People Business

Great escape?
At the recent summit of G20 leaders in Seoul, South Korea, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, seemed at home in a way he never appears at Yojana Bhavan. Now we may know why. Ahluwalia could return to the International Monetary Fund or IMF - this time as its head. He was the first Director of the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office, from 2001 to 2004. According to a New York Times report, Ahluwalia,67, is among four notables from the developing world who are being mentioned as a successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the IMF Managing Director. It is no secret that the Oxford-educated Ahluwalia is not the favourite of the states as the plan panel's Deputy Chairman. But he has earned the respect of world leaders and the sobriquet of "wise economist". Life as the IMF chief will not be easy. China is questioning the Fund's independence, and Ahluwalia could be the first non-European to head it. But India's political economy has fettered him. Ahluwalia recently told BT that many ministries do not make use of the exhaustive critiques the Planning Commission puts out. If Ahluwalia gets the job, he will only be too happy to head West. Few, apart from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will miss him in India.

-Puja Mehra

Dripping success
In November, Rajendra Hari Patil, 44, and Hemchandra Patil, 42, farmers from Jalgaon in northern Maharashtra, found themselves at the hallowed portals of Harvard Business School. The duo had made the transcontinental journey from the banana capital of India (Jalgaon accounts for 15 per cent of India's production) to the rarefied environs of the world's most elite B-school. They were there to narrate their experiences of small-scale farming, especially the benefits of drip irrigation and other farming technologies on their crop, along with a Jain Irrigation team that was making its own presentation at Harvard. The benefits to both Patils have been sizeable. Rajendra began with a 1.5-acre plot, but today his holding is seven acres and he has leased another 50 and earns Rs 25 lakh annually. Hemchandra was able to send his elder son to an international school in Jalgaon. "The improvement in my farm's yield and my finances has made me confident that my younger son will follow his brother to the international school one day," he says.

-Suman Layak

Designer spirit
His father Roberto is among the most famous names and brands in the fashion industry, but Tomasso Cavalli, 42, is putting together a style statement of his own. He is focusing on wine and vodka to expand his father's brand name. Tomasso, who heads the vodka and wine business for the Cavalli empire, has a 30,000-bottle limited wine collection called Cavalli Tenuta Degli Dei, and Roberto Cavalli Vodka, which is distilled in Italy. He was in India to evangelise his vodka (it will sell for Rs 8,500 for a 300 ml bottle). "There is a booming market for designer spirits in India and we want to cash in," the shy Tomasso told BT when he stopped over in Bangalore.

-Rahul Sachitanand

Banker storyteller
Yaga Venugopal Reddy, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, had a colourful tenure between 2003 and 2008 as the head of the country's apex bank. It was during his term that the Ramesh Gelli-run Global Trust Bank collapsed and later merged with Oriental Bank of Commerce. and towards the end of his tenure, the global economy, too, tanked. Now, Reddy, 69, hopes to tell all in his third book. "I hope it will be an interesting story to tell, though I won't call it an inside story," he says. While his first two books were compilations of his speeches, lectures and articles, hopefully his third attempt will be a spicier look at the central bank's functioning.

-E. Kumar Sharma

Rising star
He is the ad man behind feted campaigns for products ranging from Happy Dent to Coca-Cola, published the first of his three books when he was just 17 and turned Bollywood lyricist nearly a decade ago with Lajja. In the last decade, Prasoon Joshi has risen from Regional Creative Director, South and South East Asia at McCann Erickson to his current role as Executive Chairman of McCann Erickson Worldgroup India and Regional Creative Director Asia Pacific. Joshi, 40, adds another feather to his cap after being appointed the Chairman of McCann's global creative leadership council. This is the first time ever that an Indian is chairing a global creative council for any global agency. "The world has become a global village. And Indians are being accepted in the generation of creative ideas," says Joshi. So, while he will join creative hot shots such as Washington Olivetto from WMcCann Brazil and Carol Lamb from McCann China on McCann's council, he is not about to give up his current role just yet.

-Anusha Subramanian

Jindal's man of steel
When billionaire Sajjan Jindal was planning to build a house for himself, Anshul Singhal advised him to use steel structures rather than concrete. Jindal agreed, but few companies made these structures in India. So, he decided to make them himself. Jindal hired 25-year-old Singhal and the duo inked a joint venture with Britain's Severfield to set up a structural steel plant at Bellary. Singhal was an intern at the White House during George W. Bush's administration before he landed in India a few years ago to pursue a career in structural steel. Tall structures were rapidly built in the United States, while smaller buildings took years in India. The secret, he discovered, lay in the steel backbone used. Now, he wants to replicate that in India.

-K.R. Balasubramanyam