Books and Authors - Current Affairs for November, 2015

Noted poet J. Mahapatra became the first Odia litterateur to return the Padma Shri to protest against rising “moral asymmetry” in the nation. The 88 year old poet had received the award in the year 2009 for his contributions to literature. Mahapatra is known for his contributions to Indian English poetry with 27 books to his credit, 7 being in Odia and the rest in English.

The book entitled “ Legends of Indian Silver Screen” brought out by Ministry of I&B’s Publications Division has been released by FM Arun Jaitley. This elegantly designed book is a compilation of essays on 23 luminaries who have been awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award from 1992-2014 including Dilip Kumar, Gulzar, K. Balachander, Sivaji Ganesan, Bhupen Hazarika, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Majrooh Sultanpuri, and Asha Bhosle. Eminent writers plus film critics such as Saibal Chatterjee, Rachel Dwyer, Jai Arjun Singh have contributed to this book.

Minister of State for Culture and Tourism released 3 books on Rajyogini Dadi Janaki, the 100 year old head of BK to celebrate her centenary celebrations. The books entitled “Prem aur Shanti ka Marg” authored by Dadi Janaki ; “I know How to Live, I know How to Die” authored by Neville Hodgkinson ; and “Dadi Janaki : A Century of Service” written by Liz Hodgkinson were launched by him.

His work on race and police violence was given the National Book award for nonfiction on 18th November. Fiction prize was won by “Fortune Smiles,” a book by Adam Johnson which is a story collection set in different parts of the world such as US and Germany. Coates dedicated his win to friend Prince Jones killed by police more than a decade ago and the central subject of the work. The young people’s literature prize went to Neal Shusterman’s “Challenger Deep”, while Robin Coste Lewis’ debut collection, “Voyage of the Sable Venus,” was cited for poetry.

The book which was released in November 2015 talks about the demographic dividend of the nation and is expected to be the youngest nation in the world by 2020 with 800 million of the people being of working age. Nilekani and Shah have also examined how contradictions and gaps can distort progress and every body in the nation must realise their aspirations to bring about advancement. Rebooting India identified numerous initiatives where citizen friendly, high tech public institutions can deliver low cost solutions. Nilekani is CEO and co-founder of Infosys Technologies and was also founding chairman of UIDAI (Aadhaar). Viral Shah has also worked to design the subsidy and payment’s platform of the government using Adhaar and is co-inventor of programming language Julia apart from having founded Fourth Lion Technologies.

Mars Orbiter Mission’s anniversary was marked by ISRO at a meeting in ISTRAC Bangalore where a book entitled “From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet” was released. This ISRO publication celebrates the 9 month odyssey of MOM which was launched from Sriharikota in AP on November 5, 2013.

The book ‘The President of India and the Governance of Higher Education Institutions’ provides an overview of higher education in India. It has chapters on the role of the Visitor and historical and legal analysis of the position of the Visitor in India. It also showcases President Mukherjee’s initiatives for promoting excellence in higher education and reimagining Indian universities as world class universities by taking rankings seriously. This book also provides fresh insights on nation building.