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The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is a book by author and former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The book focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events and the human tendency to find simplistic explanations for these events, retrospectively. Taleb calls this the Black Swan theory.

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India is the world's largest democracy with nearly 70 years of independent existence. Its unique and ever-changing nature has sparked a great degree of academic debate, both before and since Independence. The beauty of India is that there are many kinds of Indias. Understanding the fundamentals that have given birth to such multiplicity across various segments is especially imperative in the present day, when the 'Idea of India' is keenly contested. This nation has the world's largest youth population and is undergoing tectonic social and political changes at present; therefore, understanding what directions India may take in the future is essential. India Now and in Transition is an enquiry into possible futures, based on current happenings.

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The true story of the spiritual journey of Austrian born Walther Eidlitz from World War II to the Himalayas in search of truth. After an incredible journey of extraordinary events, Eidlitz finds his spiritual master when he becomes imprisoned in a British 'alien enemies' camp in Calcutta....

Unleashing India - Water: Elixir of Life is the second volume in the Unleashing India series. The book is an all-inclusive understanding of water resources and irrigation in India. It discusses in detail the planning, development and management of water resources.

"This book serves as a window into the rich and revealing lives and self-representations of the particular individuals who have produced the life histories. In so doing, it makes very important broader points about the use of life histories in social science research in general and in the study of South Asian social-cultural life in particular." Sarah Lamb

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The earth's resources are finite, climate change threatens to dramatically transform how and where we live, and the global economic system is in disarray. One way or another we have to change. In this brilliant and timely book, Zac Goldsmith argues here for the creation of what he calls 'a constant economy'. Since the industrial revolution, the economies of developed nations have grown at the expense of the natural world. One way or another we will have to change. The longer we delay, the more our societies will be at the mercy of events and the harsher the eventual adjustments. Fortunately, as this book shows, there is an alternative. A constant economy is one in which resources are valued not wasted, where food is grown sustainably and goods are built to last. It is a system in which energy security is based on the use of renewable sources, and where strong communities are valued as a country's most effective hedge against social, economic and environmental instability. The constant economy operates at the human scale, and above all it recognises nature's limits. Zac Goldsmith's landmark book aims to explain and inspire. He shows that almost every action needed to support the environment is already being carried out somewhere in the world, by companies, communities and governments determined to blaze a trail. Where they have done the right thing, their customers and voters have rewarded them. Practical solutions exist, and they are brought together and set out in this ground-breaking book. This book is suitable for readers of Tim Flannery, "Bring on the Apocalypse" by George Monbiot, "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, "The Storm" by Vincent Cable, and "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore.

In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where "Three Cups of Tea" left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders even as he was dodging shootouts with feuding Afghan warlords and surviving an eight-day armed abduction by the Taliban. He shares for the first time his broader vision to promote peace through education and literacy, as well as touching on military matters, Islam, and women - all woven together with the many rich personal stories of the people who have been involved in this remarkable two-decade humanitarian effort.

In Securing India the Modi way - Pathankot, Surgical strikes and More, Nitin A. Gokhale provides the most intimate and sweeping account yet of Team Narendra Modi's approach to national security and foreign policy initiatives.

The pressures on India have grown exponentially in recent times. Fires of Islamic terrorism, three hundred million poor below the poverty line living a sub human life, two hundred thousand suicides by farmers, chemically poisoned earth, completely ignored and unattended primary education, five hundred thousand Kashmiri Hindus forced to live in exile, hundreds of temples desecrated and destroyed, etc...

Can small indigenous communities survive, as distinct cultural entities, in northeast India, an area of mindboggling ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity? What are the choices such communities have, and what are some of the strategies such communities use to resist marginalisation? In recent years, many such small groups are participating in large state sponsored ethnic festivals, and organising their own community festivals. But are these signs of their increasing agency or simply proof of their continued marginalisation? How do state policies and political borders inter-state as well as international impact on a community's need to perform their ethnicity? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this work, on the basis of ethnographic field work conducted among the small Tangsa community living in Assam in northeast India. The study also reveals the asymmetry in the relations between the dominant power-wielding Assamese and the Tangsa. In summary, this is a study about marginality and its consequences, about performance of ethnicity at festivals as sites for both resistance and capitulation, and about the compulsions, imposed by the state and dominant neighbours, that can force small ethnic groups to contribute to their own marginalisation.