PATHBREAKERS 2


“It is my time to hang my boots with both anticipation and hope for the future," Deepak Parekh wrote to the shareholders of the Housing Development Finance Corporation for the last time as the chairman. Having stepped into the large shoes of H T Parekh, his uncle, who pioneered the home loan...

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What makes Amitabh Bachchan’s spectacular life and career even more astonishing is that his success has been anything but smooth As careers go, his has been among the most spectacular and a true roller coaster. Amitabh Bachchan has been a megastar in two mediums, first in films and...

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Ajit Balakrishnan launched one of India’s first dotcom companies and his entrepreneurial drive has inspired many younger achievers Serial entrepreneurs are common in the US but there are very few in India. If ever a list is made of this rare species, Ajit Balakrishnan will qualify...

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Dr Ram Buxani has established a reputation as a conscientious and sensitive voice of non-resident Indians Dr Ram Buxani was among those who came to India after the Partition. He had just lost his father and his mother struggled to raise the family. He left the Indian shores for Dubai in...

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Pramod Chaudhari narrates how his innovation in pollution treatment equipment led him to the challenges of climate change Pramod Chaudhari is a man with a penchant for choosing the bigger challenge and the more difficult path. A tough childhood and ordinary schooling did not keep his...

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Shamrao Chougule’s story is one of passion and a rare derring-do that saw him make India produce quality wine For someone who was cutting grass and looking after cattle as a child to be able to produce India’s first champagne is an astounding feat. Shamrao Chougule not only did that but...

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Economist Lord Meghnad Desai does some delightful plain-speaking about the Indian polity Vadodara-born Lord Meghnad Jagdishchandra Desai went straight to secondary school at the age of five, matriculated at 14, was an honours graduate by 18, had a master’s degree before 20 and was a PhD...

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Dr Alka Deshpande has developed an ‘Indian’ method of dealing with AIDS that has been recognised internationally From her secondary school education in a class that was a side-room of a temple at Peth-Wadgaon in Kolhapur, Maharashtra to becoming a WHO-recognised expert in dealing with...

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Dr Keki Gharda’s Gharda Chemicals has repeatedly flummoxed multinationals by its technological virtuosity Once upon a time, he used to bite pens. Now he fidgets with a knife in a cramped office lined up to the ceiling with books that range from Game Theory to the history of the Roman...

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What makes Vinod Gupta a true pathbreaker is the manner in which he is using his wealth As a young lad from tiny Rampur, IIT Kharagpur was a turning point in Vinod Gupta’s life. It opened his eyes to the diversity of India. Since then, there has been no looking back for the man who now...

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As a founder of the TeNet group, Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala has pioneered technologies for the uplift of rural India Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala is a rare academic. He works closely with industry and is driven by a mission to take the benefits of science and technology to rural India. His...

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Adman Prahlad Kakkar works hard at hiding his serious, emotional and intense side, which probably makes for his success This is our most unusual interview so far. Prahlad Kakkar is a regular on the society pages of publications and is quoted on every subject under the sun – from films to...

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Sanjeev Kapoor, who became a top chef at just 27, shares his recipe for success He became a top chef at just 27. He has made television history by conducting the most popular cookery show on TV for 14 years. He then created publishing history by writing books on recipes that have sold...

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The skill-sets that Dr Anil K Khandelwal brought to run Bank of Baroda were born out of empathy and his own personal challenges No other bank chairman in the country is as academically qualified as Dr Anil K Khandelwal. He is a BSc, BE, MBA, LLB and PhD, and holds post-graduate diplomas...

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Uday Kotak recounts the amazing success story of the Kotak group—how he started, the breaks he got and where he is headed In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when non-banking financial services companies were mushrooming to take advantage of the huge gap between deposit and lending rates,...

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Hemendra Kothari, who pioneered investment banking in India, has seen India’s financial sector evolve all the way from state control in the 1960s Hemendra Kothari is one among the few in the Indian financial sector who has seen it all – from the earliest stages of state control in the...

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RK Laxman, the cartoonist who gave India’s ‘common man’ a voice, recounts some unusual moments of a fascinating life At the Times of India, RK Laxman was an enigmatic presence. He couldn’t be disturbed while at work and he chose who he would speak to. He would occasionally walk down the...

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Villoo Patell’s Avesthagen is advancing knowledge in cutting-edge fields like genomics, proteomics and metabolics Villoo Morawala Patell’s youthful looks and exuberant personality hides formidable learning in complex and cutting-edge fields such as genomics, proteomics, sequencing and...

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Shubha Mudgal is among those rare classical singers who understands the need to constantly adapt and use modern technology Shubha Mudgal is one of the most popular and versatile Hindustani classical singers of the newer generation and has won recognition for her grasp over medieval,...

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Dr Ramakant Panda narrates his inspirational story of ascent to the league of the world’s top heart surgeons Dr Ramakant Panda’s name comes up very high on any list of the world’s top heart surgeons who perform high-risk surgeries. Coming from a village in Orissa, Dr Panda was a topper...

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