The Growth Delusion: Wealth, Poverty, and the Well-Being of Nations
GDP numbers are by far the most-watched when it comes to gauging an economy's growth and a country's prosperity. But do governments actually understand it?
The Growth Delusion, a new book by the Financial Times’ Africa editor David Pilling explains what it is; who invented it and why and how it is estimated. From China to India, Kenya and Iceland, the book is replete with examples of the uninformed pursuit of GDP growth and misguided policies and goals. Witty, chatty and jargon-free, the book speaks to those who ask: why, if the economy is growing at a world-beating rate, does life not feel better?
Read Puja Mehra's review of the book.
Behenji: The Rise and Fall of Mayawati
In the third edition of his biography of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, journalist Ajoy Bose all but writes the epitaph of one of India’s most remarkable politicians who defied caste, gender and poverty to rise to the pinnacle as chief minister of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, before her political graph began to plummet. He argues that “after such persistent... decline, it would be near impossible for her to become a dominant force in either the country or her home state again,” a viewpoint many political analysts of Dalit politics would concur with.
Read Smita Gupta's review here.
Railways & the Raj: How the Age of Steam Transformed India
India’s railways carry eight billion passengers a year, and a billion tonnes of freight; the 42,000 route miles cover all kinds of terrain, and the trains run through weather which is often violent in many ways. The railways have also played, and still play, a transformative role in almost every aspect of Indian life, and Christian Wolmar tells this very complex story easily and directly.
Here's is Arvind Sivaramakrishnan's review of the book.
Flora of the Southern Western Ghats and Palnis
Pippa Mukherjee’s Flora of the Southern Western Ghats and Palnis supplies a wealth of information about 200-odd common plants seen in the Palni Hills in the southern Western Ghats.
Divided into three parts covering trees, shrubs and herbs (including grasses), each plant description in the field guide is detailed and includes separate sections for leaves, flowers and fruits.
Read Aathira Perinchery's review here.
The Uprising of 1857
The year 1857 was a watershed one in the history of India. The British East India Company quelled the ‘mutiny’ of Indians, thus paving the way for India to become a British colony. But nevertheless, the uprising was a jolt for the imperial intentions of the British and resulted in many decisions that changed the fate of India.
The Uprising of 1857, edited by historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, is an important document with its wealth of photographic evidence from the Alkazi collection.
Read Rana Safvi's review of this book.
Imperfect
Sanjay's Manjrekar's memoir, Imperfect is a remarkable book, not for any literary flourish, but for the sheer honesty that serves as its spine.
Manjrekar proceeds to deconstruct himself and other cricketers including his late father and the Indian dressing room. The retrospective gaze is gentle and without rancour. It is never easy for anyone to write these lines: “I had no relationship with my father to speak of. The overpowering emotion that I felt towards him was fear.”
Read K.C. Vijaya Kumar's review.
Flying High - My Story from AirAsia to QPR
The life of Tony Fernandes, as detailed in this autobiography, the boy who dared to dream, begins as a journey of a young boy growing up in Malaysia, sent by his parents to study in the U.K., finding himself as a homesick boarding school student, and then growing up to be an adult, who eventually finds his feet after stumbling and learning along the way. From music to the airline industry, he finally makes a mark as a businessman who makes the world sit up and take note.
Read Murali N. Krishnaswamy's review here.
A Republic in the Making - India in the 1950s
An associate professor of South Asian History at the National University of Singapore takes a critical look at a particular decade in Indian history post independence. Pointing out that it is “useful to consider an elongated view of the period,” Gyanesh Kudaisya considers the years between India’s Independence and the Sino-Indian war.
Here is K.R.A. Narasaiah's review.
