• Remarkable physicists: from Galileo to Yukawa / Ioan James (Reference)
  Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2004
  
  The 250 years from the second half of the 17th century saw the birth of modern physics and its growth into one of the most successful of all the sciences. This book describes the lives of 50 of the most remarkable physicists from that era. The emphasis is on their varied life-stories, not on the details of their achievements, but when read in sequence the biographies, which are organized chronologically, convey in human terms something of the way in which physics were created. Scientific and mathematical detail is kept to a minimum.

• The Road to scientific success: inspiring life stories of prominent researchers / edited by Deborah D.L.  Chung.-Singapore: World Scientific, 2006
  
  This book describes the road to scientific success, as experienced and described by prominent researchers. The focus on research process (rather than research findings) and on personal experience is intended to encourage the readers, who will be inspired to be dedicated and effective research

• Global monitoring report 2006: millennium development goals: strengthening mutual accountability, aid, trade, and governance: The International Bank for Reconstruction.
  Washington DC: The World Bank, 2006 (Reference)
  
  This third annual Global Monitoring Report (GMR) on progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) comes with only 10 years remaining to achieve them. It examines the commitments and actions of donors, international financial institutions, and developing countries to implement the Millennium Declaration, signed by 189 countries to implement the Millennium Declaration, signed by 189 countries in 2000. This report examines the donors’ 2005 commitments to aid and debt relief, and argues that rigorous, sustained monitoring is needed to ensure that they are met and deliver results, and to prevent the cycle of accumulating unsustainable debt from repeating itself.

• India: issues in development / Mohan Guruswamy.--Gurgaon: Hope India, 2006
  
  This book includes all the reports by the Centre for Policy Alternatives team led by Mohan Guruswamy till April 2006. It covers a wide range of subjects and has made a major contribution to the national discussion on critical issues. Several of them such as “Redefining Poverty”, Economic Growth and Development in West Bengal”, “The Economic Strangulation of Bihar” and “FDI in Retail” have revealed new dimensions to issues that have contributed greatly to a change of perceptions about them. The reports are primarily meant for the nation’ s opinion and decision-making elite such as MPs, government officials and media-persons.

• Information economy report 2005 / UNCTAD.--New York: United Nations, 2005 (Reference)
  
  Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to profoundly change global trade, finance and production. By making businesses more competitive and economies more productive, and most of all by empowering people with knowledge, ICTs can support faster economic growth and thus strengthen the material basis for development. Our challenge is to ensure that this potential is used to generate real gains in the global struggle against poverty, disease and ignorance—and their offspring, fear, intolerance and war. This report is being published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to coincide with the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, at which the international community is expected to agree on further steps to realize the full potential of ICTs. The report highlights the extent to which developing countries are striving to close the gap that separates the “information haves and have-nots’. It also describes the enormous challenges the world still faces in key areas such as increasing access to the Internet and strengthening the security of the online environment.

• OECD science, technology and industry scoreboard 2005: Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and development / Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and development.--France: OECD, 2005 (Reference)
  
  This publication brings together the latest internationally comparable data to explore the growing interaction between knowledge and globalization at the heart of the ongoing transformation of ORCD economies. It draws mainly on OECD databases, indicators and methodology developed by the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry and focuses on: R & D and innovation; Human resource in science and technology; Patents; ICT; Knowledge flows and the global enterprise; The impact of knowledge on productive activities.

• Rajasthan Development Report / India. Planning Commission.
  New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2006 (Reference)
  
  The Rajasthan Development Report (SDR) is one of a series of such studies being sponsored by the Planning Commission in collaboration with various state governments and reputed research institutions. This report analysis the entire gamut of development issues concerning a drought prone and arid state. It contains rich state and sub-state level data on various sectors and issues. The report reviews Rajasthan’s experience in the important sectors in the state’s economy and the objective of its publication is to stimulate debate on growth strategies appropriate for development in the years ahead.

• World development indicators 2006 /World Bank.--Washington D. C.: World Bank, 2006 (Reference)
  
  The developing world has made remarkable progress. The number of people living in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day has fallen by about 400 million in the last 25 years. Many more children, particularly girls, are completing primary school. Illiteracy rates have fallen by half in 30 years and life expectancy is nearly 15 years longer, on average, than it was 40 years ago. Since 1978, World Development Indicators has compiled statistics to provide an annual snapshot of progress in the developing world and the challenges that remain. It is the product of intensive collaboration with numerous international organizations, government agencies, and private and nongovernmental organizations.

• World economic situation and prospects 2006: United Nations / United Nations.
  New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2006 (Reference)
  
  World economic growth slowed noticeably in 2005 from the strong expansion in 2004. The world economy is expected to continue to grow at this more moderate pace of about 3 percent during 2006. This report is a joint product of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the five United Nations regional commissions (Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). It provides an overview of recent global economic policy and development issues. One of its purpose is to serve as a point of reference for discussions on economic, social and related issues taking place in various United Nations entities in 2006.

• Education for All (EFA) global monitoring report 2006: literacy for life / UNESCO.
  France: UNESCO, 2005 (Reference)

  Literacy is a right and the foundation for all further learning. Literacy gives people the tools, knowledge and confidence to improve their livelihoods, to participate more actively in their societies and to make informed choices. In today’s knowledge economies, literacy skills are more vital than ever. Yet literacy remains a right denied to some 771 million adults, further increasing the marginalization of many. This edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report assesses progress towards the six Education for All goals, with emphasis on the global literacy challenge. It identifies the key dimensions of sound policy and places the goal of increasing literacy rates by 2015 within the broader context of building literate societies, in which access to written information is valued and promoted.

