IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN INDIAN? In 2014, when Bhairavi Jani got into a car with three friends and drove 18,181 km across India, from the remote districts of Nagaland to the villages of Rann of Kutch and from the Kashmir Valley to the interiors of India's Deccan she was searching for the threads that weave the people of the world's largest democracy together. What she discovered from the many highways she took to swades form the beating heart of this book. Highway to Swades is a quest to explore and rediscover the inherent civilizational powers shared by all Indians. Jani identifies twelve such superpowers and maps out how these can be called to action for the future of the republic and its citizens. In 'Power of Enterprise', for instance, she explores the values that connect India's street vendors and tech entrepreneurs of Bengaluru. In 'Power of Nature', she shares the unlikely bonds that bind the Changpa people of the cold desert wildlife sanctuary in Ladakh, the Khasis of Meghalaya and an Oxford-returned young woman in Kumaon. And, in 'Power of Creativity' she throws light on how our inherent superpower of creativity can help us build a thriving creative economy using new-age tech and AI. Through an amalgamation of data, travel anecdotes and stories of people from different corners of India, Jani intertwines the country's past, present and future seamlessly. About the Author Bhairavi Jani is a successful logistics and supply-chainentrepreneur, a social-development enthusiast, a nature conservationist and acommitted philanthropist. Bhairavi has been listed among ‘India's 25 PowerWomen' by India Today, and has been featured in Stree Shakti by CNBCAwaaz and Young Turks by CNBC TV18. She was recognized as a ‘SupplyChain Maven' by Business Today. She is the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaderand was the national chairperson of Young Indians, the youth wing ofConfederation of Indian Industry (2010–11). Bhairavi is an avid traveller, a trained classicaldancer and is passionate about the arts. Her own experiences of growing up inMumbai, studying and working in the United States, running logistics venturespan-India, working for developmental programmes and now living in a rural settlementin the Himalaya, give her the unique ability to observe India's journey as ayoung republic and an old civilization through multiple lenses.