Business is at its core. Review on Business India

You can feel it when you read this magazine, you can sniff it, read it, digest it, sleep over it – but can't deny the fact that Business is at its core.

This is what I feel after reading Business India for the first time, a few months back. I wouldn't know when BT started but Business India has felt the pulse of Indian business right from 1978. I would further add that it has also been elemental in shaping the Indian business.

Why it even celebrated its silver jubilee and again gave us an informative anniversary issue. For people like me, whose interest in business is fairly recent, BI has presented an opportunity to get some basic knowledge about business development in the past 25 years through wonderful articles by eminent personalities and of course the ''timeline''. They have covered various fields like agriculture, advertising manufacturing, stock market, IT & telecom, trade, banking, travel & tourism and a whole lot more.

«« ABOUT THE MAGAZINE »»

If you have been reading BT, the first glimpse of BI may put you off. Why? It ain't glamorous.

While BT has attractive cover pages, BI's cover page fails to draw any attention. The titles against the background picture are often not readable. Frankly speaking, it's not just the cover page. A peek inside could also be revolting. Why even BusinessWorld seems to be better on these grounds. The page quality is fine, but the print quality has lot to be desired. The photographs are often unclear and you can see the RGB separation. The layout also seems unplanned. Many articles look crammed so as to fit in one page, especially the starting few pages i.e. Newscast and Businessmen in news. Often a new article begins on the page where the previous ended and the separation is not distinct. I fail to see why they can't improve the DTP work even now. And it comes at Rs. 15 (i.e. Rs. 5 more than BT). The pages range from 130 to 150 but yet it has more stuff to read as compared to BT.

And yet any BI reader never fails to renew the subscription! Why? Quality of the content. Depth of articles. Coverage of so many diverse field that BT may find trivial. Like I said...Business is at its core.

«« ABOUT THE SUBSCRIPTION »»

I am not quite aware of presence of any 1 year or 5 year subscription. But to celebrate 25 years it has a special limited offer of 10 year subscription Blistering barnacles…thundering typhoons!. It means 260 issues for Rs. 2300. It also includes a Titan watch free (you can choose between gents and ladies model).

«« REGULAR FEATURES »»

1. Editorials: Unlike BT there are 3 single page editorials. Again very insightful and thought provoking.

Newscast & Business Notes: Newscast are short briefings of recent happenings in business community. Business notes are single page notes that relate to current business events or acts/policies that may affect/influence certain business in near future.

Businessmen in news: This is also about business events that are recent but covers the people behind the successes/failures. Short articles about 3-4 covered per page.

Books and people: This is same as BT. There are book reviews and some inspirational interviews or views on some of influential people, not necessarily those in news like above.

Executive Track and Executive Focus: The focus part is an extension of people but is in great details and the executives covered are usually Top level – the like of Pradeep Kumar Country Director and VP, ST Microelectronics India) or Kumar Kanetkar (MD, Widia (India) Ltd. ). This one also has Frontrunners short inspirational stuff about unknown names in industries whose virtues are as great as those that hog the limelight. Executive track is about new positions and retirements, changing roles and companies of the executives.This is one unique BI feature.

Column & Straight from the heart: Now unlike BT here aren't 4 columnist but only one Mr. Brij Khindaria. He sounds very Indian (patriotic) and is always positive of India's future. Straight from the heart has one Samir Arora who is also patriotic but feels that all is not fine and India needs to do a lot more.

«« BI SPECIAL FEATURES »»

Corporate Reports: is interesting collection of articles that relates to India Inc. What is special is that it is not always about big names like RIL, TATA, SIFY, WIPRO, BIRLA etc but rather small players like Usha Martin (maker of jelly filled cables, steel ropes and wires) or

Merloni TermoSanitari India Ltd. (MTS) an Indian subsidiary of Italian major that manufactures Geysers or maybe the Chennai based Shasun Chemicals & Drugs. Get the message! It covers even small and medium scale industries This appeals to me a lot. In other words it is easier for me to be featured in BI than in BT…hee hee

Economic Indices, Market watch, MF monitor: This is BI special and cannot be found elsewhere. They cover fortnightly changes in Gold, Silver, Oil etc prices, changes in NSE, BSE and NIFTY. It gives us top gainers and losers on stock market, active scrips, volumes traded, changes in fund flow i.e. FII and MFs, ADRs etc.

Follow up: If BI has covered an article on say drop in sales for Fiat in some previous issue, follow up may attempt to cover ''surge of activities at Fiat to strike back'' in present issue. Nice idea there!

Cover Story & Special Report: They are easily exchangeable. The only difference is Special report is 4 – 5 pages and cover page story is 8 – 10 pages. In depth and thorough in their analysis often accompanied with tables, charts and graphs that ensures you fully get to understand the issue or the story. 5 stars for this

Yes there are other specials like interviews, regular articles on government & politics, finance etc., which garnish the magazine. However the BT specials like Case Game is absent here.

«« OVERALL »»

Definitely HR and mandatory for business community but I would strongly suggest BI to improve the print quality and layout, which would crown it SUPREME