“Book Descriptions: Retaining Balance is a fascinating approach to deal with the challenges faced by the discipline of economics. This work critically analyses the prevalent conundrum of policy framers who place too much reliance on the individual, in the process ignoring traditional institutions of family, society and community. Rampant individualism, in turn, results in excesses leading to the proliferation of either a corrosive state, or an extortionist market. Retaining Balance traces this conundrum to the Christian theology of original sin and broken self, necessitating salvation through an external agent viz., the state or markets, in the first place. This arrangement has spawned a series of excesses resulting in extant macroeconomic imbalances. Retaining Balance argues that the institution of family, rooted to civilisational restraints, alone can deal with such individual excesses. Importantly, it seeks to introduce the grand idea of individual duties along with the fundamental rights to balance the skew in our constitutional arrangements. A must read for people in power.
Dr M R Venkatesh is one of India’s leading Advocates on economic-criminal laws and a much sought-after legal professional. He is also a keen student of economics and politics. As a professional, he is an advisor to several corporates and promoters on complex transactions involving cross-disciplinary expertise. His earlier book titled Sense, Sensex and Sentiments has been acknowledged by experts as one of the pioneering works in the field of Anti-Money Laundering. He is a ranker in the final examination of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and well recognised for his professional integrity and acumen. MRV, as he is fondly called by friends, is a rare breed of Advocate who brings a trans-professional approach to the table. He has completed his doctoral thesis on the issue of Agricultural subsidies with SASTRA University.” DRIVE