You&rsquo;d expect Devraj Sanyal, CEO of www.Desihits.com to comprehend the virtues of web 2.0 economy. But Sanyal, who also doubles up the lead vocalist of the rock band Brahma, has recently started exploiting the internet for his band&rsquo;s promotion. Brahma released its songs online to its virtual audience that practically lapped up the free music tracks. Today, the band is being wooed by music companies and record labels who want to license the band's music.

E-stars rock the web

Business Standard

Graphics tablets are a handy alternative to mouse pads. They function as a great input device to help speed production time for photo editing, design and art creation. A capable graphics tablet can perform a variety of non-drawing tasks that are difficult to perform with a mouse, and these include editing images, creating digital signatures or sketching diagrams or flow charts.

Handy digital art

Having worked for over four years with various e-commerce start-ups in the US, Arpana Priyadarshini and her husband Jai Kumar decided to venture out on their own. Priyadarshini, smitten by the idea to turn entrepreneur, was convinced that India&rsquo;s growing internet user base would be a good place to test waters. Thus was born www.PringOO.com, in 2007 which the duo claim is not just another web 2.0 company.

Personalised for you

A bank that gives power to the people. A soap that makes a country healthy. Tea that gets people to vote. Hmmm.

Now, brands with a do-gooding streak..

With claims of being up to three times faster than the existing Apple iPhone 3G, the latest iPhone 3GS (where &lsquo;S&rsquo; stands for speed) is all set to debut on June 19 in the US markets.

Apple: iPhone gets speedier

THE DISNEY WAR
Author: James Stewart
Publisher: Simon &amp; Schuster
Price: Rs 1,287
ISBN: 9780684809939
THE WAL-MART WAY
Author: Don Soderquist
Publisher: Nelson Business
Price: Rs 1,287
ISBN: 9780785261193
INDIA&rsquo;S GLOBAL POWERHOUSES
Author: Nirmalya Kumar
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Price: Rs 695
ISBN: 9781422140789
HOW TOYOTA BECAME #1
Author: David Magee
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9781591842293
IT&rsquo;S NOT WHAT YOU SELL, IT&rsquo;S WHAT YOU STAND FOR
Author: Roy M Spence Jr 
Publisher: Portfolio
Price: Rs 899
ISBN: 9781591842415
THE ASCENT OF MONEY
Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 595
ISBN: 9781846141928
HOUSE OF CARDS
Author: William D Cohan
Publisher: Allen Lane
Price: Rs 699
ISBN: 9781846141959
THE RETURN OF DEPRESSION ECONOMICS
Author: Paul Krugman
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 399
ISBN: 9781846142390
BUYOLOGY
Author: Martin Lindstrom
Publisher: Random House
Price: Rs 356
ISBN:

The top 10 business bestsellers

How Karl Slym is steering General Motors India after its US parent filed for bankruptcy.

Damage control

With the market for high-priced houses crashing, real estate developers are seeking a fortune in affordable housing and devising ways to keep the costs down.

Keep it simple

The Indian car accessory market is estimated at Rs 1,200 crore.

KIT: The Indian car accessory market

    Which CEO said: &ldquo;Fired? Hell, I spent $10 million educating you.

The Strategist Quiz (#103)

    For the last 20 years, this chain of stores has been having the highest sales per square feet of any retail outlet in the world. Its founder institutionalised the removal of momentum barriers by instituting the Cut the Crap Committee. Name it.

Answers to last week&#39s quiz (#102)

Reliance Communications has rolled out a 360-degree Hrithik Roshan campaign to mark its entry into the GSM space.

A stellar debut?

Direct marketing is a tough nut to crack for most advertising agencies. While their customers demand instant conversion, the call centres often fail to deliver. To address the issue, Dentsu India has launched a new customer relationship and loyalty programme management agency called ClozR Communications &mdash; a 51:49 joint venture with Serco BPO. Serco BPO has almost 10,000 people on its rolls and specialises in customer interaction and IT services.

Dentsu India: Moving ClozR

Late-night snacking is just emotional eating, says Dr Shikha Sharma, the &ldquo;nutritionist&rdquo; (&ldquo;weight loss guru&rdquo; can be so politically incorrect), whose words I pay heed to but do not follow. Sharma is right. Nothing else can explain the quantities of Pringles (and beer) consumed in our house watching the tragi-comic T-20 saga.

Late-night pangs

Your spanking new Scorpio&rsquo;s parked in the backyard, freshly washed , glinting in the sunlight and begging to be taken for a ride. You succumb to its entreaties, pick up the keys and jump in, a tune on your lips. You settle into the driver&rsquo;s seat, adjust the mirrors, slip your favourite CD into the audio system, turn up the air-conditioning and crank her up. The engine settles into a steady idle; you engage first and you&rsquo;re off. The Scorpio&rsquo;s running smoothly and the new-car smell hovers around your nostrils. You smile &mdash; everything&rsquo;s as it should be. In the distance, you see cars slowing down as the traffic signal turns from amber to red. You shed speed accordingly, downshifting until you come to a gentle halt, and you put the Scorpio into neutral. Just over two seconds later, the engine cuts out automatically. &ldquo;Whoa! What&rsquo;s going on?!&rdquo; you wonder.

Switch hit

There's no need now to customise your ordinary street bike - the superbikes are finally here. Aabhas Sharma hears them roar.

Vroomers and shakers

Shallu Jindal doesn&rsquo;t know what it means to be obsessed with brands. &ldquo;I am a very simple person and even my friends wonder why I&rsquo;m not brand-conscious,&rdquo; she laughs. Holidaying in London with her family, Jindal says she&rsquo;s happy wearing sarees on Oxford Street in London, thank you very much. &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s something that I can&rsquo;t do without at the moment, it has to be my collection of Chanderi sarees by Indian designer Sanjay Garg,&rdquo; she says, adding that her dress style has, over the years, veered towards Indian brands. &ldquo;This year&rsquo;s campaign trail exposed me to some of the most fascinating homegrown weaves and fabrics and that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m sporting even now,&rdquo; she says.

Chanderis on Oxford Street

BMW isn&rsquo;t your average risk-averse large scale manufacturer of cars. In fact, if anything, they have been bold enough to try out the unexplored. And in some cases, they&rsquo;ve been very successful. While the 1 Series, a rear wheel driven hatch, hasn&rsquo;t stoked the fires of the B-segment in Europe, the X6 has managed to be a modest success, even in these times where the environmental and stock bourses have been on completely opposite paths as far as the fate of luxury SUVs is concerned. But the company hasn&rsquo;t let a depressed world economy or the rise of eco warriors affect their creative genius. And in the middle of this melee, they&rsquo;ve launched the BMW 5 Series Grand Touring.

Grand aspirations

The zero-tolerance Dresden Rule is being debated hotly. Should players be defaulted if they are not sitting at their boards at the instant play commences? This has been interpreted rigidly as &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; in several instances, starting with the Dresden Olympiad where it was introduced.

CHESS #593

I&rsquo;m planning to buy a large hatchback and I&rsquo;ve shortlisted the Honda Jazz and the Hyundai i20. The price tag doesn&rsquo;t worry me and I would like to know which one is better in terms of looks, comfort and ride quality. I&rsquo;ve also heard that Honda is planning to launch the Jazz with the 1500cc engine from the City.

Hatch me not

I have visited the mountains of Himachal Pradesh several times over the last few years. My destination has usually been the apple orchard country of Kotgarh district, which is tucked away behind a hairpin bend on the road to Narkanda, amid some of the most beautiful spruce forest anywhere in the world. Getting to Kotgarh involves taking the train to Kalka, the railhead at the foot of the hills, and then driving for six hours.

Apology to the Queen

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

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