ramoji , founder of Eenadu group/Ramoji Group.

A. M. Murugappa Chettiar , founder of the Murugappa Group

Anant Koppar , founder, and former president, of Kshema Technologies

Brijmohan Lall Munjal  (1923- ), founder of The Hero Group, which owns Hero Motors

Dhirubhai Ambani  (1933–2002), founder of Reliance Industries

Ghanshyam Das Birla  (1894–1983), prominent member of the Birla family

G. Kuppuswamy Naidu , founder of Lakshmi Mills

Capt. G. R. Gopinath , founder of Air Deccan, vice-chairman of Kingfisher Red

Jamsetji Tata  (1839–1904), pioneering Indian industrialist, founder of the Tata Group of companies

J.R.D. Tata , founder of Air India and Chairman of the Tata Group for 52 years.

J. C. Mahindra , co-founder of the Mahindra Group

Karsanbhai Patel  (1945- ), founder of the Nirma Group

Kasturbhai Lalbhai  (1894–1980), textile baron, founder of Arvind Mills

K. C. Mahindra , co-founder of the Mahindra Group

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw  (1953- ), founder of Biocon, the first biotechnology company in India

N. R. Narayana Murthy  (1946- ), co-founder of Infosys Technologies

Raj Anand  (1982-), founder of the Kwiqq and winner of Business Week Europe's Young Entrepreneur 2007

Ramji Raghavan  (1958- ), Social Entrepreneur, founder of Agastya International Foundation

Ritika Hiranandani  (1970- ), India-US specialist and entrepreneur, philanthropist. Founder of Atlantic-Crossing, promoter of India and US business in the field of technology, finance, pharmaceutical,entertainment and sports.

Sabeer Bhatia  (1968- ), co-founder of Hotmail

Sam Pitroda  (1942- ), inventor, entrepreneur, policymaker

Shruti Kohli  (1982- ), Founder/Editor, MoneyQuin(an online finance magazine focused on women & kids)

Subhash Chandra  (1950- ), chairman of the Essel Group, launched Zee TV, the first Hindi satellite television channel

Suhas Gopinath  (1986- ), notable for founding Globals Inc., an Information Technology (IT) company, at age 14

Sunil Mittal  (1957- ), chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises

Venkat Rangan , Founder of Yodlee.com and Vice Chancellor of Amrita University

T. V. Sundaram Iyengar  (1877–1955), founder of the TVS Group

Vijay Mallya  (1955- ), chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines, member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament, and owner of several sports franchises and teams {Bangalore Royal Challengers}

Vishal Gondal  (b. 1976), founder of Indiagames

Vivin Varghese Meleadan  (1988- ), co-founder of MVS Info Tech

Aditya Jha , Canadian entrepreneur, philanthropist and philosopher; Active in Canadian public affairs

Purnima Varadrajan , founder and CEO of iPOTT group of companies. Google for general search iPOTT for software search.

Ujwal Makhija , founder and CEO of Phonon, an Indian pioneer in hosted telephony services such as click-to-call.

P. Ponnudurai , Managing Director of Lion Dates Imnex Private Ltd, market leader in packaged Dates(dry fruit).

Shruti Kohli

Sumit Gupta , founder BitRhymes.

Dhirubhai Ambani

JRD Tata

Adi Godrej

Anil Ambani

Dr. K. Anji Reddy

Azim Premji

Bhai Mohan Singh

B.M. Munjal

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Ghanshyam Das Birla

Karsanbhai Patel

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

K.P. Singh

Kumar Mangalam Birla

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Nandan Nilekani

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Naresh Goyal

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Ramalinga Raju

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Raunaq Singh

Shiv Nadar

Subhash Chandra

Subroto Roy

Sunil Mittal

Tulsi Tanti

Verghese Kurien

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Dhirubhai Ambani Biography

Born: December 28, 1932Died: July 6, 2002

Achievements: Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company. Created an equity cult in the Indian capital

market. Reliance is the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list 

Dhirubhai Ambani was the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur. His life journey is reminiscent of the rags to riches story. He is

remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global corporate group. 

Dhirubhai Ambani alias Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on December 28, 1932, at Chorwad, Gujarat, into a Modh family. His

father was a school teacher. Dhirubhai Ambani started his entrepreneurial career by selling "bhajias" to pilgrims in Mount

Girnar over the weekends.

After doing his matriculation at the age of 16, Dhirubhai moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked there as a gas-station attendant, and as

a clerk in an oil company. He returned to India in 1958 with Rs 50,000 and set up a textile trading company.

Assisted by his two sons, Mukesh and Anil, Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company, Reliance India

Limited, from a scratch. Over time his business has diversified into a core specialisation in petrochemicals with additional

interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets,

and logistics.

Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with shaping India's equity culture, attracting millions of retail investors in a market till then

dominated by financial institutions. Dhirubhai revolutionised capital markets. From nothing, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust in his companies. His efforts helped create an 'equity cult' in the Indian capital market. With innovative instruments like the convertible debenture, Reliance

quickly became a favorite of the stock market in the 1980s.

In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money in global markets, its high credit-taking in international markets limited only by India's sovereign rating. Reliance also became the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list.

Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). A poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000

voted him "greatest creator of wealth in the century".

Dhirubhai Ambani died on July 6, 2002, at Mumbai.

JRD Tata BiographyBorn: July 29, 1904Died: on November 29, 1993Achievements: He had the honor of being India's first pilot; was Chairman of Tata & Sons for 50 years; launched Air India International as India's first international airline; received Bharat Ratna in 1992.

JRD Tata was one of the most enterprising Indian entrepreneurs. He was a pioneer aviator and built one of the largest industrial houses of India.

JRD Tata was born on July 29, 1904 in Paris. His mother was a

French, while his father was Parsi. JRD's full name was Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and he was popularly known as Jeh to his friends. JRD's father Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and Sri Jamsetji Tata shared their greatness from the same great-great-grandfather, Ervad Jamsheed Tata, a priest of Navsari.

JRD Tata was the second of four children. He was educated in France, Japan and England before being drafted into the French army for a mandatory one-year period. JRD wanted to extend his service in the forces but destiny had something else in store for him. By leaving the French army JRD's life was saved because shortly thereafter, the regiment in which he served was totally wiped out during an expedition in Morocco.

JRD Tata joined Tata & Sons as an unpaid apprentice in 1925. He has great interest in flying. On February 10, 1929, JRD became the first Indian to pass the pilot's examination. With this distinctive honor of being India's first pilot, he was instrumental in giving wings to India by building Tata Airlines, which ultimately became Air India. His passion for flying was fulfilled with the formation of the Tata Aviation Service in 1932.

In 1938, at the age of 34, JRD was elected Chairman of Tata & Sons making him the head of the largest industrial group in India. He started with 14 enterprises under his leadership and half a century later on July 26, 1988, when he left , Tata & Sons was a conglomerate of 95 enterprises which they either started or in which they had controlling interest.

JRD was the trustee of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust from its inception in 1932, which remained under his wings for over half a century. Under his guidance, this Trust established Asia's first cancer hospital, the

Tata Memorial Center for Cancer, Research and Treatment, Bombay, 1941. It also founded the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 1936 (TISS), the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 1945 (TIFR), and the National Center for Performing Arts.

In 1948, JRD Tata launched Air India International as India's first international airline. In 1953, the Indian Government appointed JRD as Chairman of Air-India and a director on the Board of Indian Airlines-a position JRD retained for 25-years. For his crowning achievements in Aviation, JRD was bestowed with the title of Honorary Air Commodore of India.

In 1956, JRD Tata initiated a program of closer "employee association with management" to give workers a stronger voice in the affairs of the company. He firmly believed in employee welfare and espoused the principles of an eight-hour working day, free medical aid, workers' provident scheme, and workmen's accident compensation schemes, which were later, adopted as statutory requirements in India.

JRD Tata cared greatly for his workers. In 1979, Tata Steel instituted a new practice; a worker is deemed to be "at work" from the moment he leaves home for work till he returns home from work. The company is financially liable to the worker if any mishap takes place on the way to and from work. Tata Steel Township was also selected as a UN Global Compact City because of the quality of life, conditions of sanitation, roads and welfare that were offered by Tata Steel.

JRD Tata received a number of awards. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 1957 on the eve of silver jubilee of Air India. He also received the Guggenheim Medal for aviation in 1988. In 1992, because of his selfless humanitarian endeavors, JRD Tata was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna-one of the

rarest instances in which this award was granted during a person's lifetime. In the same year, JRD Tata was also bestowed with the United Nations Population Award for his crusading endeavors towards initiating and successfully implementing the family planning movement in India, much before it became an official government policy.

JRD Tata died in Geneva, Switzerland on November 29, 1993 at the age of 89. On his death, the Indian Parliament was adjourned in his memory-an honor not usually given to persons who are not Members of Parliament.

Adi Godrej ProfileAchievements: Chairman of Godrej Group

Adi Godrej is one of the icons of Indian Industry. He is the chairman of Godrej Group. .Adi Godrej was born in a business family. His father's name was Burjorji Godrej and his mother's name was Jai Godrej. More than a century age, the Godrej's were into manufacturing locks and vegetable-based soaps. The Godrej products were among the first indigenously manufactured products to displace entrenched foreign brands. 

Adi Godrej left India at the age of 17 to enroll at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Though he planned to study mechanical engineering but he later on switched to management. After his return to India, Adi Godrej joined the family business. He modernized and systematized management structures and implemented process improvements. Adi Godrej took the Godrej Group to great height during controlled economy era. 

After the liberalization process, Adi Godrej restructured company's policies to meet the challenges of globalisation. In the early 2000s, the Group completed a 10-year restructuring process through which each business became a stand-alone company with a CEO/COO from outside the Godrej family.

Under Adi Godrej's leadership, the group is also involved in philanthropic activities. Godrej is major supporter of the World Wildlife Fund in India, it has developed a green business campus in the

Vikhroli township of Mumbai, which includes a 150-acre mangrove forest and a school for the children of company employees.

Anil Ambani Profileorn: June 4, 1959 Achievement: Chairman of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group; Chosen as the 'CEO of the Year 2004' in the Platts Global Energy Awards and MTV Youth Icon of the Year' in September 2003 

Anil Ambani is one of the foremost entrepreneurs of Independent India. He is the Chairman of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Earlier, before the split in the Reliance Group, Anil Ambani held the post of Vice Chairman and Managing Director in Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). 

Born on June 4, 1959, Anil Ambani did his Bachelors in Science from the University of Bombay and Masters in Business Administration The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Anil Ambani joined Reliance in 1983 as Co-Chief Executive Officer. He pioneered India Inc's forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depository receipts, convertibles and bonds. Starting from 1991, he led Reliance in its efforts to raise, around US$2 billion from overseas financial markets. In January 1997, the 100-year Yankee bond issue was launched under his stewardship.

