HE BREAKS RULES, HEARTS AND RECORDS As Prem, the nation’s first love; as Bajrangi, the unlikely hero who saved the day and brought kindness back in vogue; as Tiger, the action king who redefined machismo for a new India, Salman Khan is the only Bollywood superstar who has ruled romance, comedy and action with equal ease and style. While critics share the perfect love-hate relationship with him, for his fans—who flock to the theatres with every new release, their loyalty unquestionable, their excitement unbridled—nothing can match the anticipation of a new film starring Salman Khan. His signature swagger, magnetic charm and larger-than-life persona have fascinated moviegoers film after film. In Salman Khan: The Sultan of Bollywood, through fan interviews, never-before-seen photos and insights from long-time collaborators of the star, the author has put forward an ode to the actor who has made an impact on pop culture like no other. Through controversies and comebacks, blockbusters and hard life lessons, Salman has remained cinema’s wild heart and its last true mystery—perhaps the only superstar of his kind that India will ever see. ISBN – 9789373070100

London Olympics 2012. The world is watching as the greatest show on earth takes to the stage. Billions of eyes on London. Nations united in celebration. It should be a moment of celebration. But for one shadowy organisation, it’s the perfect target. William Warwick and his elite Scotland Yard team must stop them from unleashing chaos and devastation. But his investigation plunges him into a deadly game of cat and mouse from London’s streets to the corridors of power. Can he prevent triumph turning into disaster?

Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village fête, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well known crime writer, agrees to organise their murder hunt. Despite weeks of meticulous planning, at the last minute Ariadne calls her friend Hercule Poirot for his expert assistance. Instinctively, she senses that something sinister is about to happen… Beware – nobody is quite what they seem!   ISBN – 9780008585662

India’s journey has been distinctively precocious among its peers. It opted for democracy before development and social change, promoted high-skilled services before and over low-skilled manufacturing, and chose a globalization that favored the export of talented people and short-changed the poor. Its socialist state became an inefficiently capitalist one before providing the public goods of physical infrastructure and human capital. The outcomes have been surprising, with the country achieving success in creating and sustaining democracy, albeit flawed, and maintaining a degree of social and political order. Four decades of economic dynamism and the emergence of a more capable Indian state has given it the ability to build infrastructure and deliver the essentials of life to its population at scale. However, just as India’s aspiration has lifted to building world-class statues, temples, bullet trains, airports and digital systems, the undermining of some of its real achievements of democracy, federalism and nation-building still stand in the way. As the world gets radically upended, India’s development odyssey sits at a critical juncture. In A Sixth of Humanity, Devesh Kapur and Avrind Subramanian trace how one of the world’s largest and most diverse countries uniquely attempted four concurrent transformations: building a state, creating an economy, changing society and forging a sense of nationhood. In outlining its past by drawing on deep archives of political and economic policy documents spaning over 75 years, Kapur and Subramanian provide a compelling picture of the state of India’s political economy and the crossroads it now faces.