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Some of the biggest names from the startup ecosystem are in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IIM+Bangalore&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">IIM Bangalore</a> campus today, either giving speeches in the auditoriums or judging competitions and providing mentorships within closed doors to startups and students from across the country, as the ninth edition of their National Annual <keyword id="107737" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Entrepreneurship">Entrepreneurship</keyword> Summit ‘Eximius’ kickstarts. 
 
The summit themed ‘The Time Is Now’ has names like P Chidambaram, Kunal Kapoor, Devdutt Patnaik among others associated with it, and this extravagant show has been put up by The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell in association with the NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IIM+Bangalore&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">IIMB</a>. 
 One look at the array of events shows that like every year, this year too Eximius USP of holding the event is to get the biggies under one roof and encourage students from across the country with failed start-ups or who aspire to have startups, to be able to meet investors like <keyword id="720079" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="IvyCap-Ventures">IvyCap Ventures</keyword> and Shark Tank during competitions or mentorship sessions. The exchange of ideas will enable these students to be better prepared before they take on the entrepreneurship journey. The competitions will have participants solving a range of problems faced by start-ups and entrepreneurs in marketing, operations, finance, sustainability and fund-raising. Several online and on-the-spot events such as quizzes and simulation games mark the event. 
 
Eximius is featuring at least 150 start-ups and in over 30 events, and Business Insider is in the campus to cover some of the best sessions. Here’s a sneak peek into what is unfolding at the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IIM+Bangalore&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">IIM-B</a> campus: 
 
Speaker List: Eximius 2016 will host eminent speakers including P Chidambaram (former Finance Minister of India); Duvvuri Subbarao (former RBI Governor); Dr Jacob Crasta (Prime Minister's SME Council); Dr P Namperumalsamy (Padma Shree Awardee, Chairman, Aravind Eye Care); Dr <keyword id="160324" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Devdutt-Pattanaik">Devdutt Pattanaik</keyword> (bestselling author); Shradha Sharma (Co-founder YourStory); Sujayath Ali (Co-founder CEO Voonik); Kunal Kapoor (actor and co-founder Ketto.Org); Mukesh Singh (co-founder &amp; CEO Zopnow); Piyush Mishra (actor) and Anshu Gupta (founder Goonj). 
 
Flagship events 
Bzzwings: Bzzwings, the business plan contest, encourages individuals to conceptualise, ideate and take the plunge. Winning teams will get incubation at IIMB’s NSRCEL. Prizes worth Rs. 40 lakh will be given away in this contest. 
 
Fast Forward: Fast Forward is targeted at business ideas built around information technology that can impact millions and start a revolution. It offers exclusive mentorship to selected teams. The winners of Fast Forward will get prizes worth Rs. 2.5 lakh. 
 
The Other Incentive: The event is aimed at promoting and supporting social entrepreneurship. This is for ideas where revenues and bottom-line profits are hygiene factors and social impact is the key measure of success. The event is being organised in association with Villgro, a leading social incubator. Social entrepreneurs could win an incubation opportunity of up to Rs. 65 lakh from Villgro and prizes worth Rs. 80,000. 
 
The Game of Clicks: The event bridges the gap between students and start-ups. In this marketing challenge, teams compete in real-time for digital marketing. It gives students the opportunity to collaborate with start-ups to develop their marketing strategies. Each student team works closely with a start-up to develop and implement its digital marketing strategy over a period of three weeks. The winning teams get a chance to win prizes worth Rs. 50,000. 
 
Wipro Earthian Sustainability Quiz: Governments, organisations and leaders across the world are thinking about sustainability. Eximius 2016 will present the Earthian Sustainability Quiz in association with Wipro, based on sustainability and the environment. Prizes worth Rs. 1.1 lakh are to be won. 
 
Bootcamp Kiosk: Early stage start-ups can showcase their business models and company goals at the Startup Bootcamp. The bootcamp will give start-up founders the chance to demonstrate their vision to a captive student community of future business leaders and entrepreneurs. Additionally, start-up founders will get a chance to imbibe key lessons from industry veterans and investors. 
 
Workshops: This year the bootcamp workshops will be conducted by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IBM&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">IBM</a>, Greg Maron (co-founder <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Zoomcar&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Zoomcar</a>) and HeadStart Network, India’s leading community for start-ups. The workshops will cover diverse themes such as innovative business models, leveraging start-up ecosystems, start-up marketing, scaling and building an empowered venture. 
 