After the split in Reliance Group, Anil Ambani founded Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. He is the Chairman of all listed Group companies, which include: Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy and Reliance Natural Resources Limited. 

Anil Ambai was elected as an independent member Rajya Sabha MP in June 2004. But he resigned voluntarily on March 25, 2006.

Anil Ambani has won several awards and honours. Major among these include: 'CEO of the Year 2004' in the Platts Global Energy Awards, 'MTV Youth Icon of the Year' in September 2003, 'The Entrepreneur of the Decade Award' by the Bombay Management Association, and 'Businessman of the Year Award' by leading Business Magazine, Business India in 1997.

Dr. K. Anji Reddy ProfileAchievements: Founder-chairman of Dr Reddy's Group of Companies; Awarded with Padma Shri in 2001. 

Dr. K. Anji Reddy is a pioneer in the pharmaceutical research in India and is founder-chairman of Dr Reddy's Group of Companies. 

Dr Kallam Anji Reddy did his B.Sc in Pharmaceuticals and Fine chemicals from Bombay University and subsequently completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, in 1969. Dr. K. Anji Reddy served in PSU Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited from 1969 to 1975. Dr. Reddy was the founder-Managing Director of Uniloids Ltd from 1976 to 1980 and Standard Organics Limited from 1980 to 1984. 

In 1984, Dr. K. Anji Reddy founded Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and soon the company established new benchmarks in the Indian Pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories transformed Indian bulk drug industry from import-dependent in mid-80s to self-reliant in mid-90s and finally into the export-oriented industry that it is presently. In 1993, Dr. Reddy's became the first company to take up drug discovery research in India and in April 2001 it became the first non-Japanese Asian pharmaceutical

company to list on NYSE. By the end of fiscal year 2005, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories was India's second largest pharmaceutical company and the youngest among its peer group. 

Presently, Dr. Reddy is a serving member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry, Government of India, and has been nominated to the Board of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER). 

Dr. K. Anji Reddy is also a philanthropist. He is the founder-Chairman of Dr. Reddy's Foundation for Human & Social Development, a social arm of Dr. Reddy's, which acts as a catalyst of change to achieve sustainable development.

Dr. K. Anji Reddy has received many awards and honors. These include Sir PC Ray award (conferred twice, in 1984 and 1992); Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations (FAPA)'s FAPA-Ishidate Award for Pharmaceutical Research in 1998; leading business magazine Business India voted him Businessman of the Year in 2001; CHEMTECH Foundation bestowed on him the Achiever of the Year award in the year 2000 and the 'Hall of Fame' award in 2005, for his Entrepreneurship, Leadership and thrust on Innovation; and in 2001, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Azim Premji ProfileBorn: July 24, 1945Achievements: Chairman of Wipro Technologies; Richest Indian for the past several years; Honored with Padma Bhushan in 2005. 

Azim Premji is Chairman of Wipro Technologies, one of the largest software companies in India. He is an icon among Indian businessmen and his success story is a source of inspiration to a number of budding entrepreneurs.

Born on July 24, 1945, Azim Hashim Premji was studying Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA when due to the sudden demise of his father, he was called upon to handle the family business. Azim Premji took over the reins of family business in 1966 at the age of 21. 

At the first annual general meeting of the company attended by Azeem Premji, a shareholder doubted Premji's ability to handle business at such a young age and publicly advised him to sell his shareholding and give it to a more mature management. This spurred Azim Premji and made him all the more determined to make Wipro a success story. And the rest is history.

When Azim Premji occupied the hot seat, Wipro dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats and later diversified to bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products and hydraulic cylinders. Thereafter Premji made a focused shift from soaps to software. 

Under Azim Premji's leadership Wipro has metamorphosed from a Rs.70 million company in hydrogenated cooking fats to a pioneer in providing integrated business, technology and process solutions on a global delivery platform. Today, Wipro Technologies is the largest independent R&D service provider in the world. 

Azim Premji has several achievements to his credit. In 2000, Asiaweek magazine, voted Premji among the 20 most powerful men in the world. Azim Premji was among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 listed by Forbes. In April 2004, Times Magazine, rated him among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time

magazine. He is also the richest Indian for the past several years. In 2005,Government of India honored Azim Premji with Padma Bhushan.

Bhai Mohan Singh ProfileBorn: December 30, 1917Achievement: Founder of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd; Awarded with Padma Shri 

Bhai Mohan Singh can be called as the doyen of pharmaceutical industry in India. He is the founder of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. 

Bhai Mohan Singh was born on December 30, 1917 in Rawalpindi district. His father Bhai Gyan Chand was a Hindu and his mother Sunder Dai was a Sikh. Bhai Mohan Singh began his business career in the construction business during the Second World War. His firm bagged a contract to build roads in the North East. After Partition, he left Rawalpindi and settled down in New Delhi. 

Bhai Mohan Singh started business as a moneylender. Ranbaxy was started by his cousins Ranjit Singh and Gurbax Singh. Ranbaxy's name was a fusion of Ranjit and Gurbax's names. They were distributors for A. Shionogi, a Japanese pharmaceutical company manufacturing vitamins and anti-TB drugs. When Ranbaxy defaulted on a loan, Bhai Mohan Singh bought the company on August 1, 1952, for Rs 2.5 lakh.

Bhai Mohan Singh collaborated with Italian pharma company Lapetit Spa and later on bought it. Bhai Mohan Singh made his mark in the pharmaceuticals industry in the late 1960s when he launched his first superbrand, Calmpose. 

Calmpose was an imitation of Roche's valium. But Roche had not patented it in India. In early 1970s when Indian adopted a regime of process patents in the Bhai Mohan Singh quickly realised that one could make any product in the world through reverse engineering. He established an R&D facility at Mohali and launched one blockbuster pill after the other, such as Roscillin, Cifran etc. 

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd went public in 1973. At this time Bhai Mohan Singh introduced his eldest son Parvinder Singh in the company, who later on became the company's Managing Director in 1982. Bhai Mohan Singh also co-founded Max India with his youngest son, Analjit Singh.

With liberalisation differences arose between Bhai Mohan Singh and Parvinder Singh over the expansion and professionalisation strategy of Ranbaxy. Subsequently, in 1999 in a boardroom coup of sorts Bhai Mohan Singh was forced to bow down and Parvider took over the company. This broke Bhai Mohan Singh's spirit and he retired from active company affairs. He died on March 27, 2006.

Bhai Mohan Singh was a former vice president of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution in civic matters. For his contribution to the industrial development of Punjab, the Punjab Goverment had named an Industrial Township near Ropar after Bhai Mohan Singh.

B.M. Munjal ProfileAchievement: Chairman of the Hero Group; Honored with Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2001

B.M. Munjal (Brij Mohan Lall Munjal) is the Chairman of the Hero Group. He is a first generation entrepreneur who started very small and through sheer hard work and perseverance made it to the top. Today, Hero Group is the largest manufacturer of two-wheelers in the world and Brij Mohan Lal Munjal is the man widely credited with its success. 

B.M. Munjal's journey began in 1944 at the age of 20. Brij Mohanlall along with his three brothers, Dayanand (32), Satyanand (27) and Om Prakash (16) moved from his birthplace Kamalia in Pakistan to Amritsar. The brothers started supplying components to the local bicycle business. After partition in 1947, the family was forced to move to Ludhiana. The town of Ludhiana was already a major hub of the Indian bicycle business and an important textile center. The Munjals slowly spread their bicycle component distribution network in other parts of the country and became one of India's largest bicycle parts suppliers. In 1952 Munjals made a shift from supplying to manufacturing. They started manufacturing handlebars, front forks and chains.

In 1956, the Punjab state government announced the issue of twelve new industrial licenses to make bicycles in Ludhiana. The Munjal brothers cashed on this opportunity. Helped by the Punjab government financing of Rs 600,000 to supplement their own limited capital resources, the Munjals set up Hero Cycles. Hero Cycles was registered as a 'large-scale industrial unit' and it initially produced 7,500 units per year. 

Soon Hero Cycles started giving well-established players such as Raleigh, Hind Cycles, and Atlas Cycles a run for their money. The hero cycle was comparatively cheaper and was sturdy and reliable. It gave the customers value for their money. 

In January 1984, Japan's Honda, the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles, elicited interest in collaborating with the Hero Group to manufacture motor cycles in India. An agreement was signed and on 13 April 1985, the first Hero Honda motorbike was

rolled out. Today, the company is the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. 

For his outstanding contribution to the success of Hero Group, B.M. Munjal was honored with Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2001.

Ekta Kapoor Profileorn: June 7, 1975Achievement: Creative Director of Balaji Telefilms; Awarded with Ernst & Young (E&Y) Startup Entrepreneur Of The Year award in 2001. 

Ekta Kapoor can be aptly called as the reigning queen of Indian television industry. The serials produced by her company Balaji Telefilms are a great hit with the masses and are dominating all the major T.V. channels in India.

Born on June 7, 1975, Ekta Kapoor is daughter of former Bollywood superstar Jeetendra and sister of current Bollywood hero Tusshar Kapoor. Ekta Kapoor did her schooling from Bombay Scottish School and later on joined Mithibai College. She was not interested in academics and on the advice of her father ventured into TV-serial production at the age of 19. And soon she changed the face of Indian television industry and completely dominated it. 

Today, Ekta Kapoor is the creative director of Balaji Telefilms. Her company has produced more than 25 serials and each one is being shown, on an average, four times a week on different television channels. Ekta Kapoor's serials have captured the imagination of masses. She broken all previous records of TV serial production and popularity in India. Her most famous television venture has been "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" which began in 2000 and is still leading the TRP ratings in India.

Her other famous serials include "Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki", "Kahiin To Hoga", "Kavyanjali", "Kyaa Hoga Nimmo Kaa", "Kasamh Se", "Kahin Kisii Roz", "Kasautii Zindagi Kay", "Kkusum", "Kutumb", "Kalash", and "Kundali".

For her entrepreneurial skills and achievements Ekta Kapoor was awarded with Ernst & Young (E&Y) Startup Entrepreneur Of The Year award in 2001.

Ghanshyam Das Birla Profile

Born: April 10, 1894Achievement: Laid the foundations of the Birla Empire; founder of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). 

Ghanshyam Das Birla is considered as a doyen of Indian Industry. He was the man who laid the foundations of the Birla Empire. G.D. Birla was a multi-faceted personality. He was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and advised Gandhiji on economic policies. He was the most important pre-Independence contributor to the Indian National Congress. Ghanshyam Das Birla was the founder of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He is also popularly known as the builder of Birla Mandirs.

