GETTING MAHINDRA Suvs BACK on TRACK
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COVID-19 TESTING INNOVATIONS HEALTHTECH STARTUPS IN FEMTECH SPECIAL RNI REG. NO. MAHENG/2009/28102 RNI REG. NO. PRICE ` 200 JULY 30, 2021 MUKESH AMBANI Chairman & Managing Director HEALTHTECH SPECIAL HEALTHTECH GREEN PLUS GAMBIT GETTING DECODING RELIANCE MAHINDRA INDUSTRIES’ AMBITIOUS SUVs BACK ON TRACK RENEWABLE ENERGY ROADMAP TOWARDS NET CARBON ZERO STATUS BY 2035 FORBESINDIA.COM / VOLUME 13 ISSUE 16 JULY 30, 2021 30, 16 JULY 13 ISSUE / VOLUME www.forbesindia.com The pandemic may have driven home the short point that investing in health will help save lives Letter From The Editor Matters of Life erhaps one way to gauge India’s focus on health wave. The inability to control a devastating second wave would be to look back at the ministers in charge coupled with fl ip-fl ops on the vaccine front may have of the crucial portfolio post-Independence. called for a change in guard, but a bigger takeaway and P It seemed to have started well. The country’s hope is that health may fi nally fi nd its place in the sun. fi rst minster of health and family welfare was Amrit Innovation and entrepreneurship to solve India’s Kaur, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, a member of the pressing problems are core to Forbes India, and this Constituent Assembly, and an advocate for women’s rights. Special Issue on health (and healthtech) delves into areas As health minister when nation-building was the that are both immediate and futuristic. That means deep priority, the Oxford University-educated Kaur was pivotal dives into new solutions to make Covid-19 testing quicker in setting up the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and more accessible, and a bunch of ventures focussed (AIIMS). She was also at the forefront of campaigns to on femtech (which is much more than reproductive rein in malaria and tuberculosis and spearheaded the health), along with a peek into the strides taken in genome world’s largest BCG vaccine programme. sequencing. Another Gandhian in charge of the portfolio in the The Covid-19 pandemic may have driven home the Nehru regime was Sushila Nayyar who, armed with short point that investing in health will help save lives. degrees in public health from the Johns Hopkins School Just as a shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energies will of Public Health, set up the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of ensure life lasts on earth. Medical Sciences, India’s fi rst rural medical college. The Forbes India cover story is on an oil and Yet, when it came to expenditure on health, it may petrochemicals tycoon who has committed to such a have been meagre in the early days of the nation. The 2017 radical transformation. Mukesh Ambani, chairman Economic Survey reckoned that “given the pressing need of Reliance Industries (owner of Network 18, which to redistribute, India did not invest suffi ciently in human publishes Forbes India), announced at the conglomerate’s 3 capital—for instance, public spending on health was an 44th annual general meeting last fortnight a green energy unusually low 0.22 percent of GDP in 1950-51”. It may plan that calls for an investment of `75,000 crore in the have risen since but, as the Survey pointed out, the “little solar and hydrogen fuel sectors. The end game: To become over 1 percent” of GDP is well below the world average of a net carbon zero business by 2035. 5.99 percent. Similar ambitions of global energy giants (but with Try recollecting the last time, pre-Covid, an election longer time horizons) of eliminating carbon emissions, campaign that had health as an issue. What is more, but from Royal Dutch Shell to BP, have had a section of for a handful of notable exceptions, health ministers rarely investors sceptical about the potential for returns. But had backgrounds connected to health, and an actor in then the bigger picture is less about return on investment charge of the portfolio in the early 2000s was clearly not in the short term and more about the war to save the what the doctor ordered. planet. For more on the four pillars on which Reliance’s Last fortnight’s rejig of the Union Health portfolio has Green Gambit will rest, don’t miss Samar Srivastava’s to be seen in the context of an impending Covid-19 third ‘Eyeing Greener Pastures’ on page 20. STORIES TO LOOK OUT FOR Brian Carvalho Editor, Forbes India [email protected] Best, (Left) Mukesh Ambani, chairman and MD, Reliance Industries, has launched an ambitious green energy roadmap; (Right) Veena Moktali is the co-founder of Periwinkle Technologies, which works in the cervical health screening space JULY 30, 2021 • FORBES INDIA JULY 30, ON 2021 THE ☛ VOLUME 13 COVER Contents ISSUE 16 FEATURES IN FOCUS 26 • A NEW TERRAIN Mahindra is reinventing itself to get its SUV business back on track. Will it be a bumpy ride or can the carmaker script a turnaround? 