Book Reviews

Book Review: Economic Reform In China And India: Development Experience In A Comparative Perspective By: C. H. Chai and Kartik Chandra Roy

 

 

In this book, the authors offer a comparative analysis of the developmental experiences of China and India, applying quantitative analysis to investigation of economic, social, political, and environmental aspects of the countries. Chai and Roy provide a wealth of information on this crucial issue, through “Economic reform in China and India.”  They do a superb job of analyzing two major emerging economies under different economic and political systems.

Basically, “Economic Reform in China and India” examines /reviews the development strategies pursued by the two countries over the last 50 years in general and exploring recently introduced reform measures in particular. The book assesses the performance of China and India at both macro and sectoral levels (including economic, social, political and environmental aspects). It illustrates the reasons why China has outperformed India in the past (a concept that is essential for paper) and identifies the obstacles that India will face in its attempts to catch up with China. The book also provides solutions for China and India that can be applied to other developing countries. This book is invaluable for my research because it focuses on the economic development and political reforms of India and China.

 

Book Review: India: A Portrait by Patrick French

 

"With its overlap of extreme wealth and lavish poverty … its competing ideologies, its lack of uniformity, its kindness and profound cruelty, its complex relationships with religion, its parallel realities and the rapid speed of social change — India is a macrocosm, and may be the world's default setting for the future," writes Patrick French in "India: A Portrait," in which he combines historical analysis with concise reportage, where he tries to to capture the country in all its volatility.

Patrick French tries to look at how contemporary India reached its present state and what we can expect to see from the country in the future.  I used this book in my paper because I felt Mr. French had vividly captured the complexities and contradictions of the world's largest democracy – the poverty, the corruption, the nepotism, the chaos, and get the economic growth and sustaining of democracy. Also, he tries to thoroughly give a historical background to recent economic and political development, something that has not been covered widely in other books.

 I liked how Mr. French does not ignore the reigning parties of India. French goes out of his way to explain the current leading parties of India and their governance of the country. He doesn't say that hereditary MPs are bad, or that they should not stand for election, but he shows how political success depends on who your parents are. And how that later leads to the economic policies of India. 

I also liked how he also breaks his book into three sections — "Rashtra," dealing with the evolution of national politics, "Lakshmi" aka economics and "Samaj" aka society and religion, which cover and show how all of these elements are interconnected.