history of indian archeology

The story of Indian archeology during the colonial period is one of accidental discoveries, committed individuals and unexpected developments. This new book captures all three elements in a chatty writing style that, while scholastic in its detail, is not heavy in technique. The three most important elements in the book deal with the imperial agenda in Indian archeology, the fascinating story of the discovery of the Indus Valley civilisation and the comparative differences between Roman and Indian archeological techniques. The books outlines the fact that the discipline of archeology worldwide is only 300 years old.

In India the emphasis of the archeologists was driven by their personal desires. The pioneers of Indian archeology, Alexander Cunningham and John Marshall, had two primary interests — to peer into the history of Buddhism and the fascination with Alexander’s encounter with India. It is not surprising therefore that John Marshall, who is credited with the discovery of the Harappan legacy, worked for 20 years at Taxila in Pakistan. He visited Mohenjodaro only after announcing its discovery by his subordinates in London Illustrated News.

The book brings to light the fact that Harappa in particular was ill served given the techniques of archeology that destroy several layers of priceless materials from the past. The combined destruction brought on by the construction of a nearby railway line which used Harappan bricks in its construction, as well as a slash and find method, destroyed a lot of clues of the past.

The history of museums in India makes for interesting reading, as does the detailing of the loot that the British took from India. Loot was of course for the British Empire and the British Museum in London has perhaps more loot than any other single building in the world.

At the same time the book outlines the role of the British Empire in particular and that of Viceroy Curzon in reviving and sustaining institutional interest in India’s past. The book is a must read for those who are enthralled by the story of how India recovered its history through diligent digging of a few individuals fascinated by things lost in the foggy ruins of time.

globalisation is good for india as well as the MNC's

Consider the numbers. Walmart the world largest retailer sales $375 billion worth of stuff from its format retail stores world wide . This astounding figure is put in perspective when you consider that it is much bigger than the GDP's of Pakistan which in 2007 was a comparative meager $1.275 billion. If that is not enough, Citibank with all its troubles is a firm with a turn over of $2 trillion which is double the GDP of India.
There is no doubting the fact that globalization has spurred multinational firms to record size . The very structure of these firms with bases where the best return on investment are possible allow then to leverage global opportunities and grow. In itself this should be a good thing. For instance countries where there is a labor surplus with good infrastructure can attract MNC investment and help their own populations and economies to grow. The resultant purchasing power improvement can help create viable middle class as well. Indeed India is also as much a gainer from globalisation as these massive MNC's. With a large pool of labor and a vast market the mnc's invested as much as $16 billion in 2007 in India and are likely to invest another $25 billion in 2008
So what is the problem with the MNC's size? There are plenty of issues and surprising both the Indian left and the American right share concerns. the foremost significance is that it is perceived that the multinational of their sheer size and spread are beyond sovereign regulations of individual countries.
This is a misleading assessment. Countries where robust regulations exist or evolve can in fact use MNC's to their advantage. China is one such example which after making the MNC's invest in access of 300 billion dollars over the last fifteen years have now changed regulations and restricted MNC's investments as well as profit reparation. The Chinese have also come up with a government owned firm that will invest $200 billion some of it in these vary MNC's. This is the creativity of globalist which allows sensible countries to benefit from the MNC/s. The sovereign state of today is not yesterday's banana republic The fact is that dependence works both ways in globalisation. A win win situation should not be made into a scare story just because individual firms have leveraged the global opportunity to grow.

book publishing is big business in india

Publishing gains currency
On the face of it thin crowds at the world book fair underway in Delhi would point to a dampener in sales. Nothing could be far from the truth as far as the publishing industry in India is concerned. . The 3000 crore Indian publishing industry is thriving.

Three factors are driving the growth of publishing in India. The first is the retail revolution some of the stores such as landmark and Oxford have sprawling bookshops in access of 10,000 square feet. This was unheard of in India even three years ago. The footfall is at the malls and the bookshops and only the die-hard bookworm or the industry associate needs to make the trip to the book fair.

The second important driver is the rise in literacy in India. It is estimated that 200 million Indian have access to books in at least one language. A Ficci Pwc study showed that book readership grew at an average of 20 per cent per year since 2000.
The third driver is outsourcing. The global out sourcing market for book publishing is $2.5 billion. India accounts for a minuscule percentage bit the growth are robust. The labor arbitrage is obvious - it costs 50 % less to design typeset and print books in India when compared to the west. . However the industry is unable to fully leverage the biggest opportunity. For one thing the tariffs on paper are prohibitive making the industry uncompetitive for large-scale projects. Compared to India the free port of Singapore offset much higher labor costs by having a tariff structure that has made it a global publishing hub.
The book industry is also hampered by poor distribution as well as inventory management techniques. The time for books gathering dust on the shelf are coming to an end in the retail chain. If the publishing industry shapes up it can ship out a large volume of books though the off shoring model.
To fully employ the opportunity the publishing industry will need to introduce automation and bring to book lacuna such as inventory miss management and distribution hiccups. Not doing so could result in India loosing out to other countries in this segment.