ICTs and Indian Social Change: Diffusion, Poverty, Governance by M Vijaybaskar, Ashwin Saith and V Gayathri, Sage, Rs 750

This is a book for techno-idealists. It has much on the impact of information and communication technologies on the lives of people. It traces how technologies work on urban and rural spaces, highlights the new kinds of social identities they foster and claims to open an arena for dialogue between activists, technologists, policy makers and academia.

Beyond Counter-Insurgency, Breaking the Impasse in Northeast India: Edited by Sanjib Baruah, Oxford University Press, Rs 825

Northeast India has endured decades of conflicts that have kept much of the region militarized, subject to restrictions on civil rights, and economically underdeveloped. In this volume, contributors ranging from the social sciences, philosophy, and cultural studies, to journalism and the civil services reflect on new ways of approaching and resolving these conflicts.

A Sahib