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 You
can take a man out of liquor (business, that is) but not the liquor
out of him. Some such physical law-defying rule must be at work,
else how does one explain that Ramesh Vangal, founder-Chairman
of a tech start up Scandent, but more remembered for his successful
stints at Pepsi and Seagram, has angel invested in Katra Liquor,
a newbie headquartered in Bangalore and headed by his one-time colleague
at Seagram, Kaushik Chatterjee? Although the 20-odd-people company
is barely three months old, it already has launched an economy brand
of rum, whisky and brandy called Wild Horse. While Vangal, 49, denies
it vehemently, rumours are that Katra may be talking to UB to buy
some brands. Just the same, the widely-networked Vangal-among his
many close friends is Rajat Gupta, former Managing Partner of McKinsey-isn't
making the switch from hi-tech to hops. "I have just made a
small investment in Katra and it is run by professionals,"
says Vangal.
 A
Twist, Alright
For one who's been both industry veteran and
strategy consultant, spotting a niche should come easily. And so
it has to Patu Keswani, 44, former coo at Indian Hotels and
partner at AT Kearney in Delhi, who has turned hotelier with a 53-room
budget hotel in Gurgaon. Called Lemon Tree-selected from 1,800 options-the
venture, he claims, will offer travellers in India a "high
quality, low economy" option that they have been "denied".
The first Lemon Tree opens doors, pony-tailed stewards and all,
in April, but Keswani, an IIT-IIM-TAS alumnus, is already talking
of taking it to 22 cities over seven years. Watch this man.
 Writer's
Block
For some time now, chairman emeritus of Raymond
and aviation enthusiast Vijaypat Singhania has been working
on his book. Having penned some 80 pages, he seems to have hit a
writer's block of sorts. His publisher wants 80-odd more pages,
but Singhania, who recently tried his hand at movie-making with
a Hindi flick called Woh Tera Naam Tha (it bombed), now wants a
writer who can flesh out stuff he's already written and do some
more research. For the millioniare Singhania finding a writer should
be easy, right? Ordinarily, yes. But he won't brook any style of
writing alien to his, and so far hasn't seen anything he likes.
Any takers?
 Telecom
Trouble
Six months after a Motorola rep and some BSNL
and MTNL officials landed in CBI's net for an alleged tender scam,
people were beginning to think that the Illinois-based telecom giant
may just grin and bear it. It turns out, they were wrong. Pramod
Saxena, Motorola India CEO, has quit ostensibly to set up an
equally-owned joint venture with a South African company to offer
pre-paid cellular phone cards through retail stores. But wags have
it that Motorola may have decided to get Saxena to take the fall
for the unseemly episode-guilty or not. Meanwhile, Saxena is seeking
inspiration from Julia Roberts-starrer Mona Lisa Smile. Why? "(The
movie) is about someone who changes the way others look at things,"
he says, as a statement of his new mission in life. Maybe, Motorola
global CEO Ed Zander should see the movie too-or has he already?
IMF Calling?
It's the second time that Manmohan Singh's
name (the first for RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy) has been tossed
up for the Presidentship of International Monetary Fund, made vacant
by Horst Kohler's decision to run for German presidency. Last time
around in 1999, Jeffery Sachs had suggested Singh's name, and the
advocate this time is Ariel Buira, Director of the G-24 Secretariat.
It's not so much fair play as relevance that Singh's advocates have
in mind. IMF is facing a crisis of credibility, and almost 100 per
cent of its patients are from developing countries. A man like Singh,
then, may be just what it needs. But almost certainly, the Europeans-especially
the Spaniards whose turn it is for the top job-will think otherwise.
 On
Song
Ramesh Ramanathan's new office, he says,
won't be in Mudra Communications' headquarters in Mumbai, where
he joins May 1 as the new Chief Creative Officer & National
Creative Director, but the Jet Airways lounge at airports across
the country. Reason? "My agenda is to create advertising that's
a hit, works hard and is remembered," says the 46-year-old
whose previous big campaigns include those of Titan, TVS Victor,
and Wagon-R. For Ramanathan, who has done stints at O&M, Trikaya
Grey and lately Saatchi & Saatchi, Mudra is a big move up. Let's
hope the agency gains more than Jet Airways.
-Contributed by R. Sridharan,
Shailesh Dobhal, Moinak Mitra, Venkatesha Babu, Roshni Jayakar and
Amanpreet Singh
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