February 14, 2013 1 Book Peek

Quick look at a few books

BOOK PEEK

February 14, 2013 2 Book Peek

Contents of Book Peek dated February 14, 2013

Reviews ‘The Wisdom of Ants: A short history of economics’ by Shankar

Jaganathan – Tranquebar

‘14 Wealth-building Secrets of Value Investing’ by Ashu Dutt – Vision

Books

‘Microfinance India: State of the Sector Report 2012’ by Venugopalan

Puhazhendhi – Sage, Access

‘But Will the Planet Notice? How smart economics can save the world’

by Gernot Wagner - Macmillan

‘Doing what is right: The CRISIL Story’ by Hemanth Gorur and Sumit

Chowdhury – Landmark

‘Hungry Start-up Strategy: Creating new ventures with limited

resources and unlimited vision’ by Peter S. Cohan – Landmark

New arrivals – From Harper, Macmillan

Short snatches ‘Leading without Licence: Leadership the Anna Hazare Way’ by

Satheesh Namasivayam and Sivaram Bhadhakavi – Landmark

‘I have a Dream: The inspiring stories of 20 social entrepreneurs who

found new ways to solve old problems’ by Rashmi Bansal

‘Chanakya’s New Manifesto: To resolve the crisis within India’ by

Pavan K. Varma

‘A Bank for the Buck: The new bank movement and the untold story

of the making of India’s most valued bank’ by Tamal Bandyopadhyay

‘Aerogrammes: And other stories’ by Tania James

‘Insanely Simple: The obsession that drives Apple’s success’ by Ken

Segall

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February 14, 2013 3 Book Peek

Personal choices

De-clutter your life, downsize your city apartment, carry

around a canvas bag, and use a bike, urges Gernot Wagner

in ‘But Will the Planet Notice? How smart economics can

save the world’ (Macmillan).

The book opens by asking if our personal choices would

ever make a difference to the planet. Conceding that there

is no blocking the full, collective desires of the billions who

are now part of the market economy and the billions more

who want to – and ought to – be part of it, the only

solution, according to the author, is to guide the all-powerful market forces

in the right direction and create incentives for each of us to make choices

that work for all of us.

He notes that the guideposts we have today for market forces evolved helter-

skelter from a historical process that gave almost no weight to the survival

of the planet, largely because the survival of the planet was not at stake.

“Now it is. Since we can’t live without market forces, we need to guide them

to help us keep the human adventures going in workable ways, rather than

continue on the present path right off the edge of a cliff.”

February 14, 2013 4 Book Peek

Clarifying that the issue is not about right versus left, Republicans versus

Democrats, conservatives versus conservationists, or markets versus the

environment, the author observes that it is about liberating markets and

consequently turning each and every one of us into a force for good, and

making sure that increasing GDP (gross domestic product) does not

decrease collective well-being. It is about taking personal responsibility for

costs we now socialise and impose on society and the planet, he explains.

A chapter titled ‘A billion polluters’ underlines that it is easy to be an

environmentalist when you are among the privileged billion of global high

emitters.

“You can show your allegiance by remembering to bring a cloth bag to the

grocery store, refusing bottled water, or – the classic – using your frequent-

flier miles to plant trees and offset emissions for your next flight. Getting

your personal carbon dioxide emissions from twenty down to eighteen

tonnes a year is noble.”

In contrast, for anyone confronted with going from two to zero, the task is

not just a lot harder, it is impossible because of today’s dirty technologies

and misguided markets, the author frets.

Grim presentation, supplemented with action points.

February 14, 2013 5 Book Peek

‘Jorasanko’ by Aruna Chakravarti – Harper

‘Those Pricey Thakur Girls’ by Anuja Chauhan – Harper

Address for sending review copies of new books

New arrivals

February 14, 2013 6 Book Peek

‘Che in Paona Bazaar: Tales of exile and belonging from India’s North-East’

by Kishalay Bhattacharjee – Pan Macmillan

New arrival: Che in Paona Bazaar

February 14, 2013 7 Book Peek

Published by: Shrinikethan, Chennai http://bit.ly/ShriMap

Edited by: D. Murali http://bit.ly/dMurali http://bit.ly/TopTalk

February 14, 2013