LIFESTYLE & LEISURE


In the 1960s and earlier, the arrival in the corner office, was the final achievement. And one stayed there till retirement—whether within five years or 20 years of arrival.    In Glaxo, in my time, the managing director was appointed by the head office in the UK and he came to India...

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On Sunday 17 January 2021, we lost another icon (after FC Kohli) in the management consulting world in India – the passing away of Sharu Rangnekar, a titan for 40 years in the field.    A great thinker; author of books and producer of management videos; speaker at seminars and a...

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IANS 18 January 2021
The good old traditional snack food Papad or Pappadam as it's known in South India cannot be equated with packaged 'un-fried fryums' and this cannot have similar tax treatment, the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) had ruled.   In its order rejecting a petition seeking to bring...

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Many decades ago, Swamy, who worked at the Air India counter in Mumbai, was asked by a friend who worked in Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for a favour. The international managing director (MD) of the company was visiting Bombay and the local MD thought he would make a great impression if he was...

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In October 1999, I had written about an old building in my neighbourhood, which still exists in 2021, in the same condition. It has been neglected by the owner, who receives just Rs150 as monthly rent from each of the six tenants in this two-floored apartment building, built in about...

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IANS 30 December 2020
In a year dominated by Covid realities all around us, one absolute truth that emerged is that viewing patterns of audiences all over the world were in the for a change this year. With cinema halls facing closure owing to lockdown, OTT platforms became the primary source of entertainment....

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The city of Mumbai is crumbling under the weight of about 16 million people, that is, over 1% of India’s population. Half of Mumbai lives on the streets or in slums. The road system, the public transport of rails and buses, the water and power supply, and the sanitation, just cannot take...

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My friend Homi told me that his father, the late and legendary CH Bhabha, who was one of the most reputed bankers of yore, kept dinning into the children—that there were only two things worth accumulating in life—education and reputation. Both of these cannot be stolen from you. Both take a...

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Sugandha Rawal (IANS) 09 December 2020
There is a new tide seeping into the world of showbiz, with Warner Bros. planning to simultaneously release films in theatres and on OTT platofrm. The decision is subject of much discussion and debate. Many industry insiders have called it a disturbing move for the film trade. In India...

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Top executives in the corporate world are quite often heard interspersing their conversation with 'to be very frank' or 'to tell you very frankly.'  And I find a lot of the time, when they say this, it is exactly then, that they are 'not very frank.'   Why do top executives shy away...

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At a recent auction held in Mumbai, a Cadillac Series 61 Sedanette, from 1948, went for Rs56.9 lakh. A similar car in the US, in similar condition, would, at most, fetch around $25,000, or Rs18.5 lakh. From what one hears, this car may have been imported from the US in an unrestored state,...

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With almost a quarter of global emissions coming from the transport sector, of which passenger vehicles (cars, buses and two-wheelers) account for over half, targeting personal use vehicles – seen as something that only the rich can afford – has been the easiest way for politicians to score...

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India’s struggle for independence was led byMahatma Gandhi, while Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel took it up to lead the country’s post-Independence progress. Dr B R Ambedkar, made an extraordinary contribution to this process by writing our constitution.    And there are still...

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IANS 25 November 2020
Slowly but surely, India and Indianness are foraying the world of showbiz in the West, and much of it has to do with the countrys growing presence in the OTT space. The success of Delhi Crime at the International Emmys is, as Shefali Shah rightly said, a cherry on the sundae, but Indian...

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It was a heady time in the mid-1960s – when I was employed with a young multinational, starting out at a very low turnover base – and only a handful of managers to use their ingenuity, work hard and show results. The average age of the executive staff may have been 27 with a combination of...

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AHANA BHATTACHARYA (IANS) 20 November 2020
Cinema halls and multiplexes have reopened after eight months but business is slow due to a number of factors like lack of new Hindi film releases and fear among the people regarding sitting in an enclosed areas with others amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the low paying...

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IANS 11 November 2020
Now content providers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are under the ambit of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, through an order. Online news portals have too been brought under it.   The notification, which was signed by President Ram Nath Kovind, was issued on...

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I was looking back at a foreign company that had started in India in the 1960s. It had a few well-known brands, but had only a notional presence in India. It was keen to come into the country in a big way. It was careful to select an outstanding executive to be their first chief executive...

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SUGANDHA RAWAL (IANS) 06 November 2020
Cinema halls have reopened after the pandemic, but exhibitors say they are struggling to bounce back in business.   Lack of new content, missing magic of big Bollywood entertainers and fear of the virus have all led people to avoid the cinematic experience, forcing theatre-owners run...

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Many years ago, I was presented with a signed and autographed copy of SCAM 1992, and it was read from end to end by many at our office, also because our little infotech company was moving into the financial business domain. The fraud prevention part. Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu's book ...

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