A two volume book series with stories from around the world

New Delhi 03 December 2018: UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development and Penguin announce the publication of a two volume book series next year. Titled Stories of Kindness from Across the World: Volume I and II (tentative title), the first book in the series is set to publish in June 2019.

The unique book series will feature some of the most transformative acts of kindness by youth from across the globe. The stories will be crowd sourced by UNESCO MGIEP during the International Youth Campaign on Kindness for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which was launched globally on October 2, 2018.

The campaign, which aims to mobilise youth action towards a more sustainable future, calls for youth to submit stories of goodwill and compassion related to one or more of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The stories will cut across boundaries of geography, gender, race and religion and will vary in levels of complexity.

Talking more about the book and the partnership, Prof. Anantha Duraiappah, Director UNESCO MGIEP said, “Humans are neurobiologically empathetic! This collection of stories of Acts of Kindness is meant to awake those emphatic qualities we have forgotten and help train each one of us to be compassionate to others but also to find that elusive peace within ourselves.”

Sohini Mitra, Associate Publisher, Penguin Random House India said, “This collection of stories on acts of kindness maybe just what we all need, one that inspires and endears us to other humans, shows the immense potential of goodwill and is relevant to everybody across the world. I am looking forward to working on this exciting project, and we hope our collaboration with UNESCO on this series will propagate a positive culture of empathy and love for those around us.”

Following are the directions for submission of stories:
a) For submission of one’s own story: https://bit.ly/2x2tFPx
b) For submission of someone else’s story: https://bit.ly/2NG3Pv8

About UNESCO MGIEP:
The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) is UNESCO’s category 1 Research Institute that focuses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 towards education for building peaceful and sustainable societies across the world. In line with its vision of ‘Transforming Education for Humanity’, the institute’s programmes are designed to mainstream Socio-Emotional Learning in education systems, innovate digital pedagogies and to put youth as global citizens at the centre of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development.

About Penguin Random House India
Penguin Random House India is the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent, publishing over 250 new titles every year and with an active backlist of over 3000 titles. With a strong fiction and non-fiction list, it publishes across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint.

Penguin Random House India’s illustrious list includes Booker Prize-winning novels and winners of virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Several of PRHI’s authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours.

Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India and the sub-continent.

For queries/information, please contact

Radhika Bhatnagar
Communications Officer
UNESCO MGIEP
r.bhatnagar@unesco.org
Phone: +91 7042692065

Piya Kapur
Sr. Manager, Marketing and Publicity
Penguin Random House India
pkapur@penguinrandomhouse.in
Phone: +91 9899561350.

PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi, 03 December 2018; Hindi language publishers, Hind Pocket Books, a Penguin Random House company, announces the publication of Shri Surender Mohan Pathak’s next books. The prolific Hindi pulp fiction writer will be adding a brand new two-part thriller to the popular ‘Vimal’ series and the first part will be published in January 2019.

Author of over 300 books, of which many went on to become blockbuster hits, the veteran writer has been titled as the ‘Master of Mystery, ‘King of Pulp Fiction’ and the ‘Badshaah of Hindi Crime Fiction’. He started his writing career with the Hindi translations of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels and the works of James Hadley Chase and is best known for his series of novels Vimal (विमल), a.k.a. Sardar Surender Singh Sohal (सरदार सुरेन्द्र सिंह सोहल).

‘With the iconic Hind Pockets Books becoming a part of Penguin Random House India, I am enthusiastic about publishing my next two novels of the Vimal series with them,’ said Shri Surender Mohan Pathak, ‘The high standards set by Hind Pocket Books will undoubtedly be reinstated in this arrangement and bring Hindi literature to the forefront’.

Excited at the prospect of publishing with Shri Surender Mohan Pathak, Vaishali Mathur, Editor-in-Chief of Hind Pocket Books, commented, ‘I have great admiration for Pathak ji’s work and I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with him on his next books. Over the years, he has kept the pulp fiction genre refreshed and renewed with his writing and I am sure his readers from across the country are waiting for the new thrilling adventure’.

Nandan Jha, Senior Vice President, Penguin Random House India, says, ‘Keeping to our commitment to build strong and dynamic local language publishing, we, at Hind Pocket Books, are excited to venture into the crime fiction genre with a prolific writer, such as Shri Surender Mohan Pathak. While, there now may be many other platforms and formats of this genre, the Hindi pulp fiction writing has always been favoured by the masses and we intend to keep the trend going’.

