ANIL KAPOOR: Setting a new benchmark

When you have men like Anil Kapoor and Shekar Swamy around, you really don't need to hardsell Indian advertising. Last fortnight, Kapoor, Managing Director of the Rs 750-crore FCB-Ulka, became the only Indian agency head to make it to the global board of the parent company, FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding). Under his 14-year stewardship, FCB-Ulka has become the best managed FCB company across its global network of 190 offices. That apart, the 54-year-old has helped churn out talent for FCB's Asia-Pacific operations, and Lodestar Labcentre's (FCB's media research unit) India office has developed media tools that are now used by the parent worldwide. As a member of FCB's international board, Kapoor is ideally placed to take Indian advertising centrestage on the global arena. Says the gregarious Kapoor: "It's a recognition of the fact that one of the largest US advertising agencies is looking at what Indian talent has to offer."

SHEKAR SWAMY: Plenty to teach

The other man who's doing Indian advertising proud is the media shy, 6 ft 3 inch Narasimhan K "Shekar" Swamy, who was inducted into the Northwestern University's Hall of Achievement, which honours alumni "whose distinctive careers have contributed greatly to their fields". Swamy's agency, RK Swamy/BBDO, is one of the few family-owned agencies to have made it to the top 10. Despite his busy schedule at the agency, Swamy has for the last five years been co-teaching a class in global marketing communication at Northwestern. After his graduation from Loyola College and FMs Delhi, Swamy worked six long years at J. Walter Thompson and thereafter returned to India to join R.K. Swamy. Five years ago, Swamy fell seriously ill and was out of circulation for six months. That, he says, taught him several things. One of which was not to take everything seriously. Now, Swamy likes to describe himself as an "idealist who is simple, but hopefully not staid". Talk about his agency, and Swamy says that the only thing given was "responsibility and loads of other trouble one never bargained for". Now, we know dozens of people who'd give their right arm and leg for trouble like that.

Quest For Respect

ARUN JAIN: Shaking it up

Until recently, Arun Jain led a life in the shadows of India's software stalwarts like N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys and Azim Premji of Wipro. Finally, the 42-year-old's acquisition of Citigroup's OrbiTech last month not just puts him within spitting distance of the big league, but also gives him something infinitely more precious: the big boy aura. Respectability may have come late for the Delhi College of Engineering grad, but he never stopped trying. Born into a middle class family of 10 children (his father started as a clerk in P&T and rose to be a senior director), Jain said no to a US green card sponsored by one of his sisters and decided to stay on in India and do something on his own. Almost a la Bill Gates, Jain and his friends turned code writing into a successful business that, thanks to Citibank India, went on to become Polaris. In the recent past, Jain has also hired some top guns for a push into BPO, where he's scouting for acquisitions for yet another leap. Says Jain with a laugh: "When I was young, my father never thought something good would come of me." Sometimes, being terribly wrong isn't bad at all.

ARUN NETRAVALI: The original nerd

Digital Dreams

When Arun Netravali, chief scientist at telecom hardware major, Lucent, was recently honoured with America's highest award for achievement in technology, the US National Medal of Technology, the word that came to most mind was not 'wow', but 'finally'. For good reason. Netravali, an alumnus of IIT Mumbai, is widely recognised as a pioneer in the field of digital technology, and the man who led Bell Labs' (Lucent's R&D outfit) cutting-edge foray into high definition television. In fact, his work is the basis for systems that use streaming video over the internet, web sites that store compressed video, and multimedia computers. Netravali holds more than 70 patents, is a member of the prestigious Tau Beta Phi and Sigma Xi bodies, and has also taught at MIT and Columbia University. However, the man, who also received a Padma Bhushan from the Government of India in 2001, is a picture of modesty. ''This is a fantastic honor, especially as an Indian to be recognised with an American national award,'' Netravali told BT in an e-mail. Surely, it's that modesty that feeds his hunger for knowledge.