India: India has successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, the Agni-V. The missile has a range of over 5,000 kilometers, which puts it within reach of targets in China and Pakistan.

#India #Pakistan #China

#PDFDownload South vs North: India’s Great Divide by Nilakantan RS

Compare two children – one born in north India, the other in the south. The child from south India is far less likely to die in the first year of her life or lose her mother during childbirth. She will also receive better nutrition, go to school and stay in school longer; she is more likely to attend college and secure employment that pays her more. This child will also go on to have fewer children, who in turn will be healthier and more educated than her. In a nutshell, the average child born in south India will live a healthier, wealthier, more secure life than one born in north India. Why is south India doing so much better than the north? And what does that mean? In this superbly argued book, data scientist Nilakantan RS shows us how and why the southern states are outperforming the rest of the country and its consequences in an increasingly centralized India. He reveals how south India deals with a particularly tough set of issues – its triumphs in areas of health, education and economic growth are met with a policy regime that penalizes it; its success in population control will be met with a possible loss of political representation. How will the region manage such an assault? Hard-hitting, troubling and full of fascinating data points, South vs North is an essential book about one of the biggest challenges that India faces today.

#PDFDownload Insatiable by Shobhaa Dé

'I promise not to be three things--profound, pedantic and pretentious.'
'I promise not to be three things--profound, pedantic and pretentious,' says Shobhaa De, as she begins her heart-warming book.

It's a promise India's most beloved writer delivers on in her irreverent memoir about the year leading up to her landmark seventy-fifth birthday. Quintessential exuberance and keen observations firmly in place, she tells us about travelling solo, feasting (and fasting) with family and friends, the triumphs and losses that accompany ageing, the vagaries and vulnerabilities of being a writer and, above all, how food connects people in the most unexpected places and delightful ways.
From where to find the most delicious lassi in Jaipur, her obsession with kasundi and conversations with a Nobel Laureate who is a gourmet to M.F. Husain's last food khwaish and what's served at Aamir Khan's dinner table, Shobhaa takes us into the dining rooms of politicians, artists and celebrities, to festivals and parties and other social events, and, more privately, into her home, where food is always the prime subject of conversation.
In Insatiable, Shobhaa reminds us of the many delights and disappointments that the banquet of life offers, even as she examines the shared emotional hunger for happiness and love that binds us all.

SRK dominates search: Google #India data reveals Shah Rukh Khan's films "Jawan" and "Pathaan" were the most-searched movies of 2023, highlighting his continuing popularity and the rise of Indian cinema globally. (Economic Times)

Tension In Bihar's Gopalganj After Priest Shot Dead, Eyes Gouged Out: A priest was shot dead and his eyes were gouged out in the state of Bihar, India. Police are investigating the motive for the attack, but it is believed to be linked to a land dispute. #India

PMO Official, Fake Degrees: How Kashmir Conman Fooled Women Across India: A man from Kashmir has been arrested for allegedly posing as a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office and conning women across India out of money. The case has raised concerns about online scams and the need for vigilance.

Serious Security Lapse! PM Calls for Investigation After Parliament Breach

A major security breach has shaken India as protestors entered the Parliament building. Prime Minister Modi has called for a thorough investigation and assured swift action against those responsible. 🇮🇳 This incident raises concerns about security protocols and sparks discussions on political dissent. What are your thoughts on this critical issue?

Indian Whisky Wins "World's Best" Title, Shaking Up Global Brands!

Cheers to our desi spirits! 🇮🇳 An Indian whisky has been named the world's best, sending shockwaves through the industry. This is a major win for India's growing liquor market and a testament to the quality of our local distilleries. What do you think? Does this surprise you?

#PDF_Download The Resilience Project: Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness by Hugh van Cuylenburg

Hugh van Cuylenburg was a primary school teacher volunteering in northern India when he had a life-changing realisation- despite the underprivileged community the children were from, they were remarkably positive. By contrast, back in Australia Hugh knew that all too many children struggled with depression, social anxieties and mental illness. His own little sister had been ravaged by anorexia nervosa.

#PDF_Download Betting on a Duke’s Heart by Royaline Sing

Miss Dina Campbell wants a soulmate, and hell will freeze over before she'd marry a horse-mad man who loves horses more than a woman. However, with her father aging quickly and her Indian heritage drawing interest in town, she may not get the say in her future that she’d hoped. Those prize horses belonging to her father are drawing attention from suitors, and time may be over for her to find a love match.

#PDF_Download Perveen Mistry #3 The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey

India’s only female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is compelled to bring justice to the family of a murdered female Parsi student just as Bombay’s streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule. Sujata Massey is back with this third installment to the Agatha and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning series set in 1920s Bombay.

#PDF_Download Killing Crazy Horse: The Merciless Indian Wars in America by Bill O'Reilly , Martin Dugard

The latest installment of the multimillion-selling Killing series is a gripping journey through the American West and the historic clashes between Native Americans and settlers.

#PDF_Download Perveen Mistry #2 The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey

India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri mountains, where the princely state of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur’s royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic hunting accident. The state is now ruled by an agent of the British Raj on behalf of Satapur’s two maharanis, the dowager queen and her daughter-in-law.

#PDF_Download Perveen Mistry #1 The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a legal education from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women's rights.