About Hind Pocket Books
Hind Pocket Books Group was established in 1958 and has published in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Malayalam and English in India. In 1959 a set of ten paperbacks were published in Hindi for the first time, marking a major breakthrough in Indian Publishing. Hind Pocket Books is the umbrella company for a host of imprints which publish books that cater to the needs of different segments of society and specializations.

The dominant genre has been literary fiction. Under General books, they also publish Spirituality, Self-help, Health, Poetry, Biographies, and translations of international titles. Their current imprints include Clarion Books, Global Business Press, Saraswati Press, Professional Managers Library and Mainstreet.

The oldest and most respected Hindi Language publishers in the country, Hind Pocket Books, was acquired by Penguin Random House in June 2018.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Pallavi Narayan
pnarayan@penguinrandomhouse.in
+91 97118 64445

PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi, 22 November 2018; Hind Pocket Books, a Penguin Random House company, announces the acquisition of two books by one of the most respected and known literary fiction writers Padmashri Narendra Kohli for publication in January 2019.

Most revered for his reinvention of the ancient form of epic writing in modern prose, Shri Narendra Kohli has over 100 books to his name. Crediting his immense contribution to Hindi Literature, the era of contemporary modern Hindi literature is often referred to as the ‘Kohli Era’. He is also best known for his version of India’s greatest epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which he started writing in 1975.

‘The prospect to work with Penguin has given my work a new dimension, as if new rainbows have emerged over the blue sky of my literary art. It has given me wings to further my scope and it seems that my humble journey will now soar higher,’ said Shri Narendra Kohli.

Vaishali Mathur, Editor-in-Chief of Hind Pocket Books, commented, ‘This is a great opportunity for us to work with a creative genuis such as Shri Narendra Kohli. His work has brought the spotlight over Hindi literature and I am proud to take his writing ahead to a larger audience’.

Nandan Jha, Senior Vice President, Penguin Random House India says, ‘It is important to continue strengthening Hindi literature by bringing quality books and novels. There is an entire generation of readers that will benefit from a robust re-introduction to contemporary Hindi literature and the authors who have contributed so generously to keep it thriving’.

About Hind Pocket Books
Hind Pocket Books Group was established in 1958 and has published in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Malayalam and English in India. In 1959 a set of ten paperbacks were published in Hindi for the first time, marking a major breakthrough in Indian Publishing. Hind Pocket Books is the umbrella company for a host of imprints which publish books that cater to the needs of different segments of society and specializations.

The dominant genre has been literary fiction. Under General books, they also publish Spirituality, Self-help, Health, Poetry, Biographies, and translations of international titles. Their current imprints include Clarion Books, Global Business Press, Saraswati Press, Professional Managers Library and Mainstreet.

The oldest and most respected Hindi Language publishers in the country, Hind Pocket Books, was acquired by Penguin Random House in June 2018.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Pallavi Narayan
pnarayan@penguinrandomhouse.in
+91 97118 64445

The Testamentsis set 15years after Offred’s final scene in TheHandmaid’s Tale and is narrated by three female characters.It will be published on 10 September 2019 by Chatto&Windus, an imprint of VINTAGE, in hardback (£20).

Margaret Atwood says: ‘Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.’

Becky Hardie, Deputy Publisher of Chatto&Windus, who acquired UK & Commonwealth (ex Canada) rights from Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown, says: ‘As a society, we’ve never needed Margaret Atwood more. The moment the van door slams on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most brilliantly ambiguous endings in literature. I cannot wait to find out what’s been going on in Atwood’s Gilead ¬– and what that might tell us about our own times.’

Richard Cable, Managing Director of Vintage, says: ‘Very few novels manage to speak to new generations of readers around the world in the way in which The Handmaid’s Tale clearly does. Publication of The Testaments is going to be the kind of global publishing event we don’t see very often, and we are all hugely excited at the prospect of bringing Margaret Atwood’s new book to her millions of readers.’

First published in 1985 by VINTAGE imprint Jonathan Cape, The Handmaid’s Tale was shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize and is an A-level curriculum text in the UK. Eight million copies have been sold globally in theEnglishlanguage.

When Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, Handmaids became a symbol of the movement against him, standing for female empowerment and resistance in the face of misogyny and the rolling back of women’s rights around the world. In 2017 the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Talestarring Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes launched in the UK on Channel 4,Atwood’s novelspent 16 weeks back on theSunday Times bestseller listand VINTAGE saw book sales increase by 670% year-on-year. The TV show has been nominated for 18, and won 6, Emmy Awards across two series. A third series is currently in production.

