Imagining and reimagining India: Diversity and Plurality - A survey of recent books

• Reimagining India: Unlocking the Potential of Asia's Next Superpower McKinsey & Company Inc -- "Reimagining India brings together leading thinkers from around the world to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by one of the most important and least understood nations on earth. India’s abundance of life—vibrant, chaotic, and tumultuous—has long been its foremost asset."
• Reimagining China and India: The Economic Significance of the East Tarun Khanna
• Listen to the Heron's Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India Gloria Goodwin Raheja
• Re-Imagining India and Other Essays Institute of Social Sciences (Ed.)
• Yoga in Modern India: The Body between Science and Philosophy Joseph S. Alter 
• Militant Publics in India: Physical Culture and Violence in the Making of a Modern Polity Arafaat A. Valiani
• Claiming Individuality: The Cultural Politics of Distinction (Anthropology, Culture and Society) Vered Amit
• Planet India Mira Kamdar
• Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation Nandan Nilekani
• Re - Imagining India and Other Essays Ashis Nandy
• Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures-and Yours Tarun Khanna
• Re-Imagining the Indus: Mapping Media Reportage in India and Pakistan Samir Saran 
• Princely India Re-imagined: A Historical Anthropology of Mysore from 1799 to the present (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series) Aya Ikegame
• Non-Western International Relations Theory: Perspectives On and Beyond Asia (Politics in Asia)
  Amitav Acharya
• Worldviews of Aspiring Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates in China, India, Iran, Japan, and Russia Henry R. Nau
• Safe Spaces: Human Rights Education in Diverse Contexts Cornelia Roux
• Political Economy of Communications in India: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Pradip Thomas
• Neo-Nationalism in Europe and Beyond: Perspectives from Social Anthropology Andre Gingrich
• Narrative Desire and Historical Reparations: A.S. Byatt, Ian McEwan, and Salman Rushdie (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) Tim S. Gauthier 
• International Relations and Non-Western Thought: Imperialism, Colonialism and Investigations of Global Modernity (Interventions) Robbie Shilliam
• The Politics of Time and Youth in Brand India: Bargaining with Capital (Diversity and Plurality in South Asia) Jyotsna Kapur -- "A contemporary interpretation of neoliberalism’s effect on life in India, the politics of time and the preoccupation with youth, and relations between generations."
• [Generally About Books] The inimitable MJ Akbar: "Curiosity never killed any cat. If the cat died it was only because it jumped to conclusions." in Democracy is the karma of India.  Mayank Bhatt shared a link. 
•  [Generally About Books] Fareed Zakaria writes about India.. 
  

Untouchables strive to get their hands on India's wealth

"Bottom of the caste system, the entrepreneurial drive of the Dalits used to be stifled. But slowly that's all changing, writes Richard Orange in Mumbai @ Independent.co.uk

Stepping on to the factory floor of Suryatech Solar Systems is a test of faith. A welded patchwork of rusting scrap has been used to make a second mezzanine floor in a crumbling warehouse on the outskirts of Pune, south-east of Mumbai. Every move is followed by an unnerving boom of wobbling, creaking metal.
"This is the production line," says Mukund Kamalakar, Suryatech's founder, beaming proudly. "I started it in the last year. Before, I used to purchase panels – now we are making 700 to 1,000 each year."
It is a humble set-up – just a series of worktables and a few machines to cut and shape metal into solar-powered water heaters. But in founding Suryatech, Kamalakar – a strapping six-footer – has broken new ground for his caste, the Dalits, who lie at the foot of the old Hindu caste system.
According to Forbes magazine, India has more dollar billionaires than any country except the US and China. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and billionaire brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani are, respectively, the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-richest men in the world.
But all three of them, like 27 of the 39 Indians on the Forbes rich list, come from India's traditional merchant communities. India's untouchables, the "scheduled castes and tribes" who make up the bottom quarter of India's 1.2 billion population, are absent..." ... More @ The Independent

Businesses Accommodating Religious Festivals

Latest: Google's Diwali

Diwali Celebrations @ Ikea Store:

See also:

• Steve Jobs wishes everyone a belated Ramadhan Mubarak!


• From Diwali to Chinese New Year: IKEA Canada Celebrates Holiday Traditions From Around the World
• Dance@HCL%20on%20Diwali


• Indian festivals: Ethos and health impact


• Nod to Ramadan a trend in retailing
• Celebrating Diwali the Telugu way Round-the-world
• The calendar of commercialism does not reflect our spiritual rhythms
• Culture Matters: Navigating India's Holidays

Googlism & Googlistan:

• Google settles dispute over online books
• Building trust in Googlistan

BlogAction Day 2008 ~~ Moment for Indian bloggers to reflect

Netizens, Bloggers, and the readers (from, of and in India): Do you have a moment to reflect on Economic Competitiveness & Comparative Liveability of India Today:



There is much more to think about than the headlines of the India that glitters. Think, Think and Think of India that is not so as the media tells you.

Background:

This modernising democracy of 1.1 billion people has reached rates of economic expansion of 9% in recent years, with growing software outsourcing and hi-tech manufacturing sectors. However, India’s inefficient agricultural sector is still sustained by government subsidies, energy and transport infrastructure is severely underdeveloped, and natural resources face significant strain. Moreover, the recent dynamic growth seems to have lifted the nascent middle class with fewer benefits for the 80% of Indians who still live on less than $1 a day. India also faces challenges from widespread corruption, and from occasional violence between its many ethnic and religious groups. continue browsing the The 2008 Legatum Prosperity Index

NB. Twittering before the BlogAction Day

PS. Info courtesy: Digg here ~~ BlogAction Day 2008 Poverty @ Success With Languages

Punchline: 15th October is also first ever Global Handwashing Day in India.
"Every day India loses around 1,000 children to diarrhoea due to poor hygiene and water borne infections. This means 41 children die every 60 minutes due to this highly preventable disease. Globally, every year, more than 3.5 million children do not live to celebrate their fifth birthday because of diarrhoea and pneumonia. " Global Handwashing Day in India.
Info courtesy: EMPSKHC

Reliance's plans for book retailing in India

Are India's libraries ready?

Reliance's plans for book retailing in India
A report in The Economic Times (Oct 03, 2006) throws some light on Reliance's plans for book retailing in india.


Reliance has tied up with Delhi-based publication house Roli Books and is in talks with Prabhat Prakashan, which publishes books in both English and Hindi.

Book sections in Reliance’s proposed retail outfits would also sell home videos and multimedia music formats, along with related gift articles. read the full story