Your colleague walks up to you and hands you a cute little red badge. You look up quizzically, and she says, &ldquo;You did a swell job on that presentation. Made it so much easier for us to convince the client.&rdquo; You recall the informal kudos you got after the presentation, only she was not even part of the team.

Measuring up

Business Standard

Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s Maggi has been synonymous with instant noodles in India for a long time now. So despite the entry of Hindustan Unilever (Knorr Soupy Noodles), IndoNissin (Top Ramen), GlaxoSmithKline (Horlicks Foodles)and ITC (Sunfeast Yippie), the Swiss major has remained the undisputed king with around 80 per cent share in the Rs 2,000 crore branded noodles market that is growing at 25-30 per cent annually.

Instant success in noodles?

Curiosity got the better of Arun Patade when he recently spotted a &lsquo;Jaago Sarkar Jaago&rsquo; (Wake up call for the government) poster inside a local train. He gave a missed call on the number provided on the poster. Instantly he received an SMS acknowledging his missed call with a &lsquo;Thank You&rsquo;, and telling him that he was now part of &lsquo;India Against Corruption&rsquo; campaign launched by social activist Anna Hazare.

Now, scratch cards as a marketing tool

In 2007, Taiwan-based Acer made a strategic acquisition when it purchased US-based Gateway for $761.5 million. By virtue of this buyout, it also acquired eMachines. The following year, it acquired Packard Bell.

Acer's hard drive pays off

After a hugely popular four-season run in Pakistan, Coca-Cola brought its music television series Coke Studio to India earlier this year. At the time, many had raised eyebrows on the feasibility of airing fusion music series in a country where Bollywood music has a field day.

Coke adds fizz to fusion music

S Kalyana Ramanathan walks around the affected parts of the city.

The week London burned

West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has switched to dhoti-kurta from the pin-striped suits he wore as Ficci secretary general. But his attire isn&rsquo;t all that has changed.

Dress decode

There&rsquo;s a Husain on the walls of Ram Murthy Ahuja&rsquo;s office, a glass-fronted room that looks out on the large, well-lit room that functions as the workshop of Ahuja Framers. Done in black ink on paper, the sketch depicts two of the painter&rsquo;s favourite subjects &mdash; Ganesh and the dancing girl &mdash; peeping out of a picture frame. On the left is written &ldquo;Murti&rdquo; and below is the famous signature in two languages, Hindi and English.

Frame by frame

Aung San Suu Kyi declares corruption to be a universal phenomena adding that though the fight against it is worthy, there might never be a time when it is eradicated completely.

One nation's corruption

Subhas Chandra Bose as man, politician and, briefly, player on the world stage: Rohit Wanchoo reviews two fine new biographies of Netaji.

The freedom struggle's enfant terrible

Srinivas Krishnan drives the new SUV from Force Motors and tells you all about it.

Force feedback

Rupert Murdoch may best be remembered for closing down News of the World after it came to light that the newspaper had hacked into telephones and bribed investigators to get scoops and stay ahead of rivals. Murdoch accepted that his journalists had exceeded the brief, apologised and then brought the shutters down on the newspaper. He had to eat humble pie, in spite of friends in high places.

Friends in high places

If you&rsquo;re a dyed-in-the-wool automobile enthusiast, don&rsquo;t just restrict your passion to your set of wheels. Get yourself some super-exotic automobile-branded shoes! We&rsquo;ve handpicked a few for you and if you get your hands on any, we&rsquo;ll just envy you.

Shoe in

I want your help to choose the right car for me. I travel an average of 80 km a day to office. My budget is Rs 7 lakh for a diesel car. The car should return good mileage, have a comfortable rear seat, good after-sales service and reasonably priced spares. I&rsquo;m really confused between the Skoda Fabia, Fiat Punto and Maruti Suzuki Swift as I get different opinions about these cars.

Hatch match

Rain in the desert, Roman ruins, rock-cut cities, Bedouin tourist guides: Romain Maitra sees Jordan as &ldquo;a drama in time&rdquo;.

Rock culture

Final refuge of the terminally ill, Shanti Avedna Sadan in Bandra, Mumbai, offers its residents a pain-free stay and a chance at a peaceful end.

Resting place

Haleem, the slow-cooked, rich and luxurious Hyderabadi delicacy, is in hot demand &mdash; not just in Hyderabad, but around India and the world. More than 50 countries now import it, collectively contributing as much as 24 per cent to this growing, now Rs 100-crore business focused on the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Taste and wealth

Diabetes research in India hasn&rsquo;t quite kept pace with the epidemic proportions the disease has assumed. But efforts are on to look for alternatives to the insulin injection.

Trial by ordeal

A novelist who gets a mediocre advance, a nondescript meal that costs a modest sum, a Plain Jane haircut, an anonyomous-looking hatchback, a white shirt sans frills &mdash; none of these makes news because headlines are reserved for things out of the ordinary. Art auctions have been the preserve of the mainstream media only when they command record prices for canvases, or lots sold or, at least, averaged. Anything else slips under the radar and fails to grip popular imagination.

Hope, no hype

Saffron, white and green dresses the celebration as the strains of the national anthem resound in the humid monsoon air. Yet another birthday arrives. Yet another year is added to the lifetime of India.

A McAloo Tikki, please!

Pankaj Kapur is anything but predictable. As he makes his directorial debut with Mausam, the versatile actor talks to Priyanka Joshi about his latest role.

Director's cut

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

Page 936 - Supplements