This is a depressing book. Period. It is not completely the fault of Bhagwati and Panagariya, the growth story itself is quite bleak. There is no doubt that for continuous improvement in well being of Indian citizens, we need our economy's growth rate to stay strong. While we have done many investments in this direction, they still remains inadequate and there is need for many more structural changes in the economy. It is a gloomy picture all and all.
I loved this book. It is about human struggle to live a life worth living. Yes, it is much more that a story of the three protagonist females and definitely much more than a history of China's twentieth century. The book spans the three generations of Jung Chang and we see how each member of her family made their choices during good and bad times which ultimately defined their lives.
After reading the riveting book on American entrepreneurs, In Their Time by Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria, I was looking for some success stories of Indian entrepreneurs. I was very disappointed to read the portfolio book by the Penguin Group. Whether it was due to the great expectations set by having witnessed the penmanship of Mayo and Nohria in the American context or due to the poor structuring of the portfolio book, I could not wait for this book to end.
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