Statesman, Fourth Estate and real estate
Review by Kuldip Kalia
Another Age, Another Time: The Statesman and Other Stories by S. Sahay. Indian Institute of Mass Communi-cation, New Delhi. Pages xviii+214. Rs 395.

About those denied full physical potential
Review by Randeep Wadehra
United Nations and Rights of Disabled Persons by G.N. Karna. APH Publishers, New Delhi. pages xviii+409. Rs. 800.

Environment and Health in Developing Countries edited by Manas Chatterji, Mohan Munasinghe and Rabin Ganguly. APH publishers, New Delhi. pages xix + 422. Rs. 1000.

ISO 9000 and Quality Movements by B. Narayan. APH publishers, New Delhi. pages v+240. Rs. 600.

Good Schools of India by Sandeep Dutt. The English Book Depot, Dehra Dun. Pages xiii+350. Rs 395.

by V.N. Datta
The sailor who is a column

IN pre-partition Amritsar there was a Picture-Goers Association which procured western films of historical importance and showed them to the educated public in a cantonment cinema hall. The audience seldom exceeded 50 and included mostly teachers, college students and the elite. One of the films which evoked wide interest was on Lady Hamilton, Lord Nelson’s mistress.

The film centred around their deep and abiding love and the heroism of Nelson who died for his country. This was his finest hour. He died in the hour of his victory.

The Trafalgar Square in London was planned as a permanent memorial in his honour, and the column and statue were completed in 1849, and the bronze lions were added in 1867. The book under review is “Nelson’s Women” by Tom Pocock (Andres Deutsche, £ 20). It deals will some of the women in Nelson’s life that “filter through the single lens of his preoccupations”.

In the early part of the book Pocock provides details about Nelson’s close association with the British aristocracy through his mother. He was a grand nephew of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole and a nephew of Maurice Suckling,a naval officer of distinction who became comptroller of the navy. Nelson entered the Navy at the age of 12. He showed pluck, perseverance and a high sense of duty in his professional conduct. He acquired expert knowledge of his profession. By extensive readings of naval literature, he learnt tactical skills in naval welfare.

Nelson took part in the American war of independence, and his Admiral Lord Hood called him an authority on naval welfare. Like Wellington, he found his opportunity in the great French war which broke out in 1793. Nelson was made of steel and no adversary could bend him. Honours came to him and he rose high in public esteem. In the first year of the war he was in the Mediterranean and he lost the sight of his right eye in the battle of Corsica. His right arm was amputated due to a wound he received in an independent operation at Teneriffe.

Nelson won the battle of Abokir or the Nile against Napoleon and destroyed the French navy despite lack of resources. He was made Lord Nelson of the Nile by George III. He was entrusted with the protection of Naples which, according to Pocock, had a disastrous influence on his private life. He had married briefly in 1787 and at Naples he fell in love with Lady Hamilton, wife of a British Minister with whom he had cordial relations. He had received a head wound, and at this critical juncture of his love affair with lady Hamilton, his wife sought and obtained separation.

This work focuses on Nelson’s mother, Fancy and his mistress Emma Hamilton. Maurice suckling, who had asked Nelson to join the navy, was his maternal uncle, Nelson tried to follow in the footsteeps of his uncle whom he greatly admired. Nelson’s mother comes out in this work as a women of strong character but a modest, well-meaning and God-fearing being, who never believed in throwing about her weight. Because of his mother’s close relation with the British aristocracy, Nelson got ample opportunities to move in high society. Nelson befriended William Pitt, British Prime Minister. The author points out that when Nelson was invited to a grand Whig festival at the Cokeses’ Hall, he declined the invitation.

Temperamentally, there were striking differences between Nelson and his wife. Nelson was reticent and reserved while she was sprightly and vivacious. Nelson valued an orderly and disciplined life, while she was utterly careless, frittering away her energies on trivial matters. Pocock writes, “Annoyance of Fanny’s domestic incompetence soon gave way to a life prowling Mediterranean shores, where distance released him from fidelity.” It was thus that he was drawn to find love and comfort in Emma Hamilton.