<a href="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/insideiim/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/26020014/IIM-Bangalore.jpg">Image Source</a>

IIM Bangalore unveils 'Eximius' with some of the biggest names from the startup industry

Modern management as we know it today thrives on an assumption: that it is objective and rational. Of course, cutting edge thinkers know that it is not so. But that management is objective and rational remains a dominant perception. Subjectivity plays a key role in management. And subjectivity is influenced strongly by culture. The way we see the world is conditioned by the culture we have been most exposed to since childhood. 
 
A child brought up in Denmark, for example, all his life, has a very different understanding of life, compared to a child brought up in India, Internet notwithstanding. There will be many things in common, but there will also be many differences. How much focus do we pay to subjectivity relative to objectivity, irrationality relative to rationality, in management thought? People are divided on this. 
 We have been conditioned to look upon subjectivity and irrationality as wrong, even evil, the source of problems and the source of chaos. Yet, it remains a factor impacting business and can be a lever that can change the way we conduct business and solve problems we face today. In Denmark, one is exposed to an <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword> of 5 million people, 80% of the same ethnicity. In India, one is exposed to an economy of 1200 million people, where less than 40% speak the same language, and the remaining 60% speak 15 languages, and there is great diversity along economic, political, linguistic, educational, religious and caste lines. 
 
Management principles that will emerge from, and will be applicable to, Denmark may not work as well in India. This seems pretty obvious, but many people challenge this. Such reaction reaffirms the idea that different people see the world differently: the world is not a rational, logical, objective space, where there is one truth. There are many truths. But some truths are more favoured and more dominant than others, and even positioned as THE truth. 
 
Belief is an assumption based on how many data points we are exposed to, and how we join these data points: the more the dots, the more complex the pattern. The more the experience, the more ways we know to join the dots. And so belief keeps expanding. Like a business plan which changes when assumption changes, our understanding of business and management changes dramatically when our belief changes, or rather expands. Notions of business and management as we know it today comes primarily from the USA and Europe. 
 
These are shaped by western cultures. Historically, today’s management is influenced by principles of the roman Army, Jesuit Missionaries, and Industrial engineering of the 19th century – all western. It is not objective at all. It does not take worldviews of China and India into consideration to say the least. It assumes itself as rational, independent of cultural thinking. And that is its greatest shortcoming. 
 
Mathematics and statistics may be universal languages, but the way we read the results varies with the cultural gaze embedded in the leadership. This understanding is critical in the new ‘postinternet’ world order where everything is mingling and merging and we are realizing that all things western are not necessarily modern, or complete, or suitable for all contexts. It is important to re-evaluate our gaze. It is important to expand our mind, join more dots. 
 
Sun Tzu and The Art of War became popular in the 1980s because of the success of Japanese corporations and it gave management thinkers all over the world exposure to Chinese thought (Sun Tzu was not from Japan). Since India became a hub of outsourcing and a potential market for many in Europe and America, people have been wondering about Indian thought. Hence the proliferation of books on Chanakya and Bhagavad Gita. 
 
Chanakya appeals to the rationalist and Bhagavad Gita appeals to the philosopher. But neither takes into consideration the vast body of knowledge embedded in the stories, symbols and rituals of India. Neither takes into consideration Lakshmi, the restless but delightful goddess of wealth, the most popular Goddess in India (not just amongst Hindus). Perhaps this has something to do with 19th century disdain for all things ‘myth’ and an obsession for rationality and scientific thinking. 
 
Of course, today social scientists know that ‘myth’ is essentially a cultural point of view that expresses itself through stories, symbols and rituals: every society has its own myth. There is no culture that has no myth. Western thought is also a myth that shapes the modern world; it is neither rational nor real. The mythology of modern management is rooted in the belief that ‘all that is measurable can be managed’. It lends itself (wrongly) to the secondary assumption that ‘all that is not measurable does not exist’. A good scientist is acutely aware of this. But how many good scientists are out there? Most scientists of the world do come from cultures that value monotheism (one god, one truth) over polytheism (many gods, many truths). Even atheism is presented along monotheistic lines where rationality is argued as a god. 
 Emotions cannot be measured, imagination cannot be measured, but these play a critical role in policy making and business decisions. We cannot be indifferent to them simply because they defy both measurement and rationality. This measurement-celebrating western myth has resulted in placing more values on processes (measurable) than people (not so measurable). We rely more on institutions than on individuals. This has its roots in Biblical myth (one half of western myth) where the tribe or church is more important than the individual member. We are constantly seeking to institutionalize <keyword id="6357934" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Steve-Jobs">Steve Jobs</keyword> of Apple and <keyword id="6354630" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mark-Zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</keyword> of <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword>. 
 
