Cashless Nation
Santanu Paul, B Sambamurthy
Penguin Random House
Pp 336, Rs 899
Few technologies have reshaped a nation’s habits as quickly — or as profoundly — as UPI. In less than a decade, it transformed how India does business, breaching barriers of literacy, language, culture and geography to connect everyone from street vendors to global corporations through a simple and robust payments network. Cashless Nation is the chronicle of a nation reimagining the relationship between citizens, markets and the state — and creating a model that has captured the world’s attention.
Shapers and Founders
Gautam Kumra, Cheryl Lim, Joydeep Sengupta
Wiley
Pp 256
The book explores how, in boardrooms and backstreets alike, owner-CEOs have built national champions and global contenders, often from modest beginnings and in unforgiving markets. Through candid, in-depth conversations with entrepreneurs across Bangkok, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, and Tokyo, the book reveals the core behaviours and governing mindsets that truly set these founders and CEOs apart.
Data Empire
Roopika Risam
Penguin Random House
Pp 480, Rs 849
The book makes a striking case: data has never simply been about information. It has been a technology of power, used to organise societies, govern populations, build empires and determine who belongs. At a moment when AI, data brokers, surveillance and algorithmic decision-making are transforming everyday life, Data Empire asks an urgent question: what happens when the systems that once helped us remember begin to rule us?
The Indian Economy
Kaushik Basu, Sonalde Desai, A Deshpande & Nirvikar Singh
Simon & Schuster
Pp 304, Rs 899
Can India convert its demo-graphic scale, technological capabilities, entrepreneurial energy, and geopolitical opening into a model of development that creates good jobs, expands human capabilities, strengthens institutions, and shares the gains of globalisation and technology more widely? Neither triumphalist nor despairing, The Indian Economy delivers the rigorous, evidence-based analysis this pivotal moment demands.
It Started with Words
Harsh Mander
Speaking Tiger Books
Pp 272, Rs 499
Since 2014, hate speech has moved from the political fringe to the centre of public life. It is heard from election platforms and religious stages, repeated in television studios, circulated through WhatsApp and YouTube, and rewarded with votes, influence and profit. Harsh Mander examines how this hatred is produced, spread and protected; who profits from it; and what happens when those who incite fear also command the machinery of the state.