Innholdsfortegnelse for 28 January 2018 i Business Today

Leadership research – to identify what is common among successful leaders – has been taking place for over a century now. And much of the leadership research has focussed on successful (and unsuccessful) corporate leaders and CEOs, possibly because it is easier to find empirical data on them and their performance over sufficiently long periods, and to study large samples in different countries. The initial leadership research focussed on trying to identify common traits that all leaders exhibited. Since then, leadership research and theories have become far more complex. Researchers have tried to study whether all leaders flourish in all situations or do different situations call for very different leadership qualities and throw up very different types of leaders. Other researchers have focussed on the role of followers, on the…

GOOGLE’S STASH Search giant Google moved $19.2 billion to a Bermuda shell company in 2016, thus saving billions of dollars in taxes, according to regulatory filings in the Netherlands, a Bloomberg report reveals. The setup involves shifting revenue from one Irish subsidiary to a Dutch company with no employees, and then on to a Bermuda mailbox owned by another Ireland-registered company. MANUFACTURING BOOM IN US A survey by the Institute for Supply Management shows that the factory index, a tool measuring factory activity, climbed from 58.2 to 59.7 in December 2017 and the measure of new orders rose to 69.4, the highest ever recorded by a growing manufacturing sector since January 2004. The heightened activity brings the 2017 average to 57.6, the best in 13 years. SOFTBANK-UBER DEAL Ride-hailing firm…

A report that the Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning to seek ₹2,578 crore from five telecom operators – Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, Telenor, Videocon Telecom and Quadrant – has officials in these firms in a tizzy. The DoT wants to recover the money based on a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report saying these operators understated their gross revenues; deducted discounts offered to customers and dealers, interest earned from investments, free talk-time offers, and asset sales. The telecom operators pay Spectrum Usage Charges and licence fees annually to DoT from their gross revenues. In July last year and a year before that, the CAG had pointed at similar concerns about Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. Since there is no definite way of calculating gross revenues, the matter…

ANDHRA PRADESH’S tech-savvy Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, hopes to beat Dubai by making AP the world’s first blockchain-powered state. He told officers recently that he expects all digital records in the state to be blockchain-compliant by the end of 2019. The CM’s special chief secretary and IT advisor, J.A. Chowdary said the state had already begun Project Blockchain 2019 to ensure that each department is blockchain ready. The tender process to select companies will commence shortly and would be also be open to bidders who have implemented blockchain projects in Estonia, Sweden and Israel. The work undertaken for different divisions will be separate. Chowdary said extra care is being exercised regarding protection of consumer data by sticking to the “triple S” model (Safe, Secure and Smart).…

President Donald Trump signed a landmark tax reform on Christmas Eve to replace a 30-yearold, complex U.S. tax system. The 429-page law, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 2017, reflects his resolve to fulfil an election promise, impacting citizens as well as domestic and international businesses. Here we discuss the changes impacting the cross-border tax regime and the U.S. multinational corporations in India. Besides a 20 per cent reduction in corporate tax rate, there are four key changes: • A move to the territorial tax system, as opposed to the resident taxation system • Imposition of transition tax for U.S. multinationals repatriating earnings kept in foreign jurisdictions • Limitation of interest deductions in line with the G- 20-led and OECD-led base erosion and profit sharing (BEPS) initiative. • Excise tax on…

Big information technology companies have formed a cartel to keep salary of entry-level engineers low, alleged IT industry veteran TV Mohandas Pai, according to a PTI report. He agreed with Infosys Co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, who had said that in the last seven years, salaries of freshers in the software industry have stayed stagnant, while the same for senior-level employees have grown multi-fold. Pai was earlier a CFO at Infosys.…

