One way or another, Jaitirth "Jerry" Rao has ensured that he has an action-packed time as NASSCOM's new Chairman. The former Citibanker, who reinvented himself as a tech entrepreneur when he was 44, wants to take the outsourcing debate onto a higher level. "India is already known for its cost-competitiveness and quality, it is time to focus on reliability and security now," says the 50-year-old. Indeed. If there's anything that can derail the great outsourcing gravy train it would be a lack of customer data security. Make customers feel that their data isn't safe in India, and they won't need their government's urging to pull out. His part-time job at nasscom should also hone another skill that Rao has: writing. He already has a book of poems called Gemini II and is working on another volume. But more interestingly, he's also penning his first novel-a murder mystery set 500 years ago. That's just as well. He'll probably need a writer's imagination to fight the outsourcing bogey.

Biotech Billionaire

The queen of Indian biotech is on a high. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, brought a two-year preparation for an IPO to its climax on April 7 as the company's maiden IPO, offering 10 per cent of its stock, got snapped up 33 times over, raising Rs 315 crore. Mazumdar-Shaw, whose father was a brew master, plans to plough that money into expanding her 25-year-old biotech company. Her next target: Hit $1 billion by 2010. There's also the small fact that she is now India's richest woman, courtesy her 40 per cent holding in Biocon, which currently has a market cap of $1.45 billion (Rs 6,525 crore). But she would rather not dwell on her personal wealth, priding herself instead on creating a billion-dollar biotech company through intellectual wealth. Mazumdar-Shaw, who wants more biotech outfits to list, has also created at least four other millionaires in her company. She's got the right genes, alright.

The Search Continues

At 40, the telecom-equipment-distributor-turned-headhunter has padded up for a new inning. Atul Vohra, Managing Partner, Heidrick & Struggles, where he spent six years, has teamed up with college buddy and business associate Uday Chawla to set up Transearch International. "The market was good, but our growth beyond what we achieved (at Heidrick) was static," says the squash enthusiast. What is the search he most prides on? The executive director for who whom he tapped from a global talent pool, recalls Vohra, who likes his Macallan on-the-rocks. In Vohra's business, though, you are only as good as your last search.

Thrust and Spar

When you are Sir Martin Sorrell, losing isn't really an option-even if it's your own shareholders that you are fighting (over a £44-million bonus he's paying himself over the next five years). So, even as Sir Martin, Group CEO of advertising behemoth WPP, won the bonus battle, he has made another move to strengthen his hold over global advertising with the launch of WPP's third global media network Maxus, after MindShare and Mediaedge:cia. The interesting bit: the new network takes shape in Asia-Pacific (including India) as a rebranded version of Maximize. In India, Group M, WPP's media umbrella, will now operate through MindShare, Maxus, Fulcrum, and Zenith. It already accounts for Rs 2,000 crore of the Rs 7,000-crore organised media-buying market. With Maxus, his grip will only tighten.

Flower Power

Corporate social responsibility doesn't always have to be about poverty or environment. For Rajeev Karwal, MD, Electrolux India, it can be something as commonplace as eve teasing. Ergo, with some help from Kalli Singh, Publishing Director of Today (a sister publication of BT), Karwal held the first training camp of "Femme Force" on April 11 in Delhi. "It's a social menace that all of us need to combat," says Karwal. What prompted the initiative? His wife getting eve teased and the rape of a Swiss diplomat in Delhi (Electrolux is Swedish). No doubt, the ace marketer knows how to touch lives.

Breaking Rank

Just when you thought that IIM-Bangalore was going to go down without a fight, its Chairman S.M. Dutta has sprung a surprise on everyone, including some members of the school's board, it seems. Just one day before the Supreme Court was to hear on a public interest litigation challenging the fee cut at IIMs, directed by HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Dutta, who is also the former Chairman of Hindustan Lever, filed an affidavit in the apex court stating its intentions of maintaining the status quo on fees, just like the board of governors at IIM-A, led by Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy, had decided on a few days earlier. However, IIM-B has offered to maintain a non-lien account for the fees in excess of that decreed by the minister. For now, the IIMs can breathe easy. Last fortnight, the sc postponed a hearing on the PIL on the request of IIM-A, which wants to resolve the dispute through talks with the government post-elections. Hopes, however, seem pinned on Joshi not returning to the ministry.

-contributed by Sudarshana Banerjee, Alokesh Bhattacharyya, Moinak Mitra,
Shailesh Dobhal and Supriya Shrinate