Waghbakri tea is a known name in Gujarat. It is the market leader in that state with a 45 per cent market share. In recent years, however, the brand has been attempting to go national moving to neighbouring states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa and Delhi. It has even made inroads into the southern city of Hyderabad.

Regional to national: not an easy ride

Business Standard

Payback, Germany's largest loyalty solution provider, is eyeing a larger slice of the Indian loyalty card pie. The first step was taken last year when it acquired a controlling stake in bonus programme &ldquo;i-mint&rdquo; and rebranded it as Payback India.

Payback's India bet

A couple of years ago, it would have been almost unthinkable to imagine candy-coloured BlackBerry phones in the hands of college youth. BlackBerry was positioned as an enterprise phone for mobile executives &ndash; hence, black in colour. Today, however, one can even spot young college girls in the country, flaunting their pink BlackBerry phones.

Colour works for BlackBerry

It was admittedly the most humbling moment of Rupert Murdoch&rsquo;s life. In a three-hour questioning session in the UK parliament, the media moghul denied any knowledge of the phone-hacking fiasco that has shuttered the News of the World. As the scandal spatters uncontrollably, Murdoch, by abdicating responsibility, has demonstrated he is no longer the person for the job. Neither are his trusted lieutenants.

The trust deficit

Sometime in the 1990s, a paper napkin kept on an empty plate at a fancy party turned out to be worth a few crores. It carried a handwritten note from the minister of petroleum recommending allotment of a fuel station. Becoming a retailer for the state-owned refiners was the shortest route to untold riches; the profit margins were low, but the huge volumes more than made up for that. And sifarish was essential to unlock the fortune. Grapevine has it that the napkin was duly attached to a file in the ministry as evidence of the minister&rsquo;s directive.

A slippery business

If you answered Wendi Murdoch you belong irrevocably to the Twitter generation and there&rsquo;s no hope for you. The correct answer to that is: Jackie Kennedy.

The Fierce Wives' Club

They may be neighbours in Tamil Nadu, but are serious rivals in the marketplace. Ford&rsquo;s new Fiesta is the first of eight new products destined for India from the Blue Oval, from now until 2015. Hyundai&rsquo;s new Verna has had a spectacular start, raking in 22,000 bookings in less than two months from its launch.

Sedan done

An imperfect but arresting history of the State Bank of India shows how the institution has kept pace with its nation.

Assets and appreciation

When I sat down to read this book I was excited and also a little proud, in the typical Bengali way, to see the word &ldquo;Bengali&rdquo; on the cover of a book written by a Bengali author. Also, this was a book about crime detectives, so it offered a nice break from mundane life and a good opportunity to soak up some real action.

Missing in action

Exhilarating ski slopes, rolling meadows and a pulsating apr&egrave;s ski nightlife - Geetanjali Krishna explores the Kitzbuhel blend.

Ferraris on cobbled streets

Here are the first images of the all-new 991 series Porsche 911. Yes, we know you&rsquo;re thinking &lsquo;What? Another new 911?&rsquo;, but the 991 is an important car, all right. The newest iteration of the legendary 911 will be showcased at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. To begin with, not only has Porsche set sharper focus on driver involvement, but it is also aiming to bring about significant changes in the areas of emissions and economy.

Dial 991

I am a first-time car buyer, and I will be driving about 1,800 km a month, mostly within the city with very few long weekend trips. With the cost of petrol in India shooting up, I am thinking of buying a diesel car and my budget is Rs 4 to 5 lakh.

Heavy fuel

Bangalore-based gemologist Chetan GR recently received an unusual request about an 800-gram gold waistband. &ldquo;It was a family inheritance and it had sentimental value as it belonged to a grandmother of 11. The inheritors were very clear that each of them retain a piece as a memory rather than melt it and take home a portion of the money,&rdquo; says he. It took 110 days and a team of craftsmen to put together a portfolio of jewels like earrings, neckpieces and pendants.

Antique chic

S Kalyana Ramanathan takes a walk through Southall, the London suburb that could well have been transplanted from the Punjab heartland.

Feels like home


A few days from now photographer Avinash Pasricha will turn 75. He&rsquo;s spent a large chunk of those years taking pictures of classical artistes in performance &mdash; his iconic image of the Carnatic singer M S Subbulakshmi is as close to a spiritual experience as you&rsquo;re likely to encounter &mdash; and yet: what happens to those photographs in another decade? Will they too hit the dung heap of history?
There&rsquo;s a collecting ennui when it comes to a body of work that needs to

Preserve or perish

If we can buy things online, there&rsquo;s no reason why we can&rsquo;t vote online too. Lakshmi Ajay describes India&rsquo;s first experiment with voting via the Internet.

E-voting for IT land

Wearing a red T-shirt with Delhi inscribed on it, Harsh Vardhan Sarda lifts a 14-pound ball and focuses on the ten pins facing him.

Bowled over

Ustad Bismillah Khan purified his shehnai with Ganga jal and a maulvi said he saw Allah during Pandit Jasraj&rsquo;s bhajan at a concert in Pakistan. Sunita Budhiraja looks at music as the Great Unifier.

Allah and Om

The radio service that shut shop in 2008 is all set to return, via DTH. Gargi Gupta talks to those who stuck it out even after the American parent filed for bankruptcy.

Worldspace breaks its radio silence

The 2011 World Teams Championship at Ningbo, China is the year's premier team event. The ten team round robin features only one pushover &mdash; Egypt. The rest &mdash; Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Ukraine, Israel, India, Hungary and USA &mdash; are all capable of medal challenges.

Chess (#684)

Nowhere in the world do rains impact life as much as the monsoons in the Indian subcontinent, bringing life-giving water for the parched land and replacing the searingly hot &ldquo;loo&rdquo; that blows in Delhi and the north Indian plains in the summer with cool winds. In the semi-arid Deccan plateau area, the transformation is almost magical: overnight the landscape changes, from browns to greens, from dry and hot to wet and cool.

Wines to go with the rains

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

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