Raghuram G Rajan located the fault lines beneath the economic crisis.

Let them eat credit

Business Standard

It began as a missionary effort with UN volunteers travelling to war-torn areas, working with humanitarian, not-for-profit organisations like the Red Cross. Today, it has grown into a well-developed concept that benefits both the volunteer and the organisations appointing them.

Voluntary engagement

Wiping away tears, I&rsquo;m thinking in amazement: &ldquo;This really shouldn&rsquo;t work.&rdquo; But it does. I&rsquo;ve just finished reading the death of the hero in Premchand&rsquo;s novel Rangbhumi. The blind beggar Surdas dies like a saint, with forgiveness for those who once beset him and with humility. Almost his last words are &ldquo;Ram-Ram&rdquo;. His village mourns him, and when his body is mounted on its funeral pyre every man, woman and child is there. His estranged son comes weeping to light the fire. It&rsquo;s significant that just a few days earlier the entire village had burned to the ground, after a terrible conflict that had very humble origins, as a struggle over a piece of land.

The game of life, translated

Hello, consumer of news, how goes? I was thinking that since you presumably pay for your newspapers to get an objective assessment of what is going on in the world, it would be interesting to get your view on this whole storm about the Press Council of India&rsquo;s sub-committee report on paid news.

Bought news

Quirk express

New wine, new bottles

Design, craftsmanship, aesthetics, liveability. Architect Bijoy Jain&rsquo;s belief in synergy is paying off with a show at the Victoria and Albert Museum and an opening at the 2010 Venice Biennale.

A crafty practice

Tangent, The Furniture Mall, introduces Stress Buster chairs in leather and fabric. The chair with recliners has 360 degrees rotation ability.

Comfort zones

The rules of engagement

    This brand was launched on August 15 and has been associated with cricket and Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Sachin Tendulkar, Saif Ali Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Virender Sehwag. Name it.

Answers to last week's quiz (#162)

    Who said this about the brands he launched: &ldquo;If people find No.2 so good, they will believe No.1 to be even better&rdquo;? No.2 was launched before No.

The Strategist Quiz (#163)

The shampoo market in India is estimated at over Rs 3,000 crore.

KIT: The Indian shampoo and hair conditioner market

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SOCIAL MEDIA 101 
Author: Chris

The top 10 business bestsellers

The service industry&rsquo;s contribution to the country&rsquo;s gross domestic product is over 50 per cent. The sector is growing at 12 per cent per annum, well above the average GDP growth of 8 per cent. However, the shortage of executives with the right people skills has led Aegis, a BPO of the Essar group, to start the Institute of Customer Experience Management. It will train students in managing &lsquo;customer experience&rsquo;. The Indian Institute of Management, Indore is partnering Aegis to train students, as are COPC (USA) and SQ Centre (Singapore).

Aegis: Filling the service demand gap

Tata DoCoMo is refining its &lsquo;pay for what you use&rsquo; philosophy for its data users with a new &lsquo;pay per site&rsquo; option. It had stirred the market in 2009 with its &lsquo;pay per second&rsquo; calling plans, &lsquo;pay per character&rsquo; messaging plans and daily plans. Data usage such as surfing the internet too had seen innovations such as daily GPRS plans and &lsquo;one paisa per kilobyte&rsquo; plans.

Tata DoCoMo: Devoted to the site

Nissan Motors India, which launched the fourth-generation Micra in mid-July, is the latest entrant in the overcrowded B+ segment. In an attempt to break the clutter, it has rolled out two television commercials (TVCs) around its launch campaign, &ldquo;The new Nissan Micra: Drive simpler, live better.&rdquo; It had come up with two 15-second pre-booking TVCs right before the Micra&rsquo;s launch which introduced the Japanese car maker&rsquo;s strategy for the urban youth, which is to reduce the stress of driving. The latest TVCs drive home the same promise of making the experience of driving enjoyable.

Driving made simple

Godrej is storming the consumer electronics and appliances market with new products designed to meet the unique needs of Indian consumers.

Appliances redux

There&rsquo;s a hall in Mahindra Towers at Worli in Mumbai where the Mahindra &amp; Mahindra bosses address the media. There are close to 60 chairs in the hall. A wooden panel slides to reveal a large screen. On Thursday, 12 August, journalists were called for an impromptu conference in this hall.

Local edge, global plans

Major Indian drug companies are creating their own identity abroad through direct selling.

Brand booster for pharma

In a first-of-its-kind move in the branded paper segment, J K Paper has tied up with Hewlett Packard (HP) to avail of its ColorLok technology in producing copier paper.

JK does a first in branded paper market

After noodles, the Rs 100-crore pasta market is becoming a fresh battleground for FMCG companies.

Future, HUL to enter instant pasta market

Explore Business Standard supplements featuring special editions, industry reports, lifestyle magazines, news and curated insights across business, banking, economy, and lifestyle.

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