• Each chapter opens with a structured abstract and a Key Points list, so the clinical bottom line comes first and the evidence behind it can be read when time allows.
• Topics are chosen for the problems that have outgrown uniform protocols — GLP-1 agonists before surgery, the physiologically difficult airway, obesity and frailty in ageing surgical populations — reinforcing individualized, physiology-guided decision-making.
• Numbered tables, flowcharts and management algorithms turn narrative evidence into decisions that can be made at the bedside.
• Contributions come from Indian teaching hospitals and from centres in the UK and USA, placing recommendations against international practice as well as Indian conditions.
• A dedicated chapter on dying with dignity sets out the current Indian legal position — Common Cause, the January 2023 amendment and the Harish Rana judgment — with the ICMR standardized DNAR proforma and the ISCCM/IAPC consensus end-of-life pathway.

Key Features:

• 25 peer-reviewed chapters commissioned under the aegis of the Indian College of Anaesthesiologists.
• Per-chapter teaching apparatus: structured abstract, keywords, Key Points, numbered tables, flowcharts, conclusion and references.
• New-technology coverage across AI-enabled paediatric anaesthesia, modern ultrasound in regional anaesthesia, nociception monitoring and technology-assisted self-learning.
• Perioperative medicine chapters on diabetes, abdominal obesity, obstetric haemorrhage with viscoelastic testing and targeted transfusion, postoperative hypotension, and non-arousal states and delirium.
• Sustainability, research-methodology and medico-legal chapters alongside the clinical updates.