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Ratan

Ratan Naval Tata

December 28, 1937 (age 72) Born Bombay, , British

Residence Colaba, , India

Nationality Indian

Ethnicity Parsi

Citizenship India

Alma Cornell University mater Harvard University

Occupation Chairman of

Home town Mumbai, , India

Ratan Naval Tata (born December 28, 1937, in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India) is the present Chairman of and therefore, Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate founded by Jamsedji Tata and consolidated and expanded by later generations of his family. He is also the chairman of major Tata companies such as , , , Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, , The Indian Hotels Company and .

Early life

Ratan Tata was born into the famous , a prominent family belonging to the Parsi community. Ratan is the grandson of Tata group founder Jamsedji Tata. His childhood was troubled, with his parents separating in the mid -1940s when he was merely seven and his younger brother Jimmy was five years old. Their mother moved out and both Ratan and his brother were raised by their grandmother Lady Navajbai.

Early career

Ratan Tata completed his B.Sc. degree in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell University in 1962, and the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 1975. He is a part of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He joined the Tata Group in December 1962, after turning down a job with IBM on the adv ice of JRD Tata. He was first sent to Jamshedpur to work at Tata Steel. He worked on the factory floor along with other blue-collar employees, shoveling limestone and handling the blast furnaces. Ratan Tata, a shy man, rarely features in the society glossies, has lived for years in a book -crammed, dog- filled bachelor flat in Mumbai's Colaba district and is considered to be a gentleman extraordinaire.

Personal life

Mr. Ratan Tata has a metallic blue Maserati and Ferrari California. He sometimes likes to fly his private Falcon Jet himself. He has never been married. He likes to wear Hermès ties and matching handkerchiefs. His share in the whole group is 1%, or a little le ss, valuing his personal holding at approximately US$ 1 Billion, if encashed.

Ratan Tatas͛ revolution

The 624cc four-seater Tata Nano promises to herald a revolution that will change the way India moves .Priced at $2,500 or Rs 1 lakh at the dealer end, the car is the cheapest four- wheeler in the world. This proposition that prompted Tata to think about a people͛s car: Typically, the trigger was a social concern. On a wet August night in 2003 Mumbai, when Tata was driving back home from his office in Flora Fountain, he saw a young couple travelling with their two children on a two-wheeler and was struck by the enormous risks of riding on a wet road. The thought of a small car germinated in his mind and a week later, on a visit to the Tata Motors plant in , he shared his thoughts with MD Ravi Kant. Instinctively, his first query was whether the two-wheeled scooter could be made safe. But somewhere down the line, the ideas ran into a conflict with Tata͛s brief. It was simple: it would seat four, have a low operating cost and meet all safety and emission standards. The team dumped the nascent design and focused on the process of building what would be a car differently. It is not just the risk of com petitors breaking the queue, there is also the changing cost structure .As he told a vendor at a meeting at the company͛s technical centre, ͞If this car clicks, it will be as much your success as ours.͟ The vendors took up the challenge and reengineered their own products and thereby brought down costs by 15 per cent Ͷand in some cases, even more. Indeed the NanoͶwhich means small in Parsi-GujaratiͶturns out to be a font of innovation.

TATA JLR ACQUISITION

In June 2008, India-based Tata Motors Ltd. announced that it had completed the acquisition of the two iconic British brands - Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) from the US-based Ford Motors for US$ 2.3 billion. Tata Motors stood to gain on several fronts from the deal. One, the acquisition would help the company acquire a global footprint and enter the high- end premier segment of the global automobile market. After the acquisition, Tata Motors would own the world's cheapest car - the US$ 2,500 Nano, and luxury marquees like the Jaguar and Land Rover. Though there was initial skepticism over an Indian company owning the luxury brands, ownership was not considered a major issue at all.

JLR's acquisition appeared negative for Tata Motors, as it had increased the earnings volatility, given the difficult economic conditions in the key markets of JLR including the US and Europe. Moreover, Tata Motors had to incur a huge capital expenditure as it planned to invest another US$ 1 billion in JLR. This was in addition to the US$ 2.3 billion it had spent on the acquisition. Tata Motors had also incurred huge capital expenditure on the development and launch of the small car Nano and on a joint venture with Fiat to manufacture some of the company's vehicles in India and Thailand. This, coupled with the downturn in the global automobile industry, was expected to impact the profitability of the company in the near future.

