Starbucks has been around since 1970 and last month it made its debut in India by opening three stores in Mumbai. In response, Cafe Coffee Day, the domestic player put out an advertisement on TV for the first time in 16 years. Online reputation is now a big business in the West and down south, a startup village takes shape in Kochi. 

Bizination - Dhando, Takko, Rokdo

BiziNation #66: Starbucks tastes India

The French government has made the classic mistake. Of interfering in business. Lakshmi Mittal is miffed as he has been asked not to shut down two of his loss making blast furnaces in Florange unless he wants to see all his French outfits getting nationalised. Greece gets another bail out package and in Australia, cigarette packaging will no longer carry any glamorous images or colours. Just plain packaging. 

BiziNation #65: ArcelorMittal Vs the French government

BCCI has been quite the negotiator. It got Pepsi to pay twice as what DLF had paid in the previous edition of the IPL. This comes at a time when the popularity of IPL is possibly at its lowest according to many surveys. Amidst all the talks of recession, in October, Porsche sold a record number of vehicles in India. Also, according to a recent World Bank report, India receives more money through repatriation than any other. And typewriters are called off the shelves in UK. 

BiziNation #64: Indian Pepsi league

The Euro Zone goes under all over again. The latest numbers suggest that all seventeen countries of the Euro have posted two consecutive quarters of negative growth. And when that happens, the economy is said to be under recession. The US, which is known to come up with fancy phrases to describe their economic plights, have done it again. This time the popular phrase is the fiscal cliff. Back home in India, Raymond, the apparel maker will soon launch its own brand of beer shampoo. 

BiziNation #63: Of double dips and fiscal cliffs

For the last two years we have been reading a lot about the Euro crisis. Some might complain that we have had a bit of an overdose of it. So we at Indicast thought that we should send one of our guys to tour Europe and find out how exactly is the day in the life of an average European in countries like Germany, France, Austria, etc. Akhilesh, our co-host at BiziNation volunteered to do the trip and sponsored it himself if we might add. In this podcast, he brings us his on ground experience of his recently concluded Euro trip as we take a look at the Euro crisis from the common mans point of view. 

BiziNation #62: The on ground Euro crisis tour

Ten years ago, on this day, two planes scorched the twin towers. More than 3000 people were killed and the world economy was impaired. In this podcast, we talk about where we stand today in the wake of bigger crises that the bankers have brought upon us. Continuing on the subject, Indian business and tourism has suffered gravely due to the series of bomb blasts. In other news, Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz has been sacked rather unceremoniously. Closer home, Archies, a company known for selling gifts and greeting cards has tied up with UNICEF and plans to expand to Rs. 400 crores in the next few years. And in the last few minutes, Ritika gives us a snapshot of her sojourn in Bali. 

BiziNation #61: Revisiting Twin Towers

Forbes has dubbed Groupon as the fastest growing company in the world. In this podcast, we talk about the Groupon anxiety and how has Ritika learned to deal with it in Australia where she takes us through her experience of using different Groupon like services. In other news, Maruti employees went on strike which lasted until the time we recorded this podcast. And a Gujarathi businessman in UK buys himself a flying car. 

BiziNation #60: The Groupon Era Begins

Lately, Africa has seen a spate of investments from Indian private companies and Dr. Manmohan Singhs visit to the continent a few weeks back only adds to the growing importance of being present in an economy which is growing at 6 per cent per annum. In this podcast, we talk about all the Indian companies which have set up businesses in Africa in the past year. Back home, Hero launches its first dirt bike after splitting with Honda motors and Naomi Campbell is not too happy with Cadbury. 

BiziNation #59: Go Africa

OECD ranked Australia as the happiest industrialised nation in the world. The Indian middle class, on the contrary is facing troubled times as the government considers increasing prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG a couple of weeks after pushing petrol prices. In the midst of this, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor visits India. In the world of IPOs, LinkedIn has a blockbuster start but we also talk about how the investment banks made more money in the deal than investors and Samsonite, the luggage maker gets listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 

BiziNation #58: And Now it is Diesel, Kerosene and LPG

Dominique Strauss Kahn preferred to gamble with his position by allegedly sexually assaulting a chambermaid from a Manhattan hotel. He lost his hand, rather literally and with it out went his chances to France's president in the next term. In this podcast, we talk about what this means for IMF and the European nations who are trying to flap their hands and legs in the middle of the oceanic debt that stares at them. At Citibank, Vikram Pandit gets a retention bonus totaling to more than 10 million USD. Closer home, Ratan Tata passes some remarks on Mukesh Ambani and the Brits. 

BiziNation #57: The Euro Debt Crisis Just Got Interesting

When Microsoft makes its biggest purchase in its history, everyone loves to talk about it. Skype got acquired for more than 8 billion USD. In this podcast, we talk about this and other related tech stories such as the LinkedIn Initial Public Offering (IPO) scheduled on May 19th. Reid Hoffman, the 43 year old should be happy considering that his company will be the first social network from America to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In other news, Facebook was caught planting negative stories in the press against Google. 

BiziNation #56: A Tech Ka Masala

Normal is boring. That is the tenet that India seems to be working on in the wake of the biggest petrol price hike of all time. A record 32 per cent year on year and 8 per cent overnight increase has caused some discontent among the middle class. Akhilesh joins us in this episode and we talk about the hike and more. A Rs. 3000 crore subsidy package is being made ready for BSNL and MTNL with the hope of pulling them back into profits. Royal Enfield, the bike company which has a cult following in India has new plans for India. With a waiting period of more than a year, what do you expect. 

BiziNation #55: Petrol Prices in Fifth Gear

K V Kamath has been appointed as the Chairman of Infosys Inc while Mohandas Pai, the HR director of Infy quits. In this podcast, we also cover a bit about the business impact of the royal wedding. In other news, Air India has multiplied its self inflicted problems with more than 1000 pilots going on strike. This episode is unexpectedly all over the place. Hope you like it nevertheless. Ritika is back in this one. 

BiziNation #54: Kamath Cometh at Infy

India may soon have cardless banking if Nandan Nilekani and his team working on the Unique Identification Number can complete the project in time. After the initial testing among a sample size of 58,000 people, the project looks like it's in the right direction. In this podcast, we talk about this new way of exchanging cash from the technology as well as the consumer perspective. With an influx of 3G ads on television, we cover a few ads which have been successful in breaking the clutter, if only marginally. In other news, Kishore Biyani plans to recreate a Big Bazaar like model in the finance world. 

BiziNation #53: Cardless Banking in India

Even by Japans standards, the crisis is of enormous proportions. In this podcast, we try to cover the economic impact of the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. The radiation leaks in the nuclear reactor only added to the problems. Quite a few Indian IT companies have their operations in Japan and in turn Japan happens to be Indias third largest investor. While it may not affect India gravely, it is definitely not decoupled from this crisis. In other news, Rajat Gupta resigns from ISB and Grameen Banks Yunus is having his problems hanging on to the company that he created. 

BiziNation #52: Japan Shaken but Not Stirred

Ritika and Abhishek take you through the facinating world of Indian business from one of the fastest growing economies - India. Bizination covers the week's top business stories from India and how it impacts on Indian and world economy.