On a winter afternoon in Russia's Yasnaya Polyana, Vladimir Tolstoy, a great-great-grandson of author Leo Tolstoy and an advisor on cultural affairs to President Vladimir Putin, strode up the birch-lined path that leads to the bucolic family compound where his forebear wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina. It is now a state museum. At each step, he was greeted by staff members heading home for the day.At once friendly and feudal, the scene at this estate some 125 miles south of Moscow captured something of the mood in Russia today, where Putin is regarded as a czar, especially outside the big cities, even as the liberal intelligentsia reviles him and laments his popularity. It also reflects the benefits for Putin of enlisting the support of a member of an illustrious family as he continues to strike notes of national pride.Since being tapped by Putin in 2012, Tolstoy, 52, has emerged as the more conciliatory, highbrow and Western-friendly face of Kremlin cultural policy. He works with

Bringing two Russias closer

An account of Sri Lanka after the 26-year ethnic war glosses over many inconvenient truths

A new book on the armed conflict in Sri Lanka misses the mark

Business Standard

As a pilot, you're stuck with someone in a tiny room, sometimes for days on end

Inside a pilot's mind

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has made no attempts to conceal his obsession with vaastu, the ancient Indian principles of architecture, even telling the Assembly, "Why shouldn't someone who works for the state and takes decisions use vaastu and create comfort? Vaastu is nothing but ventilation and air. That is what makes miracles happen." This last was in response to Opposition-led protests over the government's decision to shift the state secretariat at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore, prompted partly by "bad vaastu" of the current building.Assisting him in this mission to make Telangana's buildings "vaastu-compliant" will be Suddala Sudhakar Teja, recently appointed as advisor to the government's architecture, building and planning department at a salary of Rs 75,000 a month, according to an order issued last month. Teja, by his own admission, is a self-taught vaastu consultant, not a trained architect."I have been doing this for 24 years," says Teja. He echoes Rao'

Suddala Sudhakar Teja is Telangana's vaastu expert

War Horse

France

Howard Hodgkin

Standup

Wedding Album

Lady of Lake

Now that your World Cup plans are effectively quashed for this weekend, here are a few cultural recommendations to indulge in instead

Baroque music, world photography and stand-up comedy to jazz up your weekend

Eric Vas

Bajaj Auto launches its most powerful bike under its premium brand, after having focused on sprucing up its commuter brand, Discover, for the last three years

Pulsar back in spotlight with a Rs 1 lakh bike

The move will mark the four-year-old software's final transformation from a 'lightweight' messaging service to a full-fledged 'platform' of its own

Facebook 'Messenger' now open to third-party developers

From left: Veteran actor Kamal Haasan, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Additional Secretary J S Mathur  and Bollywood actor Aamir Khan release the Ficci-KPMG report at the inaugural session of FICCI Frames 2015

Poll spends helped traditional media, while Bollywood got a wake up call in 2014

By 2018, TV ad revenue will exceed print's

Social media and mobile apps are key changes in the business environment faced by CMOs

Waking up to digital realities

The biggest influence on the rate of app decay is category. Apps in utilitarian categories such as news and health decay at a much slower rate than apps in the more trend-driven games and social categories, says a study by Flurry Analytics

News apps live the longest

Packaging impacts shopping behaviour, influences product satisfaction and motivates consumers

Packaging matters

The total realisable value of stocked goods across 12 urban cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore is estimated at Rs 22,000 crore, finds a survey. Mumbai tops the clutter chart with more households stocking than anywhere else in India. Kitchen and home appliances, mobile phones, clothing, watches, and books are among the most stocked items

Indians love to stock

Travellers at Mumbai airport spent the highest time on mobile while B'lore features the lowest on mobile engagement

Traveller behaviour decoded

Instead details of technical support and specification are their priority

B2B IT purchases

Convenient online interfaces, enhanced user experience, attractive offers, and services have led to disruptive growth in the  internet usage - from merely accessing e-mails and casual browsing to more diverse andinteractive activities

Growth of digital penetration

Growth tops the agenda for manufacturers across geographies. Manufacturers plan to increase spending in R&D, pursue new collaborative business models and integrate new technologies to stimulate profitable growth, says a KPMG report

Looking for profits

Organisations that invest in optimisation capabilities

Personalisation is key

Smartphone owners are comfortable with 15-30 seconds commercial if they get to stream TV/movies for free on their smartphones, finds a Vdopia report

Smartphone aids ad recall

With mobile devices becoming more relevant in online video consumption, marketers need to be prepared to offer variety of options that cater to multiple platforms, says an Adobe report

Engaging the multidevice user

To improve employee engagement, spending more on benefits is not necessary; companies should optimise current benefit plans and design a better communication strategy, says a study

Make your benefit strategy count

Even as current customer sentiment wavers between apps and the mobile browser, businesses must invest in both platforms for customised, intuitive and immediate experience, says a study

App v/s browser: a split decision

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

Page 476 - Supplements