#PDF_Download A House Is a Body by Shruti Swamy

In two-time O. Henry-prize winner Swamy's debut collection of stories, dreams collide with reality, modernity collides with antiquity, myth with true identity, and women grapple with desire, with ego, with motherhood and mortality. In "Earthly Pleasures," Radika, a young painter living alone in San Francisco, begins a secret romance with one of India's biggest celebrities. In "A Simple Composition," a husband's moment of crisis leads to his wife's discovery of a dark, ecstatic joy and the sense of a new beginning. In the title story, an exhausted mother watches, distracted and paralyzed, as a California wildfire approaches her home. With a knife blade's edge and precision, the stories of A House Is a Body travel from India to America and back again to reveal the small moments of beauty, pain, and power that contain the world.

#PDF_Download The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work by Joseph Campbell , Stuart L. Brown (Foreword) , Phil Cousineau (Editor)

In what amounts to Campbell’s only spiritual autobiography, this beautifully crafted collection of conversations, interviews, and outtakes from the The Hero’s Journey documentary reveals and illuminates Campbell’s personal and intellectual journey. Warm and relaxed, Campbell is first seen sipping Glenlivet and encouraging his mentee, Cousineau. Then, as described by Publishers Weekly, “the book ranges widely, from Cro-Magnon art to Arthurian legend…as it follows Campbell from his Catholic boyhood and early interest in American Indians to his years in Paris and Munich.” Readers listen in as he meets Jung (who discusses the meaning of the Hindu syllable, “Om”); hear Campbell quip, “if marriage isn’t a first priority in your life, you’re not married”; and learn the genesis of Campbell’s trademark, “follow your bliss.” As Richard Adams wrot

#PDF_Download Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Herman Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, painter and novelist. In 1946 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is most noted for Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game. Siddhartha was written in 1922 and showed his love of the Indian culture and Buddhist philosophy. Siddhartha returned to popularity in the 1960's due in part to the counterculture mood in the hippie movement and the novel's themes of a quest for enlightenment.

#PDF_Download Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

The celebrated Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of America. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life, he carries the reader through Washington's troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian Wars, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention and his magnificent performance as America's first president.

#PDF_Download The Marriage Code by Brooke Burroughs

In Brooke Burroughs’s endearing debut novel set in vibrant India, enemies turned allies encounter obstacles in an unexpected multicultural romance only to discover that in the end, love is love. Emma has always lived her life according to a plan. But after turning down her boyfriend’s proposal, everything starts to crumble. In an effort to save the one thing she cares about―her job―she must recruit her colleague, Rishi, to be on her development team…only she may or may not have received the position he was promised. (She did.) Rishi cannot believe that he got passed over for promotion. To make matters worse, not only does his job require him to return home to Bangalore with his nemesis, Emma, but his parents now expect him to choose a bride and get married. So, when Emma makes him an offer―join her team, and she’ll write an algorithm to find him the perfect bride―he reluctantly accepts. Neither of them expect her marriage code to w

#PDF_Download A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Place for Us unfolds the lives of an Indian-American Muslim family, gathered together in their Californian hometown to celebrate the eldest daughter, Hadia's, wedding - a match of love rather than tradition. It is here, on this momentous day, that Amar, the youngest of the siblings, reunites with his family for the first time in three years. Rafiq and Layla must now contend with the choices and betrayals that lead to their son's estrangement - the reckoning of parents who strove to pass on their cultures and traditions to their children; and of children who in turn struggle to balance authenticity in themselves with loyalty to the home they came from.

#PDF_Download Ashoka the Ungreat by Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay

Ashoka Maurya. A great king. Master strategist. A legend. The inheritor of the greatest kingdom in Indian-subcontinent. One war, the bloody Kalinga War, however changes him forever. He makes a clean break with the past. Ashoka gives up Hinduism. He gives up war. He embraces Buddhism. He becomes a humanist. A messenger of peace and religious tolerance. This is what we are taught in schools and colleges. But how much of this is really true? We worship Rama. We venerate Krishna. Our country is named after King Bharat. We recall Mandhatri when we talk of the old. We talk of Yudhistira's truthfulness. Bhima's strength. Arjuna's valor. Vikramaditya, Chandragupta, Raja Bhoja, Prithviraj Chauhan, Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Guru Gobind Singh. They are our heroes. They are a part of our daily lives. Ashoka is not. We never talk about Ashoka conversationally. Our ancestors never talked about Ashoka. Ashoka was forgotten and unknown in I

#PDF_Download Dimple and Rishi #1 When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family—and from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

#PDF_Download This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota's Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O’Banion, a lively orphan boy whose exploits constantly earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Odie and his brother, Albert, are the only white faces among the hundreds of Native American children at the school.

#PDF_Download The Midnight Rose by Riley

Spanning four generations, The Midnight Rose sweeps from the glittering palaces of the great maharajas of India to the majestic stately homes of England, following the extraordinary life of a remarkable girl, Anahita Chaval, from 1911 to the present day . . .

#PDF_Download Dishoom: The first ever cookbook from the much-loved Indian restaurant by Shamil Thakrar , Kavi Thakrar , Naved Nasir

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

#PDF_Download The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple

The story of how the East India Company took over large swaths of Asia, and the devastating results of the corporation running a country. #WilliamDalrymple

#PDF_Download Lion by Saroo Brierley

Aged just five, Saroo Brierley lost all contact with his family in India, after waiting at a train station for his brother who never returned.

#PDF_Download You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Liz Lighty has always believed she's too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town. But it's okay -- Liz has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana, forever: attend the uber-elite Pennington College, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor.

#PDF_Download You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Liz Lighty has always believed she's too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town. But it's okay -- Liz has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana, forever: attend the uber-elite Pennington College, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor.

#PDF_Download Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao

A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, about a once-in-a-lifetime friendship between two girls who are driven apart but never stop trying to find one another again.