Book review: Finding socialism in capitalism: Financial Express 27th July 2025

 

Arun Maira’s Reimagining India’s Economy critiques number-driven growth and urges a human-centric, sustainable approach. With insights from business, government, and social sectors, the book challenges capitalist norms and calls for citizen-first economic thinking.

When we think of a person who worked as chairman of BCG and also in the Tata Group before topping it with a position in the Planning Commission, what comes to mind is the possible economic ideology espoused. The experience canvas is quite vast considering one business group has been associated with nation building while another works for corporates and strategises how to grow profits. And the last entity, when in existence, was part of the government super structure looking mainly at the welfare aspect of economic paradigms that could be used to foster growth.

But when this person who worked in the private sector cogently argues with the board of directors of the company to slash employee bonuses when financials are not good and still pay high dividend to shareholders, you get to know how the wind blows.

When growth becomes numbers, not outcomes

Arun Maira, who has impeccable academic and professional credentials, has consistently focused on the ‘human’ quality required for growth in his previous books. In this new book titled Reimagining India’s Economy, which is part biographical and part ideological, he lays bare some hard truths. It is hard hitting as he does disparage our fascination for numbers, as statistics don’t tell the entire story.

Yes, we do tend to revel in the GDP numbers when claiming a higher step in the world’s echelon. But he questions the quality of this growth all the time, which is what we could miss when viewing the rather spectacular progress we have made. This is the continuous theme in this book as he furthers his stance that these numbers don’t matter unless we are able to improve the lives of people in every way.

Interestingly he points out that when we want to work for the betterment of the country, we don’t necessarily have to join the civil service, which is still a coveted job.

The private sector, which is associated with capitalists, has a very important role in bringing about growth per se and hence has a very important place in the production matrix.

He surely makes us think when he draws comparisons between citizen and customer welfare. Capitalism obsesses with the latter as we work to sell products and services and hence say that the ‘customer is king’. But we need to go beyond and look at citizen welfare, which involves focus on social aspects such as education and health. This is important because even today we applaud any incentive in the budget for the industry but scorn any welfare measures, labelling them as  freebies.

The cost of market obsession

That’s why he also argues that the market is not the best solution because whenever it is left to these forces, the dice are in always in favour of the moneyed class. This kind of marketisation has, in his view, led to increasing inequalities in the country in terms of wealth and income over the past 50 years. This may not be an extreme view given that global studies on the same also highlight this development. In a similar vein he argues against too much competition not just in the market and across countries, but also in schools and the education system.  It leads to rising inequality, which is clearly visible in the job market.

He makes other interesting points when it comes to reimagining the economy. The ageing population needs attention, which is addressed well in developed countries but not in ours, given the size. Further, education needs to lead to productive jobs generating sustainable income. Here the reader can identify with numerous people employed in the logistics chain where scurrying across towns and cities is just not sustainable in the medium run. Further, in today’s world we cannot work without thinking of ‘sustainability’ and this is a joint responsibility of all countries where there is need for collaboration. Environment degradation has already affected us and will rapidly affect nations in times to come if enough is not done.

He warns against some of the quick fixes that policy makers tend to depend on to get results, which though look impressive to begin with, tend to falter along the way. A good example is increasing the number of people with skills but without growth in number of jobs. Similarly, reducing taxes and giving subsidies to attract investments reduces funds with the government to spend on education and health, resulting in deterioration in quality of human resources. Making it too easy for employers to fire workers, which is a pet demand from industry, reduces the incentives to employers to invest in skilling employees, thus lowering overall levels of skills in the country.

Maira’s ultimate message is that we need not argue about whether the state or capitalist runs the economic enterprise. It should focus on how we treat people and work for them. In a way this is also of paramount significance as we need to have a prosperous society to even keep the capitalists’ bells chiming. A point that can be made here is that today when the private sector is lamenting unsold products because of inflation, the reason is also that the workers are probably not being paid adequately even while shareholders reap substantial benefits. Therefore, their models must necessarily work to enhance the wellbeing of workers.

Maira shows consistency in all the books that he has written where he emphasises the need to look at the social aspects of growth numbers. His ruminations while writing the book in exotic Landour are an extra which readers will relish as he takes them along the sequestered paths that inspired him to write this book.

Reimagining India’s Economy: The Road to a More Equitable Society

Arun Maira

Speaking Tiger

Pp 320, Rs 599