Kishore Biyani

Name Kishore Biyani CEO Education Graduation in commerce Industry Retail Products Discount Stores, Supercenters Country India Company Future Group

Introduction A simple shopkeeper who started off by sold stonewash fabric to ordinary retailer and later became a retail-magnate himself. It is the Kishore Biyani and his extraordinary stunt in the business with unconventional ideas. The man who retained Indian-ness in his modern business concepts be it Pantaloons, Big Bazaar or Central. His favorite mantra-´Rewrite Rules, Retain Values

Back ground

Kishore Biyani belongs to a Rajasthani Marwadi Family settled in Mumbai for more than 60 years now, born in a family of traders on 9th August, 1961, Graduated in commerce from HR College, Mumbai in 1981 and initially joined his father's business. His father belonged to the old school and was a conventional businessman.

A down-to-earth man, Biyani who lives with wife Sangita and two daughters, is a firm believer in the Indian value system. He is proud of being Indian and considers Indian-ness as the driving principle behind the enviable success of his company

Establishment of first Business

As biyani got tired of the business and chose to start a yarn-manufacturing unit, which in those days offered high margins. Of the Rs7 lakh needed, he put onlyRs2 lakh, saved from his trading deals, in his father's business, and borrowed the rest from his family

Pantaloon started in 1987 as Manz Wear Pvt Ltd. Biyani took the company public in 1991, changing its name to Pantaloon Fashions (India) the following year, and then again in 1999 to Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd. Today, the company has approximately 14,000 shareholders.

Biyani's company initially made trousers, which were sold to shops that stocked multi-brand clothes. The response was decent though not overwhelming. The same year he set up a plant at the family's premises in Mumbai installing machinery worth Rs20 lakh borrowed from banks.

The next step was to begin advertising. In the first year, Pantaloon Fashions' advertising budget was Rs17lakh on a turnover of Rs70 lakh leaving Biyani with a profit of Rs8 lakh.

The next step was to position Pantaloon in the office and casuals segment with an all-India network. At a crucial juncture when Pantaloon Retail needed funds to expand and set up its own retail shops to stock everything under one roof, the Ahmadabad-based Arvind Mills, flagship of the Lal bhai group, asked him to market its denim brand. This helped bring in much-needed funds. In 1988-89, the launch of Pantaloon's own brand, Bare Necessities, helped establish Pantaloon in the fashion industry.

Expansion of Business

In 2001, Biyani evolved a pan-Indian, class-less model Big Bazaar, a hypermarket chain, leading to the democratization of shopping in India. With Food Bazaar, asupermarket chain, he blended the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with western hygiene and it has now evolved into the favored destination for Indian homemakers.

Perhaps Biyani is in an unusually good humour because he knows that the chaos will settle down soon enough. Just like it has with his entire business. A big factor, he says, was Big Bazaar Mumbai.

Future group

Kishore Biyani is the Group CEO of Future Group, one of India͛s leading business houses with businesses in retail with multiple businesses spanning across the consumption space; capital and investment advisory services; consumer finance, capital, insurance; brand development, leisure and entertainment,retail media, retail real estate development and logistics.

Led by its flagship enterprise, Pantaloon Retail, the group operates over 16 million square feet of retail space in 73 cities and towns and 65 rural locations across India , has over 1,000 outlets. Headquartered in Mumbai (Bombay), Pantaloon Retail employs around 30,000 people and is listed on the Indian stock exchanges. It was counted among 15 best employers in India in a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates in 2007 in association with The Economic Times.

In 2008, Big Bazaar opened its 100th store, marking the fastest ever organic expansion of a hypermarket. The first set of Big Bazaar stores opened in 2001 in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Through its partner company, Blue Foods the group operates around 100 restaurants and food courts through brands like Bombay Blues, Spaghetti Kitchen, Noodle Bar, The Spoon, Copper Chimney and Gelato. Future Group Companies-

1. Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited Includes-Pantaloons,Big Bazaar Food Bazaar, Central, Ethnicity, KB͛s Fair Price, Loot Mart, Shoe Factory ,Blue Sky, Brand Factory, aLL- ͞a little larger͟,Navaras, Star and Sitara, Fit and Healthy (Wellness n Beauty), Aadhaar 2. Home Solutions Retail India Limited Collection I, Furniture Bazaar, Electronics Bazaar, Home Bazaar, Home Town, e Zone 3. Future Brands Limited John Miller, Lombard, Bare, DJ&C, Buffalo, RIG, Dream line, Tasty Treat, Premium Harvest, Fresh & Pure, Care Mate, Clean Mate, Koryo, Sensei. 4. Future Media (India) Limited 5. Future Supply Chain Solutions Limited 6. Convergem Communication (India) Limited M Bazaar, m Port and GenM, One Search 7. Pantaloon Food Product (India) Limited 8. Future Knowledge Services Limited 9. Future Capital Holdings Limited 10. Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited 11. Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Limited 12. Future bazaar India Limited 13. Weavette Texstyles Limited 14. Winner Sports Private Limited Planet Sports Sports Warehouse Adidas, Converse, Puma 15. Staples Future Office Products Private Limited 16. Talwalkars Pantaloon Fitness Private Limited 17. Converge M 18. Indus League Clothing:- Indigo Nation, Scullers, Urban Yoga, Urbana and their retail formats. 19. Galaxy Entertainment Corporation Ltd The Bowling Co., F 123, The Brew Bar, The Sports Bar, Sports bar Express, Chamosa. 20. Future Consumer Products Limited 21. Future Ventures India Limited 22. Foot Mart Retail 23. Future Human Development Ltd. (FHDL) 24. Agre Developers Limited