Ironically, these two gentlemen are embedded in the Greek myth (the other half of western myth) where glory comes from doing something extraordinary that challenges the status quo. They broke the prevalent assumptions of communication. They were what the Greeks called hero, men who changed the rules of the game, like Alexander, who was then invited by the gods to the special heaven called Elysium. 
 
Western management myth subscribes to the Biblical and Greek mythologies that are similar to each other in that they value only one truth. They are also at odds with each other: the one focuses on the collective and the other focuses on the individual. Please note: Biblical mythology does not mean the Christian Bible, it refers to a vast body of thought that emerged from Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Levantine, where great value is placed on central authority. 
 
Social scientists have used this individual/collective framework to explain cultural phenomenon all over the world not realizing this framework is western, not global. Different cultures have different frameworks they operate from. This is especially true in china and India. China values relationships and India values contexts. Neither china nor India thinks in terms of tribe/ church/institutions, although words like clan and caste do give the impression that they do. 
 
Hence guanxi (special relationships) are so critical in Chinese business. In Confucian china that dominated the court culture, the focus is the relationship between one and the other, not one and the many. This is a critical difference. The Chinese does not think China, he thinks ‘boss’ or ‘subordinate’. The boss embodies China, until he is overthrown by someone more noble and worthy. People often equate Chinese with ants. Incidentally, the institutional model is also about ants. 
 
In the Chinese worldview, the pecking order of ants matter. In the institutional worldview, the anthill matters more than the ants. India values neither ants nor anthill. Great value is given to impermanence (think Buddha). Nothing is fixed, except maybe gender and caste that are determined at birth. Everything else, even family structures are continuously changing. So the individual is continuously trying to figure out his relationship with the other in every context. Caste relationships, and village relationships, are more reliable than relationship with the government or someone far away. 
 
In the realm of impermanent structures, there is no fixed institution (as in the West) or boss (as in China); everything is changing and so one has to figure out at each interaction that status of the other, hence oneself. This creates a lot of ambiguity that exasperates people who do business in India. A simple tool to understand different cultures is to study the dominant mythology of the land: the stories, symbols and rituals that are favoured by a society. 
 Unlike psychoanalytical ‘archetype’ models that seek the common and the universal, the approach needs to be more structural – seeking differences. This reveals why the <keyword id="6362609" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Manager">manager</keyword> from Denmark is so different from the manager from India even though both are educated in the same B-schools and have gone through the same induction and training programmes. The difference is not just because of personality (individual) or the culture (collective) or institution (collective), but also because of relationships and context: the Danish manager will be very different in a roomful of Danes as compared to a roomful of Indians and vice versa. 
 
