The Second Republic: A Charter to Remake the Indian State and Unleash a Nation's Potential

The Second Republic is a comprehensive institutional blueprint for India's transition into a developed economy (Viksit Bharat) by 2047.In this book, Ghani, a former World Bank economist and a prominent voice in Indian developmental economics, moves beyond traditional policy debates to focus on the State capacity engine, with his most compelling diagnostic being the two-engine trap.Since the 1991 reforms, India has developed a high-performance private sector engine; however, this is tethered to an obsolete state engine, characterized by nineteenth-century colonial structures and twentieth-century socialist bureaucracy.To address this, India not only needs new laws but a 'Second Republic', a fundamental re-architecting of the state's core institutions to match the dynamism of its people.The book introduces the 4F architecture--functions, finances, functionaries, and foundations--as the integrated mechanism for national renewal, analysing why previous reforms have often stalled.With theme