3 Review(s)

V. Raghunathan’s Games Indians Play presents a study of the hurdles towards India’s progress, especially at an individual level. Summary of the Book India is blessed with many intelligent minds. Most Indians are more adept at maths and logic than people around the globe. However, as a nation, we are still falling behind. Our collective naiveté might be to blame, but how is it that we boast equal parts intelligence and naiveté? In this book, the writer explains that Indians mistake talk for action. He tries to help readers understand why this happens and how we can change this. He uses game theory to explain the behaviour of Indians and tries to combine these explanations with concepts of behavioural economics. The author also presents his twelve points on the fallacies of Indians, explaining that our low trustworthiness, private smartness and public dumbness, fatalist outlook, over-intelligence, lack of public hygiene, self-regulation or a sense of fairness, reluctance to penalize wrong conduct, mistaking talk for action, deep-rooted corruption, inability to follow systems, a sense of self-worth and a propensity to look for loopholes in laws. He helps readers understand how to break this vicious cycle and how to bring a change in the image Indians have around the world. This is a definite read for all Indians who are trying to understand what is keeping them one step behind in the rise to success. About V. Raghunathan Viswanathan Raghunathan is an Indian writer, academic, columnist and the CEO of GMR Varalakshmi Foundation. A former staff member at IIM Ahmedabad, Dr. Raghunathan has also been an Adjunct Professor at the Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He has also written Ganesha on the Dashboard, The Corruption Conundrum And Other Paradoxes And Dilemmas and Don’t Sprint The Marathon. Dr. Raghunathan graduated from Panjab University, Chandigarh and completed his doctorate in finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.