Express Books

Hindi cinema was trapped in formulaic clichés for decades: lost-and-found themes, sacrificing mothers, brothers on opposite sides of the law, villains lording over their dens, colourful molls, six songs, the use of rape as a plot pivot, and cops who always arrived too late. It hit an all-time low in the 1980s. Then, in 1991, came liberalization, and a wave of openness and aspiration swept across urban India. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was released in 1995 – and Hindi cinema became Bollywood.

A new crop of film-makers began to challenge and break away from established rules. Over the next twenty years, a number of Hindi films consistently pushed the envelope in terms of content and technique to create a new kind of cinema. Among other innovations, film-makers came up with ways of crowd funding a film (Ankhon Dekhi), did away with songs if the narrative did not need them (Gangaajal), addressed different sexual preferences (My Brother … Nikhil) and people with special needs (Black) like no one had ever done before.

As film critic with The Indian EXPRESS, Shubhra Gupta has stayed the course these twenty years and more and experienced the transition first-hand. In 50 Films That Changed Bollywood, 1995–2015, she looks at the modern classics that have redefined Hindi cinema – from DDLJ and Rangeela to Satya and Dev D to Queen and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Gupta offers a fascinating glimpse into how these films spoke to their viewers and how the viewers reacted to them – and, ultimately, how they changed us and how we changed them.

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What is the BJP’s definition of nationalism? Why did the UPA government follow a policy of ‘strategic restraint’? Why is Mgnrega an important instrument in the larger context of India’s transformation? How has the ‘surgical strike’ on currency resulted in difficulties for millions of people? These contentious questions are just a few of the myriad political, strategic and economic issues that former Union Minister P. Chidambaram analyses in his latest book.

Written in inimitable style and characteristic wit by one of India’s most influential political commentators, this book brings together a selection of the finest and most incisive essays published as a weekly column in the Indian EXPRESS in 2016. This is as much a showcase of P. Chidambaram’s impeccable writing as it is a thought-provoking commentary on the state of the nation.

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Authored by P. Chidambaram, one of India’s best-known politicians, Standing Guard offers a keen economic and political analysis of India@2015—the tumult of the 2015 Bihar election, the debates surrounding the Land Acquisition Amendment ordinances and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, and the alarming rise of intolerance.

In this rare collection of essays, a selection from his columns in The Indian EXPRESS, Chidambaram refuses to shy away from any subject, no matter how contentious. With characteristic candour he examines issues as varied as the true mandate of the Reserve Bank of India, the implications of the Union Budgets, the successes and failures of the United Progressive Alliance governments, and the formidable challenges that lie ahead of the Modi regime. Equally, the author presents a compass for the future— underscoring the need for humility while administering a complex nation and for accommodating Opposition voices for the greater common good.

In presenting, at once, a critique and a constructive road map, this book plays out the true meaning of a vibrant democracy—a system of governance
in which the Opposition stands guard and remains as responsible as the government of the day. Standing Guard is evidence why P. Chidambaram is considered not just an accomplished economist and administrator, but also a statesman of the finest calibre.
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Modi’s World tells the story of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vigorous diplomacy and his aspiration to elevate India’s place in the world. It offers insights into Modi’s foreign policy inheritance, his efforts to build on the foundations laid by his recent predecessors, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, and set more ambitious international goals of his own for India. The book, based on Raja Mohan’s columns for The Indian Express, examines the new opportunities that Modi’s energy has generated for India’s relations with the major powers and its neighbours in the subcontinent, Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Raja Mohan reviews India’s new initiatives under Modi to put diplomacy at the service of economic development, deepen the ties with the diaspora, and develop a new vocabulary for Indian foreign policy. He takes a close look at Modi’s attempts to end Delhi’s defensiveness on the world stage, inject greater flexibility into India’s positions on trade and climate change, discard past slogans like non-alignment, and construct a new framework of pragmatic internationalism. At the same time, Raja Mohan takes a critical look at some of the domestic constraints that could limit Modi’s ambition to make India a ‘leading power’ in the world.

Crisply argued and written, Modi’s World provides the reader a sharp focus on an area of intense activity.

