This Book is a compilation of select articles authored by M R Venkatesh, mostly in Rediff.com. To the reader, his writings offer a ring side view of the debilitating state of affairs in India under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh. With a persuasive, passionate and powerful style of writing the author demystifies the challenges confronting India and Indian economy in a manner that is comprehensible even to the layman. Making a strong case for a small yet effective government, Venkatesh canvasses for sweeping economic, administrative and judicial reforms while simultaneously pointing out to the gargantuan failures of Dr. Manmohan Singh’s administration. Written between 2011 and 2013 these articles capture India's precipitous decline in various spheres caused by a singular lack of willingness and / capacity to govern. In a refreshing departure from the known suspects who end up merely being critical of the Government, he also offers various alternatives to the challenges confronting the country. Needless to emphasize, while his suggestions are eminently debatable, the fact remains that these proposals are sure to secure necessary traction in days to follow. The Toynbee like sweep of the subjects dealt by Venkatesh in a precise, succinct and incisive manner makes this book a compelling read. The foreword of this book has been authored by Dr. Subramanian Swamy.

When The Accidental Prime Minister was published in 2014, it created a storm and became the publishing sensation of the year. The Prime Minister’s Office called the book a work of ‘fiction’, the press hailed it as a revelatory account of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first term in UPA. Written by Singh’s media adviser and trusted aide, the book describes Singh’s often troubled relations with his ministers, his cautious equation with Sonia Gandhi and how he handled the big crises from managing the Left to pushing through the nuclear deal. Insightful, acute and packed with political anecdotes, The Accidental Prime Minister is one of the great insider accounts of Indian political life.

Takes a prospective look at India's neighbourhood as it may evolve by 2030. The book underlines the challenges that confront Indian policymakers, the opportunities that are likely to emerge, and the manner in which they should frame foreign and security policies for India to maximise the gains and minimise the losses.

India’s sustained and rapid economic growth offers an opportunity to lift millions out of poverty. But this may come at a steep cost to its environment and natural resources. This insightful book analyses India’s growth from an economic perspective and assesses whether India can grow in a "green" and sustainable manner. Three key issues are addressed. The first is the physical and monetary costs and losses of environmental health and natural resources driven by economic growth. The authors undertake a monetary valuation and quantification of environmental damage, using techniques that have been developed to better understand and quantify preferences and values of individuals and communities in the context of environmental quality, conservation of natural resources, and environmental health risks. The second part estimates the value of ecosystem services from the major biomes in India using state-of-the art methods with a view to preserving them for the future. The third section provides a menu of policy instruments to explore trade-offs between economic growth and environmental sustainability using a Computable General Equilibrium approach with particular attention to air pollution. The conclusions focus on the way forward in terms of policies, measures and instruments as India has to balance the twin challenges of maintaining economic prosperity while managing its environmental resources.

Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 192 countries and a group of select territories are used by policy makers, the media, international corporations, and civic activists and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. Press accounts of the survey findings appear in hundreds of influential newspapers in the United States and abroad and form the basis of numerous radio and television reports. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development. Freedom House is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights.

The Conference on Quantum Mechanics, Elementary Particles, Quantum Cosmology and Complexity was held in honour of Professor Murray Gell-Mann's 80th birthday in Singapore on 24?26 February 2010. The conference paid tribute to Professor Gell-Mann's great achievements in the elementary particle physics. This notable birthday volume contains the presentations made at the conference by many eminent scientists, including Nobel laureates C N Yang, G 't Hooft and K Wilson. Other invited speakers include G Zweig, N Samios, M Karliner, G Karl, M Shifman, J Ellis, S Adler and A Zichichi. About Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann, born September 15, 1929, won the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. His contributions span the entire history of particle physics, from the early days of the particle zoo to the modern day QCD. Along the way, even as he proposed new quantum numbers to bring order into the zoo, he had fun in naming them. And thus was born Strangeness, Flavor, Hadrons, Baryons, Leptons, the Eightfold Way, Color, Quarks, Gluons and, with Harald Fritzsch, the standard field theory of strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). He also proposed with Richard Feynman the V-A theory of beta decay. Gell-Mann discovered the Current Algebra, proposed (with Levy) the sigma model of pions and the see-saw mechanism for the neutrino masses.