If Swati Piramal has her way, Indian science may soon get an anthem of its own. Piramal, a Director at Nicholas Piramal, has rescued a Rabindranath Tagore composition from oblivion and turned it into a "science anthem". Called Matri Mandir Punya Angana, the song was originally written by Tagore for the inauguration of the (JC) Bose Research Institute in 1917, and was revived by Piramal for the inauguration of her company's R&D centre in November last year. Says she: "I wanted to do something different, and this seemed like a great idea." She first learnt of the song's existence via a Google search and then followed it up with a visit to Tagore's house in Kolkata, where the curator gave her the original recording on a 78-rpm disc. Piramal got it translated from Bengali to English and then to Hindi by Bollywood poet and scriptwriter, Javed Akhtar. It was rendered into a song by Pandit Jasraj. At present, a Prime Minister's advisory committee is looking at the possibility of turning it into a national science anthem.

Inning's Close

As he retires from the unilever board as global Director (Home and Personal Care), Keki Dadiseth brings to an end his 32-year-old association with the company. Starting in 1973 as Manager of the Internal Auditor's Department, Dadiseth rose to be the Chairman of Hindustan Lever (HLL) between 1996 and 2000. He was responsible for the acquisition of Brooke Bond and Pond's, as well as for HLL's foray into direct selling, among other things. From April 1, Dadiseth is slated to join Pru-dential Plc as non-executive director. He is also on the Indian Hotels' board as a non-executive director, and this has led to some speculation that Dadiseth may well be playing a more active role at the Tatas in the near future.

Man Of His Own

Here's another top gun hanging up his boots, but not quite. Early February, Nabankur Gupta put in his papers as group President at Raymond. Gupta, whose career also spanned companies like Philips and Videocon, plans to do consulting of his own. Credited with introducing the concept of sub-branding in India, he has, among other things, a book on his post-retirement agenda, not to mention the consumer durables chain he set up in association with Raymond a year-and-a-half ago. "I have been feeling tired of the corporate world," quips Gupta. A year on, he plans to set up a consulting firm. There's no escaping business, did you say?

Shifting Gear

It's been one of auto industry's worst kept secrets. Anand Mahindra's Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) joining hands with Renault of France to produce the low-cost sedan, Logan, in India. When Business Today went to press, M&M still denied that the contract had been inked, although it acknowledged that an important strategic initiative was to be announced the following week. For Mahindra, who made history of sorts by developing a sports utility vehicle or SUV (Scorpio) from scratch for just Rs 600 crore, the tie-up should mean not just a wider portfolio, but also a return to the passengeer car business (remember the tie-up with Ford?). This time around, it may be a lot harder to push him to the back seat.

CEO Counsel

When A.G. Lafley and Jim Kilts, global CEOs of Procter & Gamble and Gillette, respectively, started talking on a possible merger, they didn't rope in high-profile investment bankers or corporate lawyers. Instead, they relied on their own key executives. However, they did turn to one outsider for counsel, as revealed recently by Lafley in an interview to the Fortune magazine. It was none other than Rajat Gupta, the India-born former Managing Partner of the world's top consulting firm, McKinsey & Co. "I called one person Jim and I trusted, Rajat Gupta, the head of McKinsey, who urged Jim to give me an open-book look at the cost synergies and a look at Gillette's technology into the future," Lafley told Fortune. Gupta no longer heads the firm and is instead its senior partner. But, then, that was never the only reason why powerful CEOs sought his counsel.

-Contributed by R. Sridharan, Priyanka Sangani, Roshni Jayakar, Abir Pal and Shailesh Dobhal