1) Founder: Started by Y.V. Ratna Kumar in February 2016. While running his Vijayawada-based business consulting firm APIMS India, Kumar realised that rural India needed a huge boost in terms of entertainment, information and services. 2) Big Idea: The concept of Y Screens Trade Development (YSTD) Center to serve semi-urban and rural areas is unique. Each centre houses a movie theatre, a government services centre called Mee Seva, and a Y Square Business Incubator to mentor youngsters who want to start a business. There are also other value-added services such as health kiosks, banking (ATMs/e-banking services), food courts/restaurants, gaming zones and branded retail outlets. These centres are built on unutilised public spaces near bus terminals and railway stations where people often wait for long hours, and also on private lands…

KENICHI AYUKAWA, MD and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India When Kenichi Ayukawa was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd in April 2013, the company was not in the best of shape. Following two years of labour unrest at its Manesar factory, its market share had slid to less than 40 per cent. The morale within the company was low and rivals had their tails up. Not quite a sinking ship, but in 2012/13, Maruti was in a state of disarray. Within four years, the 62-year-old Ayukawa has effected a complete reversal in the company’s fortunes. Maruti Suzuki is sitting pretty with a market share of 50.4 per cent (April-November 2017), the highest since 2000/01. It accounts for four of the top five and seven of…

V.C. NANNAPANENI, Chairman and Managing Director, Natco Pharma “LET THE PRODUCT BE BIG, THE REST WILL FALL INTO PLACE” At a time when stock prices of most big players in the pharmaceutical industry have plummeted sharply on the bourses, Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma stands out – the ₹2,078-crore company has stood its ground despite ups and downs. Consider this: in the past three years, Sun Pharma, the biggest Indian pharma company, has seen its share price tumble from ₹827.2 to ₹578.8, taking its market cap down from ₹171,316.3 crore to ₹138,860 crore. Lupin’s story is similar – its share price fell from ₹1,429.7 to ₹899.2 and market cap slipped from ₹64,223.8 crore to ₹40,644.1 crore. Analysts often refer to how most companies are currently trading at less than 50 per cent…

Y.C. DEVESHWAR, Chairman, ITC/Lifetime Achievement More than two decades ago, Y.C. Deveshwar had just taken charge as the managing director at ITC when a senior executive came up to him to inform him about his resignation as ITC had decided to sell the international commodities trading business that he was heading. It so happened that after completing the negotiations, Deveshwar changed his mind (to sell the business) — and so did S. Sivakumar, the executive. That would be the defining moment for ITC and its future. For, Sivakumar went on to conceptualise, build and lead the highly complex agri business, which has not just transformed millions of rural lives through e-Choupals and created a new era of technology-led farming but is also the bedrock of most of ITC’s current and…

A company called Umbrellium has set up an interactive crossing at Starling Cross in South London. While it uses familiar and understandable road markings and colours, the Starling Crossing reacts dynamically in real time to different conditions, and is able to modify the patterns, layout, configuration, size and orientation of pedestrian crossings in order to prioritise pedestrian safety. The entire road surface at the crossing area is monitored by cameras and embedded with computer-controlled LEDs that can be seen from all angles, during both day and night. Using a neural network framework, cameras track objects moving across the road surface, distinguishing between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, calculating their precise locations, trajectories and velocities and anticipating where they may move to in the next moment. At different times of day, and…

BEING BLESSED rather unfairly with the ability to see into what we think the future may be gives humans the ability to worry beyond the limits of reasonability where anxiety is no longer helpful or constructive. There are degrees of generalised anxiety built into each person; but when it begins to disrupt daily life in some way, it’s time to seek help. If you can’t concentrate on doing a good job on your presentation because you’re too busy visualising negative reactions and, hence, end up putting up a poor show, it’s a red flag – your anxiety is not constructive or goading you into action, but instead is crippling. Before heading to the counsellor or trying, unwisely, to take pills, one can have a good shot at tackling anxiety better.…

