Subhash Chandra is back on the cricket pitch, with some help from the new "chief umpire" at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sharad Pawar. After a protracted legal battle with BCCI, Chandra's sports channel, Zee Sports, managed to get the cable and satellite telecast rights of the ongoing India-Sri Lanka series. Sure, it was the Delhi High Court's decision (to invite fresh bids for the series and award the rights to the highest bidder) that helped, but the new BCCI President, Pawar, was good enough not to go in for an appeal-something that may well have happened had Jagmohan Dalmiya's nominee Ranbir Singh not been ousted in the recent BCCI elections. "We are entering a new era of solidarity with the BCCI," says a close aide of the Zee Chairman. But didn't Chandra say not too long back that he's had enough of cricket? He did, but simple economics must have convinced him otherwise. For instance, Zee is said to have paid Rs 19 crore to acquire the telecast rights, but it could pull in Rs 50 crore from advertising alone.

Academia Beckons

Even for a man who has donned many hats, including those of the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Defence, External Affairs and Finance Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the latest job offer must have come as a surprise. Equestrian enthusiast and western classical music aficionado, Jaswant Singh has been invited by UK's Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) to come on board as a professor. What is Singh, 67, expected to teach? Apparently, international affairs because of his vast experience in the matter. However, when contacted, Singh said he was "yet to take a decision". The soft-spoken Singh can be assured of one things, though: A more willing audience than he's used to in Parliament.

One For The Kids

Some time soon, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) head honcho,
S. Ramadorai, will put something up for auction on eBay. No, it won't be the first computer the software company used (we wonder if they still have it), but a luncheon date with himself. Why? It's part of a fund-raising campaign that the 60-year-old TCS lifer has got his firm to do for the Society for Rehabilitation of Crippled Children (SRCC). The society runs a modest children's hospital and remedial education facility in Mumbai's Haji Ali, but Ramadorai wants to help them build Asia's first hospital for children only. "It will be a 150-bed facility for which we need about Rs 50 crore," says Ramadorai. Get your cheque books out, Corporate India.

Surprising Switch

After they've spent more than three decades at a group company, most Tata bosses look forward to a quiet retirement, interrupted, if at all, by a rare call for counsel. But not Firdose Vandrevala. In June this year, Vandrevala, 55, quit as the Managing Director of Tata Power, but continued as the non-executive Chairman of Tata Teleservices (an additional charge since 2003). But in October, Ratan Tata assumed that role at Tata Tele, leaving Vandrevala with no job. As it turned out, the IIT-Kharagpur engineer didn't have to wait too long for an offer to come along. Last fortnight, Vandrevala was appointed head of Motorola India. The man wasn't available for comment, but he can look forward to exciting times at the American telecom giant, which is moving aggressively to tap the Indian telephony market.

Calling It A Day

Thirty years after Shiv Nadar started Hindustan Computers (HCL) with five of his associates, he's now thinking of hanging up his boots. Come 2007, Nadar, 59, plans to give up the CEO's title, if not the Chairman's. He can well afford to. Already, by Nadar's own admission, he does little of the day-to-day management and focuses on larger issues, having split responsibilities for HCL Technologies' it services and BPO businesses between Vineet Nayar, recently appointed President, and nephew Ranjit Narasimhan. His only child, daughter Roshni, is said to be more interested in dad's educational initiatives. If Nadar, worth $2.3 billion (Forbes, 2005 listing), isn't afraid of stepping back into the shadow, it's also because he owns 70 per cent of HCL. So title or no title, he'll still be the boss.

Pleasures of Pro Bono

When executives decide to help a cause, they mostly invest either time or money. But G.K. Jayaram, Infosys Technologies' first Chairman (1982-85) has decided to invest both, in setting up the Institute of Leadership and Institutional Development (ILID). Unlike the clients Jayaram, 65, catered to as a consultant, it is NGOs that ILID has on its radar. "We provide free management consulting services to organisations working for the poor," says Jayaram, who has invested $1 million of his own money in the institute. Currently, ILID helps out with projects such as ex-Citibanker Ramesh Ramanathan's Janaagraha. But Jayaram, former head of Infosys Leadership Institute, wants to raise funds and hire a larger team of paid consultants to expand ILID's work.

-Contributed by Archna Shukla, Ashish Gupta, R. Sridharan, Sahad P.V. and Rahul Sachitanand