6 interesting Forbes India reads you shouldn't miss

Image (Clockwise from top left): Anish Shah, group president for strategy at Mahindra by Vikas Khot; Jean-Christophe Letellier, MD L'Oréal India by Mexy Xavier ;IndiGo co-founder Rahul Bhatia by Amit Verma; ex-RBI governor Raghuram G Rajan by Mexy Xavier

The weekend is upon us and its time to find a cozy corner and bring out all the reading material. We make it easier for you by putting together all the interesting things our writers wrote this week. 

1) 28% GST looks like a penalty on the common woman: L'Oréal India's Jean Christophe Letellier
Jean Christophe Letellier, managing director, cosmetics and beauty products, L'Oréal India, talks about the company's journey from entering India in 1994 to becoming a major player in the domestic market. He says 90 percent of all L'Oréal products - including its 14 brands - are manufactured in India. He also talks about cosmetics and make up bring placed under the 28 percent slab under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime and how it would be a penalty on the common woman. Click here to read more

2) RBI decides when to succumb to government pressure and when not: Raghuram Rajan
Our Associate Editor Salil Panchal caught up with the former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan a day after his book 'I Do What I Do' was launched in Mumbai. In this exclusive interview, Rajan talks about his worst days as the RBI Governor, what India's government needs to do, and if an RBI governor needs to match the expectations of the ruling government. Click here to read more

3) The right app-titude
Indians downloaded six billion apps from Google Play in 2016, up from 3.6 billion in 2015, surpassing the US as the biggest market in terms of Google Play downloads. A market research study by InMobi found that games are the most popular mobile apps while user retention is the top challenge for app marketers. Click here to read more

4) Aviation's high-flying billionaires
There are only six billionaires in the world who derive the majority of their wealth from aviation, according to Forbes, and all of them are from Asia. IndiGo's Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal are the top two on the list, while SpiceJet's Ajay Singh who took over the airline two years ago and spun its fortune around, is inching closer to the aviation billionaires' group. The founder of VietJet Air is the only woman on the list. Click here to read more

5) Mahindra Group: Primed for a digital leap
The Mahindra Group that makes everything from trucks, buses, sells insurance, and family holidays, is in the midst of a digital overhaul at the group level. The aim is to integrate the virtual and the real world seamlessly to give its customers a better experience across its varied businesses. So far, it has launched an app for its Holidays business which addresses customer grievances, lets them book services offered at the resorts, and most recently, lets then book flight tickets too. It has also launched My Agri Guru, a portal that provides relevant content for farmers. The company saw 2,00,000-3,00,000 downloads within the first three months and sees 200-300 queries in a day. Read more about its digital transformation in the words of our Technology Editor Harichandan Arakali.

6) Winning IPL rights was a way to protect our portfolio
Star India won the media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years by bidding an eye-popping amount - Rs 16,000 odd crore. Forbes India's Associate Editor Salil Panchal and Senior Copy Editor Ruchika Shah caught up with its Chairman & CEO Uday Shankar the next day to find out what went on behind the closed door of the corner office in the days leading up to the bid. Sleepless nights, pros and cons, weighing the odds were just the tip of the iceberg. Read the full interview here