Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on a three-nation tour of China, Mongolia and South Korea on Thursday

Will MAT queer PM Modi's pitch during foreign visit?

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Poor mobile app experience would make millennials less likely to use a company's products or services, according to a research by Oracle

Tapping into the mobile generation

Premium leather goods brand Hidesign forayed into the footwear market with the pan-India launch of men's shoes. The collection has classic formal shoes as well as casual shoes like moccasins, boat shoes and sneakers in washed leather and is available in a range of colours. They are priced between Rs 4,295 and Rs 5,995. The launch process took about one year for the company. The range is targeted at working professionals. The company has launched the collection across 30 exclusive Hidesign stores besides its website and on Amazon. It has installed a four feet-tall shoe in some malls of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to create buzz around the launch. A women's collection will be rolled out in June and the range will include dressy evening shoes, wedges and sandals.Micromax Canvas Laptab: Riding the hybrid waveMicromax Informatics entered the hybrid laptop category with the Micromax Canvas Laptab.  The laptab supported by Intel Atom Processor Z3735F and pre-bundled with Windows 8.1, MS Offic

Hidesign: Expanding the range

A new research released by Adobe along with the CMO Council shows that Indian marketers have the highest level of confidence in their digital marketing proficiency in APAC, with 43 per cent rating their approach as 'very good' or 'good', compared to the 24 per cent APAC average. The research also revealed that the customer is the top-most priority for Indian marketers. Almost half of the Indian marketers responding to the research said that additional digital marketing improvements and maturity can help them create a more customer-centric and responsive organisation (47.5 per cent). The confidence also underpins a sustained and strong belief that digital is enabling engagement through the touch points that connect a brand with its customers (59 per cent of Indian marketers versus 55 per cent average for APAC marketers).While digital-driven customer engagement is emerging as a key driver for marketers, almost 50 per cent of the respondents across APAC call out that one of the key benefi

The customer is top priority for digital marketers in India

Business Standard analyses one family's finances and suggests a way forward

Case study

Today, Amitabh Chaudhry , managing director & chief executive officer at HDFC Life,  answers your questionsMy insurance policy lapsed. Now, the company is running a policy renewal drive. Should I renew my policy?It is advisable to renew your policy if it has  lapsed. However, the company might ask you to undergo a medical test, depending upon the policy you bought.I am paying premiums for a traditional life insurance policy for five years. I have not received any bonus. Should I be worried?  Generally speaking, participating plans offered by insurance companies accrue bonuses throughout the policy term (or the mentioned period). These are declared at the end of the year and get attached to the receivable benefit. These are not guaranteed and the rates might change from time to time. The bonuses are not paid out at the end of every year in the form of cash payouts. I suggest you get in touch with the company. Normally, all bonuses are payable on maturity, along with the sum assured

Life insurance: Amitabh Chaudhry

Tories' majority raises questions about the future

The British verdict

Financial inclusion will need explicit fiscal commitment

The cost of safety nets

The debate on net neutrality in the Rajya Sabha last week saw members resorting to a range of metaphors to convey their feelings. Bharatiya Janata Party member Tarun Vijay lashed out at private telecom operators, calling them "Shylock" and "sharks". Likening the fight for net neutrality to the freedom struggle, he urged the government to introduce an "internet Bill of civil rights". The Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Ritabrata Banerjee invoked Karl Marx and told the House that "the class that controls the means of production should also control the means of mental production". Former Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, professor and Congress member Rajeev Gowda borrowed a thought from the Star Trek television series and urged parliamentarians "to help people boldly go where no man has gone before".

Netting trouble

Readers might remember an earlier post in Chinese Whispers about Ashish Joshi, who was summarily removed from his position within days of his appointment as member-secretary of the Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC), an advisory body to the Aam Aadmi Party government. Now, he has alleged he was removed for smoking cigars in the office premises. On Saturday, he said he only smoked a cigar, unlike those who sucked other people's blood. DDC Vice-Chairman Ashish Khetan had reportedly complained to chairman and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that Joshi repeatedly ignored his polite exhortations not to consume tobacco in the office premises.

