Sample this. Tata Group&rsquo;s retail flagship Trent was profitable from Day 1. It&rsquo;s a record, anywhere in the world, anyway you look at it. The secret? Fifteen years ago, the Tata Group managed a steal for itself as it shopped its way into big ticket retailing with perhaps the best deal in town.

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Business Standard

At 54, Noel Tata is a believer. For him, once you are in retail, you stay sold to it. Over the years he has played a pivotal role in the evolution of the retail strategy for the entire group as the MD of Trent, the flagship retail company of the Tata Group. Responsible for many foreign tie-ups, strategic rollouts and acquisitions, he is now giving Tata International, the trading arm of the conglomerate, a retail twist.

Q&A: Noel Tata, MD, Trent

Toyota is hoping to drive volumes in the passenger car market in the country with its made-for-India small car, the Liva.

Less is more

The Korean chaebol is making its presence felt in technology-led segments such as flat-panel television sets, while LG retains its domination in white goods and appliances.

Samsung strikes back

Vortex Engineering, a company focused on developing sustainable products for rural India, decides to develop an ATM to meet this segment&rsquo;s banking demands. The ATM is powered by solar energy consumes just 4 per cent of the total energy that is required by a conventional ATM to function. It has the capability to serve Indian villages &mdash; indicating an opportunity for over half a million ATMs across the country.

Banking on solar power

Major shirt brands such as Van Heusen and Alan Solly have joined the environment game.

Green on the sleeve

Colgate-Palmolive is in no mood to let go off its dominance in the oral care category in India. It has just launched Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief, its second offering in the category after Colgate Sensitive launched two years back.

For a bigger bite

Over the last few years India has seen a slew of new generation commercial vehicles enter the fray. Launched by domestic and multinational companies, these vehicles are built on modern platforms, are more reliable and efficient, and therefore command a premium.

Happy anniversary

The market for personal grooming products for men in India is estimated at Rs 2,950 crore in 2011. The segment includes shaving products, deodorants, skin care, hair care, bath and shower products, and perfumes.

KIT: Personal grooming products for men

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    The US patent office issued a patent called the &ldquo;361 patent&rdquo; to this company. The business model which led to Google&rsquo;s success was copied from this company. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#207)

The initial stupendous response has taken everybody by surprise.

Hyundai's new verna-cular

Mother Dairy&rsquo;s tryst with mishti doi (sweetened yoghurt) began sometime back. Then a novelty, consumers just lapped up the Rs 5 a pack delicacy. The honeymoon, however, didn&rsquo;t last long as the cooperative increased prices by a stiff 60 per cent due to input cost spike.

Mother Dairy tastes success with mishti doi

This year, the new branch would only offer a two-year postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) course with an intake of 120, for which admissions have been completed as part of a centralised process covering all its branches. Apart from Ghaziabad, it already runs B-schools at Nagpur and Dubai.

IMT comes to Hyderabad

Internet giant Yahoo&rsquo;s recent job notification cries out loud: &ldquo;Scientists wanted&rdquo;. To meet its requirements in India, the company has even decided to launch a talent hunt with its Yahoo PhD Coop programme in collaboration with major Indian institutes.

Tech companies increase PhD hiring for R&D units

The success of the placement reporting standard depends more on the readiness of the country&rsquo;s B-schools to accept it rather than on recruiters. Policies and processes that govern recruitment differ greatly in companies.

Student's corner

Despite a significant rise in the number of engineering and management colleges in Uttar Pradesh, the number of MBA and B Tech aspirants is on a decline.

1.2 lakh MBA, BTech seats likely to go vacant in Uttar Pradesh

Kishore Biyani has entered the non-mass segment for the first time.

Future plays holiii in premium segment

For watchmakers, the timing for launching their ultra-luxe pieces looks perfect. So when Swiss watch company Audemars Piguet debuted in India last month, it was just one among many such launches.

Ultra-luxe watch makers say their time has come

As the Indian School of Business (ISB) at Hyderabad completes a decade of its existence ISB Dean Ajit Rangnekar, explains to Kalpana Pathak how B-schools in Singapore are a big challenge in terms of faculty recruitment and how it hurts to be blacklisted by the All India Council of Technical Education.

Q&A: Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, Indian School of Business

The placement season at the Delhi Technological University (DTU, earlier known as the Delhi College of Engineering) is in full swing with a total of 54 companies having visited the campus and making 320 job offers to the students.

Page 564 - News