Cover Story

Make a conscious effort to take charge of your retirement planning to secure your sunset years
The simplest formula for financial success is to start early!

2015-10-25

Can government realize the dream of supplying power 24x7?

The NDA government is bringing a plan to clean the mess in distribution companies, but a history of failures raises more apprehension than confidence.

Event

The Lloyd-BT Pro-Am of Champions Golf tournament kicks off in Delhi

For the first time, this corporate golf tournament will be played across seven cities, beginning with Ahmedabad and ending with the National final in Delhi on March 12 and 13.

Celebrating Small Business: BT's sixth Best SME awards event

Winners of Business Today Best SME Awards are setting high standards and taking giant strides forward.

Leadership Spotlight

Competition helped improve standards, says Coffee Day Chairman VG Siddhartha

VG Siddhartha, Chairman, Coffee Day speaks to BT's Ajita Shashidhar on the company's growth and business plans.

Special

For service robots, sky is the limit

Services industries are being swarmed by the steel warriors - robots that can do practically everything from serving you food to cleaning a high-pressure pipe in a power plant.

UAVs have immense potential but their civilian use in India is prohibited

While the role of drones in civilian life is bound to increase, the DGCA's hesitation in endorsing them also has some basis. Key questions of safety and security are involved.

Wearable devices are moving from niche to mainstream

Smart bands and smart watches are the most popular, but there are also smart glasses, smart bracelets, smart shoes, smart socks, smart rings and pendants and much more.

A look at the hi-tech gadgets that are impacting our lives

Wearable gadgets such as smartwatches, glasses, bracelets, shoes, socks, etc., have moved from the realms of fantasy novels and sci-fi movies to our everyday lives.

Focus

The Janus face of tax laws

Tax experts and industry players are of the opinion that the Centre has not come good when it comes to implementation, in spite of all the right noises it had made initially.

India in much better position than other emerging nations

Most of the global rating agencies have snipped India's GDP forecast for 2015 because of weak monsoons. But India's macro story still seems much stronger than other emerging nations.

It's Raining ESOPs

India Inc's increasing fascination for issuing stock options to reward employees is very much evident in ESOP volumes, too. In 2014/15, the number of such options totalled 32.2 crore, the highest since 2006/07.

Phase III FM auction may dent profitability of several radio companies

The first part of the recently concluded Phase III FM Radio auctions has seen the costliest bids in the history of the FM industry. Close to Rs 522 crore was bid for stations in the metro cities alone.

Sebi-FMC merger poses a big challenge to Chairman UK Sinha

Sebi has the resources to bring in people and develop the required infrastructure but it would not be an easy task for it to give equal attention to both the markets.

Centre's business friendliness rankings are nudging states to carry out significant reforms

The Centre's business friendliness rankings are nudging states to carry out significant reforms.

Corporate

Paediatric hospitals are expanding fast. Here's how

Hospitals for children are emerging as a big business. After taking several baby steps, the leading players in the segment are now striding ahead.

Eight HR lessons from start-ups

Based on mutual agreement and unwritten rules, entrepreneurial HR is disrupting the function and showing a new way for corporations.

Profits in small doses

The hype about growth in smaller towns is over. Hospitals are now taking a more calibrated approach to expansion outside the country's top cities.

Stuck in a maze

The private equity industry finds itself trapped in mid-sized companies with no hope of exits in the near future.

Trends

A look at the growing trend of encrypted social media across the world

Data is gold for digital thieves and hackers. Which is why all information, be it sensitive messages or inane chatter on social media, is encrypted.

Features

Online budget hotel aggregators are catching the fancy of investors and travellers alike

No matter how the future pans out, for now, expectations about explosive growth have made every player gung-ho.

'India has a lot to offer both in innovation and operation'

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch says India has been doing a pretty good job with its tax-free development zones. Your CSR model is something the rest of the world should follow. It is a great thing to give back to the country, especially when you are developing.

peoplebusiness

Quick takes on major events that happened recently

LATEST

Artificial Intelligence is taking computers to the frontier of human thought

Smart machines with artificial Intelligence react to their environments by churning and analysing huge amounts of data, interpreting them and, using self learning algorithms, and finally taking decisions the way humans do.

Business Today readers' feedback on the magazine's coverage

Expert Speak

Stock markets have been volatile making investors wonder what to do now

"For investors, it's an opportunity to buy shares at 15-20 per cent less than what they were available for some time back"

Investment

Debt instruments are also subject to various risks. One must invest with caution

Debt funds are subject to interest rate risk and credit risk. They are not risk-free

SIPs average out costs and give better returns than lump sum during volatile periods

SIPs underperform in a consistently rising market as its main advantage of cost averaging is not realised in such a case.

From safety and tax efficiency point of view, one can look at tax-free bonds

It is estimated that Rs40,000 crore will be raised through tax-free bonds in 2015/16

Insurance

This book motivates a non-runner to get up and start running. It is about how you can continuously challenge yourself and achieve your dreams, without creating unnecessary stress in your life.