Passionate About India: China is all preparing for cyber war. India is sti...

Passionate About India: China is all preparing for cyber war. India is sti...: The People’s Republic of China may have initially missed out on industrial revolution that made the western nations what they are today and constrained China to an emerging economy in spite of its mercurial economic growth for the last three-and-a-half decades. But learning from the past, it is all set to become a front-runner in the virtual revolution, and is very ready to leverage maximum possible benefits out of it. In fact, it has gone a step further to set off cyber warfare with other countries in the congested and tightly competitive virtual world. And this time, it won’t settle for being a laggard, for it is heading fast towards its most cherished goal of becoming a global superpower!

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Passionate About India: CHAVEZ IS DEAD! LONG LIVE CHAVEZ

Passionate About India: CHAVEZ IS DEAD! LONG LIVE CHAVEZ: The former US president George W. Bush called Hugo Chavez of Venezuela a “devil” and allegedly backed his opposition in the subsequent elections, to the point that there were rumours, confirmed by Chavez, that the Americans had hatched a plot to kill him. Reports alleged that organisations like FBI and CIA were all primed up wanting to get rid of Chavez. There were numerous other assassination attempts, ranging from attempts by Gov. Manuel Rosales (his arch rival in domestic polity belonging to Un Nuevo Tiempo) to those by the Columbian secret police. However, all those attempts were foiled by the mercy of his fate, before he eventually died bravely fighting cancer on March 5, 2013. 

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Typos: A TOXIC TALE

Typos: A TOXIC TALE:

Animal Planet is crawling with them. So is Nat Geo Wild. It’s snakes and the modern day snake charmers, herpetologists with a penchant for one way conversations – folks like Austin Stevens, Jeff Corwin, Brady Barr, the man who started it all, the late great Steve ‘Crikey’ Irwin, and of course, our home grown sweet talking snake wrangler – Gerry Martin, who seem to have taken over all the prime time slots on animal tv.

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Business is Marketing: GO MOBILE!

Business is Marketing: GO MOBILE!: What do you do if you are a pizza parlour and the neighborhood where you are supposed to deliver your pizzas has people from over 200 nationalities who speak equally varied number of languages? Dubai based Red Tomato found a way to solve this problem – with the help of a fridge magnet. This magnet is connected with the bluetooth of the user’s mobile phone. He just presses the button, selects his choice of pizza online and orders it. Now it no more mattered which language you spoke; you always got the pizza you wanted. Deliveries increased by about 500%!

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The Fascinating World of Marketing: BHAJI WITH BAK CHOY AND BATHUA

The Fascinating World of Marketing: BHAJI WITH BAK CHOY AND BATHUA: Recently UK based pizzeria Metro Pizza landed in Mumbai with its trademark meter-long pizza. The menu retains similarities to that of its principal counterparts, yet some items have been added on to suit the Indian palate and product mix. When Lavazza entered India in 2007 it decided to reflect its Italian origin by drawing inspiration from all things Italian, including art, culture, fashion, etc. To establish a unique identity it decided to go beyond merely retailing food and coffee. But, at Starbucks in India each store takes inspiration from local culture. The chain has retained certain Starbucks iconic offerings like chocolate muffins and cakes, but has introduced other food items that would please the local palate. Since the brand counts India among the top five global markets, it is willing to make locally relevant innovations in product and processes. In fact, the latest store at Delhi showcases examples of Indian craft of weaving and sports handicrafts made by local artistes.

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Sutanu Guru: Playing the fiddle and crying wolf

Sutanu Guru: Playing the fiddle and crying wolf:                  THERE is such a torrent of information, news, PR stuff that passes as news, analysis, opinion and pseudo punditry that it becomes almost impossible to stitch together the seemingly diverse strands to weave a coherent picture. But once you just making a list of the seemingly unrelated events, you cannot escape looking at the big picture. And the big picture is a frightening one of the entirely unnecessary and destructive implosion of India’s ambitions to take its infrastructure at least above Third World levels. Just consider the following news reports or opinion pieces that you might have read in newspapers- more often white than pink-in recent times:

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Passionate About India: Invest in R&D; else, the Rs 2.03 lac crore allocat...

Passionate About India: Invest in R&D; else, the Rs 2.03 lac crore allocat...:            With the 2014 general election staring us in the face, the Finance Minister, Mr. P Chidambaram, presented a budget that resembles a financial bulwark for the masses – but where defence, like others, has been a casualty in the bargain. India had always been an important export destination for weaponry and defence equipment, areas which were monopolized by USSR during the greater part of the Cold War. Even after many entry barriers were removed allowing Western nations to penetrate the Indian defence market, the lion’s share of the defence pie continued to be controlled by Russia – a trend that is still as much in vogue as it was yesteryear!


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Typos: IS MY FOOD EATING ME?

Typos: IS MY FOOD EATING ME?:              A colleague of mine reminded me yesterday that it’s Women’s Day week this week. Yes, yes, the one who reminded me happened to be a woman, and for all my fellow men and well meaning feminists who didn’t care to remember when, it’s the 8th of March. And for all those of you wondering why there isn’t an International Men’s day or a bunch of masculinists clamouring for one, we actually have a day to ourselves and it is on the 19th of November, but then who cares to remember… we men aren’t so good at doing this ‘Day’ thing anyway, and the women just can’t be bothered with yet another day for us, they say.

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COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: BANKING ON WOMEN

COMMON SENSE SIMPLIFIED: BANKING ON WOMEN:            In a budget speech that looks more mundane than otherwise, the proposal of setting up an All Women’s Bank was one of the high points among the declarations. It invariably drew applause from all stakeholders and parties involved – from the political opponents to women’s rights groups to NGOs. The area of women’s issues is one of the most case sensitive ones in India – the other one being minority issues. However, it may turn out to be all empty promises and no substance! There is, without doubt, bipartisan benefit here with the government scoring brownie points on women electorates and women at large.

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