Effective governance is the real formula for national development. In this thought provoking book, N. Vittal, IAS (Retd), who has had an excellent track record in public governance as a civil servant in the key sectors of IT, Telecommunication, public sector management and vigilance against corruption explores the roots for effective governance. He examines, this vital issue in three dimensions: (i) from his own extensive experience as a hands-on administrator and policy maker;(ii) from the success stories in a wide range of sectors in India; and(iii) from the culture and tradition of our nation.This is a unique book, which articulates the ground realities of public governance today. The author has drawn on his vast experience to highlight the special techniques he adopted to innovate and get effective results in the bureaucracy, which is generally perceived to be tied up in red tape and a prisoner of procedures and precedents. He explores the myth that a civil servant can only be a cog in the vast impersonal machine of the government. The book provides valuable insights and pragmatic solutions for effective action to overcome the problems. It also draws attention to the ethos of our country and examines the interesting dynamics between traditional values and the challanges of public governance today. The book is a must for every thinking Indian who is concerned about the future of our country.

The bureaucracy can accelerate or derail the fast growth of the State, depending on their mindset and level of training and motivation. The efficiency level of bureaucracy can have a major bearing on competitiveness of private enterprise, from where the major part of growth comes. There are several problems plaguing the lower levels of bureaucracy. Negativism, risk aversion, work-avoidance, low levels of motivation are some of them. Also, there is a gross underutilization of their capacity. This book is a compilation of nine essays (out of which three are based on extensive research), which cover the strategies for Reinventing Government through Human Resource Management. The book contains a chapter on USA’s experience in civil service reforms and its implications for India. The book covers analytical presentation of some innovative strategies adopted by Government of Gujarat for training and motivation of its staff, which became quite successful in changing the mindset of Government employees. Among the numerous strengths of the book is the author’s ability to reflect hardcore ground realities from a 360 degree perspective. The focus of the book is basically on changing the mindset of government officials, empowering them with a positive outlook, and reinventing governance through proper remedial measures.

This book presents age-old sayings from a small country in South America, Suriname, where Amer-Indians, Indonesians, Africans, Europeans, and Indians created a distinctive culture of diversity, mutuality, and acceptance. Many of these sayings were developed in slavery time, when the oppressed groups wanted to communicate with each another without letting the Dutch masters know what their conversations were about. In this book, the sayings are explained as lessons for our daily life. Everyone who wants to expand their insights in life, and their knowledge on human nature can use them. These sayings are also important affirmations for leaders who want to enhance their emotional intelligence, in order to make more balance and perceptive decisions.

The pharmaceutical industry in India is one of the largest and most advanced among the developing countries. During the last three decades, Indian pharmaceutical industry achieved spectacular progress by any standard. India’s pharmaceutical industry has been transformed from a mere processing activity into a highly sophisticated industry, possessing advanced manufacturing technology, modern equipment and stringent quality control. This book discusses the strategic perspective of the growth of Indian pharma industry. It highlights some strategic models of growth of Indian pharma companies. The book also focuses in detail the strategies of growth of movers and shakers of Indian pharma companies and other star performers. The strategies of growth of healthcare players are also focused upon. Corporate restructuring activities like alliances, mergers and acquisitions in Indian pharma industry are discussed. The status scenario of research and development in the Indian pharma industry and the entire value chain of the drug discovery process are highlighted. The growth of biotech industry, generics market, vaccines and OTC market also form part of the discussion. The last part of the book focuses on the regulatory framework of the pharma industry including intellectual property rights.

Investor Relations (IR) is probably one of the most exciting professions, seated at the heart of the company, as it is an integral part of the corporate strategy to seek better valuations and gain visibility in the market place. It is indeed a high-profile profession with little margin for error. The book “Investor Relations” provides a valuable perspective of the development of IR profession on the domestic front with the advent of the institutional investors, particularly the FIIs. This book provides useful insights into the IR profession that is catching up. It is expected to be resourceful to the entrepreneurs, the fund managers, the analysts (on both the buy-side and the sell-side), and the IR Professionals (IRPs), for it focuses on the emerging trend and gives a complete picture of the IR activity in companies industry-wise. “Investor Relations” may be considered a unique book in several ways. Firstly, it is written by a person with a diverse background with deep, free hand knowledge of how this emerging industry works. Secondly, it brings to light the survey results conducted confidentially in companies across the industries. Finally, it speaks equally to an informed as well as an uninformed reader, taking very clear positions on important issues that affect the Investor Relations Profession.

