Between the new Maruti Suzuki Kizashi AT and the Honda Accord AT, which would you recommend for purchase? The car will largely be driven by my father for about 30 km in Delhi's city traffic, in addition to two long trips a year.

AT factor

Business Standard

There&rsquo;s more to Amar Singh than politics.

The company he keeps

Because it looks like a curious remnant, The Musalman attracts curiosity. It is, they say, the oldest Urdu daily, and perhaps the only paper in the world still written by hand. Just as the recent announcement by Godrej &amp; Boyce, the last big manufacturer of manual typewriters, that it would stop making the machines drew worldwide press, so The Musalman has since 2007 drawn media interest.

Handmade newspaper

With his athleticisim and agility, Rafael Nadal looks set to equal Bjorn Borg&rsquo;s record six French Open titles.

Will the King of Clay be dethroned?

Size matters. It grows, expands and contracts. Having unapologetically borrowed the title of a book written by Rem Koolhaas in a reprise to the seemingly infinitely-expanding Indian city, I wonder if its diet of rapidly multiplying populations and high consumptive growth patterns will end in obese proportions of XXXL, where the bounds of the city are no longer discernible, its textures and lines merging, engulfing farms, riverbeds, forests and towns into a seamless urban amalgam. While the imagery of such a proposition may be accused of being science fiction, it may unfortunately be a futuristic truth. Projected, predicted and packaged by many a recent report.

S, M, L, XL

The Candidates had a sequence of shocking results. Two of the least-fancied players, Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk, are now battling for the right to challenge Anand. In the semis, Grischuk took out Kramnik 1.5- 0.5 in a blitz tiebreaker after tying the rapids and making short draws in the normal controls. Meanwhile, Gelfand beat Kamsky in the other match, which also went to a blitz tiebreaker.

Chess (#668)

Bheja Fry returns to the screens, bigger in many ways than its shoestring-budget original.

In Bhushan's world

Ehsaan Noorani, one-third of the successful music trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, can talk guitars and music over breakfast, lunch or dinner. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s what I wanted to do ever since I knew what I wanted to do,&rdquo; he says, sitting in a small room full of guitars and music instruments in his Bandra pad.

High strung

As a movie buff, one of the best pieces of news I&rsquo;ve heard recently is that Satyajit Ray&rsquo;s 1958 film Jalsaghar (The Music Room) has received the Criterion Collection treatment. For any poor soul who doesn&rsquo;t know what that means, here goes: high-definition print restoration, carefully assembled special features, and artistic packaging that shows discernment as well as respect for films and film history.

India on Criterion

ITC may be a late entrant in the Rs 29,000-crore personal care industry growing at 12 per cent every year, but it sure is making competition count. Some number crunching will establish that the cigarette-to-hotels major has indeed made inroads into an intensely competitive market often marked by pressured margins. In just two years, ITC&rsquo;s personal care business has notched up market share of about 5 per cent (volume) in soaps, and around 3.4 per cent in shampoos.

Segment and grow

At the end of 2007 Toyota was on top of the world. It was one of the most dominant car companies globally that had been continuously profitable for 50 years. At the heart of the auto giant&rsquo;s rise was its culture &mdash; the Toyota Way, a set of management principles and business philosophy that guided its way to operational excellence. Then in 2008 came the global recession, and in 2009-2010, Toyota was hit by the recall of over 10 million vehicles. In both cases, the company was caught off guard and found that a root cause of the challenges it faced was its failure to live up to its own principles. In their new book, Toyota Under Fire, authors Jeffrey K Liker and Timothy N Ogden provide an insider&rsquo;s account how the company has come out of the most challenging years of its postwar existence. In this extract from the book, the authors outline how the specific elements of the Toyota culture drove its response to the crises.

The spirit of challenge

From generation to generation

The Indian movie industry (including Bollywood) is said to produce twice the number of films produced by Hollywood or the American film industry. It sells nearly three times the number of tickets. But there is still some way to go before the largest movie industry by volume mints money from markets outside India. While American filmmakers are staring at a global box office with more than 70 per cent ticket sales coming from markets outside the US, Indian movies still sell the most in their home country.

Big picture

Cost-effective operations and an English speaking talent pool have driven several global firms to look at India as a base to outsource their operations. Market research firm Synovate, which has a turnover of $12 million in India, is no different. It recently introduced its offshore research division in India.

Synovate India: Looking beyond data

Travelocity (part of Sabre holdings) recently unveiled a campaign which plays on the word &lsquo;ocity&rsquo; to draw consumer attention towards the brand. The underlying message of this campaign is the online travel agent&rsquo;s promise of offering consumers the lowest price across domestic and international flights and 4,000 hotels. This is made possible with a built-in search tool that trawls multiple travel service providers, and compiles a list of the lowest rates. To live up to the promise, Travelocity assures it will refund the fare to users if they find a cheaper price on another website on the same day. The differential amount will be compensated by Travelocity in the way of coupons.

Travelocity: Have pack, will travel

Open Source Leader&nbsp;
Author: Sangeeth Varghese
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9780670083268.
The Man Who Sold America&nbsp;
Authors: Jeffrey L Cruikshank and Arthur W Schultz
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Price: Rs 995
ISBN: 9781591393085.
Surviving the Storm&nbsp;
Author: Dhiraj Nayyar
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9780670085255.
ICC Cricket World Cup - 2011 Official Guide&nbsp;
Publisher: Living Media India 
Price: Rs 200
ISBN: 9786077636229.
Essence Of Good Management&nbsp;
Author: K R Kim
Publisher: Biztantra
Price: Rs 549
ISBN: 9789350040089.
Managers Who Make A Difference&nbsp;
Author: T V Rao
Publisher: Random House India
Price: Rs 299
ISBN: 9788184001372.
Geek Nation&nbsp;
Author: Angela Saini
Publisher: Hachette
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9781444734096.
Connect The Dots&nbsp;
Author: Rashmi Bansal
Publisher: Eklavya Education Foundation
Price: Rs 150
ISBN: 9788190453028.
The Habit of

The top 10 business bestsellers

FB, Twitter are becoming real-time customer feedback tools for companies.

Social networking lends a helping hand

Preschools cater to children in the age group of one to five.

KIT: Preschools in India

    What is common to Albert Einstein and Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam Computers? Initiatives launched by them have created a lasting impression.

The Strategist Quiz (#202)

Users complain of poor service, inadequate support from customer care.

3G: Boon or bane?

Acer is eyeing a bigger share of the Indian market with five tablet PCs and five smartphones in its portfolio. The brand enjoys 11.3 per cent and 10.6 per cent share in the PC and notebook segments, respectively.

Acer eyes a bigger slice of the PC, smartphone pie

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

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