A(3)s good as it gets

IIPM PUBLICATION

In the Rs.5-8 lakh range, there is an intense battle going on between Maruti Esteem, Tata Indigo, Honda City, Hyundai Accent And Verna, Ford Ikon and Fiesta and GM’s Chevrolet Aveo. Ford has captured much of the windfall last year, as it registered a gain in domestic sales by over 47% to reach 39,822 units for the year ending March 2007 and is now literally Breathing down the leader Honda’s (sales of 40,464 units) neck. Even traditional laggard GM has shown some bite with sales increasing by a huge 128% to reach 10,726 units. The main losers were Maruti Udyog and Tata Motors (of Rs.1 lakh fame!) with sales decline of 7% and 12.8% respectively.

The players look upbeat for the future as well. From the fifty car launches scheduled for this year, over half are anticipated from the A3 segment. The Suzuki SX4 and Mahindra Logan have already made a mark in the industry. The SX4 has specially been designed for upcoming markets like India, Eastern Europe and Turkey. For Mahindra-Renault, things couldn’t have been better. Renault’s Logan, which was doing exceptionally well in overseas market, is now being produced to suit Indian roads. Even Fiat, which had earlier failed to penetrate Indian market, is now planning to get in Linea and Grand Punto in 2008. Even premier brand Skoda is coming up with Fabia in A3 segment.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Tintin, now the leading man

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Who doesn’t know of – and love – Tintin, that Belgian intrepid journalist, who was always game for a spot of adventure? He’s easily the world’s best known cartoon character, created by Herge in 1929. And who doesn’t adore Snowy, Tintin’s loyal dog who was his companion and fellow adventurer in all his missions? And what about Thompson and Thomson, those Irrepressible twins who were always goofing up? Captain Haddock? Professor Calculus? Well, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson (now best known for making the Lord of the Rings trilogy on celluloid) are also unabashed fans of Tintin. So much so that the two are going to together, direct and produce a series of three films on adventures of Tintin. According to a report in entertainment magazine, Daily Variety, Spielberg and Jackson will direct at least one of the three films each, and produce all three. The duo has chosen three stories from the 23 Tintin comic books that were published between 1929 and 1976. “Herge’s characters have been reborn as living beings, expressing emotion and a soul which goes far beyond anything we’ve seen to date with computer animated characters,” Spielberg was quoted by the report. “We want Tintin’s adventures to have t h e reality of a live-action film , and yet Peter [Jackson] and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honour the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created.” The report added that Jackson feels that though the movies would be computer generated, the characters would not look “cartoonish”. This is what he had to say: “We’re making them look photorealistic. The fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and their hair looks exactly those of real people – but real Herge people!” We can hardly wait for Tintin to get a screen presence now!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative