Aperture; Forbes India. Olympic innovations

It's been a fabulous week in London. With sportsmen, business leaders, heads of state and visitors descending on the capital en masse, it's pure joy travelling around. People are happy, excited, in team colours, and the atmosphere is electric. I'm having the greatest fun looking behind the scenes with big chiefs for Forbes India. I got lots of fascinating interviews and renewed my admiration for the work of top-of-the range engineers. For this photo-essay on innovations for this Games, I worked closely with Forbes's talented DOP or director of photography, Dinesh Krishnan. Do tell us what you think.

Pranab gets what he wants -the Indian Presidency

My latest post at Coffee House; how Pranab Mukherjee, who has been a pillar of the Congress Party, has won for himself a reward for his hard years of negotiating and trouble shooting on behalf of his masters. I don't think that anyone should be relaxing too much with Pranab as President; there's a reasonable amount of power and executive clout that comes with the post and for once he will have the capacity to make decisions at his own. He is no longer beholden. He has five years to make a difference.It's taken four decades, and denied the PM's job by the party president Sonia Gandhi, he's wrested a great consolation prize. He might not have gotten it had Congress not become so debilitated.

Nice to be back at the Coffee House/Spectator

The forthcoming India presidential election on July 19 was the subject of my post to Coffee House/The Spectator site today. Coffee House has a brand new editor, Isabel Hardman, and in only her first week on the job she is going great guns. She is also a serious writer. I have said that Pranab Mukherjee is likely to get the job of commander in chief; let's see if that happens.

Review; "Gandhi's Outstanding Leadership" by Pascal Alan Nazareth

Dedicated to his late mother Elizabeth Lucy Nazareth, former Indian ambassador and head of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations Pascal Alan Nazareth has written an interesting book on Mahatma Gandhi.
There can't be an inspirational figure with more books written about him, but Mr Nazareth has produced an easy to read, carefully researched addition to the list. Perhaps because Pascal Alan Nazareth has been in the position of leading important teams himself, he has decided to examine his subject from the point of view of the Mahatma's leadership qualities. He examines India's most famous son's abilities in communication, organizational, strategizing, and management skills, and Gandhi's influences on contemporary figures.

I like the reader-friendly font and the liberal use of cartoons, drawings and black and white photos to bring the text to life. One of the most useful things that Mr Nazareth has done is to examine Gandhi in a contemporary context, highlighting what current figures say about him and how his influence can be reflected in world events. This is a different take on the Mahatma so deserves a read by anyone fascinated by him.