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

Business Standard

Even until two years ago the odds seemed stacked against it. First, it was seen as a regional player in the infrastructure sector. Second, to the world outside, the largely family-run company seemed to thrive under political patronage. If that was not enough, over the years the group had diversified into unrelated areas which made the operations unwieldy.

Gaining power

When Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice-president of the Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) at HP, says the idea of the paperless office has failed the reality test, what comes across clearly is his enthusiasm for the printed paper. The 57-year-old veteran with HP believes people&rsquo;s appetite for holding printed paper can only grow stronger with the spread of the world wide web and digital photography.

Q&A: Vyomesh Joshi, HP

The integration of social media into consumers&rsquo; lives has shifted brand ownership away from marketers and into the hands of the consumer.

The rules of engagement

Remember that day in primary school when you graduated from using a pencil to a pen? The excitement at getting one step closer to being a grown up? The thrill of that first encounter mostly culminates into a life-long association. Yet, at a basic level, a pen is a utilitarian, if often costly, writing instrument. Unless it&rsquo;s a special-edition/luxury brand, we take them for granted though we would be lost without them.

Linc Pen & Plastics: Writing a new chapter

After buying the hair-care division Schwarzkopf Professional from Henkel India earlier this year, Henkel Adhesives Technologies is on a roll. It will introduce Indola, a second professional hair care brand, a decade after Schwarzkopf was launched in the country. Indola, the 90-year-old brand globally acquired by Henkel Adhesives in 2004, will focus on three categories in India: hair colour, hair care (shampoos and conditioners) and form (hair rebonding).

Henkel Adhesives Technologies: On a professional note

THE HABIT OF WINNING
Author: Prakash Iyer 
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 299
ISBN: 9780143068280.
THE STEVE JOBS WAY
Authors: Jay Elliot and William L Simon
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Price: Rs 250
ISBN: 9788179927687.
THE LEADER WHO HAD NO TITLE
Author: Robin Sharma
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Price: Rs 195
ISBN: 9788184951196.
CONNECT THE DOTS
Author: Rashmi Bansal 
Publisher: Eklavya 
Price: Rs 150
ISBN: 9788190453028.
108 MANTRAS FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS
Publisher: Network18 Publications
Price: Rs 99
ISBN: 9788190779517.
HORN OK PLEASE
Author: Kartik Iyengar 
Publisher: Horn Ok Please
Price: Rs 100
ISBN: 9780615460550.
YOU CAN SELL
Author: Shiv Khera 
Publisher: Rupa &amp; Co
Price: Rs 195
ISBN: 9788129116000.
THE WINNING WAY
Authors: Harsha Bhogle and Anita Bhogle 
Publisher: Westland Tranquebar Press And Eastwest 
Price: Rs 200
ISBN: 9789380658322.
CORPORATE CHANAKYA
Author: Radhakrishnan Pillai 
Publisher: Jaico Publishing

The top 10 business bestsellers

The deodorant market in India is estimated at Rs 900 crore. Men&rsquo;s deodorants dominate the category with a 70 per cent share estimated at Rs 650 crore. The segment is expected to grow 25 per cent annually to become three times its current size in the next five years.

KIT: The men's deodorant market in India

    This beverage brand is ranked No.1 in the world in terms of sales and as part of its marketing strategy it uses temperature-sensitive paper on its bottle label.

The Strategist Quiz (#211)

    ______ Smile is the title by which this brand has a presence on Facebook. It encourages you to share your &lsquo;smile&rsquo; by uploading photographs. Fill in the blank with the brand&rsquo;s name.

Answers to last week's quiz (#210)

When the Burmans of Dabur approached DMA Yellow Works, now D Y Works,&nbsp; for a makeover of their corporate identity and brand, they wanted to actually drop the Banyan Tree from their logo. But DMA persuaded the promoters to rejuvenate the tree; tweaked the font and through a series of interventions that saw newer packaging, product extensions and communication, galvanised a more holistic change.

Beyond logo

Colgate-Palmolive is the overall market leader in the Rs 3,000 crore Indian toothpaste market. But the crown has eluded Colgate in the fastest growing segment of the toothpaste market &mdash; the Rs 900 crore gel segment &mdash; where Hindustan Unilever&rsquo;s Close Up has widened its lead with a 60 per cent share.

Close Up smile gets wider

Cadbury 5 Star&rsquo;s new campaign screams about its new packaging. Billboards and TV commercials highlight the chocolate bar&rsquo;s iconic gold wrapper and five stars.

Old wine, new bottle

After 15 years of unrivalled presence, Mercedes Benz is seeing competition heat up from compatriots BMW and Audi in the luxury car market in India.

Merc in search of a sporty, young image

Internationally, music and substance abuse often go hand-in-hand. Aabhas Sharma and Veenu Sandhu find out if that&rsquo;s the case in India too.

Highs and lows

For those of us hoping to keep our brains fit and healthy well into middle age and beyond, the latest science offers some reassurance. Activity appears to be critical, though scientists have yet to prove that exercise can ward off serious problems like Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease. But what about the more mundane, creeping memory loss that begins about the time our 30s recede, when car keys and people&rsquo;s names evaporate? It&rsquo;s not Alzheimer&rsquo;s, but it&rsquo;s worrying.

Exercise for the mind

One problem with lack of organisational coordination is alternating periods of famine and gluts when several high-voltage events coincide. If organisers consulted each other and spaced things out, life would definitely be more fun.

Chess (#685)

It is the end of the road for music cassettes. A minuscule market still exists in smaller towns but that too is disappearing fast.

End of the reel

A round a hundred years ago, a Bombay-based lithographer and amateur magician named Dhundiraj Govind Phalke developed an interest in moving pictures which eventually led him to make India&rsquo;s first feature film Raja Harishchandra. Watching Paresh Mokashi&rsquo;s 2009 biopic Harishchandrachi Factory, I realised how little we know about the details of Dadasaheb Phalke&rsquo;s life &mdash; and, for that matter, about his landmark film, only fragments of which still exist.

A dreamer's factory

Our stand was too fancy,&rdquo; says Claudia Kaiser ruefully. &ldquo;People were afraid to come in.&rdquo; This was at the 2005 annual book fair in Delhi and Kaiser was then, as now, on the international business development team of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest book fair in the world. Kaiser is German and so was her staff &mdash; so their stand was too sleek, too brightly lit, too intimidating for Indian fairgoers.

Ich bin ein...

The books stocked in Amar Pal Bharti&rsquo;s shop near Hazratgunj in downtown Lucknow include tomes on BR Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and other Dalit leaders. There isn&rsquo;t a huge crowd at his Bahujan Pustak Bhandar, but he sells his books with quiet pride. After all, Mayawati, a Dalit like him, rules the state with authority. The Dalit memorials in the city have become centres of pilgrimage for those who were once meek and voiceless.

Feet of clay?

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