In Everything All at Once (published by Rupa Publications), Rajiv Kumar former Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog and a key policy architect of India’s growth strategies, and Ishan Joshi, Senior Fellow at the Pahle India Foundation, present a bold diagnosis of our era.
Six global transitions are unfolding at the same time, redefining not only geo-politics but also the rules of business, economics, and development.
The authors identify these transitions as:
- Geo-political realignment – The shift towards a multi-polar world order, with India as a strategic swing state.
- Geo-economics shifts – Supply chain re-orientation, energy security and resource competition.
- Technological disruption – AI, semiconductor race, digital public goods and cybersecurity.
- Environmental urgency – Climate crisis, green energy transformation and sustainability economics.
- Institutional reconfiguration- New governance models at national and global levels.
- Socio-cultural rebalancing – The evolving role of identity, demography and human capital.
They argue that these transitions are not isolated currents, but intersecting waves — compounding each other’s velocity and unpredictability.
Asia’s historic resurgence – The anchor of the argument
One of the most striking elements of the book is its historical grounding. Kumar and Joshi revisit the fact that India and China together accounted for 57% of global manufacturing output in 1750, a dominance eroded to less than 10% by 1950 due to colonial extraction and industrial displacement. Now, with Asia reclaiming a central role in the global economy, India stands on the brink of reclaiming its rightful place in manufacturing, innovation and trade.
For industrial leaders, this framing is crucial. It’s not just about competing for market share today but about participating in a historic shift in the economic pendulum.
From GDP to GWP – Redefining Progress
The authors aim for the world’s most trusted economic metric — Gross Domestic Product — and advocate replacing it with Gross Welfare Product (GWP), a measure that accounts for:
- Health and education quality
- Environmental sustainability
- Distributional equity (especially for the poorest 10%)
- Social and institutional well-being
This isn’t just a utopian rebranding. Kumar and Joshi urge India to lead a “Coalition of the Willing” within the G20 to pioneer this metric, setting the stage for more humane and balanced global growth.
Implications for industry
While many geo-political books speak in abstractions, Everything All at Once frequently zooms in on sector-specific implications:
- Manufacturing: Opportunities from friend-shoring and diversification away from China; potential to establish India as a global manufacturing hub under the PLI (Production-linked incentive) framework.
- Energy: Securing critical minerals through bilateral diplomacy; investing in green
hydrogen, offshore wind and rare earth processing.
- Technology: Positioning India as a semiconductor powerhouse, leveraging AI and digital public infrastructure (like UPI and ONDC) as exportable governance tools.
- Infrastructure: Integrating the GatiShakti plan with cross-border logistics corridors to capture regional trade flows.
- Defence & Security: Expanding defence manufacturing and exports to position India as a credible security partner in the Indo-Pacific.
Strengths of the book
Clarity amid complexity: Despite tackling vast and overlapping themes, the narrative remains accessible without losing intellectual depth.
Integration of policy and practice: Marries macroeconomic theory with actionable industrial strategies.
Balanced urgency: Conveys the seriousness of the challenges without lapsing into alarmism.
Limitations & opportunities: While the authors excel in diagnosis, some industry readers may wish for more granular operational blueprints — for instance, sector-wise investment priorities, phased roadmaps or risk heat maps. Similarly, the discussion on social cohesion and its economic linkages could have benefited from deeper treatment, given the rising importance of human capital in competitiveness.
The verdict: Everything All at Once is more than a policy book. It’s a strategic field manual for CEO Policy-makers and institutional investors navigating the “poly-crisis” age. Its fusion of historical context, present analysis, and future vision makes it a must-read for boardrooms and cabinet rooms alike.
It will appeal to those who have already engaged with S. Jaishankar’s The India Way, Shivshankar Menon’s India and Asian Geopolitics and Amitav Acharya’s The Once and Future World Order — but its industrial relevance, sectoral focus and metric innovation (GWP) give it a distinctive edge.
For the industrial reader, if your business strategy still assumes “business as usual,” this book will challenge and, perhaps, change your assumptions. If you are already adapting to the age of everything, everywhere, all at once, it will give you the frameworks to sharpen your advantage.