India once commanded a massive 30 per cent share of the global GDP and led the world in most fields, but today the country sadly is a developing nation. People often attribute India's sluggish progress to the malaise called the Chalta Hai ('It's okay', 'Let it be') attitude, but not everyone agrees with that presupposition. Debates on the subject are often inconclusive and discomfiting questions remain unanswered. Are we really a Chalta Hai nation? Is Chalta Hai ingrained in our DNA or is it just a bad habit which can be easily exterminated? Will this attitude stop India from becoming a global power?

Alpesh Patel delves into this quirky Indian approach and answers these questions by examining the country's pace of progress in fields such as education, infrastructure, films and sports since Independence. The book revisits our cultural, ideological and political history over three millennia to trace the roots of the Chalta Hai attitude of Indians. Interesting facts and unsettling inferences force the reader to introspect and awaken him to the need for an urgent action. Finally, the book charts out methods and suggestions on how to get rid of the Chalta Hai attitude and take India closer to the dream of becoming a developed nation.

Alpesh Patel is a published author, a consultant, an entrepreneur and a mentor to start-ups with over twenty years of corporate experience.

Alpesh worked as a management consultant with the Big4s for fifteen years and advised corporates and governments on business strategy, technology, change management, mergers and reforms. His consulting career groomed him as a specialist in banking, insurance, micro-finance and power sectors and took him to India's hinterland as much as to the big cities. He had thrilling opportunities of working on many green-field ventures, including India's first payments bank, the country's first integrated steel plant and a tele-medicine start-up that brought medical consultations to rural patients.

Alpesh is an engineer from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, and a management graduate from SPJIMR, Mumbai. He currently lives in Mumbai and manages a venture that focuses on leading technologies like artificial intelligence and robotic automation.