The last decade of Gujarat and the rise of Narendra Modi first as the Chief Minister and then as a national leader being the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has catapulted the Gujarat model and Narendra Modi into the national and international limelight. In the interim, especially in the last few years, there has been much literature on Gujarat and Narendra Modi. However, much of it is presented from a personality or political perspective. In the run-up to the national elections around May 2014, public interest goes beyond politics and personality. There is interest on some of the pioneering work done in Gujarat around governance and Panchayati Raj. The nation wants to know how Narendra Modi and his team of bureaucrats have been able to make a difference. There is curiosity about the interplay between politics, economy and policy. Crucially, the world wants to know if the Gujarat model is scalable to the national level. However, today’s literature on Gujarat and Modi fails to cover his economics and governance vision. In the hurly-burly of politics, the innovations, the unique models and policies that Gujarat has seen over the last decade seem to be getting overlooked. This book presents the vision behind Modi’s thought process, and the action on the ground in terms of actual field reports and case studies. The book seeks to highlight the economic and development strategies adopted by Modi. The learnings from these would stand other states in good stead. Under Modi, Gujarat stands out for its long-term vision and impeccable execution. Governance is clearly not just about lofty speeches and promises but actual delivery; as is economics. One of the key ideas that the book brings out is that Modi is a proponent of both Inclusive Economics as well as Inclusive Governance. This in a sense is the essence of ModiNomics, a new phenomenon, which is discussed in the book. Sameer Kochhar has been interacting with Gujarat and Gujarat Government officials since 2003. For much of the last decade, the annual Skoch Summits organised by Kochhar have featured case studies on Gujarat’s governance. Books, articles and reports have been done. Field assessments have been carried out. He has captured the voices of the common man. He has also interacted with Modi to know his mind on Gujarat and the nation first hand. This book is an outcome of all the above and tells the Gujarat story in all its riveting details focusing on how Modi has brought about a sea change through his unique brand of ModiNomics.

Singapore has a 2000% higher population density than India, but is yet slum-free. At the same time, India is full of slums. Why? Why do the Chinese pay 4.9% for 30-year fixed mortgage rates and Indians pay 10%? China has 800 million jobs and India has 520 million. Our populations are identical. Why is India lacking 280 million jobs? India’s target for job creation is an abysmal 10 million. India created near zero jobs in 3 years. Why is India lagging so pathetically? In peak years, China grew at 13% while India perennially struggles to grow at 8%. Why? China exports $2100 billion vs India’s $260 billion – and shamefully, India’s exports have not grown at all in 7 years. Why? Despite these facts, the author asserts with irrepressible optimism that it is India’s manifest destiny to be the world’s largest economy. He offers solutions to script a new future for India — to make India 1100% richer in 20 years. Modi is a great blessing to India. He works hard. Instead he should work smart using ideas from 50 richest countries suggested in the book. SRI will end poverty, slums, farmers’ suicides, vanquish 80% of black money and create 200 million jobs, with no cost to the government. India’s GDP is $2.5 trillion. SRI will add $25 trillion -$75 trillion in a special case -to our GDP. Sans SRI, India will be stuck as a ‘lazy’, imbecile power middling in a world order dominated by Red China. The book exposes how China will be undone by imminent political, demographic, economic storms. India will have 60% more population than China by the end of this century, making China senile.

Disenchanted India and Beyond: Musings on the Lockdown Alternatives engages with the lineages of the present disenchantment and everyday issues of people in India and beyond. It depicts local, regional, national and global transitions in politics, economy and society. It rejects the ideals that promotes ‘there is no alternative’ narratives. It unravels the way reactionary and right-wing forces weaponize pessimism that helps capitalist forces and undermines working classes. The book examines existing and available alternatives for a prosperous and peaceful society. The book argues for pluriversal political and philosophical praxis to consolidate and defend the progressive achievements of the working-class struggles.