We still do not have a broad-based ‘right to healthcare’ in India, but at least we do have the ‘right to mental health’. The new Mental Healthcare Act makes access to mental healthcare a right. This could improve services for people with mental illnesses. Dr Rahul Shidhaye, an Associate Professor at Public Health Foundation of India and heading its mental health division, says, “It is a progressive Act and a very strong legal instrument that can help improve mental health services in the country. As it provides access to mental healthcare as a right, it also means that the person concerned can take the government to court if appropriate services are not provided.” It also decriminalises suicide, which means people who attempted to kill themselves may now easily seek medical…

CUT THE CRAP AND JARGON: Lessons from the Start-up Trenches By Shradha Sharma and T.N. Hari Penguin Random House; 328 pages; ₹499 CUT THE CRAP AND JARGON, is a take by Shradha Sharma and T.N Hari aimed at providing lessons the from start-up trenches to young entrepreneurs. It recognises the uniqueness of start-ups relative to more mature companies, in terms of uncertainties and dynamism that characterise a start-up’s operating environment. It has an interesting mix of entrepreneurs’ personal experiences, expert views and theoretical construct around management. The book shines when Sharma speaks from her experience. Her fundraising story stands out as an illustration of an entrepreneur’s quest and her dilemmas, as also the battle against disbelief that most external parties approach a start-up with. She explains clearly the importance of…

If you are an account holder in any of the six erstwhile banks that had merged with the public sector behemoth State Bank of India (SBI), your chequebook has become invalid from January 1, 2018. These banks include State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad and Bharatiya Mahila Bank. Now customers will have to apply for new chequebooks and those will have a new Indian Financial System Code, or IFSC, an 11-digit alpha-numeric system that uniquely identifies all bank branches participating in the Reserve Bank of India’s fund transfer system. Recently, SBI changed the names and codes of nearly 1,300 of its 25,000 branches in the major cities owing to its merger with the five…

The new peak touched by S&P BSE Sensex in 2017. Equity markets performed well in 2017 with the BSE Sensex, the broad equity market indicator, delivering a return of 30 per cent. But it failed to outperform its smaller counterparts – BSE Smallcap and BSE Midcap – which delivered 63 per cent and 51 per cent returns, respectively. SEBI MANDATE Markets regulator SEBI has decided that any shareholder with 10 per cent stake in an asset management company cannot hold 10 per cent or more stake in another fund house to avoid conflict of interest. It has also come out with a consultant paper to differentiate between mutual fund distributors and advisors.…

Retired serviceman C.M. Sardana, 72, is mulling whether he should give up his health insurance. Last year, the premium doubled as the insurer ‘rationalised’ the rates without giving specifics that caused the sudden hike. “Every year the company is raising premiums at an average rate of 10 per cent citing high medical costs. But last year, it went up 100 per cent. It is too much to bear at my age,” he says. According to Sardana, he has made only three claims over a span of 20 years and the last two added up to ₹32,000. Delhi-based K.N. Bahadur, aged 70, has a similar story to share. “It was a rude shock for me when the premium jumped by 40 per cent.” He bought a family floater policy in 2006,…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday@BT_India NEWS: Will the PE Dream Run Continue in 2018? With close to $16 billion being raised by PE/VC funds in past three years, investments in key sectors may continue to remain buoyant this year. businesstoday.in/pe-vc.investment How the Ministries Spent Their Funds in 2017 About 70 per cent of the ministries so far have spent over 50 per cent of their Budget estimates in fiscal 2017/18. It is the highest share spend over five years. businesstoday.in/budget.estimates-expenditure Marketers Need to Talk to Gen X, Not Millennials The Gen X category (41 to 50 year olds) is the fastest-growing population segment in India. businesstoday.in/genX-business Full Electric Mobility in India Only by 2047: SIAM Though the industry's timelines are much more conservative vis-a-vis government's ambitions, they do seem…

