Facebook has truly changed the way we communicate with our friends and colleagues. It has become as much a part of our daily lives as attending classes, pursuing a vocation, and playing sports. If we go by its definition, we all know, FB is a social networking site. But in reality there is a lot more to it than just social networking. It’s a great information portal, juxtaposed with entertaining and fun-filled applications, games and lots of other trivial stuff. People interact and develop friendships with like-minded people, as well as share and discuss their ideas and resources. And yes, it’s a great tool for instant and free communication.

To actually measure the contribution of an enterprise which is primarily aimed at making money, in fulfilling its social responsibilities is a tough job. It doesn’t matter even if you have words and phrases such as oversight, bubble, global humanization, moral compass, brute capitalism, cooking the books and citizenship responsibility at your disposal. The recognition of the simple fact that companies are basically profit seeking entities has to be made at the outset, while trying to build a framework for corporate conscience, citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business.

What is that one thing that pops into our head when we say refreshing, minty and good for the teeth, surely people will say its toothpaste, but when we also say that it’s chewable, and then it becomes very clear, we are talking about ‘Gum’. Chewing gum a common fare amongst children initially, has become quite popular among the older group as well. Be it male or female, people love chewing gums, whether it is to prevent bad breath, to fight cavities or just to keep something in the mouth, chewing gums are favoured by all. Chewing gums were also supplied to soldiers fighting in World War I because it helped to improve their concentration and relieve stress. So when did the gummy story actually begin?

Ten years since the original adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the 2000 Millennium Summit, which saw remarkable progress in some countries, we, as a nation have epitomized collective failure. The consequences of the shortcomings have further been aggravated by the combined effects of the global food, climate, energy and economic crisis. Improvements in the lives of the poorest are happening but at an acceptably slow pace. At this pace, several of the eight MDGs and associated targets are likely to be missed by many countries, with India leading from the front. The statues of the 8 MDG’s is as follows:

Indian corporates are possibly the single most powerful engine of growth in our burgeoning economic advance and it’s a machine of frightful efficiency. Guess our mantra? We can deliver anything and with chutney on the side!

Mankind has always been fond of gambling. Since time immemorial we have been engaging in games that test our luck more than our skills; the most profound example of this being the Mahabharata, where the Pandavas put everything at stake for a game of “chousat”. The options available now are more: sports betting, the casinos and the most colorful of all – the stock market.

The recent crisis in Andhra Pradesh regarding the Micro Finance Industry being in trouble has been creating ripples in the entire business world. The origin of the situation can be traced back to its history. The government and NABARD conceptualized SHGs (Self Help Groups) especially for women, as a low cost means of providing banking facilities to poor with a program widely known as SHG-Bank Linkage program.

We have always thought that the tremendously growing population of any country is a setback on its road to social and economic growth. With huge population come huge responsibilities and challenges set in front of any state. Growing population needs more food, more land, more water, more and more scarce resources. But the concept of Demographic Dividend unveils the positive side of the population growth.

India’s centuries old Gold industry is the largest market for this metal in the world, with imports catering to almost all our needs for jewellery and investment. India’s annual consumption of Gold is as high as 700 tonnes. Our market has traditionally been a market for gold as jewellery, which draws its significance from religious and wedding events and also from the fact that there is a market where more than 300,000 jewellers, mostly small, family-run businesses (a report by World Gold Council) operate.

Most people would agree that being a smart middleman is the key to doing business. Most good businesses are viable because they identify and prudently plug the missing links in the perennial chain of demand and supply. But what is more blatantly palpable is the over exuberance in budding middlemen (entrepreneurs) to run with solutions that let alone would serve any unmet needs, are mindless iterations of solutions already discovered!