January 24, 2013 1 Book Peek

Quick look at a few books

BOOK PEEK

January 24, 2013 2 Book Peek

Contents of Book Peek dated January 24, 2013

Reviews

‘Indianomix: Making sense of modern India’ by Vivek Dehejia, Rupa

Subramanya (Landmark)

‘Ending Corruption? How to clean up India’ by N. Vittal

‘The Impact Equation: Are you making things happen or just making

noise?’ by Chris Brogan, Julien Smith

‘Tatalog: Eight modern stories from a timeless institution’ by Harish

Bhat

‘The Only Three Questions That Still Count: Investing by knowing

what others don’t’ by Ken Fisher

‘The story of Indian business: Three Merchants of Bombay’ by

Lakshmi Subramanian

New arrivals - From Vision, Harper, TiE Chennai

Short snatches

‘English Bites!’ by Manish Gupta (Landmark)

‘Dance with Chance: Making luck work for you’ by Spyros Makridakis,

Robin Hogarth, Anil Gaba

‘Power vs. Force: The hidden determinants of human behavior’ by

David R. Hawkins

‘Shakespeare’s Restless World’ by Neil MacGregor

‘Positive Linking: How networks can revolutionise the world’ by Paul

Ormerod

‘Resilience: Why things bounce back’ by Andrew Zolli, Ann Marie

Healy

(Subscriptions: http://bit.ly/ShriMagz)

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January 24, 2013 3 Book Peek

Tata name

Shankar Sharma. Who is he? The man who wrote the

letter alleging that fraud had been committed in Tata

Finance. An outsider with access to information, or an

insider who blew the whistle? More than a decade has

passed by, but his identity remains unknown and

mysterious, writes Harish Bhat in ‘Tatalog: Eight modern

stories from a timeless institution’. Yet, Sharma had the

best interests of the company at heart, and the corporate

world will need many more people like him, adds Bhat.

The chapter titled ‘The tribulations of Tata Finance’ opens by narrating a

500-year-old legend of how a letter signed by a German monk named Martin

Luther was pinned to church door in Wittenberg, with far-reaching

consequences in the Christian world. “Nearer home, and much closer in

time, a letter dated 12 April, 2001, written by a person who called himself

Shankar Sharma, reached the desks of several important and influential

people in Mumbai. It had a similar dramatic impact in the Tata world,”

chronicles Bhat.

“Bharat Vasani, general counsel, Tata Sons, recalls, ‘The company

January 24, 2013 4 Book Peek

management came out with an advertisement in the newspapers the next

day, stating that the allegations made by Shankar Sharma were untrue.’ Mr

Vasani and other senior Tata executives soon discovered that they were

hugely mistaken. ‘That letter alerted us,’ says Ishaat Hussain, finance

director, Tata Sons, ‘and further investigations revealed that there had

indeed been some serious irregularities,’” informs http://www.tata.com.

The letter was a case where smoke indicated a raging fire, recounts Bhat.

The predominant mood in Bombay House, headquarters of the Tata Group,

was one of dismay and anger at what had happened, but there was also a

realisation that dealing with this matter openly and transparently was the

most important thing to do, he adds.

For, Tata Finance was almost insolvent, with borrowings of about Rs 2,700

crore, including Rs 875 crore from four lakh depositors.

If nervous depositors came to the offices of Tata Finance asking for their

funds, a speedy response was critical, so a helicopter was kept on standby

to transport funds by air, one learns. “The helicopter was not used at all,

though it may have added some excitement to these proceedings and also

provided Indian television channels a few dramatic visuals,” notes Bhat.

Eulogy to an empire.

January 24, 2013 5 Book Peek

‘22 Stock Market Trading Secrets’ by Ashu Dutt – Vision Books

‘The Dying Sun: Stories’ by Joginder Paul - Harper

‘36 Strategies for Striking it Rich in Commodity Trading’ by Ashu Dutt –

Vision Books

Address for sending review copies of new books

New arrivals

January 24, 2013 6 Book Peek

‘Enterprise 044: TiE Chennai Entrepreneur Directory’ from TiE Chennai

New arrival: Enterprise 044

January 24, 2013 7 Book Peek

Published by: Shrinikethan, Chennai http://bit.ly/ShriMap

Edited by: D. Murali http://bit.ly/dMurali http://bit.ly/TopTalk

January 24, 2013