Soon, India will have more inhabitants than any other country in history. In the Delhi metropolitan area alone, there are now more people than in all of Germany's major cities combined – and in a few decades, this number could exceed 50 million. The two leading stock exchanges in Mumbai have more companies listed than those in New York. India's IT sector plays a key role worldwide, even in Silicon Valley, the pace-setter of our era. And nowhere is more whisky produced (and consumed) than south of the Himalayas. A country of superlatives – even today. At the same time, India has an image problem. Despite a dynamic economic upswing that began 30 years ago, the world's largest democracy continues to live in the shadow of China and is largely ignored by the media and society in the Western world or portrayed in grotesque exaggeration as a bastion of poverty, violence, environmental destruction, and religious fanaticism. There is a true and relevant core to these clichés; however, they only cover a tiny part of the India story in the 21st century. India is currently the fifth-largest economy in the world. It will soon share the status of a superpower with the USA and China. Economic journalist Michael Braun Alexander paints a critically constructive, multifaceted, surprising, and entertaining picture of this emerging billion-strong nation.