Nelson’s love for Emma Hamilton forms a most interesting and fascinating part of the book. His letters make wonderful reading, cryptic but full of passion and meaning, expressing the deepest and intense feelings of admiration for each other. The letters are conversational in style, free from cant and hypocracy. As the self-appointed representative of the Neopolitan Queen, she exercised her influence on naval matters, much to the annoyance of Nelson’s colleagues. Emma was vain, proud, headstrong and because of her close attachment to Nelson, she used her authority sometimes in a highly irresponsible manner which could have endangered the whole fleet and proved disastrous to British interests.

When the French war was renewed on the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens in 1803 Nelson was given the command of the Mediterranean. He attacked the enemy’s centre and pierced the defence line. Destiny awaited him at the battle of Trafalgar. The French had better resources but Nelson was determined not to give in.

In the heat of the battle Nelson flashed the famous signal, “England expects that every man will do his duty”. He went down to his cabin to compose a prayer, “May the great God whom I worship grant to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general a glorious victory and for my life I count my life to Him who made me and may bless light on my endeavours for serving my country faithfully”.

Nelson was mortally wounded on the quarterdeck of his flagship, “The Victory”. Before he died he heard the surrender of 14 French ships and his last words were, “Thank God, I have done my duty.”

At the battle of Waterloo, Wellington had succeeded in defeating Nepoleon by his strategic retreat at a crucial moment, but Nelson was averse to taking such a course. He would face death rather than retreat. Pocock emphasises that Nelson believed in achieving victory by attacking in unlikely situations “banking on high casualties, death or glory”. He was conscious of dying heroically and thereby embracing martyrdom.

According to the author, Nelson wore “four decorations embroidered on his coat as he walked the quarterdeck of “The Victory” making himself an easy target for enemy snipers”. He was dissuaded from such exhibitionism, but he refused to relent and said there was no time to change. He died as a national hero and victim of his vanity”. Lady Hamilton had been his greatest inspiration and propelled him to glory and immortality. In this extremely well-written book, Nelson comes out as a man of tremendous force and enormous personal vanity.

Nelson has two daughters but Pocock writes little about them. Horatio, one of the twins, after her mother’s pitiable decline and death, settled with one of Nelson’s aunts and became a Norfolk rector’s wife.

Nelson gave the greatest blow to Napoleon’s naval power. That is why in England he is regarded as one of the greatest Englishmen of all times like Duke of Wellington and Winston Churchill.

Vedas for next millennium
by P.D. Shastri

In Search of the Cradle of Civilisation by George Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley. Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi. Pages 341. Rs 395.

WHEN a few hundred and later a few thousand British colonialists conquered India they found themselves surrounded by crores and crores of Indians. The natives mostly Hindus were proud of their past and called their land a jagadguru, a world teacher.

The Vedas were the most ancient surviving books of the human race. The Vedas represent the first outpourings of the human mind; there is the glow of poetry, the rapture of nature’s mystery and so much zest for life, living life with a capital L. They remain unique after all these centuries.

The Upanishads are the deepest philosophy of life and death, nature and other metaphysical topics, never equalled by any other text in the world. The Gita, the most popular book of humanity has been translated into 75 languages including all major languages of the world, and only the Bible can claim translation into more languages.

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are among the world’s greatest epics and many other great works of thought and spiritualism have been highlighted in this book.

To come back to the British colonial government’s part. It sought to instil in Indians a sense of inferiority about their own nation and a sense of superiority about the alien rulers in order to consolidate their hold. The Vedas were projected as a shepherd’s songs. The other books of philosophy and poetry were hardly worth a shelf space in the library of any British primary school, said Macaulay. Everything was devalued, belittled. Christian missionaries were agents of empire-building. First came the missionary with the Bible in hand, then the gunboat and soon the empire was in place. They had conquered countries and continents for Christianity and the religious empire, once established, never lost control.

