory – privatizing education and railways, promoting urbanization, favoring railways over roadways and airlines and solar energy over fossil fuels. Since he is an economist, Atanu tries to analyze the problem using a systems approach by identifying the feedback loops and the linkages. However his book is almost two years late with Nandan Nilekani’s “Imagining India” having beaten him to the finish line. Nilekani deals with mostly the same ideas and in much greater depth. |
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Shashi Shekhar |
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In his recent book titled Transforming India, blogger and economist Atanu Dey proposes an interesting construct for such non-sectarian political engagement. Atanu Dey calls for a voluntary association, ‘United Voters of India’, that functions as a lobby of sorts to pressure political parties and Government to make policies consistent with what he describes as “Pretty Good Principle”. Atanu Dey’s UVI is not much unlike what Mr Arun Shourie calls a “Lobby for Excellence” in his book We must have no price. Where Mr Shourie stops short of spelling out what the lobby of excellence must do, Atanu Dey is quite forthright in what he believes the UVI to be — a vote-bank of urban educated voters. The Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi led India Against Corruption movement could come close to being such a vote bank that Atanu Dey envisions. The upcoming Lok Sabha bypoll in Haryana for the Hissar constituency will likely tell us much if the IAC can be such a vote-bank that Atanu Dey envisions or if it will reduce itself to a negative force that merely knows how to say no, but hasn’t quite figured out how to engage by saying yes. |
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