Reform Nation by Gautam Chikarmane (Book Review)

📍 This book serves as a useful resource for anyone interested in the development of the Indian economy after independence. The history of economic reform in India is the history of the country's efforts to end poverty and create wealth, jobs, healthcare, education, and prosperity. An economic policy lens is used to tell the story of Independent India.

📍 The party that ought to be praised for reforms is instead the book's most vocal opponent, and this is just the beginning of the contradictions within this group.

📍 The author had to go through the pain of remembering how we got to that point in time when reforms were imposed on the country and the financial, regulatory, and moral crisis was fixed in order to fully appreciate the significance of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to India's economy.

📍 The book then discusses how political narratives of ideological entrapment led to India being forced into an economic policy regime that prioritised poverty reduction.

📍 This book serves not only as a text of the tragic and triumphant history of independent India's economic policies, but also as a forerunner to a number of other scholarly works. It offers a perspective that runs counter to some commonly held beliefs.

📍 This book contains three parts as following: 

1. Introduction 

2. From Repression to Reforms

3. The Journey of Reforms

These parts contain chapters, explaining every reform and everything related to economic history. 

📍 The language of this book is easily understandable so beginners can also go for this one.

📍 Every step of this reformation journey has been documented and examined in this book. The author has done a fantastic job of analysing each government's convictions as they travelled the difficult route of transformation.