In India, the empire builders found Hinduism’s resilience an obstacle to their forward march. They started making fun of Hindu gods and goddesses, vulgarising the scriptures and laughing at the past achievements. The Indians were told they were backward, illiterate, superstitious and snake-charmers. It was the good luck of Indians that the British colonialists came to bring enlightenment, science, discipline and the blessings of modernism. In short, the white man’s burden.

And so successful was British imperialism’s attempt at brainwashing the nation that even today, 52 years after independence, any foreign product is thought to be more valuable than the local one, any book or discovery or achievement which gets a foreign certificate is automatically considered great out of all proportion to its real worth. A foreign academic degree spells superiority.

The book under review is a joint attempt by a team of scholars and researchers to bring out India’s ancient record in a new form to reflect the spirit of the new age. Critics have hailed it as a path-breaking book, which helps clear much scholarly misinformation and disinformation. It explodes several jaded academic myths. The authors call it a book about history, not a dull chronology of dynasties and battles but meaningful history relevant to our lives. It is about the human spirit struggling for self-expression and self-understanding.

The authors start with several small details about the Vedas. The Rigveda contains praise of the gods and deities who in return bless the worshippers and fulfil their wishes.

The Rigveda has 10 mandalas (books), 1028 suktas (hymns or chapters) and 10,589 mantras (verses).

Of its 33 gods, which are different functional names or aspects of one supreme god, the major ones are Indra (250 hymns) and Agni (200 hymns). Since the 33 gods are just one, sometimes one is called supreme and at another place another. The functions of these 33 are also interchangeable.

Veda (from vid to know) means knowledge and the Rigveda contains perfect knowledge which the sages wrote after life-long penance. It is the Veda of knowledge of all subjects under the sun.

According to Swami Dayananda, all miracles of science are found here, even knowledge of those scientific theories and discoveries which the world will discover after centuries, of course in the Sutra (formula) form. According to the authors, the Vedas are pyramids that still enigmatically tower over us. They allow us to feel the pulse of the Indian nation. And again, “they far surpass the Bible; they dwarf Homer’s epics as they do the sacred cannon of Chinese civilisation”.

Next comes the Yajurveda, meaning the scripture for yajnas or sacrifices. Most of its 1575 hymns are taken from the Rigveda; only 75 are original.

The third, the Sama Veda, is the grand pioneering source of all systems of music and art. It is a liturgical manual for chanting or singing of vedic hymns. Most of its 1875 stanzas are incorporated from the Rigveda. Only 75 verses are original.

The last one, the Atharva Veda, got its name from seer Atharvan. It has 731 hymns, comprising 5,977 verses. About one-fifth are drawn from the Rigveda.

One hymn of the Rigveda refers only to three Vedas. The Atharva Veda is not recognised as a Veda by some. It contains magic, charms and description of thousands of herbs to cure diseases. The authors say that many western Indologists made a deep study of the Vedas with the intention of running them down. Max Mueller made some corrections in his earlier views.

The British colonialists invented the myth that most Indians were originally outsiders who migrated from Central Asia and conquered the original residents, who were Dravidians.

The masses rever the Himalayas, the Ganga and the Yamuna. And there are hundreds of places of pilgrimage dotted all over the land visited the year round by millions. At Kumbh Melas at Hardwar and Allahabad, a crore or two of pilgrims collect. Can foreigners have such intense and continuing love for some foreign soil?

The authors debunk this myth and present as many as 17 arguments to conclusively prove why the Aryan invasion never took place.

MBA in local ishtyle
by M.L. Sharma

Management and Cultural Values edited by Henry S.R. Kao, Durganand Sinha and Bernhard Wilpert. Sage Publications, New Delhi. Pages 332. Rs 245.

