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Here’s how to make sense of the new normal

Jha develops a sobering framework to help contextualise India’s own growth story

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many deep challenges to the foundations on which the global economy operated. The world finally confronted the rise of China as a new power centre, witnessed economic nationalism replace neoliberalism as the staple ideology and watched as the developed world struggled with the scars of their 21st century growth model. From Hachette, Saurav Jha’s new book, Negotiating the New Normal, takes on the intimidating task of helping India make sense of this new world. With central banks, governments and supranational entities at the centre of its narratives, the book offers a deep examination of the forces that animated the global economy between the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and the pandemic shock of 2020. Closely studying each of the world’s major financial centres during this period – the US, the EU, Japan and China – Jha develops a sobering framework to help contextualise India’s own growth story. 

Negotiating the New Normal benefits deeply from Jha’s ability to put unnerving economic questions in conversation with geopolitical realities, complex histories and cultural anxieties. It is a work of maturity and patience.

— Mukundan Alexander