For a nation that has one of the highest growth rates in the world, India is plagued by poverty and corruption. Sixty years after Independence, India accounts for around 36 per cent of the world’s poor. The deepening fault lines between the haves and the have-nots have given rise to skewed development and widespread discontent.

William Nanda Bissell, Managing Director of the successful Fabindia chain, believes India’s poverty is a direct result of its poor management by ruling elites who have mastered the art of winning elections but have no interest in the deeper issues of governance. He argues that economic development that consumes large amounts of natural resources and generates enormous pollution is not a luxury available to countries that are beginning their development now.

Instead, he proposes a radical, new paradigm for development that delinks consumption from quality of life without destroying the natural environment in the process. Making India Work echo the ideas and beliefs that underpin the Constitution of India; but it ventures beyond the hackneyed phrases of development to focus on strategies which can, Bissell believes, end poverty in India in five years.