Honest John

John Matthai was independent India's first railways and transport minister and later its second finance minister, a post he left because of his differences with Pandit Nehru over the Planning Commission. He held senior positions at the Tatas and was a friend and confidant of J.R.D. Tata. He chaired the Taxation Enquiry Commission of 1953, whose work gave the government a framework for its later tax policies.

Matthai was also the first chairman of the State Bank of India, headed the court of governors of the Administrative Staff College of India in Hyderabad, and chaired the National Book Trust. He founded and served as the first president of the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi.

Honest John draws on many primary and secondary sources to introduce him to a new generation and to bring back the memory of a man the public has largely forgotten. Through his life and work, the biography also shows the turbulent years in which modern India was shaped and the thinking that went into building it.