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A colorful and revealing portrait of the rise of India�s new billionaire class in a radically unequal society India is the world�s largest democracy, with more than one billion people and an economy expanding faster than China�s. But the rewards of this growth have been far from evenly shared, and the country�s top 1% now own nearly 60% of its wealth. In megacities like Mumbai, where half the population live in slums, the extraordinary riches of India�s new dynasties echo the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers of yesterday, funneling profits from huge conglomerates into lifestyles of conspicuous consumption. James Crabtree�s The Billionaire Raj takes readers on a personal journey to meet these reclusive billionaires, fugitive tycoons, and shadowy political power brokers. From the sky terrace of the world�s most expensive home to impoverished villages and mass political rallies, Crabtree dramatizes the battle between crony capitalists and economic reformers, revealing a tense struggle between equality and privilege playing out against a combustible backdrop of aspiration, class, and caste. The Billionaire Raj is a vivid account of a divided society on the cusp of transformation�and a struggle that will shape not just India�s future, but the world�s. (less)

A colorful and revealing portrait of the rise of India�s new billionaire class in a radically unequal society India is the world�s largest democracy, with more than one billion people and an economy expanding faster than China�s. But (…more)