Most of India's smaller cities remain on the fringes of the aviation boom. Regional airlines have been non-starters in India, unlike in Europe, the United States and even China.

You won't get the lounges with pile carpeting, deep sofas, canapes and laptop docks. You don't have the noise and to-do of Mamatadi's Duronto non-stop trains either.

Here is a take on people, places and products doing the rounds these days.

Marketing communications firms are working out innovative ways to allow upcountry consumers to develop an appetite for branded products and services.

A Tamil Brahmin and a Malayali get together to manufacture and sell Mumbai's favourite snack. The result: their Goli Vada Pav chain of 65 stores has a turnover of Rs 10 crore and daily unit sales of 50,000 pavs.

A fast expanding coffee-to-infrastructure to-financial services sprawl already ranks V.G. Siddhartha among India's 50 richest people. And, this is just the beginning.

Improved connectivity and proactive tourism boards have led to the birth of new holiday destinations—from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to Agatti in Lakshadweep. But a lot more needs to be done.

A hospital chain in Karnataka wants to do to health care what Air Deccan did to aviation. Its early steps are encouraging.

Harsha Moily is building an independent supply chain infrastructure that could be the biggest such road to rural Indian markets and consumers.

A Bangalore-based speciality cancer hospital leans on its hub-and-spoke model to grow scale. And, yes, it offers interest-free EMI options, too.

A water purifier manufacturer forms an NGO to supply clean drinking water at 17 paise a litre in 55 Andhra Pradesh villages. This is just the beginning.

Tiny, stand-alone power plants are powering village after village in India with rural folk willing to pay what it takes for assured electricity.

Rice production is going to be lower by 12 million tonnes and coarse cereals by six million tonnes in the current fiscal.

Harrisons Malayalam is transforming from a pure play plantation company to an FMCG player in search of growth. Can it succeed in making this sea change?

Sky-high capacity targets and lollipop tariffs may spur investor frenzy in the nascent solar energy business.

It takes more than nature's endowments to remain sustainable shows a new study on Indian states' green performance.

Soon, India and bad roads will not be synonymous, as these great drives show.

The bloated behemoth has shrinking revenues and ritzy private rivals. Yet, it's the first choice for telecom jobs.

If Highways Minister Kamal Nath walks the talk of building 20 km of road per day, he will create economic value and improve the lot of the aam aadmi.

A micro-pension scheme that is helping millions of Indians build a future, brick-by-brick as they go through the daily grind, touches Delhi's autorickshaw drivers. BT sees if the drivers like it.