Land acquisition by the state has become an arena of widespread conflict in India.  This paper is a status report on conflicts, prices, and agents in contemporary land acquisition processes.  The principal purpose here is to provide solid empirical information on current conditions, including a compendium of recent land transactions, conflict situations (including both some well-known and relatively unknown ones), prices (from a wide variety of settings, from the core of south Mumbai to the mining lands of Orissa and Jharkhand), and agents (buyers, sellers, political parties, and civil society).  The key findings are these.  First, contrary to popular belief, the conflicts are not fundamentally between capitalists and peasants but between the state and peasants.  Second, there are two core reasons for these conflicts; in many cases because not enough is being paid for land; in several others because the land is "priceless", an idea that I explain in detail.  Third: the price of agricultural land has increased by about an order of magnitude in less than a decade and it is yet to reach its true scarcity value.  Finally, the fundamental explanation for the conflicts (happening now, but after decades of iniquities) comes from information theory; specifically, the growth of new information agents in the form of civil society and political parties.

The book written by Nagesh Hegde in simple Kannada. This book is in chapters and each chapters can be completed in 15 - 20 minutes.

One of the most important inspirational writers of our time, and an internationally acclaimed spiritual guide, Anthony de Mello here presents a way toward peace of mind, inner power, and joy through simple spiritual exercises that blend the ancient traditions of the East with the psychological and philosophical perspectives of the West. Wellsprings is intended to guide us to a deeper appreciation of the physical and mystical realms within us.

In these pages, numerous aspects of self-awareness are explored that for many people are often left uncultivated in the rapid pace of modern life. In the tradition of the great spiritual leaders of the past, de Mello directs the whole person toward a state of harmony and grace -- in heart and mind, body and soul. This book's great insights into our universal spiritual yearnings have had tremendous resonance the world over, and its simple lessons of the spirit have touched the lives of millions.

Wellsprings is indeed a book for everyone who thirsts for inner growth -- regardless of age, religion, or cultural background. If read carefully, its exercises will lead from mind to body, from thought to fantasy and feeling. It is then that we are both freed and empowered, awakened to reality and our real selves. For, as the teacher explains, "in solitude your self is given back to you."

Maverick! by Ricardo Semler reveals the success story of SEMCO, which made a turn-around from being an ailing company to an organization that reaped huge profits notwithstanding the high inflation. Semler reveals how he redefined the rules of management and empowered his employees to make their own rules at the workplace, making them independent of the management. It reveals the story of how the managers in the organization decided their own pay structure and perquisites. Semler further explains that there was no code of conduct in the company and no authority. Semler threw open all the doors and ensured that meetings were held only when they were extremely essential. Correspondences within the organization were kept to a bare minimum, and the workers at the production units set their own targets while ensuring that these were met. The book reveals all these and more, and shows its readers how all the above steps taken by SEMCO turned it into one of the best companies in South America and Brazil.

Ricardo Semler took over SEMCO from his father when he was 19 years old. The company was on the threshold of bankruptcy, but went on to generate an income of $160 million in 2000. Semler has been lauded for his unique manner of management, which reaped astounding levels of success for the company, in turn turning it into a role model for other companies. He has also written other books like The Seven-Day Weekend, The Seven-Day Weekend: A Better Way To Work In The 21st Century, and The Seven-day Weekend: A Manifesto for Radical Workplace Change.

A provocative and inspiring work on overcoming the obstacles facing women on the path to leadership
Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or equal pay, and some reticence creeps in.

The statistics, although an improvement on previous decades, are certainly not in women's favour of 197 heads of state, only twenty-two are women. Women hold just 20 percent of seats in parliaments globally, and in the world of big business, a meagre eighteen of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale. She draws on her own experiences working in some of the world's most successful businesses, as well as academic research, to find practical answers to the problems facing women in the workplace.

Learning to 'lean in' is about tackling the anxieties and preconceptions that stop women reaching the top taking a place at the table, and making yourself a part of the debate.

About the Author
Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. Prior to Facebook, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google. She previously served as Chief of Staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton.

The First Step-by-Step Manual for Achieving McKinsey-Style Solutions--and Success

McKinsey & Co. is renowned throughout the world for its ability to arrive at sharp, insightful analyses of its clients' situations then provide solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. McKinsey succeeds almost as well as shielding its revolutionary methods from competitors' scrutiny.

Now, The McKinsey Mind pulls back the curtain to reveal the ways in which McKinsey consultants consistently deliver their magic and how those methods can be used to achieve exceptional results in companies from 10 employees to 10,000. Packed with insights and brainstorming exercises for establishing the McKinsey mind-set, this book is an in-depth guidebook for applying McKinsey methods in any industry and organizational environment.

