Archive · 15 Sep 2026
Penguin Random House India Announces Book on India’s Economic Ideas
Niranjan Rajadhyaksha has written a book about how people imagined India’s economic future.
It will be published in October 2026 by Penguin Random House India.
The book looks at ideas from the late 1800s through 2017.
It explains how India moved from colonial rule to independence and later economic reforms.
Different thinkers disagreed about whether the government or markets should guide the economy.
They also debated whether India should protect local businesses or trade more freely with other countries.
The book says economic plans changed as India’s problems and circumstances changed.
It argues that understanding old debates can help people think about India’s economic challenges today.
Penguin Random House India will publish Niranjan Rajadhyaksha’s The Ideas That Shaped India and Its Economy: 1870–2017 in October 2026.
The book traces nearly 150 years of Indian economic debate, from colonial rule through independence, nation-building, liberalisation and global economic integration.
It examines disagreements over protectionism, free trade, state control, markets, industrialisation, agriculture, welfare and economic growth.
The narrative places the 1991 reforms within a longer history of arguments about the limits of India’s earlier economic model.
The book will appear under Penguin Random House India’s Vintage imprint and is described as both an economic history and a history of ideas.
- Who
- Economist and writer Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, with publication by Penguin Random House India.
- What
- The forthcoming publication of The Ideas That Shaped India and Its Economy: 1870–2017.
- When
- October 2026.
- Where
- The announcement was made in New Delhi; the book examines India’s economic history.
- Why
- To explain how competing economic ideas and policy debates shaped modern India and remain relevant to its future.
- Book
- The Ideas That Shaped India and Its Economy: 1870–2017
- Author
- Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
- Publisher
- Penguin Random House India
- Imprint
- Vintage
- Publication date
- October 2026
- Historical scope
- Nearly 150 years of economic debate, from the colonial period through 2017
- Central theme
- The evolution of ideas about prosperity, government, markets, growth and social welfare