• Mercator: the man who mapped the planet / Crane, Nicholas. --New York: Henry Holt, 2003
  

  Gerard Mercator lived through an era of intellectual and scientific expansion. He solved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three-dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? The projection revolutionized navigation and has become the most common worldview. This book provides the biography of this great cartographer.

• Memoirs of a rationalist / Sathe, Vasant. --New Delhi: Om Books, 2005
  

  Vasant Sathe has earned a place of distinction in the history of Indian politics. This book presents a political memoir of this rationalist. The story starts from the beginning, tracing his lineage and explaining the anthropology of his looks and light eyes, and ends with references to events no older than a couple of months. The high-lights of the book are “A Ministerial Overview” or “My Political Moorings.”

• Brushing up the years: a cartoonist's history of India 1947-2004 / Laxman, R. K. New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2005
  

  From 1947, throughout the entire history of independent India, R.K. Laxman’s cartoons have appeared regularly in The Times of India, commenting on every possible aspect of India’s social and political life. This book is a selection of the very best of Laxman’s cartoons, drawn over a career spanning six decades. From India’s first general elections to Nehru’s five year plans, from the wars with China and Pakistan to the reign of Indira Gandhi and the Emergency, from Rajiv Gandhi’s government, the rise of regional politics and the fall of the Babri Masjid to economic liberalization, the rule of BJP and the Congress’s return to power, these cartoons trace a history of modern India, a history that is perceptive, provocative and humorous.

• Corruption: how to deal with its impact on business and society / Harris, Godfrey. New Delhi: Viva Books, 2005
  

  Corruption, it turns out, is one of those activities that is tough to define, can be as damaging in small cases as large ones, has a differing impact whether it arises separately or cumulatively, and can harm society with stealth-like speed. Since corruption happens, how do we control it? What is its definition and the need to correct it? This book helps readers to decide what is and what is not corrupt behavior by answering these and the other questions using different case studies and practical examples.

• Thug: the story of India's murderous cult / Dash, Mike. --London: Granta Books, 2005
  

  This book tells the story of the Thugs of India, from the earliest days described in their own oral histories to the final months of the last surviving members of their gangs. Focusing on the years 1800 to 1840, the book explains how the first faint rumours of the Thugs’ existence led eventually to a huge campaign to crush them. It also outlines the revolutionary methods developed by the East India Company officer, William Sleeman, who was charged with their suppression.

• Aid, institutions and development: new approaches to growth, governance and poverty / Chakravarti, Ashok. --New Delhi: Oxford University, 2005
  

  For the past fifty years, aid has been viewed as a major instrument for alleviating poverty in the Third World. The current debate is about the effectiveness of official development assistance or ‘aid’ as it is commonly known. This book argues that there should be more recognition of the role economic and political governance can play in achieving positive and sustainable development outcomes. It reveals how good governance can be achieved by radically restructuring the international aid architecture.

• Eco-Imperialism: green power black death / Driessen, Paul. --New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2005
  

  This book reveals a dark secret of the ideological environmental movement. The movement imposes the views of mostly wealthy, comfortable Americans and Europeans on mostly poor, desperate Africans, Asians and Latin Americans. It violates these people’s most basic human rights, denying them economic opportunities, the chance for better lives, the right to rid their countries of diseases that were vanquished long ago in Europe and the United States. It prevents needy nations from using the very technologies that developed countries employed to become rich, comfortable and free of disease.

• Debating globalization / Held, David. --Cambridge: Polity, 2005
  

  The principal challenges of our new century are global in scope. They demand the cooperation of people around the world in sustained, serious engagement across differences of belief, identity, nationality and authority. This book provides an introduction to the debate about globalization written by many of the most prominent figures in the field. It not only focuses on the pressing difficulties facing our world, but also on solutions. Suggestions are provided for reshaping globalization into a force that will work for humans everywhere. In an extended analysis, the author provides a robust critique of the present order and sets out his alternate vision.

