The Forum of Free Enterprise is a non-political organization founded in 1956 by A. D. Shroff and has been established to educate public opinion in India on free enterprise and a democratic way of life. The Forum publishes booklets to further its objects. The following booklet titled “Forty-Three Years Of Independence” was published on January 18, 1991, and was authored by Nani A. Palkhiwala. The author starts off by listing various advantages like rich diversity, progressive constitution, large human resources, that India has over other nations of the world. However, he argues that over the years we dissipated every advantage we started with de to the imposition of mindless socialism which curbed people’s endeavour and enterprise. He further expands on this thought by arguing that the most persistent tendency in India has been to have too much government and too little administration. He further opines that the greatest mistake of the Indian republic in the first forty-three years of independence has been its excessive focus on quantitative growth without much qualitative development. That is why India continues to be plagued by three basic problems – poverty, unemployment and foreign exchange trade deficit. The author ends on a hopeful note by stating that all is not lost as even though the country does not have a powerful economy, but has all the raw materials to build one.