Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours

Abstract

Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours Author : Tarun Khanna Publisher : Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Pages : 368 Price : Rs. 595 ISBN : 978-1422103838 Given the fact that both India and China have been noted as the fastest growing economies and are a home for many new billionaires at the global level, this book has several stories that will arguably communicate to the rest of the world, the underlying dynamics of the growth of these countries and the growing Richie rich. While setting out the project, the author states "The world's future is irrefutably tied to that of China and India. Yet the United States is woefully uninformed about the past and present of both the countries" (p. 2). According to the author, the population of China and India constitute a good proportion of global population, but news coverage by the leading West-based media is only a miniscule. To quote, "For most of the past 150 years, less than 2% of the major stories in any given year in the New York Times have been on China or India" (p. 5). Thus, it is not surprising that there is very limited awareness of public in the West about the economic and sociopolitical contexts of these two nations. This book apparently aims at making good this gap. As the attempt is very large and scope is wide, the book provides a good description by narrating a number of anecdotes, partly based on personal experiences with reality and partly based on the personal interviews with a selected few, arguably, representing the areas that are being addressed to. As such, the book has portrayals of realities based on narratives rather than on sound analysis of facts collected. The book has 14 chapters. Except the first chapter 'Reimagining China and India', other chapters are organized in three parts. Part I 'Foundation' aims at providing an account of the present condition of these countries in the light of their respective past. Part II 'Enterprise' documents the stories of certain successful companies both in China and India, pioneered by new generation of entrepreneurs, including social entrepreneurs, and experiences of some leading foreign companies. Part III 'Future' provides certain guideposts to speculate the shape of things in future based on the present. In Chapter two "Statecraft: The Art, Science and Illusion of Governing 2.4 Billion People", the author gives a succinct account of how Chinese society and their economic prosperity had undergone changes over the years. It discusses about the circumstances which led the government to become an entrepreneur and how it managed the transition phase, although undemocratic in many ways. While the state had absolute control in China, the government in India had to manage governance in a plural, secular and democratic setup. Pluralism caused reckless promises made by rulers, and understandably, they were not delivered. Consequently, government's efforts were directed to address the perils that accompanied its failure to keep up promises. Although the author does not question the intent of policies, doubts are cast on the delivery mechanism. Both nations are replete with corruption, but with different motives. To quote the author: "There is, of course, rampant corruption in both countries, but the corrupt in China are demanding a piece of something new that is being created-the government is the entrepreneur-whereas India's corrupt are content to help themselves without any real contribution" (p. 22). On comparing a phenomenon, the author goes to and forth between China and India, by loading umpteen amount of information. In chapter three, Khanna takes pain to explain the right to information as practiced in both the nations, with India outperforming China, thanks to the governance practices modeled on democratic principles as found in countries like the United States. In the very next chapter, the author, however, presents a gloomy picture on the speed at which a program gets implemented in India, as compared to China. …