The Testaments is not connected to the television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale.

The Testaments will be published simultaneously by Penguin Random House across the English-speaking world: by Chatto&Windus/VINTAGE in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India; McClelland & Stewart in Canada; and Nan A. Talese/Knopf Doubleday in the US.

The cover design is still in development and will be released at a later date.

For all enquiries please contact Fran Owen and Sophie Mitchell, Publicity Directors ofChatto&Windus:
mitchellowen@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE

London UK, 20th November 2018 – Puffin is delighted to announce the acquisition of a new book from global bestselling author, R. J. Palacio. White Bird is a powerful and timely graphic novel about kindness and courage. Natalie Doherty, Editorial Director at Penguin Random House Children’s, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Nicola DeRobertis-Theye at Trident Media.

To the millions of readers who fell in love with R J Palacio’s Wonder, Julian is best-known as Auggie Pullman’s classroom bully. White Bird reveals a new side to Julian’s story, as Julian discovers the moving and powerful tale of his grandmother, who was hidden from the Nazis as a young Jewish girl in occupied France during the Second World War.

An unforgettable, unputdownable story about strength, courage and the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives, from the globally bestselling author, R. J. Palacio.

Palacio said: “‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. I’m reminded of that George Santayana quote, which is the epigraph of my book, every time I turn the news on. I am truly alarmed and saddened by what’s happening—deportations, roundups, bans—and I worry about the impact this is having on our children, who are witnessing these events without the historical context needed to process them. After ‘The Julian Chapter’ was published, I started hearing from teachers and parents who said that Grandmère’s story was the perfect age-appropriate introduction to the themes of the Holocaust for their children. I wrote White Bird because I believe that now more than ever we need to teach our children about the past—the good, the bad, and the ugly—so that they can protect their own futures. Like Wonder, White Bird is about the power of kindness, but it is also about the unrelenting courage of righteous people. As Grandmère told Julian in ‘The Julian Chapter’: ‘It always takes courage to be kind, but in those days, such kindness could cost you everything.’”
Doherty added: “‘We’re incredibly proud to publish Wonder –a life-changing read and a true publishing phenomenon, which continues to be a word-of-mouth bestseller almost seven years after first publication. In White Bird, readers will be introduced to a powerful new part of the Wonder story: a heartwrenching graphic novel set in wartime France. R. J. Palacio is a skilled storyteller and artist who weaves kindness, strength and acceptance into everything she writes and creates, and we know old fans and new will not be disappointed.”

Since Wonder’s original publication in 2012, it has taken the children’s literary world by storm, launching a nationwide “Choose Kind” movement, kindness curricula in classrooms around the world, a major motion picture, and four additional books in the world of Wonder (Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories, 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Precepts, We’re All Wonders, and now White Bird: A Wonder Story).

Together, Palacio’s titles have sold more than 16 million copies worldwide. Wonder was the UK’s biggest debut hardback of 2012, hit the #1 slot in the UK children’s charts and has consistently been a New York Times bestseller since publication. It has since been published in 50 languages and won numerous awards including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize (Younger Fiction) and the Independent Bookseller Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and for a Specsavers National Book Award.

The 2017 film adaptation of Wonder was a global box office and critical hit for Lionsgate. The star-studded cast included Academy Award winner Julia Roberts, Oscar nominee Owen Wilson, Jacob Tremblay, Mandy Patinkin, and Daveed Diggs. The film was directed by Stephen Chbosky.

R. J. Palacio (@RJPalacio) was born and raised in New York City. She got her BFA from the Parsons School of Design, where she majored in illustration. For many years before writing Wonder, she worked as a graphic designer and art director. In addition to Wonder, she has written Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories, 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Precepts, We’re All Wonders, which she also illustrated, and White Bird: A Wonder Story. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, their two sons, and their two dogs, Bear and Beau.

White Bird: A Wonder Story by R. J. Palacio will be published by Puffin on 3rd September 2019 in hardback.

Media Contacts:
Piya Kapur
Sr Manager Marketing
Penguin Random House India
E: pkapur@penguinrandomhouse.in
Ph: +91 9899561350

PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi, 14 November 2018; Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Penguin Random House India announces the publication of a definitive book on elections in India by eminent journalist and founder of the NDTV Group, Dr Prannoy Roy, along with Dorab Sopariwala, Editorial Adviser, NDTV. The book, to be published in early 2019, will demystify the general elections and answer critical questions on electoral politics.

