India is one of the largest economies in the world today. India’s finance minister has predicted it would be the third largest by 2030. Yet, an average Indian is worse off than his counterpart in other developing nations like Algeria, Indonesia, Mongolia and Morocco.
India’s infant mortality rate is worse than Iraq’s. An average Indian makes less money than a Sri Lankan. The female literacy rate is worse than Congo’s. And life expectancy in one of the world’s polluted countries is lower than Bangladesh’s. How can we explain this dichotomy? This is the India that the government does not want you to know about: the India where healthcare doesn’t work, corruption is rampant, criminals get elected to public office, the rich go scot-free, most people don’t pay income taxes and inequality is out of control.
Dev Kar, a former senior economist at the International Monetary Fund, points out the truth behind the noise of popular media and jingoism of leaders. Meticulously researched and objectively narrated, this enlightening book tells us why India continues to be a shackled giant and how it can find the road to redemption.
The second volume in the Rethinking India series explicates what it means to be a minority in majoritarian times. The contributors identify vulnerabilities that encumber the quest for the realization of substantive citizenship by minority groups. The essays deal with educational attainments, employment prospects in a liberalized economy, possibilities of equal opportunity, violence of the state and vigilante groups, emerging questions of citizenship and employment, linking language with the material life of its speakers, and the receding political voice of minorities amidst a majoritarian upswing.
Also examined is the concept of minority being inextricably bound with two allied ideas equally foundational to the vision of the Indian Republic: secularism and nationalism. The three together form a conceptual whole to the extent that none finds its manifestation without reference to the other two. The take-offs of the minority question in India include the archetypal nationalist’s disapproval of the very endurance of the subject post-Independence. The secular-modernists and the Hindutva nationalists converge in prescribing assimilation-one into a modernist project, the other into a national culture defined by Sanskritic Hinduism-while the pluralist vision, tolerant of divergent practices, follies in assuming cultures and religious observances as frozen. This, along with several allied issues, forms the heart of this thought-provoking volume.
Did ancient India witness the Great Flood? Why did the Buddha give his first sermon at Sarnath? How did the Europeans map India?
Combining scholarship with sparkling wit, Sanjeev Sanyal sets out to explore how India’s history was shaped by its geography-answering questions you may have never thought to ask. Moving from geological and genetic origins to present-day Gurgaon, Land of the Seven Rivers is riveting, wry and full of surprises.
Untold accounts of the biggest recent anti-terror operations
First-hand reports of the most riveting anti-terror encounters in the wake of the 2016 surgical strikes, the men who hunted terrorists in a magical Kashmir forest where day turns to night, a pair of young Navy men who gave their all to save their entire submarine crew, the Air Force commando who wouldn’t sleep until he had avenged his buddies, the tax babu who found his soul in a terrifying Special Forces assault on Pakistani terrorists, and many more.
Their own stories, in their own words. Or of those who were with them in their final moments.
The highly anticipated sequel to India‘s Most Fearless brings you fourteen more stories of astonishing fearlessness,and gets you closer than ever before to the personal braverythat Indian military men display in the line of duty.
‘Economics is the science of the possible made to look like the art of the impossible’ is a definition that would strike a chord with any finance minister of India who, every year, has to perform the great Indian hope trick. Otherwise known as the Budget-a careful balancing act between revenue and expenditure, tax rates and tax sops, growth and equity, reforms and the status quo. Within these constraints, however, there is much that a finance minister can actually accomplish, as P. Chidambaram, one of India’s most accomplished economists and commentators, shows in A View from the Outside, a collection of columns that assesses the promises and performance of the NDA government in the period 2002-04.The columns, originally published in the Indian Express and Financial Express, reflect the views of Chidambaram, finance minister between 1996 and 1998 and again 2004 onwards, on a range of issues that remain important regardless of the government in power. They also provide snapshots of the Indian economy in good times and bad. This collection covers subjects such as agriculture, reforms, budgets, forex reserves, economic growth and tax policies. It also offers perceptive political analyses and some telling comments on social issues. Far more than mere reactions to developments during that period, Chidambaram provides the reader with an extraordinarily clear understanding of the problems underlying the Indian economy-and its politics-and ways of solving them.
