The Politically (In)correct Blog: Books to understand the dark side of Indian corporates

One can easily get in a filter bubble by reading the same set of newspapers, magazines and all. Hence, to avoid confirmation bias especially about India Inc (4yrs of work experience has removed the blinkers even if they existed earlier), it is good to seek out and read books that aim to reflect the dark side.

While picking the books, though not having read many/all of them, I adopted the following criteria.

· Indian Business environment-The book should impart insight on the Indian business environment-I have excluded equally great books like that of P Sainath

· Fact based/Objective-Should not be a set of leftist propaganda nor should it vilify business for their mere existence. Hence, does not include books of Ms Arundhati Roy.

· No hagiographies aka business biographies-These should not be written by the person themselves-I have noticed this leads to too much rosy picture, which is anyways available.

Non Fiction ONLY-There are several excellent business novels which are on thinly guised events but not many may recognize the characters so I have ignored these

Without much ado, we proceed to the books classified by sector

If confused whether to buy these books, read the reviews on Amazon, often these will give the essence and help you decide whether to buy them. Also, I have given Amazon links since these are the cheapest source I have seen-I do NOT earn any affiliate income from these links!

Infrastructure/Natural resources

Unsurprisingly, this sector accounts for many books due to the way resource allocation was perverted and twisted in the pre NDA times.

http://www.amazon.in/Gas-Wars-Crony-Capitalism-Ambanis/dp/8192855120 The book by an IIM Ahmedabad professor and reputed journalist, examines the gas pricing dispute

http://www.amazon.in/Crusader-Conspirator-Coalgate-Other-Truths/dp/8170494877/ref=pd_bxgy_14_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM

http://www.amazon.in/Spectrum-Grab-Inside-Story-2G/dp/9380740115/ref=pd_sim_14_29?ie=UTF8&dpID=41t2air4EjL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR137%2C160_&refRID=1K6120F5AMECE42RDKCW The (in)famous 2G story

http://www.amazon.in/Eat-Dust-Mining-Greed-Goa/dp/9351364844/ref=pd_sim_14_71?ie=UTF8&dpID=51BoSGrYG3L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=0GT4H7773M61MRX237QC Mining scams in Goa which led to shutdown and change in fortunes

http://www.amazon.in/Ambani-Sons-Hamish-McDonald/dp/8174368140/ref=pd_sim_14_61?ie=UTF8&dpID=51NCCPEJj-L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR101%2C160_&refRID=1K6120F5AMECE42RDKCW A very dated book but lessons still apply for new age barons

Corporate Failures
The VUCA Company This outlines the failures of prominent listed companies such as SKS, Wockhardt, Renuka, Suzlon
Why I failed- http://www.amazon.in/Why-I-Failed-Lessons-Leaders-ebook/dp/B00DQ6GM1G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461251229&sr=1-1&keywords=why+i+failed

E Commerce

http://www.amazon.in/The-Golden-Tap-Inside-Startups/dp/9351941523/ref=pd_sim_14_8?ie=UTF8&dpID=51RM73W8pjL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR105%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM This book is making waves, and while receiving mixed reviews, is among the few ones on the sector, in India or globally

Scams/BQ Quotient in General

http://www.amazon.in/Bullshit-Quotient-Decoding-Corporate-Fineprint/dp/9350095092/ref=pd_sim_14_9?ie=UTF8&dpID=41dY-PnKd1L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=048ATRQQTY0SD63G2XZM One of my favourite books