Book Review: Balmiki Prasad Singh, The 21st Century: Geopolitics, Democracy and Peace
| Author | Ved Marwah |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556118788262 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 771
the business of overly regulating NGOs? What does the role of start-ups in social
innovation mean for the government? Further, how should academics and policy
think tanks be involved more actively in social innovation? The book is silent on
many of these aspects. It also could have improved on its presentation with the
methodology, such that the biases in the voices presented are clear to the reader.
In summary, I enjoyed reading the book; it is certainly a trendsetter in the
scholarly work on social innovation, public administration, management and
development, and I hope the review opens up more vistas of research in this
fertile area.
References
Banks, N. (2007). Improving donor support for urban poverty reduction: A focus on South
Asia (UNU-WIDER Working Paper No. 2011/68). Helsinki, Finland: UNU-WIDER.
Paul, S., & Sridhar, K. S. (2015). The paradox of India’s north–south divide: Lessons from
the states and regions. New Delhi: SAGE.
Kala S. Sridhar
Professor, Centre for Research in Urban Affairs
Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC)
Bangalore
kala@isec.ac.in; kala_sridhar2002@yahoo.com;
kalaseetharam@gmail.com;
Balmiki Prasad Singh, The 21st Century: Geopolitics, Democracy and
Peace. New York, London: Routledge, 2017, 354 pp., `995.
DOI:10.1177/0019556118788262
The author Balmiki Prasad Singh (also known as B.P. Singh) is himself aware of
the magnitude of the task he has undertaken in covering three important subjects,
geopolitics, democracy and peace, in one slim volume. Not an easy task by any
means! But the reader will not be disappointed. Singh has done full justice to each
one of them.
In his illustrious career in the public administration, B.P. Singh has held many
important posts including that of the Union Home Secretary. But he is more than
an administrator: a genuine scholar who has been in constant touch with intel-
lectual endeavours that have enriched both his scholarship and administrative
acumen. His erudition comes through on every page of this book. He has
carried forward the best tradition of the Indian Civil Service as visualised by
Philip Mason (popularly known as Philip Woodruff) in his book—The Men Who
Ruled India. B.P. Singh can be a role model for the young civil servants. Instead
of being preoccupied with perks and privileges and divorced from intellectual
activities, they should concentrate more on their responsibilities and cater to
public welfare. In a country like ours where the majority of people still live in
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