Independent India is at a turning point. Will it turn off the path to the destiny it set out towards at the midnight hour of 15th August 1947? Will it provide poorna swaraj—full freedom (political, social, and economic)—for all its citizens? Or will it be a nation in which some citizens are more equal than others: the rich more equal than the poor; Hindus more equal than Muslims; upper castes more equal than lower castes?

The making and remaking of a nation is a journey towards a shared vision. We must discover who we are and agree on who we want to be. The Indian economy is in a crisis. The people know it is, but its leaders deny it. Like ostriches, they try to bury their heads in sands of statistics hoping the storm will pass. They believe more GDP will produce good lives for citizens and try to convince them that India is on the right path because the size of its economy is growing faster and becoming larger than that of other nations.

Reimagining India’s Economy is a story of the evolution of the Indian economy after 1947. It provides ideas for leaders of change. It is a book to provoke reflection and learning; with some poetry, philosophy, and common sense to guide public policy rather than statistics, data analysis, and artificial intelligence.