THE book highlights the current belief of enlightened industrial psychologists and behavioural scientists that successful management practices are the ones which harmoniously blend indigenous cultural ethos with the requirements of techno-economic systems.

Of the 18 papers forming the text of the book, some were read at the third symposium on “Indigenous behaviours in effective management and organisations” held in China in 1995, while others were specially written by scholars from Canada, India, Taiwan and Thailand.

The special agenda of the symposium was to illustrate intimate mixing of traditional social values, attitudes and institutional norms and practices with the needs of techno-economic systems in Asian enterprises. Almost all management experts unanimously hold the view that economic and industrial development is not possible only through western technology, which lays stress on participation/incentive systems and job enrichment.

In contrast to the western system, the Chinese have their own approach to international trading which is based on trust and family ties rather than on contract. They are more relationship-oriented. “Bushido” is the guiding principle of new Japan. “Bushido” has its roots in Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism and it signifies the way of the samurai warrior. This spirit, according to John Fukuda, is the guiding principle which will enable the Japanese regain their self-confidence and strength in order to surmount many problems they are facing at present.

In his paper, Chaoming Liu deals with the concept of Bao in organisational research. Leadership in China is a top-down interpersonal relationship which is influenced by Bao, implying repayment of gratitude, revenge, returning a favour, retribution and karma. Bao has its roots in Confucianism and it serves as an instrument by which Chinese maintain equilibrium in their mutual relationship.

Anshukumar Khare says that in most Japanese offices, superiors and subordinates sit together and unlike in Indian workplaces, their communication channels are not formal. As there is no job description, there is freedom to rotate work among employees. This enables every worker to handle all types of jobs. After work the workers, their office colleagues and superiors mix with each other over a drink without any status consciousness, which helps in keeping organisational social relations intact.

According to Wilpert, the German industry has developed a peculiar feature in the role of meister (master craftsman). his role is more significant than that of a foreman. Becoming a meister requires nine years of formal schooling plus three and a half years of apprenticeship, then passing an examination to become a skilled worker, and two or three years of additional training to pass another exam as meister. The 15 years of specialised training produces highly qualified middle managers who know all jobs from bottom to top. The German system of co-determination provides a basis of employees’ legal rights and legal claims to participate.

shu Cheng-Chi gives a detailed account of the role of Chinishins in Taiwanese organisations. They are very close to the “centre of a differential order” owing to a strong “exchange relationship” with a leader. Mala Sinha lays stress on vision-sharing through value-clarification as an effective development technique for bringing about a change in an organisation. She holds the view that modern Indian organisations should ideally base their development interventions on values stemming from religio-philosophical origins.

Care for the collective, concern for excellence, performing duties as if rendering service and learning from a leader are likely to lead to organisational change and growth in a controlled way.

Sun Ung Kim feels that social values and cultural factors have helped in the rapid Korean industrial growth. Korean social values have their roots in Confucian thought, patriarchal system of extended large families and the collective community system.

Examining the Thai concept of effective management, Suntaree Komin says that Thai leaders are expected to have effective communication skills, which are suitable in the Thai context and fit well with the Thai personality and social behaviour — that is, to be “polite” and “considerate”, with or without an authoritative overtone: the image of an all-knowing, kind paternal figure.

According to the editors, Kao, Sinha and Wilpert), the patterns which have emerged from the recent interactions and symposia display an adaptation of the requirements of work and modern technology to the particular elements of culture consisting of a synergistic blend of traditional indigenous roots andmodern techniques. They say there is a general consensus that the cultural environment is “a primary agent for the formationn of mangers’ own values and beliefs” which influences their choice of management styles.

“If we understand culture as a collective programming of minds, we have an approach which stresses culture-specific conditioning for management.”

