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Reimagining India (2013)

by McKinsey & Company(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1476749744 (ISBN13: 9781476749747)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Simon & Schuster Export

review 1: A mix of engrossing and purposeful essays on the one hand and quite pedestrian on the other. Not very surprisingly the better ones are from those that have walked the talk. There are those that have just indulged in talking and writing. These essays appear vacuous that carry no conviction. There are a few admissions as well as in the context of Aadhaar : "The Aadhaar project is not a panacea". Ironically in practice it was positioned as a panacea. That is what the problem is with imagining or even reimagining. More than imagination future of the country lies in "doing". Those, like Kumar Birla, have done it. Hence, what they say and suggest make a lot of sense. He has the humility to accept "If you can get your point across, if you are adding value, if you are competent,... more then bloody hell to English". Not all authors are so courageous. However, one of the essays that stand out is the one by Vinod Khosla, another practitioner as he suggests use of technology and to marry leapfrogging mindset to a better policy framework that can spark innovation and experimentation. It would have been a publication if those at McKinsey had refrained from an indulgence that should have been left to practitioners
review 2: When I began reading this book, I was expecting to read some of the strategic visions and thoughts leaders and experts had for India, a thought experiment on where we were, where we are and, based on these observations, what should be done to take India to the next level in the global stage, while empowering its people and advancing their socioeconomic state. And this book satisfied most of that expectation. The first two chapters, "Reimagining" and "Politics & Policy" have very interesting commentary on India as a nation and how its democracy compares to other nations around the world, the advantages it holds when compared to other political models, notably China, and how its political model is evolving from a centralized to a decentralized one with the passage of time. But for a couple of essays, these two chapters are arguably the best in the book.Unfortunately, I found quite a few essays after the first two chapters to be self serving and at times irrelevant to the broader theme of the book. There were some essays which discussed the past and the present as a list of events while a few others discussed what they (and the organization they represent) have accomplished in India in the past, without offering a vision of (or "Reimagining") the future as they see it or a proposed plan/theory to achieve it, making them somewhat tedious and pointless to read.McKinsey's objective to not influence or censor any essay, while noble, offers the narrative a chance to veer off-course in many places within the book. And it does. Maybe some editorial oversight to keep the subject and content of the essays aligned with the broader goal of the book would have made this book more interesting and relevant.Overall, a good collection of essays but there is quite a bit of room for improvement to make the narrative taut and engaging. I wanted to rate it 3.5 stars but there are no half stars so going with 4 instead of 3. less

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