 | |
| Editors | James Crabtree |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Published | July 2018 |
| Publisher | Tim Duggan Books |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 416 |
| ISBN | 978-1-524-760069 |
The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age, is a 2018 non-fiction book written by British author James Crabtree. The book is about wealth inequality in India, exploring Indian billionaires, the caste system, and economic reform advocates. Crabtree is a journalist for Financial Times .
In the Literary Review , Oliver Balch calls the book "thoroughly entertaining" and writes that the economic content "neither bores nor overbears", but criticises the "familiarity of some of its examples". [1]
A Publishers Weekly review lauds the book as "an invaluable commentary on Indian democracy", and praises Crabtree for "[bringing] a reporter's precision and flair to his story". [2] A Kirkus Reviews critic summarises the book as "[s]olid reading for students of economic development and global economics". [3] Tunku Varadarajan of Wall Street Journal compliments the book for being "a lively and valuable blend of the empirical and the anecdotal". [4] Melissa van der Klugt of The Times calls the book "timely reading" and says Crabtree has an "eye for detail", but notes that it is an "oddly macho book" due to only rare mentions of women. [5]
Writing in the Financial Times , Meghnad Desai describes the book as “the most comprehensive and eminently readable tour of economic India.” [6]
Jonathan Knee of The New York Times laments that the book "does not fully profile the diverse community of Indian billionaires" and that "the lines between the many forms of corruption described are far from clear", though Knee praises that The Billionaire Raj "is chock-full of profoundly revealing vignettes". [7]
Writing for Mint , V. Anantha Nageswaran notes the absence of the United Progressive Alliance in the book and praises Crabtree's writing and "eye of a good journalist for details". [8] comments on the absence of IT entrepreneurs, but believes there is "no comparable account of India's gilded age", complimenting the book as "a reporting gem" which "deserves to be widely read". [9] Una Galani of Reuters notes that the book is not optimistic but says that Crabtree "deserves credit for delving deep into cronyism". [10]
The book has also been reviewed in Business Standard , [11] Financial Times [12] and The Economist . [13] Crabtree has been interviewed on the book by multiple media outlets including Mint , [14] The Times of India , [15] The Wire , [16] The Indian Express [17] and The Financial Express . [18]
In November 2018, The Billionaire Raj was named Business Book of the Year at the Tata LitLive! Awards in Mumbai. [19]
TATA Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is an Indian multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company with its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group and operates in 150 locations across 46 countries. In July 2022, it was reported that TCS had over 600,000 employees worldwide. TCS is the second largest Indian company by market capitalization and is among the most valuable IT service brands worldwide, and is the top Big Tech (India) company. In 2015, TCS was ranked 64th overall in the Forbes "World's Most Innovative Companies" ranking, making it one of the highest-ranked IT services companies and a top Indian company. As of June 2023, it is the world's 2nd largest IT employer.
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is currently the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company by market value. With an estimated net worth of $91.2 billion as of August 2023, he is the richest person in Asia and 13th richest in the world. Sometimes characterized as a plutocrat; he has attracted both fame and notoriety for reports of market manipulation, political corruption, cronyism, and exploitation. Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people of 2019, under the "Titans" section.
Siddharth Varadarajan is a journalist and editor in India. He was editor of the English language national daily The Hindu from 2011 to 2013. He is one of the founding editors of the Indian digital news portal The Wire, along with Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu.
Dilip Shanghvi is an Indian billionaire businessman and one of the country's richest people. He founded Sun Pharmaceuticals. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2016. India Today magazine ranked him 8th in India's most powerful people of 2017 list.
Ajay Gopikisan Piramal is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman of the Piramal Group, a conglomerate with interests in pharmaceutical, financial services, real estate, healthcare analytics and glass packaging. As of September 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$3 billion.
Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film written, directed and produced by Rakesh Roshan. It marks the debuts of his son Hrithik Roshan and actress Ameesha Patel. Upon its release on 14 January 2000, the film along with Roshan's debut act and the soundtrack album became an instant sensational Blockbuster Success. It earned over ₹800 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 2000.
Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry was an Indian-born Irish billionaire construction tycoon. He was chairman of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group and a major shareholder of India's largest private conglomerate, Tata Group.
Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai, Baron Desai is an Indian-born naturalised British economist and former Labour politician. He stood unsuccessfully for the position of Lord Speaker in the House of Lords in 2011. He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, in 2008. He is a Professor Emeritus of the London School of Economics.
Sir Chintaman Dwarakanath Deshmukh, was an Indian civil servant and the first Indian to be appointed the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1943 by the British Raj authorities. He subsequently served as the Finance Minister in the Union Cabinet (1950–1956). It was during this time that he also became a founding member of the Governing Body of NCAER, the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi, India's first independent economic policy institute established in 1956 at the behest of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. After resignation from Union Cabinet he worked as Chairman of UGC (1956–1961). He served as Vice-Chancellor of University of Delhi (1962–67). He was also President of Indian Statistical Institute from 1945 to 1964, Honorary Chairman of National Book Trust (1957–60). He founded India International Center in 1959 and served as Lifetime President of it. He was also chairman of Indian Institute of Public Administration.
Air India is the flag carrier of India, headquartered in New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the sale. Air India operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft serving 102 domestic and international destinations. The airline has its hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, alongside several focus cities across India. Air India is the largest international carrier out of India with an 18.6% market share. Over 60 international destinations are served by Air India across five continents. The airline became the 27th member of Star Alliance on 11 July 2014.
Anuradha Roy is an Indian novelist, journalist and editor. She has written five novels: An Atlas of Impossible Longing (2008), The Folded Earth (2011), Sleeping on Jupiter (2015), All the Lives We Never Lived (2018), and The Earthspinner (2021).
Tata Starbucks Private Limited, formerly known as Tata Starbucks Limited, is a 50:50 joint venture coffee company, owned by Tata Consumer Products and Starbucks Corporation, that owns and operates Starbucks outlets in India.
The Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (CEA) advises the government on economic matters and is responsible for the preparation of the Economic survey of India tabled in Parliament before the Union budget of India is presented. The CEA holds the rank of a Secretary to the Government of India.
Radhakishan Shivkishan Damani is an Indian billionaire investor, business magnate and the founder of Avenue Supermarts Limited. He also manages his portfolio through his Investment firm, Bright Star Investments Limited. On 19 August 2021, he was ranked #98 richest person in the world by Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
Bheemasena Nalamaharaja is a 2020 Indian Kannada-language drama film directed by Karthik Saragur and produced by Pushkara Mallikarjunaiah, Rakshit Shetty, and Hemanth M. Rao. It stars Aravinnd Iyer and Arohi Narayan along with Priyanka, Aadya, and Achyut Kumar.
James Crabtree is a British author and policy analyst living in Singapore. He is currently executive director of the Asia branch of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Crabtree writes columns for Nikkei Asian Review, Foreign Policy, and The Straits Times. Previously, he was an associate professor of practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and a senior fellow at the school’s Centre on Asia and Globalisation. He was also a non-resident fellow at Chatham House, the London-based think tank. His first book, The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, was released in July 2018.
Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India is a book by Indian author K. S. Komireddi, which chronicles the rise of Hindu Nationalism in India and expands upon the circumstances that led to it. The book was subject to highly positive reception.
Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre (2019), is a book by Kim A. Wagner and published by Yale University Press, that aims to dispel myths surrounding the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that took place in Amritsar, India, on 13 April 1919.
The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing is a 2021 narrative non-fiction book by Sonia Faleiro. It tells the story of the 2014 Badaun gang-rape incident. Faleiro initially started the investigation with a plan to write a book about rape in India, but as she learned more about the case, she realised it was much more complicated than what everyone knew. She spent four years researching on the subject, traveled to the village, interviewed over 100 people including the relatives, the accused and the cops, compiled transcripts of the polygraph tests and other reports. It was released on 9 February 2021 via Grove Press and was well received by the critics.
Venkatramanan Anantha Nageswaran is an Indian economist and the 18th Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He served as the global Chief Investment Officer at Bank Julius Baer in Switzerland after serving as its Head of Research for Asia. Prior to this, he worked for Credit Suisse in Switzerland and Singapore, and for the Union Bank of Switzerland. He has served as the Dean of IFMR Graduate School of Business, as a professor for graduate students at the Singapore Management University, and at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore & Indian Institute of Management Indore.