Born on April 10, 1894, G.D. Birla, was a native of Pilani. His grandfather Shiv Narayan Birla was a traditional marwari moneylender. Ghanshyam Das Birla entered the business arena during the time of First World War. He established a cotton mill in Sabzi Mandi, and later on established Keshoram Cotton Mills. Along with cotton mills he diversified to jute business and shifted his base to Calcutta city in Bengal, the world's largest jute producing region. He

established Birla Jute Mills in Bengal, much to the consternation of established European merchants.

In 1919, with an investment of Rs. 50 lakhs, the Birla Brothers Limited was formed and a mill was set up in Gwalior. In 1930s, G.D. Birla set up Sugar and Paper mills. In 1940s, he ventured into the territory of cars and established Hindustan Motors. After independence, Ghanshyam Das Birla invested in tea and textiles through a series of acquisitions of erstwhile European companies. He also expanded and diversified into cement, chemicals, rayon and steel tubes.

Ghanshyam Das Birla also founded several educational institutions. Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS) Pilani has today evolved into one of India's best engineering schools. He also established many temples, planetariums, and hospitals. Ghanshyam Das Birla died in 1983 at the age of 90. In his honour, G.D. Birla award for scientific Research has been established to encourage scientists for their contribution in the various fields of scientific Research.

Karsanbhai Patel ProfileAchievement: Man behind the hugely successful brand, Nirma. 

Karsanbhai Patel is the man behind the hugely successful brand, Nirma. His' is a legendary rags to riches journey during which he shattered established business theories and rewrote new ones. 

Karsanbhai Khodidas Patel (K.K. Patel) came from a humble farmer family from Mehsana, Gujarat. He worked as Lab Assistant in the Geology and Mining Department of the Government of Gujarat. In 1969, at the age of 25, Karsan Bhai Patel started a small-scale

enterprise. He offered a quality detergent powder, using indigenous technology, at a third of the prevailing price, without compromising on the product. Karsanbhai named the detergent powder Nirma after daughter Nirupama. 

At that time domestic detergent market was limited only to premium segment and was dominated by MNCs. Karsanbhai Patel started door-to-door selling of Nirma and priced it at Rs. 3 per kg. The next available cheapest brand in the market at that time was Rs.13 per kg. Nirma revolutionized the whole detergent powder segment and in a short span of time created an entirely new market segment in the domestic detergent sector market. It gave the bigger established brands a run for their money and soon occupied the top market share. To add to all this, Nirma was made of an innovative formulation, which global detergent giants were later on compelled to emulate, it was phosphate free and hence environment friendly, and the process of manufacturing was labour intensive, which offered large scale employment.

Karsanbhai notched up one success after another. After establishing its leadership in economy-priced detergents, Nirma foray into the premium brand segment, in cakes and detergents was equally successful. It built up a 30% market share in the premium detergent segment and achieved a greater than 20% share in the premium soaps market. 

Karsanbhai Patel has won many accolades on his way to success. The Federation of Association of Small Scale Industries of India, New Delhi, awarded him with the 'Udyog Ratna'. The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce felicitated him as an 'Outstanding Industrialist of the Eighties'. The Govt. of India twice appointed him Chairman of the Development Council for Oils, Soaps & Detergents.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw ProfileBorn: March 23, 1953Achievement: Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd; Felicitated with Padmashri (1989) and Padma Bhushan (2005).

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd, India's biggest biotechnology company. In 2004, she became India's richest woman. 

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was born on March 23, 1953 in Bangalore. She had her schooling at Bishop Cotton Girls School and Mount Carmel College at Bangalore. After doing completing her B.Sc. in Zoology from Bangalore University in 1973, she went to Ballarat University in Melbourne, Australia and qualified as a master brewer. 

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw started her professional career as trainee brewer in Carlton & United Beverages in 1974. In 1978, she joined as Trainee Manager with Biocon Biochemicals Limited in Ireland. In the same year, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw founded Biocon India in collaboration with Biocon Biochemicals Limited, with a capital of Rs.10,000. She initially faced many problems regarding funds for her business. Banks were hesitant to give loan to her as biotechnology was a totally new field at that point of time and she was a woman entrepreneur, which was a rare phenomenon. 

Biocon's initial operation was to extract an enzyme from papaya. Under Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's stewardship Biocon transformed from an industrial enzymes company to an integrated biopharmaceutical company with strategic research initiatives. Today, Biocon is recognised as India's pioneering biotech enterprise. In 2004, Biocon came up with an IPO and the issue was over-subscribed by over 30

times. Post-IPO, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw held close to 40% of the stock of the company and was regarded as India's richest woman with an estimated worth of Rs. 2,100 crore.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the recipient of several prestigious awards. These include ET Businesswoman of the Year, Best Woman Entrepreneur, Model Employer, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Life Sciences & Healthcare, Leading Exporter, Outstanding Citizen, Technology Pioneer, etc. Government of India also felicitated her with Padmashri (1989) and Padma Bhushan (2005).

K.P. Singh ProfileBorn: August 15, 1931Achievement: Chairman of DLF Group; Recipient of the 'Delhi Ratna' Award for his valuable contribution to Delhi 

K.P. Singh is the Chairman of DLF Group and can be christened as the real estate baron of India. DLF has a strong leadership presence in Indian real estate industry and the company is credited with developing the modern township of Gurgaon. 

K.P. Singh (Kushal Pal Singh) was born on August 15, 1931 at Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh. After graduating in Science from Meerut College, he went to UK to study Aeronautical Engineering. While pursuing engineering in UK, K.P. Singh was selected to the prestigious Indian Army, by British Officers Services Selection Board, UK. He joined the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun and was later on commissioned into The Deccan Horse-a renowned cavalry regiment of The Indian Army. 

In 1960, K.P. Singh joined American Universal Electric Company, a joint venture between Universal Electric Company of Owosso, Michigan and his family. Thereafter, K.P. Singh promoted another company, i.e. Willard India Limited in collaboration with ESB inc of Philadelphia for manufacturing automatic and industrial batteries in India and became its Managing Director. 

In 1979, K.P. Singh joined DLF Universal Limited. When American Universal Company merged with DLF Universal Limited, K.P. Singh became the Managing Director of the new company. K.P. Singh had the vision to buy land in Gurgaon, which was then a barren village on the outskirts of Delhi. He had the foresight to saw the untapped potential of the place and today Gurgaon is one of the real-estate hotspots of the country. Presently, DLF has 100 million square feet under development in residential, commercial and retail projects all over the country.

Kushal Pal Singh also held a number of professional positions in India. He was the President of the ASSOCHAM (Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India) and the PHD Chambers of Commerce & Industry. K.P. Singh is also the recipient of the 'Delhi Ratna' Award for his valuable contribution to Delhi.

Kumar Mangalam Birla ProfileBorn: June 14, 1967Achievement: Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group; Vhosen as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year - India in 2005 

Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. The group is India's third largest business house. Major companies of

Aditya Birla Group in India are Grasim, Hindalco, UltraTech Cement, Aditya Birla Nuvo and Idea Cellular. Aditya Birla Group's joint ventures include Birla Sun Life (Financial Services) and Birla NGK (Insulators). The group also has its presence in various countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Egypt, Canada, China and Australia.

Born on June 14, 1967, Kumar Mangalam Birla spent the early of his life in Calcutta and Mumbai. He is a Chartered Accountant and did his MBA (Masters in Business Administration) from the London Business School, London. Kumar Mangalam Birla took over as Chairman in 1995, at the age of 28, after sudden demise of his father, noted industrialist Aditya Birla, after whom the group is named. 

When Kumar Mangalam Birla assumed the mantle at the Aditya Birla Group, Doubts were raised about his ability to handle a giant business house with interests spanning viscose, textiles and garments on the one hand and cement, aluminium and fertilisers on the other. But Kumar Mangalam proved his skeptics wrong. He brought in radical changes, changed business strategies, professionalised the entire group and replaced internal systems. Kumar Mangalam reduced his group's dependence on the cyclic commodities sectors by entering consumer products. 

Under Kumar Mangalam Birla's leadership, the Aditya Birla Group, apart from consolidating its position in existing businesses, also ventured into sunrise sectors like cellular telephony, asset management, software and BPO. 

Kumar Mangalam Birla also holds several key positions on various regulatory and professional boards, including chairmanship of the advisory committee constituted by the ministry of company affairs for

2006 and 2007, membership of the prime minister of India's advisory council on trade and industry, chairmanship of the board of trade reconstituted by the union minister of commerce and industry, and membership of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India.

Kumar Mangalam Birla has won several honors. Major among them include The Business Leader of the Year (2003) by The Economic Times, Business Man of the Year - 2003 by Business India, and The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year - India in 2005.

Lalit Suri ProfileAchievement: Chairman of the Bharat Hotels chain and the single largest hotel owner. 

Lalit Suri can be called as the uncrowned hotel king of India. He is the Chairman of the Bharat Hotels chain and is the single-largest hotel owner with over 1600 rooms. Bharat Hotels chain comprises seven hotels which include the flagship InterContinental The Grand in Delhi, and six Grand hotels in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Srinagar, Udaipur and Khajuraho. 

Lalit Suri is an alumnus of St Columbus and Sri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi. He represented both his school and college in swimming and athletics at the state level. Lalit Suri was trained as an automobile engineer and started his career manufacturing vehicle bodies. He commissioned his first hotel in Delhi in 1988. Since then there has been no looking back.

In the last few years Bharat Hotels has invested Rs 500 crore on its properties in Mumbai and Goa. In addition, the group has spent Rs 42

crore on a 30-year lease on the former Bangalore Ashok, and a further Rs 40 crore on renovations. Lalit Suri is currently on an expansion mode. Sites for hotels have been identified and negotiated in Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Jaipur, while search is on for the right locations in Chennai and Hyderabad. In the first phase hotels will be constructed in Amritsar, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur adding 400-600 rooms to the Grand chain, while the next phase in Chennai, and Hyderabad) will take the tally up by another 500 five-star deluxe rooms.

Apart from a successful businessman, Lalit Suri is also an avid traveler and an art lover. Presently, he is also a Rajya Sabha MP.

M.S. Oberoi ProfileBorn: August 15, 1898Achievement: Founder of the Oberoi Group of Hotels; Honored with Padma Bhushan in 2001. 

M.S. Oberoi can be aptly termed as the father of the Indian hotel industry. Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi was among the first to recognize the potential of the tourism industry, its ability to contribute to India's economic growth and generate direct and indirect employment. He worked tirelessly to put Indian hotel industry on global tourism map. 

M.S. Oberoi was born on August 15, 1898, in the erstwhile undivided Punjab, now in Pakistan. He did his early schooling in Rawalpindi and completed his graduation from Lahore. In 1922, to escape the epidemic of Plague, he came to Shimla, and got a job of front desk clerk, at The Cecil Hotel at a salary of Rs 50 per month. 

M.S. Oberoi was a quick learner and shouldered many additional

responsibilities along with the job of desk clerk. M. S. Oberoi's diligence prompted Mr. Clarke to request Mohan Singh Oberoi to assist him when he acquired Clarkes Hotel. At the Clarkes Hotel, M.S. Oberoi gained first hand experience in all aspects of hotel operations.