Taking a step-by-step approach, The McKinsey Mind looks at the McKinsey mystique from every angle. Owners, executives, consultants, and team leaders can look to this comprehensive treatment for ways to:

•Follow McKinsey's MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) line of attack

•Frame business problems to make them susceptible to rigorous fact-based analysis

•Use the same fact-based analysis--in conjunction with gut instinct--to make strategic decisions

•Conduct meaningful interviews and effectively summarize the content of those interviews

•Analyze the data to find out the "so what"

•Clearly communicate fact-based solutions to all pertinent decision makers

•Capture and manage the knowledge in any organization to maximize its value

Because organizational problems rarely exist in a vacuum, The McKinsey Mind discusses these approaches and more to help you arrive at usable and sensible solutions. It goes straight to the source--former McKinsey consultants now in leadership positions in organizations throughout the world--to give you today's only implementation-based, solution-driven look at the celebrated McKinsey problem-solving method.

"If more business books were as useful, concise, and just plain fun to read as THE MCKINSEY WAY, the business world would be a better place." --Julie Bick, best-selling author of ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW IN BUSINESS I LEARNED AT MICROSOFT.
"Enlivened by witty anecdotes, THE MCKINSEY WAY contains valuable lessons on widely diverse topics such as marketing, interviewing, team-building, and brainstorming." --Paul H. Zipkin, Vice-Dean, The Fuqua School of Business
It's been called "a breeding ground for gurus." McKinsey & Company is the gold-standard consulting firm whose alumni include titans such as "In Search of Excellence" author Tom Peters, Harvey Golub of American Express, and Japan's Kenichi Ohmae.
When Fortune 100 corporations are stymied, it's the "McKinsey-ites" whom they call for help. In THE MCKINSEY WAY, former McKinsey associate Ethan Rasiel lifts the veil to show you how the secretive McKinsey works its magic, and helps you emulate the firm's well-honed practices in problem solving, communication, and management.
He shows you how McKinsey-ites think about business problems and how they work at solving them, explaining the way McKinsey approaches every aspect of a task:

How McKinsey recruits and molds its elite consultants;

How to "sell without selling";

How to use facts, not fear them;

Techniques to jump-start research and make brainstorming more productive;

How to build and keep a team at the top its game;

Powerful presentation methods, including the famous waterfall chart, rarely seen outside McKinsey;

How to get ultimate "buy-in" to your findings;

Survival tips for working in high-pressure organizations.
Both a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most admired and secretive companies in the business world and a toolkit of problem-solving techniques without peer, THE MCKINSEY WAY is fascinating reading that empowers every business decision maker to become a better strategic player in any organization.

From two leading thinkers, comes the widely anticipated book that describes a new, hugely connected world of the future, full of challenges
and benefits which are ours to meet and harness.

The New Digital Age is the product of an unparalleled collaboration: full of the brilliant insights of one of Silicon Valley’s great innovators ? what Bill Gates was to Microsoft and Steve Jobs was to Apple, Schmidt (along with Larry Page and Sergey Brin) was to Google ? and the Director of Google Ideas, Jared Cohen, formerly an advisor to both Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Never before has the future been so vividly and transparently imagined. From technologies that will change lives (information systems that greatly increase productivity, safety and our quality of life, thought? controlled motion technology that can revolutionize medical procedures,
and near? perfect translation technology that allows us to have more diversified interactions) to our most important future considerations (curating our online identity and fighting those who would do harm with it) to the widespread political change that will transform the globe (through transformations in conflict, increasingly active and global citizenries, a new wave of cyber? terrorism and states operating simultaneously in the physical and virtual realms) to the ever present threats to our privacy and security, Schmidt and Cohen outline in great detail and scope all the promise and peril awaiting us in the coming decades.

Tatalog

 Eight Modern Stories from a Timeless Institution

Author: Harish Bhat
               

TATAlog

Log (English) = Record-keeping device
Log (Hindi) = People

From steel to beverages and from supercomputers to automobiles, TATA companies have broken new ground and set new standards of excellence over the past two decades. TATAlog presents eight riveting and hitherto untold stories about the strategic and operational challenges that TATA companies have faced, and the forward thinking and determination that have raised the brand to new heights.

Among the engaging and inspiring stories told here are those of Tata Indica, the first completely Indian car that succeeded in the face of widespread cynicism; the jewellery brand Tanishq that has transformed one of India’s largest industries; and Tata Finance, which underwent several tribulations yet demonstrated the principles which Tata stands for.

Written by a TATA insider, TATAlog reveals the DNA of every TATA enterprise—a combination of the virtues of being pioneering, purposive, principled and ‘not perfect’, along with tremendous human effort.