Book Review | Business as usual won’t do for a changing India – Lifestyle News

By Srinath Sridharan

It is not often that a book succeeds in sounding both an alarm and a perspective in the same breath. Everything All At Once, co-authored by economist and former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and journalist and policy analyst Ishan Joshi, does precisely that. At a time when commentary on India’s economic future drifts into triumphalism or vitriol, the authors offer something rarer—a lucid, courageous ideation for a collective act of imagination.

At its heart lies a striking premise: never before have six profound global transitions—geopolitical, geoeconomic, geographical, technological, ecological and ideological—collided simultaneously, demanding a level of strategic foresight and institutional agility few nations have ever summoned.

Shaping India’s Road Ahead

The task, the authors argue, is not merely to adapt, but to shape outcomes with coherence and moral seriousness —in a world they describe as marked by “chaos, contestation, and constant recalibration”.

What sets the book apart is its warning against viewing global turbulence through a narrow or sequential lens. The authors remind us that the world is shifting not stage by stage, but elementally, forcing nations to confront questions at the very core of identity, power and survival. Indian policymakers, they caution, must resist fragmented or linear responses—lest they become, in their words, like the blind men of the parable, each mistaking part of the elephant for the whole.

“The complexity and enormity of these challenges will compel India to design its own road ahead as it aspires to become a developed economy… This Sagar Manthan, as it were, must draw in all stakeholders—government at every level, private enterprise, academia and civil society—to forge a new development paradigm for India.”

From Commentary to Strategic Blueprint

Their answer is uncompromising: business as usual will not do. If India is to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat—a fully developed nation by 2050—it must aim to reclaim its historical share of the global economy: rising from today’s 3% to around 18%, echoing its pre-colonial standing. This would mean lifting GDP from roughly $3.8 trillion today to over $36 trillion by 2047, demanding sustained growth near 9% annually. It is an ambition tied directly to a question that is as moral as it is strategic: where does this leave over 800 million young Indians whose aspirations keep rising even as global stability frays?

Rather than letting Viksit Bharat remain a slogan open to endless interpretation, the authors press for sharper definition—should India aim to restore its historical share of global GDP? Should it instead pursue the formidable but achievable leap from lower-middle income to high-income status within a generation? Or should it centre development around human welfare—ensuring that even the poorest decile matches OECD-level human development indicators, without necessarily matching per capita incomes? By setting out these visions rigorously, the book moves from commentary to blueprint, forcing readers to confront both scale and moral purpose.

Perhaps its boldest argument is the call to look beyond GDP as the sole yardstick of progress. The authors propose a Gross Welfare Product (GWP)—an index capturing not only income growth but also reductions in carbon emissions, gains in education and health, wider public service access, and crucially, improvements for the poorest decile. This reframing draws on India’s civilisational ethos—living in balance with nature and recognising contributions often left invisible, such as unpaid care by women. By urging India to champion this within the G20 through a ‘Coalition of the Willing’, the book closes not on nostalgia, but with a concrete challenge to redefine what genuine progress should mean.

The narrative insists India’s response must be integrated, not fragmented. Rather than offering piecemeal analysis, Kumar and Joshi build a coherent meta-narrative: linking the rise of the Global South, the decarbonisation imperative, the retreat of Pax Americana and the digital revolution into a single, if complex, thread. What lends the work depth is its refusal to see India merely as a passive actor. Instead, India is cast as both taker and shaper: from crafting digital public infrastructure now studied worldwide, to bold bets on green hydrogen and convening new security and economic frameworks across the Indo-Pacific. This lifts the argument from a list of risks to a map of strategic opportunity.

Equally striking is the insistence on looking beyond the state. While government remains central, India’s posture is shaped just as powerfully in boardrooms, R&D labs and among its diaspora.

From conglomerates betting across energy and digital sectors to startups redefining AI and fintech, India’s position is forged as much outside policy corridors as within them. This multi-stakeholder lens adds grounded realism too often missing from state-centric accounts.

The candour deepens into a sober appraisal of institutional readiness. Beyond charting external upheavals, the authors ask whether India’s policy frameworks can keep pace with an era of constant recalibration. They acknowledge bottlenecks, warn against complacency, and tie global volatility to the need for internal reform: formalisation through GST and UPI, demographic and technological shifts, and a shifting social contract between citizen, market and state.

What also sets Everything All At Once apart is its refusal to lapse into alarmism or fatalism. The authors speak plainly of ‘crumbling certitudes’—neo-nationalism’s rise, the retreat of globalisation, the return of transactional geopolitics—yet within this disruption, they see space for agency rather than despair.

To be sure, a work of this sweep will leave questions. Some may wish for deeper exploration of internal inequalities, or clearer routes from vision to policy. Others may point out that sustaining 9% growth could still falter against global headwinds. But it is precisely by raising these questions that the book pushes others to refine and advance its argument.

The writing holds a rare balance of clarity and depth. Drawing on vantage points shaped by public policy and strategic commentary, the authors produce prose that is lucid yet substantive. The language stays measured yet urgent; data clarifies rather than overwhelms. And the structure—each chapter addressing a single transition before drawing them together—ensures the narrative flows logically, never simplifying away complexity.

Till the final page, what endures is an intellectual provocation: India’s task is not merely to catch up with a world in flux, but to remain coherent even as that world fragments. It is this stance—of agency over passivity, complexity embraced rather than shied-away from— that lends the work its lasting resonance. True strategy, the book suggests, lies not in clinging to certainties, but in cultivating the institutional imagination to act amid uncertainty—and the moral clarity to know why we act at all. For anyone who reads English, wishes the best for India, and values thoughtful suggestions over slogans, Everything All At Once offers far more than just commentary.

Srinath Sridharan is author, corporate adviser and independent director on corporate boards.

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of FinancialExpress.com. Reproducing this content without permission is prohibited.

Everything All At Once: India and the Six Simultaneous Global Transitions

Rajiv Kumar and Ishan Joshi

Rupa Publications

Pp 256, Rs 695