"...an age of great affluence, where billions are concentrated on the ruling minority as a majority struggles..." Amartya Sen, Economist

Planet India is Mira Kamdar's second effort after her successful memoir, Motiba's Tattoo's. After delving into her past, Kamdar has come full circle with a graphic dissection of a nation she has seen rise and fall repeatedly over the past five decades. A nation of extremes and contradictions. India has gone from the third world to "super nation". Despite this achievement, a host of historical complaints remain: caste prejudice and violence, secular driven politics and genocide, famine, the population and AIDS crisis, female foeticide and infanticide, human trafficking, terrorism and nuclear threat, water shortage and privatization to name a few. Under Kamdar's microscope is India's growing middle class or "purchasing class" and the growing consumer culture, it's impact on the impoverished majority and what lengths are necessary for survival.

In an extremely thorough investigation of progress and challenge, Kamdar has input from a gamut of sources, including business persons, doctors, philanthropists, media professionals, scientists, economists and the common student. Despite the diverse group of opinion, they all agree on one point: India has what it takes to step up onto the world stage. But it must take account for it's citizens first. In order to survive, self sustainability is required. Easier said than done. "India's goal is breathtaking in scope: transform a developing country of more than one billion people into a developed nation and global leader by 2020 and do this as a democracy in an era of resource scarcity and environmental degradation. The world has to cheer India on. If India fails, there is a real risk that our world will become hostage to political chaos, war over dwindling resources, a poisoned environment and galloping disease. Wealthy enclaves will employ private companies to supply their needs and private militias to protect them from the poor amassing at their gate...but if India succeeds, it will demonstrate that it is possible to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. It will prove that multiethnic, multireligious democracy is not a luxury for rich societies. It will show us how to save our environment, and how to manage in a fractious, multi polar world. India's gambit is truly the venture of the century."

Some current facts: China, not the United States is India's closest competitor and ally. After China, India has the world's fastest growing economy posting an annual rate of 8-20%. Like China, India has embraced a market economy and both nations account for 2.4 billion citizens between them. Trade between the two countries is growing more than 40% and this year China will replace the United States as India's single country trading partner. India isn't interested in mirroring the American wealth model at each step. Apparently, Americans are only 6% of the world's population, yet consume 30% of the earth's resources and produce 25% of dangerous greenhouse gases. That's not exactly an ideal model of equality for the masses and indefinite sustainability for a nation with even a third of India's population. 50% of India's people are under the age of 25, making it the world's youngest country. In 2015, it's expected that there will be 550 million teenagers in India. Consumer culture is growing by leaps and bounds. Private consumption in India accounts for 64% of GDP, only slightly less than the US at 70%.

High end boutiques and malls are sprouting all over the country, making it easier for those with money to spend their money without having to go abroad. Indian luxury brands are exported with elan, and the airline, auto, real estate and construction, entertainment and media industries are flourishing and overtaking their American counterparts. In response to audience acceptance and ratings, Indian-American filmmaker Smriti Mundhra, daughter of reknown filmmaker Jag Mundhra has quoted "Who needs the American audience? There are only three hundred million people here." Indian companies are purchasing companies in Europe and the United States as well as hiring local talent. India is quickly becoming a research and development centre as multinational companies invest billions. To top it off, foreign educated expats are returning home to luxurious lifestyles and demanding changes in the service industry, politics and infrastructure. On a grim note, 40% of the world's poor live in India, including one third of the world's malnourished children. India has the world's single largest population of people with HIV/AIDS, over 5.7 million people. 40% of HIV/AIDS victims are women, most married. After the Narmada project brought water privatization and subsistence rights to the forefront, the World Bank has estimated water privatization is potentially a $1 trillion business. India has 17% of the world's population but only 4% of the world's freshwater. In order to compete on the global level, what water remains will be allocated to the highest bidder. Millions of rural cash crop farmers and their families struggle to survive, even borrowing money from unscrupulous money lenders. Since 1997, more than 25,000 have committed suicides. At the time of Independence, 80% of the GDP came from agriculture and 75% of the population lived in rural areas. If a small percentage is required for agriculture today, where does the rest of the population fit? Where will upcoming generations work? IT alone has generated only 1.3 million jobs with another 3 million created indirectly. Innovation is necessary for survival. Rural, ill and dislocated people need to be brought into networks and educated and empowered so they have a chance to survive. Access to health care and generic drug care is already being developed and distributed. Despite a housing boom, affordable housing is unavailable.

Illegal construction of luxury properties on government housing allocated plots is under crackdown, but even if more homes are built, it hardly makes a difference to slum dwellers. In Mumbai alone, 60% or 10.8 million people live in slums. Dharavi, Mumbai's largest slum, has only one toilet for every 1500 people. A 2001 Census states 40 million people live in city slums and just 49.7% of urban households had tap water on their premises and only 57.4% had sanitation facilities. A solution given by Kamdar: focus on restructuring existing cities and create new ones. Rehabilitation in Hyderabad, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmadabad and in scores of other cities has already begun.

Kamdar is completely justified in acknowledging the speed of India's development. She notes India is rushing to catch up to the United States and Europe whom spent over three centuries going through three distinct industrial revolutions (manufacturing, services and digital). India is undergoing this complex transformation at once. From an agricultural, feudal society into a manufacturing and service power.

Migrants had relocated from Europe to the United States in droves, where will the Indian masses go to secure their future? Will confident and educated Indian-Americans use their influence and lobbying skills to aid their countrymen? Many of the realities faced by the average Indian are mirrored in the West as well. Although on a smaller scale, Americans face the threat of large bills after hospital visits and poverty. Completely relevant and shocking, Kamdar's portrait is a blunt slap to the face. It will be interesting to see how others heed her warnings.

"In the best of all possible worlds, India's politics of inclusion will temper the economic divisiveness of American capitalism, while American-style entrepreneurship will spur India's economy. India's commitment to a multi polar world and the democratization of the emerging world order will curb America's overt unilateralism. India's focus on innovation in developing alternative energy sources and extending educational opportunities, medical care, and livelihoods to the poorest citizens will catapult India into leadership positions in a host of new areas, forcing the United States to reconsider it's policies and priorities."