Bizination - Dhando, Takko, Rokdo

Research in Motion, the Canadian company which manufactures the world famous business device Blackberry is in a fix. It is running against a tight deadline set by the Indian government. Like other countries where Blackberry operates, India demands that Blackberry mails and SMSs be allowed to be scanned for security reasons. In other news, Nokia entered the dual SIM market in India. Google's Youtube has opened up a pay per view for 5USD where you can rent movies online.

Greece continues to fight the budget deficit demons and we tell you the Greek folk lore which is hogging headlines these days. Bajaj decides to change its branding srategy for its bikes. Rajeev Bajaj and Rahul Bajaj don't always agree. FDI in retail may get a breather. All about UPA's FDI policy. Air travel set to get cheaper as Indian government limits service tax on airfare.

The Indian government is contemplating on giving out direct subsidies to the poor by distributing food coupons which can be exchanged for food items at market prices. Do not hold your breath. The government is only in a contemplation mode, but in this podcast we talk about what are the highlights, advantages and consequences of such a step. The prototype of executing this step is already ready with Sri Lanka which had done this way back in 1979. In the auto industry, Daimler joins Nissan and Renault in an alliance to share technology and reduce cost. In other news, the management thinker, C K Prahlad passed away.

The cricketing world sees it as a money making machine. But what are the different sources of revenue for the IPL. In this podcast, we try and give you the business side of the IPL by talking about the deals that have been signed in the run up to the third season of the IPL. All teams without exceptions have recovered their money which only proves the success of the business model which is evolving at best. In other news, Carlos Slim was declared as the world's richest man.

We all have grown up to looking up to Toyota and Honda as Gods of quality and production standards, but when you find out that a few 100,000 cars are recalled due to unintended acceleration and a few thousands for a faulty door mat which would jam the breaks, you wonder if these Gods have a sense of humour. In this episode we discuss the major recalls of the car industry and how they are dealing with them. In other news, the Wall Street goes easy on this years CEO pay packages.

Although Cadburys is a brand from UK, it elicits a lot of fond memories from Indians here in India. Blame it on their beautiful advertising (credit goes to O and M). So when Kraft decided to make an offer that Cadbury's is mulling over, we thought why not talk about the deal from Indias perspective. Inflation in India is howering at 16 per cent and the prices of essential commodities have gone through the roof. On the other hand in Australia where Ritika is currently residing, the story is the other way around.

In the first Bizination episode for 2010, we bring you a list of top 10 Business news of 2009 that made waves in India. Tell us if you agree with our list!

If anyone can come close to playing God today, then its unargubaly Google. In its latest move it is contemplating on charging its users (virtually all of us) for accessing news online. We cant blame Google for this since this demand has come from folks like Murdoch and the likes who claim to be losing tons of money by inviting readers to browse stories free of cost. In India, Bajaj has taken a bold (but predictable and emotional) decision to discontinue its scooters.

For the last decade or so, Dubai invoked awe and admiration for the pace at which it could lead a creative growth which was not limited to building sky scrapers, but other garnishing like man made islands, artificial arctic like winter, etc. All these developments were funded by the Government through its investing arm, Dubai World which announced that it could not pay off the $59 billion loan to the banks. The stock markets came crashing down. While that happened, we also talk about the companies from India which are raising money to carry out their expansion activities. The recovery has begun.

AMD and Intel are the fiercest of competitors. And we ve been taught that almost all is fair in love, war and the corporate world. Intel took it a bit too far and had to cough up 1.5 billion USD to AMD for uh cheating. This is what they call out of court settlement. In News from India, the government is on a gold buying spree from the IMF. Toyota, the Japanese auto major has put its papers in F1. We sign off this episode by talking a bit about Inflation waking up after a rather prolonged period of hibernation.