WHY did India’s stellar economic growth at 8 per cent plus in the eight years, 2003-2011, collapse to 5 per cent or less by 2012-13? What were the key policy failures, of commission and omission,that brought about this sharp slowdown? Now, in 2015, with a new government with a seemingly strong political mandate, why is it proving so difficult to revive the earlier strong momentum of economic development? How should the new government tackle the deep legacy problems of the past? In the new global context, is slower economic growth inevitable?

These are some of the many critical economic issues explored in the 39 essays by Shankar Acharya, written in the three and a half years between November 2011 and July 2015.