In 1934, M.S. Oberoi acquired The Clarkes Hotel from his mentor, by mortgaging his wife's jewelry and all his assets. In 1938, he signed a lease to takeover operations of the five hundred room Grand Hotel in Calcutta, which was up for sale following a cholera epidemic. 

In 1943, Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi, acquired the controlling interest in the Associated Hotels of India (AHI) which owned the Cecil, and Corstophans in Shimla, the Maidens and the Imperial in Delhi, and a hotel each in Lahore, Murree, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. He thus became the first Indian to run the largest and finest hotel chain. 

In 1959, The Oberoi Group became the first group to start flight catering operations in India. In 1965, M.S. Oberoi opened the first modern, five star international hotel in the country, The Oberoi Intercontinental, in Delhi. In 1966 he established the prestigious Oberoi School of Hotel Management, recognized by the International Hotel Association in Paris. In 1973, The Oberoi Group opened the 35 storey Oberoi Sheraton in Mumbai. Rai Bahadur M.S. Oberoi was the first to employ women in the hospitality sector.

Today, The Oberoi Group owns or manages 37 luxury and first class international hotels in seven countries. 

M.S. Oberoi was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1962 and in 1972. He was also elected to the Lok Sabha in 1968.

M.S. Oberoi was recipient of many awards and honours. In 1943, he

was conferred the title of Rai Bahadur by the British Government. Other honors include admission to the Hall of Fame by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA); Man of The World by the International Hotel Association (IHA) New York; named by Newsweek as one of the "Elite Winners of 1978" and the PHDCCI Millennium award in 2000. M.S. Oberoi was honored with Padma Bhushan in 2001. 

M.S. Oberoi passed away on May 3, 2002 at the age of 103.

Mukesh Ambani ProfileBorn: April 19, 1957Achievement: Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, India's largest private sector company; Chosen as ET Business Leader of the Year 2006; Ranked 42nd among the World's Most Respected Business Leaders and second among the four Indian CEOs featured in a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and published in Financial Times, London, November 2004. 

Mukesh Ambani is the face of new emerging India. He is the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, India's largest private sector company.

Mukesh Ambani was born on April 19, 1957 in Mumbai. His father Dhirubhai Ambani was then a small businessman who later on rose to become one of the legends of Indian industry. Mukesh Ambani did his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from University of Bombay and Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University, USA. 

Mukesh Ambani joined Reliance in 1981 and was the brain behind

Reliance's backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals. During the process of backward integration, Mukesh Ambani led the creation of 51 new, world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that raised Reliance's manufacturing capacities manifold. 

World's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar is the brainchild of Mukesh Ambani. He was also the incharge of Dhirubhai's dream project Reliance Infocomm. But after the split in the Reliance Empire, Reliance Infocomm went to his brother Anil Ambani. Mukesh Ambani is now planning to enter retail sector in a big way. He has plans to establish big retail stores all over the country. Recently, he also entered into an agreement with Haryana Government to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with an investment running into thousands of crores.

Mukesh Ambani has many achievements and honours to his name. Mukesh Ambani was chosen as the ET Business leader of the Year 2006. He was ranked 42nd among the World's Most Respected Business Leaders and second among the four Indian CEOs featured in a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and published in Financial Times, London, November 2004. He was conferred the World Communication Award for the Most Influential Person in Telecommunications in 2004 by Total Telecom, October, 2004. Mukesh Ambani was also conferred the Asia Society Leadership Award by the Asia Society, Washington D.C., USA,

Nandan Nilekani ProfileAchievement: CEO and Managing Director of the Infosys; Conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2006. 

Nandan Nilekani is the CEO and managing director of the Infosys. Along with Narayan Murthy, he was one of the co-founders of Infosys. He has served as a director on the company's board since its inception in 1981. Before assuming the post of CEO in March 2002, Nandan Nilekani held the post of Managing Director, President and Chief Operating Officer. 

Nandan Nilekani was born in Bangalore. His father Mohan Nilekani was a manager in Minerva Mills. Nandan Nilekani had his initial schooling in Bangalore. Due to his father's transferable job Nandan moved to his uncle's place at Dharwad at the age of 12. This taught Nandan Nilekani to be independent. In 1973, at the age of 18, Nandan Nilekani got admission in IIT Mumbai. The stint at IIT Mumbai transformed Nandan Nilekani from a small town boy to a confident mature man. The lessons he learnt here-meritocracy; the ability to work as part of a team; hard work; and the importance of giving back to the society-have stood him in good stead.

After graduating in electrical engineering from IIT Mumbai in 1978, Nandan Nilekani joined Patni Computers. Here he worked under Narayan Murthy. Three years later in 1981, Nandan Nilekani along with Narayan Murthy and five other co-founders founded Infosys. While Narayan Murthy stayed in India, Nandan Nilekani shifted to the US to take care of Infosys' interests there. He was the company's marketing face.

In 1980s and 90s Nandan Nilekani and his team worked hard to build Infosys. Today Infosys' success story has become a legend in India's corporate history. Today, Infosys has an employee strength of 58,000, annual revenue of $2 billion and $21 billion capitalization.

Nandan Nilekani is recipient of several honors and awards. In January

2006, Nandan became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board. He figures among one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, 2006. In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in field of economy, economic sciences and politics. In 2006, Nandan Nilekani was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors of India.

Narayana Murthy Profile

Born: August 20, 1946Achievement: One of the founders of Infosys Technologies Limited; Chosen as the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst and Young 

Narayana Murthy is the Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited. He is a living legend and an epitome of the fact that honesty, transparency, and moral integrity are not at variance with business acumen. He set new standards in corporate governance and morality when he stepped down as the Executive Chairman of Infosys at the age of 60. 

Born on August 20, 1946, N.R. Narayana Murthy is a B.E. Electrical from University of Mysore (1967) and M.Tech from IIT Kanpur (1969). Narayan Murthy began his career with Patni Computer Systems in Pune. In 1981, Narayana Murthy founded Infosys with six other software professionals. In 1987, Infosys opened its first international office in U.S.A.

With the liberalization of Indian economy in 1990s, Infosys grew rapidly. In 1993, the company came up with its IPO. In 1995, Infosys set up development centers across cities in India and in 1996, it set up

its first office in Europe in Milton Keynes, UK. In 1999, Infosys became the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ. Today (in 2006), Infosys has a turnover of more than $ 2billion and has employee strength of over 50,000. In 2002, Infosys was ranked No. 1 in the "Best Employers in India 2002" survey conducted by Hewitt and in the Business World's survey of "India's Most Respected Company." Conducted in the same year.

Along with the growth of Infosys, Narayana Moorthy too has grown in stature. He has received many honors and awards. In June 2000, Asiaweek magazine featured him in a list of Asia's 50 Most Powerful People. In 2001, Narayana Murthy was named by TIME/CNN as one of the 25 most influential global executives. He was the first recipient of the Indo-French Forum Medal (2003) and was voted the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst and Young. The Economist ranked Narayana Murthy eighth on the list of the 15 most admired global leaders (2005) and Narayan Murthy also topped the Economic Times Corporate Dossier list of India's most powerful CEOs for two consecutive years - 2004 and 2005.

Naresh Goyal Profilechievement: Founder Chairman of Jet Airways; Recipient of the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006. 

Naresh Goyal is the founder Chairman of Jet Airways, India's largest domestic airline. Jet Airways presently operates over 320 flights daily to 48 destinations, of which five are international. Naresh Goel also figures in Forbes list of Indian billionaires. 

Naresh Goyal completed his graduation in Commerce in 1967 and joined the travel business with the GSA for Lebanese International Airlines. From 1967 to 1974 he learnt the intricacies of the travel business through his association with several foreign airlines. 

In May 1974, Naresh Goyal founded Jetair (Private) Limited to look after Sales and Marketing operations of foreign airlines in India. Naresh Goyal was involved in developing studies of traffic patterns, route structures, and operational economics and flight scheduling. His rich and varied experience made him an authority in the world of aviation and travel. 

In 1991, when the Indian economy was being opened up, Naresh Goyal took advantage of Open Skies Policy of the Government of India and set up Jet Airways for the operation of scheduled air services on domestic sectors in India. Jet Airways started commercial operations on May 05, 1993. 

Today, Jet Airways has evolved into India's largest private domestic airline. Jet Airways has been voted India's "Best Domestic Airline" by several organisations of world-class repute. In 2005, Jet Airways came up with an IPO and it was a huge success. Jet Airways was recently in controversy over its merger deal with Air Sahara. The merger was called off and the too airlines are currently considering arbitration.

Along with Jet's meteoric rise, Naresh Goyal too rose in the entrepreneurial arena. He has won several honors and accolades. These include Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Services' from Ernst & Young in 2000, 'Distinguished Alumni Award-2000 for meritorious and distinguished performance as an Entrepreneur', Outstanding Asian-Indian' award for leadership and contribution to the global community given by the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness, 'Aerospace Laurels' for outstanding contribution in the field of Commercial Air Transport twice, in April 2000 and February 2004. Naresh Goyal also received the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006.

Naresh Goyal ProfileAchievement: Founder Chairman of Jet Airways; Recipient of the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006. 

Naresh Goyal is the founder Chairman of Jet Airways, India's largest domestic airline. Jet Airways presently operates over 320 flights daily to 48 destinations, of which five are international. Naresh Goel also figures in Forbes list of Indian billionaires. 

Naresh Goyal completed his graduation in Commerce in 1967 and joined the travel business with the GSA for Lebanese International Airlines. From 1967 to 1974 he learnt the intricacies of the travel business through his association with several foreign airlines. 

In May 1974, Naresh Goyal founded Jetair (Private) Limited to look after Sales and Marketing operations of foreign airlines in India. Naresh Goyal was involved in developing studies of traffic patterns, route structures, and operational economics and flight scheduling. His rich and varied experience made him an authority in the world of aviation and travel. 

In 1991, when the Indian economy was being opened up, Naresh Goyal took advantage of Open Skies Policy of the Government of India and set up Jet Airways for the operation of scheduled air services on domestic sectors in India. Jet Airways started commercial operations on May 05, 1993. 

Today, Jet Airways has evolved into India's largest private domestic airline. Jet Airways has been voted India's "Best Domestic Airline" by several organisations of world-class repute. In 2005, Jet Airways came up with an IPO and it was a huge success. Jet Airways was recently in controversy over its merger deal with Air Sahara. The merger was called off and the too airlines are currently considering arbitration.

Along with Jet's meteoric rise, Naresh Goyal too rose in the entrepreneurial arena. He has won several honors and accolades. These include Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Services' from Ernst & Young in 2000, 'Distinguished Alumni Award-2000 for meritorious and distinguished performance as an Entrepreneur', Outstanding Asian-Indian' award for leadership and contribution to the global community given by the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness, 'Aerospace Laurels' for outstanding contribution in the field of Commercial Air Transport twice, in April 2000 and February 2004. Naresh Goyal also received the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006.

