As the battle for the smartphone and tablet market rages on, video advertising is one of the most effective ways to grab consumers&rsquo; attention. Samsung, Google, and Microsoft each saw massive growth in 2012 both on a brand and campaign basis. Samsung tops the list of most popular tech ads of 2012 prepared by video tracker Visible Measures, with Galaxy S III, which has got 71 million views, 17 million views more than the runner up.

The head turners

Business Standard

To launch cash transfers on January 1, the government&rsquo;s target is 80 per cent Aadhaar coverage for each of the shortlisted 51 districts. In the last of a four-part series, Business Standard captures the state on the ground in the west.

Ready for rollout?

Gold demand in the third quarter of 2012 was 10% up over the previous quarter, but 11% lower year-on-year. In value terms, demand was worth $57.6 bn, 14% below Q3 2011. Investment demand was 16% below the exceptional levels witnessed in the third quarter of 2011, led by a steep drop in the bar and coin segment.

Gold demand and supply

The last one year ending September 30, 2012 hasn&rsquo;t been easy for fund managers as well as investors.

Picking the winners

Stung by B S Yeddyurappa&rsquo;s decision to form his own party &ndash; Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) &ndash; six months before the Assembly election in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are punishing the former Karnataka chief minister&rsquo;s supporters. The first to face the ire of the BJP top leaders was G S Basavaraj, member of Parliament (MP) from Karnataka, who has been suspended from the BJP on charges of making anti-party statements. Another close aide of Yeddyurappa, Cooperative Minister B J Puttaswamy, was removed from the top post on similar charges. Yeddyurappa claims that he has the support of more than 40 BJP MLAs who are willing to join the KJP.

Battle lines 

The conventional wisdom is that job security is something only 50-somethings care about; for younger workers, it is way down the priority list. In that sense, the findings of the Towers Watson Global Workforce Study, released earlier this week, are a surprise. According to the survey, which covers those below 30, job security ranks first as a driver of attraction. The larger trend that emerges is that employees now evaluate just how good the security blanket employers set up is. Even the reputation of the organisation is now being perceived as a surrogate of trust, rather than the badge of value it represented earlier. Stress and anxiety about the future are common, as over half the respondents agreed retirement security is more important today than just a few years ago. That&rsquo;s a completely new idiom for India Inc which, till recently, was grappling with a high rate of attrition and wasn&rsquo;t quite sure whether an employee leaving work today would come back tomorrow.

Job security centrestage  

Do not be misled. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh&rsquo;s stolid expression and glazed eyes don&rsquo;t mean he is not listening to the debate. He&rsquo;s all there, quietly digesting everything that&rsquo;s being said. During the debate on foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail in the Rajya Sabha, it was the prime minister in alligator mode that took even the suave Member of Parliament N K Singh aback. N K Singh, while defending his position that FDI was bad for the country, said when someone asked economist John Galbraith to explain why he changed his mind about something, he replied: &ldquo;When the facts change, I change my mind.

The economist speaks

The listing gives you information on the performance of mutual fund schemes based on investment category they belong to and with a corpus (QAAUM: quarterly assets under management) of over Rs 600 crore. For the full list of schemes, visit www.business-standard.com/download/ fm2012.xls. Returns (adjusted for payouts where applicable) and net asset values (NAV) are for the period ended September 28, 2012. Data has been sourced from www.mutualfundsindia.com.

Understanding fund directory

A new price index for agri commodities; a Business Standard and Indicus Analytics initiative.

Indicus price monitor

Business Standard brings to you a snapshot of average current rates and unit sizes in localities that offer property in the price range of Rs 2 crore to Rs 4 crore.

Real estate investment: A wider picture

Every Monday, Business Standard analyses one family&rsquo;s finances and suggests a suitable way forward(Click on graphic)

Case study

My wife and I are jointly applying for a home loan. But I had missed a few monthly instalments on a personal loan four years ago. I paid it off subsequently. My wife has never taken a loan.

Credit watch:  Mohan Jayaraman

Companies in retail, wholesale and distribution sectors need to pay more attention to their supply chain as they are more likely to get hit by fraud involving customers (23% ) and vendors (24%). However, the survey finds that they are less likely than average to be investing in partner, client and vendor due diligence. More attention here could pay dividends.

Fraud in the retail sector

This refers to the report &ldquo;UPA gets Maya boost in Rajya Sabha&rdquo; (December 7). The voting pattern on retail foreign direct investment (FDI) in both Houses of Parliament exposes the hypocrisy of our politicians. The United Progressive Alliance allies, and its outside supporters in particular, have made a mockery of democracy. Mayawati&rsquo;s U-turn to support retail FDI in the Rajya Sabha proves that she does not dare to face the Central Bureau of Investigation. It is unbecoming of prime ministerial aspirants &ndash; Pawar, Mulayam and Mayawati &ndash; to take such contradictory stands. Barring the Congress, all other parties had spoken vehemently against retail FDI, but at the last minute, they voted in its favour.

Letters: A mockery of democracy

Despite several allegations made against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Congress, they managed to get the President of their choice elected. Now, they have managed to win the vote on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail in both Houses of Parliament. It seems that all the noise made by the Opposition is like the story of sour grapes &mdash; as pointed out by Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati.

Letters: UPA-III?

This refers to the report &ldquo;Retail FDI victory fuels govt reforms push&rdquo; (December 8). Beyond the questions of merits and demerits of foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, and who won or lost, the recent debate in Parliament has raised a larger question of the probity of parliamentarians. Parliament is the highest forum of expression of the people&rsquo;s will through their elected representatives, who have the obligation of carrying the will of the majority. In this case, though the will of the majority was against retail FDI, it was not carried because of opportunistic parties, such as Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Although these parties had earlier participated in Bharat bandhs against the issue, during the voting in the House, they either abstained or voted in favour of the government&rsquo;s order allowing retail FDI to be cleared.

Letters: Parliamentarians' probity?

Like many other industrial projects in West Bengal, Tata Hitachi is also facing trouble getting land for the township it proposes to build for its employees working in the Kharagpur plant. No prizes for guessing the political party responsible for these problems. But attempts of getting Tata Hitachi Managing Director Rana Sinha to name the party during a press briefing failed.

Colour coded

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi described Congress leader Kapil Sibal&rsquo;s speech in an interesting way by citing what a law professor said to his students during his university days. Joshi quoted the professor: &ldquo;If you have law on your side, hammer the law into the head of the judge; if you have facts on your side, hammer the facts into the head of the jury; and if you have nothing on your side, then shout loudly and hammer with it.

Hammer and tongue

Till a couple of years ago, most private equity conferences in Mumbai were always crowded because India was one of the hottest investment destinations in Asia. But it is a measure of the country&rsquo;s diminished charms that participation in the last two big conferences organised by Southeast Asian private equity organisations were distinctly low key. For one two-day conference, half the participants left soon after lunch.

Business Standard

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