Company͛s Joint Ventures- Celio, Staples Inc. USA, Axiom Telecom LLC, UAE, Lee Cooper

Awards 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. 2006 Lakshmipat Singhania - IIM Lucknow Young Business Leader award. 2006 CNBC First Generation Entrepreneur of the Year award. 2008 Retail Face of the Year - Kishore Biyani

IRFAN ALAM SAMMAAN FOUNDATION

INTRODUCTION:-

IRFAN ALAM popularly known as Rickshaw man from Bihar done his graduation in Economics, did his MBA, specialising in International Business from Pondicherry University. Having a keen interest in finance, Irfan has been keeping track of the stock market since he was thirteen. Currently, Irfan heads a company called Matin`s Enterprises in Delhi which specialises in Marketing and stock broking. He is also the founder of SammaaN Women Association, which aims to empower socially descendant women through education, training and livelihood opportunities.Irfan͛s an alumnus of IIM , who founde d Sammaan Foundation, came up with the idea of making a rickshaw ride pleasurable, equipping the vehicles with music, magazines, newspaper and even first-aid kits in addition to refreshments -- be it fruit juices or mineral water -- and advertisements in the front, rear and the sides, all as a value-add to enhance the lot of the indigent rickshaw-pullers. The popular television reality show `Business Baazigar', hosted by Zee TV, came to an end with Delhi resident Irfan Alam bagging the crown for his innovat ive idea of turning around a rickshaw into a luxury vehicle. Twenty-five-year-old Alam has also been selected for `Mini Baazigar' award prior to his crowning as `Business Baazigar' and was given Rs 20 lakh for his ongoing project.

VENTURE:-

Established in Patna in 2007 with 300 rickshaws, today more than 500,000 rickshaws across India were registered with his company. This not only makes it easier for the rickshaw pullers to drive and increase their income through outdoor advertising, but value added service such as sale of mineral water, juices, mobile recharge, courier collection, bills collections also makes it more comfortable and enjoyable ride for the commuter. Nowhere in India but at SammaaN, peddle rickshaw gives every bit of luxury to its passengers. They are the first company to introduce Pre Paid Cycle Rickshaws in India. Hence they have transformed the traditional rickshaw into a marketing engine. Not only this, after airways, SammaaN Rickshaw is the only mode of public transportation where passengers are insured. They are therefore working to organize the rickshaw pulling sector by bringing them under a uniform system. They at Samman follow the system of microfinance. They also provide:-

 Training to their operators apart from uniforms.  Every operator holds a saving bank account since day one. They provide free accidental and health insurance to operators as well as the passengers.  Both operators and their children attend free evening classes under their programme called Sammaan Gyaan.  Maintaining the business ethics, they share a part of the income earned through Value added services with their operators.  They have launched first ͞On Call Rickshaw Service in India͟.

How does the business make money?

Advertising and brand promotion - they do advertising and brand promotion of various companies on their rickshaws. For this purpose they have designed their rickshaws in such a way that it gives ample space to the advertisers to put their advertisement on the side, front and back panels of their rickshaw. They also use their rickshaws for Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertising. In comparison with other modes of outdoor advertising, this is almost ninety percent cheaper. Third party product selling - where sellable items such as mineral water, fruit juices are available in our rickshaws.Opportunity in the segment is huge. In India there are around 10 million rickshaws contributing around 30% to urban transport and manufacturing of rickshaws is also highly fragmented. These rickshaws also carry advertisements and the pullers get 50% of the ad revenue, the remainder going to SammaaN.

COMPETITION:- They are the only company of its kind. There is no organised player in the market, who is offering similar services. However, competition may occur once they grow.They give rickshaws free to the operators. Convincing the bankers to bank upon the unbanked was the biggest challenge so far for their foundation.They used financial inclusion mandate of Reserve for all the banks as a tool to finance rickshaws to the poor rick shaw operators and they were succeeded in it.

ACHIEVEMENTS:-

Irfan had been invited for Presidential Summit, 2010 at Washington by the US President Barack Obama as a part of entrepreneur summit. SammaaN has been active in states like Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand. He is the winner of Business World͛s ͞Most Promising Entrepreneur Award͟.

