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Sunday, November 23, 2025
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Book Excerpts

Will everything be done by the ‘babus’? How Modi’s outburst demoralised many IAS officers

In 'No More A Civil Servant', Anil Swarup talks about his close brushes with PM Modi in retrospect.

Bofors scandal – When Rajiv Gandhi’s biggest opposition was a swarm of angry journalists

In ‘The Commissioner for Lost Causes’, Arun Shourie writes about The Defamation Bill of 1988 that the press rose as one against.

Gandhi called railways ‘gigantic evil’. Second Covid wave would’ve changed his mind

In 'The Great Shutdown', Jyoti Mukul examines the repercussions of decisions during the Covid outbreaks and emotional crisis for millions of Indians.

How Phoolan Devi’s fortune changed during the prime of Mandal-Kamandal politics in UP

In ‘From Lucknow to Lutyens’, Abhigyan Prakash tells the fascinating story of Uttar Pradesh in post-Independence India and the intertwined fortunes of the two.

‘Dirty Indian’ to business tycoon of ‘60s following govt diktats, Gujarmal Modi saw it all

In 'Gujarmal Modi: The Resolute Industrialist', Sonu Bhasin talks about the inside story of India's seventh-largest business empire of the 1960s.

Was there an ‘original meaning’ to Article 21? Supreme Court judgment holds the answer

In 'Liberty After Freedom', Rohan J. Alva explores the origins of what is considered the most important fundamental right in the Indian Constitution.

Ideological changes in Kabul mattered little to India, till the Taliban came to power

In ‘The Comrades and the Mullahs’, Ananth Krishnan and Stanly Johny write that India’s late outreach to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan wasn’t just because of Modi’s politics.

When Rabindranath Tagore sent 3 men to study agriculture in US so they can build Sriniketan

In ‘History of Sriniketan’, Uma Das Gupta writes about Tagore’s rural reconstruction project, where scientists, economists, sociologists and technicians came together with villagers to build Sriniketan.

‘We have to kill more’: Umar Farooq Alvi wanted to engineer a bigger attack after Pulwama

In ‘As Far as the Saffron Fields', Danesh Rana meticulously pieces together a detailed account of the conspiracy behind the Pulwama attack.

Suicide set to become leading cause of death in Indian women. And NRCB won’t tell you that

In 'Life Interrupted', the authors go behind the scenes of the suicide crisis in India, showing that women form the bottom rung of it.

On Camera

In Tejas Dubai crash, the harm goes beyond the loss of an aircraft and pilot

Airshows are thrilling spectacles of aviation skill and engineering marvels. But they carry inherent risks as the crew is pushing the aircraft, and themselves, to perform at the edges of the envelope.

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.

From a small Kangra village to Tejas cockpit: IAF fighter pilot Namansh Syal’s journey cut short

Wing Commander Namansh Syal is survived by his wife, their 6-year-old daughter and his mother. Back in his native village, relatives and neighbours wait for his remains for last rites.

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.