Bad manners

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission earlier in the year, retains some legacy components. A bulletin board, inscribed with the Swachh Bharat pledge by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Gandhi Jayanti last year, is still displayed prominently at the entrance of the NITI Aayog building with the name Yojana Aayog inscribed on it. The board, placed next to the attendance device, reminds one of a favourite French saying: "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

Legacy issues

This refers to the article "Why India should focus on leverage not just capital adequacy" (May 8). Rohit Lamba and Arvind Subramanian's recommendation that India should desist from focusing exclusively on refined measures of capital adequacy is in line with current thinking. Even the Basel Committee, while recommending post-crisis Basel-III version of capital regulations, has also suggested simultaneous monitoring of the leverage ratio as banks adopt these more stringent capital standards by March 2019 in a phased manner. It is, however, somewhat surprising that the learned authors seemingly lump all versions of Basel regulations together in their criticism. The evolution of Basel norms, spread over several years, was aimed at making capital computation more comprehensive (inclusion of market and operational risks) and risk insensitive. The financial crisis also highlighted the importance of maintaining liquidity, which prompted the Basel Committee to introduce liquidity standards alon

Letters: Banking on Basel

This refers to the editorial "Smart city pitfalls" (May 8). The current government's ambition to upgrade small towns and cities across the country to smart cities is a welcome and novel step that would change the perspective of the world towards India, if implemented in letter and spirit.But the effectiveness of the implementation relies on some major local issues and governance, which surely can't be dictated by the ministers in Delhi. The municipalities of major cities, which are run by aristocratic civil servants and not popularly elected members, have to be taken on board and their co-operation must be sought.Moreover, the central government has relied heavily on the state governments to prepare the plans for projects, which no doubt is a novel step, but non-implementable due to the lack of interest and efficiency of the states. The lack of delegation of authority to the lower levels of governments makes this a useless effort on the part of the Centre.The Central government's plans

Letters: Making 'smart' moves

Behind the 70th anniversary of Russia's Victory Day parade

The politics and the glory

The economic situation does not justify more price cuts: Sanjiv Mehta

Can't rely only on states to power urban renewal

Smart city pitfalls

Retail's consolidations

After giving journalists a lot to write about, mobile app-based transportation network Uber is giving them something to smile about too - a job offer. Uber has put out an advertisement seeking applications for an editorial director. "We're looking for an experienced, creative, and dynamic content strategist to join our team and lead the development of owned content to tell the Uber story." The job description reads like a position for a writer of native advertising. Perks include gym reimbursements and unlimited vacation policy. "Work hard and take time when you need it," the ad says.

The job description

Ministers in the Narendra Modi-led government seem too eager to showcase their achievements. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was recounting the good work done by his government during the discussion on the Constitution Amendment Bill for the Goods and Services Tax in the Lok Sabha, Piyush Goyal, minister of state for power, coal and new & renewable energy, interrupted with some corrections in the numbers he presented. Jaitley, who was already irked by the constant questioning by Opposition members, warned him: "Please, don't interrupt me." Realising that he had been rude, Jaitley quickly acknowledged the inputs by Goyal, a national rank holding chartered accountant, and clarified to the House: "My able minister wants the correct numbers to be presented."

Numbers tell the story

Forget the masses, even elected representatives of the people find it difficult to use electronic voting machines. As many as 12 Bharatiya Janata Party MPs scored an own goal while voting for the Constitution Amendment Bill for the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. The MPs pressed the red button instead of the green one when the amendment came up for a division of voting in the Lok Sabha. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan ordered a re-division after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the electronic machine did not function properly, but not before the Opposition opposed the move.

All in favour?

The editorial "Missed opportunities" (May 7) observes that the failure of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to meet the expectations of corporates for quick reforms is the main cause of dampening investor optimism.If the expectations were to be of hurricane speed, part of the blame should not only go to Narendra Modi's election strategy, which promised the same, but also to the corporate world if they believed those rhetorics. Still, the government has done much more for easing business operations than for the common man in areas of corruption, employment and quality of life.Labour law reforms, despite opposition from trade unions, the placement of a pragmatic politician minister in charge of environment clearance, the Goods and Services Tax, enhancement of foreign investment and making Herculean efforts to modify the land acquisition system - all these have taken a lot of the government's energy to please business houses and dented its claims of being a pro-poor party.But our

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