What does it take to give an as-old-as-the-hills product a contemporary marketing spin? Apparently, an MBA and a lineage. Zorawar Kalra, the 27-year-old son of well-known food consultant Jiggs Kalra, has launched the Royal Parantha Company, which will sell paranthas and rolls from a cart a la hot dogs and cup-o-corn. Kalra Jr., an MBA from Boston's Bentley Business University, hit upon the idea watching cups of steamed corn fly off carts in Delhi's malls. And, of course, his father had a ready book of recipes for paranthas to get him started in business. Kalra has sunk in Rs 12 lakh for a state-of-the-art central kitchen in Mehrauli from where he will ship frozen paranthas, rotis and meats to his franchisees. What about the inevitable copycats? "I hope to have 50 carts before they even think of starting," he says. His first cart should hit a Delhi mall sometime later this month.

Protégé Problems

He's the angry old man of milk cooperatives. Three years ago, Amul's boss Verghese Kurien picked a running feud with his one-time protégé and Chairperson of NDDB, Amrita Patel, for challenging Amul in the marketplace. Now, it's another protégé of his, K. Prathap Reddy, Director of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), who's caught in Kurien's crosshairs. This time, Kurien, 83, (lifetime) Chairman of IRMA, is up against both Reddy and Patel, who's also a director of the institute. Kurien alleges there's a conspiracy to oust him from IRMA. In a meeting held on April 1, not attended by him, the board appointed a committee to look for a new chairman. The battle is already in a local court, and seems set to go places-literally.

Raising Profile

Finally, one may get to see a lot more of Tata Consultancy Services' low-profile CEO, S. Ramadorai. He's been elected as the Chairman of India's top it association, NASSCOM, for 2005-06, which will mean being in the forefront of all lobbying efforts. Ramadorai, 59, who joined TCS as a trainee engineer in 1972, already has an agenda. He wants to drive home with greater force the role played by the industry both within the country and outside. Knowing the man, he will bring to the mission his customary perseverance and goal orientation. After all, he was the one who gave India its first billion-dollar it company.

Mission Impossible

Ever since he got his pilot's licence at 21, Vijaypat Singhania has flown more than 40 different types of aircraft and made a place in record books, including one for flying solo from Ahmedabad to London (5,420 miles) in a microlight aircraft. Now, at age 67, Singhania, former Chairman of Raymond, is planning to set yet another record. Come November this year, he will attempt to soar 70,000 feet into the sky in a hot air balloon "to touch the face of God" and break the current world record of 64,997 ft. To prepare for the five-hour flight, dubbed mi70k (mi for mission impossible), he's roped in international experts. Why does he want to do it? "I love taking risks and like challenges," he says. Like they say, no guts, no glory.

Eastward Ho!

After more than a decade of domination, but relative isolation, in south India, Sun TV's Kalanithi Maran has made his first foray outside. When BT went to press, the 39-year-old Chairman was close to acquiring Kolkata-based multi-system operator RPG Netcom. That apart, Maran, whose younger brother Dayanidhi Maran is the Union Minister for Communications & it, plans to launch a Bengali channel, Surjo. Even without a presence in west or north, Maran has built Sun into a television network with 12 channels and four fm channels. A more confident Maran is obviously gearing up for a big push. He has already applied for a direct-to-home (DTH) licence, and is said to be mulling launching a newspaper (language not yet decided). The inevitable push into northern India isn't too far into the future either. In fact, he could be here as early as next year.

Good Work, Doc

Had Prathap C. Reddy continued as a doctor in the US, he probably wouldn't have won the honour that's come his way. Recently, the Founder-Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group became the first Indian to be honoured with the Asia-Pacific BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005. Instituted by the Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California, the award recognises his efforts to revolutionise modern healthcare delivery in south Asia. Says Reddy, 72, a doctor who returned from the us in 1983 to launch corporate hospitals: "All the awards that I have received so far were benchmarked against Indian standards This one goes beyond that." Reddy, a Padma Bhushan winner, is taking that as a good omen. In February this year, the group launched an initiative to turn its hospitals from good to great. This, then, is a welcome shot in the arm.

-Contributed by Amanpreet Singh, Shailesh Dobhal, Priya Srinivasan, Priyanka Sangani
and E. Kumar Sharma