There&rsquo;s never a minute when Ramola Bachchan isn&rsquo;t thinking about her brand Manre. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more than just a restaurant,&rdquo; she says, touring Manre in the morning hours, instructing her staff with a polite smile, and enjoying the sunlight streaming in generously through the large windows of her Italian restaurant that&rsquo;s housed in New Delhi&rsquo;s Select Citywalk.

A Birkin bag and Gucci glasses

Business Standard

The Grand PRIX at Nalchik is a partial triumph. Nalchik in the Southern Caucasus region of Russia has pulled Fide&rsquo;s chestnuts out of the fire. The GP cycle was on the skids when Montreaux cancelled as a venue.

CHESS #584

I &rsquo;ve never voted. At first it was because I couldn&rsquo;t understand who was who and what they planned to do when they came to power. More recently it&rsquo;s been because I can&rsquo;t keep up with who&rsquo;s with whom and what they plan to do when they come to power, and who they&rsquo;ll be with after they come to power, and what that will compel them to do.

Franchise opportunity

In the poll season, Anoothi Vishal speaks to Bimal Jalan on the need for cleaner, better governance and a unique initiative aimed at enlightening voters.

Catching criminals

People who have or live in the West often complain of a feeling of isolation. One can hardly make eye contact with fellow humans riding in the metro or at the supermart for fear of offending the other person.

The Indian abroad

Marc Aeschbacher and Chitra Subramaniam-Duella, owners of BorgeauD, a Swiss company mentored by TCS&rsquo;s Subramaniam Ramadorai, tell Anoothi Vishal about their Raahu Kaal watch.

Watch out for your time

It&rsquo;s ironical, but Lalit Modi&rsquo;s Indian Premier League (IPL) dream was given a huge filip by the early launch of the &lsquo;rebel&rsquo; ICL (Indian Cricket League). However, as IPL became much bigger than ICL, BCCI&rsquo;s T20 tournament was sarcastically dubbed as ICL &mdash; Indian Controversial League. A front-page article published in the Indian Express dubbed it as another version of IPL &mdash; Indian Parivar League.

IPL or ICL (Indian Controversial League)

India is the &ldquo;Market Focus&rdquo; country at the London Book Fair, which calls itself &ldquo;the leading spring book publishing and rights trading event&rdquo;, this coming week. In 2006, India was &ldquo;Guest of Honour&rdquo; at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest book fair in the world (in 2009, it will be China).

Fair questions

The elite Indian Premier League gets to experience Sol Kerzner&rsquo;s newest luxury hotel in Cape Town, writes K S Shekhawat.

From IPL's point of view

Behind her gentle demeanour, artist Nilima Sheikh inhabits a world of unparalleled violence and loss, discovers Kishore Singh.

Keeper of secrets

Mumbai-based Jaideep Mehrotra is an infrequent visitor to New Delhi - he prefers New York - and his show here, after 18 years, brings to the city an artist at ease with himself and his context: one of &ldquo;social structure&rdquo;, he says, though you might be excused for thinking that it ought to be social infrastructure.

Formless chaos

Mercedes-Benz's gorgeous banana-shaped car is AMG-ed. Why? Srinivas Krishnan.

Going bananas

Maruti will add a seventh small car to its portfolio this May.

Ritz blitz

I am planning to buy a new car which offers me good mileage and I am open to both diesel and petrol cars. My budget is in the range of Rs 5 to 6 lakh. I will be using the car about two to three days in the week and once in a month, will be taking it out of town. I am confused between the Suzuki Swift VDi, the Tata Indica Vista Aqua 1.3 Quadrajet and the Fiat Palio &mdash; all of them share the same engine! Though these are my preferences, they are not necessarily my only options.

Preferred options

Supersized restaurants are the buzz: Anoothi Vishal gets a taste of their business.

The big bite

Online &amp; mobile marketing has become the focal consumer touch-point for all IPL matches.

Cyber cricket, anyone?

While the Internet vies with TV channels to become your starting place to get the latest on the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament, it&rsquo;s the ubiquitous mobile phone that could beat them all in the form of an all-day multi-purpose resource for IPL trivia, free gifts and some gaming too.

IPL trivia on the move

MP3 players are capable of producing superb sound effects. However, they are usually saddled with a terrible set of earphones. The best value proposition is opting for noise-isolating in-ear earphones, which are designed to slip into your ear canal, thereby reducing interference from external sources.

Sound out your own earphones

If you are one of those millions of mobile users who have asked these questions at some time or the other, there&rsquo;s good news for you. The founders of IdeaForge &ndash; a start-up incubating at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay &ndash; are developing products, which they hope will be the answers you are looking for.

All charged up

The jury is still out on whether Tech Mahindra should retain the Satyam name.

Focus on brand Satyam

Going digital

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

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