Poll-Bound Bengal Turns To Artistes

3/12/2009

Music, poetry and art are going to resound in the high-octane political drama to be played out for the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the 2009 elections. Kabir Suman, the singing phenomenon of Kolkata in the nineties, is set to become the Trinamool Congress (TC) candidate in the prestigious Jadavpur constituency against the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI(M)).

Devangshu Datta: No offence, but...

1/31/2009

Politics is a profession that proverbially demands thick skins of its practitioners. But in India, the fast track to a political career is via the development of a thin skin. If somebody is sufficiently creative in the art of taking offence, a successful political career is assured.

A big leap for Khushii

1/26/2009

Aman Nath & Co tie up ‘Generation Next’ for an NGO that is hands-on in the villages where it operates. Aman Nath the “connected” hotelier and businessman is familiar across corporate India as much for his group of “non”-hotels as for his interface with the who’s who of India’s many social sets.

City of joy, and sorrow

1/24/2009

Many of Bengal’s most creative talents do not find a place in this collection—Sukumar Ray, for instance, or that great storyteller Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, or even the more contemporary Shankar. There’s also virtually nothing about cinema, in a tribute to the city that was home to three of India’s best film directors, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.

Motorola to cut another 4,000 jobs

1/16/2009

Motorola Incsaid on Wednesday that it would cut another 4,000 jobs, primarily in its mobile phone business, as it forecast a fourth-quarter loss and weaker-than-expected handset sales. Analysts had expected the new round of job cuts from the company, which was already hit by reduced demand for cell phones even before the economic downturn.

House-full for neighbours

1/12/2009

From Germany, Switzerland and Poland to the Czech Republic, Israel and Japan, you will find plays aplenty at the National School of Drama’s (NSD) annual Bharat Rang Mahotsav in New Delhi in the coming week.

Flying on Vegetables

1/8/2009

The scheduled flight on Wednesday of a Continental Airlines 737 fueled in part by biofuels made from jatropha and algae was experimental (see my report on the state of biofuels in the airline industry from Wednesday’s paper here). But if the fuel can be certified by international standards agencies, it could become as common as, say, ethanol added to gasoline.

Madhukar Sabnavis: Of Brands And Advertising 2008

1/3/2009

Madhukar Sabnavis on the highs and the new of the year gone by. In the five-episode Ponds ‘White Beauty’ campaign, two stars Neha Dhupia and Priyanka Chopra fight out a love triangle for the attention and love of another star, Saif Ali Khan.

Fundraising is sweet for Ray

12/19/2008

Boosting the fight against leukaemia has a special meaning for first-time businessman Ray Reid. With his partner, managing director Lesley Dempsey, sales and marketing director Mr Reid has invested about £50,000 in launching Sweet Box Ltd, a company based at Tedco Business Centre, Jarrow.

Fall-out from Madoff affair to hit big banks

12/16/2008

The extent of the fall-out from the alleged Bernard Madoff fraud started to become apparent yesterday, as dozens more institutions and individuals across the globe were revealed to have had some exposure to the funds that his firm managed.

Recent News: Business