The World Cup coverage in the regional media during the past week was, not surprisingly, dominated by Indias unexpected exit from the contention. This World Cup has already had its fair share of

Cricketing blues

Business Standard

The problems have been compounded by the apathy of the government which has not notified the new law.


M J Antony: Sale of sick companies` assets

Time was when new years eve was fun. It still is but youve got to be careful. The first winter we spent in Delhi, we made it a point to take a quick vacation at the year-end to go to Kolkata,

Subir Roy: New Year`s devalued

At the beginning of each year, analysts religiously gaze into their Hubble equivalents to decipher how the markets would look in the future and what would drive them. 


Crystal-gazing

Another year in music gone by and this column is as tempting a place as any to list a bunch of albums that shaped and defined the musical landscape in 2006. 


Not another year-end list

Those who enjoy marketing more than any other management discipline will find 2007 an exciting year. According to a recent headline in one of the leading business dailies, major FMCG companies are

Arvind Singhal: The marketing challenge

Idont know how long superstar Shah Rukh Khan will take to discover a crorepati, but Dalal Street manufactured quite a few last week at the IFCI counter. 


IFCI: Ugly duckling turns swan

One of the great luxuries of living in Santiniketan is that every morning the bread man, vegetable man, fish man, milk man and sweet seller visit to allow you to replenish stocks. Unlike the rush in a

Keya Sarkar: "Green cauliflowers"

The Indian software and services industry has produced results for the October-December quarter that are exceptional, and indeed better than anything in recent memory. The industry seems to be gaining

Software saga continues

While P Chidambaram will present his sixth Budget on the 28th of next month, his Budget speech has already begun. 


Sell in Feb and go away

The Union Budget that was presented last week has made a major effort to resuscitate India's economy and shown greater fiscal discipline by cutting government expenditure in the current year and promising a lower fiscal deficit in 2013-14. Nevertheless, the Budget can and will be judged on various fronts  what it provides to the private sector; its effect on jobs, the social sector and the environment; and how much it cuts government waste. And in some ways an important prism through which it should be viewed is what the Budget will mean for India's external vulnerability. If India is, as so many fear, vulnerable to a crisis of some sort because of its balance-of-payments weakness, then the Budget should have given greater priority to fixing this problem, and reducing the current account deficit. Unfortunately, viewed from that perspective, the Budget has not done enough.The outlines of India's difficult current account situation are already well known. A sustained rise in the price of

Managing current account

Getting people from diverse backgrounds is good for your business

Alokananda Chakraborty: Diversity hiring - What's the deal?

A collaborative approach between the department of telecommunications and the defence ministry could work wonders

V Sridhar: Maximising spectrum revenue

In Census of India, 1901, the civil servant A K Ray offers "a short history of Calcutta". It is a remarkable document, starting in bland official style with a reference to the "gneissic hills" and tidal swamps from which the city emerged. But within a few paragraphs, something of the malarial intensity of Kalighat finds its way into the report."We can also imagine how â€¦ a few tantric Brahmins, pilgrims and votaries furtively penetrated the jungles from time to time to make their offerings to the dread goddess, who, black and bloody, and decked in her necklace of human skulls, with set teeth and protruded tongue, triumphantly trampled uponÂ  the white Aryan prostrate at her feet."Despite the best efforts of Ray and the Bengal Secretariat Press to return to the safety of footnotes and bullet points, Kolkata-Calcutta's colourful history rampaged through the officialese.A talented minstrel known as Anthony Saheb, the naming of Dingabhanga from the sound of the breaking of boats, the tige

Nilanjana S Roy: Calcutta and Kolkata - Open city

National marketers have the opportunity to unbundle India

Madhukar Sabnavis: Regional mixes

Budget might have far-reaching effects on start-ups

Angels in India

Shobhana Subramanian: Indian builders need Chinese rules

If the markets needed further proof that the US economy was headed for a recession, it came from the commerce departments advance reading of the economy which showed that it grew by an anaemic 0.6

Get well soon, Uncle Sam!

Mayawati, the countrys first Dalit woman chief minister, wants to be the Prime Minister some time in the near future. Not bad for someone who is only 52 years old, has consistently shown political

The politics of style

The Iron Maiden concert in Mumbai last week proved once more that concert organisers in our country are well on their way to achieving the best in global standards when putting up major shows. 


Rocking the audience

A former driver with the family, now in Abu Dhabi, is very happy with his new place of work. <I>Bhaiyya</I>, he told my husband recently, speaking in hushed, near-reverential tones, This place is

Heaven, hell in civil society

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