Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future

Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba

(A National Bestseller, Breaking the Mould, by World Renowned Economists Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba Decode the Future of the Indian Economy)

Published by Penguin Random House India, written by renowned economist and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan along with Rohit Lamba,  Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future, examine fundamental policy choices that concern every Indian. These two distinguished voices from the field of economics and public policy document the future of India’s economic development. There is a truly Indian path to prosperity, they argue, that builds on the strengths of our people and our political and societal frameworks. Released in India in December 2023, Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future, has become a national bestseller.

Where is India going today? Is it surging forward, having just overtaken the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world? Or is it floundering, unable to provide jobs for the millions joining the labour force? What should India do to secure a better future? Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future tackles these critical questions that revolve around India’s growth and progress in the 21st century.

The authors explain how we can accelerate economic development by investing in our people’s human capital; expanding opportunities in high-skilled services and manufacturing centred on innovative new products; and making India a ferment of ideas and creativity to accelerate growth. They explain how India’s democratic traditions will support this path, helped further by governance reforms, including strengthening democratic institutions and greater decentralization.

Written with unusual candour, Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba offer praise for where the Indian establishment has been successful but are also unsparing in pointing out its weaknesses. They highlight the critical challenges that India faces in today’s global economy when compared to other major economies and urge India to break free from the shackles of the past and look to the possibilities of the future. Making their case with exceptional clarity, vivid examples, and persuasive arguments, this is a book for anyone who has a stake in India’s future.

About the authors

RAGHURAM G. RAJAN is a world-renowned Indian economist who is currently a distinguished service professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His past policy positions include governor of the Reserve Bank of India and chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. His bestselling books include Fault Lines (winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award), I Do What I Do, The Third Pillar and Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists (with Luigi Zingales). His widely cited research focuses on the underpinnings of economic growth. His numerous awards include the Fischer Black Prize and the Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics, Euromoney’s Central Banker of the Year award and the Banker’s Global Central Banker Award.

ROHIT LAMBA is an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University and a visiting assistant professor of economics at New York University Abu Dhabi. He received a PhD in economics from Princeton University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge. He publishes regularly in leading academic journals and newspapers. He has also worked as an economist at the office of the chief economic adviser to the Government of India.

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