Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity

Featured Events | Jun 11, 2024 | Gabelli School of Business

Authors Raghuram G. Rajan, Ph.D. and Rohit Lamba, Ph.D. were the guest speakers during the May 6, 2024 Financial Issues Forum, a virtual event hosted by Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business Center for Global Security Analysis, the Museum of American Finance, and the CFA Society New York. In a discussion about their new book, Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity, they addressed the question of where India is headed as a nation, highlighting the issues and questions it faces as it reaches a crossroads today. During an illuminating presentation and the informative Q&A session that followed, the pair focused on the ways in which India can break free from the shackles of the past while looking towards the possibilities of the future. While the outlook is positive, there are challenges now and ahead. The country remains the most populous in the world, yet its population growth has been declining for several decades. The role of democracy and the suppression of market forces, intense competition in low-skilled manufacturing, increasing protectionism globally, and growing automation, all need to be considered. In order to chart a successful path forward based on ideas and creativity, the authors emphasized the importance of accelerating economic development by investing in India’s human capital, and by expanding opportunities in high-skilled services and manufacturing centered on the design and production of innovative new products that will provide jobs for millions of its ambitious youth.