Who Are Some of the Successful but Not So Well Known Indian Businessmen? I Believe Not Many Would Recognize the Man Standing Next to Bill Gates
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Who are some of the successful but not so well known Indian businessmen? I believe not many would recognize the man standing next to Bill Gates. He is Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, the Chairman of Poonawalla Group which includes Serum Institute of India, India's top biotech company which is among the world's largest makers of vaccines. Born into a family whose decades-old ties to India’s horse racing circuit through the family's owned Poonawalla Stud Farms, by age 20, Dr. Poonawalla realized that horse racing had no future in the socialist India of the time. He first experimented with cars but then he abandoned the idea, realizing that making a product for the masses, rather than India's elite, would be a better idea. A chance conversation with a vet at the farm led Poonawalla into vaccines. At the time, the farm's retired horses were donated to government-owned Haffkine Institute in Mumbai, which made vaccines from horse serum. Poonawalla figured he could take up the challenge of meeting the demand for vaccines in the country by extracting the serum from horses himself and producing cheaper vaccines. He and his brother Zavaray set up the venture in 1966 and began producing vaccines. Since, they had no science background, they hired 10 doctors and scientists from the Haffkine Institute of India. Serum Institute of India launched its first therapeutic anti-tetanus serum within two years, and began producing the anti-tetanus vaccines. Sales finally began picking up when the company won contracts to supply state governments and hospitals. By 1974 they introduced the DTP vaccine, which protects children from diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, followed by an anti-snake-venom serum for snakebites in 1981. In 1989 Serum Institute began the production of its Measles Vaccine M-Vac and within a year Serum Institute became the country's largest vaccine manufacturer. If you were born in or after the 80's like me, most probably your vaccine shots came from Poonawalla's biotech company. It was in the 80's that India was made self-sufficient for Tetanus, Diphtheria and Whooping Cough vaccines thanks to the production from Serum Institute. His primary goal was not only to make life-saving drugs and vaccines, which were in shortage in the country, but also to see that every child was protected. His vision was "Health for all by 2000 AD". The resultant effort was theNational Program of Immunization, which is largely dependent on the vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute. He was awarded a Ph.D. by the Pune University in 1988 for his thesis entitled "Improved Technology in the manufacture of specific Anti-toxins and its socio-economic impact on the Society In 1994, Serum Institute got accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO) to export vaccines from India and started supplying high quality vaccines to U.N. Agencies such as UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) and PAHO (Pan American Health Organization). By 1998 Serum Institute started exporting vaccines to over a 100 countries and by 2000 one out of every two children in the world has been vaccinated by a vaccine of Serum Institute of India. Various vaccines produced by the SIIL. Dr. Poonawalla’s strong belief in quality and the motto "Health for All with affordable Vaccines” has today lead Serum Institute to become India’s leading biotech company producing over a billion doses a year that sell in more than 140 countries around the world. Prince Charles made a private visit to Serum Institute in 2013 as he was keen to know about the manufacture of inexpensive yet high quality vaccines that saves the lives of millions of children across the globe. As per Forbes March 2013 rankings, Cyrus Poonawalla's net worth is $3.9 Billion and is ranked #14th richest person in India & #346th richest person in the world. He has received recognition from International Council for Business Promotion for outstanding achievements and contribution... (more) Upvote • 23+ Comments • Share (19) • Thank • Report • Updated 7 Feb 326 AbhilashPattnaik, Incredible India! Votes by Aditya BhushanDwivedi, SubhakeerthanaSundar Ram, RituLakhotia,AbhisekPattnaik, and 321 more. No human being ever died of poverty. Everything happens because of ignorance. -ArunachalamMuruganatham. I'm about to tell you the story of ArunachalamMuruganatham- Sanitizing the word "Masculine" The inventor of India's only low cost sanitary napkin for women. ArunachalamMuruganantham is an inventor from rural Coimbatore in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India who uncovered the need for an inexpensive solution to unsanitary and unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. He created and patented a machine which could manufacture low-cost sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads. ArunachalamMuruganantham