As the COVID-19 pandemic was creating havoc around the planet, Archana Sharma and Spoorthy Raman were working at ungodly hours. Sharma, a senior physicist at CERN, in Europe, and Raman, a Canada-based science journalist, were working towards their new book, India’s Science Geniuses (and the Problems They are Solving).

For Sharma, it was very early in the morning. For Raman, it was very late at night. They worked through these hours, talking to 30 scientists whose work would later make it into the book.

Released to the public in late June this year, the book has drawn the attention of several people in the Indian science ecosystem. The cover quotes former secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, Ashutosh Sharma, calling the book “eye-opening”.

The book is a compelling, fast-paced read and fills the vacuum of accessible and affordable literature about contemporary Indian scientists. It locates the work of the featured scientists in the context of Nobel Prize-winning discoveries that have happened worldwide. In doing so, it paints a glorious picture of the Indian science ecosystem.

And that’s where the book launches itself into dangerous territories.

Reviewed by: Sayantan Datta on Science The Wire

Link to Order: India’s Science Geniuses And The Problems They Are Solving

From enhanced nuclear capability to an unmanned Moon mission, India s scientific achievements in recent years have been spectacular. But, according to the country s best-known scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and his close associate Y.S. Rajan, we ve only just begun. In a century that many experts predict may belong to India, the realization of the vision of a better future for everyone will require a keen understanding of our needs and this can only be achieved by tailoring our research and innovations to the goal of national development.

In The Scientific Indian, the authors of the path-breaking India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium return after ten years to the core areas of scientific advancement that are crucial space exploration, satellite technology, missile development, earth and ocean resources, the biosphere, food production, energy and water harvesting, health care and communications, to name a few. For each aspect, the authors discuss Indian breakthroughs within the context of recent progress on the global platform, before outlining a pragmatic vision of technological development that will propel India to the forefront of the world in the decades to come.

The Scientific Indian will speak to every curious and adventurous mind, and especially to tomorrow s scientists and technologists, encouraging us to dream big, and urging us to work hard to make our dreams come true.

After a hiatus of ten years, the authors of path-breaking India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium return with a book on some crucial core areas of scientific advancement. A scientific vision for the future from India s most respected scientist.

Reviewed on Goodreads 

Link to Order: The Scientific Indian: A Twenty-First Century Guide To The World Around Us

The basis behind the book has been set forth right in the preface. “Education is not delivered; it is constructed or created by each child. Observation and curiosity to understand what is observed is an integral component of living and grown up” It is a collection of 274 questions posed to prof. Yash Pal by curious readers young and old, which he has answered in his inimitable style.

D. BALASUBRAMANIAN. The Hindu, June 16, 2011

Link to Order: Random Curiosity

Sobel masterly weaves in the complexity of the subject (astrophysics) with human interest stories about her characters. Though her brief explanations of scientific content are fairly lucid, the content itself is just about enough to follow the narrative.

SHOBHIT MAHAJAN. Outlook 18 December 2017

Link to Order: The Glass Universe: The Hidden History of the Women Who Took the Measure of the Stars

The book chronicles the epochal struggles of India to meet what Agarwal calls the “challenge of balance”, between growth equity and conservation. His obsessive campaign for a ministry for environment and forests and his citizen’s report on the environment raised environmental activism in the country to its present meaningful state during the last quarter century.

SACHIDANANDA MURTHY. The Week, June 3, 2007

Link to Order: Anil Agarwal Reader (Vol. 1, 2 and 3)

Squadron Leader K. K. Nair writes a pervasive treatise covering most areas of the use of space for national security. It provides a comparative overview of military space theories and doctrines, considers space law and its military applications, looks at the Great Asian Space Militarisation Race, and proposes space-based options for national power, for fulfilling defence requirements and for managing future space capabilities.

RAMINDER KAUR. The Week, June3, 2007

Link to Order: Space: The Frontiers of Modern Defence

Her well-written account tries to show up scientists as real people – “men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, who tramples down their rivals, or even sometimes got bored and did something else.

ITHAL C NADKARNI. The Crest, December 5, 2009

Link to Order: Science: A Four Thousand Year History

Throughout his narrative, Mascarenhas maintains that Bangalore’s reputation of being a technopolis preceded the “IT outsourcing boom”, which, he says, rode on the back of a “scientific base” established by public sector research and educational institutes in the city.

DEEPA KURUP

Link to Order: India’s Silicon Plateau – Development of Information and Communication Technology in Bangalore

Not just scientific facts and concepts, Pulakkat weaves in anecdotal stories of the doyens of Indian science. Tales of struggles make this a valuable book.

PALLAVA BAGLA. Outlook. December 4, 2021

Link to Order: Space. Life. Matter: The Coming of Age of Indian Science

(The book) contends that the only practicable way of expanding human knowledge is by an unending feedback process of criticism.

CETAN PARIKH. Business World, 26 January 2004

Link to Order: Conjectures and Refutations

How can a single particle behave both like a particle and a wave? Does a particle exist before we look at it, or does the act of looking create reality? Ananthaswamy travels around the world and through history, down to the smallest scales of physical reality we have yet fathomed.      

The Hindu. November 11, 2018

Link to Order: Through Two Doors at Once: The Elegant Experiment That Captures the Enigma of Our Quantum Reality

The author was assassinated in 2013 for speaking up against superstitious practices. In this book, the second to be translated into English, he uses scientific explanations to dispel commonly held beliefs and supposed supernatural phenomena. Whether it is idols ‘drinking’ milk, photographs of auras or the belief that the dead return as crows to feed on offerings, Dabholkar has a rational argument against it.

Outlook, June 24, 2019

Link to Order: Please Think: Practical Lessons in Developing A Scientific Temper

Is it the responsibility of the governments alone to protect nature? And, what roles can ordinary people play to conserve the environment? Oxygen Manifesto, a masterfully-crafted book by Atulya Misra IAS, not only explores these questions but also presents a policy statement for a new-age green movement. Blending both fictional and non-fictional narrative styles, the book tells the story of Thatha, a Tamil man settled in Manipur, and Ravi Chandran Bose, an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu posted in Manipur.    

NIRMAL JOVIAL. The Week. August 18, 2019

Link to Order: Oxygen Manifesto– A Battle for the Environment

Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is to life sciences what Hollywood is to movies. A new book traces the story of its transformation from a depressing stretch of boarded-up factories to the “most innovative square on the plant”.

VIJAYSREE VENKATRAMAN. Frontline. June 3, 2022

Link to Order: Where Futures Converge- Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub

Aniket Aga probes the debate around the commercial release of transgenic food crops in his new book.

DEVINDER SHARMA. The Hindu. October 23, 2022

Link to Order: Genetically Modified Democracy: Transgenic Crops in Contemporary India