There are many different crowdsourcing models in use today. Two of the most common involve one-time activities and on-going communities. Contests are a popular example of a one-time activity (for example, create a new advertisement, design a new logo, propose a new packaging concept). Ongoing communities typically involve groups of customers or passionate individuals for a particular brand.

'Crowdsourcing is a new label for some very old activities'

Business Standard

Luxor Group, which has been in the business of writing instruments for about five decades now, has forayed into the market for surface cleaning and protection with the launch of Luxor Nano Clean. The company claims the new range of products not only cleans but also protects the surface it is meant to be used on. These products are also eco-friendly, they are free of detergents and chemicals and are based on Nano technology. With the launch, Luxor Group is the first company to bring Nano technology into the Indian markets, which is a widely accepted technology globally.

Luxor Group: Cleaning the Nano way

It is an open secret that India is royalty in the outsourcing kingdom. It is spreading its rule to newer areas each day &mdash; the latest to be annexed to its kingdom being advertising functions.

Outsourcing: Let the creative juices flow from India

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The top 10 business bestsellers

The organised fitness market is concentrated in top eight cities of India (NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad) with more than 60 per cent of outlets of top dozen chains located in these cities. However, going forward, while the market will continue to grow in these cities (which are still under penetrated), given the high real estate costs in these cities players will increasingly be looking at tier 2 and 3 cities for growth. Hence, a higher growth in the premium and mid-end of the market is anticipated.

KIT: Fitness market in India

    This celebrity is the first person to have hit the milestone 25 million followers on Twitter and therefore has started her own social networking website. Name the person and the social network. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#258)

Nasa is doing it for its Pluto and Mars missions. Unilever fired its advertising agency to go with it. Crowdsourcing, a term coined by Wired Contributing Editor Jeff Howe, has stretched from scientific discoveries to corporate research and development. Nasa has numerous websites dedicated to non-scientists to contribute to space research, while Unilever, among many other multinational consumer brands, has asked its consumers to create ads for many of its brands.

From custom made to customer made

In the din of a slowing economy, falling rupee, rampaging inflation, and incessant political manoeuvrings, India&rsquo;s list of challenges continues to grow. Of all these challenges, there is one that seems insurmountable already, and worse, could soon end up becoming a calamity, aggravating the suffering of hundreds of millions of Indians. This challenge relates to the provision of affordable, accessible, and accountable healthcare to every single citizen of India.

Improving the picture of India's healthcare

Can it or can it not? That remains the moot point as DDB Mudra&rsquo;s brand consultancy Water slowly makes the transformation to Interbrand. The latter ranks among the top branding agencies in the world with 40 offices in 25 countries. But in India, Interbrand has had a satellite base, with much of the work for clients here coming out of its London office.

Interbrand`s second coming

In its most strategically significant push yet into the hardware business, Microsoft on Monday unveiled a tablet computer called Surface that is intended to challenge Apple&rsquo;s iPad.

Surface takes on iPad

With the tieup with US-based Disney for branded residences, Sunteck Realty, a Mumbai-based developer, joins a bandwagon of property companies who are planning such homes to woo wealthy buyers. Already a number of developers such as Lodha, Nitesh Estates, Oberoi Realty, Westcourt, have either launched or planning to launch branded residences with various global brands.

Mickey in your bedroom

Sales of Mahindra &amp; Mahindra (M&amp;M) two-wheelers slumped 13 per cent last year, pushing the company to the seventh spot in the list of India&rsquo;s biggest two-wheeler makers.

From a tailspin to a wheely

Little Shankar is not in a playful mood. His playful habit &mdash; leaping up to kiss the cheek of his playmate, Laila the cow &mdash; is too arduous. Having exhausted his daily share of four tumblers of water 20 hours ago, his throat is dry and legs weak. Laila, thirsty herself, prods Shankar with her nose. But he sits in the parched yard outside his house, unresponsive to Laila&rsquo;s prodding.

High & dry

I&rsquo;m planning to buy a diesel sedan. I have shortlisted the Skoda Rapid Ambition 1.6 TDi and the Volkswagen Vento Comfortline diesel. Please guide me as to which one would be a better choice and why? I plan to drive myself and would keep the car for seven or eight years.

Sibling rivalry

Held in summer at the Circuit de la Sarthe, in a small town called Le Mans (200 km from Paris), the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the longest active and most prestigious endurance race in the world. The concept is simple: race for 24 hours straight and go as far and as fast as you can. The car that has covered the most number of laps is the winner. The concept challenged manufacturers to produce not only high performance but also reliable cars.

Summer of speed

The annual 24 Hours of Le Mans is an extraordinary motorsport event.

A day (and night) at the races

At a function to mark 40 years of the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) in Bangalore last month, the agenda consisted of celebrating both the institution and the launch of RISAT-1, India&rsquo;s first microwave remote-sensing all-weather satellite, a few days ago. RISAT-1&rsquo;s success could not have come at a more opportune moment &mdash; till then, ISRO had had little to celebrate in 2012. The year began on the worst-possible note for the illustrious space agency, with four of its senior scientists being blacklisted by the government over alleged irregularities in a deal to lease transponders to private firm Devas. In fact, one of them, former chairman Madhavan Nair, publicly declared that the organisation had gone to the dogs and that its current chairman and fellow-Malayali, Koppillil Radhakrishnan, did not know a satellite from a transponder.

Man on a mission

The laser fountain show is about to begin. The floodlights at the amphitheatre of the Mukesh Patel Recreation Park in Shirpur town in north Maharashtra go dim. A married pair giggles and tries to squeeze closer. Music starts playing as the fountain sprays water into various shapes and the laser beams a green light on a couple dancing the waltz. The laser fountain, a 15-minute spectacle of water and light, is the main attraction of the recreation park, which has various other rides.

A trickle and a flood

The last three rounds at the Tal Memorial were extraordinary. Round six in the ten player, roundrobin ended with Morozevich and Kramnik tied for first. Both proceeded to lose in the seventh round. That left a five-way tie for first, with Moro., Kramnik, Radjabov, Caruana and Carlsen.

Chess (#1006)

A &ldquo;Reserve&rdquo; wine is simply one which has not been released for sale immediately after the wine is ready, but has been kept back for further maturation in cask and bottle for a given time period. Generally, the basic quality of a Reserve wine would be better (than, say, &ldquo;Regular&rdquo; wines) &mdash; it would be made from the best-quality grapes, and processed a little differently (more extraction and body, higher alcohol).

Special reservations

Turf wars

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