Barista's Sanjay Coutinho is eyeing the lucrative food market for growth - he's rolling out eateries along highways that compete with local dhabas.

Highway on his menu

Business Standard

To improve its association with young customers, especially for its upcoming ventures like DTH (direct-to-home) television, mobile telecommunication services and handsets, the Videocon Group of the Dhoots has come up with a new brand identity.

Videocon Group: Amoebic attributes

In a move that&rsquo;s being perceived as giving more power to their heirs, the promoters of two major IT powerhouses, Wipro and HCL, have elevated their kin to more responsible positions.

HCL & Wipro: Heirs on top

If the Cabinet allows for 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in higher education, it will not only help in providing cheaper yet better quality education but also save India billions of dollars by way of foreign exchange (forex) outgo.

FDI in education can save country billions of dollars

IIT-Bhubaneswar, which found its mentor in IIT-Kharagpur in July 2008, will start its maiden academic year in Bhubaneswar from July 22 this year. In an interview with Pradipta Mukherjee, IIT-Bhubaneswar Director Madhusudan Chakraborty says the institute is investing in building a residential campus to accommodate nearly 2,500 students and 280 faculty within the next 3-4 years.

&#39;Our aim is to encourage product designing, product creation&#39;

Trent is trying hard to make up for lost time. Consider this: In the last 10 years, the retail arm of the Tata Group set up only 68 stores with around one million sq ft of space.

Trent changes gear

Wider choice of products, pack sizes and better chilling infrastructure are fuelling the sales growth of Coke and Pepsi.

The fizz is back

A recent ad for Burger King produced a storm. It was, fortunately, restricted to the metaphorical teacup. The ad, released locally in Spain, featured Goddess Lakshmi sitting atop a burger. The Spanish headline translates as &lsquo;Sacred Snack&rsquo;.

Burger ad: Storm in a teacup

The heady days of 2007-08 are still a distant memory, but the outlook for the advertisement industry seems to be getting brighter. Media planners have started revising their rather gloomy forecast made at the beginning of this financial year.

Ad industry back on track

A small car that redefined frugal engineering and a carnival that promises to evergreen the gentleman&rsquo;s game have won Business Standard&rsquo;s 13th annual Brand Derby. The Nano and Indian Premier League have been voted the biggest brand launches of 2008 by top marketers of the country.

IPL, Nano win BS  derby by several lengths

The Nano and Indian Premier League, both game-changers in their market, are in a dead heat in the Brand Derby to decide the best brand launches of 2008. Eighty-seven per cent respondents, senior marketers in top metros, rated IPL as very successful, as against 76 per cent for the Nano. But when asked to rank the very successful brand launches, 27 per cent put their faith on the Nano and 24 per cent on IPL.

Double triumph

Small wonder

The football-style, franchise-based Indian Premier League (IPL) almost overnight became a multi-billion dollar brand. Modelled on the lines of the English Premier League by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), it was positioned somewhat like a reality show &mdash; more entertainment than cricket complete with cheer girls, dugouts and on-field interviews.

What a hit!

It is not every day that Maruti Suzuki stops producing a model to replace it with a new car. After all, the good old Omni and Maruti 800 are still being built and sold in reasonable numbers. So the decision to pull the plug on the quintessential Indian sedan, the Esteem, and replace it with what is essentially a booted version of the Swift came as a big surprise.

Swift business

Singh is Kinng, produced by Vipul Shah for Rs 50 crore, was panned by reviewers. &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t a great movie. There are too many sloppy action sequences, the humour too broad, the storytelling lacklustre,&rdquo; wrote The New York Times.

Brand Bollywood

It&rsquo;s nearing the end of July and time for Indian B-schools to start getting pre-placement offers (PPOs) or pre-placement interviews (PPIs) from companies.

Slow pre-placement season at B-schools

Education seems to be turning out a favourite among graduates of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). After the likes of Educomp and CEON Solutions, which were founded by IIM alumni, couple of IIM-A graduates are planning to offer real interactive e-learning tools for colleges using multimedia simulations and animations, through their company Edukite Learning.

IIM-A grads set to enhance e-learning

The UK-based Leeds Metropolitan University is setting up its first international campus in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The campus, being set up in association with JSWS, a non-profit making registered society in Bhopal which operates educational institutions, is the institution&rsquo;s sole destination in South-East Asia.

Leeds to set up first Indian campus in Bhopal

IIT-Bhubaneswar plans to set up three separate schools &mdash; School of Materials and Mineral Engineering, School of Ocean and Environmental Sciences and School of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering.

IIT-B'swar to set up 3 schools

Violating the government's directions, educational institutions continue to deny refund of fees to students who withdraw from courses. The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has received 1,456 complaints regarding non-refund of fees or non-return of original certificates by June this year. Of these cases, 656 were not related to AICTE and have been forwarded to the organisations concerned.

AICTE takes action against non-refund of fees

Air India dumped the Centaur logo three years after it was readjusted to point upwards; Indian Airlines changed its name to Indian just two years before its merger.

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