Where Have All The Jobs Gone
Old jobs are being slashed and new ones have slowed down to a trickle. With corporate India shedding staff faster than ever before, the worst sufferers are freshers and middle-level managers.

Preparing For Musharraf
Administrators, securitymen and hospitality merchants gear up to ensure that it's not just the Taj that will impress the visiting
Pakistani President.

Adviser Raj
Bureaucrats don't retire. Their terms are extended or they are reappointed to counsel political mentors.

Out Of Luck Now
It will take more than voter-friendly symbolism to ensure victory in UP.

Hard Cover Up
The Government is perturbed by a cop's unreleased book on Rajkumar's kidnapping.

Connecting Bharat
It's a project to bridge the digital divide. But sources of funding are not known.

METROSCAPE: LOOKING GLASS

MUMBAI
Hotel

Near the edge of the scenic Powai Lake in Mumbai, the Renaissance Mumbai Hotel and Convention Centre is encircled by 10 acres of richly landscaped grounds. So all the 286 rooms have a view. The business traveller is also in luck (apart from those looking to soothe their concrete-wrought eyes): the domestic and the international airports are nearby as are business centres in north Mumbai. The hotel claims to have India's largest convention centre-80,000 sq ft of indoor and outdoor meeting space, including a Grand Ballroom uncluttered by pillars. The Emperor's Court serves Chinese food, the 24-hour Lakeside Café is for a more casual American and Indian dining experience and the Poolside Bar has live saxophone entertainment. Introductory discount rates are Rs 7,800 per night for a standard room. Call (022) 692-7777 or log on to www.renaissancehotels.com

Tribal Art

Bastar tribal art, best known by its trademark figurines of coarse bell metal, has found new benefactors. Dharohar Handicrafts, a company dealing exclusively with crafts from the region, has opened a store Murias, (after an eponymous Bastar tribe, celebrated for their youth dormitories called ghotul) selling a range of artefacts in both wood, metal and stone. Prices vary from Rs 200 for a 3-inch votive figure of a local mother goddess to Rs 3,000 for icons over 2 ft tall. Antique items are few but quaint enough-a small lantern used by the ruling class in Bastar more than 50 years ago, an old weighing scale, a 150- year-old Hanuman statue. At Oshiwara Complex, Adarsh Nagar, Andheri. Call 98202-87791.

PUNE
Multiplex

City Pride, a new multiplex theatre, is creating a record of sorts. Not only is it the first one in the city, its also got the first escalator in the entire town (though that's not sold as the theatre's USP). The complex has four halls, the premium theatre with a capacity of 700 seats, the smaller one of 300 and the other two managing 50. In addition to screen films, visitors can also enjoy the karoke studio or peruse their video parlour for the latest cassettes and VCDs. On the Pune-Satara road. Call (020) 421-3291 for more details.

MetroScape

Mumbai Tribal Art: Murias

Pune Multiplex:
City Pride

Long considered politically naive, the Gujarat chief minister is a wiser man now. But the shrewdness would prove worthier if employed in matters of state, writes INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Uday Mahurkar in
Misplaced Guile