INDIA’S IT export sector is aflame with reports that the US is considering a new regulation to prevent foreign workers from getting H-1B visa extensions while their green card applications are pending. They fear this could mean “self deportation” of thousands of workers, particularly software engineers employed by IT services companies. Not just the US, former colonial powers are all raising protectionist barriers, be it the UK, other countries in the EU, and even Australia and Singapore. What does this mean for Indian exporters? The cost of doing business will go up several times. This will also have implications for American businesses – what is seemingly good for local employees is not necessarily good for businesses. There is no guarantee ‘Hire American’ would work. Businesses do not think morally about these issues;…

The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 54.7 in December from 52.6 in November. The number is the highest in the past five years. Experts attribute this to an uptick in new orders. Growth was recorded in all three verticals — consumer, intermediate and investment. The index has crossed the 50-point mark for the fifth consecutive month. A reading above 50 shows economic expansion, while a reading below 50 points a contraction. Meanwhile, core sector growth touched a 13-month high of 6.8 per cent in November.…

To curb the use of illegal money in politics, the finance ministry has notified the details of the proposed electoral bonds. Donors will be able to buy these through select SBI branches The bonds will be available for 10 days in January, April, July and October. This period will be extended to 30 days in the year general elections are held. The donors will have to buy in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh or ₹1 crore. These will be interest-free instruments resembling promissory notes; SBI will be the custodian of the funds until the parties are paid. The name of the payee will not appear on the bonds, though the donors will have to make KYC disclosures to SBI.…

Indians know how much India has to offer a tourist; a lifetime is not enough to see it all. But the world does not see it that way. In 2016, India’s rank in World Economic Forum’s travel and tourism competitive index was 55. Last year, it went up to 40. But still, it has far to go. What does it lack? There is not much point in comparing ourselves with Spain and France, the most attractive countries in the world, whose concentration of leisure activities and infrastructure India cannot match. The only country with India’s size and diversity is China; its rank is 15. Where does it score over India? Its biggest lead (87-25) is in what the World Economic Forum calls human resources and global market. It depends partly…

VARUN BERRY, MD, Britannia Industries If you are under 30 and aspire to make board-level decisions, Britannia Industries may be just the place for you. The ₹10,000 crore biscuit maker has a young management team that takes crucial decisions related to new product launches as well as categories the company should venture into. The team members also travel across the globe to understand trends and get ideas for Britannia's product portfolio. Earlier this year, the company entered into a joint venture with a Greek company, Chipita SA, to make long shelf-life croissants with chocolate filling. The idea, says Varun Berry, Managing Director, came from this very team of managers. “They told us they are always in a hurry and need a snack which is filling, delightful, an on-the-go kind of…

ROMESH SOBTI, MD & CEO, IndusInd Bank Ltd When foreign banker Romesh Sobti took charge at the midsized IndusInd Bank a decade ago, there were not many who would have believed in his vision to transform the private bank. The new generation private bank had legacy issues (Ashok Leyland Finance was merged with it), belonged to a corporate house (Hindujas) and other private banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank (earlier UTI Bank) had taken a huge lead both in terms of brand acceptability and also performance. The global financial meltdown was gradually spreading from the US and Europe to emerging markets like China and India. It was probably the most difficult business cycle for any new CEO. But Sobti did the unthinkable and succeeded in turning around…

M.K. JAIN, Former MD & CEO, Indian Bank Around two and a half years ago, 56-year-old Mahesh Kumar Jain, then executive director of Indian Bank, found himself all alone at the helm as two of his senior colleagues left the South-based bank. T.M. Bhasin, then managing director and Chief Executive Officer, demitted his post to take up the role of Vigilance Commissioner in Central Vigilance Commission while Executive Director B. Raj Kumar was superannuated. Jain had to run the show all by himself for nearly six months (he was elevated to the post of MD and CEO in November 2015). During his stint, he effected a turnaround and created a strong institutional set-up to implement HR reforms and digitisation. Jain’s success at Indian Bank catapulted the highly regarded but little-known…