As the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government completes its current term ahead of the General Elections 2019, it is time to evaluate its performance, specifically in terms of its management of the economy. This book is a critical assessment of five years of the brand of economics Prime Minister Narendra Modi has championed, often referred to as 'Modinomics'. Brought into power with the biggest political mandate in almost three decades, did the NDA government succeed in gainfully transforming India's economic trajectory or did it squander a once-in-a-generation opportunity? The book conjectures it is the latter, and analyses why the Modi government's stewardship of the economy is a 'great disappointment'.

Columnist, author and political commentator, Aakar Patel has long been a close observer of the political scenario. In Price of the Modi Years, he seeks to explain the data and facts on India's performance under Narendra Modi. Modi's predecessor, Manmohan Singh, had once said that Modi would be a disaster as prime minister. This book shows how. It concedes Modi's popularity; this is an accounting of the damage he has wrought. It is the history of India since 2014, assessing the damage across the polity from the economy, national security, federalism, foreign relations, legislations and the judiciary to media and civil society. Our memories are not long, news cycles are transient and incidents are forgotten or misclassified as being only episodic, unless documented, unified and placed together as a record. And, therefore, this book-a history of these present times.

This book challenges the way development has been conceptualized and practiced in South Asian context, and argues for its deconstruction in a way that would allow freedom, choice and greater well-being for the local people. Far from taking development for granted as growth and advancement, this book unveils how development could also be a destructive force to local socio-cultural and environmental contexts. With a critical examination of such conventional development practices as hegemonic, patriarchal, devastating and failure, it highlights how the rethinking of development could be seen as a matter of practice by incorporating people’s interest, priorities and participation. The book theoretically challenges the conventional notion of hegemonic development and proposes alternative means, and, practically, provides nuances of ethnographic knowledge which will be of great interest to policy planners, development practitioners, educationists and anyone interested in knowing more about how people think about their own development.

As per the findings of the Korean author, the Indian business community of Baniyas i.e. Marwaris, Gujaratis, Jains, and others has ruled the Indian economy world for ages. These Baniya merchant groups with their origins in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and around are merely 2% (about 2.5 million) of the Indian population, and currently run 8-9 out of 10 top conglomerates in India. The author has credited Indian Baniyas and their 3000 years of Karma legacy for making India the economic superpower of the world. These Indian Baniya groups are and will remain dominant not only in traditional sectors but also in the new generation industries like IT-enabled e-commerce and other services. The book talks about the sacrifices made by this community, which forms the part of the global G3 (Great 3) merchant groups including Jewish and Chinese merchants who own a major chunk of business activity across the world. It shares characteristics with Korea’s merchant community, Gaesung Merchants also. The book narrates the core competency of the Indian Baniyas and NRIs to address and prosper with this huge and prosperous country. The content of this is based on the South Korean author’s years of research and first-hand experience while staying in Ahmadabad and parts of North India.

In this book, Das presents a class-based perspective on the economic and political situation in contemporary India in a globalizing world. It deals with the specificities of India’s capitalism and neoliberalism, as well as poverty/inequality, geographically uneven development, technological change, and export-oriented, nature-dependent production. The book also deals with Left-led struggles in the form of the Naxalite/Maoist movement and trade-union strikes, and presents a non-sectarian Left critique of the Left. It also discusses the politics of the Right expressed as fascistic tendencies, and the question of what is to be done. The book applies abstract theoretical ideas to the concrete situation in India, which, in turn, inspires rethinking of theory. Das unabashedly shows the relevance of class theory that takes seriously the matter of oppression/domination of religious minorities and lower castes.

This volume is a collection of 71 speeches of the Prime Minister in his fifth year in office (from May 2018 to March 10, 2019). Divided in five sections, the speeches in this volume invoke the concept of good governance; lay down the dream for making India prosperous and proficient in various fields; they hail the contributions of soldiers, farmers and scientists; they raise the hope for respect and better life for all our countrymen and they present a clear commitment for Rising India.