&quot;I personally met the prime minister at least 10 times. What else can I do? Shall I go beat him up? Then people will call me a 'goonda'. Anyway, they call me that.

Didi's comedy show

Business Standard

On January 14, during an exclusive interview with TV host Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong&mdash;winner of seven consecutive Le Tour De France (1999-2005) and a testicular cancer survivor&mdash; confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) during his career. The sportsman had already received a lifetime ban from competition by the United States Anti-Doping Agency last year after he refused to continue to fight the allegations against him.

Counting on blood

A few months ago, several yards of luxuriant Maheshwari silk, Kanchipuram silk, Gujarati patola, Bengali jamdani and Benarasi brocade were ornately packaged and sent to the headquarters of Roberto Cavalli and Salvatore Ferragamo in Italy, Herm&egrave;s and Christian Louboutin in Paris and Jimmy Choo in London, among other luxury maisons.

A Benarasi Jimmy Choo

This article has been temporarily removed

Man smart? Woman smarter!

The Chevrolet Sail has something to boast of. It is the fastest growing of all the models that General Motors (GM) produces in China. Ever since its launch in the Middle Kingdom in January 2010, the Sail has been filling up GM&rsquo;s order books. It&rsquo;s not surprising why. The Sail family has been designed, engineered and developed by GM-SAIC&rsquo;s two joint ventures &mdash; GM Shanghai and PATAC, the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Centre.

You've got Sail

The task of ensuring that the Maha Kumbh, during which a sea of devout Hindus will come to Allahabad to wash away their sins in the Ganga, goes without a hitch has been given to a devout Muslim: Mohammad Azam Khan, 64, the urban development minister of Uttar Pradesh, and the tallest Muslim leader across parties in the state. As many as 100 million people are expected to visit the city during the 55-day mela that began on January 14. It is a logistical and security nightmare. If it concludes peacefully, Khan will have proven his administrative skills.

Organised the Maha Kumbh

There are two species of wolves indigenous to India and both are disappearing fast, hunted down by farmers for killing livestock.

The Lonesome wolves

Dhaarna Bahl, 29, a young mother and a former national-level swimmer, wanted to shed her pregnancy weight with a challenging and effective workout, but she suffered from intense back pains ever since her delivery through a Cesarian Section a few months ago. On Thursday this week, at The Yoga Lounge in Gurgaon, a much leaner Bahl slips into the challenging posture of the &ldquo;downward dog&rdquo; &mdash; a popular yoga exercise &mdash; with surprising ease, straightening and curving her back alternately while moderating her breathing with precision. Minutes later, she switches to a few pilates moves, flexing and pointing her toes while performing leg raises to tone up different parts of her thighs, all the while keeping her back straight as a pin.

Flex and point

When I get feedback that my writing meant something to people or had an impact.

<B>My Life My Style:</B> Chetan Bhagat

Move over Lonavla, Khandala and Alibaug - quaint Shahpur, Kasara and Murbad on the Nashik-Mumbai highway are the new weekend home destinations for Mumbaikars.

Home stretch

Two months to go to India Art Fair and we have a crisis on our hands. The retrospective we had planned as a collateral event has fallen through, but it's too late to pull out the invitation from the VIP Diary. It's panic time.

Republic of art

A thick Bengali accent (&ldquo;shapotaar&rdquo; for supporter) isn&rsquo;t usual for scholars such as Guha describes.

In Nehru's centrist furrow

The year 2012 will be remembered in Bollywood as the year of Anurag Basu and Sujoy Ghosh, who wrote and directed Barfi! and Kahaani, respectively &mdash; two of the year&rsquo;s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed films. Both films cornered a majority of the top awards functions this year&mdash; some 25 and counting, in various categories.

Directors special

Barely ten days ahead of the Congress Chintan Shivir in Jaipur, a journalist asked a junior minister who is part of the so-called youth brigade headed by Rahul Gandhi if he was going to Jaipur. &ldquo;Me? Naah,&rdquo; he replied. He explained that it was likely to be a seniors-only affair and added that none of his other colleagues was going; only ministers of state with independent charge and above had been invited.

A prince's tale

Namita plans to stop by for a business meeting at Tech Mahindra, but not before a detour to check out Quanto, the new car at the Mahindra car showroom, on her way to work. Both belong to the same parent group of companies, the Mahindra Group (Mahindra), but until now there were no overt reminders when she visited Mahindra&rsquo;s various outfits.

The 'parent' takes over at Mahindra Group

A vast majority of shows are viewed within the first 7 days and a handful get a sizeable audience in days 8-29, finds a Nielson study (Click on graphic)

Appointment viewing or catch up?

The very fact that the tablet is branded Latitude means it&rsquo;s targeted squarely at business users. Powered by an Intel Atom processor running at 1.80 Ghz, the review unit, which had the essential configuration, came with 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD.

Tablets touched by Windows 8

    When IBM and Ford announced casual work days, allowing employees to wear business casual attire, which brand ran congratulatory ads in the Wall Street Journal and USA today? This brand credits itself of inventing the concept of casual wear.

Answers to last week`s quiz (#289)

    This word, also used in business journalism, refers to anything that is huge, astronomical, bumper and colossus. It originated from an imaginary land of giants in Gulliver&rsquo;s Travels by Jonathan Swift. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#290)

The top 10 business bestsellers

Back in the late Nineties, when the internet was just taking baby steps in our country, there was one annual ritual that we strictly adhered to: Buying/renewing the antivirus software for our family PC. After all, we didn&rsquo;t want it to catch a virus from the unknown &mdash; aka the internet.

An umbrella of security for all smart devices

- Find Specials News, Features, Analysis and more at Business Standard. Full coverage of Goafest 2014

Page 1003 - Supplements