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Liquor baron: Vijay Mallya
Liquor baron: Vijay Mallya
A flashy business magnate, party animal, and now a politician, Viyaj Mallya is as intoxicating and heady as some of the liquor brands that his company owns. Mallya has announced the launch of Kingfisher Airlines - hoping to leverage the brand equity of the beer brand.
Kingfisher is no more a mere domestic brand and has made inroads in several countries. In India, it leads rivals in both the strong and mild categories, with a 25 per cent share of the beer market.
Steel tsar: Lakshmi Mittal
Indian-born Lakshmi Mittal became the undisputed steel tsar after he announced the merger of his steel assets and following buying of US' International Steel Group in a deal worth $17.8 billion to form the world's largest steel company, Mittal Steel Co.
Mittal has become chairman and CEO of the newly created Mittal Steel, with pro-forma revenues in 2004 of $30 billion and annual production capacity of 70 million tonne.
The London-based steel magnate was also recently selected among 40 people who figure in the Forbes magazine's maiden list of the richest Indians worldwide. Mittal has made his steel empire riding on his ability to spot troubled steel makers, that have the potential to do well.
Mittal's uncanny consistency in spotting such opportunities across the globe, buying them cheap, and then turning them around in profit-making ventures speaks volumes about his style of doing business. He is among the very select few who have changed the sheer landscape of the industry that they operate in.
Oil knight: Subir Raha
At the helm of the $21-billion oil giant Oil and Natural Gas Corp, its chairman Subir Raha has scripted many a new global venture for the company. The year saw ONGC's overseas arm OVL making aggressive bids across continents. ONGC is now the most valuable company in India in terms of market capitalisation, and the most profitable as well, figuring well above the rest from India in the Fortune 500 list.
The Sudan deal is the latest in OVL's series of recent acquisitions of equity oil and gas assets abroad. Raha represents a new breed of PSU chiefs who have taken advantage of globalisation and public sector autonomy. For many decades, both the public and private enterprises were controlled in a big way by various means like controls and licensing. The situation has now changed as public sector is exposed to competition and market forces.
Air wizard: Captain Gopinath
Captain Gopinath is the father of the no-frills airline industry in India. Encouraged by the success of Air Deccan that created a stir among domestic air travellers with offers of airfares as low as Rs 500, many new firms are planning to start budget airlines. Gopinath and his company will be remembered for making air travel affordable to the aspiring middle class in India.
Air Deccan is on a major overdrive and wants to transform itself from a small regional feeder route carrier to a pan-Indian player. It recently signed an agreement with Airbus to expand is fleet. The cornerstone of the aggressive expansion is rock-bottom tariffs to persuade rail passengers to upgrade to air travel.
Mobile maven: Sunil Mittal
Sunil Mittal is telecom's gain and politics' loss. He was born as a politician's son. He could have followed his father to politics like many of his fellow countrymen. After graduation, he decided to start a tiny bicycle business in the 1970s. The rest, as they, is history.
Sunil Mittal saw it coming. As soon as India opened up its markets, he decided to take a plunge. Today Bharti Enterprises has grown up to be one of India's leading private telecom service providers. AirTel is now present in 20 out of 23 circles and has a subscriber base of 95 lakh.
His company has earmarked Rs 3,500 crore in the 2004-05 for investment. His dream project:a $200 million IPO. Mittal wants to build a nation wide private phone giant. He just may do it.