Biblical mythology celebrates rule-following prophets (Moses) and kings (Solomon), while Greek mythology celebrates rule-defying heroes (Odysseus, Theseus, Jason, Hercules). Indian mythology has both rule-following Ram and rule-breaking Krishna, both of whom, are not two different characters but the same character, Vishnu, in two different contexts: he follows rules as Ram in Treta Yuga and breaks rules of Krishna in Dvapara Yuga. 
 Then there is Shiva who is indifferent to all rules and who beheads Daksha who seeks to impose rules on others, for Shiva is more interested in the intention beyond the rules, beyond the processes, beyond the institution. In chasing the institutional model of modern management, we do not question its intention. It is structurally designed to celebrate greed: growth in profit quarter after quarter to satisfy the shareholder. Yes, we keep speaking of stakeholders, but the only action favouring stakeholders seems to be more rules: regulations protecting <keyword id="6356826" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="environment">environment</keyword>, or workers and rules compelling the rich to be more charitable. 
 The reliance is once again on processes than people. The assumption is that the world can only be made a <keyword id="808955" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="better-place">better place</keyword> through commandments. The assumption is that democratically-generated policies are bound to be fair, just and good. The assumption is the Board of directors are good or can be forced to be good through intervention of regulators and independent directors and other watchdogs. Modern management conversations rarely speak of people, or rather it leans disproportionately towards processes. 
 When there are conversations about people, they tend to focus on what they have (think <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>) or what they do (think <keyword id="71133" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Warren-Buffet">Warren Buffet</keyword>), but never know who they are. More often than not, the assumption is if you are a successful <keyword id="6359301" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Entrepreneur">entrepreneur</keyword> and have created an institution of enviable market capitalization, you must be a smart leader who inspires people (think <keyword id="28113" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narayan-Murthy">Narayan Murthy</keyword>). Who a person is cannot be reliably measured. Personality tests, designed using western methodologies, map people in a vacuum and do not take contexts and relationships into consideration. They map people as ‘archetypes’ in a fixed ‘template’, or as ‘pegs’ in a fixed set of ‘holes’. 
 
They do not consider relationships as in relational databases (who is in the cell above and below). They do not consider personality that keeps changing according to desha (geography), kala (history) and patra (roles), which define a yuga (context). Thus we grapple with incomplete patterns. 
 It is time to increase the dots and find more ways of joining the dots. It is time to look beyond known constellations to the billions of galaxies out there. It is time to also consider the very <keyword id="2827667" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="indian-approach">Indian approach</keyword> to management.

Thinkers/Thinkers 50: Devdutt Pattanaik asks why bother with a very Indian approach to management?

In today’s market, customers’ expectations, products, technologies, competitors, market leaders are changing rapidly. Advertising campaigns that looked promising before now look obsolete. Any amount of advertising, discounts, free gifts, and best slogans showcasing a company as No 1 can’t save it from losing its market share. Initially, customers may visit a store due to heavy discounts, but in the long run they regularly visit store due to 3 Rs: Relationships, Reliability &amp; Reputation. Due to heavy competition, it has become very important for brands to focus on winning heart share rather than winning mind share i.e. build relationships with their prospects and customers and not just bank upon traditional marketing techniques. 
 When a brand educates customers then it not only gains their attention, but also gets an opportunity to build strong relationships with them. To create their own paths in a highly competitive world a few market leaders in their respective fields such as <keyword id="6623" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Sanjeev-Kapoor">Sanjeev Kapoor</keyword> in Food, <keyword id="6355107" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Baba-Ramdev">Baba Ramdev</keyword> in Health, <keyword id="160324" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Devdutt-Pattanaik">Devdutt Pattanaik</keyword> in Mythology, <keyword id="32616" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Harsha-Bhogle">Harsha Bhogle</keyword> in Cricket and Kapil Sharma in Comedy have used the right content to connect with people and have been able to create space in their hearts &amp; minds. 
 
Building Trust through <keyword id="987108" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="content-marketing">Content Marketing</keyword> requires Time, Patience &amp; Frequency 
 
Advertising campaigns require a lot of money and can increase sales for a short period of time, but in the long run, people forget advertisements. Moreover, advertisements are not considered trustworthy and are not frequently shared by people. On the other hand, good content slowly builds trust, is shareable and is referred by people in the future. 
 
Sanjeev Kapoor: Since 1993, Sanjeev Kapoor has been hosting in Khana Khazana, which is one of the oldest running food shows. He offers many recipes on portal www.sanjeevkapoor.com and runs a popular channel Food Food. The food recipes content acts as an incentive to establish a strong connection with people and make them to watch the show/visit the site regularly. 
 
People started trusting Sanjeev Kapoor because of his recipes and his great content delivery style. They accepted him as a restaurateur &amp; brand endorser and became customers of his cookery books, restaurants such as Khazana, The Yellow Chilli etc., food products under the name Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khazana and cookware under the name Wonderchef. 
 
Baba Ramdev: In 2003, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aastha_TV" title="Aastha TV">Aastha TV</a> began featuring Baba Ramdev in its morning yoga slot and today, he is best known for popularizing yoga among Indians. His yoga exercises and content on health related issues and their solutions act as incentives for people to watch his programs and attend his camps. 
 
