From Dara Khosrowshahi's comments on the Indian market to Manoj Bajpayee's 'The Fable', here are our top stories of the week

The emerging trend of Indian-Japanese cuisine, Ashok Jhunjhunwala's vision for India's deep tech sector, and the inaugural Indian edition of The Oberoi Concours d'Elegance are the stories that piqued the interest of our readers this week

Published: Feb 24, 2024 10:00:00 AM IST
Updated: Feb 23, 2024 04:37:26 PM IST

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1) Two tech giants in a conversation

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was in Bengaluru on Thursday. In a conversation with Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of UIDAI and non-executive chairman of Infosys, he discussed tech products, services and solutions that work at the scale of a large nation. Nilekani offered pointers on how private companies could build massive services—Uber being a strong example—taking advantage of India's digital public infrastructure. Watch Khosrowshahi talk about the seven-year journey from taking the top spot to bringing the ride-hailing service provider to profitability.

2) New ways of leading the people

We’ve heard about the famous phrase “leading from the front”. It means taking the lead in making decisions and showing people the way. But can today's business leaders benefit more from taking people along rather than showing the way? Ravi Kant, former vice chairman and CEO of Tata Motors, believes that business leaders should no longer aspire to lead from the front but instead aim to lead from the back. This idea is at the core of his new book Leading from the Back, which he has co-authored with bestselling writers Harry Paul and Ross Reck. Why does he say that? What does he mean? And is this something organisations will even be open to implementing? Let's find out in this episode of From the Bookshelves of Forbes India podcast.

3) Follow the leader

Charles O’Reilly is a professor of organisational behaviour at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Before he became an expert on corporate leadership, he was with the US Army for five years. The experience showed him the sharp difference between good and bad leaders. During this time, O'Reilly became fascinated with how leaders operated, especially those with the 'narcissist' personality. At Stanford, he explored how an executive leader's characteristics, values, and personality influence a company's culture and performance. Here are the intriguing findings.

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1)  Deep tech in India: Yes, we can

Ashok Jhunjhunwala, institute professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and president of IITM Research Park, Incubation Cell and RTBI, joined us on the recent episode of Startup Fridays podcast to talk about why the next big push is needed now for India to become a nation of deep tech products over the next decade. In this conversation, he also asks that administrators and bureaucrats change their controlling mindset to allow our scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to fail without fear so that they can eventually succeed in building this ecosystem for India.

2) Indian-Japanese: New ‘It’ cuisine

A majority of Indian consumers are buying into an idea of Japanese food that is distinctly Indian—with flavours amped up even when ingredients and techniques are Japanese, cooked by young Indian chefs who use regional Indian produce, vegetarian substitutes, and, in general, a cult of sushi, ramen, teppanyaki that is more cooked, more seasoned and more sauced than anything you may find in Japan. The popularity of this contemporary Indian-Japanese cuisine is exploding, overturning Japanese food’s elitist image as a luxury cuisine in the past two decades. It is time that you looked and bought into this trend.

3) Manoj Bajpayee and ‘The Fable’

Every year, the Sundance Film Festival starts the calendar year for the film fraternity. Berlin Film Festival, or Berlinale, as it is usually known, is the second extravaganza for fans to enjoy the art of filmmaking and buy the rights to riveting stories for film executives. Winning the Golden Bear at the film competition equals winning an Oscar, a Palm d'Or at Cannes, or a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Manoj Bajpayee brought his film The Fable to the film festival this year. Directed by Raam Reddy, the film, also starring Priyanka Bose, Deepak Dobriyal, and Tillotama Shome, is gathering rave reviews. Watch the star walk us through the process of completing the challenging film and how it feels to receive an overwhelming response from the audience.

4) The Oberoi Concours d'Elegance

Vintage Bentleys, Alfa Romeos, BMWs, Jaguars, and Rolls Royce not only command a high price in the collectibles market, but they also provide a glimpse into the glorious past of the automobile sector. One such opportunity was provided at the inaugural Indian edition of The Oberoi Concours d'Elegance last week. A glorious scorcher of a spring day lent its magical sparkle to an array of gleaming, distinguished automobiles and motorbikes dating from the 1900s onwards, displayed among undulating grassy slopes around the Oberoi Udaivilas property on the banks of the Pichola Lake in Udaipur. Here's your chance to look at the beauties presented at the event.