Roundup: People who made news last fortnight

Wall Street's Desi Scourge

He has appeared on the cover of Time, which called him one of the world's 100 most influential people. Others have dubbed him a modernday Eliot Ness, the American law enforcement official whose crusade against organised crime in Chicago during the Prohibition era was immortalised in the film, The Untouchables. And all that was before Preet Bharara won his most high-profile case.

When a jury in Manhattan found former McKinsey chief and Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta guilty on four out of six counts of securities fraud and conspiracy earlier this month, it was the biggest scalp to date for the 43-year-old Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It was a case that riveted the attention of both India and the US, pitting two successful Indian Americans against each other. After Gupta was declared guilty, Bharara vowed to "continue to pursue those who violate the securities laws, regardless of (their) status, wealth or influence".

Bharara's jurisdiction includes New York City, which makes him one of the most visible and influential federal prosecutors in the US. The position is considered a stepping stone for higher political office. One of Bharara's predecessors is Rudy Giuliani, who later became New York Mayor and also mounted a short-lived run for the American presidency in 2008.

Ever since he was handpicked for the post by President Barack Obama in May 2009, Bharara has won 60 convictions in insider trading cases. He has also created two new units - the Complex Frauds Unit and the Civil Frauds Unit - to go after sophisticated financial crimes. Says James Rosener, a New York-based partner in corporate law firm Pepper Hamilton: "He clearly views white collar crime in the securities industry an important thing to root out, and that if you're the US attorney for New York it's an area you ought to make sure is held to task."

The conviction on all 14 counts last year of Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund, was a huge victory for Bharara. It was the first time an insider trading case had been successfully prosecuted using wiretap evidence, a tool that had formerly been used mostly against mafias and organised crime in the US. The case against Rajat Gupta was an offshoot of the Rajaratnam investigation.

Bharara was born in Punjab's Firozpur district in 1968. A naturalised US citizen, he went to high school in New Jersey and later to Harvard and Columbia universities. He has often pointed to his mixed family roots - his father is Sikh and mother Hindu, while his wife's father is Muslim and mother Jewish - making his a quintessential American success story. And it is a story that is shaping to be a page-turner for years to come.

-Indira Kannan

Bean me up
Early this year, three erstwhile telecom industry stalwarts - Sanjeev Sharma, Parikshit Bhasin and Llyod Mathias announced the launch of their start-up accelerator-cumconsultancy, GreenBean Ventures Pvt Ltd. Bhasin and Sharma helped Nokia with its initial push into India in the mid-1990s - Bhasin as Managing Director and Sharma as head of marketing - Mathias used to be with Pepsi, Motorola and Tata Teleservices. They now want to guide both start-ups and established firms in the mobile devices sector. "We are looking at companies with mass market products," says Sharma. Bhasin expects GreenBean to capitalise on each of their skillsets gained running large companies. The trio wants to be much more than armchair advisers. "We won't be trapped or perceived as consultants. Our core proposition is to accelerate growth," says Mathias.

-Sunny Sen

Thirsting for success
When Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company, visited India recently, he made two important stopovers. First, he visited the Taj Mahal in Agra, the town which marked the re-entry of Coke in India nearly two decades ago. Next he met Preeti Gupta, a vendor whose shop uses solar powered coolers for the beverages - an initiative led by the company. Coca-Cola has enjoyed nearly 23 quarters of uninterrupted growth in India. Says Kent, 60, who went to New Delhi's American Embassy School for two years: "We think this market will be among our top five growth geographies in the next decade. It has already moved up to the seventh spot."

-Shamni Pande

Sniffing Opportunity
Doug Tough, Chairman and CEO of the $3 billion International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. (IFF), was in New Delhi recently to announce the relocation of the company's creative and application centres from Chennai to Delhi. IFF makes flavours and fragrances for soaps, shampoos, detergents, confectionery, ice-creams and so forth sold by companies such as Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. "The flavours' business is a very localised one. Local adaptation is very important" says Tough. India contributes three to four per cent of IFF's global revenues. Born in Canada, Tough was a professional tennis player from 1968 to 1974. He loves travelling, with Sydney his favourite destination, but India rates highly too. "Changes in health and nutrition levels in India are astonishing," he says.

-Dearton Thomas Hector

In the Vortex of Action
In 2008, serial investor Ray Stata was looking for someone to give a much-needed impetus to Vortex Engineering, a rural ATM manufacturing start-up in which he had invested. He spotted Vijay Babu who had successfully started, scaled up and eventually sold off two IT companies. Stata, also co-founder and Chairman of chipmaker Analog Devices, hoped Babu's expertise would get Vortex off the ground, and how right he was. The company has since been selected as one of 'the 10 start-ups that will change your life' by Time magazine and as 'Technology Pioneer' by World Economic Forum in 2011. Says Babu: "You need to be capable of diving deep to fix issues, while at the same time going 10,000 feet to talk to investors on the big picture, all in an hour's time...''

-N. Madhavan