A CHOICE BETWEEN soft versus hard luggage has never been more important than it is today, with travel having gone up and luggage allowances being restricted. If it’s a carry-on bag you’re after, it’s a good idea to opt for a soft case because you’re handling it yourself and need it to be light. Just as long as you find a safe pocket inside for your electronics or cushion them well with whatever else you put in. The flexibility will allow you to store it in overhead bins more easily. With larger cases, hard-shell luggage is sturdier, obviously, but it may be a heavier. Polycarbonate bags are light, but check out the weight with four wheels because two-wheel luggage is passé (nobody looks elegant zipping through an airport with trailing luggage).…

The last month of 2017 saw some of the finest brains of India Inc. and the academic world brainstorm on challenges facing HR managers. The Business Today Knowledge Forum in Human Resources, held on December 14 in Hyderabad, saw HR practitioners from different industries talk about how to get the most out of their most precious resource – their employees. The event, held in the city for the third time in a row, began with a welcome address by Prosenjit Datta, Editor, Business Today. “Despite the advent of automation and technology, there is no company today that can say it has reached success without its people’s contribution,” he said. Datta touched upon the two topics listed for discussion – how critical is culture when hiring for a start-up and how…

The interest rate on small savings schemes such as public provident fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme (SSS), National Savings Certificate (NSC) and Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) will fetch lower interest rate in the January-March quarter as the government has reduced the rate of interest by 20 basis points (100 basis points are equal to one per cent). Since April 2016, interest rates on small savings schemes have been market linked and are also linked to the yield of government securities of similar maturity period. The interest rate on PPF has been reduced from 7.8 per cent to 7.6 per cent. The interest rate on the girl child savings scheme has dipped from 8.3 to 8.1 per cent. KVP will now fetch 7.3 per cent while the interest rate on Senior…

To boost digital transactions, the government has decided to bear the merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on transactions up to ₹2,000 made via debit cards, BHIM UPI or Aadhaar-enabled payment systems. The government will pay the charges for two years starting from January 1, 2018. MDR is the fee paid by merchants for card services and installation of swiping machines. For small merchants with an annual turnover of up to ₹20 lakh, MDR has been fixed at 0.40 per cent with a cap of ₹200 per transaction. For those with more turnover, MDR charges will be 0.90 per cent with a cap of ₹1,000 per transaction. For transactions via QR code, MDR rates for small merchants will be 0.30 per cent while others will pay 0.80 per cent (in each…

Health insurance is one of the fastest growing segments in the insurance industry. However, only 27 per cent of Indians have opted for health coverage, according to a recent report jointly published by FICCI and KPMG. The study also reveals that out-of-pocket expenditure accounts for 62 per cent of the total healthcare spending against a global average of 18 per cent, underlining a significant gap between requirement and pre-financed health coverage. In a conversation with Teena Jain Kaushal, Antony Jacob, CEO of Apollo Munich Health Insurance, discusses the challenges faced by the health insurance sector in India and what will drive growth in 2018. Edited excerpts: Q: What are your views on IRDAI’s recent move to link Aadhaar with insurance policies? A: Making Aadhaar-insurance linking mandatory is a good initiative,…

15-17 BOOSTER DOSE WHAT: India Pharma 2018 WHEN: February 15-17, Bangalore WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The FICCI event provides a platform to the global investment community to connect with stakeholders in the pharma sector. India Pharma 2018 covers the whole process of pharmaceutical manufacturing, from various kind of manufacturing/processing machinery to lab equipment, analytical instruments, APIs and other total solutions. 23 SPOTLIGHT ON GST WHAT: CII Session on GST WHEN: February 23, Panaji Goa WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The Union Budget for 2018-19 is expected to be announced in Feb 2018 and will contain proposed changes in customs and GST. The various indirect tax changes proposed in the Budget and also the GST legislation would be examined in detail at this one day programme. 1 REINVENTING EMPLOYEE RELATIONS WHAT: CII…