Statesman, Fourth Estate and real estate
By Kuldip Kalia

Another Age, Another Time: The Statesman and Other Stories by S. Sahay. Indian Institute of Mass Communi-cation, New Delhi. Pages xviii+214. Rs 395.

pROBLEMS, performances, expectations and values of human beings always dominate their social philosophy. An appraisal of any kind is a process of integrating the power and responsibility and mixing successes and failures in an operational and competitive environment. The most important thing, however, is: how effectively an individual plays his role to survive in this challenging world.

The book under review is an account of the experiences of a journalist in the Statesman, one of the prestigious newspapers. Sadly it declined in standard and position. Perhaps a factor in its downfall was the failure to adapt itself to new circumstances, challenges and environment. A fascinating part of the book is the narration about men who mattered in politics and bureaucracy or acted as couriers and courtiers.

At one time, any advertisement which did not fit in with the Statesman’s policy, public morality and decency could be rejected by the editor. Though a British-owned newspaper, the sentiments, feelings and attitudes of Indians were fully taken care of. Once a half page advertisement showing a village woman carrying the message, “Don’t be a village woman, use lipstick” was published which Editor Powell took it as an insult to Indian womanhood. At the same time, the editors used to listen to the views of the juniors and even appreciated conflicting opinions. Once the author differed on featuring news items regarding the death of President Kennedy and the killing of five Indian Generals in a plane crash in Kashmir on the same day. The editor allowed him to have his way and next morning appreciated the correctness of the decision.

Every successor to Robert Knight, founder editor, tried to maintain the tradition he had established. Resident Editor Sahay too did his bit. Every attempt to weaken the freedom of the press was resisted during the emergency period. Moreover the author claims credit for getting the Bihar Press Bill withdrawn and discusses at length his efforts which ultimately ended in Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra asking reporters at a press conference, “Tell my Bhaiya (Sahay) that I am withdrawing the Bill.”

The Statesman was the first paper which Nehru read despite his differences with the policy of the paper. When Nehru gave the presidential address to the Congress Party in 1936, keeping up the tradition, the paper wrote an editorial “Not an Indian but an Englishman speaks”. Its readership included bureaucrats and senior politicians like Dr Rajendra Prasad and Radhakrishnan. Some of the people used to read it to improve their English.

Lessons from friends and seniors do help in life and when Sahay took charge of the Delhi edition in 1975, his friend Sreepati Lal Das summed up the behaviour of Delhites in two sentences: “None except God will come to your rescue” and “people have learnt the art of adjustment but never of forgiveness. Once they get an inkling of your weakness, they would not mind striking you. So innocence has no place in this blasted town.”

Words like credibility, freedom of the press, independence of judiciary were not of much relevance or significance to politicians like Indira Gandhi. She proved it by imposing the emergency. She had a strange way of getting Indian opinion across the globe by allowing third-rate foreign journalists to interview her. Sahay made a complaint regarding the problem faced by senior Indian journalists in meeting her. She had become the prisoner of “Sanjay - Bansi Lal gang” because they were the people who used to decide whom she should meet or talk on the phone.

Indira Gandhi was a patient listener but seldom spelt out her policies. Those around her were expected to draw their own conclusion and face the music if they went wrong. This was what a labour leader experienced while dealing with a strike in a Delhi mill. Indira Gandhi chided him. “Aren’t you funny? I told you, hun (I see) and you interpreted it to mean haan (consent) Such “hun-haan” attitude was earlier discussed by Sahay in his writings after the emergency ended. V.C. Shukla and his gang played a big role in terrorising the journalists.

Sanjay Gandhi was her weakness and her world collapsed when he died in an air crash in 1980. Another weakness was her inability to repose confidence in others. That is why she kept Fotedar to balance Dhawan’s deeds.

Indira Gandhi asking Maneka to leave the Prime Minister’s residence was published as a scoop in the Statesman. The reason given for publishing the news was unacceptable to intellectuals but the editor believed that leaking an information from Indira Gandhi’s house was an indication of the credibility and popularity of the newspaper.