• The Global governance reader / Wilkinson, Rorden, ed.--London: Routledge, 2005
  

  This book offers a complete introduction to the study of global governance. It contains contributions by experts covering the most significant approaches and issues in the field. It debates the meaning of global governance; explores its current form; considers its principal silences; examines the role of global institutions, states and non-state actors; looks at the challenges of governing humanitarian crisis; poverty reduction, global finance, health and climate change; and surveys the contribution of civil society.

• Introduction to globalization and business: relationships and responsibilities / Parker, Barbara. New Delhi: Response Books, 2005
  

  Virtually all fields of human endeavor are affected by growing worldwide interconnections. This book outlines challenges and opportunities associated with these interconnections, and it considers important questions about globalization. An operating premise is that organizational leaders and employees can better manage chaotic global interconnections by recognizing, analyzing, and addressing shifts occurring in six major global environments: industries and businesses, the natural environment, culture, economics, politics, and technology. The book also argues that successful global managers cope with global externalities by integrating internal resources of people, processes, and structures (PPS).

• Rethinking world government: a new approach / Yunker, James A.
  Lanham: University Press of America, 2005
  

  This volume issues a powerful challenge to conventional thinking about international relations. According to conventional thinking, world government would be undesirable because it might develop into global tyranny, as well as almost certainly entailing bureaucratic overload. The author contests this conventional thinking on the basis of an innovative plan for a limited world government tentatively designated the Federal Union of Democratic Nations. The book presents a strong case that the establishment of a world government would be beneficial to the ongoing economic and cultural globalization of the contemporary era.

• The quest for human longevity: science, business, and public policy / Solomon, Lewis D. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2006
  

  Many scientists today are working to retard the aging process in humans so as to increase both life expectancy and the quality of life. Over the past decade impressive results have been achieved in targeting the mechanisms and pathways of aging. This book considers these scientific studies by exploring the principal biomedical anti-aging techniques. The book also considers cutting edge research on mental enhancements and assesses the scientific doubts of skeptics. The book is also about business. It examines eight corporations pursuing various age-related interventions, profiling their scientific founders and top executives, and examining personnel, intellectual property, and financing for each firm.

• Hyderabad: a biography / Luther, Narendra. --New Delhi: Oxford University, 2006
  

  In this book, the story of the city of Hyderabad evolves into the history of a former princely state, and later, of Andhra Pradesh. Starting with the period prior to the birth of the city in 1591, the book presents a chronicle of one of India’s most legendary cities. It describes the origin and evolution of Hyderabad’s unique composite culture, which has continued to attract people since its founding by its poet-builder.

• Governing and managing knowledge in Asia / Menkhoff, Thomas, ed. New Jersey: World Scientific, 2005
  

  The spread of knowledge is a significant consequence of the process of globalization. Knowledge is used to tackle very diverse issues such as development challenges in emerging markets or the perplexity of corporate decision-makers in the business world. This book examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of effective knowledge governance and knowledge management in the context of an increasingly competitive, globalized marketplace. Several case studies of Asian countries and organizations are presented, aimed at analyzing factors impacting the governance of knowledge and exemplifying practices that policy makers and business leaders adopted to manage knowledge resources and knowledge processes to their fullest potential.

• Management development in non-profit organizations: a programme for governing boards / Padaki, Vijay. --New Delhi: Sage, 2005
  

  Voluntary organizations engaged in development efforts are usually immersed in very demanding work in unhelpful conditions. This leaves them little time to come to grips with the specialized demands of management development. Adding to the difficulty is the prevailing tendency in many non-profits and NGOs to distance themselves from the world of ‘management’. In this context, the governing board can play an important role in the effective management of voluntary organizations, but it is a role that it is largely neglected. This book is a practical, comprehensive and ready reference manual for board members of non-profit organizations (NPOs), covering all the issues involved—from the legal frameworks governing NPOs to useful guidelines on fundraising.

• Communicating in the information society / United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Geneva: UNRISD
  

  The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) has been supporting research on the interaction between societies and informational developments since it held the Information Technologies and Social Development Conference in Geneva in 1998. This has resulted in a range of publications on many aspects of information-related change. This book cast spotlight into dark, often neglected corners of the “information society” as articulated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Several very different layers are illuminated in society, to the context and manner in which the concept has recently emerged into global consciousness, to how it can be deployed in practice to maximize benefits to society.

