Behind the News

Overweight, though, in showcasing topical economic issues that excite reader interest in general, Behind the News, On a Journalist’s Radar, spreads out a rich and varied fare the sum and substance of which can’t be defined by a single theme or title. Tersely presented is a pack of incisive reviews of headline-making stuff that come to surface often sparking lively debates right across the spectrum. Behind the News is all the more conspicuous for its venturesome and, indeed, the first ever, attempt to project a personality, magisterial enough to be equated with the tumultuous millennium that has just gone by. Elsewhere, the author picks up signals from the omissions and commissions of a host of law-makers, central bankers and the media to boot. Heroes and hero-worship are alien to the ethos of the financial world but Behind the News spots one in the thick of the 1997 currency crisis. For relief and spicing, fugitive pieces from personal life, career rounds and fictional sources too are keyed in. As for the Indian economy, the book’s main focus, the author pithily notes it had never gained momentum at any point in history, and is unlikely to, given its empire-like structure and organisation. Also due from the author: All in the Shadow of Marx.