The transformation of Asia from its status as the most impoverished region to the growth locomotive of the world economy within five decades is unprecedented and nothing short of a miracle. The achievement seems all the more profound when juxtaposed with a very pessimistic outlook of Asia’s development prospects made by Gunnar Myrdal in his three-volume tome Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, published in 1968.
What have been the patterns of development and transformation in the continent across countries and subregions? What paths have been taken by the sucessful industrialisers in Asia on their way out of poverty to prosperity? Is there an emerging “Asian Consensus” that is unique and different from the conventional wisdom summed up by the Washington Consensus? Why have South Asia and India lagged behind the East Asian economies in industrialisation? And what lessons are there for latecomers like India to chart out their own transition to industrialisation and prosperity?
