...Hello, soccer. But is it a case of sour grapes or an ominous comment on cricket's waning appeal? Whatever it is, Subhash Chandra of Zee Telefilms has decided that cricket isn't worth the trouble. Not surprising at all. Although Chandra, 54, put in the highest bid last year to win rights to cricket telecast, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) rejected the bid on technical grounds. A legal battle ensued that's now in the courts. With his relations with BCCI straining at the leash, Chandra has decided to turn to soccer. Recently, his Zee Sports signed a deal with the All India Football Federation for rights to telecast soccer matches for the next 10 years. Said to be worth Rs 30 crore, according to sources close to Zee, the deal entails not just telecasting but promoting domestic tournaments such as the Federation Cup, Santosh Trophy and the National Football League. With Indian cricketers doing a perfect job of turning viewers away from cricket, Chandra may actually be onto something big here.

Odd Man Out

In an industry that thrives on shunning risk, Gary Bennett comes across as an oddball. He barely passed his high school, was a father at 17 and sold insurance policies as his first job. Apparently, he proved so good at it that 34 years on, he's landed in India as Max New York Life's new CEO. "It was providential, a lifetime opportunity to work in an exciting market," says the cricket- and curry-loving Aussie, who boasts a wine collection comprising 14,000 bottles. Needless to say, his "nest egg" is insured.

In Good Company

Nandan Nilekani may have never studied economics, but that doesn't mean he can't teach the world a thing or two about capitalism. That's not us saying, but the Austrian government, which last fortnight honoured the Infosys CEO with the Joseph Schumpeter award in recognition of his innovative services in economy, politics and economic sciences. Says Nilekani, 49: "It's a great honour to be recognised. It's a recognition of what Infosys stands for." With the award, Nilekani, the first Indian to be so honoured, joins an exclusive winners' club that includes, among others, Helmut Kohl, Ted Turner, Jorma Ollila and Romano Prodi.

Boutique Bug

Her lawyer husband (N.G. Khaitan of Khaitan & Co.) may be busy spearheading a legal battle against R.S. Lodha on behalf of the Birlas, but Madhu Khaitan has chosen to do far prettier things-like promoting ethnic wear in European colours. The 46-year-old recently opened a plush boutique at 3 Queens Park in Kolkata to offer everything from sequins to swirling lehengas to accessories like bags and costume jewellery. The avant-garde fashion designer, whose firm Malika Incorporated already exports Rs 4-crore worth of ethnic wear, says this is just the beginning. She's gearing up to open her first outlet in Italy sometime in the next six months, followed by a chain of stores across India. "It's creativity that drives me," she says. It doesn't hurt that it makes business sense too.

Mad Bull?

Admittedly, these are irrational times on d-street. Even so, Milind Karandikar's predictions must turn even the most bullish investor on the Indian stock markets pink with embarrassment. For, even as SEBI cries penny-stock scam, Karandikar, 43, is predicting that the Sensex will scale the 18,000-mark by 2010. What's interesting is that Karandikar, an IIT Bombay grad, isn't your typical Dalal Street investor, but a hobby technical analyst, whose day job is to teach class 12 students mathematics at the institute he set up eight years ago after he quit his job at Hoechst. "Once the pattern of movement in the Sensex is set, it will continue and stop only after reaching the set target, with people trying to justify value at higher levels," he says. Don't sneeze at Karandikar. He's said to have predicted the Sensex's May 17 fall to the levels of 4,000 and its subsequent rise to 8,000. And on his latest prediction, he's got both time and bulls on his side.

Business On His Mind

Jammu & Kashmir may still be a hotbed of separatist violence, but the state's chief banker and Chairman of four months of J&K Bank, Haseeb Drabu, 43, isn't letting any of that get in the way of his business plans. An economist and a former editor at Business Standard, Drabu plans to increase the number of bank branches in the state to 500 from 320. "During the last few years, while others shut down their branches, we expanded in the state," he says. He's even looking at specialised branches outside the state (for leather companies in Chennai, spices in Kerala). Part of it is inevitable. The J&K Bank already has an 80 per cent share of banking in the state.

-Contributed by Krishna Gopalan, Ashish Gupta, Venkatesha Babu, Ritwik Mukherjee,
Mahesh Nayak and Kumarkaushalam