Unfortunately Rajiv Gandhi was surrounded by those who knew computer but little about India that is Bharat. His “quick fix” approach cost the nation heavily and his policy on Sri Lanka cost him his life.

It is interesting to note that B.C. Roy refused to introduce prohibition as suggested by Morarji who thought that it would improve the “crime profile”. Roy said the people who drank at home or in restaurants had no time for committing crime.

Back to the issue of professionalism. The concept of professional honesty has taken a back seat. There was a time when discount coupons sent by the Birla Shoe Company were sent back with a strong protest note. But now the so-called Fourth Estate has become real estate lovers. Work culture has deteriorated.

The editors are being humiliated. They are forced to resign. Kuldip Nayar was humiliated to an extent that “even chaprasis would not salaam him”. Irani started behaving like a “champion of the free press” That is why once a wag said, “As far as the freedom of the press is concerned, we have given a wholesale contract to Irani”. It has been rightly said that there was hardly any one who “does not have bitter memories of his association with a self-centred megalomaniac”.

About those denied full physical potential
by Randeep Wadehra

United Nations and Rights of Disabled Persons by G.N. Karna. APH Publishers, New Delhi. pages xviii+409. Rs. 800.

IS a physically or mentally impaired person a sinner who is being justly handed down a divine punishment, or is he a victim of witchcraft? Are terms like “disabled, impaired, handicapped, crippled, and challenged” synonyms? Dr Karna asks these questions with the fervour and bewilderment that only a person of his condition, sensitivity and erudition can ask. Born in a poor rural family in Bihar, Karna’s both legs became useless at the age of three due to polio. Yet, through sheer grit he did his M. Phil and Ph.D. from JNU with an outstanding academic record.

he rightly points out that there is a difference between impairment and disability. For instance, when a person loses the use of a limb or a faculty, he is impaired; but if he is unable to perform an ordinary task, for example, if he cannot climb stairs, then he is disabled.

According to R. Frankenberg, there are mainly six theories of illness that apply to disability — namely the germ theory, the stress theory, the resistance theory, the psychosomatic theory, the psychogenic theory, and the symbolic theory.

The problem of disability is enormous. More than half a billion people in the world — 10 per cent of the total world population —suffer from disabilities of different kind and intensity. Discrimination against them in the past was inhuman in nature.

Even in the so-called enlightened times of today, they face several types of oppressive situations and attitudes. Be it employment, an auspicious occasion, social activity or any other productive work, very rarely are the disabled accepted as equals. Even those who are mentally sound but physically handicapped are not easily trusted with work requiring cerebral application. It is strange that physical handicap casts doubts upon one’s intellectual capabilities.

Finkelstein says in his “Attitude and Disabled People: Issues for Discussion”, the social attitude towards disability has undergone three distinct phases of evolution. In the first phase, disability was entwined with low social status where the victim was held responsible for his misfortune. The second phase was ushered in by the industrial revolution. Skilled professional help and special institutions for the disabled were developed.

In the third phase new techniques and tools were fashioned to provide more mobility and self-dependence to the disabled. In this manner the situation of the disabled was essentially sought to be improved by reforming the environment which had turned the medical condition of disability into psycho-social conditions of handicap. Jenkins describes the evolutionary phases in social attitudes as “passive compassion, action for economic reasons and action for social reasons”.

After an anthropological construction of disability, karna analyses its various paradigms. Medical, psychological, economic-vocational, socio-political approaches have been used to discuss the nature and scope of disability.

The author finally examines the role of the UN in ameliorating the condition which is both pathetic and virtually intractable. Dealing with the Indian scenario he quotes WHO surveys revealing that India has 70 million deaf persons, 60 million are afflicted with leprosy, polio and tuberculosis. Three per cent of all the newborn are mentally ill. More than 50 per cent of the disabled are women, including children.

The author has given tables and related information like the names of organisations which look after the disabled. It is a useful book for not merely social scientists but also for those who need help but do not know where to seek.

