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Book Excerpts

A young man from Meerut helped ‘made in China’ Xiaomi sweep India’s smartphone market

In 'Xiaomi', Jayadevan P.K. chronicles how the company built a cult following & went from a Chinese start-up to a global player in the smartphone market.

Dalit Veda Vyasa was India’s first nation builder. He was the child of an inter-caste union

In ‘Makers of Modern Dalit History’, Sudarshan Ramabadran and Guru Prakash Paswan write Veda Vyasa’s achievements show how Dalit communities have helped Hinduism revolutionise and reform.

Operation Eagle — The 1971 mission by RAW and Tibetan SFF that has no official record

In ‘The War That Made R&AW’, Anusha Nandakumar and Sandeep Saket write that with the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, spymaster R.N. Kao put India’s RAW on the world intelligence map.

British Empire’s sun hasn’t set on Indian officers’ clubs — centre of civil-military tussle

In ‘India’s Power Elite’, Sanjaya Baru writes that BJP’s greater political prominence to military heroes has not always raised their profile within the power elite.

How this Travancore King sparked off temple entry reforms for Dalit citizens

In ‘History Liberated’, Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi writes about reforms & policies undertaken during the Travancore royal family’s last phase.

Working at Google wasn’t cutting it, that’s how The Bohri Kitchen was born

Munaf Kapadia worked at Wrigley and then Google before leaving it all to start The Bohri Kitchen with his mother from their home in Colaba. Read an excerpt from his book.

Dyer’s rage didn’t end with Jallianwala Bagh. Don’t forget Khoo Korian

In a new edition of V.N. Datta’s 1969 classic ’Jallianwala Bagh’, Nonica Datta writes that Gen. Dyer ‘wanted to punish Amritsar more’.

Why Manohar Parrikar’s biggest contribution to Defence Ministry was breaking Rafale logjam

In ‘Manohar Parrikar: Brilliant Mind, Simple Life’, Nitin A. Gokhale explores how India’s first IIT-qualified chief minister strengthened India's national security.

In jails, underworld dons had a liking for Naxalites due to Robin Hood image: Kobad Ghandy

In ‘Fractured Freedom’, Communist Kobad Ghandy writes about the 10 years he spent in the prisons of Delhi, Hyderabad, Patiala, Visakhapatnam, Hazaribagh and Surat on terror charges.

Indian women voters prefer door-to-door campaigns — not motorbike rallies, roadshows

In ‘Her Right to Equality’, Tara Krishnaswamy writes on efforts needed to create a gender-balanced Parliament and politics in India.

On Camera

Royals to Republicans—Epstein files have exposed fault lines across power circles

Donald Trump, who has nurtured the MAGA movement for the last decade, has been perceived to have lost control over the movement, particularly with the release of Epstein’s records.

At Charcha 2025: Local entrepreneurship, not just big IT, will drive next wave of distributed AI work

While global corporations setting up GCCs in India continue to express confidence in availability of skilled AI engineers, the panel argued that India’s real challenge lies elsewhere.

Tejas fighter aircraft crashes at Dubai Air Show, IAF confirms pilot’s death

This is the second such incident after a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas had crashed into a hostel on the outskirts of Jaisalmer in March last year.

A tribute to Tejas. India’s delay culture is the real enemy in the skies

It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.