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How many, in a Mumbai room full of Hermes ties and finance whizkids, are Dalit? What if Mahesh Bhatt's son, David Headley's friend, had been a Muslim? Why is Delhi getting better as a city and Mumbai going downhill?

When did the Congress first start shrinking its Prime Minister? When did it become clear that Narendra Modi would take over his party? Who are the HMTs? And what does an angry Arvind Kejriwal say about us?

Raising such questions is the hallmark of Shekhar Gupta's National Interest, the most eagerly awaited news and current affairs column in Indian journalism. Informed by three decades and more of formidable reporting and a credibility that gives Gupta unrivalled access to decision-makers in government, politics and business, the best of these columns in Anticipating India explain and interpret, provoke and predict change for more than a billion people.

A riveting first draft of modern Indian history, Anticipating India interprets the successes and failings of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh to the ascent of Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, the forces that have deepened Indian federalism and constitutionalism to the public mood that keeps a check on excesses in the use of political power.

Each chapter in Anticipating India, in its questioning of power, its use and abuse, carries within it ideas of India that challenge conventional wisdom, shatter stereotypes and, in the end, question our long-held assumptions of who we are as a nation and people.

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Transforming Our Cities by Isher Judge Ahluwalia presents an aankho-dekhi and ankon-jaanchi story of the change in some of India’s cities that the author has observed in the course of her extensive travels in the past 4 years. The author traveled to small towns, medium cities and large mega- cities of India in search of what works to improve service delivery.

She has documented the stories of innovation and enterprise that have transformed governance and the quality of life in these cities. Whether it is water supply, wastewater disposal and treatment, solid waste management, systems of public transport, or city planning.

Ahluwalia launched 'Postcards of change' , a series of monthly columns in The Indian Express and THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS in January, 2010.

The book provides an overview of the challenges of urbanization in India and specific issues in individual sectors such as drinking water, solid waste management, etc. While applauding human leadership which stands out in each case, the individual case studies highlight the role of the enabling environment provided by the state government which was a key factor in driving change, leadership provided by the government of India in general and the catalytic role of JNNURM, in particular.

The author recognizes that these success stories may be few and far between, and much remains to be done in the close to 8000 cities and town of India. But the fact that they can succeed in an environment which is fraught with the challenges of governance, holds out hope for the future. There is no getting away from a systemic reform of institutions of governance and of policies.

The book should have a wide-ranging appeal-policy makers at different levels of government, academics, students, researchers, civil society, concerned citizens, and the media !

