Retail-cum-healthcare consultancy KSA Technopak's Arvind Ainghal is going to celebrate the 10th year of his partnership with the American partner Kurt Salmon Associates by not cutting a cake, but by buying it out. However, KSA will continue to have a technical tie-up with Technopak. So, why doesn't India's best-known retail consultant want KSA as a part owner? So that Technopak can broaden its focus to other areas such as man management, logistics, training, and retail design, where new knowledge partners may be required. Says Singhal, 47: "I want to be responsible for the risks and rewards of the new businesses." Singhal launched Technopak in 1992 after he quit Modern Suitings, where he was Senior VP, and tied up with KSA in 1995. Over the years, he's made his firm a name to reckon with in at least retail consulting, with about a 100 consultants and Rs 25 crore in estimated annual revenues. But Singhal needn't think that he can get by being the firm's sole owner. Some of his senior consultants are already hoping for stock options under the new arrangement.

Goodbye, Bob

Over the last six years, Bob Hoekstra, CEO of Philips Innovation Campus, has been the most outspoken critic of Bangalore's apathetic administration, and now he's had enough. The man who ramped up Philips' it operations from a mere 350 employees to a Euro 50-million, 2000-strong campus, is headed back to Rotterdam and his young grandchildren. "India has changed dramatically in the time I have been here," says the 61-year-old Indophile, pictured here stuck in Bangalore's notorious traffic jam. But Hoekstra isn't completely severing his links with India. He plans to advise companies looking to set up base in the country, besides continue to work with charities such as Hope Foundation and Erin Foundation.

The Other Rajan

Everybody knows Raghuram Rajan, Economic Counsellor at the International Monetary Fund. Now, people will get to know his younger brother, Mukund Govind Rajan. Like his senior sibling, Mukund went to IIT Delhi, but instead of making the predictable entry into IIM (A), landed up a Rhodes scholarship and went on to do a PhD in international relations from Oxford University. Thereafter in 1995, Mukund, 37, joined TAS and ended up at Ratan Tata's office a year later. A director on the boards of Tata Teleservices and VSNL, Mukund has now been elected President of the CDMA lobby group, AUSPI. It's the genes...

Growing Designs

Besides creating the Rs 250-crore Kshitij Real Estate Fund (KVC Fund) to invest in promising retail and real estate ventures, Pantaloon Retail promoter Kishore Biyani, 45, is putting a substantial amount of his own money to try to trigger a design revolution in India. His first step in this direction is an undisclosed investment in Idiom, a Bangalore-based multi-disciplinary design start-up, which he says has the potential to evolve into the next Ideo, a famous design firm based in Palo Alto, California. "I studied design management as a subject and, therefore, this is a very personal investment for me," says the commerce graduate from Bombay University. As the architect of India's biggest retail chain, Biyani has already proved his design credentials.

Woman On The Go

She was the first Indian woman to pass out of the Harvard Business School, and also the first Indian woman to become the deputy CEO of a global bank. And now, Naina Lal Kidwai, 48, may become the first India-based Indian woman to make it to the global board of a multinational corporation as an independent director. It isn't until April next year that Nestle will propose Kidwai's name at the annual general meeting, but her election may be a mere formality. The lady wouldn't comment, but she has reason to feel honoured. Former Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei, L'Oreal director Jean-Pierre Meyers, and former Bank of England governor Edward George are some of the independent directors currently on the board of the Swiss foods giant.

On The Run

Former head of Samsung India's it business, Vivek Prakash's case is getting curiouser and curiouser. Ten months after Prakash, 36, resigned from the company under a cloud, the Korean giant has fought its way through police and courts to bring to book a man it says embezzled money (allegedly Rs 100 crore) from it. Prakash's attempts to have the case dismissed have failed, and non-bailable warrants were issued against him on October 27. Most recently, on November 18, Delhi Police put out "wanted" advertisements in national dailies, implying that the man is on the run. With the Supreme Court rejecting on November 21 his plea for anticipatory bail, Prakash (his mobile phone is switched off) may be running out of options. A shocking twist in the story of a man once said to be Samsung India's star hardware salesman.

-Contributed by Amanpreet Singh, Rahul Sachitanand, Sahad P.V. And Krishna Gopalan