discovered his wife collecting rags to use for her menstrual cycle as their family couldn't afford the commercially available products from multinational corporations. He devised many of his own experiments in an effort to understand the problem. In the beginning he looked for female volunteers who could test his invention, but most were too shy to discuss their menstrual issues with him. He decided to test his inventions on himself, by using animal blood among other methods. His preoccupation of trying to solve the issue of menstruation which is somewhat taboo in India resulted in him being ostracized from his community and family (albeit temporarily). He eventually learned that wood pulp would be the key to a solution, and devised a machine that allows a simple and cost effective pad creation process which can be run with basic training. Muruganantham founded the company, Jayashree Industries, which markets these machines to rural women all over India and provides them employment and a way to uplift them from poverty. His innovation has been praised for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, and his commitment to his society has earned him several awards. Despite offers from several corporate entities to commercialize his venture, he has refused to sell out and continues to provide these machines to self- help groups (SHGs) run by women all over India. Receiving the Best Innovation Award from The President of India - Smt. PratibhaPatil in New Delhi For a detailed analysis and information about his complete venture and business model, this article published in The Economic Times explains it all:Blood, sweat & a few tears: ArunachalamMuruganantham's lessons for consumer product firms Muruganantham's story was the subject of the feature documentary, Menstrual Man (2013). Muruganatham has delivered a brilliant talk at TED (Highly Recommended) Via Aditya BhushanDwivedi. Upvote • 10+ Comments • Share (11) • Thank • Report • Fri 223 Anuja Kulkarni-Kumar, Building QuoraDeck Votes by NehaJha, Chandra MouliKuchimanchi, KomalKubsad, Shewali Tiwari, and 218 more. NehaJha's answer and her reference to ZaverePoonawala, reminds me of this great businessman, a superb example of humanity. He had his driver named Gangadatta with him for the last 30 years on his limousine, which was originally owned by Acharya Rajneesh, and which Mr.Poonawala had bought from him. Gangadatta passed away recently and at that time Mr.Poonawala was in Mumbai on important work. As soon as he heard the news, he cancelled all his meetings, requested the driver’s family to await him for the cremation and he came back immediately by a helicopter. On reaching Pune, he asked his men to decorate the limo with flowers as he wished Gangadatta should be taken in the same vehicle which he drove since the beginning. When Gangadatta’s family agreed to his wishes, Mr.Poonawala sat in the driver’s seat and himself drove Gangadatta in his limousine from the house to the ghat on his last journey. When asked, Mr.Poonawala was very sorrowful and replied that Gangadatta had served him day and night and he could at least do this, being eternally grateful to him. He further added that Gangadatta rose up from poverty and educated both his children very well. His daughter is a Chartered accountant and that is so commendable. His comment in the end is the essence of a successful life in all aspects. "I earned money and successful in life which is nothing unusual, but I should always be grateful to those people who contribute to my success. This is the sanskara I have been brought up with which made me do what I did. " Upvote • 3+ Comments • Share (2) • Thank • Report • 7 Feb 248 Abhiram Ramesh, Ignorance is not an option. Votes by AmarbabuKakumanu, NripinderKaul, Snehil Kamal, VarunPinnamaneni, and 243 more. PhanindraSama, SudhakarPasupunuri and CharanPadmaraju - Founders of RedBus During the winter of 2005, Phanindra had plans to go to his hometown for Diwali but had to struggle a lot to get bus tickets and ended up cancelling his plans. Then, RedBus was born. He wanted a website where passengers could reserve tickets from the convenience of home. Even the return tickets could be purchased, thus removing any doubts about the journey back. After intense study and surveying Phani and his co-founders submitted their plan to a mentorship program and received enough funding to kick start their project. RedBus has now more than 15 million customers..... Last year, RedBus was acquired by a South African company for 800 crore rupees. Upvote • Comment • Share (2) • Thank • Report • Updated Thu 128 Suraj Singh Negi, Startup Guy Votes by Alen George, Meraj Ahmed, Manas Mishra, AnkitPatnaik, and 123 more. From Bootstrapping To $300M In Value, Bhavin M Turakhia, CEO - Directi | Unknown Internet Entrepreneurs, who turned millionaires Late last month, when Nasdaq-listed Endurance International Group announced the acquisition of the web business of Directi, it made BhavinTurakhia, 34, and brother Divyank, 32, richer by over $100 million (about Rs 620 crore).