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Contemporary India is a product of the economic reforms that began 20 years ago, in 1991. In these two decades, India has been transformed. Everything about us has changed: the way we live, the way we work, the way we govern ourselves. The new sets of choices and challenges that we face today have also emerged from the churn of the reforms. In this compilation of a five-part series, finest thinkers and analysts narrate India's 20-year-long growth story and construct a vision for the 20 years to come. The book brings together characters, plots, themes and voices that went into the making of what is now famously known as the 'India story'. Reforms 2020 is a rare biography of a resurgent India.
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Surviving the Storm is the story of India's remarkable resilience through this period of economic crisis. Six thematic sections pick up the several threads that sew together the story of the financial crisis, its impact on India, and lessons for the future.
Surviving the Storm is an informed, cutting-edge commentary on the issues surrounding the global financial crisis in India. The diversity of opinions in this collection will generate critical debate on a subject that should concern every economic actor in India.
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This volume brings together 47 selected interviews that lay bare the views of today's top thinkers and opinion makers-politicians, actors, writers, sportsmen, entrepreneurs.
Idea Exchange is conceived as a regular column in the Indian Express, it works on the principle that newsmakers are best understood when there is time and a free flow of questions from a super-informed and super-inquisitive audience-journalists of the Express Group.
Also available in Hindi.
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Notes from an Indian Conservative is a compilation of Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao's eclectic writings which regularly appear in The Indian Express. The book has been written for the 'Indians of today, both in India and in voluntary or involuntary exile who have a love for their fractured land and who have a sensibility derived from our adoption and embrace of the English language'.
About the author Jerry Rao holds a Master's degree in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and from the University of Chicago. In 1998, Rao started Mphasis Corporation, an IT and BPO company based in the US and India. He has been conferred the 'Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year' Award for the Tech Sector in India as well as in New York, 'Entrepreneur of the Year' Award by The Economic Times and 'Distinguished Alumnus' Award by the University of Chicago. He has been Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School.
He is Executive Chairman of a new company in the affordable housing space: Value Budget and Housing Corporation. He is currently a trustee of Sujaya Foundation and Chairman of Nasscom Foundation as well as the Indian Foundation for the Arts. He has co-authored a volume of poetry entitled Gemini II.
He is a regular columnist for the Indian Express.
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Not by Reason Alone is a comment on the past and present of the politics of change. The book explores both interpretations of this statement: first, the accumulating evidence, anecdotes, and signs that reason alone does not drive the behaviour of groups or of nations; second, that we need to NOT be reasonable sometimes. This insightful analysis of the political economy of reform is coupled with the understanding that we need to be compassionate, passionate, creative, hopeful, altruistic, and otherwise unreasonable, to ensure that the politics of change is more than a dull grinding reconciliation of inteINRs at least once in a while.
India needs these kinds of unreasonable discontinuities now more than ever. Major liberalization happened more than a decade ago and while there have been important advances since then, the pace has slowed. The reform days are slipping into the past. At the same time, the need for change has intensified. India still shines, India is still incredible, but the chinks in the armour are showing as never before.
Including a review of the results of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the author, N.K. Singh, draws on his experiences as a close observer, initiator and driver of India's post-reform trajectory to analyse the directions in which India is moving. Having held top positions in the finance ministry and Planning Commission as a civil servant over the past decades, and currently as a member of the Rajya Sabha, N.K. Singh has a rare exposure to national, state, political, and bureaucratic aspects of India's policy-making and policy- implementation processes.
Not by Reason Alone: the Politics of Change draws on that diverse experience to give the reader an unusual window into the Indian political economy. Singh has analysed, critiqued, explained and prompted several recent attempts at reforming infrastructure, opening the financial sector, Centre state relations, deregulating administered prices, rationalizing subsidy and changing attitudes to India from a global perspective in his popular From the Ringside column in the Indian Express and articles in other major national dailies.
About the author Nand Kishore Singh was born in Patna and was educated at St Stephen's College and Delhi School of Economics. He was a lecturer at St Stephen's College before he joined the Bihar cadre of the Indian Administrative Service.
In his career as a civil servant, N.K. Singh has held several key positions in the ministry of commerce and industry of his home cadre and the finance ministry at the centre. Most recently, he served as deputy chairman of the Bihar State Planning Commission, guiding his home state through a rapid acceleration of development.
