Economists may pretend otherwise. But Economics is about common sense. India needs economic reforms to push up growth. Growth is needed to eliminate poverty and reduce unemployment. And reforms are needed to eliminate India's present status quo, with its pronounced anti-poor bias. All Indian citizens, present and future need to argue for liberalization, privatization, globalization) being a dirty expression. But liberalization is thrust down from top. At least, that's the perception. No books exist to explain the need for reforms.

Those that do, are written by specialists and the target audience is also specialists. There are no books addressed to the interested citizen who is not a specialist.

This book is not only an exception. It is the first of its kind.

It removes the jargon and brings out the common sense in Indian economic policy making. There is no lecturing to the reader. The style is more of a dialogue. Read it and get convinced. Use your convictions to push for change. Don't leave it to North Block and PMO. That's the only way India will change and fulfill the failed and promised tryst with destiny. The time has come redeem the pledge.

Bibek Debroy is Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi. He is a professional economist and was educated in Presidency College (Calcutta), Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College (Cambridge).

He has worked at Presidency College (Calcutta), Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (Pune), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi), National Council of Applied Economic Research (Delhi) and as Consultant, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He was also the Director for a project known as LARGE, set up by the Ministry of Finance and UNDP to examine legal reforms.

He is the author and editor of several books, papers and popular articles and is also Consulting Editor with Financial Express. Bibek Debroy’s special interests are international trade (in particular the WTO), law reform and the political economy of liberalization in India. He has been listed in many biographies and has been a member of several government committees.