IPO
Maruti Udyog

It may have not been the year of the IPO, but it was the year of Maruti's (Managing Director Jagdish Khattar, right) IPO for sure. At a time when the current bull market rally hadn't yet quite taken off, the promoters of India's largest car-maker-the Indian government and Suzuki Motors of Japan-decided it was time to make a public offering. The timing couldn't have been better, and the Maruti issue appears to have opened the floodgates on Dalal Street.

After yielding control to Suzuki for Rs 1,000 crore, the government decided to offer 25 per cent of its holding to the public via the book-building route. After a series of splits from a face-value of Rs 100 to Rs 5, the floor price for the IPO was kept at Rs 115. The issue was oversubscribed 13 times and the government actually ended up retaining 10 per cent of that amount, and the price rose to Rs 125. On the first day of listing, the stock spurted 35 per cent. These days it trades in the Rs 360 range, an appreciation of almost 300 per cent, handily outperforming even this bull market.

-Kushan Mitra

POLITICIAN
Atal Bihari Vajpayee

If there is one person who can walk away with the "Politician of the Year'' trophy without even a murmur of protest, it is unquestionably the 79-year-old Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. His position in history is already assured-as the first non-Congress leader to complete a five-year term leading a 24-party coalition. "His strategy of combining diplomatic repositioning, India's growing economic clout, and military firmness has given the country a new importance in the international league,'' says BJP President Venkaiah Naidu.

It is the PMO that has really been driving the reforms agenda, clearing the air whenever various ministries have squabbled. In fact, at the 50th meeting of the National Development Council last January, the pm not only signalled the government's resolve to accelerate and expand reforms, but also focused on four major development issues: poor governance, barriers to internal trade, creating an investor-friendly climate and empowerment of panchayats. Vajpayee's second innings has just begun.

-Ashish Gupt

M&A
Grasim-L&T Cement

It took its time to happen, but once it did it was certainly worth all the effort put in by the A.V. Birla Group's experienced corporate finance team led by CFO D.D. Rathi (above). Clearly such a think-thank came in good use, what with the acquisition not proving easy. There were the institutions with which Birla had to hectically negotiate with (the FIs are the single-largest shareholders in the company). Finally, after months of to-ing and fro-ing, the L&T management agreed to cede control in the demerged cement company to Grasim. This deal has helped the Birlas become the largest cement manufacturer in India with a combined capacity of around 31 million tones per annum. The closest competitor is the Gujarat Ambuja-ACC combine with around 30 million tones.

As per the three-step demerger plan, L&T will hive off the cement business into a separate company, Cemco, where the parent (L&T) will hold 20 per cent. The entire process is expected to be over by the middle of 2004. At the L&T EGM on February 3, these demerger plans will be discussed. The tough part, Birla will agree, is over.

-Narendra Nathan

CEO
Mukesh Ambani

Controversies, litigation, poor connectivity, rival networks blocking calls and messages...the odds were clearly stacked against Mukesh Ambani's grand telecom blueprint. Despite his detractors writing off Reliance India Mobile (RIM) in early part of 2003, the Chairman of Reliance Industries delivered what he promised in 2002. Within 10 months of launch, RIM has garnered a 23 per cent marketshare in the wireless telephony market (GSM and CDMA), with the backing of 52.13 lakh subscribers (as of November 30, 2003). RIM is adding 30,000 subscribers each day.

There's plenty more to come: Netway, broadband for enterprises, Reliance mobiles with cameras, pre-paid cards, and Java Green Coffee Gourmet shops at Reliance outlets. Seems like Ambani is poised to eat into the marketshare of GSM players in the coming months. 2004 could well be his year too.

-Swati Prasad

BANK
HDFC Bank

The banking sector was doubtless one of the stronger flavours of 2003, but few banks-private or public-can hold a candle to HDFC Bank's quality of assets and earnings, and also its pace of growth, even after reaching a balance sheet size of Rs 30,000 crore. Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank, has plenty to be proud of: a high and sustainable fee income, low cost of funds, a roaring cash management system for stock exchanges and corporates, and a 35-lakh strong customer base, 25 lakh of which are demand accounts. And every month, Puri's adding some 1 lakh accounts.

At the same time, HDFC Bank is opening up newer revenue streams like supply chain management for large corporates, which allows for instant money transfer between a company and its clients. Puri's also filled the one glaring gap that existed in his bank's portfolio- housing finance-by tying up with parent HDFC to market its home loan products for a commission. We could go on, but by now you should be convinced about HDFC Bank's status as India's No 1 bank.

