The Indian two-wheeler market comprises about 12 million units per annum, of which over 75 per cent is constituted by motorcycles.

Passing lane

Business Standard

A few years ago, Mohan Murjani gave up the franchises of Gucci and Jimmy Choo in India as sales failed to match the expected demand for luxury goods in India. But things have changed since then.

Tommy Hilfiger sticks to premium play

Designer Vijay Balhara displayed his fashion line at the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) in March. The products have already reached stores. That&rsquo;s a big change as the lead time from the ramp to shop racks was as much as six months earlier.

Ramp to rack in 45 days

Nationmaster.com, a Sydney-based website, recently released a list of 30 countries, according to which the biggest consumer of wine is Luxembourg at 15.5 litres per capita, followed by France at 14.8 litres. India, with a per capita consumption figure of 10 ml, doesn&rsquo;t feature anywhere on the list.

USL high on wine

Yash Chopra is messing with the formula. He hopes that lower budgets, a youth focus, long-term actor contracts, etc., will produce streamlined hits.

The small picture

NIIT Chairman Rajendra Pawar tells Bhupesh Bhandari why he&rsquo;s building a new university in hot, dry Rajasthan.

High degrees in the desert

TV and movie scriptwriter Kanika Dhillon&rsquo;s debut novel is about real life in the film world. She tells Anoothi Vishal about Bollywood&rsquo;s new hunger for story ideas from real life.

'Not an ideal idol'

Whereas there will be enough (and more qualified) people who will talk about Husain&rsquo;s work, I would like to focus on the way he lived his life because I think it could be a great lesson for all of us.

Husain's horse sense

Yes, the poor do set up small businesses. They may be efficient, but are they profitable? Abhijit V Banerjee and Esther Duflo study the economic choices of the poor and find that they are rational but imperfect.

Reluctant entrepreneurs

Few people have ever driven a Ford Fiesta 1.6S. Even fewer people own one. To most, it looks like a regular Fiesta with a spoiler and body kit slapped on, but to those discerning few who know it it was the best handling car for under Rs 10 lakh until a few months ago. I was lucky enough to have spent six months in one, and I kid you not, it left an indelible mark in my life. Then Ford rehashed the Fiesta, called it the Fiesta Classic, pushed it down the price band and killed the 1.6S. I&rsquo;m sure a few people cried over its loss, and I don&rsquo;t doubt one bit that it has the makings of a cult classic.

Party time

It is apt that this muscular, long-winged, tetchy-looking bird is called the taran-chel-yar. &ldquo;Decomposition: taran &lsquo;surface&rsquo; + chel &lsquo;waterfall&rsquo;.&rdquo; The name was given to the bird by the Great Andamanese, one of the peoples of the Andaman Islands. How does it work? &ldquo;The Great Andamanese had observed the flight of the storm-petrels [for that is what a taran-chel-yar is] as they patter the sea surface while flying close to it with dangling legs. The surface is churned like a waterfall splashing on it from above.

Bird words

India&rsquo;s wealth of avian diversity makes it a prime attraction for bird-watchers globally.

Birds of a feather

Keen on filling the huge gap between expensive litre-class motorcycles and the 250cc motorcycle segment, Bajaj and India Kawasaki Motors have launched the new Ninja 650R in the Indian market. First off, the really good news &mdash; the pricing. The Ninja 650R is yours for Rs 4.57 lakh, ex-showroom, New Delhi. To put things in perspective, a brand new 1,000cc super sports motorcycle will cost you roughly Rs 13.5 lakh, ex-showroom, while a sporty 250cc motorcycle will have a price tag in the range of Rs 1.5-3.0 lakh, depending on which model you choose. Now, you have the Ninja 650R as an option sitting between the two ends of the spectrum, at the price of a family hatchback. The Ninja 650R really isn&rsquo;t about all-out performance that pulls your arms right out of their respective sockets; it&rsquo;s meant to be a friendly, practical and comfortable motorcycle that will handle various motorcycling duties with ease.

Go green!

Some months ago, I had hoped to meet M F Husain in Dubai but unfortunately he was travelling then and not in the emirate. More recently, plans to make a short film on his life and career did not take off, not for not trying hard enough, but mostly because I believed he would return to India where it would be easier to organise the camera and crew required to shoot the interview. It seemed though that everyone I knew had met him &ldquo;last week&rdquo; or &ldquo;last month&rdquo; or &ldquo;when in London recently&rdquo;, and they reported that he remained cheerful, playful, homesick &mdash; and that it was fait accompli that he would be back.

He chose exile

Fawlty Towers and Yes, Prime Minister. Hollywood westerns.

My Life My Style: Gulam K Noon, Chairman, Noon Group

I&rsquo;ve been driving a Suzuki Swift VDi for the last 4 years, and have done roughly 98,000 km. Although it is in very good shape, I am planning to sell it in the next 4-6 months. Which cars would you recommend in the diesel hatchback segment? My average monthly running is about 2,000 km, self-driven. My budget is Rs 6-7 lakh.

i20 vision

With all the hullabaloo and euphoria over the Fall of the Left in West Bengal, a couple of deaths in Kolkata went almost unnoticed.

The tale of two doyens

The ads are slick and the communication crisp. Procter &amp; Gamble is trying everything it can to draw the attention of the target audience who are anyway spoilt for choice.

P&G wakes up to man power

A cool cafe-cum-bar, designed in bright cheerful colours of orange, yellow and pink. Walls are adorned with witty quotations. For the gizmo freaks, the cafe has innovative themes like quirky I pad menu, video walls and touch screen gaming television.

Channel [V]'s cafenomics

It&rsquo;s that time of the year when the global advertising industry descends on the French Rivera for the week-long Cannes Advertising Festival.

Will the lion roar for India?

When Ratan Tata said in an interview earlier this week that the four-year-old Tata Motors-Fiat joint venture &ldquo;has not been as active as we had thought&rdquo;, he finally confirmed what the market has been quite vocal about for the past few months.

Why Tata is worried about Fiat in India

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