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Environment and Health in Developing Countries edited by Manas Chatterji, Mohan Munasinghe and Rabin Ganguly. APH publishers, New Delhi. pages xix + 422. Rs. 1000.

It is a truism that environment is vital for the existence of all life forms. However, this volume contains essays highlighting the theme of health and environment. The three critical elements of sustainable development — namely, economic, social and environmental — are absolutely dependent on human health. A society with a sizeable sick population may find it difficult to maintain its present socio-economic status, let alone achieve sustainable development. Paradoxically, human health, in turn, is largely dependent on the quality and nature of environment.

K.R. Nayar asserts that the ambivalent concept of sustainable development has led to vague and ill-defined execution. However, it is difficult to agree with him when he says that there has been an “overemphasis on population control”. If anything, India has been rather complacent in this regard.

Richard P. Weden says that one major reason for the globalisation of environmental pollution has been the indiscriminate and unregulated disposal of toxic materials. Gordon McGranahan observes that poverty leads to environmental degradation. But his is only partially true. Our tribals, who are materially poor, contribute only a minuscule ratio to overall pollution vis-a-vis the more affluent urbanites.

Case studies like the Surat plague and the Bhopal gas disaster have been analysed to place the overall scenario in perspective. This book contains a wealth of thought-provoking articles peppered with facts and figures.

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ISO 9000 and Quality Movements by B. Narayan. APH publishers, New Delhi. pages v+240. Rs. 600.

With the information explosion the consumer is becoming more aware. This makes him more demanding when it comes to a product’s quality. Consequently, producers feel it imperative to constantly upgrade the products in order to survive in the market. In this regard their quality systems come under sharp focus. All successful quality systems strive to standardise their production processes.

Even though production and management techniques evolved over a period of time —from unreliable standards of production to a very high-precision product performance —the quality assurance efforts remained largely defensive —namely, they concentrated on removing the existing defects rather than anticipating future trends. Industries began resorting to proactive quality assurance measures only from the 1970s onwards.

The design process, earlier a neglected area, assumed great significance. A comprehensive approach to reliability involved such measures as first year failure rate analysis, measurement of the meantime between failures and maintenance. These analyses were summarised in a management visualisation document in order to inform the top management of potential risks. Thus, the managers were expected to use reliability and quality standards above the average of what constitutes good industry practice.

To ensure performance, reliability test procedures are stipulated both for in-house and field trials. Some producers prefer conservative engineering wherein ample safety margins are provided to enable a product to perform under varied stress conditions. Vendor selection and management, production and work-force management are some of the concepts facilitating quality assurance.

For a long period the International Standards Organisation (ISO) has been trying to formulate a universally acceptable quality control regimen. Consequently, the ISO 9000 series came into being after several experiments and upgrading in quality management techniques.

This series has caught the fancy of both producers as well as governments around the world. The ISO 9000 documents are written in generic format and are applicable to all fields, industries, businesses, agencies, organisations, enterprises and entities. This is one more useful book from the prolific author. Dr Narayan has indeed done a signal service to management students by bringing out this easy to understand and informative volume.

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Good Schools of India by Sandeep Dutt. The English Book Depot, Dehra Dun. Pages xiii+350. Rs 395.

It is indeed difficult to define a “good school”. Different schools have their own “culture” and they cater to specific strata of society. All may claim to instil myriad virtues in their wards yet we know that louts are found in the “best” of schools and ideal scholars come out of the “not so good” institutions. The element of snobbery too plays a part in labelling an educational institution as desirable or undesirable for one’s ward.

However, the author has given a comprehensive list of schools with enough information about them to enable us to decide which would suit our needs in an optimum manner. Mercifully, Dutt has eschewed value judgement and has stuck to the narrow and straight path of a guide.

A useful book if you are caught on the horns of dilemma while deciding where to send to apple of your eye for “good” education.