N.K. Singh currently lives in Delhi and Patna with his wife and three children.
Also available in Hindi.
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How did India respond to the terrorist assault on Mumbai? Why does it never have any option when such assaults occur? How real is the threat from China, what should India do to brace itself for it? Will Pakistan deflect the terrorists it has spawned back into India? What should be the contours of our defense policy?
What can be done to speed up Reforms? Do dream teams deliver, or do they just declare grand goals, fudge figures and rely on the short memory of the people? How may India's official stance on environment be recast so as to convert a grave problem into a great opportunity? Should we open up a higher education to foreign institutions of excellence as much as to private entrepreneurs?
What has happened to our political parties, including the BJP? Are the present tussles in the BJP the result of the party having lost the elections? Or were they the cause did the party lose because this has been the internal condition of the party? What must be done to salvage this party among others?
Who may bring about political reform when the decision to change is in the hands of persons who would be the first to be dislocated were the change to come about? What should a writer do in the face of calumny? What should he do when a society does not heed the facts he places before it?
ARUN SHOURIE'S searing, revealing, and troubling answers. Based on his first-hand experience in government, politics and media as well as his singularly wide-ranging research.
About the author Acclaimed by the International Press Institute as one of the 'World Press Freedom Heroes' of the last half-century whose work has sustained freedom. Acclaimed as a 'Star of Asia' by Business Week, as the 'Business Leader of the Year' by The Economic Times jury for his pioneering work on privatization. Acclaimed as 'The most outstanding Minister' of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Government by Indian CEOs. Winner of the Magasaysay Award, the Dadabhai Naoraji Award, the Freedom to Publish Award, the Astor Award, and the International Editor of the Year, the Padma Bhushan and several other distinctions, ARUN SHOURIE is one of India's best known commentators on current and political affairs.
He was Executive Editor and Chief Editor of The Indian Express and later held several portfolios as Minister in the NDA Government including Disinvestment, Communications and Information Technology.
This is his twenty-fifth book.
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Harsha Bhogle in his weekly column in the Indian Express has captured the entire gamut of Indian cricket. Out of the Box brings together the very best of Harsha's writings, in a book that will be a veritable delight for any cricket fan.
Knowledgeable, frank and witty, and with a sense of drama comparable to that of cricket itself, Harsha brings the nation's cricketing ethos inimitably to life. And he is at his best when paying tribute to some cricketing greats Lara, Inzamam, Jayasuriya, Ganguly, Sehwag, and the incomparable Tendulkar.
As he follows India's fortunes on the cricket field at home and overseas, Harsha asks the question: can India really be no.1 in all three forms of the game? The answer lies in our history, and in the pages of Out of the Box.
About the author Harsha Bhogle is widely recognized as the face and the voice of Indian cricket. A recipient of numerous awards, he was voted by readers of Cricinfo as their 'most favourite cricket commentator' in a worldwide poll in 2008. One of his proudest possessions is a photograph of a group of spectators in Pakistan holding a banner that says 'Harsha Bhogle fan club'.
Harsha has been the face of ESPN in India since the day they went on air in 1995 and presents cricket and, in an inteINRing diversion, the World Cup of football in 2006 for ESPN Star Sports. He has worked on all the major radio stations in the cricketing world as well, with a special affinity for Australia which he first visited in 1991-92, and where he was dubbed the 'sexiest voice on radio'. He is close to achieving the double of working on 100 Tests and 400 one-day internationals, the first of which came in 1983.
Also available in Marathi.
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Business as Usual is a careful selection of Unny's work at The Indian Express since 1996. He is that rare cartoonist who with his sardonic wit and keen insight blends reporting, commentary and illustration to make a scathingly funny and very simple point: the powerful nose needs to be tweaked. No matter on whose face it happens to be.
About the author E.P. Unny is Chief Political Cartoonist at The Indian Express.
His first cartoon appeared in the legendary Shankar's Weekly in 1972. A staff cartoonist with The Hindu from Chennai to New Delhi where after a stint with Sunday Mail and The Economic Times, he joined The Indian Express in 1996.
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The book 'So Kul' is a compilation of articles written by Sonali Kulkarni for Loksatta Viva. 'So Kul', is a reflection of Sonali's attitude in life and also happens to be the abbrevation of her name!
So Kul, is a reflection of Sonali's attitude in life and also happens to be the abbrevation of her name!
About the author Sonali Kulkarni known for her roles in National, International & Regional Award winning films such as, Dil Chahta Hai, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, Taxi No. 9211, Fire at my Heart, Gabhricha Paus & Devrai is one of the few thinking actresses of the current generation. She was the guest editor for the Loksatta Weekly supplement ' Viva since its launch in June 2005. Sonali wrote a column 'So Kul' for Loksatta Viva, a supplement for the modern Maharashtrian Woman, till May 2007. Sonali's articles to a large extent were about a young, sensitive, successful woman's perspective on Life. The articles were Simple, Light hearted yet sensitive and meaningful. The column was a huge success & generated great response from readers.