INVESTOR
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

While the stockmarket rallied through the better part of this year, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was driven to exasperation by persistent doubts raised by journalists and fellow investors. "Is this rally for real", "Will a HM/KP kind of scam send the market crashing", were some questions he had to answer virtually every day. Jhunjhunwala saw this rally coming way back in May 2002, when he told a pink daily: "We are at the threshold of a structural and secular bull run...The increase in FII investment is inevitable..." Some scoffed, others ignored him, but a few who did believe him must have surely raked it in. "I am happier that I stand vindicated rather than that I made money," says R.J., who's estimated to have trebled his investments to Rs 600 crore in the current rally.

Confident that the market will stay bullish, Jhunjhunwala is now looking for a new home, taking up a plush 4500 sq feet office in Nariman Point, and is expanding his team from six to 20. When the going gets good, Jhunjhunwala gets going.

-Dipayan Baishya

COMPANY
Reliance Industries

Why do investors love reliance so much? Is it for a) petrochem, b) oil & gas, c) petroleum products marketing, d) telecommunications? It's tough to choose actually from any of these businesses, some in which the Ambanis enjoy supremacy (petrochemicals) and others (like oil & gas and telecom) that promise to add huge new revenue dimensions to the Reliance group. According to the company's estimates, oil & gas could record incremental annual revenues of Rs 10,000 in three to four years.

The other new businesses also appear poised for exciting times. The Ambanis expect to have 1,500 retail outlets for marketing petroleum products by June this year. And the most exhilarating of projections is that Reliance Infocomm-which at one time looked like a monumental blunder-is poised to enter the black in its first year of operations. Small wonder then that Reliance Industries, besides emerging as BT's Most Valuable Company, also bagged "India's Best Managed Company" Award in mid-2003, based on a BT-A.T. Kearney study. For India's No. 1 private sector company with sales of $13.7 billion (Rs 63,020 crore), there are still plenty of more chapters to be written in the Ambani growth story.

B-SCHOOL
IIM-A

Jerry Rao was there. So was M.S. Banga. And K.V. Kamath. And Kishore Chaukar. N.R. Narayana Murthy even worked there. If you haven't guessed by now, we're talking about the hallowed Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). Rao, Banga, Kamath, and Chaukar are all part of the recently founded Alumni Council of IIM-A.

But all these CEOs are creations of the past. What is it about IIM-A that makes it tick today-and in the process the best B-school in India, according to a BT survey? It could be the alumni, and the faculty. And also the institute's method of instruction. The case study format may not be unique to IIM-A, but it's the sheer depth and intensity it injects into a case study that makes it possible to bring it to life. Unsurprisingly then, IIM-A tops the charts in terms of brand equity, enjoying the highest recall amongst MBAs, wannabe MBAs, hr heads, young executives and functional heads. Giving IIM-A a run for its money, however, is IIM-B, which scores higher (albeit marginally) on parameters like reputation, placement, quality of placement and faculty. But at the end of the day, as marketers (not only those from IIM-A) will tell you, it's the brand power that counts.

STATE FOR BUSINESS
Maharashtra

If Maharashtra emerged top dog, in the BT-Gallup survey of The Hottest States For Business, it's with good reason: Superior infrastructure, a vast pool of skilled labour, and an almost endless supply of raw material are just three of them. But, without doubt, what also helps Maharashtra top the charts is the relevance of Mumbai in the Indian economic and industrial scheme of things: Most of the banks and financial institutions are concentrated in Mumbai, the two premier stock exchanges (the NSE and the BSE) are located in this city, and the biggest corporate houses (Reliance, the Tatas, and the A.V. Birla Group) are headquartered in what's still known as Bombay for most of the city's populace.

Of course, it isn't as if everything is hunky-dory in Maharashtra. If Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde wants to hold on to his numero uno status-Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are hot contenders-he's got to get a grip on the security issues that plague the state. The infrastructure too needs to be beefed up, and numerous initiatives that have been blueprinted need to take off fast. Otherwise, Maharashtra may soon lose its position of eminence.

EMPLOYER
P&G

As BT's best employers in India survey reveals, it isn't necessarily the better performing, or the higher profile, or the more aggressive companies that are great havens for their employees to work in. Last year's No. 1 Best Employer was Procter & Gamble (Chairman Bharat Patel, left) a huge name in healthcare and fast-moving consumer goods globally, but certainly not the biggest FMCG player in India (not by a long way). But it certainly does hit the headlines for its employee-friendly culture.

P&G hires freshers straight out of B-school, and empowers them to build the business. For instance it isn't uncommon for virtually fresh recruits to be put in charge of brand launches. What also helps is that the Indian operations are a huge talent pool for P&G worldwide, and it isn't uncommon for two and three-year-young P&G-ITEs to be picked up by other P&G operations in the region. So, if your goal is to become an entrepreneur manager, you know where you should be headed.