Economist-turned-politician Ashok Lahiri, now an MLA in West Bengal from Balurghat and, earlier, a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission and the 12th Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, analyses the state of the Indian economy in his new book, India in Search of Glory. Examining the past and surveying the present, he locates India’s economic aspirations squarely in the context of politics and policies.
Lahiri has been a Reader at the Delhi School of Economics, executive director at the Asian Development Bank, chairman of Bandhan Bank, and director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in the past. He spoke to Scroll about his book and his perspective on the Indian economy. Excerpts from the interview:
There have been some notable books about post-independence India, but the narrative has been viewed through the prism of either politics or economics – but seldom the two together. In your account, though, the calculus of politics…