With just days to go before D.S. Brar exits Ranbaxy as its CEO and Managing Director on July 4, the race to woo him over has intensified. Earlier, rumours were that Brar would join a fast-growing pharma company in Hyderabad, but now a Bangalore-based rival is said to be courting Brar with the same brief: create another pharma MNC. But the man himself seems averse to being an employee ever again. "If I wanted to do that I would have continued at Ranbaxy," Brar told BT on his way to Prague to attend a pharma gabfest. "I want to do something on my own." To that end Brar, who recently agreed to join the board of Mphasis after months of wooing, has shortlisted three options, two of which could include turning a venture capitalist or an entrepreneur. "I'll be finalising my plans in another 10-15 days," Brar said. Pharma companies, keep your fingers crossed and just hope that he doesn't turn a competitor.

Turnaround Time

After more than 20 years as a consultant with multinational firms such as KPMG and Andersen, Narayan Seshadri has called it quits. The 47-year-old Chartered Accountant, who most recently was the Managing Director of business advisory services at KPMG, stepped down from his 14-month job in May to pursue "interesting things that you cannot do in a multinational firm". Since then, Seshadri has been working with a couple of small distressed companies in a bid to turn them around. "With a little bit of financial and operational restructuring, a lot of jobs can be saved," says Seshadri. Next on his agenda: A small firm of like-minded people.

Low Tide

Late last year when Anil Agarwal listed his Vedanta Resources (read: Sterlite Industries) on the London Stock Exchange, he pointed to India's huge mineral resources and privatisation of state-owned aluminium and copper companies as reasons why investors should pay $1 billion for 130 million shares in his holding company. While India's mining potential still remains, privatisation under the new United Progressive Alliance looks less certain. Result: Vedanta, which aspires to be a metals major like Britain's Anglo American, is down some 30 per cent since listing. Even a better-than-expected year-end results (delayed by a week because of problems related to converting Indian accounts to UK standards) did not cheer investors. Meanwhile, Agarwal, whom BT could not reach for comment, plans to lick his company into even better shape with greater cost control and product efficiency. But it will take a lot more-and not all of it within Agarwal's control-to talk the stock back up on LSE.

Stealth Mission

Coca-Cola chairman and CEO E. Neville Isdell's secret visit to India last fortnight turned out to be a pr fiasco. The Indian managers of the Atlanta-based beverages maker went out of their way to deny Isdell's visit, even throwing a red herring about him coming in July not June. But Isdell, a Coke veteran recalled from a two-year retirement to head the troubled company in May, did indeed wing into Delhi aboard his jet Gulf Stream 5 and was even spotted at a five-star hotel. So, an occasion to reap reams and reams of newsprint space (not to mention, hours of airtime) turned into a pr disaster. Why did coke managers in India deny, even mislead media about, Isdell's visit? Beats us. An office wag has offered an explanation: Maybe somebody told Isdell that he was visiting not India but Iraq.

Man Friday

More than a decade ago, he was part of the core team that scripted India's reforms story. Now, with his former political boss returning as the Prime Minister of India, the services of Montek Singh Ahluwalia have been requisitioned once more. Except this time around, Ahluwalia, until recently a Director in IMF's Washington, D.C. office, won't be getting a room in North Block but Yojana Bhawan, headquarters to the Planning Commission. That may seem like an odd job for a man widely respected for his economic acumen, but in reality may be Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's way of ensuring that a near-defunct agency returns to being the central think tank it was originally intended to be and not a parking slot for retired bureaucrats that it has turned into of late. But whether Ahluwalia manages to revive the Planning Commission will hinge on something else too-the longevity of the current administration.

"Test" Pilot

Controversy and jet airways Chairman Naresh Goyal seem inseparable. Be it his airline's source of funds or his legendary clout with political powers that be. Now there's a new one: Allegations that Jet has applied for landing slots in prime Asean destinations even though the government is yet to allow private carriers that privilege. Jet's defense: "We have not applied for any slots; we were merely checking on the availibity of these slots," states Nandini Verma, Vice President, Corporate Affairs. As of now, private airlines are only allowed to fly to Saarc countries, and an amendment is only expected in September. Jumping the gun aside, Jet has ambitious plans that include acquiring wide body jets as it eyes destinations like Malaysia, Bangkok and Singapore and eventually Europe and America. Given that long hauls are more profitable, Goyal's impatience is easy to understand.

-Contributed by R. Sridharan, Roshni Jayakar, Sahad P.V., Abir Pal, and Aditya Wali