Bizination - Dhando, Takko, Rokdo

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Scarcity makes things invaluable and thats what makes the World Cup cricket a mouth watering proposition for advertisers. All India Radio is slated to earn around Rs. 7 crore from the 45 day long event. Others like Pepsi, Castrol, Hyundai, Amul have bet their best buck hoping to capture minds and eye balls. In other news, Indigo plans to hire 1,500 employees this year with aviation sector grappling the effects of rise in the Aviation Turbine Fuel price.

The Indian IT industry has a new concept to deal with and TCS has pounced onto it. It is called Cloud Computing. With a revenue projection of 1 billion USD, TCS will focus on Small and Medium Enterprises which total to a whopping 38 million. Many are calling this move as the Nano of the IT world where TATA hopes to replicate its success by tapping not the Fortune 500 companies but the smaller ones who can avail of this interesting concept. Rolls Royce, the British car maker announced record sales in India. We briefly cover the Union Budget highlights in this episode.

Thanks all you guys for sticking with us all throughout the 50 episodes. This one is dedicated to each one of you. We start this one by talking about the unforeseen increase in the onion prices and how it is affecting the common man. Akhilesh brings in Baba Ramdev in a business podcast because Akhi reckons that the Baba could give the MNCs a run for their money for competing with Ramdevs line of products.

Coal India, the world's largest coal mining company offered itself to be devoured on the stock market making it Indias biggest Initial Public Offering (IPO) till date. In this episode, we try to cover the modalities of the offer, the effect it will have on the dollar and rupee relationship and a lot more. In other news, Vodafone has set itself up for the 3G roll out. In celebrity business news, Mukesh Ambani moves into his billion dollar apartment.

This episode is dedicated to the car industry which is on a high. Toyota launched its first car in the small car category and has roped in A R Rahman as its brand ambassador. The words, 'General Motors' and 'quarterly profits' could never be used in the better part of this decade. But GM India has other plans. It has invested 200 million in India. Tata Nano, however, is dealing with a massive recall as the cars would catch fire if they exceed a particular speed limit.