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ABSTRACT
As India enters its seventy-fifth year of independence, conventional policy is unlikely to combat the breadth of its economic challenges. Across a range of areas-human capital, technology, agriculture, finance, trade, public service delivery and more-new ideas must now be on the table. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only cost India many lives and livelihoods, it has also exposed major structural weaknesses in the economy.
A huge farm and jobs crisis, rising and massive inequalities, tepid investment growth, and chronic banking sector challenges have plagued the economy, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also exposed the limitations of the Indian state, which tries to control too much-and ends up stifling the economy and the inherent energies of its young population. Climate change is no longer a distant threat, while disruptive technology has huge implications for India's demographic dividend. In addition, the dangerous lurch towards majoritarianism will cast its shadow on India's pursuit of prosperity for all.
Unshackling India examines the question: Can India use the next twenty-five years, when it will reach the hundredth year of independence, to restructure not only its economy but rejuvenate its democratic energy and unshackle its potential-to become a genuinely developed economy by 2047? The book argues that India can foster a prosperous and inclusive economy if it sets its mind to it, acknowledges the hard truths, and lays out the clear choices and new ideas India must adopt towards that end.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ajay Chhibber is the first Director General of India's Independent Evaluation Organisation with the status of Minister of State, recently established to assess the effectiveness of India's development programs. From July 2008 to July 2013 for five years he was former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant Administrator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He did his schooling from St. Paul's School, Darjeeling Chhibber received his training as an economist at Stanford University, USA (PhD, 1983) under a University fellowship and at Delhi School of Economics, India (MA, 1976). He received a BA in Economics from St Stephen's College, Delhi University where he received the David Rajaram Prize for the best all - rounder in 1974.
At UNDP, Chhibber managed the Asia-Pacific programmes [1] covering 39 countries spanning from Iran to the islands in the South Pacific. At UNDP he supervised preparation of seminal Human Development Reports on Women and on Climate Change for the Asia Pacific region. Prior to that, he worked at The World Bank for nearly 25 years on a range of development issues, managing its programmes in Viet Nam, Turkey, Macedonia, Indonesia and the Pacific. He also worked in the research department on public finance and public economics. Chhibber was the lead author of the seminal work on Governance at the World Bank and the 1997 World Development Report on the Role of the State.[2] Chhibber has also worked at the Planning Commission (India) and at the International Food Policy Research Institute. He has also taught economics at Georgetown University and the University of Delhi. Currently, he serves as a visiting scholar at the George Washington University's Institute for International Economic Policy[3]
Chhibber has published widely, including five books on economic development and many articles in international journals and in major newspapers.
