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

Business Standard

Small independent agencies in India are slowly but steadily making inroads into large advertiser accounts held by industry majors.

The rise and rise of creative hotshops

    Name this brand which describes itself in this manner: &ldquo;After 5 burglaries, 1 office dog, 9 Christmas quizzes, 12 nights spent in the warehouse, 1 consignment of refugees arriving with a clothes delivery, 4 office moves, 2 venture capitalists, 6 awards, about 20 fantastically annoying customers, a couple of crooks, a great team spirit, bucket loads of sweat and even more laughs, we&rsquo;re still here.

Answers to last week&#39;s quiz (#201)

Future Group&rsquo;s appetite for food is steadily increasing with newer retail formats.

The elite food futurist

Today, even fictional characters like Buzz Lightyear &ndash; the space ranger and one of the two main protagonists from Toy Story &ndash; and his co-star toys (Woody, Mr Potato Head , Jessie and Andy) become an instant hit with the Indian audience.

Hollywood comes calling

In July 1969, Indira Gandhi, the prime minister, nationalised 14 large commercial banks in order to gain control of credit delivery &mdash; Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank et al. This, she argued, was the only way to tap banking facilities to the poor; market forces had left them totally unbanked.

Off the record

Arghya Ganguly &amp; Satyavrat Mishra unveil a little-known side of Prakash Jha &mdash; the builder of malls, multiplexes and hospitals.

Director's take

Gargi Gupta chats with Hemant Oberoi about experimenting with cuisines and writing a book.

At the chef's table

Asif Balwa, an accused in the 2G scam, requests an iPad in jail and his appeal is granted. Will this affect iPad sales negatively or positively? My guess is the latter.

Amorality is in

I am not here to tell you the merits of diesel cars vis-&agrave;-vis petrol ones, especially given the backdrop of fuel pricing policies. I am here to lay a burning issue to rest; an issue that&rsquo;s threatening to tear the Internet apart, a debate that&rsquo;s been clogging our telephone lines and inboxes. Is perennial favourite Volkswagen Vento TDI capable of holding its own against a more powerful and better loaded new Hyundai Verna CRDi? Has the winner in the sub-Rs 11 lakh C-segment diesel variant market changed? We decided to find out.

Scripted to perfection

Bruce Riedel advised four US presidents on foreign policy.

Establishmentality

Here&rsquo;s some good news for four-wheel adventure lovers. Mahindra &amp; Mahindra has launched its &ldquo;Adventure&rdquo; initiative, a platform through which the SUV manufacturer will organise exciting drives throughout the country. The drives are, of course, an excellent way to showcase M&amp;M vehicles&rsquo; off-road abilities as proven time and again at the many Great Escapes held over the years. Speaking of which, the number of Great Escapes will go up from 10 in 2010-11 to 20 this year &mdash; something true-blue off-road enthusiasts will surely be happy about.

On your mark

Proud of your new e-reader? Hah! It&rsquo;s just a step on the path back to the past. Not the future. Because paper &mdash; that old-fashioned thing you thought you might one day be able to do without &mdash; is the future.

Past paper future

I have a Skoda Octavia, which has done about 1.2 lakh km. Now it is at the end of its life cycle. I had the same model earlier and would like to buy one again, but it seems it has been discontinued. I want something similar in terms of quality of build, with a heavy emphasis on fuel economy.

French flair

From time immemorial, mistresses have been linked with powerful men.

Between a mister and his mattress

At 5.15 in the morning, our Tata Sumo joins a queue of over 20 other buses and vehicles at the Jirkatang border check post (about 50 km from Port Blair) where a blind goat is the centre of attraction. The goat feasts on the vada that the roadside tea vendors sell. But we aren&rsquo;t here to see the goat; we are here to enter the forest reserve which is inhabited by the Jarawa tribe of Andamans, on the way to Baratang island. As we wait for the police convoy to escort us to Baratang &mdash; a three-hour drive from Port Blair &mdash; our driver and guide, Javed, tells us how to &ldquo;deal&rdquo; with Jarawas. &ldquo;No cameras, windows rolled up when you spot them and do not feed them anything.

Encountering Jarawas

Hardly any posthumous writing is published in India.

Some writers rest in peace

The arrests of senior executives and the slow pace of justice have made India Inc jittery. Veenu Sandhu, Arijit Barman &amp; Surajeet Das Gupta examine the fear psychosis.

Stalked by the law

Masanori Fukuoka is no stranger to collecting circles in India though purists might argue that his Glenbarra Art Museum in Hijemi, Japan, underscores his collecting for its own sake, that it at least empowers his indulgence. That contention might be valid, but what is important is that under the umbrella of Glenbarra, Masanori aims to document and popularise Indian artists the Japanese public would otherwise remain oblivious of. These efforts, in the past, have resulted in a book on Jogen Chowdhury, but it is interesting that its more recent tome should be on Ved Nayar, who as an artist has had to struggle to find recognition outside of immediate collecting circles even in India.

The Japanese connection

Truth is better than fiction, especially in Bollywood. Perhaps, as they say, there is now more experimentation and less &ldquo;inspiration.&rdquo; in the film world. Predictability of plot and the habit of making Indian avatars of Hollywood films are still problems at the big-budget end. Saviours, however, are in sight. They are not (or not only) young and innovative filmmakers and scriptwriters.

Reel incarnations

Kolkata football, once the city&rsquo;s religion, is now a pale shadow of its former self.

No joy in this game

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