Positioned as a must-read for anyone interested in politics and elections in India, the book is based on rigorous psephology, original research and as-yet undisclosed facts. It will talk about the entire span of India’s entire electoral history – from the first elections in 1952, till today. Crucially, for 2019, it will give us pointers to look out for, in terms of the fate of the incumbent government.

Dr Prannoy Roy is the founder and executive co-chairperson, NDTV Group. He is renowned for his innate knack of translating complicated facts of election politics into straight-to-the-point analysis. He was adjudged television personality of the millennium by an Indian Express poll, and has contributed to various national and international publications.

Commenting on publishing with Penguin, Dr Roy says, ‘In a few months, we are going to face the big Lok Sabha elections. Nothing is more exciting than elections and nowhere in the world are elections more exciting than in India. So we decided to write a book about the Indian elections – what they mean to everybody, how they are different and what the underlying trends and forces are that determine their outcome. We are very happy that Penguin is publishing this book. They are a great team, are committed to quality, and most of all, they have a passion for publishing books.’

Here is a video of Dr. Prannoy Roy talking about his upcoming book

Swati Chopra, Senior Commissioning Editor, Penguin Random House India, says, ‘It is an honour to work on a book about elections with Dr Prannoy Roy, the most respected name in election analysis and electoral politics for TV-watching Indians. We worked closely with literary agent Kanishka Gupta of Writer’s Side to bring this opportunity to Penguin. As we gear up for the mammoth electoral battle of 2019, I cannot think of anyone better suited to provide context, analysis and insights into the greatest electoral exercise on earth, in the world’s largest democracy, than this book’s authors.’

Milee Ashwarya, Editor-in-Chief Business & Commercial, Penguin Random House India, says, ‘This will be an authoritative, well-researched and a must-have book for the 2019 general elections and beyond. I am delighted that Dr Roy has chosen Penguin Random House India as the home for his book. We can’t wait to publish it.’

About Penguin Random House India
Penguin Random House India is the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent, publishing over 250 new titles every year and with an active backlist of over 3000 titles. With a strong fiction and non-fiction list, it publishes across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint.

Penguin Random House India’s illustrious list includes Booker Prize-winning novels and winners of virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Several of PRHI’s authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours.

Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India and the sub-continent.

MEDIA CONTACT-
Preeti Chaturvedi
pchaturvedi@penguinrandomhouse.in
+91 99996 55811

PRESS RELEASE

The author of international bestseller The Night Circus returns with a magical, timeless and wholly original love story set in a secret underground world.

Liz Foley, Publishing Director at Harvill Secker, has acquired UK & Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Richard Pine at InkWell Management. Published by Harvill Secker in 2011, The Night Circus was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Galaxy Book Awards. It has been translated into 37 languages; is currently in development with Lionsgate as both a feature film and stage play; and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a strange book hidden in the library stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues – a bee, a key, and a sword – that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to a subterranean library, hidden far below the surface of the earth.

What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians – it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also those who are intent on its destruction.

Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly-soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose – in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

The Starless Sea contains the hallmarks of Morgenstern’s The Night Circus – magic, mystery, and inimitable imagination – and brings them to life in a richly layered and entirely new story.

‘Seven years ago the circus arrived without warning. Next fall readers and booksellers will be invited to sail The Starless Sea. When I started working on my new novel,’ says Erin Morgenstern, ‘I thought I was writing a book about books but as it turns out I was writing a book about stories. Stories and choices and change and also time and fate and video games. It took quite a while to get it all to fit in a single book, even down to the bees.’

Liz Foley says: ‘From the first page of this exhilarating and glorious book I was transported to the unique world which only Erin could have created. I could not let go of Zachary’s story until the very last, intensely moving, page and so many scenes and characters are vividly imprinted in my memory. Erin’s imaginative powers are unparalleled and this is a truly immersive, epic book about storytelling itself. After the wonder of The Night Circus, it’s incredible to have a novel that even exceeds that one in its flair, richness and ingenuity. Nothing else like it will be published next year.’

Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House US, and Doubleday Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada, will simultaneously publish The Starless Sea on 5 November 2019.

For more information please contact:
Bethan Jones, Head of Publicity, Vintage
email: bjones@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk

About Erin Morgenstern:
Erin Morgenstern is the author of The Night Circus, a #1 international bestseller that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in Theatre from Smith College, an ever-growing collection of jewelry made from skeleton keys, and a cat on her lap. She lives in Massachusetts.