SECURITY RESEARCHERS have detected major flaws that leave millions of computers, smartphones, tablets, wearables, servers and smart devices vulnerable. The flaws, Meltdown and Spectre, allow hackers to trick applications and access passwords and sensitive data. They hit devices running Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android and almost any other operating system. Meltdown lets hackers bypass hardware barriers on Intel chips to steal data, whereas Spectre hits every single device with chips from Intel, AMD and ARM designed over the past decade or more. As soon as news of the vulnerability was public, every major firm released security updates. Experts, however, are concerned that these will slow down systems. Linux-based systems could slow down as much as 17 per cent, whereas systems running Intel processors could slow down anywhere between 5 per…

AFTER TALL claims by the Modi government that investigation of “unaccounted” for deposits would unearth large amounts of black money, the Income Tax Department appears to be dragging its feet on the said investigation. Initially, around 23 lakh individuals were identified with tax profiles that did not match their post-demonetisation deposits. Verification notices were sent to these persons. Now, the paperwork in these cases is making the rounds of various sections and departments and officials say any ‘meaningful findings’ will only be available by September. Senior officials defend the situation saying explanations submitted by individuals will have to be scrutinised and tallied with the returns filed for assessment year 2017/18. Further movement can be made only if any discrepancies are detected then.…

3 MILLION NUMBER OF CARS AND SUVs SOLD IN 2017, 9.2 PER CENT MORE THAN IN 2016, THE STEEPEST RISE SINCE 2013. The Ministry of Defence has scrapped the ₹32,000 crore project for building 12 advanced mine counter-measure vessels (MCMVs) or minesweepers. The project, to be carried out by Goa Shipyard Ltd in collaboration with South Korea-based Kangnam Corporation, fell through due to ‘commercial complications’. Advanced minesweepers can track and destroy underwater mines, and the Indian Navy requires them on a priority basis.…

There was a time when digital advertising in India meant advertising on Google. And only after a substantial portion of the advertising budget was spent on the search engine would advertisers consider ‘experimenting’ on social media. But the times are a-changin’. According to a recent filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs by Facebook, the social networking site’s revenue doubled to ₹341.8 crore in FY17, compared to ₹177 crore in FY16. Its profit rose to ₹40.7 crore in the last financial year, from ₹31 core in FY16. Similarly, micro-blogging site Twitter recorded a turnover of ₹50 crore in the 2016/17 fiscal, as compared to ₹42.7 crore in the previous fiscal. Professional networking site LinkedIn, too, registered an increase in revenue from ₹368 crore in 2015/16 to ₹457 crore in 2016/17.…

What separates the best CEOs from their merely good peers? It is a question that is being asked by researchers across the world as disruptions – both digital and policy – become increasingly frequent and upend entire sectors and markets. The Business Today PWC Best CEO survey offers some clues. The survey is based on a rigorous quantitative analysis of three year performance followed by a qualitative round in which an eminent panel of jurors studied each CEO’s track record. In the review period, the stock market performed but earnings growth was a big challenge for CEOs. At first glance, the winners seemed to have little in common. The group had highly visible extroverts as well as painfully shy introverts, inheritors, self made entrepreneurs as well as professionals. But scratch…

YADUPATI SINGHANIA, Chairman and Managing Director, JK Cement As a member of one of India’s oldest and most prosperous business families — the JK Group, 64-year-old Yadupati Singhania is averse to any ostentatious show of wealth. Still operating out of the 90-year-old Kamla Towers in Kanpur's busy Jareeb Chowki area, Singhania disregards the luxury of a big German sedan and opts for a modest Maruti Ciaz for the half-hour drive to office from his ancestral home, Ganga Kutir. Even the smaller and less stately Mercedes B Class that was bought for him a couple of years ago has been discarded. “Look at the congestion and narrow roads here. A Maruti is best for Kanpur,” he says. Dressed casually in a woollen pullover, seated atop an antique 80-year-old family chair, Singhania…

