The ICC ODI Cricket World Cup could not have come to India at a more opportune time. Just when the country’s economy is weathering the global slowdown and actually growing at a decent clip, it could do with a booster dose of high energy sporting action and consumption. Just when beleaguered Disney Star is recovering… Continue reading What a Bonanza of Cricket and Advertising!
Category: Culture
Stalemate or Larger Regional War in the Middle East?
October 2023 began with all the omens of a Middle East conflict once again, when Hamas launched a series of rocket attacks on Israel and Israel responded in its typical fashion. Everyone in media wondered how Israel could be caught so off-guard and about the failure of its world-renowned intelligence. This only adds to the… Continue reading Stalemate or Larger Regional War in the Middle East?
India in Need of Industrial Policy 4.0
Two most dreaded words in economic circles and think-tanks these days is industrial policy. It is frowned upon because it has come to be associated with all the negatives of government intervention. Politics, geo-politics, picking winners, wasteful subsidies and creating distortions in what ought to be a free market economy. It has become a term… Continue reading India in Need of Industrial Policy 4.0
Protected: Reading the Omens of October 2023
Greening the Planet Against Climate Change
As has become commonplace these years, 2023 too has been a year of extreme weather conditions, natural disasters, excessive and unseasonal rainfall in some places, drought in other places. We know that extreme weather conditions and natural calamities are becoming the rule, but it doesn’t conform to any pattern and we are unable to mitigate… Continue reading Greening the Planet Against Climate Change
Smoke and Ashes, And Parallels Too Many
This August I received two books from my aged father for my 61st birthday and one of them is Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh. He has written this years after writing the Ibis trilogy – a fictional account of India’s opium trade with China – which was well reviewed in the press at the… Continue reading Smoke and Ashes, And Parallels Too Many
Have Consumers Changed the Way They Make Brand Decisions?
In the old days when I was still a cub copywriter in the advertising industry in India – which is around 35-40 years ago – the prevailing marketing wisdom was that the consumer or customer is the one who makes the biggest decisions on brands. “Customer is King” was always heard at meetings, in conference… Continue reading Have Consumers Changed the Way They Make Brand Decisions?
Protected: Between China and India, the World
When Prying into Writers’ Lives Passes Off as Literature
For the past few years that I have been blogging, regular readers of my blog must have noticed my lamenting the lack of anything intelligent or thought-provoking to read. Most of my complaining has been about books – old and new – that unprofessional PR agency idiot bosses and their cronies in RK Swamy/BBDO Chennai… Continue reading When Prying into Writers’ Lives Passes Off as Literature
The Generational Impact Generative AI Could Have on Work
For years and maybe even decades, technology experts and think-tanks have been warning us of the impact of automation and AI on work, skills and jobs. McKinsey, in its 2017 report on the Future of Work, which I had written about and shared on my blog in 2019, had indicated what kinds of jobs and… Continue reading The Generational Impact Generative AI Could Have on Work









