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Our Time Has Come
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Our Time Has Come

How India Is Making Its Place in the World

Alyssa Ayres
Oxford UP, 2018
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Perhaps more than any other nation, India presents itself to the world as a paradox. On the one hand, it’s a secular democracy shaped by many creeds and castes. India is the cradle of yoga and home to a robust tech sector. But India also hosts religious violence, desperate poverty, endemic corruption and comically gridlocked roads. In this elegantly written, insightful study, American expert Alyssa Ayres addresses India’s duality head-on. She argues why the old stereotypes about India as an impoverished country seeking handouts are outdated and explores how modern-day India is rewriting its story. It’s now a donor to international aid, and poised to become the world’s most populous nation and its third-largest economy. Ayres also argues for deeper ties between the United States and India, both of whom, she claims, could benefit from closer association. Skeptical readers might call the likelihood of this final point into question, given America’s current political climate, but Ayres’s proposals remain compelling. 

Summary

India’s Transformation Picks Up the Pace

Over the past quarter-century, India has undergone a dizzying evolution. In the 1980s, India’s state-controlled, protectionist economy allowed for little trade and few financial ties to the rest of the world. Media and telecommunications were primitive. Before 1991, Indians had access to just one television channel. Indians who wanted a simple landline connection often had to wait for years. Now, Indians can view hundreds of television channels in dozens of languages. More than a billion Indians have mobile phones and Internet access. A subsistence farmer, once disconnected from the world, has instant access to commodity prices, not to mention information on farm subsidies and cricket scores. The explosion of the media industry has corresponded with that of India’s now world-renowned tech sector.  

India’s transformation since the early 1990s is nothing short of remarkable. Its space program has successfully sent probes to the moon and to Mars. Once a recipient of international aid, India is now a significant donor. But the next quarter-century could bring even more dramatic...

About the Author

Alyssa Ayres is senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. She was deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia from 2010 to 2013.

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