Website: erinmorgenstern.com
Instagram: @erinmorgenstern
Twitter: @erinmorgenstern
Facebook: @erinmorgensternbooks

About Harvill Secker:
HARVILL SECKER has published some of the most iconic and inspiring literary works of the last 100 years, bringing international writing to the attention of British readers. Martin Secker Ltd was founded in 1910 and became Secker & Warburg in 1936. The Harvill Press was founded in 1946. The two imprints were merged in 2005 to become Harvill Secker.

Harvill Secker is home to major writers such as J.M. Coetzee, José Saramago, Haruki Murakami, Louis de Bernières, Günter Grass, Denis Johnson, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Umberto Eco. Great writers from the list’s history include George Orwell, Colette, Boris Pasternak, Thomas Mann, Yukio Mishima, Mikhail Bulgakov, Vasily Grossman and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Harvill Secker is part of the VINTAGE division of Penguin Random House.

PRESS RELEASE

Penguin is delighted to announce that Alt Balaji, Ekta Kapoor’s digital wing of Balaji, has acquired the rights of Novoneel Chakraborty’s novel Black Suits You, a bestseller known for its gripping and fast-paced plot. It was in top 5 thrillers in Amazon for 15 weeks straight.

Black Suits You is the story of twenty-seven year old Kiyan Roy, a reclusive author of the bestselling erotica trilogy, Handcuffs. When he appears in public for the first time to promote his books, his readers fall in love with his good looks and wit. However, one of them gets too close. Kiyan is followed and seduced by a mysterious girl who pursues him across cities, book events, hotels, luncheons and media interviews. Soon, he becomes obsessed by her and falls for her charms. As Kiyan gets sucked deeper and deeper into this dark and twisted love affair, he is forced to surrender all control. His life and career slowly begin to unravel as this girl leads him down a dangerous path. The novel, a clever psychosexual thriller, will keep you guessing till the end.

Talking about this new acquisition, Rukun Kaul, AVP – Digital and Business Initiatives, Penguin Random House India commented, ‘After the tremendous success of The Stranger Trilogy, we’re delighted to see the same enthusiasm for Novoveel C’s new book Black Suits You. Here’s to the continued demand for Novoneel’s pacy thrillers in the digital space.’

‘Black Suits You is my only psycho-sexual thriller till date. I’m excited and thrilled that it will be helmed by Alt Balaji. I’m sure they will do full justice to the story turning the book into an edge-of-the-seat web series for us all.’ said author, Novoneel Chakraborty.

Milee Ashwarya, Editor-in-Chief (Business & Commercial), Penguin Random House India, stated, ‘Black Suits You is a bestselling psychological thriller that we published in 2016 and has since gripped the minds of thousands of readers. I am delighted and really excited that it will now be available in new avatar and reach out to many more people across the world. Novoneel Chakraborty is a supremely talented writer who never ceases to amaze me and I wish him and Alt Balaji all the good luck in this new venture.’

About the author

Novoneel Chakraborty is the bestselling author of ten romantic thriller novels and one short story collection titled Cheaters. His novel ‘Forget Me Not, Stranger’ debuted at no. 1 bestseller rank across India. While ‘All Yours, Stranger’ ranked in top 5 thriller novels on Amazon, India. The only one to feature amidst other international bestsellers. His latest Forever Series has sustained in the bestseller list for ten weeks straight after release with Forever Is A Lie featuring in the highest selling books on Flipkart for 2017 while Forever Is True made it to the Amazon’s MEMORABLE BOOKS of 2017 and TIMES OF INDIA’s MOST STUNNING BOOKS of 2017. Apart from novels, Novoneel has written and developed several TV shows Like Savdhaan India and Yeh Hai Aashiqui. He lives and works in Mumbai.

About Penguin Random House India

Penguin Random House India is the largest English language trade publisher in the subcontinent, publishing over 250 new titles every year and with an active backlist of over 3000 titles. With a strong fiction and nonfiction list, we publish across every segment including biography, travel, business, politics, history, religion and philosophy, lifestyle, cookery, health and fitness, sports and leisure, visual books and children’s books. The children’s titles are published under the Puffin imprint.

Our illustrious list includes Booker Prize winning novels and virtually every major literary prize, including the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Several of our authors are also recipients of the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian honours.

Penguin Random House India is also the exclusive distribution partner for several leading local and international publishing houses in India.

