Caught by the Police is the story of a talented, public-spirited and erudite man, with a multidimensional personality, a republican bent of mind, Indian values and English sensibilities. After a brilliant academic career, he joined the Royal Air Force in 1934 at the age of 19; unfortunately, he was forced to leave on contrived medical grounds. He got into the Indian Police due to a providential combination of circumstances and events, somewhat against his inclination. But once in it, he gave his all to his profession. A brave and intrepid police officer, he went on to become a celebrated police historian. He also wrote spiritual poetry, which forms a part of the book and, interestingly, could recite Shakespeare, Ghalib and the Bhagvad Gita with equal facility. Spanning a century of changing times, this book provides a unique account of the last decades of British Rule and the emergence of a new India, woven into the story of an extraordinary life lived in ordinary places, and a compelling family chronicle.

Deepak Gupta did his BA from Allahabad, MA from St Stephen’s college and MPhil in International relations from JNU. From the IAS batch of 1974, he has spent many years in the field in the erstwhile state of Bihar, including two districts (Saharsa 1979–80; Rohtas 1986–88) as Collector. He served in many departments in state and center and was also posted in India Trade Centre, Brussels and spent a year as WHO Advisor on TB in Delhi. He retired in 2011 as Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. After retirement he consulted with the World Bank and UNIDO and writes on issues of energy and sustainable development. He was Chairman of UPSC from November 2014 to September 2016. His published works include Documentation of Participatory Irrigation Management, Covering a Billion with DOTS, Achieving Universal Energy Access in India: Challenges and Way Forward, and Caught by the Police.

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of the realization of improved rainfed agriculture yield in semi-arid and dry land areas. The incentive of watershed programs is to increase the return on investment with over 20% for 65% of the projects that are currently underperforming. Besides techniques to improve the livelihood of the many small