India Inc - Nicholas Brealey Publishing

The emergence of India as a future superpower might have been the talk of countless summits and seminars in recent years as global giants and business leaders rush to get up to speed with the fastest-growing economy in the world.

Pota shortlists 10 Indian high achievers who cover every aspect of India’s growing prowess and finds out what these people have done to make it into the big time. Besides a keen focus on information technology, the very bedrock of the country’s corporate reputation and fame, others profiled present a distinctively Indian sensibility towards global expansion in fields as diverse as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, banking, manufacturing, entertainment and green energy.

"His book is an anthology of ten of India’s most successful global entrepreneurs...[and]...it is the diversity in the stories which have both the capacity to inspire and teach. And I don’t believe this understanding is exclusively useful for entrepreneurs. It is important for all as we move into a world economy where these people will have more commercial impact on British business than perhaps Europe and the US."
Professional Manager

Vikas Pota is Managing Director of government relations and communications strategy business, Saffron Chase Ltd. Their award-winning India Practice provides British businesses with advisory services for creating business links in India.

The People:
Narayana Murthy – Non-Executive Chairman & Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies, a Bangalore-based global IT consulting giant
The father of Indian software. As Harvard Business School Professor Tarun Khanna claims, “Infosys stands out on the world stage because it is possibly the most transparent and open company in the world.”

Subhash Chandra – founder of Zee TV, India’s first satellite channel
The man with the Midas touch who claims he can create something out of nothing. Known as the media baron who took on Rupert Murdoch and won, Chandra’s global domination in the field of entertainment remains on course, while his achievements in the global packaging industry are also worthy of note.

Malvinder Singh – former CEO & Managing Director of Ranbaxy, India’s largest pharmaceutical company. Ranbaxy is a prime example of a family-owned business in India that has gone on to diversify and incorporate a world-class professional structure.

KV Kamath – Chairman of ICICI Bank, India’s largest private bank
Took what was a developmental finance institution and turned it into a globally recognised and integrated banking brand.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw – Chairwoman of Biocon India, Asia’s largest biotechnology company
The fact that Kiran Mazumdar Shaw started from scratch and created a global force in Biocon makes her worth examining as a role model. Being a woman might have made it impossible for her to break through the male-dominated world of brewing, but it did not stop her from using her talent in fermentation to find a cure for obscure diseases in the biotechnology sector.

S. Ramadorai – head of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software company
In terms of rising through the ranks on the basis of sheer talent, Subramaniam Ramadorai stands out. He began as a junior engineer in a fledgling Tata business and is now responsible for propelling Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) into the big league to compete with the likes of IBM and Accenture.

Kishore Lulla – CEO of Eros International, India’s largest distributor of films and entertainment From IT to Bollywood might seem like an odd jump, but Kishore Lulla illustrates how a relatively obscure product can become a significant tool for expansion in the right hands. Bollywood films may have been ridiculed as melodramatic and frivolous song-and-dance routines in the past, but their profit margins have forced the world to sit up and take notice. Lulla saw the potential way back in the 1970s and has built Eros International into a media powerhouse ready to take on the world.

Tulsi Tanti – Chairman of Suzlon Energy, the world’s fifth largest supplier of turbines for wind power A Gujarati businessman who had the foresight to realise that energy costs are crucial to the success of any manufacturing firm in India. What started as his need to manage costs soon became a global solution. Tanti’s Suzlon sells turbines to the world and can compete with Al Gore in rattling off carbon facts.

Shiv Nadar – Chairman of HCL Technologies, India’s fourth largest IT company
Another IT leader, started with manufacturing hardware and has successfully made the transition to delivering high-value software consultancy services to some of the world’s largest companies. When his company HCL set up a call centre operation in Belfast, in a single stroke it silenced the critics of outsourcing as a damaging phenomenon that was squeezing jobs away from the West.

Baba Kalyani – Chairman of Bharat Forge, the world’s largest forgings company
Took on the daunting task of changing the image of the manufacturing sector in India away from cheap, low skill and inferior to its Chinese neighbours. Every second truck in the US has a part in it supplied by Kalyani’s firm. Sensing the global slowdown in the auto sector, he’s pushed ahead with diversifying

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