More than a year and a half after the Hewlett-Packard board fired CEO Carly Fiorina for failing to execute on her ambitious turnaround plan, the iconic Silicon Valley company continues to be mired in controversies. The latest scandal, involving snooping on board members, has claimed the head of the woman director who authorised it: Patricia Dunn. It's unfortunate that Fiorina's book was completed much ahead of the Dunn scandal and, therefore, we have been denied the pleasure of the author's views on the incident. But read Tough Choices and you can almost hear what Fiorina is probably saying: "I told you so". For, the sacking of Fiorina, it now appears, is not so much about a CEO messing up a multi-billion-dollar acquisition, as a "dysfunctional" board unable to come up with answers to a one-time tech powerhouse's myriad problems.

The book is important because, in some sense, it completes the picture. Reading it, it's easy to see where hp's board erred over the years. The first mistake was to get someone like Fiorina to transform an organisation as hidebound as hp. Even back in 1999 when the board tapped her, Fiorina was an unlikely candidate. As she herself points out in the book, Fiorina wasn't from the IT industry, wasn't a computer engineer and, well, wasn't a man either. The board's second mistake, and the biggest of them all, was not to put its weight behind her once it had brought her on board. The other mistake, apparently one that has been around for at least a decade and a half, was not to put an end to the bickering between various board members. After all, it's highly unusual for a family representative on the board (in this case, Walter Hewlett) to engage the CEO in a very public and bitter battle over an acquisition already approved by the board. Perhaps it was a bad idea to merge two hardware companies at a time when others were moving towards services and software, but as Fiorina tells it, the problem in executing the merger lay in hp's reluctance to change; there was a huge cultural problem and the board did not help Fiorina go through with her tough decisions.

What you'll like about this book is the fact that it has been written with a great deal of sincerity. "All throughout 2005, I was hounded by reporters from television, magazines and newspapers to tell my side of the story. I have not spoken until now...I wanted to preserve my own and the company's dignity," she writes. There is bitterness for sure, but given the sense of betrayal she must carry within herself over her abrupt and unceremonious removal (it was done at a hotel in Chicago), there is remarkable restraint too. Perhaps, Fiorina could have played down the 'I was victimised because I was a woman' bit. But then, again, there must have been some truth in it as well. Maybe, Dunn will tell us more about it in her memoir.

At a time when the economy is witnessing robust growth, the challenge to aim for higher growth rates is a tough one. In such times, the sobering effect of incisive research papers on the Indian economy, is perhaps, appropriate. "India's Economy", a compilation of articles by economists and policy makers such as C. Rangarajan, Montek S. Ahluwalia, and Y.V. Reddy, covers a gamut of issues ranging from poverty, irrigation to development policies and globalisation. With 20 papers to boot, the book proves to be an 'economy' compass. While Vijay Kelkar, former advisor to Finance Minister, makes an elaborate argument to show that India is on the growth springboard, Arvind Virmani, Principal Advisor, Planning Commission, cautions against the deleterious effects of government failure. Shankar Acharya points to the need for less paralysing research on the economy for the answers are known-India is lagging behind China, since action is lacking on the ground.

C.H.H. Rao points to the inadequate intervention by the state in water resource management. RBI governor Y.V. Reddy enumerates the challenges faced by the Indian financial markets owing to the linkages with the rest of the world. In other words, a wholesome meal on the Indian economy for the intellectual palate.

-Balaji Chandramouli