• Qutb Minar and its monuments / B. M. Pande.--New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006 (Reference)
  

  Located a few kilometers to the south of central Delhi, is the sprawling complex housing one of the capital's best-known landmarks-the Qutb Minar. This book outlines the Qutb's archaeological and historical background highlighting the architectural and cultural contours of the monuments inside the complex. It takes readers on a wondrous journey through temples, tombs, dargahs, step-wells and tanks, gateways, madrasas, sarais, palaces, gardens, and mosques representing different historical periods.

• Lives of the Laureates: eighteen Nobel economists / Breit, William, ed.--New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2004. (Reference)
  

  This book offers readers an informal history for modern economic thought as told through autobiographical essays by eighteen winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics. The essays not only provide unique insights into major economic ideas of our time but also shed light on the processes of intellectual discovery and creativity. This edition adds five new Nobel Laureates to its list of contributors: Gary S. Becker, recipient in 1992; John C. Harsanyi, co-recipient in 1994; Robert E. Lucas, Jr. recipient in 1995; Myron S. Scholes, co-recipient in 1997; and James J. Heckman, co-recipient in 2000.

• World Disasters Report 2005: focus on information in disasters / International Federation of Red Cross.-- Switzerland: IFRC and RCS, 2005 (Reference)
  

  People need information as much as water, food, medicine or shelter. Information can save lives, livelihoods and resources. It may be the only form of disaster preparedness that the most vulnerable can afford. This report calls on agencies to focus less on gathering information for their own needs and more on exchanging information with the people they seek to support. The report considers the quality of communication that takes place between those involved and what impact it has on people caught up in crisis.

• Amartya Sen's work and ideas: a gender perspective / Aggarwal, Bina, ed. --London: Routledge, 2005
  

  This volume examines Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen's ides through the lens of gender. The book outlines the range and usefulness of his work from a gender perspective while also exploring some of its silences and implicit assumptions. The essays cover major topics in Sen's work, such as the capability approach, freedom, social choice, justice, agency, "missing women", and development and well-being. Significant highlights include a wide-range conversation between the book's editors and Sen on many aspects of his work, and an essay by Sen himself on why he is disinclined to provide a definitive list of capabilities.

• Greenspan's fraud: how two decades of his policies have undermined the global economy / Batra, Ravi.
  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
  

  This book looks at Alan Greenspan's economic policies over the last two decades; it reveals the devastating effects of the Federal Reserve Chairman's views and policies. Since 1987, Greenspan has held reign over economic policy, outlasting three presidents, and the book shows that his views have shifted along with the political tides.

• Why carbon fuels will dominate in the 21st century's global energy economy / Peter R. Odell.
  Essex, UK: Multi-Science Publishing, 2004

  Realism over the critical issues of energy supply and use in the 21st century's economies and societies has become a very scarce commodity. The objective of this study is to demonstrate that the moves to economies and societies wholly or largely free from dependence on carbon energy are, in the real world, incapable of being achieved. The greater part of the book is thus dedicated to show that, for most of the 21st century, energy demand limitations will be so significant that little or no pressure will be brought to bear on the relatively plentiful and profitable-to-produce flows of coal, oil and natural gas.

• Who's got the power?: transforming health systems for women and children / Freedman, Lynn P.-London: Earthscan, 2005 (Reference)
  

  The world has an unprecedented opportunity to improve the lives of billions of people by adopting practical approaches to meeting the Millennium Development Goals. UN Millennium Project has identified practical strategies to eradicate poverty by scaling up investments in infrastructure and human capital while promoting gender equality and environmental sustainability. The task forces have identified the interventions and policy measures needed to achieve each of the Goals. In this report, the Task Force on Child Health and Maternal Health responds to the challenges posed by high rates of maternal morality, continued child deaths due to preventable illnesses, enormous unmet need for sexual and reproductive health services, and weak and fragile health systems. In addition to identifying the technical interventions to address these problems, the report asserts that policymakers must act now to change the fundamental societal dynamics that currently prevent those most in need from accessing quality health care.

