Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Higher Education in India and China is a collection of scholarly contributions by leading researchers and academia from the University of Delhi and the University of Hong Kong and Macao. Each of the contributions provide a rich understanding about the development of education.

The book could not be timelier, given that so many people live in perpetual fear, insecurity and life-threatening circumstances in different parts of the world. The context of Jammu and Kashmir highlights a growing trend (as observed in other contemporary political-ethnic conflicts.

The book as the name suggests is based on a research study aimed at examining the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, in the State of Haryana. The study was funded by the Department of Planning, Government of Haryana as has been duly acknowledged.

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is rightly respected as a poet. About his criticism, there can be more than one opinion. A reader could be ever so slightly wary of a critic who is known for his extreme likes and dislikes, one is referring only to his corpus of critical writing.

The book under review is second in the series on sociology and social anthropology of education in South Asia edited by Meenakshi Thapan. The series is dedicated to presenting research that brings out the lived context of classroom and school spaces.

For nearly a millennia, the qissa has been one of the most fecund genres in the written and oral literatures of Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Punjabi and beyond. It can be a short tale, such as the popular qissa of Chhabeeli Bhatiyarin, so acutely analysed by Kumkum Sangari…

Kashmir has often figured in our recent news reports, mainly for the well-known political developments preceded by violence there since last year. Media and academic studies of the region have also increased. But, their historical dimension largely remaining confined.

‘The spirit of blind revenge coalesced with the lure of brigandage and vast stretches of the country gave the impression of a community slaughter house set aside for human species.’

An excerpt from an article published in the Economic and Political Weekly, November 3, 1984 sums up the aftermath when the Prime Minister was shot dead on October 31, 1984.

Fikr Taunsvi or Ram Lal Bhatia was an Urdu language poet and satirist, from western Punjab, in present day Pakistan. Maaz Bin Bilal explains that Bhatia found his name ‘vahiyaaat’ or ‘fake’ and ‘absurd’ and adopted the pen name Fikr Taunsvi in the tradition.

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No One Knows Exactly What’s Coming—yet we can spot in advance a lot of the directions we are headed. And we can also see why those directions are potentially hugely positive for humanity—to be welcomed, rather than feared.  It is important, therefore, to address the rising fear from many adults that our technology-filled future will somehow be bad—or worse than today or the past. That is a perspective with which I strongly disagree.

‘For the very first time in human history, a Great Grand Event happened––the grand event of ‘Being interconnected’ with each other. Due to this event today, we are all connected, the way we were never connected before. For all of us it is the biggest event in the history of the human being––and we are all interconnected with each other because of this transformation in the world which is—DIGITAL SHIFT.’

Shakti Singh is a young man in his later half of mid-twenties who lives in a small village of Chohtan block in the district of Barmer in Rajasthan State of India. Barmer, which is arid, a desert, is also one of the largest districts of India besides being highly under developed. People in this district eke out their lives with enormous amount of difficulties.

Quickly changing business landscapes driven by technological trends already in motion are predicted to transform our lives in the coming years. From greater automation of daily chores, robo-advisories, virtual reality at homes to an avalanche of e-commerce activities and the rise of an AI-based shared economy, the world around us is metamorphosing in unfathomable ways.

Sunil Unny Guptan writes extensively about a topic that probably has not been explored much or has been written down in the form of short articles till now. The book begins with a foreword by C  Parthasarathy, Chairman and MD, Karvy Group, who recalls his interactions with Dr. Sunil Guptan, his mentor, with utmost fondness.

Digital Transformation: Build Your Organization’s Future for the Innovation Age by Lindsay Herbert is a practical guide for people, irrespective of rank, position, seniority and authority, who would like to see their respective organizations transform themselves by embracing the challenges which the ubiquitous and constant churning and presence of digitalization has brought upon the modern-day businesses.

This compelling book discusses the ‘seductions, limits and contradictions’ of the entrepreneurial movement in India. Entrepreneurship is being shaped as a movement that embraces creative freedom, business value, and nation building. Examples and case studies are building up of how techies, designers, development specialists, and business professionals can create entrepreneurial ventures for socio-economic uplift.

Privacy has emerged as the most prized possession in the ‘Information Age’. Technology giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are being taken to task by the governments over the issue. But the design and motivation of the relationship evolving between social media platforms and users lead us to the grim conclusion that perhaps privacy is a holy grail, the quest of which will lead us to the darkest alleys of misgivings.

The book’s cover has appreciative lines by Bill Gates, who–as the cliché goes—needs no introduction, and Lawrence Freedman, who may need an introduction only for those from fields other than strategic studies, being the doyen of the field. Since Gates knows technology and Freedman focuses on war, their recommendation places the book on the frontline of technology and war.