• 2006 Information and communications for development: global trends and politics .
  Washington D.C.: The World Bank, 2006

  Information and communication technology (ICT) has a critical role to play in development efforts around the world. There was a time when the benefits of applying ICT in fighting poverty and promoting economic growth were not widely understood. This report offers a realistic assessment of experiences, trends, and outlook on the ICT sector, with a focus on actual results and justified expectations. It attempts to track and analyze global ICT development trends and to provide empirical evidence of the benefits that ICT is providing in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction. Indicators for the MDG targets, among others, have been incorporated into the ICT At-a-Glance tables compiled for this report.

• Appreciative inquiry: change at the speed of imagination / Jane Magruder Watkins and Bernard J. Mohr.--Francisco: Jossey-Bass/ Pfeiffer, 2001

  As the global village becomes an actuality, the impact on organization change theory and practice has been profound. The number of models and methods available to facilitate change has increased as OD practitioners try to

  help organizations cope with many of the rapid and discontinuous shifts in both form and function. This book is about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) a theory and practice for approaching change from a holistic framework. Based on the belief that human systems are made and imagined by those who live and work within them, AI leads systems to move toward the generative and creative images that reside in their most positive core—their values, visions achievements, and best practices. The book is a practical guide to Appreciative Inquiry for organizational leaders and organization development professionals and a comprehensive explanation at the speed of imagination.

• BPO industry report: world's back office comes of age: Snigdha Sengupta, Shelley Singh and Nelson Vinod Moses / Sengupta, Snigdha.-- New Delhi: Business World

The IT industry has been one of India’s outstanding successes in the last decade. Export revenues from IT software and services (including BPO) crossed Rs.1, 00, 000 crore in 2005-2006. The BPO segment has been a major contributor to this growth. Against these backdrops, this report tries to answer some of the most pertinent questions confronted by the industry like: What are the industry’s growth drivers? Can it sustain its current growth rates?; Will the industry change dramatically in shape, structure and complexity over the next five years?; Will India continue to hold forth as the world’s premier back-office destination in the next decade?; Will anti-offshoring campaigns in developed economies cripple India’s most dynamic industry?; Will Indian BPO companies graduate from back-office support services to mission critical solutions, etc.

• The Fifth Discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization / Peter M. Senge
  New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990

In the long run, the only sustainable source of competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than its competition. This book draws the blueprint for an organization where people expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. The book fuses these features into a coherent body of theory and practice, making the whole of an organization more effective than the sum of its parts.

• Unlocking the human potential for public sector performance: world public sector report 2005 / United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
  New Delhi: Academic Foundation/United Nations, 2005 (Reference)

There has been a rediscovery in recent years of the critical role played by human resources in improving and sustaining institutional effectiveness and development performance. This World Public Sector Report surveys some of the major trends, models and related visions that have influenced human resource management practices around the world in recent decades. It highlights the diversity of values and doctrines that have guided the strengthening of HRM systems in the public sector. The present report advocates that future reform in this area involves a striking balance between three broad models or schools in public administration: traditional public administration; public management, including new public management (NPM); and an emerging model of responsive governance. An important objective of the report is to discuss how the best attributes of these three models can be effectively harnessed to address contemporary challenges facing HRM in the public sector worldwide.

• The Mathematical theory of black holes / S. Chandrasekhar.--Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005

  The theory of black holes is the most simple and beautiful consequence of Einstein’s theory of relativity. At the time of writing there was no physical evidence for the existence of these objects, therefore all that the author used for their construction were modern mathematical concepts of space and time.

• Triumph of Will Sonia Gandhi / Yusuf  Ansari.--New Delhi: Tara-India Research, 2006

  This book presents a narrative about Sonia Gandhi the politician and before that, Sonia Gandhi the political entity around whose silence the Congress Party and its politics revolved. The book begins on a note of detachment the start of a new, more right wing Congress Party that had little in common with the Congress of Nehru or his ‘National Consensus’, they are the beginnings of a new Congress, a recollection of a phase. The book also describes, in great detail the state of the Nation and the social and economic mileu of India, within which its politics functioned throughout the 1990’s.

• Reforming public services in India: drawing lessons from success: a World Bank report.
  New Delhi: Sage, 2006 (Reference) 

  There has been considerable debate in India about the quality of public service delivery. Various governments have attempted I recent years to improve delivery systems. This study examines 31 such efforts. Focusing on specific innovations in service delivery across India, the study identifies common factors underlying their success. In doing so, it highlights the efficacy of six instruments to improve service delivery—fostering competition, simplifying transactions, restructuring agency processes, decentralization, building broad political support for programme delivery and strengthening accountability mechanisms.

• UNESCO science report 2005 / UNESCO.--France: UNESCO, 2005 (Reference)

  This report analyses the current state of science around the globe. It discusses topics like: What new trends have emerged since the previous report was published in 1998? What events have helped to reshape the scientific enterprise? For example, what has been the impact on science of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe adopted in 1999, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) launched by the African Union in 2001, and the enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 25 Member States in 2004?

• E-Development from excitement to effectiveness / edited by Robert Schware.
  Washington, D. C.: World Bank, 2005

  This book provides information about how various countries, institutions and sectors have reacted to the emergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) and probed their way toward turning them into instruments of development. It shows how, after initial years of enthusiasm, exploration and excitement, the “e-development agenda” has progressively matured into a set of policy instruments, sectoral applications and programmatic approaches. It also provides evidence that e-strategies have acquired the respectability brought by efficiency.

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