HarperCollins is proud to announce the publication of We Also Make Policy by Subhash Chandra Garg

 

is proud to announce the publication of

We Also Make Policy

An Insider’s Account of How the Finance Ministry Functions

by: Subhash Chandra Garg

 

We Also Make Policy is a candid account of proceedings within India’s Finance Ministry.

Published by HarperCollins

Hardback | Non-Fiction | Economy | 520 pp | INR  799

Available wherever books are sold | Releasing on 1 October 2023

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Economic policy has a direct impact on how people live, eat, work, and spend. It governs every aspect of life, and finance secretaries are central to how economic policy is made and implemented. In this book, Subhash Chandra Garg, former economic affairs secretary, and finance secretary, tells the inside story of how economic policy is made, and unmade, at the highest levels in the Government of India.

We Also Make Policy is a fly-on-the-wall account of proceedings within the finance ministry. The book talks candidly about controversial decisions from the first tenure of the NDA government, such as the politics of ‘minimum support price’ to farmers, electoral bonds, recapitalizing of banks, monetizing national assets and the controversial resignation of RBI Governor Urjit Patel, among others. As the author of three Union Budgets, Garg also talks about what it takes to put the Budget together: the pressures, the processes, the calculations and, above all, the politics.

Subhash Chandra Garg says, ‘The making of economic policy in India tends to be opaque and non-consultative. We Also Make Policy discloses what went on behind the scenes in several major policy decisions that I was involved in during my time in the finance ministry—such as electoral bonds, printing of Rs 2000 notes, the monetisation of six airports, the takeover of ILFS, the debate around Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, “raiding” of the RBI’s reserves, and so on. I have written this book with the conviction that the people of India deserve to know the truth behind these policy decisions that were, at times, controversial.’

Swati Chopra, Associate Publisher, HarperCollins says, ‘With this book, Subhash Chandra Garg lets us into the highest echelons of government, as it were, and gives us a glimpse into how the country’s crucial financial issues are handled, and how policies that govern India’s economic life are made. Since these details are usually not available in the public domain, We Also Make Policy makes for a unique, and informative, read for anyone with an interest in India’s economy and its politics.’

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As a member of the Indian Administrative Service for more than thirty-six years, Subhash Chandra Garg was deeply involved in public administration, execution of development programmes, managing state-level institutions, making Budgets both at state and Central government levels, and policymaking. He crafted many Budgets as secretary of Budget, as finance secretary of the government of Rajasthan, as secretary of economic affairs and as finance secretary to the Government of India. He served as secretary of economic affairs for a little over two years, from 2017 to 2019.

After taking voluntary retirement from the IAS in October 2019, he now works as a policy observer, strategist, commentator and writer on important economic and financial policy issues with a focus on Indian economic and fiscal affairs and policy.

Garg’s first book, The $10 Trillion Dream: The State of Indian Economy and The Policy Reforms Agenda, was published in February 2022. His second book, Subhash Chandra Garg’s Explanation and Commentary on Budget 2023–23, includes the results and outcome of Budget 2021–22 and the implementation of Budget 2022–23 and develops a national standard for analysing and commenting on Central government budgets.

He writes opinion-editorials and columns for print and online newsmagazines, and speaks to think-tanks, educational institutions and investors regularly. He appears on television channels for discussions on economy, Budget and other public-policy matters as well.

 

ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS INDIA

HarperCollins is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, having begun publishing in India in 1992. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live! Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India has won the Publisher of the Year Award four times at Tata Literature Live! in 2022, 2021, 2018 and 2016, and at Publishing Next in 2021 & 2015. HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

30 YEARS OF PUBLISHING IN INDIA

At HarperCollins, we believe in telling the best stories and in finding the widest possible readership for our books in every format possible. We started publishing 30 years ago in India and a great deal has changed since then, but what has remained constant is the passion with which our authors write their books, the love with which readers receive them, and the sheer joy and excitement that we as publishers feel in being a part of the publishing process.

Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of publishing some of the finest writing from the subcontinent and from around the world, and some of the biggest bestsellers in Indian publishing history. Our books and authors have won a phenomenal range of awards, and we ourselves have been named Publisher of the Year several times. But nothing has meant more to us than the fact that millions of people read the books we publish, and somewhere, a book of ours might be making a difference to someone.

As we step into our fourth decade, we go back to that one word – a word which has been a driving force for us all these years:

Read.

 

PRESS CONTACT:

Prerna Singh, Senior Manager – Marketing & Publicity

Email:  Prerna.Singh@HarperCollins.co.in | Mobile: +91 8826 718 716