Unusual people are ordinary people who strive hard to do extraordinary things. They are sensitive to nuances, look to provide lateral solutions, dare to think out of the box, and often end up changing the rules of the game.T.G.C. Prasad presents the views and experiences of sixty-five individuals, from well-known names like Mike Lawrie, Azim Premji and Mother Teresa to a chef, a masseuse and a service boy, with whom he has had meaningful interactions and who have inspired him. He includes people from a broad professional spectrum; CEOs, doctors, the director general of police, realtors, an attorney, a chartered accountant, a consultant and a sports coach are among those who make his list. Singling out a dominant factor from each person’s story, he outlines the journeys these people undertook and the behaviours they exhibited, and shows how these link up to the results they achieved.Unusual People Do Things Differently is full of pithy everyday management lessons and offers valuable insights to everyone who aspires to grow, manage and lead.
In 2003, Tata Consultancy Services set itself a mission: ‘Top Ten by 2010’. In 2009, a year ahead of schedule, TCS made good on that promise: in fourteen years, the company had transformed itself from the $155 million operation that
S.Ramadorai inherited as CEO in 1996. Today it is one of the world’s largest IT software and services companies with more than 2,40,000 people working in forty-two countries, and annual revenues of over $10 billion.
The TCS story is one of modern India’s great success stories. In this fascinating book, S. Ramadorai, one of the country’s most respected business leaders, recounts the steps to that extraordinary success, and outlines a vision for the future where the quality initiatives he undertook can be applied to a larger national framework.
21 riveting stories from the battlefield about how India’s highest military honour was won
The Brave takes you to the hearts and minds of India’s bravest soldiers, all of whom won the Param Vir Chakra, India’s greatest military honour. With access to the Army, families and comrades-in-arms of the soldiers, Rachna Bisht Rawat paints the most vivid portrait of these men and their extraordinary deeds.
How hard is it to fight at 20,000 feet in sub-zero temperatures? Why did Captain Vikram Batra say ‘Yeh dil maange more’? How do wives and girlfriends of soldiers who don’t return cope? What happens when the enemy is someone that you have trained? How did the Charlie Company push back the marauding Chinese? How did a villager from Uttar Pradesh become a specialist in destroying tanks?
Both gripping and inspiring, The Brave is the ultimate book on the Param Vir Chakra.
Why is fighter pilot Raghu Nambiar handpicked for the bombing of Tiger Hill?
Why does Manoj Pandey always carry a twenty-one-year-old Rs 2 wooden flute in his black fauji trunk?
‘Congratulations Mrs Batra. We are now man and wife.’ When does Vikram Batra say this to Dimple?
Why do a group of stranded paratroopers call for Bofors’ fire upon their own position?
Why is an old man in Palampur fighting for justice for his dead soldier son?
Interviewing war survivors and martyrs’ families, Rachna Bisht Rawat tells stories of extraordinary human courage, of not just men in uniform but also those who loved them the most. Kargil is a tribute to the 527 young braves who gave up their lives for us and many others who were ready to do it too.
‘Russi has captured the “touch and feel” of events in Tata Steel from its early days . . . he also succeeds in bringing to life the human side of the company in a very readable and cogent manner. The book is a valuable and interesting record of the company’s evolution over its 100-year history, while at the same time being an enjoyable book to read.’ —From the Foreword by Ratan N. Tata
‘The hand of history has woven the tapestry of the Tatas. Just over a hundred years ago Jamsetji Tata requested the Secretary of State in PBI – India, Lord George Hamilton, for the co-operation of the British Raj in starting PBI – India’s first steel works. On the hundredth anniversary of the registration of Tata Iron & Steel Company, the company won the bid to purchase the Anglo-Dutch steel giant CORUS. And so the wheel has turned a full circle.’
R.M. Lala traces a hundred years and more of the exciting history of Tata Steel—from men searching for iron ore and coking coal in jungle areas, traversing in bullock carts before the site was found, to the company’s modern status as a PBI – World-class company. He brings to life a seldom-voiced account of the courage, vision and commitment of the men who created PBI – India’s first modern industrial venture which was to be the fountainhead of its industrial growth. The story Lala recounts is an eventful one of struggle for finances, of survival under unimaginable government controls, the evolution of incredibly humane labour practices (like an eight-hour work day much before it was a Western concept), the effort to compete as liberalization was ushered in, and Tata Steel’s ultimate triumph. For over a hundred years, Tata Steel has promoted a culture of philanthropy perhaps unequalled in the corporate PBI – World.
The Romance of Tata Steel is a moving and fascinating account that draws upon extensive archival material and rare photographs to paint a compelling story that all PBI – Indians can be proud of. This informed and objective book is a fitting tribute to an exceptional PBI – Indian company in its centenary year.
