Dear Friend,

The IndiaPolicy group seems to be largely dormant, and I can
understand why these cycles of dormancy can occur in the life of an
internet discussion forum.

I'm intervening in this lull with an update on the availability of my
book widely in India - a book which discusses many of the things I had
earlier proposed and discussed on this forum (started in February 1998!).

Nothing much has changed on the ground. The need for good policy is
getting more and more urgent.

Here's an email I sent out to a few friends today. I hope you will
read it and forward it to your friends.

Regards
Sanjeev

PS. I'm happy to host indiapolicy.org at my cost now (I have now the
ability to host multiple domains). I wrote to Anthony but did not
receive a response. Could anyone who knows his whereabouts please
chase him up? I'm also happy to take on the moderator role for this
group, even the owner role - to bring it back to square one: where it
started, with my efforts of February 1998. My RSI has considerably
improved (but I need to do a lot of maintenance work) so I am working
punishing hours on the computer once again.

============
Have you ever considered why India is so badly mis-governed? I have
spent 26 years in public administration in India and Australia
actively asking questions, trying to find answers to this question.
The distillate of this experience is found in my book: 'Breaking Free
of Nehru' (published by Anthem Press). I am writing to you to
introduce you to this book which is now on sale across the world (if
you already have a copy of the book, reading this email may still be
worthwhile).

Do I have anything sensible to say in this book? Why don't I let
others speak?

a) Gurcharan Das (former CEO of Proctor Gamble, India, and author of
`India Unbound') notes that `Breaking Free of Nehru' is "a passionate
call to action to reform our governance structure and restore
integrity and high performance to our public life." In his view, this
book "must be read by every Indian". Surely, Gurcharan won't say such
things about all books. "Every Indian" – that means one billion
people! (Indeed translations of this book into Hindi and Malayalam are
now underway. If you want to translate it into other Indian languages,
please write to me).

b) The first review to come out as the book has gone on sale was in
the Telegraph (Kolkata) on 19 December 2008. It noted that "The book
is a result of years of observation leading up to ideas and opinions,
told in the compulsive style of the blogger that he is." (I'm not
quite a blogger but yes, I do have an active internet presence).

c) Many others who have read early drafts of this book think it is
largely sensible
(http://www.sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/book1/reviews.html). But the proof
of the pudding is in the eating. Are these people willing to buy this
book? Yes. It would appear to be so, for nearly 300 copies of this
book were sold even before it reached the bookshops. Many of the
buyers purchased multiple copies for themselves and to gift to their
friends.

The publisher has done a commendable job of editing and printing the
book. See the cover design at:
http://www.sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/breakingfree.html. The resultant
book is now available in Oxford bookstores
(http://www.oxfordbookstore.com/) across India, with international
shipping also available (see http://tinyurl.com/3jnxpp). The book is
priced at Rs.516 (delivered to your home in India) if purchased
online, or Rs.495 from shops. Internationally, it costs a little over
$18 USD by airmail.

At least ten senior academics and reputed journalists are currently
reviewing this book. While some of their reviews (hopefully of a more
substantial nature) should emerge in the next few weeks in newspapers
and magazines in India, I urge you to add to these reviews by writing
your own. You could then either post your review to a newspaper
/magazine of your choice or send it to me directly. I'll publish it
(un-edited, as is) at:
http://www.sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/book1/reviews.html. I would welcome
forthright and critical reviews, for I am always keen to change my
arguments based on better evidence, the goal being to modernise India
and give it ethical governance.

It is pertinent for me to emphasise in this email that I have written
this book not to `make money' but to transform India (For your
information, the royalty terms for this book are: "Until the first
five thousand copies of the book are sold in India, the author
allocates this royalty back to the publisher … noting that … the
publisher will recycle these funds into a strong marketing effort.").
The book is a political pamphlet: a proposal for reform. It won't get
me a Booker or Nobel prize, but I have tried to make it at least
somewhat readable.

The next steps that I recommend in the book are entirely political.
For those interested in leading India to freedom and good governance,
in the manner broadly outlined in the book, I suggest you consider
joining the Freedom Team of India at freedomteam.in which will roll
out such policies to India in due course provided the team can find at
least 1500 committed members. The aim of this team is to deliver good
and ethical governance to India.

Given the importance of this effort (from my perspective, but also, I
assume, from yours), could I suggest you pass on this email as widely
as you possibly can among your friends and relatives so that we can,
together, find the 1500 outstanding leaders India needed to kick-start
a political movement for reform. About thirty outstanding young people
have already joined FTI, each committed to contesting elections under
the banner of freedom. We are now working towards launching a formal
website and brochure early next year and will roll out this effort
more broadly in India through public meetings with people. Things are
beginning to move. Please join if you can. After all, this is your
country we are talking about.

Even if India is not your country, I am sure you realise how important
it is for the world to have an India that is well governed. Since it
is better to teach a person how to fish instead of giving him fish,
please consider buying and passing this book around to your friends
from India, for they may learn from this book new ways to `fish' and
take India to success. If you can afford to, please donate a copy to
your school or college library, or suggest that they buy a copy.

(While on this subject, you may wish to consider subscribing to the
magazine of FTI, entitled `Towards a Great India' by going to:
http://groups.google.com/group/towards-a-great-india. I also write a
longish monthly article for the magazine, "Freedom First", published
in Mumbai. Copies of these articles are also available at:
http://freedomteam.in/mag/. )

Please write to me at sabhlok@....

With best wishes, and regards,

Sanjeev Sabhlok
(former IAS officer, PhD (Economics) University of Southern California)
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sabhlok
http://www.sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/