VIDYA CHHABRIA: Power suits her

It's hard enough making it to any kind of power listing. If you are a woman, that too from India, it can be harder still. But beating the odds in a male-dominated corporate world is precisely the reason why Vidya Chhabria and Naina Lal Kidwai are up on Fortune's list of World's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. For Chhabria, widow of Manu Chhabria and chairwoman of the Dubai-based Jumbo Group, it's a first-time honour. Kidwai, CEO and Vice Chairman of HSBC Securities and Capital Markets, was on last year's list too, and this year she's slipped three places, barely making it at No. 50. (Her move from JM Morgan Stanley to HSBC could be a reason for the drop in her ranking, although the lady herself wasn't available for comment.) A surprising omission is Lalita Gupte, ICICI Managing Director and coo, who last year came in at No. 31.

NAINA LAL KIDWAI: Clinging on to her place

Chhabria, however, should be proud. In April 2002, when her husband died, she had no executive responsibilities. Therefore, when she took over the reins, eyebrows went up at the group. Less than six months into the job, Chhabria has more than settled into the role, managing 20,000 of her employees across 20 countries. The companies that she oversees in India include Shaw Wallace & Company, Maharashtra Distilleries, SKOL Breweries, Hindustan Dorr-Oliver, and Mather & Platt, among others, with assets worth $600 million (Rs 2,940 crore). Says she: "The last few months have been a valuable learning experience. I have had to deal with situations that I was not prepared for and quickly develop new insights in the realm of business and commerce."

Manu Chhabria was reputed for playing hardball, and controversy was almost his constant companion. Will his wife-she still does not handle any day-to-day functions, but sets the overall group strategy-bring about a dramatic change in perception? Says Chhabria: "The management discipline closest to my heart is human resource development, and I believe that any organisation is only as capable as its people." Or its CEO.

M&A's Young Turk

SANJAY BANSAL: M&A heavyweight

He is all of 34, but when it comes to M&As, Sanjay Bansal is a veteran of 15-odd deals, worth almost Rs 2,000 crore. His claim to fame? The Rs 440-crore alliance of September 2002, between UB Group and Scottish & Newcastle. But Bansal didn't set out to be a dealmeister. In fact, after his bachelor of commerce at Delhi's Shri Ram College of Commerce and Chartered Accountancy (CA), Bansal prepared for a life of bean-counting. It was only when KPMG offered him a job in its corporate finance division that Bansal get an inkling of his destiny. From KPMG, he moved to Arthur Andersen, which he quit "just in time"-before the Andersen split and the Enron scandal. Says Bansal, currently a Director at Ambit Corporate Finance: "If you can mix CA with business acumen, it's a killer-mix that helps in understanding M&A financial implications, regulations and strategy." Bansal's next target: a deal worth Rs 500 crore-plus. Watch this space.

DINESH DALMIA: Getting 'junked'

Operating Problems

Less than six months after the enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) put out light-blue alerts for Dinesh Dalmia, the controversial Managing Director of DSQ Software is in a spot again. This time, it's the Kolkata police that has decided to seek an arrest warrant for Dalmia for alleged siphoning of funds from the Calcutta Stock Exchange. Trouble for Dalmia started when in May 2000 he made preferential allotment of 1.4 million shares at Rs 675 apiece to three Mauritius-based companies for acquiring San Jose-based Fortuna Technologies. The problem: DSQ shareholders were not told of the allotments. Worse, the acquisition never happened, but some of the shares issued to the three companies turned up in the hands of CSE broker Harish Biyani, who was on the verge of a default. The ED and DRI decided to investigate the share allotment, and since DSQ shares were involved in the CSE badla crisis, the Kolkata police has now joined the fray against Dalmia, who did not reply to BT's faxed questionnaire. But investors, who've seen DSQ Software's price plummet from a high of Rs 2,800 two years to Rs 12 now, have made their conclusion. Says K. Sundaram, Manager, Arkay Stocks, a Chennai-based firm: "It's just junk."

Contributed by: Seema Shukla, Moinak Mitra & Nitya Varadarajan