Dr. Pratap Reddy Profilechievement: Founder of the Apollo Hospital Group

Dr. Pratap Reddy is the founder of the Apollo Hospital Group, India's first corporate hospital group. He revolutionized the whole health care scenario of India and inspired others to follow the suit. Today, India has over 750 corporate hospitals all over the country. 

Dr. Pratap Reddy came to India after serving as the Chief Resident of the Worcenter City Hospital in the US to start his practice in Madras with a modest earning of Rs 100/- per day. The idea to establish Apollo Group of Hospitals came when Dr. Reddy lost a patient who couldn't make it to Texas for an open heart surgery. This inspired Dr. Pratap Reddy to create world-class medical infrastructure in India and make it more accessible and affordable to common people. Dr. Reddy's efforts bore fruit when he succeeded in setting up the first center of the Apollo Hospitals Group in Chennai in 1983.

Dr, Pratap Reddy soon followed this with India 's first hospital consultancy body - the Indian Hospitals Corporation - and commissioned two more Tertiary Care Centers in India. Since its inception, Apollo has demonstrated that Indian skills are equivalent to the best centers in the world and has produced world-class results in the most complicated Cadaver Transplant. Today, the Apollo Hospitals Group has over 22 centers in major cities in India and a combined turnover of over US $ 100 million.

Dr Reddy is now spreading Apollo Hospitals Group to other parts of Asia. The group opened its first clinic in Dubai in March 1999 and is coming up with projects in Sri Lanka, Africa, Bangladesh, and Oman. Dr. Reddy is currently looking at secondary health centers in semi urban and smaller cities and has already identified 23 sites for the purpose.

Dr. Pratap Reddy's latest initiatives are "Med Varsity"-a virtual medical university providing total

access to experts in the field of medicine anywhere in the world- and "MEDNET" - Hospital Systems Management package. Both the initiatives are expected to transform health care sector in India.

Rahul Bajaj ProfileAchievement: Chairman of the Bajaj Group

Rahul Bajaj is the Chairman of the Bajaj Group, which ranks among the top 10 business houses in India. The Bajaj Group has diversified interests ranging from automobiles, home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. Rahul Bajaj is one of India's most distinguished business leaders and internationally respected for his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit.

Rahul Bajaj is an alumnus of Harvard, St. Stephen's and Cathedral. He took over the reins of Bajaj Group in 1965. Under his stewardship, the turnover of the Bajaj Auto the flagship company has risen from Rs.72 million to Rs.46.16 billion. Rahul Bajaj created one of India's best companies in the difficult days of the licence-permit raj. He established factories at Akurdi and Waluj. In 1980s Bajaj Auto was top scooter producer in India and its Chetak brand had a 10-year waiting period. 

The initiation of liberalization in India posed great challenges for Bajaj Auto. Liberalisation brought the threat of cheap imports and FDI from top companies like Honda. Rahul Bajaj became famous as the head of the Bombay Club, which opposed liberalization. The scooter sails plummeted as people were more interested in motorcycles and the rival Hero Honda was a pioneer in it. 

The recession and stock market collapse of 2001 hit the company hard and it was predicted that the days of Bajaj Auto were numbered. However, Bajaj Auto re-invented itself, established a world-class factory in Chakan, invested in R&D and came up with Bajaj Pulsar Motorcycle. Bajaj Pulsar is currently a leader in its segment.

Recently, Rahul Bajaj was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.

Ramalinga Raju ProfileBorn: September 16, 1954Achievement: Founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd; Chosen as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services in 1999 

Ramalinga Raju is one of the pioneers of the Information Technology industry in India. He is the founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. 

Ramalinga Raju was born on September 16, 1954 in a family of farmers. He did his B. Com from Andhra Loyola College at Vijayawada and subsequently did his MBA from Ohio University, USA. Ramalinga Raju had a stint at Harvard too. He attended the Owner / President course at Harvard. 

After returning to India in 1977, Ramalinga Raju moved away from the traditional agriculture business and set up a spinning and weaving mill named Sri Satyam. . Thereafter he shifted to the real estate business and started a construction company called Satyam Constructions. In 1987, Ramalinga Raju founded Satyam Computer Services along with one of his brothers-in-law, DVS Raju. The company went public in 1992. With the launch of Satyam Infoway (Sify) Satyam became one of the first to enter Indian internet service market. Today, Satyam has a global presence and serves 44 Fortune 500 and over 390 multinational corporations.

Ramalinga Raju has won several awards and honors. These include Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services in 1999, Dataquest IT Man of the Year in 2000, CNBC's Asian Business Leader - Corporate Citizen of the Year award in 2002 and E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007.

The ever-soaring share prices of Satyam witnessed a sharp decline in December 2008, following a failed acquisition attempt involving Maytas, a company owned by Raju's family. In January 2009, Raju resigned as the Chairman of Satyam after he admitted to major financial wrong-doings. In Januray 2009, Raju confessed of his involvement in inflating the profits of the company for the past couple of years. The 7,800-crore fraud started with an initial cover-up for a poor quarterly performance and assumed massive proportion, with time.

Ratan Tata ProfileBorn: December 28, 1937Achievement: Honored with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in 2000. 

Ratan Tata is presently the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group. Ratan Naval Tata is also the Chairman of the major Tata companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices. He has taken Tata Group to new heights and under his leadership Group's revenues have grown manifold.

Ratan Tata was born on December 28, 1937, in Bombay. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1962. Ratan Tata had a short stint with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles, California, before returning to India in late 1962. He joined the Tata Group and was assigned to various companies before being appointed director-in-charge of The National Radio & Electronics Company (NELCO) in 1971. Ratan Tata was appointed Chairman of Tata Industries in 1981. He was assigned the task of transforming the company into a Group strategy think-tank, and a promoter of new ventures in high technology businesses. 

In 1991, Ratan Tata took over the Chairmanship from JRD Tata. Under him Tata Consultancy Services went public and Tata Motors was listed in the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Tata Motors came up with Tata Indica, the first truly Indian car. The car was the brainchild of Ratan Tata. 

Ratan Tata was honored with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in 2000. He was also conferred an honorary doctorate in business administration by Ohio State University, an honorary doctorate in technology by the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, and an honorary doctorate in science by the University of Warwick.

Raunaq Singh Profile

Born: 1922Achievement: Founder of Raunaq Group; Elected as a member of the Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris 

Raunaq Singh was one of the earliest entrepreneurs of independent India who made it big. He was the founder of Raunaq group. The Raunaq Group's major companies include Apollo Tyres Ltd, Bharat Gears Ltd, Bharat Steel Tubes Ltd, Raunaq International Ltd, Menarini Raunaq Pharma Ltd, and Raunaq Automotive Components Ltd.

Raunaq Singh was born in 1922. After initial struggle he went on to become a powerful figure in corporate India. At one point of time in his life he could afford only one paisa a day for meals and when he retired his group was employing 9000 people on his payroll. 

Raunaq Singh was a great advocate of economic liberalization and globalization of the Indian business. He worked tirelessly to put the Indian industry on the global map. He held several key leadership positions in Industry & Trade Associations. These included President Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), President The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Chairman Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), Chairman Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association, and President Federation of Indian Export Organization. 

Raunaq Singh won several awards for his entrepreneurship. He was often referred as "Mr. Exporter", because of his inclination for exports and export promotion for Indian Industry. Raunaq Singh also won international recognition for his entrepreneurial skills. was elected as a member of the Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris for a three-year term.

Raunaq Singh died on September 30, 2002.

Shiv Nadar Profile

Achevement: Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL), India's largest infotech conglomerate

Shiv Nadar is the Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL), India's largest infotech conglomerate. He figures in the Forbes list of Indian billionaires.

Originally hailing from Moolaipozhi Village,Trichendur,Tutocorin District, Tamil Nadu, Shiv Nadar moved to Delhi in 1968. He worked as an engineer with DCM Ltd. But the entrepreneur in Shiv Nadar wanted to set up his own business. Therefore, he along with six of his colleagues launched a firm making office products like copiers. 

In late 1970s, when IBM quit India, Shiv Nadar's HCL stepped in to fill the vacuum. In 1982, HCL came out with its first computer. Today, HCL derives 80% of its revenue from computers and office equipment. HCL has also been spreading its global reach. Its Singapore subsidiary, Far East Computers, achieved a breakthrough in imaging technology, which, among other applications, enables computers to read handwritten tax returns. 

HCL has adopted innovative practices to achieve growth. In the U.S, a software subsidiary, HCL America, has reaped huge dividends by taking advantage of global time zones. Every morning, the company's Chennai office receives software assignments from the U.S, just after work stops there for the night. A team of Indian engineers, with salaries much lower than those of their American counterparts, complete the jobs and send them back in the evening.

In a short span of time, Shiv Nadar has reached pinnacle of success by his hardwork, vision, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Subhash Chandra ProfileAchievement: Founder of Zee TV, India's first private TV channel

Subhash Chandra is the founder of Zee TV, India's first private TV channel. This onetime rice trader from Hissar, Haryana has today transformed into a media baron and his other interests include packaging, theme parks, lotteries and cinema multiplexes.

Subhash Chandra launched Zee Telefilms Limited in October 1992 as a content supplier for Zee TV - India's first Hindi satellite channel. Subash Chandra was the first in India who sought to harness the huge business potential of satellite television channels. Before the launch of Zee TV viewers in India were under the firm grip of Doordarshan, the state-controlled terrestrial network. It was Subhash Chandra's vision that helped give birth to the satellite TV industry in India and inspired others to follow suit. 

After the launch of Zee TV, he commenced Siticable operations in 1995 and also started a joint venture with News Corp. In 1995, he launched two new channels, Zee News and Zee Cinema. In 2000, Zee TV became the first cable company in India to launch Internet over Cable services.

In 2003, Zee TV became the first service provider in India to launch Direct to Home (DTH) services. In a short span of time Zee TV has become a big media and has give tough competition to international media moghuls such as Rupert Murdoch.

Subhash Chandra's meteoric rise in the past decade is somewhat similar to the rise of Dhirubhai Ambani in 1980s and 1990s.

Subroto Roy ProfileAchievement: Chairman of the Sahara Group

Subroto Roy, is the head of the $10bn (£5.5bn) Sahara Group. Sahara Group has interests in banking, aviation, media and housing.

Subroto Roy began his journey in 1978, when he founded Sahara in 1978 with three workers in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh as a small deposits para-banking business. Today, the group has diversified into a giant business conglomerate with interests in housing, entertainment, media and aviation. 

