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Book Excerpts

Queen who fought Akbar, married out of caste—Rani Durgawati exercised choice 450 years ago

In 'Rani Durgawati: The Forgotten Life of a Warrior Queen’, Nandini Sengupta tells story of the Gond queen who has become footnote in India's history.

‘He used our rage against us’—How Dawood Ibrahim destroyed Bombay in 1993 serial blasts

In ‘Bombay After Ayodhya,’ Jitendra Dixit chronicles how the past three decades have been a period of unprecedented flux in Mumbai.

How an NRI’s attempt to take over 2 Indian firms led to LIC turning invincible

In 'Fifteen Judgments', Saurabh Kirpal talks about the events leading up to the LIC judgment that made the company a pillar of the Indian economy.

Earliest Ramayana paintings were in Persian, commissioned by Mughal king Akbar

In 'Origins of Orchha Painting', Konrad Seitz mentions how Akbar translated Ramayana and Mahabharata into Persian to spread awareness of Hindu culture.

Aurangzeb almost drank wine to prove his love for a courtesan

In ‘The World: A Family History’, British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore tells the story of humanity through the one thing we all have in common: families.

The idea of Dandakaranya as a breeding zone of Maoists took birth at a dinner table

The thirst for land among landless peasants and tribals was at its peak in Andhra Pradesh. It was Indira Gandhi, say veteran Maoist idealogues, who created the thirst.

A Mumbai trip changed Ram Gidoomal’s life, an Indian from a family of silk traders

In 'My Silk Road – The Adventures and Struggles of a British Asian Refugee’, Ram Gidoomal tells story of coming full circle to succeed in ways beyond his imagination.

Nehru read Ramayana every morning for pure joy. He also turned to religion in his old-age

In 'Nehru's India', Nayantara Sahgal presents a collection of essays written about the former Prime Minister of India, personality and his legacy.

Is your manager micromanaging? Then, agile corporate leadership will fail

An agile leader believes that solutions evolve on a real-time basis and that the solutions of the past may not be the solutions of today as they need to change along with the times.

How Chandra Shekhar govt and RBI hatched a plan to pledge India’s gold in 1991

In 'Forks in the Road: My Days at RBI', former governor C. Rangarajan gives a first-person account of India's economic crisis and history.

On Camera

Maharashtra’s language war reaches West Bengal. Actor Prosenjit Chatterjee is the first victim

While the language war in other states is targeting those who can't speak the local language, in Bengal, even those whose mother tongue is Bengali have to constantly prove their Bengali-ness.

India-US set to ink mini trade deal soon, reach understanding on agricultural & dairy products

Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.

DRDO successfully tests latest version of UAV-launched precision missile, ULPGM-V3

Capable of being fired in plain and high-altitude areas, it has day-and-night capability and two-way data link to support post-launch target, aim-point update.

Modi’s Bharat vs Indira’s India: 11-yr report card of politics, diplomacy, economy, nationalism

As Narendra Modi becomes India’s second-longest consecutively serving Prime Minister, we look at how he compares with Indira Gandhi across four key dimensions.