The New Boom

Better Off Than Dad

Services Sector: Growth Engine

Faces: Adventure Capitalists

Adapters: Tradition Meets Technology

Industry: Being Indian

Careers: Techies Line Up For Jobs Online

The Scindias: Will Power
The contentious will of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia virtually disinherits her only son Madhavrao Scindia. This controversy threatens to mar the reputation and respectability of one of India's best- known and highly regarded royal families.

Gujarat: Shaky Regime
Confronted with a monumental disaster, the Gujarat Government is at the centre of relief operations. Was its reaction timely and efficient? Could more lives have been saved?

And Greed Hits Home
More than anything, it was corruption that killed people in Gujarat as buildings constructed by getting around norms came crashing down.

Public Sector: Shotgun Exit
First large PSU where workers agreed to leave the company.

THE NEW ECONOMY: ADAPTERS

ANDHRA PRADESH, Hyderabad

"Attention to each detail is now possible." Mulka Venkata Raju, 31, Jeweller

Tech tool: Computer-Aided Design, acquired in 1999.

Investment: Rs 75,000 for cad package and Rs 34,000 for a course in cad

Mulka Venkata Raju learned the skills of his trade as a goldsmith from his grandfather. Back then designs remained unchanged and everything was crafted by hand, a time-intensive process that took weeks. Now, with branded jewellery ushering in a more cosmopolitan look, the old designs don't always find a market. But Raju is busier than ever. Using computer-aided design (cad) he offers a catalogue of colour printouts of ornaments to prospective buyers. Want to see what a necklace will look like using different coloured stones? Need a variation, a chain of a bracelet transposed to a bangle? Takes only the click of a mouse. "Our profession has always offered customised service," says the market-driven, genial new generation goldsmith. With cad that tradition has only been refined.

-Amarnath K. Menon

PUNJAB, Hoshiarpur

" Business is more transparent on the Net." K. Singh Ahluwalia, 30, Citrus fruits farmer

Tech tool: Virtual market on the web, logged on in December 2000.

Investment: Nil (already owned a PC)

To meet Khushwant Singh Ahluwalia, head not for his fruit orchard but his bedroom. That's where you'll find him glued to his personal computer, sussing out markets in Trichy, Bangalore, Ranchi and Chennai. Ahluwalia doesn't always get the price he posts. But he's in no hurry. He's bidding for fruit that's yet to be picked. Bidding on the Internet might seem far-fetched to most hinterland farmers but in Punjab Ahluwalia is waking up to the wonders of the web. In the old days he would dispatch his fruit to distributors in the South, quietly accepting whatever selling price they quoted. Now he sells over five truckloads at 10 per cent more than the local market rate. Most sites also offer such value additions as quality inspection, cash collection and transport. He chats with fellow kinnow growers to catch up with market trends. "It's a more transparent way of selling," says Ahluwalia. The "computer mandi" shows every sign of catching. Last heard, the state government was toying with the idea of cyber kiosks.

-Ramesh Vinayak

MADHYA PRADESH, Indore

"My cell phone has already paid for itself." Rakesh Bhalerao, 32, Teashop owner

Tech tool: Cell phone bought in 2000.

Investment: Rs 2,000 for a second-hand phone, plus running costs of Rs 750 a month for a cash card.

Some traditions never die. Offering a visitor, no matter how casual, a cup of tea, for instance. So being a chaiwallah in Chappan, a marketplace brimming over with little shops and small businesses in the heart of Indore, was a great enough business to be in. Until one day Rakesh Bhalerao, owner of a small tea shop, realised it could get even better. What he figured was this: many shopkeepers found it too much of a hassle to send someone scurrying to him with an order and instead preferred brewing their own tea. Getting a phone connection would take forever and then where could he put it in his makeshift shop? So Bhalerao got himself a mobile phone. "It is the best thing to happen to me. I can receive all my orders on the phone and it works out cheaper than keeping an assistant." This chaiwallah delivers. Only problem: his phone is always busy.

-Neeraj Mishra

MetroScape
Random Readings
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra would rather be "accurate" in his latest undertaking, a book of Kabir's poetry in English, even if he says "Kabir's greatest hits may not have been written by him at all".
more...

Looking Glass

Kolkata: Restaurant

Bangalore:
Art Exhibition

New Delhi: Play

Who says Indian theatre is dying? Playwrights--both veteran and budding--in the country had a chance to interact with those from the Royal Court Theatre, London, at its first residency workshop in Bangalore recently.
It was a fortnight
of enrichment, concludes Principal Correspondent Stephen David in Despatches.

"I was very much against the idea of India," says William Dalrymple, author, The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. In conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro, he talks about his old girlfriend, Delhi and his "enormously exciting" next book, The White Moghuls in Interviews.