Book Title: Everything All at Once: India and the Six Simultaneous Global Transitions
Author(s): Rajiv Kumar and Ishan Joshi
Publisher: Rupa Publications India
Number of Pages: 256
ISBN: 978-9370039230
Date Published: Jul. 10, 2025
Price: INR 575
Book Review
In “Everything All at Once: India and the Six Simultaneous Global Transitions“, Rajiv Kumar and Ishan Joshi offer a sweeping, lucid, and urgent analysis of the six seismic transitions currently reshaping the global order—and, crucially, what they mean for India. The book’s central thesis is as bold as it is timely: never before have so many profound global shifts—geopolitical, geographical, geoeconomic, technological, ecological, and ideological—unfolded simultaneously, and never has the need for strategic foresight been greater for a country with India’s aspirations.
The authors, both seasoned policy thinkers, lament the absence of a “meta-narrative” in Indian strategic discourse. They set out to fill this gap, not by offering piecemeal analyses, but by connecting the dots between disparate transitions: the crumbling of Pax Americana, the shift of economic and political gravity to Asia, the rise of the Global South, the disruptive potential of AI and digital technologies, the narrowing window for climate action, and the ideological fragmentation of the international system. The book’s structure—each chapter devoted to one transition, culminating in an epilogue on turning crisis into catalyst—makes for a logical, accessible, and compelling read.
Rajiv Kumar and Ishan Joshi are clear-eyed about India’s predicament. Unlike the OECD countries or even China, India must simultaneously lift hundreds of millions out of poverty and reduce its carbon footprint. The authors argue that India cannot afford the luxury of linear, single-minded growth; it must craft a development paradigm that is both economically ambitious and ecologically sustainable. This is not only a moral imperative but a matter of national security.
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The refusal to indulge in either alarmism or fatalism makes the book different. While the authors do not shy away from describing the “crumbling certitudes” of the old order—be it the rise of neo-nationalism, the retreat of globalization, or the transactionalism of a second Trump presidency—they also see opportunity. India, they argue, is uniquely positioned to shape, not just adapt to, the new global order—provided it acts with strategic agility, invests in human capital, and forges new coalitions across the Global South.
“Everything All at Once” is essential reading for policymakers, business leaders, scholars, and any citizen concerned with India’s future. Its blend of rigorous analysis, accessible prose, and actionable recommendations makes it as useful to the lay reader as to the expert.
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