Below the line

A State for Elders

Karnataka is a place that turns honchos into elders. The State has sent many a business tycoon to the Rajya Sabha — the late MAM Ramaswamy, Vijay Mallya, Rajeev Chandrashekar… This year all eyes are again on the State as the Upper House term of Vijay Mallya comes to an end in June. Janata Dal Secular has already made its move, by offering the seat to Infosys’ founder NR Narayana Murthy and his wife, Sudha. Will the senior businessman turn an elder, too?

No bottling them up

You can’t bottle up their fizz. Not for long anyway. No sooner did the non-compete period with Coca-Cola end than the Chauhan brothers, who sold their iconic brands such as Thums Up and Maaza to the MNC, were back trying out new carbonated soft-drinks. Elder brother Prakash, chairman and managing director, Parle Agro, was first off the block with Cafe Cuba.

But it failed to make a splash despite the heavy spending on advertising. Now, the younger sibling, Ramesh, is ready with a carbonated soft-drink Bisleri Pop.

“We will do whatever it takes to build capacity and distribution to compete with MNCs,” says Ramesh Chauhan, Chairman, Bisleri International, the owner of the eponymous packaged water brand.

Will the brothers be able to compete with their own erstwhile brands? Or, are they be better off with their own Frooti and Bisleri?

Match jitters

There is always anxiety about the result of a cricket match between India and Pakistan. But in a new, this insurance company was on tenterhooks before the fixture. Would the match start, what with the Rain Gods in a mood to dance?

Had the match not been played or if were to be abandoned, the insurance company would have had to fork out the claim. Thankfully, the rain gods held off and the match was played. Only after the first ball was bowled did the insurance company executives sit back to enjoy the match.

Poll thrust and parry

That the BJP and the CPI(M) are daggers drawn in Kerala is well known. On a recent visit to Chennai, the BJP boss, Amit Shah, decided on an impromptu visit to Thiruvananthapuram. Though he had just two hours, Shah took time to visit an RSS activist in the ICU of a city hospital; the latter was recovering from serious injuries sustained during clashes with CPI(M) cadres at suburban Kattayikkonam over what was at best a civic issue but which assumed significance in the context of the round-the-corner Assembly elections.

At a hurriedly called press interaction, Shah said the people of Kerala would give a fitting reply to the “murderous politics of the CPI(M)”. Only, he was speaking at Thiruvananthapuram, and not the northern districts of Kannur or Kozhikode known for routine RSS-CPI(M) clashes.

Kudos to Kejriwal

To be named among the world's 50 greatest leaders is nothing to be coughed at, rather scoffed at. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has made it to this list, put out by Fortune magazine. Noteworthy is the fact that Kejriwal is the sole Indian leader in the list, which is topped by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Kejriwal, who risked his career to fight pollution in Delhi, has been ranked 42nd in the magazine’s third annual list.

Role re-think

On screen, KPAC Lalitha has no doubt seen villains of many hues. But the veteran actor, who was aspiring for a political role by contesting in the coming Kerala elections, was unnerved by the street protests engineered by CPI(M) politicians, who also had an eye on the Wadakkancherry seat she was planning to contest.

She decided to quit, and this has unnerved many wannabe politicians among Kerala film personalities. The BJP is said to be considering half a dozen actors and directors as potential candidates. But the way Lalitha was forced out has reportedly led to a re-think among film personalities.

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