From the blurb
Science and Technology Initiatives in India: Compiled and edited by K.V. Swaminathan, Waterfalls Institute of Technology Transfer, J-29, South Extension 1, New Delhi-110049. Rs. 495.
Since Independence, advances in science and technology have had a great impact on the policies of the Government of India in a wide range of development areas.
The emphasis has been on trying to reach the benefits of S&T to the entire population cutting across economic, social, cultural and regional stratification. As a consequence, the activities and growth of S&T are not confined to any particular area or institution.
The book is an attempt to present the big picture of the S&T initiatives in various fields — for instance, communications, education, health care, food production and defence. The compendium has arranged the material drawn primarily from public documents — some of which have had only a limited circulation — under 14 chapters, counting out the one that sets out basic information about the administrative set-up and subjects assigned to various ministries and departments. Since the material assembled has been taken from such official documents as annual reports of the ministries, the compilation provides an authentic data base on the subject.
Scripting Lives: Sharmila Sreekumar; Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd., 1/24 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 695.
A study of contemporary Kerala, this book examines diverse and seemingly disconnected discourses around the ‘Kerala model’.
It argues that the State imagines itself as a perfected utopia and, simultaneously, also as a a society that is on the verge of collapse and goes on to explore these divergent self-drawn profiles. At the same time, it also analyses a range of narratives to trace how ‘dominant women’ configure their selves. Hence the subtitle, “Narratives of ‘dominant women’ in Kerala.”
The term, ‘dominant woman’, is broadly used to signal a woman of relative privilege, whose experience speaks simultaneously of devaluation and dominance. These women, whose lives reflect the asymmetries, the instabilities, and the inequalities of women in general, are in many ways the subject of the development narratives of Kerala.
The book argues that discourses far removed from women’s everyday life shape their personal experiences.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Book Review