• Understanding Iraq: the whole sweep of Iraqi history, from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British mandate to the American occupation / William R. Polk.--New York: HarperCollins, 2005
  

  Iraq will continue to be a major issue into the foreseeable future. This country sits on the world's largest supply of oil, and will play an ongoing role in the global economy and the political environment throughout the area. Iraq's history shows how the pattern of outside intervention was established first by the Ottoman Turks and later by England, Russia and Germany. The Iraq-Iran war and the invasion of Kuwait was followed by the Gulf War and the American occupation. And finally, this book looks at the challenges and opportunities for the future.

• The Mitrokhin Archive II: the KGB and the world / Andrew, Christopher. --London: Allen Lane, 2005
  

  For a quarter of century the KGB believed that the Third World was the arena in which it could win the Cold War. 'The world,' claimed Moscow 'was going our way.' This book discloses the KGB's secret contacts with a series of world leaders, among them Castro, Allende, Nasser, Saddam Hussein and Mengistu, as well as with terrorist hijackers and communist parties around the globe. It also shows the enormous resources devoted, with varying degrees of success, to trying to determine the course of events in countries as different as India (the main focus for KGB active measures in Asia) and Afghanistan (where KGB took the lead in the Soviet invasion).

• Writing short stories: a Routledge writer's guide / Ailsa Cox.--London: Routledge, 2005
  

  Most fiction writers start with the short story. It gives them the opportunity to find their own voice, to learn the fundamentals of narrative composition, and, most importantly, to produce a complete piece of work over a limited timescale. This book introduces key aspects of the craft of short-story writing, including structure, dialogue, characterization, viewpoint and narrative voice. It shows how a wide variety of published writers have approached the short-story genre, in order to deepen the insights that one gain from their own work. It encourages one to be inventive, to break writing habits and to try something new, by showing the diversity of the short-story genre, from cyberpunk to social observation.

• No such things as over-exposure: inside the life and celebrity of Donald Trump / Slater, Robert.
  Delhi: Pearson Education, 2005
  

  This book presents the biography of Donald Trump, the businessman and dealmaker, strategist and survivor, celebrity and personality. It shows how Trump transformed himself from an unknown local real-estate developer to a global magnate. Mostly, though, the author sets forth Trump's reputation and fame, his skills at public relations and self-promotion, and his supposed conquest of TV in terms Trump must surely like. There's much here about "his commanding presence and his dazzle" and "the resilient, creative titan he has turned out to be.

• Win the crowd: unlock the secrets of influence, charisma, and showmanship / Steve Cohen.
  New York: HarperCollins, 2005
  

  This book reveal the secrets of all great showmen and magicians-how to persuade, influence, and charm, and ultimately accomplish the things one would always wanted to do. It teaches the simple rules one can use to take charge of practically any situation, from on-the-job disagreements to dating to important cocktail parties. It helps one to wash away insecurities and hesitations, and replace them with confidence, poise, and leadership.

• Benchmarking India's public services: a comparison across the states / Paul, Samuel.
  Bangalore: Public Affairs Centre, 2005 (Reference)
  

  One of the primary functions of the government is the provision of essential public services to the people. For the poor and those who live in villages, government is often the sole supplier of services such as education and health. The public goods nature of many services does not make it attractive for the private sector to undertake their production and delivery. This paper presents a user perspective on five basic services provided by the government, namely, drinking water, health care, primary education and childcare, road transport and public distribution system (PDS) in India. The paper provides an assessment of the state of these services in the different states of India based on user feedback gathered through a stratified random sample survey of households.

• Benchmarking urban services: the second report card on Bangalore / Paul, Samuel.
  Bangalore: Public Affairs Centre, 2000 (Reference)

• This report is the eighth in a series of Report Card Studies carried out by Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore. It is also the second one on Bangalore, this "report card" on Bangalore's public services shows the low confidence people have in service providers. Citizen satisfaction with service providers remains at a low level. However, there is indication of partial improvement in some services over the past five years. Conclusions of the study are based on a sample survey of over 2000 middle income and poor households in the city.