Sahara Group presently runs a private airline, entertainment and news television channels, a newspaper, and claims to own some 33,000 acres of real estate across India. It also sponsors the Indian cricket and hockey teams and intends to move into life insurance, housing finance, consumer products, sportswear, and healthcare. 

Sahara Group has come up with one of the most prestigious real estate projects in India, namely Amby Valley Project. The project boasts some of the biggest name in Indian entertainment and sports arena as well as some former international Olympic medal winners as its brand ambassadors. Sahara Airline was recently in news for its merger with Jet Airlines. But the deal fell through.

Sahara Group has a huge complex in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The complex is known as Sahara City. Subrato Roy is famous for his flamboyant lifestyle. The wedding of his two sons became talk of the town. The who's who of Indian elite attended it and its expenditure ran into hundreds of crores. Subroto Roy calls himself as the group's "chief guardian".

Sunil Mittal Profile

Achievement: Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group, India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service provider; IT Man of the Year Award 2002 from Dataquest and CEO Of the

Year, 2002 Award from World HRD Congress.

Sunil Mittal can be called as originator of cellular phone revolution in India. He is the founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group and runs India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service. 

Sunil Bharti Mittal's father was an M.P. Sunil did not followed his father's footsteps. After graduating from Punjab University in 1970s, he set up a small bicycle business in Ludhiana in partnership with his friend. By 1979, Sunil Mittal realized that his ambitions could not be fulfilled in Ludhiana, so he moved out to Mumbai from Ludhiana. 

He spent a few years in Mumbai and in 1982, Sunil Mittal started a full-fledged business selling portable generators imported from Japan. This gave him a chance to acquaint himself with the nitty-gritty's of marketing and advertising. His business was running smoothly but later on the government banned the import of generators as two Indian companies were awarded licenses to manufacture generators locally.

In 1986, Sunil Bharti Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) and entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacture of electronic push button phones. Gradually he expanded his business and by early 1990s, Sunil Mittal was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear. 

In 1992, when the Indian government was awarding licenses for mobile phone services for the first time, Sunil Mittal clinched Delhi cellular license in collaboration with French telecom group Vivendi. In 1995, Sunil Mittal founded Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Soon, Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2-million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti Cellular Limited also rolled out India's first private national as well as international long-distance service under the brand name IndiaOne. In 2001, BCL entered into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom International for a $650-million submarine cable project, India's first ever undersea cable link connecting Chennai in India and Singapore. 

Today, Sunil Mittal runs a successful empire with a market capitalization of approximately $ 2 billion and employing over 5,000 people. He has been honored with several awards. Sunil Bharti Mittal was chosen as one of the top entrepreneurs in the world for the year 2000 and amongst 'Stars Of Asia', by 'Business Week'. He also received IT Man of the Year Award 2002 from Dataquest and CEO Of the Year, 2002 Award (World HRD Congress).

Tulsi Tanti ProfileAchievement: Chairman of Suzlon Energy Ltd, Ranks among top 10 richest men of India. 

Tulsi Tanti is the Chairman of Suzlon Energy Ltd, a company dealing in wind energy. He is one of those first time entrepreneurs who saw potential in an inchoate idea, ventured into it, and made it big. Today, he ranks among top 10 richest men of India. 

A commerce graduate and a diploma holder in mechanical engineering, Tulsi Tanti originally hails from Gujarat and is presently based in Pune, Maharashtra. Tulsi Tanti was earlier into textiles. He started his textile business in Gujarat. But he found that the prospects stunted due to infrastructural bottlenecks. The biggest of them all was the cost and unavailability of power, which formed a high proportion of operating expenses of textile industry.

In 1990, Tulsi Tanti invested in two windmills and realized its huge potential. In 1995, he formed Suzlon and gradually quit textiles. Suzlon Energy is the sixth largest wind energy company in the world and the largest in Asia. It is presently building what will be among the world's largest wind parks of its kind at 1,000 MW capacity. 

Suzlon is currently concentrating on global expansion drive. It recently acquired Hansen Transmissions, a Belgian maker of wind-turbine gearboxes. Suzlon is also building a rotor-blade factory in Minnesota and has invested $60m in a factory in Tianjin, China. Tulsi Tanti is poised to make India a wind-power export hub.

Verghese Kurien ProfileBorn: November 26, 1921 Achievement: Known as the "father of the white revolution" in India; Winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award; Awarded with Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), and Padma Vibhushan (1999). 

Dr. Verghese Kurien is better known as the "father of the white revolution" in India. He is also called as the Milkman of India. Dr. Varghese Kurien was the architect behind the success of the largest dairy development program in the world, christened as Operation Flood. He was the chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) and his name was synonymous with the Amul brand. 

Born on November 26, 1921 in Kozhikode, Kerala, Dr. Verghese Kurien graduated with Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940. Subsequently, he did his B.E.(Mechanical) from the Madras University and went to USA on a government scholarship to do his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University. In between, he completed special studies in engineering at the Tata Iron and Steel Company Institute at Jamshedpur, Bihar, in February 1946 and underwent nine months of specialized training in dairy engineering at the National Dairy Research Institute of Bangalore. 

Dr. Verghese Kurien returned from America in 1948 and joined the Dairy Department of the Government of India. In May 1949, he was posted as Dairy Engineer at the Government Research Creamery, a small milk-powder factory, in Anand, Gujarat. Around this time, the newly formed cooperative dairy, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited ((KDCMPUL), was engaged in battle of survival with the privately owned Polson Dairy, which was a giant in its field. Enthused by the challenge, Dr. Verghese Kurien left his government job

and volunteered to help Shri Tribhuvandas Patel, the Chairman of KDCMPUL, to set up a processing plant. This led to the birth of AMUL and the rest is history.

In 1965, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) under the leadership of Dr. Verghese Kurien to replicate the success story of Amul throughout the country. In 1973, Dr. Kurien set up GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) to market the products produced by the dairies. Under Dr. Kurien's stewardship India became the as the largest producer of milk in the world,

During his illustrious career, Dr. Verghese Kurien won many accolades and awards. These include: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1963), Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), Krishi Ratna Award (1986), Wateler Peace Prize Award of Carnegie Foundation (1986), World Food Prize Laureate (1989), International Person of the Year(1993) by the World Dairy Expo, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and Padma Vibhushan (1999).

Vijay Mallya Profile

Achievement: Chairman of the United Beverages (UB) Group; Launched a new domestic airline called Kingfisher Airline; Rajya Sabha M.P.

Vijay Mallya is the Chairman of the United Beverages (UB) Group. He recently launched a new domestic airline called Kingfisher Airline which is making great waves. Vijay Mallya is famous for his flamboyant and flashy lifestyle.

Vijay Mallya is the son of a famous industrialist Vittal Mallya. He assumed the Chairman of the UB Group in 1983 and took the company to great heights. Under his dynamic leadership the group has grown into a multi-national conglomerate of over sixty companies. During this process United Beverages acquired several companies abroad. The UB Group has diversified business interests ranging from alcoholic beverages to life sciences, engineering, agriculture, chemicals, information technology and leisure.

In 2005, Vijay Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines. In a short span of time Kingfisher Airline has carved a niche for itself. It was the first airline in India to operate with all new aircrafts. Kingfisher Airlines is also the first Indian airline to order the Airbus A380.

Vijay Mallya has other interests too apart from business. He has won trophies in professional car racing circuits and is a keen yachtsman and aviator. Vijay Mallya has also won numerous trophies in horse racing including several prestigious Derbies. 

In 2000, Vijay Mallya entered politics superceded Subramaniam Swamy as the president of Janata Party. Presently, he is a Rajya Sabha M.P.

Mallika SrinivasanEconomic Times Businesswoman of the year 2006, she is a well known entrepreneur of India. She has always strived hard to reach for skies, but has deeply rooted her foot into the ground. She is a strong headed woman, who is leading the activities of a Company that is involved in macho business such as tractor manufacturing. She has been able to rise and stand out above all others and make a name for herself in the competitive business world of today. Well, we are talking about Mallika Srinivasan, director of the Rs 2500 crore Amalgamations Group Tafe. Mallika Srinivasan is one of the most successful women CEOs in India. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Mallika Srinivasan, so read on… 

Life History

Born on November 19, 1959 as the eldest daughter of industrialist A Sivasailam, she is the pride of her parents. She was always brilliant in academics. She did her in MA (econometrics) from Madras University. Thereafter, she went abroad to pursue further studies. She did her MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Married to Venu Srinivasan, the CMD of TVS Motor, she is living happily with their two children.

In the year 1986, she planned to join the family business. She was made the General Manager of Tafe (Tractors and Farm Equipment) Company. When she took over the responsibility of furthering the economic wealth and business, the turnover of the Company was Rs 85 cr. Under the expert guidance of her father and the whole hearted support of the team, she brought about a major transformation. She converted Tafe into a hi technology-oriented company, thereby becoming the initial choice of the farmers. There was a period, when the Company had to face a tough time, however; even then, the Company invested a huge amount of over Rs 70 crore in the designing and development of product. 

At present, the Company is earning a business over Rs 1,200 cr. It has been a long journey for the Company, which has witnessed many ups and downs. But, it was the strong determination of this courageous woman that slowly and steadily made the firm climb the ladders of success. Today, the Company has not only found a niche for itself as the leading tractor manufacturer, but also expanded its area of operations. It has also entered into others businesses like engineering plastics, panel instruments, automotive batteries gears, hydraulic pumps, and farm implements.

The company has had a long alliance with Massey Ferguson, which is now a part of Agco. The company is looking forward to exporting fully constructed tractors to Agco. Presently, Agro has a stake of 24% in the company and the rest lies with Simpson & Co. Presently, Mallika Srinivasan is serving as the president of premier industrial bodies like Tractor Manufacturers Association and the Madras Management Association. She is the first lady to have assumed the role of a president of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She is also a prominent member of the governing board of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Naina Lal Kidwai

A prominent personality of the corporate world, she is the first woman to guide the functioning of a foreign bank in India. At present, she is working as the Group General Manager and Country Head of HSBC India. Well, we are talking about the corporate diva Naina Lal Kidwai. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Naina Lal Kidwai.

She was born in the year 1957. Raised in Mumbai and Delhi, she did her schooling from Simla. Alumna of Delhi University, she is the first Indian woman to have graduated from Harvard Business School. She is among the top business women of India, who have made it to the top with their constant hard work and sincerity. To know the complete life history of Naina Lal Kidwai, read on.

She began her career in the year 1982, when she joined the ANZ Grindlays Bank, which is now known as the Standard Chartered Bank. She took up a variety of banking assignments before moving to Morgan Stanley's India operation. She kept climbing the ladders of success. She played an important role in NYSE listing of Wipro. She was instrumental in facilitating the cellular phone services nationwide through a deal involving the Tatas and Birlas. Last November, she became the Managing Director of the HSBC bank. 