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Mani Shankar Aiyar looks back to the changes that have taken place during the 'Time of Transition' 'the two decades since Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi left office after the Lok Sabha elections of November 1989. Rajiv Gandhi was the fourth prime minister of India in four decades of independence, but the last twenty years have seen as many as eight prime ministers and several more governments. Accompanying the change from single-party governance to the instability of coalition politics are major transformations in the pace, trajectory and even the goals of nation-building. It is these contentious transitions that are reflected in the five major themes of this volume: Democracy, Secularism, Socialism, Nonalignment, and Neighborhood Policy. Mani Shankar Aiyar was both a witness to, and a reluctant participant in, these processes of change: as joint secretary in Rajiv Gandhi's prime minister's office, as an MP since 1991, and today as a cabinet minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. His columns for the Indian Express are analytical and vivid commentaries on their times, written in the author's inimitable style. This collection sheds light on a critically significant era in contemporary India.
About the author Mani Shankar Aiyar, a former diplomat, is the former Minister for Panchayati Raj and Development for the North East Region in the UPA Government. He has also served as Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas (2004-06) and as Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports (2006-08).
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`Arun Shourie's writings in The Indian Express packed with evidence, uncompromising, prophetic - on the issues that are consuming the country today: evaporation of governance and what it spells for internal security; developments in Pakistan, the breathing time they give us; what the achievements of China spell for us, and what we must do to face up to them; how the present Government has sown trouble with the nuclear deal for our security as well as relations with the US; the need for reforms and the real record of leftists and others who are blocking them; the CBI inquiry that was instituted against him, and an inquiry that should have been instituted against a Congress-I Government but was killed by the Central Government; the falsehoods with which budgets to which industrialists have been giving scores of "9 out of 10" ; how rulers try to dodge revelations in the media, and how those very dodges nail them; how their responses - to hide, to shield contrast with those of Gandhiji, and the consequences of that contrast; how today idealism in the only practical politics; the way leftists bury inconvenient facts under an avalanche of abuse; the vital similarity between and the vital difference between Hinduism and Islamic fundamentalism; the new journalism and how it is jeopardizing the inteINRs of the country...
A must for our times. A must for saving the country.
About the author Acclaimed by the International Press Institute as one of the 'World Press Freedom Heroes' of the last half-century whose work has sustained freedom. Acclaimed as a 'Star of Asia' by Business Week, as the 'Business Leader of the Year' by The Economic Times jury for his pioneering work on privatization. Acclaimed as 'The most outstanding Minister' of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Government by Indian CEOs. Winner of the Magasaysay Award, the Dadabhai Naoraji Award, the Freedom to Publish Award, the Astor Award, and the International Editor of the Year, the Padma Bhushan and several other distinctions, ARUN SHOURIE is one of India's best known commentators on current and political affairs.
He was Executive Editor and Chief Editor of The Indian Express and later held several portfolios as Minister in the NDA Government ' including Disinvestment, Communications and Information Technology.
This is his twenty-third book.
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From 1987 when Tavleen Singh began writing her columns for The Indian Express, to now, twenty years later, has been a long journey. That was, in retrospect, the age of innocence, as Rajiv Gandhi took the first tentative step towards opening up the economy, and people began to experience the novelty of being able to make a telephone call anywhere without having to wait. Some years later, the move towards liberalization, driven by foreign exchange crisis, became a desperate embrace, and later still a more mature process as India' economy began to grow at a rapid pace in the new country.
Political and Incorrect: The Real India, Warts and All is history as first draft, written not in hindsight but as events unfolded against the backdrop of a nation's transformation. It captures the country's mood and its politics over these two decades, and highlights the things that don't change. Such as politicians and bureaucrats, and their self-serving ways. There is, besides, her take on subjects as different as freedom runs by Gucci Gandhians, durbar intrigues at the centre of power and the religious divide in Gujarat. It is a record too of missed opportunities and misplaced priorities, so that some of the old eternals ' healthcare, education, poverty ' remain pretty much as they were, or are in worse shape.
