Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat has already outlined how outsourcing has transformed India, but the extent of it is still surprising. As a BBC foreign correspondent covering India and its environs for nearly 20 years, Toronto’s Daniel Lak witnessed the enormous changes brought on by the economic liberalization that made India synonymous with call centres. India Express, Lak’s ambitious new book, is the fruit of that experience.

The book begins on a poignant note: the local press wallah, who irons the neighbourhood laundry by the roadside, borrows money from his customers to send his two sons to study computers. Years later, Ram’s sons are wearing the crisply ironed uniform of the IT worker (white shirt, black tie, dark pants), and he proudly returns the money with interest.

India Express comes to life in its reportage. Whether Lak is recounting an election day in rural Bihar disrupted by gun-toting Maoists, or meeting a village woman who defies all stereotypes (she has addressed the UN and chatted with Bill Clinton) his enthusiasm spills off the page.

This is the kind of book where you want more reporting, not less. But Lak often falls into white-paper mode, explaining India instead of letting his interviews carry the narrative. This approach occasionally makes him sound like an old-fashioned missionary, such as with his suggestions that the problem with caste-ridden Hinduism lies with its failure to embrace the ideas of charity and compassion, so important to Islam and Christianity.

While Lak is careful to balance his admiration of India’s newfound vitality with reminders of how the country still fails its citizens, the changes in tone hurt the book’s momentum. Despite his belief that India’s resilient democracy means it is poised to become “Asia’s America” and the next liberal superpower (although his argument about American ideals sounds more Bush than BBC), Lak ends India Express with a prescription for improvement, an oddly paternalistic finish to a mostly optimistic book.