In the year 2000, the Fortune magazine declared her as the third most powerful businesswoman in Asia. She is the mother of two children, who is maintaining a great balance between work and home. She is very fond of Indian classical as well as western music. She loves to go on trekking tours to the Himalayas. She is a nature lover, who has a keen interest in observing the wildlife. For her praiseworthy work, Naina Lal Kidwai has received many accolades. Her commendable work has been given due recognition by honoring her with the Padmashri award.

Shahnaz HussainShe is one of the most prominent personalities of the corporate world. She is making a constant effort to beautify the skin of people with her beauty products. She has been continuously striving hard to slow down the aging process and nourish the skin of people and thus make them look younger than their age. Well, we are talking about none other than the ruler of the beauty world, Shahnaz Hussain. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Shahnaz Hussain.

She comes from a royal Muslim family and her father was a very powerful man. She did her schooling from the Irish convent. Since a very young age, she had an interest in poetry and English literature. She grew up in a traditional family, but was privileged to receive modern education. She got married, when she was only fifteen years old. The next year after her marriage, she became a mother. 

When she went to Teheran along with her husband, she developed a keen interest in beauty

treatments. Eventually, she decided to study the cosmetology course. She wanted to be self independent and so she began writing articles for the Iran Tribune on varied subjects. While pursuing studies, she learnt about the harmful effects of chemicals on human body. She studied Ayurveda and believed that it is the best alternative to chemical cosmetics.

After leaving Teheran, she took an extensive training in cosmetic therapy for a long period of 10 years from the leading institutions of London, Paris, New York and Copenhagen. She returned to India in the year 1977 and established her first beauty salon in her abode. Unlike other salons, she did not use chemical cosmetics. Rather, she made use of Ayurvedic products that are absolutely safe on the human body. She has ushered an era of herbal cosmetics. The products launched by her Company head their way to leading global stores such as Blooming Dales (New York), Harrods and Selfridges (London), Seibu (Japan), Galleries Lafayette (Paris), and La Rinaeccente (Milan).

Her beauty products are very skin friendly and give a beautiful glowing look. She has not only been able to tap the markets of India, but made her presence felt in international market too. Now, her aim is to set her foothold in the space. People who go to space usually suffer from skin problems. At present, Shahnaz Hussain is focusing her attention on creating products that can prove to be beneficial for the astronauts. To know the complete life history of Shahnaz Hussain, read on.

Her company Shahnaz Husain Herbals has witnessed tremendous growth throughout these years. She has launched more than 400 different kinds of beauty products. In the contemporary times, people are becoming more and more conscious about the way they look. It is here that Shahnaz Hussain comes to play a major role by providing people with products that can bring the glow back to their skin. 

She has dominated the market from the USA to Asia. During 1990s, the average growth rate of her company, which is based in New Delhi, was nearly 19.4%. In the year 2002, her Company touched $100 million. Her works are real praiseworthy and have been appreciated all over the world. She has received many awards such as "The Arch of Europe Gold Star for Quality", "The 2000 Millennium Medal of Honor", "Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award" and many more.

Sulajja Firodia MotwaniJoint Managing Director of Kinetic Engineering Ltd, she is the in charge of the Company's overall business developmental activities. She is also very well performing the role of the Director of Kinetic Motor Company Limited and Kinetic Marketing Services Limited. Well, we are talking about Sulajja Firodia Motwani. In this article, we will provide you with the biography of Sulajja Firodia Motwani, who has made an incredible contribution in making the firm reach heights of success.

She is a fitness person, who is very conscious about her health. She is very particular about carrying out one or the other activity for keeping fit and active. She has always been

enthusiastic about sports, especially badminton. She has played badminton on the national level. She is also very fond of pursuing adventurous sports like skiing & scuba diving. She tries to spend as much time as possible with her five year old son Sidhant. Read on to know the complete life history of Sulajja Firodia Motwani.

Prior to joining Kinetic Company, Sulajja worked for a period of four years with a well known investment analytics company, BARRA International, based in California. She has been an active participant in setting the operations of the company in India. Throughout her studies, she has been a rank holder. She has always cleared exams with merit. Her name appeared in the toppers list in the SSC examinations and HSC examinations. She graduated from the Pune University. Thereafter, she went to the United States for pursuing further studies. She is an MBA degree holder from the reputed Carnegie Mellon University at Pittsburgh.

She is an epitome of boldness and courage. With her strong determination and courage, she has been able to establish a niche for the firm in the business world. The Company has witnessed tremendous expansion during her tenure. From being a mere moped manufacturer, today, it has set its foothold in the industry as a manufacturer offering a complete range of two wheelers right from mopeds, scooters to motorcycles. 

This major transformation can be attributed to the new competitive business strategy that the Company has adopted, which is driven by the market and customers. Kinetic Company has been constantly coming up with new models to cater to all segments of the society. Sulajja has been instrumental in designing and implementing the marketing strategies of the Company. In the recent times, Kinetic has collaborated with the well known Italian company, Italjet Moto. This acquisition has given full rights to the Kinetic Company to launch seven new scooter models in the country. 

Kinetic is also working in partnership with Hyosung Motors of South Korea. This major collaboration has led to the launching of the most popular Kinetic Aquila and Comet. These motorcycles are very much in demand. Sulajja has played an active role in plotting the course of action for the Kinetic Company. For her great job, she has received many accolades. She has been called upon to deliver speech in a number of public forums. 

"India Today", a well known magazine honored her by presenting her with the title of business "Face of the Millennium". It ranked her among the top twenty five business entrepreneurs of the country. She was presented with the Society Young Achiever's Award for Business in the year 2002. The same year, she was chosen as the "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum. In the year 2003, the Institute of Marketing and Management bestowed her with the award for excellent performance as the woman CEO. She also received the Young Super Achiever Award from the leading magazine "Business Today" in 2003.

Shobhana Bhartia

Born - 1957Achievements - Daughter of renowned industrialist KK Birla, Shobhana Bhartia is the vice-chairperson as well as the editorial director of the Hindustan Times group, which is among India's major newspaper and media houses. In the year 2001, she received the Outstanding Business Woman of the Year award.

Born in the year 1957, the daughter of renowned industrialist KK Birla and grand daughter of GD Birla, Shobhana Bhartia is the vice-chairperson as well as the editorial director of the Hindustan Times group, which is among India's major newspaper and media houses. This lady holds the credit of raising Rs 400 Crore via public equity launch of the HT Media group in the year 2005. Till the year 2004, the Birla family owned 75.36 per cent stake in HT Media. 

Here's more information about the biography of Shobhana Bhartia, who graduated from the Calcutta University and later, wedded Shyam Sunder Bhartia. This particular gentleman is the chairman of the Rs 14 billion Jubilant Organosys Limited, a Pharma company. Shamit Bhartia, their son, is also a member in the HT Media group. At the same time, he operates lifestyle businesses like Domino's Pizza franchise in the country and a convenience store chain in Bangalore city. 

At the time when Shobhana Bharatiya became a member of the Hindustan Times in the year 1986, she was the very first woman chief executive of a national newspaper and in all probability, also among the youngest. Shobhana Bhartia is regarded as one of the crucial people there who played a pivotal role in revamping the image of the Hindustan Times into a "bright and young paper". The life history of Shobhana Bhartia's career is full of achievements. 

Shobhana was nominated the member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament i.e. the Rajya Sabha. Shobhana Bhartia was also handed the Global Leader of Tomorrow award by the World Economic Forum in the year 1996. Then again in the year 2001, she received the Outstanding Business Woman of the Year award. The National Press India Award was given to Shobhana in the year 1992.

Amar Bose ProfileBorn: 1929Achievements: Founded Bose Corporation in 1964; Invented the 901(R) Direct/Reflecting(R) speaker system - one of the first stereo loudspeakers to utilize the space around them instead of reproducing sound as if in a vacuum; featured in 2006 Forbes Billionaires list. 

Amar Bose is the founder of Bose Corporation and is known for his pioneering work in the field of acoustics. Bose speakers are world-famous for giving high-end performance despite their modest size. 

Amar Gopal Bose was born in 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father Nani Gopal Bose was a revolutionary freedom fighter who emigrated from Calcutta to escape British prosecution.

Amar Bose was interested in electronics right from his childhood and used to make small electrical toys to supplement his family's income. He did his schooling Abington Senior High School and graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT in the early 1950s. He also completed his Ph.D. from MIT. 

While doing graduation from MIT in 1950s, Amar Bose purchased a new stereo system. But he was disappointed with the performance of the speakers. Despite their impressive technical specifications, the speakers failed to reproduce the realism of a live performance. This led Bose to start working on stereo speaker. He aimed to design a speaker that would emulate the concert hall experience in the home. Amar Bose's early patents won him great respect within the industry. But Bose needed capital to do further research and begin production. Amar Bose received financial support from MIT professor Y. W. Lee and in 1964 he founded Bose Corporation.

In 1968, Amar Bose invented the 901(R) Direct/Reflecting(R) speaker system. They were one of the first stereo loudspeakers to utilize the space around them instead of reproducing sound as if in a vacuum. Bose's 901(R) speakers remained an industry benchmark for 25 years. Amar Bose also captured the car stereo market, with systems that transformed the on-the-road listening experience. 

Today, Amar Bose has over two-dozen patents to his name. His products can be found in Olympics stadiums, the Sistine Chapel, NASA Space Shuttle, and the Japanese National Theatre. Amar Bose was also a professor of electrical engineering at MIT for many years until he retired in 2000. Amar Bose featured on the 2006 Forbes Billionaires list with a personal wealth of $1.2 billion.

Arun Sarin ProfileBorn: October 21, 1954Achievement: CEO of global mobile telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc. 

Arun Sarin is the Chief Executive Officer of the British based global mobile telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc. He is one of the few Indians to head a global multi national company. 

Arun Sarin was born on October 21, 1954 at Panchmari, Madya Pradesh. His father was an army officer and Arun Sarin did his schooling from military boarding school in Bangalore. After schooling, Arun Sareen joined IIT Kharagpur and graduated in 1975. In 1977, he did his MS in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley and subsequently did his MBA from the same university in 1978. 

Arun Sarin started his professional career in 1978 as an environmental analyst for a Washington, D.C., consulting firm. In 1981, he joined Natomas in California as a corporate development manager. Arun Sarin entered telecom industry in 1984, when he joined Pacific

Telesis Group in San Francisco. At Pacific Telesis Group, Arun worked closely with Sam Ginn, the legendary telecommunications entrepreneur. He worked with Pacific Telesis in various professional and executive positions for 10 years, and was later appointed vice president of corporate strategy. Arun Sarin left Pacific Telesis in 1994 when it split its mobile and paging businesses.

