The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age
Written by James Crabtree
Narrated by Shridhar Solanki
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
A colorful and revealing portrait of the rise of India's new billionaire class in a radically unequal society
India is the world's largest democracy, with more than one billion people and an economy expanding faster than China's. But the rewards of this growth have been far from evenly shared, and the country's top 1% now own nearly 60% of its wealth. In megacities like Mumbai, where half the population live in slums, the extraordinary riches of India's new dynasties echo the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers of yesterday, funneling profits from huge conglomerates into lifestyles of conspicuous consumption.
James Crabtree's The Billionaire Raj takes listeners on a personal journey to meet these reclusive billionaires, fugitive tycoons, and shadowy political power brokers. From the sky terrace of the world's most expensive home to impoverished villages and mass political rallies, Crabtree dramatizes the battle between crony capitalists and economic reformers, revealing a tense struggle between equality and privilege playing out against a combustible backdrop of aspiration, class, and caste.
The Billionaire Raj is a vivid account of a divided society on the cusp of transformation-and a struggle that will shape not just India's future, but the world's.
James Crabtree
James Crabtree is a writer and journalist who spent five years in India as Mumbai bureau chief for the Financial Times. He is now an associate professor of practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
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Reviews for The Billionaire Raj
8 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5James Crabtree takes the readers through a journey into contemporary Indian economic scenario and draws parallels to the current state of crony capitalism in india to the gilded age in the US. The book is exhilarating and provides an excellent overview of the economic and political state of India since the liberalization of the economy in the early 90’s. The author demonstrates a thorough understanding of the Indian state of affairs through a mix of history, statistics and personal interviews. The book is a treat to read, relevant and definitely recommended for anyone interested in the inner workings of contemporary Indian economy.