People started trusting Baba Ramdev because of his health related content and became customers of Patanjali products. Today, Patanjali franchise stores are selling medicines &amp; FMCG products and are giving strong competition to the well established players in the market. 
 
Devdutt Pattanaik: Devdutt Pattanaik is a leadership consultant, mythologist, speaker and an <keyword id="842" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="author">author</keyword>. He derives management insights from mythology and shares a new approach to modern business. He has been providing valuable content since late 90s and became very popular through his TED talk in 2009. His knowledge on various incidences, stories and characters in mythology and delivery of the same in an interesting way with relevance in modern business world acts as an incentive for people to listen him. 
 
People started admiring him for his knowledge, insights &amp; content delivery style and became customers of his books, speeches and consulting advice. 
 
Harsha Bhogle: Harsha Bhogle began his career as a commentator at the age of 19 with All India Radio and has been associated with many sports channels. His cricket content made him a household name and he got opportunities to host many TV shows &amp; competitions. TV show "Harsha ki khoj" was named after him. He has authored number of books and has written columns for many newspapers and has been in brand commercials for various popular brands. 
 
Kapil Sharma: Kapil Sharma performed for many years at theatres in Punjab, social gatherings and parties. He has won many comedy contests including the Great Indian Laughter Challenge and his humor content has helped him in getting huge fan following. Today, he is regarded as the funniest man in India and his show Comedy Nights with Kapil has become perfect fit for movie promotions. He is in high demand as a host, standup comedian, actor, and has appeared in a few popular brand commercials. 
 
Advertising is an interruption, but the right content gets people’s attention. The above examples give a strong message for brands that by choosing the right niche, right audience, right content and a wonderful delivery style with the right frequency, they can get customers attention. By sharing the right content regularly, attention can lead to trust, which is the major factor that drives customers’ buying decisions. 
 
(About the author: This article has been written by Harsh Pamnani, who is an alumnus of XLRI &amp; Smitu Malhotra, who is Professor of Marketing at XLRI)

5
Indians who testify that ‘content is the king’

When <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> launched its new-generation Kindle Paperwhite e-book reader with greatly enhanced features such as better display and navigation, and sold them through 250 top tech outlets in India last month, it was a strong indicator that the e-book market in India is growing fast and with every other book being e-published. And why not? In a country where dynamic technologies and smart gadgets like mobiles are prevalent, e-book readers may soon make foray into average households. 
 
According to a survey carried out in October last year, India had around 55.48 crore mobile users and 14.32 crore Internet users, and mobile penetration stood at a whopping 70.96% in the country. In a nutshell, an average Indian is open to experimenting with technology and e-books could be a gadget of choice in the near future. 
 Some of the publishing houses, which predicted that it would be a decade-long <keyword id="6374782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="journey">journey</keyword> for e-books to become a part of the Indian psyche, are now forced to retract their statements. Things are changing rapidly and top publishing houses, which have a bigger stake in marketing/distribution of books, are relooking at their strategy even as e-books are turning into reality faster than it was anticipated. 
 “We thought e-books would take about 10 years to become a norm in India, compared to the west. The west opened up to e-readers and simply integrated it into its lifestyle, but we thought India would not change that fast. Even now, digital publishing and e-book readers are not the norm here. But in two years or less, things will surely change,” says an <keyword id="14961" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="editor">editor</keyword> working with HarperCollins India. 
 Yes. Even the statistics confirm that e-books are yet to become a rage in India. <keyword id="66728" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="PricewaterhouseCoopers">PricewaterhouseCoopers</keyword>’ study of e-book trends showed a staggering 9% growth in the western markets, which is projected to grow to 22% by 2017. In India, however, the market is a mere 1%, with projections still unclear. On the flip side, it also means that the e-reader market is quite huge here and its growth potential is still untracked in India. 
 
With big players such as M&amp;B, HarperCollins, Swiftbox, Random House, Penguin, Rupa and others having made India their major destination, the e-books trend is surely catching up and catching up faster. 
 