• Civic engagement for better public governance: a guide to good practice from India / Sadashiva, Manjunath, ed. Bangalore: Public Affairs Centre, 2004 (Reference)
  

  This study is supported by Public Affairs Centre, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to the cause of improving the quality of governance in India. This publication highlights the role of Civil society initiatives to improve public governance in India. Instead of leaving the agenda for reform to be set by elected representatives and the bureaucracy, civil society groups in different parts of India have initiated efforts to challenge current paradigms, test alternative approaches and share the learning from these experiences. The outcomes of these initiatives have provided models which state institutions have attempted to assimilate and adapt to the operations of the government.

• Holding the state to account: citizen monitoring in action / Paul, Samuel.--Bangalore: Public Affairs Centre, 2002 (Reference)
  

  Many people in the developing world are concerned about the erosion in the accountability and performance of their governments. Those citizens, in many countries, are pessimistic about the prospects to improve this desperate situation. Against this backdrop, this book describes a pioneering citizen monitoring initiative in Bangalore, India that stimulated the improvement of the city's governance. The specific findings and the impact these experiments made in Bangalore may be unique to Bangalore. But the methods and approach used are of wider relevance and can be applied in many other settings to deal with similar problems.

• Holding the state to account: lessons of Bangalore's citizen report cards / Paul, Samuel. Bangalore: Public Affairs Centre, 2006 (Reference)
  

  There is a conspicuous imbalance in the thrust of the reforms under way in India since 1991. The primary focus of the reformers so far has been on macro economic management and the creation of an enabling environment for economic activities such as trade and industry. The equally important function of the state in terms of the provision of essential public goods and services that matter to the people is yet to receive serious attention from the government. A Citizen Report Card is a tool that enables citizens to give a grade to the service providers on whom they may depend for the delivery of essential services. This paper the experiences of using CRCs in Bangalore are narrated, where the feasibility of this approach was first tested in relation to the major public services in the city.

• Women, security, South Asia: a clearing in the thicket / edited by Farah Faizal and Swarna Rajagopalan.--New Delhi: Sage, 2005
  

  This volume explores sources of security and insecurity in women's lives, as well as their agency in creating security for themselves and others in different settings within the South Asian context. The essays in the volume address a number of fundamental questions, including: whether women have a different perspective on security matters; what security means to South Asian women, and whether this differs from men's perspective; whether the same perspectives about state and national security animate women; The manner in which both policy and research can better reflect the experiences of women in the region.

• World Youth Report 2005: young people today, and in 2015 / Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
  New York: United Nations, 2005 (Reference)
  

  Young people hold the key to society's future. Their ambitions, goals and aspirations for peace, security, development and human rights are often in accord with those of society as a whole. This second edition of the World Youth Report reflects a very different approach from that of the earlier edition. The main findings of the 2003 Report remain valid. In the present publication, the 15 areas of priority are grouped into 3 clusters that reflect a somewhat broader focus on youth in a global economy, youth in civil society, and youth at risk. To provide a better understanding of the realities faced by the current generation of young people, each of the three sections of the Report focuses on a particular cluster and includes a brief review of all the priorities it encompasses, as well as a more detailed examination and analysis of one topic of particular relevance.

• World Trade Organization: Implications for Indian economy / P. K. Vasudeva.--Delhi: Pearson Education, 2005 (Reference)
  

  The eighth round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) held at Uruguay from 1986 to 1993 was the most comprehensive and ambitious among all the rounds of negotiations. This book begins with an overview of the Uruguay Round of the GATT, which was crucial to the birth of WTO, and goes on to explain its objectives, functions, working and achievements through the years. The volume talks of the role of the WTO in shaping the trade policies of member countries in general and India in particular and provides in-depth information on burning issues like Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, and Industrial Design.

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