A.M. NAIK, Chairman, L&T/Lifetime Achievement Anil Manibhai Naik's life revolves around L&T. He has always been willing to talk passionately about the company and its future. A hard taskmaster, Naik set high standards for his staff while at the helm and is the man behind L&T's success story. Naik, now the non-executive Chairman of L&T, has added another feather to his crowded cap. He's been conferred Business Today's Lifetime Achievement Award – a new category in our annual Best CEO awards. When Business Today met him at his corner office in Landmark building at Mumbai's Andheri, Naik appeared keen on ceding the spotlight to his successor. “To know anything related to the current business of L&T, you will have to speak to S.N. Subrahmanyan (MD&CEO). My roles are different now”,…

Researchers at the University of Washington have come up with something seemingly impossible. They have found a way to print objects in 3D and then connect them to the Internet and other objects without their own Wi-Fi or batteries, creating, in effect, ‘talking objects’. The University of Washington News reports that the research team, led by Vikram Iyer, Justin Chan and Shyamnath Gollakota, wanted to create a way for people to 3D-print something right at home using available plastic raw materials, and be able to use the creation almost immediately. It’s all about small sensors, switches and gears. “Our goal is to 3D-print wireless sensors, input widgets and objects that can communicate with smartphones and other Wi-Fi devices, without the need for batteries or electronics,” says their paper. “To this…

Huawei may not be launching its flagship Mate 10 in India, but is offering the same AI experience in the Honor View 10 that boasts a 5.99-inch display with 2,160x1,080p resolution. The device is comfortable to hold, and the screen offers bright colours, good viewing angle and is a delight to stream content on. Under the smart assistance setting, system navigation gives users the option to switch between the off-screen navigation button and the virtual navigation bar. Under the navigation dock, a tap on the home button takes one to the previous page, touch and hold takes one to the home screen, and hold and slide to the multitasking page. The Honor View 10 runs on EMUI built on Android 8.0.0, which comes with the usual Google apps, along with…

If you have a nagging neck pain, frequent palpitations, persisting stomach flu, constant acidity or poor-quality sleep, it is time to take notice. Simple but persistent ailments could be an indicator that all is not well. There are advisories in cyberspace on how to cope with these issues, but seeking expert medical help is the right thing to do. “Pain can be a symptom of psychological stress,” says Dr M. Phani Prasant, a consultant psychiatrist from Hyderabad. In many cases, it is linked to workplace anxiety and depression. Companies and executives need to deal with it at the earliest. Ignoring the symptoms could be disastrous for individuals and costly for organisations. Dr Anand Nadkarni, a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute for Psychological Health in Mumbai, also works with companies such…

THE STARTUP WAY: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth By Eric Ries Penguin UK; 384 pages; ₹699 The book has insights, stories and best practices for organisations of all sizes to harness start-up techniques to embrace change, survive and thrive. THE NEW WEALTH OF NATIONS: By Surjit S. Bhalla Simon and Schuster; 224 pages; ₹599 Through a series of arguments, studies and calculations, the book reminds us that education is the new wealth and is, in fact, currently of a greater magnitude than financial wealth and much more equally distributed. RESET: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change By Ellen Pao Random House US; 288 pages; ₹699 A detailed account of a whistle-blower who sued a powerhouse Silicon Valley venture capital firm, calling…

The ongoing frenzy to invest in Bitcoin and its ilk is not letting up even after multiple warnings from the Reserve Bank of India. Now the finance ministry has issued a similar warning, cautioning people against investing in virtual currencies. The ministry said in a notification that the virtual currency is not a legal tender in India, does not have any intrinsic value and is not backed by any asset. The rise in price may be a mere speculation and hence, can expose investors, especially retail investors, to the sudden risk of losing their hard-earned money. As these currencies are stored virtually, they are also vulnerable to hacking, the ministry says.…