The reason is simple. Most contemporary Indian authors are now tech-savvy and realise the possibilities of technology-aided reach, which could be better than traditional publishing and distribution. Moreover, in spite of signing formal contracts with publishing houses, many authors have now realised that self-publishing an e-book ensures better reach-out to target audience and of course, bigger royalties. 
 India is the third biggest market for English books. Also, some of the top downloads across the spectrum are of Indian books. Indian mythology books by <keyword id="160324" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Devdutt-Pattanaik">Devdutt Pattanaik</keyword>, <keyword id="182794" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amish-Tripathi">Amish Tripathi</keyword> or Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni dominate the e-listings websites. Be it development, <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword>, <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword> or fiction, Indian authors are moving ahead in every genre with confidence. 
 The ‘early bird’ syndrome is another emerging trend in the Indian market. The pecking order has changed and the first-time <keyword id="842" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="author">author</keyword>s, who used to make a beeline for publishing houses, are now opting to self-publish their books on the Internet, thus getting a clear picture of their book sales. Now, it is the turn of conventional publishing houses to woo them back into their fold, with increased royalty or added advantages. But even then, an author may opt for self-publishing it on Amazon or any other suitable platform. 
 
With e-publishing in place, the market players are realising the full potential of regional languages and their popularity. Most of the NRI population is still loyal to their native literature. So self-publishing in regional languages could be an equally profitable proposition. 
 Some time ago, first-time author <keyword id="2101117" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rasana-Atreya">Rasana Atreya</keyword> said in a media interview that self-publishing her book was the best decision she had ever made, although she got an offer from a publishing agency. Today, a year after she e-published her book using Amazon’s <keyword id="2101116" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Kindle-Direct-Publishing-Service">Kindle Direct Publishing Service</keyword>, it is still being downloaded across the globe. Her story, set in South India and featuring the lives of two sisters, has touched the hearts of those hailing from totally different cultures that have no resemblance to what she has depicted in her novel. Rasana is surprised to find that her readers write to her from places like <keyword id="3746" type="COUNTRY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Mexico">Mexico</keyword> and say her book has come close to their lives too! 
 
What’s more, she has 70% of the royalty coming her way, as against 5-10% offered by publishing companies. So clearly, a self-publishing revolution is in the offing, making writers richer as well.

As E-books Entice
Indians, Writers Leverage Tech-aided Self-publishing

Audible, an Amazon.com subsidiary and a provider of premium digital spoken audio content on Monday announced that many of the titles from <keyword id="8441029" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Audible-Suno">Audible Suno</keyword> as well as Audible.in will now be available on <keyword id="2586591" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="amazon-echo">Amazon Echo</keyword> and other Alexa built-in devices with simple voice commands. Alexa users in India will now have access to hundreds of hours of audio entertainment in Hindi and English, completely free, with no payment details, advertisements, or sign-up process, the company said in a statement. "With this launch, we not only plan to elevate the experience for our Audible customers, but also intend to introduce our most-loved stories to Alexa users through a handpicked selection of popular audio content," said Shailesh Sawlani, Country Head, Audible India. Launched in last December in India, Audible Suno is a free audio streaming service that gives users unlimited access to hundreds of hours of audio entertainment. Users can say "Alexa, open Audible Suno" or "Alexa, Audible Suno shuru karo", to open the Audible Suno library, consisting of titles like Thriller Factory, Yoddha, Be Stupid with Vir Das, Azaad Awaaz, and many more. Once the skill is opened, listeners can choose from top genres like Romance, Comedy, Thriller or Horror to browse the catalogue and select the story they want to listen. One can also directly listen to stories by top narrators, such as Devdutt Pattanaik, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tabu, Anurag Kashyap, Neena Gupta, and several others, by saying, for instance, "Alexa, ask Audible Suno to play a story by Anurag Kashyap", to listen to Thriller Factory.

