A new book reflects on how it will be suicidal for journalists and news organisations to remain hostage to the old structures of journalism and not adapt with the changing reality

The challenge of staying relevant

Business Standard

Perhaps it hasn't created as much buzz as news of slugging politicians, mendacious bureaucrats, raging terrorists or self-serving businessmen,  but the fact that Mumbai figured as the second-most honest   amongst 16 international cities in a recent Reader's Digest survey has been a source of great interest to me.This is because no matter where I go, what I experience and how enamoured I am of the wonders of travel, I always find myself returning to the one city that is home to my soul - Mumbai.Why is this so? What is this connection? Why do I keep returning, in spite of all my attempts (albeit half hearted and impractical) of settling in Goa, Coonoor, Pune, San Francisco, New York, The Hague and wherever else life happens to take me?  (I'm one of those with an overdeveloped settler's instinct, wishing to settle instantly wherever I find myself on holiday)Let me tell you about the survey first: In attempt to establish honesty and integrity, the good people at Reeder's Digest picked 16 c

Salaam Mumbai

Why Madhuri Dixit's dancercise doesn't work

Fitness isn't just song and dance

Deepika Paukone: Picture source: https://www.facebook.com/DeepikaPadukone

Picture source: https://www.facebook.com/DeepikaPadukone

What has made Deepika Padukone Bollywood's most successful heroine? Hard work, mental strength and the right choice of films

Deepika Padukone: Hot and happening

The roads in Uttarakhand are back in use a hundred days after they were devastated by landslides and rivers in spate. But the fortunes of the affected people are still hanging by a thread

Uttarakhand: Slow road to recovery

Premium menswear has seen both domestic and international brands spend on mainstream advertising. But before releasing a campaign on TV or going after 'likes' on their Facebook pages, it would do well for brands to understand how Indian men interact with the mid to premium branded apparel category. A study done by Nielsen, the leading global provider of information and insights, says that just one in four shoppers decide on the brand before purchasing, bringing into question the efficacy of advertising.Nielsen's research in the apparel space shows that the Indian working male flits within a repertoire of brands rather than tie himself to one. He builds himself a repertoire with those brands whose promises he is comfortable with. Once a brand reassures the consumer of its quality, it enters his list of 'must check out' brands during shopping. This results in a set of five to seven brands.But what matters is the shopper's interaction with brands at stores. Apparel shopping is now an acti

Men shop for apparel brands impulsively, ads ineffective

Tata Motors' oldest running model is shifting gears to get more individual buyers

Sumo wrestles a way to regain its lost glory

As segments of food and personal care glimpse profits, ITC capitalises on them

Time for ITC to go premium

Apps, increasingly being accessed by a growing number of smartphone users, could be the next gateway to brand engagement, even as CMOs and their teams grapple with their way around social networks and online branding. The urban, educated audience is finding it easier to access apps from brands than accessing their clunky websites or interact with them on social media.Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange (Ipsos OTX), the global innovation centre of the world's third-largest market research company, Ipsos, has surveyed adults across the world on their preferences for apps (applications for mobile operating systems) from brands, products, stores and companies.Covering 18,513 adults aged 16-64 years across countries, it has found that 65 per cent of people regularly use such apps. India had about 1,000 people surveyed, with a slightly more educated profile than citizens from the rest of the countries from the different continents.Among the survey's Indian respondents, around 45 per cent found it e

While brands think 'social media', consumers say 'apps'

BS Reporter

Be it Greater Kailash, Vasant Vihar, South Extension or Saket, property prices have taken a hit across the board.

South Delhi goes south

Prakash Chauhan

Inteview with Founder-chairman, Parle Agro

We aren't targeting families but individuals with Cafe Cuba: Prakash Chauhan

Shipment numbers and consumption patterns stifle prospects of the featurephone brand

MS unlikely to gain from Asha

Its full-service plans with the Tata JV might counter modest profits and competition from all quarters

SIA puts a premium on India

INCEPTION: One of Unilever's earliest products was also the first brand it brought to India.  The English industrialist William Hesketh Lever launched Sunlight, in 1884 as a laundry soap to lessen work for women and increase hygiene. Unilever's largest R&D centre was named after the brand as Port Sunlight.Within four years, a large container with crates of soap bars embossed with the words "Made in England by Lever Brothers" landed up at the Kolkata harbour.  It was first imported and sold through visits by executives from England, before representatives in the port cities of India were assigned to sell it along with Lifebuoy and other soaps.THEN AND NOW: The world's first branded and packaged soap has changed form in India. It was a popular laundry cake to begin with. However, with the change in consumer preference at the turn of this century for powder detergent, Sunlight lost its relevance and Unilever in India (as HLL then) relegated it to the background, and at a point of time

Sunlight had brighter days

Demi Moore has reportedly engaged a hypnotist to help her get over her break-up with Ashton Kutcher. The late singer Amy Winehouse took the route of substance abuse. When Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp finally called it quits on his relationship with Winona Ryder, he sought the help of a laser surgeon to change the tattoo on his arm from ‘Winona Forever’ to ‘Wino forever’.

Moving on

As the search continues to find an actress to play the role of Olympian Mary Kom for the upcoming biopic on her life produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and as pictures of Ashton Kutcher strolling through Delhi while reprising the role of Steve Jobs for the biopic on the late technocrat go viral, the focus is on the biopic. And, on the particular fascination that audiences all over the world have for this genre of filming.

Whose life is it anyway?

As someone hugely interested in the art of communication and how it aids or mars human interaction, I was naturally very interested in observing how Bill Clinton, often known as “The Great Communicator”, would handle the 2012 Democratic Convention speech.

How Bill won them all

When supermodel Heidi Klum admitted to being close to her bodyguard Martin Kristen, weeks after her singer celebrity husband Seal had caused a stir when he used unparliamentary language to describe the reasons for their breakup, it once again put the spotlight on the power of proximity and how it influences relationships.

In love with the help

In a country where fasts unto death, jail bharos and other forms of self-flagellation as acts of protest are given legitimacy, the latest form of pressure protest — “jal satyagraha” (insistence on truth by water) — should come as no surprise. The key to all these acts is essentially their non-violence quotient: “I will not attack you whom I see as my aggressor. I am prepared to harm myself to protest your misdeeds.

Muddying the waters

Increasingly I have begun to get the feeling that we are living in a cosmic joke. That matters are being so designed as to befuddle and perplex the most clear-headed amongst us, and that someone up there is having a good ol’ giggle on our account.

No easy answers

For all those like me who are fascinated by the rapidity with which new technologies are impacting our lives, here’s some fodder. An acquaintance from a decade ago, who befriended me on Facebook recently and whose life has now become a part of my daily consciousness by way of photographs and status updates, messaged me last week on the social networking site: “Need to speak.

Beware the writing on the Wall

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