Reflections

Book Review: Fifteen Judgements – Cases That Shaped India’s Financial Landscape By Saurabh Kirpal Image Source - Amazon.in The modern concept of Economics is more towards the economic landscape being more of a political economy, given the advent of tariffs, regulations, trading blocs, and more – combined with the need to balance environment, and the need to balance the needs of various internal subgroups of citizens. This has tended to intertwine the political, regulatory, and economic sectors completely together in a conjoint situation, perhaps for the best. Just in the recent past, there have been many instances when the judiciary has adjudicated / called upon to adjudicate on many aspects of this political economy. The current book under review looks at 15 such seminal cases.   What The Book Examines These 15 cases are those that have had, or, in the more recent examples taken the potential to have, a lasting impact on the direction and, in some ways, structure of the India...

  Book Review   - Ganesha’s Global Startup Prachi Garg   Ganesha’s Global Startup is the third book of the Fiction Series on Startup business models from Ms Prachi Garg, and her 6 th book overall. All previous titles are on Startups, making Ms Garg India’s {maybe the world?} first and only Startup series writer in both Fiction and Non-Fiction. This book, like the other two before this, is also based on a fictional startup, and its planning, strategisation, tactical execution and growth phases, including funding, organic and inorganic strategies, and more.   THE IMPACT OF READING IN THE PRACTICAL WORLD I am myself in the startup space, and have handled more than a dozen startups in various consulting full time  and part time capacities; in my opinion, the 6 books, all of them, are valuable resources for any startup expert on enthusiast.  More than once her first 3 books have given me reference models and examples in my professional capacity. More than once,...

BOOK REVIEW : JASMINE BUILDS ON SHIFTING SANDS Author : Sanjay Desai ConsciousLeap Publication   This is a genuinely surprising package, far beyond my expectations. And as this book has come as a total   surprise, I will deviate from my usual format to a different presentation. First of all, kudos to Mr Desai for writing such a good yet different book, and kudos to the publication house for bringing it to us readers. I went into it with zero expectations, though the blurb had told me this should be good. I needn’t have worried – it is excellent! The book is a nice, clean, fast paced narrative of a touching set of connected stories, told in a very evocative way that actually builds images in your mind!  Image Source: ConsciousLeap Publications   The story, such as it is, is in two parts. part 1 is a lecture, and part 2 is a very nice enticing story. Let me start with part 2 first. The second part is sandwiched between 2 halves of part 1;   and is th...

  BOOK REVIEW : ARTHASHASTRA – THE SCIENCE OF WEALTH Thomas R Trautmann   This is a book that deals with a subject long-overdue for attention, both in my reading as well as in the national consciousness. I cant say National Reading Habits, for reading is not a habit in the modern world – anything but. So, National Consciousness it has to be. We, the modern educated individuals, regard Western Treatises on Commerce & Economics as the gold standard; no problems with that. But we should also be aware of the highly advanced concepts listed in our ancient literature – I refer specifically to the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Sadly, we are not conversant, living in a world as we are that idolizes western thought, and discounts local practices and writings.   Those of you who are looking for inspiration or confirmation that western economic theories originated in the Arthashastra – don’t pick this one up. But if you are curious about the Arthashastra, and what it ment...

  BOOK REVIEW : AKBAR THE GREAT MUGHAL THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY, by Ira Mukhoty   THE BOOK This is a book with a remarkably expansive scope, depth and breadth of coverage – it states itself as a biography, which it is; but is far more than that. This is a book on one of the greatest emperors India has ever had – Akbar The Great, and is a fully detailed exhaustive account of his entire life, covering a detailed perspective on every possible imaginable aspect of his life. It includes his conquests and the way he built his empire in full detail, including the political strategies employed as well as battle tactics and strategies. In these, as in everything else, it goes into stunning detail, giving a deep look at the entire scenario.   Source : Google Search What is special, or rather extra special about this book is it gives a deep understanding of both the times in which he lived, as well as remarkable details of the Mughal and Rajput etc societal struc...

Asian Juggernaut is a book with a massive, vast scope - aiming for covering the challenges, prospects and history of a massive continent; a continent that for most of History of the Earth was the predominant one. This is historical fact; this also means that its strategic analysis will also have to be of that level of depth. Secondly, Asia is a modern strategic playground for European / American powers, and is likely to   remain as such for the foreseeable future. It has had the status of a plaything of the West for 300+ years now. Thirdly, thanks largely to Western interference – aided in no small measure by Asian Naivete & Power Hunger, it is a continent deeply divided. We Asians Fail to realise that we need to be cohesive, unitary, one – giving the West the opportunity to use us for their means & ends. That wont change. THE MISSES None of these facts is going to change anytime soon. Neither are they going to be forgotten - in that light, this book has more mi...

The Death Of Money – The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System  by James Rickards ABOUT THE BOOK This is a book on the International Monetary System, and specifically on the future prospects of the current system we all live under, the dollar-oil-US based Geopolitical system, which together define the world of International Finance, Trade, Geopolitics. In addition to this, or rather, as a part of this, it also serves as an excellent book on Geopolitical analysis of the current state of the world at large. It looks in depth at International finance, trade, geopolitics and the operational realities of this troika that combine to be called what is euphemistically called the International Monetary System Its emphasis is identifying the existing fault lines, tracing geopolitical developments worldwide, examining the fine line between economics and politics, tracing the threats to Dollar Dominance, the rise of Dollar Alternatives, etc etc. It examines th...

BOOK REVIEW : THE SELFISH GENE by RICHARD DAWKINS The Selfish Gene is one of the most famous popular books on Genetics. After reading it, I can state that it is an excellent work, though not strictly on pure Genetics. I prefer to call it the realm of "applied" genetics, or rather the external effect, phenotypics of genetics. That said, even that is inadequate; it also covers seminal grounds in a variety of areas of life, and the imprint of the Gene on these areas : simple living, rearing, reproduction, and much more. KEY TAKEAWAYS But what takes the cake for me is the questions it asks in the last chapter wherein Mr Dawkins has examined the question of why should single celled organisms in the primordial soup evolve into multi-celled organisms, which is the most fundamental question in all Science; it is the proverbial last frontier of Science. As one reads it, it becomes apparent that Science is still floundering; while we have gone light-years into space ...