Amazon Alexa will now allow users to listen to free titles from Audible Suno

<ul><li><keyword id="2518439" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="audible" source="Orion">Audible</keyword>'s has launched two new ad films featuring TV actors <keyword id="18851" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nakuul-mehta" source="Orion">Nakuul Mehta</keyword> and <keyword id="993362" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rithvik-dhanjani" source="Orion">Rithvik Dhanjani</keyword>.</li><li>Conceptualized by Audible and executed by Media Monks, the ads will air on over 60 channels across genres.</li></ul>Amazon's Audible has launched two new ad films, featuring TV stars Nakuul Mehta and Rithvik Dhanjani, showcasing the wide and diverse range of audio and spoken word content available on Audible, which listeners can enjoy whenever, wherever they like. Rithvik and Nakuul have lent their voices to two new, already popular free-for-all Audible Originals available on Audible.in. You can listen to Rithvik on Buri Nazar, a seemingly light family drama with a supernatural twist (also featuring the irreplaceable <keyword id="20895" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="supriya-pathak" source="Orion">Supriya Pathak</keyword> and <keyword id="1181511" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sayani-gupta" source="Orion">Sayani Gupta</keyword>) and Nakuul on ‘Mine and Yours (Season 2),’ a modern love triangle where he competes with Kubbra Sait’s character for attention from Sayani Gupta’s character. This made them a natural choice for the films. Conceptualized by Audible and executed by Media Monks, the ads will air on over 60 channels across genres like Hindi General Entertainment, Hindi Movies, Hindi and English News, Hindi Music, English lifestyle, English Movies, Infotainment as well as on live sports like the India-New Zealand test match from 3rd to 7th December 2021 and the English Premier League between 27th Nov and 28th December 2021. The first film opens with Rithvik immersed in a rigorous workout, getting his “beast mode on”, listening to epic battle titles available on Audible, including Suno Mahabharat Devdutt Pattanaik ke Saath and Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Nakuul on the other hand is more focused on “working out” his mind by listening to calming and relaxing titles such as Think Like A Monk written by Jay Shetty, A Guide to Stress Free Living written by Om Swami and Deepak Chopra's Mind Body Zone: Living Outside the Box. In the end, we see Rithvik offering Nakuul some easy workout tips. Dodging him, Nakuul quickly switches on Audible’s Sleep Collection and nods off! <div type="Youtube" id="PIojbNqez7I" title="Audible TVC 1 - 35 secs" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PIojbNqez7I/mqdefault.jpg"></div> In the second film, Rithvik is seen lamenting over his healthy snack, enviously eyeing a batch of freshly baked cookies that Nakuul has prepared, while enjoying his favourite titles on Audible, like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman and Dirk Maggs’s The Sandman, Sherlock Holmes written by <keyword id="229803" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="stephen-fry" source="Orion">Stephen Fry</keyword>, Sapiens written by Yuval Noah Harari and Scion of Ikshvaku written by Amish. Rithvik, who is still drooling over the cookies, teases him and says his next listen will be The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins on Audible next, and runs off stealing some cookies from Nakuul’s tray!” <div type="Youtube" id="u6235aAp9go" title="Audible TVC 2 - 35 secs" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u6235aAp9go/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Both films bring out the crackling chemistry and camaraderie between Rithvik and Nakuul while highlighting their impeccable comic timing. In spite of having diametrically opposite personalities who enjoy completely different activities and audiobooks (which really helps showcase the expansive range of titles available on Audible) their close and playful relationship comes alive on screen, and make the films a pleasure for fans, or really anyone to enjoy! <keyword id="3813194" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shailesh-Sawlani" source="Orion">Shailesh Sawlani</keyword>, Country Head, Audible India, said, "We recently launched an all-you-can-listen Plus catalogue for our members featuring over 15,000 Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts across languages and genres. We also expanded our free selection to include hundreds of Audible Originals and several thousand podcasts; all this in addition to our always-expanding Premium Plus library, featuring over 200,000 titles. Our ad films showcase how we have something for everyone in our diverse slate, including titles featuring household names like Rithvik and Nakuul and other popular talent. We hope that the viewers enjoy our ad films, brought to life by these very talented and spirited actors." Nakuul Mehta said, “Working on these ad films for Audible with my friend Rithvik was just pure fun! I personally really enjoy the audio medium and love how our films capture this very real audio truth - that people with different personalities and choices can still find something to love and bond over on Audible! I recently narrated the second season of the Audible Original 'Mine and Yours' which is available absolutely free for everyone. I hope our audiences enjoy the ad films and our audio shows on Audible as much as we enjoyed making them.” Rithvik Dhanjani said, "I recently recorded an Audible Original show 'Buri Nazar' which truly helped me realize the power of audio. The entire process of working on the show was so exhilarating for me and the great response we have received makes the experience that much sweeter. With these latest ad films, I hope we showcase how effortless and entertaining listening to Audible can be, whenever and wherever you feel like. It was great fun to work with Nakuul on them; it didn't feel like we were shooting at all!”

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