Social Security in India has been under serious discussion for the last ten years. The approaches of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG), and the resultant impact on labour and financial markets have made many thinkers re-look at the social security systems available in India. Ironically, the place where everybody’s looks have stopped at, is the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), under the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, that extends social security benefits in the form of old-age income, disability and survivors’ benefit. The organization has been criticized for its inefficiencies, in terms of its benefit delivery, coverage and financial management. At the same time, discussions on social security provision for the informal sector have been geared up. While seriously looking into the provident funds and pension administration in India through the EPFO, the book traces the history of social security in India and the world. It discusses the holistic and conceptual aspects of social security in relation to practical administrative mechanisms and shows a direction for a comprehensive social security for the Indian working population, documents the development of social security movement in India and advocates building of capabilities of individuals and institutions for a better protection. It is hoped that researchers, policy-makers, experts, administrators and beginners in social security will find this book instructive as well as interesting.

This selection of the author’s articles and short papers from The Hindu and other periodicals dates from May 1997 onwards and covers topics in politics, political economy, civil society, and the state. The international coverage includes the United Kingdom and the European Union in domestic and international affairs; the section on political economy includes articles on privatization and disaster management respectively, and the coverage of India reviews several recent publications on Indian politics and political life. The concluding section is on wider issues of the state, civil society, and constitutionality. The book, which includes some updated material, is intended for an educated general readership, and is likely to be of interest to journalists and trainee journalists, teachers and students of the social sciences, and serving professionals in the public and private sectors.

This book is a study of the profitability of technical and fundamental trading rules in emerging financial markets (stock and foreign exchange markets) using Kuwait as a case study. The ultimate objective of the study is to demonstrate that financial volatility can be attributed to the heterogeneity of traders with respect to the trading strategies they use. A number of trading strategies are considered, including those based on expectation formation mechanisms, quantitative technical indicators, filter rules, moving average rules, fundamental trading rules, and the price-volume relation. The profitability of each trading rule is then compared to the profitability of a passive buy and hold strategy. Based on the profitability of these rules, weights are assigned to each strategy to simulate financial prices (two stock prices and two exchange rates). By comparing the statistical distributions of the actual and simulated financial prices, it is shown that there is ample evidence indicating the effect of heterogeneity on volatility. The study also presents some evidence of the roles played by technicians and fundamentalists in financial price determination.

Interbeing is a term that was introduced by Thich Nhat Hanh, a well-respected Vietnamese monk, currently living in France. Interbeing has a similar meaning as connectedness and interdependence. This book presents 50 articles focused on personal excellence geared to improved mutuality, and therefore leading to greater performance and wellbeing for all. Topics such as inner-connection, change, awakening, meaning, learning, leadership, spirituality, and a variety of interesting perspectives on life issues are presented in easily digestible reading. This book will help you find answers to issues that may have seemed impenetrable before. It will ignite deep thoughtfulness, and thus guide you toward greater contentment, connection, and performance excellence.

The Icfai Dictionary of Structured Systems Analysis and Design (SSAD) is addressed to students, teachers, practitioners and general readers who want to follow SSAD discussions in the class and elsewhere, or whose daily work demands some familiarity with terminology of Systems Analysis and Design functions like Systems Analysis Fundamentals, Information Requirements Analysis, The Analysis Process, The essentials of Design, Software Engineering and implementations, and Advances in DBMS etc. The dictionary also addresses terms from the conceptual level to the advanced level in a precise manner. It aims to provide a comprehensive companion to support other reading in a discipline, which employs remarkably similar terminology. This dictionary is a guide to the main ideas and teaching connected to the basics of and advances in SSAD. The book is designed in such a way that it will cover the salient facts and features of various points of SSAD and, also explore Systems Analysis and Design development from technology and business perspectives. Over 2500 entries define and explain clearly the salient facts within the context of Structured Systems Analysis and Design. Its store of up-to-date information will, it is hoped, appeal to active managers, teachers and students of information systems.