32 • GRIT, GUTS AND GLORY How A Velumani, a landless farmer’s son, built Thyrocare into a billion-dollar behemoth before a surprise sell-off to PharmEasy 38 • HOW HDFC BANK’S CRISES HAVE SPELT GAINS FOR ICICI BANK As the former awaits lifting of credit card ban, rivals gain market share. Can the bank recover lost ground? 42 • WILL ZOMATO’S AUDACIOUS BET ON 4 GROFERS PAY OFF? Despite grocery being a high- risk play with thin margins, IPO-bound Zomato has little option but to take the plunge with a stake in Grofers 78 • STREAMING NOW: BOOKMYSHOW AND ITS PG. 20 FIGHTBACK Battered by the pandemic, BookMyShow is trying to reinvent itself by getting into multiple streams. Can it put up a good show? EYEING GREENER 82 • VALUE TO VALUATION PASTURES Bootstrapping serial Reliance Industries’ bold entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia plan to move into the now has a billion-dollar company in Zeta. Can he green energy space—with script bigger success with an investment of `75,000 external funds? crore—is in keeping with its 2035 net carbon zero 86 • REIMAGINING commitment. It also has BANKING FOR TEENS the potential to catapult FamPay, a neo-banking startup RIL into the largest for teenagers, has whipped up green energy business excitement, but can navigating in India the regulated fintech ecosystem be child’s play? Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani is bullish about Reliance Industries' green gambit FORBES INDIA • JULY 30, 2021 ANIRUDHA KARMARKAR FOR FORBES INDIA PG. 52 PG. 70 The Supreme Court recently said that CoWin creates a digital Veena Moktali (left) and Koustubh Naik, co-founders of femtech divide in vaccine access startup Periwinkle Technologies NEHA MITHBAWKAR FOR FORBES INDIA HEALTHTECH PG. 26 66 • GOING VIRAL: SPECIAL FEAR AND FAKE NEWS 46 • PUBLIC HEALTH Misinformation surrounding CRISIS WITHIN THE Covid-19 vaccines is slowing PANDEMIC the pace of inoculation, and the problem might be more Corporates need larger deep-rooted than we think concerted public policy initiatives for employees with debilitating health symptoms 70 • WHAT WOMEN WANT for months post Covid-19 Femtech startups are trying 5 recovery to change the perception of women’s health as 52 • COWIN: GLOBAL reproductive health, but the AIMS BUT STRUGGLES industry is underfunded and AT HOME has a slow growth Millions in India cannot access Rajesh Jejurikar of Mahindra plans to launch 23 products across the online Covid-19 vaccine passenger and commercial vehicle segments in the next five years 75 • FIXING THE CODE platform, while shortages and Even as genetic-sequencing privacy issues add to concerns technology becomes cheaper PG. 88 and faster, the adoption of 57 • PUT TO THE TEST precision medicine remains limited in India India is innovating solutions to ramp up Covid-19 testing. To what extent can this solve CROSS BORDER issues related to availability, undercounting and delays? 88 • 50 UNDER 50 Meet the inaugural class of entrepreneurs, leaders and 62 • INHALE. EXHALE. creators who are part of INNOVATE an exhilarating movement Noccarc Robotics and redefining life’s second half Biodesign Innovation Labs have built affordable ventilators from scratch to better suit Indian conditions, while meeting global standards Julie Wainwright's The RealReal is now worth $1.3 billion REGULARS ● 8/LEADERBOARD ● 98/THOUGHTS Subscriber Service: To subscribe, change address or enquire about other customer services, please contact: WE VALUE YOUR FEEDBACK: FORBES INDIA, Subscription Cell, C/o Network18 Media & Investments Limited, Empire Complex, Write to us at: [email protected] 414, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400013. Tel: 022 4001 9816 / 9782. 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