AN ECONOMIST IN THE REAL WORLD: THE ART OF POLICYMAKING IN INDIA BY KAUSHIK BASU BOOK REVIEW

First published September 1 2015 (MIT PRESS and then Penguin Books)

A few words
“For a system resistant to change, nothing is as good as a crisis.”
(Feels like an apt saying for how demonitisation has struck us making us realize that this crisis was necessary to lead us in the direction of being a predominated digitalized economy , which otherwise would have been a long bet)

So first when my dad told me about this book and that it’s one of the necessaries for a good economics student I personally felt that it would be nothing special. I stumbled on it purely by chance (chances being next to none) in the library. After giving it a thorough read I would say that dads are always right.
Written by Ex-Chief Economic Advisor of India and World Bank, alumni of Stephens, who was also professor at Delhi school of economics. The book has tried explaining Indian politics and ideologies of our leaders; which ultimately shaped our economic policy. How India adopted Nehruvian policies with Gandhian policies entwined in them (making several of our policies contradictory as both these school of thoughts were the opposites of a magnet).Explaining in brief each period of our independence and its correlated growth (and reasons behind it).
It contains of the right mixture of anecdotes, adages, facts, figures, and even good stories behind words (why Ponzi schemes are called so).it’s a book must for someone who always had a thing for economics (a teeny-weeny crush)
The book was a peaceful boat ride stopping on shores of inflation (Hungary has had the worst episode of inflation in 1946 where prices rose by 3.8*10^27. : worse than Germany before WWII), exchange rate, flaws and improvement in PDS, policymaking, and giving us a hope that ideologies of nations can always be changed for better (Japan and South Korea were slackers a century back).And a few ideas which the author believes can be implemented in the future.
An interesting fact mentioned in the book – The wealth of the ten richest people in the world is equal to the GDP of Nigeria.
Mr. Basu has mentioned in the book that economic policies effect one and all hence it’s a must to have a mediocre society in the verses of economics. I wholeheartedly believe that this book should be part of our education curriculum. Because after reading I felt so happy and my brain felt so heavy with so many points to hold on.
So stay tuned on my blog for a mini boat ride of interesting facts and overwhelming adages mentioned in the book.

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