Toyota and Honda are preparing an all-out onslaught with their entry-level offerings.

Big on small

Business Standard

Guy Ritchie&rsquo;s recent film won&rsquo;t please the purists, but Robert Downey&rsquo;s Sherlock Holmes is close to Arthur Conan Doyle&rsquo;s original.

Practical, but limited

Three hours into the lecture, the auditorium was still full, the aisles and corners still packed with reasonably alert listeners, and the lecturer himself showed no sign of running out of steam. Above the audience hung a mist of winter air and sundry exhalations, which may in a more innocent era have been the tobacco smoke generated by a discussion on Marxism. Here and now, thin people in casually scruffy clothes and intellectual beards focused on the two figures on the stage.

Ideology is not dead

Curtains have fallen on the 10th Auto Expo. It was arguably the best show since its inception, thanks to the importance bestowed on it by some major car makers who chose it as a venue for world premieres, and of course, for the sheer enthusiasm of the millions who braved the cold to witness it. World premieres of the Toyota Etios, the Honda small car concept, the Suzuki RIII concept and the mega launch of the Volkswagen Polo will remain the lasting images from the show.

Show... off!

The difference between American and British whodunits is stark. On this side of the Atlantic, detectives obsess over commas and solve crossword puzzles, and on the other side they talk entirely in wisecracks and get beaten to a pulp once every chapter. As we grow up, and before we grow old, we get a taste for American grit between the teeth, and it&rsquo;s hard to stomach British cream puffs.

Curtain call

I&rsquo;m looking for a hatchback and my budget is around Rs 3 to 4.5 lakh. I will use the car only once or twice a week. My father has suggested that I go for the Tata Indica Vista Aqua (diesel) but my mother is interested in the Chevrolet Spark LT, while I prefer the Hyundai Santro Xing LX.

Small choice

The FMCG major is confident of a four-fold increase in revenue from its Classmate and Paperkraft brands in 3-5 years.

ITC targets the schoolbag

Onida&rsquo;s entry into mobile phones a year and a half ago has been a low-key affair. But not any longer, courtesy its television advertisement which plays on the brand name Nokia phonetically.

Ad row creates buzz for Onida cellphones

I just received and then forwarded an email of what we Indians call the &lsquo;non-vegetarian&rsquo; variety. The subject of the mail read &lsquo;Incredible Hulk Saves The World&rsquo;. It had a visual of the Incredible Hulk action figure being rather &lsquo;supportive&rsquo; of this nice young lady with precious little on. As soon as I opened the mail a link popped up at the top of my inbox. It took me to a news item on a news site that had a story about how Canada&rsquo;s second-oldest magazine, The Beaver, is changing its name. The Beaver was started as a magazine for the fur trade, hence its name. But the word has become a double-entendre that also serves as slang for female genitalia! So people are embarrassed to buy or be seen reading it, making sales go limp.

Oh no, I'm being watched online! And so are you!

Most people are not surprised with Ajay Adiseshann&rsquo;s regular use of his mobile handset for paying utility bills and making other purchases, like booking movie tickets. After all, Adiseshann is the founder and managing director of mobile commerce (m-commerce) company PayMate.

Will that be cash, card or phone?

Whether you are a hardcore gamer or just a casual web surfer, there&rsquo;s a good chance that you want a quality monitor staring at you. Conventional LCD screens use fluorescent tubes backlighting and usually suffer from black-level display issues. These sets suffer while displaying dark pictures in a dark ambience. On the contrary, LCD screens, driven by light-emitting diode (LED) technology, offer improved black levels and can be used in any light conditions.

Passing the screen test

Samsung has got its act together in mobile handsets. The journey forward could be tough.

Bulking up

Bosch, a leading manufacturer of automotive components, had a particularly tough 2009, both globally and in India. Car sales were down, but more than that, companies stemmed production which hit suppliers directly. 2010 looks to be better, says Bernd Bohr, chairman of the Bosch Automotive Group. The company, which supplies parts to the Nano, is betting big on the car&rsquo;s diesel version.

'We are hopeful of large volumes in small cars'

    This company is driven by the ______ Spirit created by its founder on the following three key values: Creative Wisdom, Unwavering Drive and Positive Thinking. Name the company and its founder.

Answers to last week's quiz (#131)

eBay, the online portal, comes out with a new campaign to highlight its variety and the safety of its payment gateway.

Yesterday once more

Those who run Jaguar and Land Rover and their top designers talk about leaping cats, concept Landies and Ratan Tata.

Finders and keepers

With Volvo, Daimler and Scania gaining a foothold in the over-40-tonne heavy commercial vehicle category, it was time for Indian players to get their act together. &ldquo;Indian manufacturers were not strong in heavy commercial vehicles because there was not much demand for them. But with exports and infrastructure stirring up, these have received a shot in the arm over the last four to five years,&rdquo; says PricewaterhouseCoopers Leader (automotive practice) Abdul Majeed.

Tata Motors: Prima-ry changes

Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company, the joint venture between Apollo Hospitals Group and Munich Health of Germany, has come out with a new mass media campaign.

Apollo Munich Health Insurance: Insuring against negativity

    The first monorail train system and a single track vehicle were set up in the US in a record time of six months with the help of German engineers. The person who dreamt of it introduced a nine-step process in his company to convert all blue-sky ideas to reality.

The Strategist Quiz (#132)

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SUCCEED AND GROW RICH THROUGH PERSUASION
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GOING GREEN
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INDIA&rsquo;S GLOBAL POWERHOUSES
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FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
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MY YEARS WITH GENERAL MOTORS
Author: Alfred P

The top 10 business bestsellers

RISING INCOMES: Due to a number of factors such as microfinance products, exemption from income tax, NREGA, mass media penetration, investment in rural infrastructure and the increased production of higher-value crops, disposable incomes in rural households are increasing, thus creating a positive scope for retail opportunity in rural India.

KIT: Growing Drivers for Rural Indian Opportunity

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