MUMBAI: Portfolio Penguin USA made available Raghav Bahl?s first book, ?Superpower? : The Amazing Race Between China?s Hare and India?s Tortoise,? in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada in a simultaneous launch today. The book was released in India on August 17 and immediately went into Penguin?s bestseller list. It is now into its first reprint.
?Superpower?? is a comparative study of India and China by Raghav Bahl, a business journalist and TV anchor turned serial entrepreneur. He is the founder of Network 18, India?s largest TV news and entertainment groups that has joint ventures with NBC Universal, Viacom, Time Warner and Forbes. The World Economic Forum has named Bahl as a Global Leader of Tomorrow. In 2007, Ernst & Young selected him as Entrepreneur of the Year for Business Transformation. A self-confessed India bull, Bahl argues that though China?s economy is four times larger, India today is where China was 10 years ago. He says India?s institutional strengths, demographic advantages and creative talent can propel it forward if the government does not restrain the enterprise of its people. Using analogies from the realm of physics, Bahl says despite imbalances in its economy revealed starkly by the global financial meltdown, China cannot be written off. Predictions of imminent doom aside, China could be a scripting a new trajectory of growth defying conventional economic theory. As the world order is redrawn, Bahl makes a compelling case for ?natural allies,? the United States and India, to work closer together.
Speaking on the occasion, Bahl said, ?The response that the book has got indicates that the subject deeply engages the readers. The rise of India and China is of interest not only to strategic observers but also those who are interested in the human condition and the future of democracy.?
Bahl will talk about the book at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington DC on November 1, 2010 and also at the London School of Economics, London, on November 15.
?Superpower?? is priced at $26.95 in USA and Canada and at ?20 in the UK. Advance copies can be booked on www.amazon.com