Political columns used to be a matter of pompous comment. Tavleen Singh made her column a direct dialogue with the reader, one that could make the politician seem as familiar as the man next door, and the issues at stake accessible and clear. In doing so she makes these two decades, and the people who feature come alive even to one who is not familiar with either. And reminds us that, for all the progress on many fronts, the real battle remains ahead. Making Political and Incorrect both riveting history and a primer on the future.
About the author Tavleen Singh has written two other books, Kashmir: A Tragedy or Errors and Lollipop Street: Why India Will Survive Her Politicians. She has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years covering political events on the subcontinent for publications including India Today, the Indian Express and Sunday Times, London. She has also worked in television doing several current affairs programmes in Hindi and English. She has been a columnist for twenty years writing the fifth column in The Indian Express and two weekly syndicated columns in English and Hindi that appear across India. She anchors her own TV show for NDTV Profit and divides her time between Delhi and Mumbai.
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'The economic policy changes of the past decade and a half have unleashed a side of India that has taken the world by storm. But the current growth trends are not sustainable without further reforms.'
As additional secretary (economic affairs), expenditure secretary, revenue secretary, secretary to the prime minister and later as member, Planning Commission, N.K. Singh has navigated the system to help steer India's economic liberalization from 1991 to 2004. In his weekly column 'From the Ringside', written for the Indian Express, Singh has dissected, explicated and critiqued the infrastructure, centre'state relations, the opening up of the insurance sector, petroleum prices and their deregulation and changing global perspectives on India.
The Politics of Change draws on N.K. Singh's experience to give the reader a window into Indian politics and economy, providing incisive insights into the realities of coalition politics and international fault lines. The analyses help understand why some initiatives have succeeded in transforming the economic landscape while other bills, schemes and initiatives which were launched with good intentions have either foundered because of the party in opposition or eventually emerged with scars after years of tussle. The book also highlights the challenges that India must face as its institutions evolve to keep pace with the task of governing and supporting the rapidly changing economic and social landscape.
In many ways, The Politics of Change demystifies the riddles of India's economic development prospects and highlights the elephant's efforts to alter its gait.
About the author Nand Kishore Singh was born in Patna and was educated at St Stephen's College and Delhi School of Economics. He was a lecturer at St Stephen's College before he joined the Bihar cadre of the Indian Administrative Service.
In his career as a civil servant, N.K. Singh has held several key positions in the ministry of commerce and industry of his home cadre and the finance ministry at the centre. Most recently, he served as deputy chairman of the Bihar State Planning Commission, guiding his home state through a rapid acceleration of development.
N.K. Singh currently lives in Delhi and Patna with his wife and three children.
Also available in Hindi.
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'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 2002'2004.
The columns, originally published in the Indian Express and the Financial Express, reflect the views of Chidambaram,'finance minister between 1996 and 1998 and again from 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.
About the author Palaniappan Chidambaram is a lawyer-politician in the best traditions of Indian politics. He holds degrees in law (Madras) and management (Harvard) and is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India. Elected to Parliament first in 1984, he has been returned five more times from his constituency, Sivaganga, in Tamil Nadu. Chidambaram has been a minister in the governments of Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, Deve Gowda, I.K. Gujral and Dr. Manmohan Singh. He has held a variety of portfolios but is best known for his stewardship of the Ministry of Finance from 1996 to 1998 and again from 2004. Currently he is the Home Minister under Dr. Manmohan Singhs government.
Also available in Hindi & Marathi.
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Ramnath Goenka was a man of many parts'freedom fighter, Gandhian worker, politician, merchant, industrialist and newspaper magnate. But more than anything else he was an indomitable warrior for the freedom of the Press, whose frontiers he fearlessly defended and pushed, often at enormous cost to himself. His mission as a newspaper publisher was to empower the citizen, uphold his right to know, and to make all those in power and authority accountable to the people'a mission that he carried out with unflagging, if sometimes excessive, zeal.
During the Emergency, Ramnath Goenka'or RNG as he came to be popularly known'waged an epic battle of defiance against a vindictive government, and in later years launched a relentless campaign against corruption, which won him staunch admirers as well as bitter enemies. The targets of his campaigns included prime ministers, political leaders, corporate raiders, trade unionists and tycoons.
B.G. Verghese's biography charts the tumultuous course of Goenka's life, from his modest beginnings to his building of the vast Indian Express empire with its multiple editions, which reached out to readers in the remotest corners of the country. It also paints a compelling portrait of a man who was a bundle of contradictions'a wealthy man of property who lived an austere life; who was parsimonious to a fault yet could be exceedingly generous; who adored gossip and intrigue and was at the same time deeply spiritual; one of the most powerful men in India who was deeply lonely in his personal life; a man you could love or hate but never ignore.
