Which way is India heading? Is one of the world's fastest -growing economies still on course for globalisation? Or is 'glocalisation' the way ahead? With 17 per cent of the world's human capital, is free-market capitalism the only way for India to become an economic superpower?
These are some of the questions which will be answered by four of India's leading thinkers in the special series of India Business Report on BBC World: India The Road Ahead .

The special series will be aired on Sundays, starting 9 March 2003 at 11:00 am, with a repeat telecast at 10:00 pm.

The four speakers featured in the series are - venture capitalist and author Gurcharan Das, Swadeshi Jagran Manch leader Swaminathan Gurumurthy, professor Prabhat Patnaik of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Digvijay Singh, states a press release .

The series features venture capitalist and author Gurcharan Das who using video essays,(a format new to India) presents his case for greater globalisation, while Swadeshi Jagran Manch leader Swaminathan Gurumurthy takes the opposite view. Professor Prabhat Patnaik of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in Delhi on the other hand, argues that India's large but chaotic public distribution system is the key to many of its problems, the release adds .

Interestingly, Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Digvijay Singh, the man at the sharp end of the equation between planning and policy-implementation, also contributes to the debate arguing that the state needs to improve the lives of those at the bottom of the heap.

The series begins with Gurcharan Das, former CEO of a multinational company, author of India Unbound and currently an advisor to the Indian government. He charts India's transformation in the nineties from a socialist-style economy into a liberalised, outward-looking one.

On 16 March, Swaminathan Gurumurthy of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch presents his argument just as passionately for another path to progress, the release adds. He believes that India needs to keep its attitude global and its focus local. The culture of family savings and community businesses must be encouraged. It is a borrowed economy that depends upon a consumer culture to survive, he says.

On 23 March, professor Prabhat Patnaik of Jawahar Lal Nehru University's Centre for Economic Studies calls for a more formal and strictly organised public distribution system. The upshot will not only be better distribution of food grains to alleviate rural hunger, but will also lead to infrastructural growth, more employment and a better quality of life for all.

The last of the essays, on 30 March, illustrates the think-small-to-think-big philosophy of one of India's leading political proponents of grassroots development, Digvijay Singh. According to the release, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh says poverty, population growth and disease are India's three main barriers on the road ahead. He believes that political will should combine with India's existing industrial and agricultural base, but the focus should always be the bottom half of the population, states the release.