t may just be a bit too early to predict that an Age of Austerity is dawning in the country. But the indications are many - especially as hapless fliers whine and yammer about not getting a berth on Air Deccan flights and the Tata Group lays out elaborate plans to expand its indiOne "no-frills" hotel brand outside of Bangalore.

Conceptualised with the help of corporate strategy thinker CK Prahalad and launched in June 2004, the Indian Hotel Company�s (IHC) first indiOne hotel in Bangalore boasts of an 85 per cent occupancy rate. Buoyed by its success, the company plans to set up 10 more such properties over the next 10 months in locations such as Jamshedpur, Mysore, Nashik, Varanasi, Durgapur, Thiruvananthapuram, Haridwar, Panjim, Bhubaneswar and Pune. The budget: Rs 10 crore for each hotel.... more