This book has all the excitement of a roller-coaster ride as it takes the reader through the extraordinary twists and turns of fortune that characterized Ramnath Goenka's life, including scandals and scoops, fiery public campaigns, dramatic court battles and the making and unmaking of political leaders and governments,. Along the way, it tells the story, too, of a newspaper that not only recorded history but also made it.
About the author B.G. Verghese, columnist and author, entered journalism in 1949 after graduating from Delhi and Cambridge universities. He served with the Times of India for many years before becoming Information Adviser to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He was later Editor of the Hindustan Times (1969'75) and the Indian Express (1982'86) and has thereafter been with the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi. He received the Magsaysay Award for Journalism in 1975.
Verghese has been associated with a number of official and non-official bodies and NGOs in the fields of education, population, human rights, the environment, regional cooperation and security, and remains actively involved in several media-related activities. He was a member of the Press Council, and chairs the Media Foundation.
He is the author of many books, including Waters of Hope, India's Northeast Resurgent, and Reorienting India: The New Geo-Politics of Asia, and editor of Breaking the Big Story, published by Penguin.
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Terror is no stranger to India, or the city of Mumbai for that matter. But the style, scale and shock of the assault on the country's financial capital on 26 November 2008, was horrifyingly unprecedented. People returning home from work, or enjoying a mid-week beer, having dinner at a INRaurant, or just staying at home and entertaining guests, were brutally targeted and killed by ten terrorists who came by boat from Pakistan. It was sixty hours of mayhem the likes of which the world had rarely seen.
About the author The Indian Express team of reporters and photographers were some of the closest witnesses of the carnage and the counter-terror operations that followed, recording them from within minutes after the first bullets were fired. This team also stayed with the story for weeks and months after, tracking the complex investigations across countries, exposing the diabolical plot behind the attack and even uncovering some shocking lapses in the response of the security and emergency system.
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Terrorism strikes at the basic principles of humanity, of all that we cherish. By choosing the way we die, it mocks out lives and diminishes all that we struggle to achieve. A week after the Mumbai train blasts on July 11, 2006, in which 187 people died, The Indian Express began a series documenting each of the lives lost ' their dreams, their doubts, their hopes to consolidate their memory in the form of a book.
Equally this book is a tribute to the indefatigable spirit of Mumbai ' the only city in the world to have faced not one but two serial blasts. It is also a toast to its citizens ' the ordinary people of Mumbai who worked tirelessly through the night to help the wounded, the stranded and the missing, but for whom it was business as usual next morning as sixteen hours later, the Mumbai locals rolled out again and a grieving city went about its business.
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As the nation gets ready to choose its representatives once again, there are the usual questions about the basis of the decision to be made by its voters. 714 million Indians are expected to vote and decide the nature of the government we will have in Delhi.
At the heart of India's parliamentary system are the 543 Lok Sabha MPs we choose. The Indian Express, along with PRS Legislative Research Services, Indicus Analytics and Liberty Institute, brings to you India's Elected, a comprehensive set of report cards of each of our MPs and their constituencies.
We hope to empower you with information about your MPs performance in parliament, their assets and liabilities, their criminal record (if any) and most of all, the state of each of the 543 constituencies when tested on important parameters like literacy, health, availability of water, the state of the roads and from there ' including a comparison of this 'development index' vis a vis the state and the national average.
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'Information today . . . empowers you to demand redressal, better governance and a better quality of life ''Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, Indian Express
Empowerment is one of the chief engines driving change in India today. This is illustrated by the remarkable evolution of society from a time when journalism of courage meant exposing a wrong and moving on to the next story without much hope of closure or justice, to the present when an expos' can result in other institutions'from the judiciary to civil society organizations'joining in and taking an issue to its logical conclusion.
In January 2005, the Indian Express reported that there were no tigers left in Rajasthan's Sariska and Ranthambore sanctuaries. Shortly after this, the prime minister himself stepped in with a plan of action. The newspaper then carried a column between August and December 2005 titled 'India empowered to me is'' The column saw what is undoubtedly the most impressive array of contributors'India's role models' sharing their thoughts, ideas and opinions on what empowerment meant in diverse situations, and how individuals and institutions can make a difference.
