below the line

It’s a Nano world

Nano, the small, low-priced car from Tata Motors, may not exactly be a hit in India, but the idea seems to be a hit globally. This is what a colleague found out during a recent visit to the US. After clearing immigration and customs our colleague hailed a taxi and got in. Immediately, the cabbie struck up a conversation, the first question being where the passenger was from. When our colleague replied India, the driver promptly shot back in a typical drawl, “Maan, the land of the Nano car which is available at under $1600. If I was in your country I would buy a few and get people to drive them as taxis for me rather than driving around the whole day. I would be boss there.”

Diff’rent strokes, diff’rent folks

Some corporates believe in a different strokes for different folks approach when it comes to dealing with the media. The latest is a Mumbai-based financial institution which made headlines recently. Its chief shared details about the road ahead for his institution in an interview to two dailies a day before calling a press conference. With the interview appearing in the two papers (‘ khaas media’) on the day of the conference, the assembled ‘ aam ’ media was miffed when the honcho merely regurgitated what had already been published.

A colleague said he felt like a “dumb-ass” sitting through the conference. It’s time communication consultants of companies stopped playing games with the media just to score brownie points with their bosses.

Banking on hope

It has been an unending wait for the commerce and industry ministry which has sought the Election Commission's nod to place proposals to relax foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in railways and construction development before the Cabinet. “The EC has not responded to our proposal despite our sending reminders to them on the matter,” a visibly disappointed official said. But, the industries department continues to look for the silver lining. “Approval for some things like new bank licences have been given. Maybe our turn will also come,” the official said.

What a shot!

Nandan Nilekani, the Congress candidate from Bangalore South, loves football. Last week, during a meeting with morning walkers in his constituency, he saw some youngsters playing football in the park and immediately asked if he could join them. He even gave them something to cheer about: a goal!

Pithy Pai

Never one at a loss for words, ex-Infosys director Mohandas Pai came up with some pithy answers when our correspondent met him at an event in Chennai last week. Two of his former colleagues at Infosys are now in politics — Nilekani and V Balakrishnan. What’s his take on AAP’s politics? Whatsapp! Congress? Legacy. BJP? Confused. Corporates in politics? Impotent. Politics in corporates? Ubiquitous. Infosys now? Back to the future.

Practise what you preach

To protect yourself from vector-borne diseases like malaria, wear clothes that cover your arms and legs, advises the WHO. At an event to spread this message, WHO India chief Nata Menabde light-heartedly chided her staff for wearing half-sleeved t-shirts, even as they preached exactly the opposite! “This is where we go wrong,” she said, as her team listened sheepishly.

Manifesto blues

With the 2014 Lok Sabha polls kicking off today, Twitter is full of speculation on the reasons behind the BJP’s “missing manifesto”. Meanwhile, a flood of rhyming couplets on the ‘Modi Sarkar’ slogan appeared on Twitter. True to style, stand-up comedian Vir Das found a possible link behind the mystery of the ‘missing’ manifesto and the couplets. “You think the reason BJP don’t have a manifesto is because their whole research team is focussing on finding words that rhyme with ‘sarkar’? he tweeted. Well, one never knows!

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