A few years ago, Mohan Murjani gave up the franchises of Gucci and Jimmy Choo in India as sales failed to match the expected demand for luxury goods in India. But things have changed since then.

Tommy Hilfiger sticks to premium play

Business Standard

Designer Vijay Balhara displayed his fashion line at the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) in March. The products have already reached stores. That&rsquo;s a big change as the lead time from the ramp to shop racks was as much as six months earlier.

Ramp to rack in 45 days

As part of the celebration of its golden jubilee celebrations, the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) has come up with a new format website, which is aimed primarily at projecting the institute&rsquo;s image of a world class establishment.

IIMC launches new portal

With such a large number of universities in India, it is imperative to assume that controlling them from one office in Delhi must be ineffective. The most successful foreign universities have their own administration controlling themselves. In case of IITs, their own board of governors and academic committees should have autonomy to formulate plans and implement them.

Student's corner

From toothbrushes to night suits, from breakfast cereals to body cleansers, there is a spiritual touch in each item up for sale. Consumerism blended with spiritualism, courtesy religious gurus and organisations, is giving companies a run for their money.

Meet Ramdev the marketing guru

In 2009, when Retailers Association of India (RAI) and Indira Gandhi National Open University jointly began a three- year bachelor&rsquo;s programme in retailing, the course saw 250 students enrolling.

India Inc's retail academy

Has liberalisation squeezed the personality out of India Inc&rsquo;s leaders? Think of the earlier generation. There were the Tata satraps &mdash; Russi Mody of Tisco (today&rsquo;s Tata Steel), Suman Moolgaokar of Telco (Tata Motors), Darbari Seth of Tata Chemicals or F C Kohli (TCS). Then you also had Dhirubhai Ambani, Rahul Bajaj, R P Goenka, Vijay Mallya, Nusli Wadia, Ajit Haksar, Manu Chhabria or even T Thomas.

Kanika Datta: Where have all the personalities gone?

Nationmaster.com, a Sydney-based website, recently released a list of 30 countries, according to which the biggest consumer of wine is Luxembourg at 15.5 litres per capita, followed by France at 14.8 litres. India, with a per capita consumption figure of 10 ml, doesn&rsquo;t feature anywhere on the list.

USL high on wine

In August last year, Maruti was one of the two case studies presented at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar on contract labour for the way the automobile company had &ldquo;engaged with its contract labour&rdquo;.

Shyamal Majumdar: Contract labour pains

I turned around to take a closer look at my co-passenger. She was trim and fresh-faced even at this unearthly hour and wearing what looked me like a Ritu Beri outfit. &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t such a public debate healthy?&rdquo; I countered as I tried to figure out what kind of an answer would make sense to her.

Ajit Balakrishnan: Much ado about IIM rankings

    This late animal celebrity was found on postage stamps. Tens of thousands of bank ATM cards featured its face. A candy maker used to churn out more than a million replicas of it as gummy candies a day. The zoo in which it stayed was listed in the local stock exchange and showed profits during the years of its existence and as a brand it generated more than $140 million in business. Name this celebrity and the place it inhabited.

The Strategist Quiz (#205)

Sakhidevi smiles radiantly as she serves chilled Coke at her shop. That&rsquo;s a real big deal for this store-owner in a small village off Agra which goes without power for several days at a stretch. &ldquo;My daily earnings have gone up three-fold,&rdquo; Sakhidevi says.

Coke's cool move faces cost heat

    The Streisand Effect. Named after actress Barbra Streisand because of her unsuccessful 2003 lawsuit attempting to remove photographs of her Malibu home from the web &mdash; which of course had people flocking to the site that hosted the pictures.

Answers to last week's quiz (#204)

After a fall over two years in the numbers taking the computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) say they expect to see a growth this year in the number of aspirants. The third computer-based edition of the yearly test, conducted by the IIMs through partner Prometric, is expected is to witness a 10 per cent rise in applications this year.

IIMs expect CAT enrolment rise after two-year dip

Kissan acts as a catalyst, easing stressful moments at the dining table.

Food for thought

After its first venture in the FM radio space with BIG FM, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) has diversified its business to step into television (BIG CBS), outdoor (BIG STREET), experiential marketing (BIG LIVE) and the digital platform (BIG DIGITAL). While radio continues to be the largest contributor to its revenue (70 per cent), the company expects its more recent ventures to make a bigger contribution to its total revenue in the short to medium term. Tarun Katial, chief executive officer, RBNL, speaks to Preeti Khicha on the way forward for the different business verticals. Edited excerpts.

Q&A: Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd

A young engineer with the vision of leveraging technology to improve the lives of people finds ways to make conventional robots more intelligent. In 2007 he founded Gridbots which develops robots with a solution-centric approach. They consume only a fifth of the power consumed by conventional robots, and weigh only a third of their weight. Audio- and video-based analytics technologies make them more intelligent than conventional ones. We bring you the case study on Gridbots&rsquo; venture into robotics in an exclusive arrangement with India Brand Equity Foundation. This is the first in a five-part series from IBEF&rsquo;s Innovations from India: Harbingers of Change. The series focuses on the innovation-driven entrepreneurial spirit of Indian companies.

Using robotics to solve real problems

Four years after publishing its first magazine in the country, Cond&eacute; Nast India is set to launch its corporate campaign. While its three titles &mdash; Vogue, GQ and Cond&eacute; Nast Traveller &mdash; target the affluent reader, the corporate campaign will target media planners and brand managers with reasons that make it the ideal vehicle for luxury advertising. Cond&eacute; Nast India Managing Director Alex Kuruvilla points out, &ldquo;We had a powerful story to tell with our three titles. While our readers are familiar with our magazines, the awareness that they come from the same group is low. The corporate campaign articulates our role in the luxury segment since we entered India.

Conde Nast India: Luxury matters

After Do Dooni Chaar, the first Hindi live-action movie distributed by The Walt Disney Company (Disney) in India, won a National Award, the Hollywood studio tied up with UTV Motion Pictures (UTV) for more. The two studios, which have had a long-standing association, have entered a movie co-production deal to bring out four to five new titles a year.

The Walt Disney Company: Disney's designs on India

FREEFALL
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SURVIVING THE STORM
Author: Dhiraj Nayyar 
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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP - 2011 OFFICIAL GUIDE
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MANAGERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
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THE HABIT OF WINNING
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THE MAN WHO SOLD AMERICA
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The top 10 business bestsellers

The higher education system in India is largest in the world in terms of number of institutes and the third-largest in terms of enrollments.

Page 561 - News