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 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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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 millions...

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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, Kotak...

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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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He rose from washing cars and selling vegetables to become an MP.  Here is Shivajirao Patil’s incredible story of self-belief His life story almost sounds like an absurd daydream, not merely because he rose from washing cars and selling vegetables for a living to become a Member of Parliament;...

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Dr AV Rama Rao is the pioneer of outsourced medical research as a business venture in India If outsourced research is the buzzword, Dr AV Rama Rao ought to be its icon. He runs India’s only scientific research lab as a business venture. His company Avra Laboratories provides technical...

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Dr CNR Rao, the world’s foremost solid state and materials chemist, airs his views on where Indian science is headed He is known in India as “Mr Science” and has been conferred an astounding 40 honorary doctorates from all over the world. Dr CNR Rao, the world’s foremost solid state and...

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We don’t know of too many who have achieved so much, so quietly as Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao of the GMR Group Some 30 years ago, Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao used to cycle 25km-30km a day in rural Andhra Pradesh collecting money for the rice, spices, jute or grains that he had supplied. Rao...

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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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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 at 22....

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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 counts Bill and Hillary Clinton among his friends. Vinod Gupta is the founder of InfoUSA Inc., a...

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At the Times of India (TOI), where we have both worked, RK Laxman was always a towering and enigmatic presence that most people would not dare to strike up a conversation with -- he couldn’t be disturbed while at work and chose who he would speak to. Those days, he would emerge occasionally to...

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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 in...

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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 1959...

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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 millions...

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