 He has been selected among ͞40 Youth icons of India͟ by India Today, ͞24 Youth icons of India͟ by India Today Aspire and ͞India͛s Best 30 Youths͟ by Times of India.  Featured in the The Guardian, London and The Economist, he is a finalist of TATA NEN ͞Hottest Startups Awards͟ and winner of World Bank Innovation Award.  He is also the winner of ZEE TV reality show ͞Business Baazigar͟ (First ever Entrepreneur hunt).

KIRAN MAJUMDAR SHAW

Profile

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Born: March 23, 1953) is an Indian businesswoman, technocrat, innovator, and the founder of , the leading biotechnology enterprise based in Bangalore, India. She is the Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon Limited, and Chairman of Syngene International Limited and Clinigene Int ernational Limited.

She started Biocon in 1978 and spearheaded its evolution from an industrial enzymes manufacturing company to a fully integrated bio-pharmaceutical company with a well- balanced business portfolio of products and a research focus on diabe tes, oncology and auto-immune diseases. She also established two subsidiaries: Syngene (1994) to provide development support services for discovery research and Clinigene (2000) to cater to clinical development services.

Early life Born in Bangalore, she had completed her schooling from the city͛s Bishop Cotton Girl͛s High School (1968) and BSc Zoology Honours͛ from Bangalore University (1973). She later did her post-graduation in Malting and Brewing from Ballarat College, Melbourne University (1975).

Biocon

In 1978, she joined Biocon Bio chemicals Limited, of Cork, Ireland as a Trainee Manager. In the same year she started Biocon in the garage of her rented house in Bangalore with a seed capital of Rs. 10,000.

Initially, she faced credibility challenges because of her youth, gender and her untested business model. She found difficulty in funding and recruiting people for start -up. With single-minded determination she overcame these challenges only to be confronted with the technological challenges associated with trying to build a biotech business in a country facing infrastructural woes. Uninterrupted power, superior quality water, sterile labs, imported research equipment, and advanced scientific skills were not easily available in India during the time. Never one to give up easily, she took the challenges in her stride and worked within the limiting circumstances to take Biocon to newer and greater heights.

She is quoted as saying, ͞Success is about pursuing a vision with a sense of purpose and a spirit of challenge. There are no short cuts to success and there is no substitute for hard work. I also believe success is about doing things in a differentiated way - dare to be different so that you stand out. Biocon's byline is ͚The difference lies in our DNA ͛ and we all believe in it. We don't imitate other companies but have charted our own business destiny.͟

Within a year of its inception, Biocon became the first Indian company to manufacture and export enzymes to USA and Europe. In 1989, Biocon became the first Indian biotech company to receive US funding for proprietary technologies. In 1990, she upgraded Biocon͛s in-house research program, based on a proprietary solid substrate fermentation technology.

In 1998, when Unilever agreed to sell its shareholdin g in Biocon to the Indian promoters, Biocon became an independent entity. Two years later, Biocon's proprietary bioreactor, christened Plafractor TM, based on solid matrix fermentation received a U.S. patent and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw commissioned Biocon͛s first fully automated submerged fermentation plant to produce specialty pharmaceuticals. By 2003 Biocon became the first company worldwide to develop human insulin on a Pichia expression system.

In 2004, she decided to access the capital markets to develop B iocon͛s pipeline of research programs. Biocon͛s IPO was oversubscribed 32 times and it͛s first day at the bourses closed with a market value of $1.11 billion, making Biocon only the second Indian company to cross the $1-billion mark on the first day of lis ting. Her belief that healthcare needs can only be met with affordable innovation has been the driving philosophy that has helped Biocon manufacture and market drugs cost-effectively. Philanthropic Activities

In 2004, she started the Biocon Foundation to c onduct health, education, sanitation, and environment programs for the benefit of the economically weaker sections of society. The Foundation͛s micro-health insurance program has an enrolment of 70,000 rural members. The Foundation also provides mobile medical services, and conducts preventive health education programmes and free health-care camps.

She helped establish a 1,400-bed cancer care centre at the Narayana Health City campus at Bangalore, in 2007. Called the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre (MSCC), it i s one of the largest cancer hospitals of its kind.

Personal Life

She is married to John Shaw, a Scotsman and Indophile, who was the Chairman and Managing Director of Madura Coats from 1991-1998. John Shaw is currently the Vice- Chairman, Biocon Limited.

She has a huge collection of paintings and other works of art in her possession.

Awards

Her pioneering work in the sector has earned her several awards, including the prestigious Padma Shri (1989) and the (2005) from the government of India. Highly respected in the corporate world, her path-breaking work in biotechnology has drawn global recognition both for Indian industry and Biocon. She was recently named among TIME magazine͛s 100 most influential people in th e world. She is also on the Forbes list of the world͛s 100 most powerful women, and the Financial Times͛ top 50 women in business list.