• ISBN13: 9789372260687
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: Politics and Current Affairs
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd
• Publisher Imprint: Atlantic
• Publication Date: January 13, 2025
• Pages: 660
• Original Price: INR 895.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 640 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): Counseling / Academic Development, Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects, and Cultural Pedagogies

India and the World: Essays for Social Scientists and UPSC Aspirants is a curated collection of over 90 essays by the author, originally published in reputed newspapers and journals over the past five years. The volume covers a broad spectrum of themes centering India's economy, polity, society and its engagement with the wider world. Offering nuanced perspectives on contemporary national and international developments, the essays are marked with rigorous analyses and critical insights. This book serves as a valuable resource for social science scholars, policy enthusiasts and UPSC aspirants seeking to enrich their understanding of the issues shaping contemporary society and governance.

Dr Govind Bhattacharjee is a former Director General in the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India, New Delhi. He currently serves as Professor of Practice at the Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management (AJNIFM), an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, where he teaches Public Finance and Public Policy. During his distinguished service career, he has served in various capacities in India and abroad. He is also a Visiting Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre for Multilevel Federalism, New Delhi. A prolific writer and regular columnist, Dr Bhattacharjee contributes wide-ranging intellectual perspectives to academic and public discourse. He has authored 10 books and published more than 300 research articles in academic journals and leading national newspapers.

• Preface..................................................................................................................iii
• Economy.................................................................................... 1
• Fifteenth Finance Commission Recommendations:
• Economics Mixed with Politics?.................................................... 3
• A Reform Long Overdue................................................................. 14
• Setting Up Bad Banks for the Good........................................... 19
• Banking Licence to Corporates: Recipe for Disaster?.......... 23
• Clearing the Mess of Retrospective Taxation.......................... 28
• Should the Global Debt Pandemic Worry Us?........................ 34
• Ease of Doing Business: World Bank Under Suspicion....... 39
• Electoral Freebies................................................................................ 43
• G7 Plans End of Tax Paradise for MNCs.................................... 57
• Globalisation of Indian Financial Markets................................ 61
• GST Council: A Breach of Trust?................................................... 65
• Illogical Controls................................................................................. 77
• Daring to Dream................................................................................. 82
• Problem of Plenty.............................................................................. 87
• The World Must Unite to Fight Inflation.................................. 92
• Mutilated Landscape......................................................................... 96
• Moment of Reckoning..................................................................... 105
• Our Public Sector Undertakings................................................... 110
• Shed the Veil........................................................................................ 115
• Does Our Population Need Controlling?.................................. 120
• Bad to Worse?..................................................................................... 125
• Economic Isolation............................................................................. 130
• Welfare and State............................................................................... 135
• Reforming Our Sick Health Sector.............................................. 140
• Rising Dollar Will Hurt Emerging Economies......................... 149
• State’s Borrowing Spree: A Recipe for Disaster..................... 154
• Tax on Agricultural Income: Holy Cow of Indian
• Economy................................................................................................. 158
• Way to Bankruptcy............................................................................. 170
• Yes Bank: Story of Greed and Fraud........................................... 175
• Environment ........................................................................................181
• GM Mustard: A Contrary View...................................................... 183
• The Growth Conundrum................................................................. 188
• How Green Are the Electric Vehicles?........................................ 206
• Cost of Nature.................................................................................... 210
• Innovative Strategies for Arresting Environmental Degradation While Addressing Debt Problems of the
• States....................................................................................................... 215
• Neighbourhood and the World ..............................................................................239
• 10 Years of Arab Spring................................................................... 241
• The Altasian Alternative to China................................................ 251
• An Oceanic Focus............................................................................... 255
• Archaic Institution............................................................................... 265
• Race with China.................................................................................. 270
• Great Helmsman................................................................................. 285
• Cry, Afghanistan.................................................................................. 294
• End of Theocracy?.............................................................................. 299
• Energy and Geopolitics.................................................................... 304
• Google and Facebook: Lesson from Australia........................ 309
• Singer and the Song......................................................................... 314
• The Iran Imbroglio............................................................................. 318
• Bear’s Embrace.................................................................................... 328
• India Out of Russian Orbit?........................................................... 338
• Russian Roulette................................................................................. 343
• Man-Made Disaster........................................................................... 353
• The China Trade.................................................................................. 359
• United Nations at 75........................................................................ 364
• Vaccine Inequality............................................................................... 369
• Weapons in Space.............................................................................. 374
• Polity........................................................................................................ 383
• Constitutionality of the Sixth Schedule..................................... 385
• Democracy Index:
• Fair or Unfair........................................................................................ 394
• GST and Federalism........................................................................... 399
• History and the Legacy of Netaji................................................. 404
• Population and Policy....................................................................... 408
• Public Policy in Modern Times vis-à-vis in Ancient
• India......................................................................................................... 413
• Civil Service Reforms......................................................................... 434
• Water Federalism: Policy and Institutional Frame................. 459
• Welfare Schemes for the Girl Child: Need for
• Convergence between the Centre and the States................ 470
• The Illusion of Change..................................................................... 483
• Science, Religion and Philosophy .................................................489
• Anatomy of Happiness.................................................................... 491
• Cacophony of Religion..................................................................... 500
• Post-COVID Capitalism: Promote and Protect Communities, Not Profit.................................................................. 505
• Crisis of Capitalism............................................................................ 510
• Capitalism with Ethics....................................................................... 521
• Cosmic Dawn....................................................................................... 526
• Internet of All Things........................................................................ 531
• Meaning of Life................................................................................... 536
• Religion in Crisis................................................................................. 544
• Competing Religions......................................................................... 549
• Science vs Religion............................................................................ 554
• Surreality of the Metaverse............................................................ 563
• Towards a World Government...................................................... 568
• Quest for Immortality....................................................................... 578
• The Untamed AI.................................................................................. 582
• Society .....................................................................................591
• Caste Genie Threatens to Come Out of Bottle....................... 593
• Fix Accountability............................................................................... 598
• Right and Plurality.............................................................................. 602
• Unenforceable Right......................................................................... 607
• Targeting Love..................................................................................... 612
• Lethal Addiction.................................................................................. 617
• New Education Policy 2020: Devil in the Details................... 622
• Assam’s Alien Settlers....................................................................... 628
• Social Media: Not So Social........................................................... 633
• Video Games: The New Age Opium.......................................... 638
• India Needs Vidyasagar Now........................................................ 642
• VIP-Land of India: A Sick Culture................................................ 647