India Empowered: Change Agents Speak on an Idea Whose Time Has Come brings together the 126 pieces written for this column run by the Indian Express .The contributors range from a wheelchair-bound former fighter pilot arguing passionately for the disabled to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who recommends a blueprint for strengthening our villages. Leaders from the political, scientific, cultural and other arenas join in the discussion with their suggestions for some achievable and essential national goals.
This is a landmark book, embodying the spirit of the nation and its hopes and dreams of a future in which each citizen feels truly empowered.
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The Prize Stories is a compilation of the award-winning articles accompanied by personal testimonials. Among the 2008-2009 winners are Siddharth Vardarajan, Arnab Goswami, Mini Kapoor, Aditi Phadnis, Soumya Bhattacharya, Shyamlal Yadav and Saubhik Chakrabarti.
The Excellence in Journalism Awards honour journalists from both print and broadcast media who worked, often under difficult circumstances, to bring these thoughtprovoking stories. They focus on a variety of issues which include: Jharkhand tribal girls dreaming of a better future, The story of Sonia Gandhi's political ascendancy, The novel way of protest by mothers in Manipur, The reconversion drive in remote stretches of Orissa, The story of struggling families in Kerala and Bundelkhand, The reality of Reality television, and The power of RTI.
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As part of the centenary year celebrations of its founder, Ramnath Goenka, the Express Group instituted the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2006. Now, in its third year, the annual awards celebrate excellence in journalism, recognise courage and commitment, and highlight outstanding contributions by journalists.
The Prize Stories is a compilation of the award winning articles accompanied by personal testimonials. Among the 2007-2008 winners are P Sainath, Karan Thapar, Neelesh Misra, Nagendar Sharma, Nidhi Razdan, Sreenivasan Jain, Sandeep Dwivedi, Mridu Bhandari and Vaishali Sood.
The Excellence in Journalism Awards honour journalists from both print and broadcast media who worked, often under difficult circumstances, to bring these thought provoking stories. In this edition the stories focus on a variety of issues which include: The Salwa Judum 'people's movement', The rape by police of tribal women blamed for helping Naxalites, Farmer suicides in Vidharbha, Scarcity of water in Bundelkhand, The impact of mercury on health, Unwarranted hysterectomies of young girls in Andhra Pradesh, The media business, and The rise of corporatised politics.
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This is a collection of the award-winning entries along with personal anecdotes by the winners, an initiative by The Express Group celebrating 'courage, enterprise and fairness'. As part of the centenary year celebrations of its founder, Ramnath Goenka, The Express Group instituted the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2004. The awards aim to celebrate excellence in journalism, recognize courage and commitment, and showcase outstanding contributions and individuals every year.
The Excellence in Journalism Awards honour journalists from both print and broadcast media who have shown extraordinary strength of character and integrity while reporting news accurately under dangerous or difficult circumstances. This edition includes reports that exposed major issues or problems like the plight of women scavengers, stings on our politicians taking money, courageous tales of children living with HIV-AIDS, to the people of Chagliyar community who are treated worse than animals. These are stories that provoked the public to recognize a major wrong and raised public awareness of the issue.
This year, the awards also include a new category, namely, excellence in HIV-AIDS reporting. This is part of the media advocacy initiatives of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and US Agency for International Development in collaboration with The Express Group.
The award pay tribute to journalists who encourage public trust in the media by courageously practicing the highest standards of their profession in the face of political or economic pressures.
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As part of the centenary year celebrations of its founder Ramnath Goenka, The Express Group instituted The Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. The Awards for Excellence in Journalism honour journalists from both print and broadcast media ' men and women who have relentlessly searched for and ferreted out the facts. Sometimes under very hostile circumstances. Their stories range from the Bihar flood or the Mahila Bank scams, exposes on human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur to thorough analysis of terrorism in Kashmir. There are reports on the Gujarat riots and the appalling conditions under which miners live in Assam, moving accounts of the tsunami or how Kokkare Bellur nurtures migrant birds.
The Awards pay tribute to journalists who encourage public trust in the media by practicing the highest standards of their profession in the face of political or economic pressures; journalists whose work is fair, accurate and tackle issues that affect the lives of readers, the well being of the community, the nation,. Journalists who do not just report facts but crusade for the truth.
This is a collection of the award-winning entries along with personal anecdotes by the winners, an initiative by The Express Group celebrating 'courage, enterprise and fairness' of the award winners.
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