A Call for India to Reboot

REIMAGINING INDIA is a topical book. McKinsey & Company have chosen a great time to unleash more than 65 thought leaders from around the world to scourge India’s already tottering self-worth. The ratings are down and economic growth in India decelerated to 4.8 per cent in 2013 from 5.1 per cent in 2012. The United Nations projections of growth for calendar year 2014 is a dismal 5.35 per cent, while The World Bank has downgraded its growth forecast of the country for the current fiscal to 4.7 per cent. In this scenario, even Indians and diehard Indophiles are growing weary of the tired litany of India shining by its spin doctors in blinkers.

Reimagining India’s star cast of jurists (authors) call upon the world to take a second look at India with a promise that all is not lost. They set the historical context and then set right the records. It is not that the India they show is no longer shining, nor that the credibility has worn off the ‘Incredible India’ show. In fact, the India that they show was flawed all along, down the pages of history and polity. Our branding and campaign has been informed with overenthusiastic naivety of PR. It’s time to rein in this overzealousness and reimagine a new Indian reality. This contrarian India, reforged with equal parts lustre and base, is the key to unlocking the potential of Asia’s next superpower.

In the last few years, India has become a mere brand being pushed at Davos. The real India has been brushed under the carpet. It is this real India of 1.2 billion, almost half of who lead a life of hardship, that Bill Gates calls the real power of India. Gates has seen this India in action and credits them with the success of India’s polio programme. Here lies a tantalizing glimpse of India’s soft power—the power of can-do when its people put their shoulders to the yoke of development. Not only the world but many India born too can only see “India’s obvious talent and energy” and miss “its hidden strength—the rich, the powerful and the poor working together toward a common goal,” as Gate’s observes post enlightenment.

There is indictment of India’s political culture—of nepotism, corruption and dynasty—and also the booming middle class of India, exposed as a pathetic spineless creature surviving on the offal of its political masters and yet biting the hand that feeds at every opportunity. Yet there is praise for the India that is arising with the hope of a new dawn. All said, Reimagining India is a bold book with a positive message about India and for India. Read it!