When Aditya Birla died, Kumar Mangalam Birla took over the reigns of the empire. He was just 28 and inherited several diversified companies, all of which put off investors. While the self-image of the group (like any other family-run business) was high, institutional investors did not know what to make of a business that included rayon and insulators. Or one that included cement and suiting....

Bread is traditionally made using a small number of familiar ingredients: flour, yeast, water and a pinch of salt. But in the current era, ‘industrial bread’ – even ‘industrial whole-grain bread’ – is quite another matter. Thanks to modern “food science” Sara Lee’s Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread (whatever that means!) sports the following ingredients on its label:

“Enriched bleached...

Investors’ funds cannot be confiscated without attempting to find them

Ever since the Ministry of Corporate Affairs transferred nearly Rs400 crore of unclaimed dividends from companies to the Investor Education & Protection Fund (IEPF), the government as well as financial regulators have been wanting to seize other pools of unclaimed money. Under its former chairman, M Damodaran, the...