In 1995, Arun Sarin followed his mentor Sam Ginn to a newly formed wireless-communications company, AirTouch Communications. He was President and Chief Operating Officer of AirTouch from February 1997 to June 1999. In 1999, AirTouch and Vodafone, a large British wireless communications company joined hands to create Vodafone-AirTouch. Arun Sarin was made chief executive of the newly formed corporate entity. In April 2000, Arun Sarin resigned from Vodafone-AirTouch and took the CEO position at InfoSpace, an Internet infrastructure company based in Bellevue, Washington. As CEO Arun Sarin led the merger of InfoSpace and Go2Net, a consumer-portal company, for approximately $4 billion in a stock swap.

After an eight-month tenure at InfoSpace, Arun Sarin resigned. In July 2001, he joined Accel Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) to lead a new telecommunications venture called Accel-KKR Telecom. After an eighteen month stint at Accel-KKR Telecom Arun Sarin resigned and on July 30, 2003 he was installed as the CEO of Vodafone.

Indra Nooyi ProfileAchievements: CEO of PepsiCo; Ranked No.4 on Forbes magazine's annual survey of the 100 most powerful women in the world. 

Indra Nooyi is the newly appointed CEO of PepsiCo-the world's second-largest soft drink maker. She joins the select band of women who head Fortune 500 companies. Presently, there are only 10 Fortune 500 companies that are run by women, and Indra Nooyi is the 11th to break into the top echelons of power. Prior to becoming CEO, Indra Nooyi was President, Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of PepsiCo Inc. 

Indra Nooyi spent her childhood in Chennai. Her father worked at the State Bank of Hyderabad and her grandfather was a district judge. She did her BSc. in Chemistry from Madras Christian College and subsequently earned a Master's Degree in Finance and Marketing from IIM Calcutta. Indra Nooyi also holds a Master's Degree in Public and Private management from the Yale School of Management. 

Before joining PepsiCo in 1994, Indra Nooyi was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Strategic Marketing for Asea Brown Boveri, and Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning at Motorola. She also had stints at Mettur Beardsell and Johnson & Johnson. At PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi played key roles in the Tricon spin-off, the purchase of Tropicana, the public offering of Pepsi Cola bottling group and the merger with Quaker Foods. 

Indra Nooyi has been ranked No.4 on Forbes magazine's annual survey of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

Lakshmi Mittal ProfileBorn: June 15, 1950Achievement: World's largest steel maker and the third richest man in the world. 

Lakshmi Mittal has become something of a cult figure in the global steel industry. His company Mittal Steel is the largest steel maker in the world. After the recent merger between Mittal Steel and Arcelor which raged a big debate throughout the Europe, Laxmi Mittal current controls 10% of the total steel production and the combined entity that has come into force post-merger is three times the size of its nearest competitors. 

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 at Sadulpur, in Churu district of Rajasthan, in a poor family. The extended family of 20 lived on bare concrete floors, slept on rope beds and cooked on an open fire in the brickyard in a house built by his grandfather. Laxmi Mittal belongs to Marwari Aggarwal caste and his grandfather worked for the Tarachand Ghanshyam Das firm, one of the leading Marwari industrial firms of pre-independence India. 

The family later on moved to Kolkata where his father Mohan Mittal became a partner in a steel company. Lakshmi Mittal graduated from St. Xaviers in Kolkata with a commerce degree in 1969. He began his career working in the family's steelmaking business in India and in 1976, Lakshmi Mittal founded Mittal Steel Company. He split from his father and two younger brothers in 1994 and took the international arm, with interests in Indonesia and Trinidad and Tobago, while the rest of the family kept the domestic Indian business. In the last few years Mittal Steel has made a number of acquisitions, buying up a network of steel producers in former communist countries including Kazakhstan, Romania and Ukraine, and pushing into the U.S. in 2004 with the $4.5 billion purchase of International Steel Group. Today, Mittal Steel is the only truly global steel producer in the world with operations on 14 countries, spanning 4 continents.

Lakshmi Mittal is also known for his opulence. In 2003, he acquired the Kensington mansion, said to be the world's most expensive home, from Formula One racing's Bernie Ecclestone for £70 million ($128 million). His daughter Vanisha's $50 million wedding bash is touted as the most expensive wedding of the 20th century. 

In March 2006, Lakshmi Mittal was listed as the third wealthiest person in the world after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet by Forbes Magazine.

Sabeer Bhatia ProfileBorn: 1969 Achievements: One of the co-founders of Hotmail; Named by TIME as one of the "People to

Watch" in International Business (2002) 

Sabeer Bhatia is one of the poster boys of Indian success story at Silicon Valley. He is better known as the man who co-founded Hotmail. He later sold it to Microsoft for $400 million and today Hotmail is the world's largest e-mail provider, with over 50 million registered users. 

Sabeer Bhatia was born in 1969 at Chandigarh. He comes from a humble background. His father was an army officer and his mother worked with the Central Bank of India. Sabeer Bhatia had his earlier schooling at Bishop Cotton's School in Pune and later on at St Joseph's College in Bangalore. After passing out from school he joined the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) at Pilani. At Pilani, he qualified to try for a transfer scholarship at Cal Tech, considered to be the world's most competitive scholarship. Sabeer Bhatia was the only applicant in the entire world in 1988 to get a passing score of 62. 

In 1988 Sabeer Bhatia came to America and completed his B.Sc. with honours and earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 1992, while working on his Ph.D., Sabeer dropped out and joined Apple Computers as a systems integrator. He worked for Apple Computer for a year. Then he worked for another startup, Firepower Systems Inc. In 1995, Sabir Bhatia co-founded Hotmail Corporation along with Jack Smith, a colleague at Apple Computers. They launched pioneering web-based e-mail service Hotmail. At the end of 1997, he sold Hotmail to Microsoft for $400 million. Sabeer Bhatia t worked for Microsoft for a year until March of 1999, and then in the middle of 1999 he founded Arzoo.com

Arzoo.com was supposed to be a real-time marketplace for technology related solutions and support. It was envisaged as a platform that would enable engineers, developers and scientists from around the world to monetise their expertise on the one hand, and enable corporations to improve the productivity of their employees on the other. Sabeer Bhatia's vision was to make Arzoo.com, the world's largest human network of intellectual capital. But Arzoo.com failed with the burst of dot-com bubble. In 2006 Sabeer Bhatia relaunched Arzoo as a travel portal. Sabeer Bhatia has also started a new venture called BlogEverywhere with co-founders Shiraz Kanga and Viraf Zack. 

Sabeer Bhatia has won several honors and awards. These include: "Entrepreneur of the Year," award by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (1997); and "TR100" award, presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology in the next few years. He was named by TIME as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business (2002)

Lord Swaraj Paul Profile

Born: 1931 Achievement: Knighted by British Queen in 1978; Awarded Padma Bhushan in 1983. 

Lord Swaraj Paul is one of the most famous Indian origin entrepreneurs, based in Britain. He is

the founder of multinational company Caparo-the UK-based steel and engineering group.

Swraj Paul was born in Jalandhar in 1931. His father ran a small foundry and used to make steel buckets and farming equipments. Swaraj Paul did his graduation from the Punjab University and subsequently obtained a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. After his return to India, Swaraj Paul joined the Apeejay Group, which his father had founded. Destiny took him to London in 1966, where he went for his daughter's Leukemia treatment, and stayed there forever. 

Swaraj Paul started his business in Britain in 1968. After acquiring one steel unit, he went on to acquire more units and founded the Caparo group in the year 1978. Caparo developed into one of the leading producers of welded steel tube and spiral-welded pipe in the UK. In 1996, Swaraj Paul stepped down from the management of the Caparo group and handed over the reins to his three sons. 

Lord Swaraj Paul has won several honors and awards. He was knighted by the British Queen in the year 1978 and became the Lord Paul of Marylebone and a member of the House of Lords. Lord Swraj Paul wrote the biography of Indira Gandhi and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1983. He was bestowed with the Pro-Chancellorship of the Thames University in 1998.

Vinod Dham ProfileBorn: 1950 Achievement: Known as the father of the Pentium processor. 

Vinod Dham is popularly known as the father of the Pentium processor. Born in 1950 in Pune, he had his initial schooling in Pune. He did his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in 1971. Thereafter he had a brief stint with Continental Devices, a Delhi based semiconductor company. 

In 1975, Vinod Dham went to the US and did his Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. After completing his Masters in 1977, Vinod Dham joined the National Cash Register (NCR) at Dayton, Ohio. Vinod was a team member of the NCR's memory design group. He received many patents for his work at NCR. 

While making a presentation at the IEEE conference in Monterrey, California on re-programmable memory, Vinod Dham received an offer from the Intel to work with them. In January 1990, Vinod was in-charge of developing the 586 or Pentium processor. He worked relentlessly on the project and the Pentium processor was a big hit in the market. Vinod Dham rose up the corporate ladder and reached the position of the Vice President of the Intel's Microprocessor Products Group. He quit Intel in 1995.

Thereafter, Vinod joined NexGen, a start-up firm as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President.. When Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) acquired NexGen in 1996, Vinod Dham

looked after the development of AMD's famous K6 Processor, world's fastest personal computer microprocessor. Later on he quit AMD. 

Presently, Vinod Dham is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Silicon Spice, a communications technology development firm.

Vinod Khosla ProfileAchievement: One of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems.

Vinod Khosla is an epitome of Indian success story at Silicon Valley. He is a venture capitalist and is better known as one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems. 

Vinod Khosla came from an ordinary middle class background. His father was in army. At the age of 16, Vinod Khosla read about the founding of Intel. This motivated him to nurture dreams of starting his own technology company. At the age of 20, after graduating in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi, Vinod Khosla started a soy milk company to cater to those people in India who did not have refrigerators. But his venture failed. 

Vinod Khosla went to the US and did his Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. His entrepreneurial ambitions attracted him to Silicon Valley and subsequently he did his MBA from Stanford University in 1980. 

After graduating from Stanford, Vinod Khosla founded Daisy Systems with two other founders. Daisy Systems was the first significant computer aided design system for electrical engineers. The company went on to make huge profits but driven by the frustration of having to design the computer hardware on which the Daisy software needed to be built, Vinod Khosla left the company. 

In Vinod Khosla, started the standards based Sun Microsystems in 1982 to build workstations for software developers. Sun was funded by his long time friend and board member John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. At Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla pioneered "open systems" and RISC processors. He left Sun Microsystems in 1985 and joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in 1986, where he continues to be a general partner of KPCB funds through KP X.

Vinod Khosla also challenged Intel's monopoly by developing Nexgen/AMD. He also conceptualized the idea and business plan for Juniper to take on Cisco's dominance of the router market. Vinod Khosla is also one of the founding fathers of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE), a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992. In 2004, he formed khoslaventures to fund knowledgeable entrepreneurs in their new "social impact" ventures. 

Vinod Khosla has a keen interest in nascent technologies that can have a beneficial effect and

economic impact on society. Presently, he is looking into practicality of the use of ethanol as a gasoline substitute.