Peter Modoli
Senior Manager – Marketing & Publicity
Penguin Random House
7th Floor, Infinity Tower – C
DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon 122002, Haryana

PRESS RELEASE

Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi–Jaitley Economy by Arvind Subramanian former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India in November 2018

For nearly four years, Arvind Subramanian stood at the centre of economic policymaking in India. Through the communication of big ideas and the publication of accessible Economic Surveys, he gained a reputation as an innovator. Through honest pronouncements that avoided spin, he became a figure of public trust. Subramanian charted a course through public life, and sought to convey the complexity of harnessing economic activity for the good of the nation as a whole. It is widely believed that he transformed the role of the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA). What does it entail to serve at the helm of the world’s fastest-growing economy, where decision-making affects a population of more than a billion people?

In Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi–Jaitley Economy, Arvind Subramanian provides an inside account of his rollercoaster journey as the CEA to the Government of India from 2014 to 2018. With an illustrious cast of characters, Subramanian’s part-memoir, part-analytical writings candidly reveal the numerous triumphs and challenges of policymaking at the zenith, while appraising India’s economic potential through comprehensive research and original hypotheses. This book is a deep-dive into the man, the moments, the measures and the means.

Charged with the task of restructuring an insecure and fragile economy, Subramanian’s trusteeship saw the country through one of the most hotly contested and turbulent periods of economic governance and policymaking in recent decades—from the controversial recall of 85 per cent of circulated currency during demonetization to a complete overhaul in taxation with the introduction of the GST. Subramanian also addresses the overleveraging of public-sector banks, the fraught links between the state and private sector (‘stigmatized capitalism’), the changing relationship between the state and the individual, and the ever-pervasive, life-threatening issues surrounding climate change.

In Of Counsel: The Challenges of the Modi–Jaitley Economy, Subramanian opens up about his tenure and critically expands on his previous articles and essays.

Professor Dani Rodrik, of Harvard University, calling Arvind Subramanian ‘that rare intellectual, a deep thinker who is equally at ease in the worlds of abstract economic theory, literary allusion, and everyday economic policy’, says that, ‘Readers of this volume are in for a real treat.’

Arvind Subramanian says, ‘I am excited to share my thinking on India and my experience as CEA—a sort of first draft of history—with a wide readership, hopefully as wide as that of the last few Economic Surveys.’

Meru Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief, Literary Publishing, Penguin Random House India says: ‘In his work on changing balances in global power, as well as in his position as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, Dr Subramanian had a ringside view of the economy— and indeed the state of the nation. Much has happened in this country in recent times that many of us grapple with in our everyday transactions. From demonetization to GST, from the budget to tax reforms, this is the book that we need to read if we are to understand our own place as citizens in the economy.’

Arvind Subramanian is currently a visiting lecturer of public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, having served as an economist at the IMF as well as a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. He is the author of several books, including Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance, India’s Turn: Understanding the Economic Transformation, among others. In 2011, Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.

For more information, please write to vtanwar@penguinrandomhouse.in

Meghna Singhee, Adlabs Films, Creative Head says, “We at Adlabs are booklovers. We’ve consistently looked at books for material because we think there’s a wealth of stories there, away from the usual and with more depth to characters. With Battle for no. 19… lt was a question of right time. We’ve loved the book for the last 8 years but now with ott platforms and direct films, we’re able to tell wonderful stories with diverse characters more easily. And while Battle for No. 19 is crafted like a thriller set in the 1984 delhi riots, it’s really an incredible story of growing up and grit AND empathy that could happen anywhere, anytime. We’re very pleased that it’s going to be part of Adlabs’ Stories. That it’s also a book is just the icing.”

‘I’m very happy that Adlabs has optioned the rights for ‘Battle For No. 19’ The more people – especially girls – who are introduced to the content, the better. Particularly in today’s corrosive environment.’ – Ranjit Lal

Rukun Kaul, AVP – Digital and Business Initiatives Penguin Random House India says, “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Adlabs on Ranjit Lal’s Battle for No. 19. We’re sure that his thriller will reach newer audiences and that the narrative will touch the hearts of all who see it on screen.”

About the book: Eight school girls from the hills on a tour of Agra, drive into Delhi the day Indira Gandhi is assassinated. They run into a violent crazed mob that pulls their driver out and slays him.

About the author: Ranjit Lal has written fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children. His most recent books for Puffin were The Caterpillar Who Went on a Diet and Other Stories, When Banshee Kissed Bimbo and Other Bird Stories and The Battle for No. 19.

For publicity and marketing queries, please get in touch with Varun Tanwar.
vtanwar@penguinrandomhouse.in