• Shifting landscapes: the making and remaking of village commons in India / Brara, Rita. New Delhi: Oxford University, 2006
  

  The experience of growing up in villages oscillates between dwelling in private spaces and frolicking in the commons. Today, these village common lie at the intersection of environmental debates that straddle the natural and social sciences. This book explores the shifting landscape of village commons and its transformation by administrative juridical and techno-scientific practices in the post-colonial period. The book shows how village commons are made and remade at multiple sites within the village and beyond. Bringing together the story of village commons in Rajasthan, India, the book narrates the tale of the encompassment of village commons by governmentality.

• Guiding souls: dialogues on the purpose of life / Kalam, APJ Abdul. --New Delhi: Ocean Books, 2005
  

  This book outlines a spiritual approach to life. Appealing to the innocent creativity of youth, the book rejects both extremes—hype and hoop-la of globalization and the pessimism of seeing the world as a theatre of conflict—and describes the ultimate goal and mission of humanity as constituting the task of helping evolution on planet Earth. The book covers a wide spectrum of history and human activity. It evokes the presence of some great human beings who walked on this planet as exemplars for the ideals presented in the book.

• The Case for democracy: the power of freedom to overcome tyranny and terror / Sharansky, Natan. New York: PublicAffairs, 2004
  

  Natan Sharansky has lived an unusual life, spending nine years as a Soviet political prisoner and nine years as an Israeli politician. This book offers the unique perspective of his experiences in order to make the case for democracy. In this book, nondemocratic societies are put under a microscope to reveal the mechanics of tyranny that sustain them. In exposing the inner workings of a “fear society,” the authors explains why democracy is not beyond any nation’s reach, why it is essential for our security and why there is much that can be done to promote it around the world.

• The Performance of democracies: political institutions and public policies / Roller, Edeltraud. Oxford: Oxford University, 2005
  

  This book offers a comprehensive analysis of twenty-one OECD countries by systematically examining all major domestic policy areas—domestic security policy, economic policy, social policy, and environmental policy—and using outcome indicators. The quality of democracy is assessed both at the level of the four policy areas and at a general level encompassing all policy areas. The question of trade-offs between policy areas is studied in an unprecedented way and, for the first time, national types of policy patterns are identified.

• Gender and the digital economy: perspectives from the developing world / Cecilia, NG, ed. New Delhi: Sage, 2005
  

  Since the 1970s, the world has witnessed rapid advancement in the development and spread of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies (ICTs). This has, concomitantly, fuelled a fresh industrial revolution and shaped a ‘new’ economy: the information or digital economy. This book focuses on the positive aspects of the digital economy as they relate to women in the developing world. It illustrates—with case studies from Argentina, Morocco, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines—how economic empowerment through the medium of ICTs can change the position of women within their families and the workplace even in the face of an uneven development process. The book explores the measures that can make these new gains sustainable and replicable.

• Urban governance and management: Indian initiatives / Indian Institute of Public Administration New Delhi: Kanishka, 2006
  

  This book provides a comprehensive compilation of articles related to the urban sector in India viz. urbanization, urban governance, e-governance, municipal bonds, accounting reforms, master plans, new towns, peri-urban interface, remote sensing applications and GIS, housing policy, disasters, slums and urban poverty, urban services, water and solid waste management, traffic and transportation management, public accountability, civic heritage, security concerns, health care and sustainability. The articles encompass the state-of-art in each of the above areas, the problems as well as the initiatives taken to address them.

• Along the Ganga: to the inner shores of India / Trojanow, Ilija. --New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2005
  

  From icy Gaumukh, the source of one of the world’s most celebrated rivers, the author began a remarkable two-month journey: down the Himalayas, past the great cities of Allahabad, Varanasi and Patna, to Gangasagar, where the river meets the sea. In this book, he recounts the stories that he heard and experienced during the journey.

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