The FOMO fallacy
Byju’s went from being a one-man coaching centre to being an education technology pioneer with millions downloading its learning app and signing up for its courses. Its innovative marketing strategy, built around the “Fear of Missing Out”, made it into a household name. It built a huge brand and went global, claiming a dizzying valuation of $22 billion. But today, saddled with governance, ethical and financial issues, Byju’s is symbolic of all that is wrong with the edtech industry.
Pradip K Saha broke most of the news stories about Byju’s. In this book, he offers a meticulous analysis of the company and its charismatic founder, alongside the history, the successes and the missteps, based on his reportage and deep research. This is a must-read for anyone interested in edtech, and in the dizzying rise and fall of India’s most famous unicorn.*
The return of Borei Gowda
When elderly Professor Mudgood, a well-known rationalist and fervent critic of right-wing forces in India, is found dead in his home in Bangalore by his daughter, ACP Borei Gowda is quite certain that it is a homicide.
Although all evidence points to the murder being politically motivated, the more Gowda delves into the case, the more convinced he is that it isn’t an assassination. As he and his team launch a parallel investigation, they stumble upon a secret and murky world where there are no rules or mercy. When Gowda’s hand is forced, he takes a calculated risk and infiltrates the sinister domain to bring the truth out into the open... Will he succeed? And at what price?
{{/usCountry}}Although all evidence points to the murder being politically motivated, the more Gowda delves into the case, the more convinced he is that it isn’t an assassination. As he and his team launch a parallel investigation, they stumble upon a secret and murky world where there are no rules or mercy. When Gowda’s hand is forced, he takes a calculated risk and infiltrates the sinister domain to bring the truth out into the open... Will he succeed? And at what price?
{{/usCountry}}Vivid with detail and taut with suspense, Hot Stage is at once a cracking police procedural and an intense exploration of the squalour and vice that fester in the shadowy lanes of an urban sprawl.*
Where life and legend intertwine
“Sedi (earth) desired to return to her husband Melo (sky), but as she was raising herself towards him, the sun and moon appeared; she was ashamed and could go no further. That part of her which was reaching towards her lord became fixed forever as the great mountains.”
A land of mountains, hills and rivers, hidden in rain and mist; a place where life and legend intertwine. Arunachal Pradesh, in India’s North-East, is a land of great beauty — in its forests teeming with wildlife, as in its barren high mountain passes — and even greater diversity, home as it is to over 26 major tribes and over 100 sub-tribes, all with distinct, age-old customs and beliefs. Once a forbidden, secret world believed to be inhabited by “unknown savages”, Arunachal Pradesh — formerly, the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) — has undergone rapid transformation since India’s Independence. As modernization sweeps through the land, changing it irrevocably, efforts are also on to protect and preserve the state’s tribal culture and its immense ecological wealth.
This beautifully written and illustrated book records all of this in a manner that has never been done before. It is a magnificent tribute to a magnificent land and its people.*
*All copy from book flap.