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The Caged Phoenix: Can India Fly? critically analyzes India’s economic progress. Summary Of The Book India is considered one of the fastest growing economies in the world today. Its progress on the technological, industrial, and scientific fields has been talked about a lot. India is now no longer perceived as one of the poorest regions in the world. The author questions the truth behind this perception in The Caged Phoenix: Can India Fly? He says that this economic progress is pretty skewed, and that the spurt in growth in the urban section is not reflected in the rural regions. In fact, he says that the recent increase in wealth is concentrated among a few of the elite and has not percolated well downwards to really uplift the lower sections of the society. He also adds that the government is not taking enough effective action to rectify this situation. The author has studied conditions in factories and in the rural regions and puts forth the argument that India’s agricultural sector is in a destructive downward spiral, while all the growth is occurring in the urban regions. So one sided have the recent economic policies been in favor of the industrial and technological sectors, that the agricultural sector has been almost completely ignored. This has undermined the rural morale so much that people in rural areas look on migrating to the urban regions, even urban slums, as it is the only way of progress for them. The Caged Phoenix: Can India Fly? says that the intelligent elite have chosen to turn a blind eye to all this, and instead of influencing the government to remedy this situation, they have begun to comply with the government policies that make this situation worse. The author says that unless policies are put in place that assures the economic progress also reaches the rural regions and the lower strata of the urban regions, India cannot really rise as an economic powerhouse. He says that at least until the economic system stabilizes, the government needs to be a major player in the education and health industries. He asserts that measures like these are vital to ensure that all sections of the society are taken along on the road to progress. About Dipankar Gupta Dipankar Gupta is a retired professor of sociology. Some other books by this author are Mistaken Modernity: India Between World's, Interrogating Caste, Social Stratification, and Justice Before Reconciliation. His books are on sociology and modern Indian society. Gupta is a professor of sociology and social anthropology and has taught in Indian and international universities. He taught these subjects at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for nearly thirty years, before taking voluntary retirement in 2009. In 2007, Gupta was at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC as a Woodrow Wilson Scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Spain’s Deusto University. Gupta’s areas of interest include ethnicity, caste, and rural mobilization.