The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age

Crabtree (Lee Kuan Yew Sch. of Public Policy, National Univ. of Singapore) uses his experience as a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times based in Mumbai to consider India's industrial growth that produced a new millionaire class. The first step in this change was marked by a period of progress, with people leaving rural areas to work in city-based factories. Corporations began to make money at an astounding rate, increasing the already wide gap between rich and poor. The author then refers to the next stage as crony capitalism, characterized by high-level scheming between corporate bosses and political elites ensuring public resources are kept for themselves. He introduces readers to Reliance Industries, owned by the billionaire Ambani Family, and patriarch Mukesh Amani, India's richest man, and also sheds light on "Bollygarchs," (a portmanteau of Bollywood and oligarch), who hold power in social and political circles. Toward the end, he wonders what kind of superpower India will become in the future. A weaker version of Western democracy corrupted by capitalism and inequality? Or similar to Russia, run by bribery and totalitarian politics?