Reading the PDF at night, I thought of the contradictory textures of the country: gleaming malls and shadowed lanes, startup incubators and cash-strapped clinics. Soni’s diagnosis was clinical; his prescriptions humble. He suggested targeted investments in health and education, smarter direct transfers, and a tax system that catches those who slip through the net. He warned against expecting policy alone to fix cultural inertia or to instantly reverse century-old disparities. Yet he insisted on pragmatic optimism—a plan, not platitudes.