Catagory: Non Fiction

A series of high-profile acquisitions, including Jaguar Land Rover and Corus Steel, together with the launch of the Nano (the world’s first Rs. 1 Lakh/ below US$ 2500 car), is set to change our perception of India’: on the threshold of becoming a truly global brand.*s oldest and most respected corporate brand. With a major international presence, in a variety of areas including steel, tea, chemicals, communications and software, Tata now stands 65th in the world brand valuation league. But what is the Tata brand all about? What are its values? How do people perceive it, in India and around the world? In this absorbing and informed book Morgen Witzel digs into the heart of the Tata enterprise, describes its origins, how Tata’s reputation and image evolved, and how the group has worked to transform that image into a powerful and valuable brand. Tata: The Evolution of a Corporate Brand goes to the core of the Tata ethos to explore the unique relationship between the Tata group and the Indian people, a relationship that goes beyond the achievements of a successful business to its social contributions for its employees and the society at large. Finally it asks how that reputation will be perceived and understood as Tata moves into global markets. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a manager, a marketer, or an interested Tata loyalist this book will help you understand the durability of the brand and inspire you with the values it holds onto in the global economy.

To be a lesbian is to be different.
It’s to be like the green rose amongst the red.
Growing in the posh confines of south Delhi, the beautiful and accomplished Charu is a coveted match. However, all the matchmaking seems to fail when no dream marriage with a ‘foreign-posted’ groom seems to materialize—much to the amazement of speculating, fat Punjabi aunties of her neighbourhood and of her middle-class Bengali parents. Only Charu knows the reason. A reason which till now she’s hidden from everyone, even herself—that she’s a lesbian.
But one lesson in love from the lady in the neighbourhood, and Charu knows there is no turning back on the truth. Not even when she wishes things were different, for her parents’ sake.
A story of unmet desires and passion, The Green Rose explores the pains of coming out of the closet gay experience.

‘[Devika] brings to the reader the delight of reading a book rich in concepts and sources’ Contributions to Indian SociologyThe Malayalam literary public is one of the most vibrant in India, and thrives on the long history of widespread literacy in the state of Kerala. It is well described as the ‘beating heart’ of Kerala’s publiclife. Historically, it has been the space in which entrenched power structures encountered their earliest challenges. Not surprisingly, then, critiques of patriarchy in twentieth-century Kerala were first heard and continued to be raised there, even when they had become muffled in wider public discussion.Womanwriting = Manreading? is a provocative take on some of the raging debates in Malayalam literature, which surely resonate elsewhere. But it also raises the important question: can we tell the story of women’s anti-patriarchal writing in Malayalam in a way that highlights the force and drama of their confrontations with the male-dominated literary establishment?

‘An exceptionally well-written book’ Ian Talbot

In over three decades as a police officer, Kirpal Dhillon handled some of the most challenging assignments in independent India, from anti-dacoity operations in Madhya Pradesh to revamping a demoralized force as police chief of Punjab in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star. These memoirs describe his experiences in fascinating detail, and present vivid portraits of a range of people, including sadhus and swindlers, maharajas and brigands, scheming politicians and back-stabbing colleagues.
There are evocative descriptions of his village in Punjab, of Partition, and of the leaders he worked with, such as Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai. He writes with insight and expertise about terrorism, law-and-order problems, the training of administrators and policemen, and what can be done to ensure that they function with greater autonomy, accountability and humanity.

In 2009, after several years in China, journalist Pallavi Aiyar moved to Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union, to discover a Europe plagued by a financial crisis, and unsure of its place in a world where new Asian challengers are eroding its old and comfortable certainties. With a lively mix of memoir, reportage and analysis, Aiyar takes the reader on a romp across the continent as she meets workaholic Indian diamond merchants in Antwerp, upstart Chinese wine barons in Bordeaux, Sikh farmhands in the Italian countryside, and Indian engineers running offshore energy turbines in Belgium. In the Europe of today everything is in a flux, as she discovers through conversations with Muslim immigrants struggling to define their identities, the austere bosses of Germany’s worldbeating companies, and bewildered Eurocrats struggling to save the EU from splitting apart. Examining the diverse challenges the continent faces today-among them, bloated welfare states, the accommodation of Islam, the European ambitions of Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs, and the fissures that threaten to break up this union of diverse nations-Punjabi Parmesan takes a panoramic look at Europe’s firstworld crisis from a unique India-China perspective.