Oops, Wrong Number

An embattled, but feisty, Bhupendra Kumar Modi went all out to thwart an unsolicited bid from the Shashi Ruia-led Essar group for Spice Telecom. Ruia tried to outsmart Modi by approaching his foreign partners-Distacom, aig and Darby-that owned more than three-fourths of Spice, but Modi struck back at Essar with force strong enough to make them abandon pursuit. (It helped that the Ruias were simultaneously cooking a bigger deal with Rajeev Chandrasekhar's BPL.) In October, Modi bought out Distacom, proving once again that at 56 he had not lost any of his punch.

-Sahad P.V.

Good CEO, Bad PSU

Last year, when his political boss, Mani Shankar Aiyar, tried to foist more government nominees on the board of ONGC, Chairman Subir Raha, 57, went on a warpath, forcing Aiyar to back down. Uncharacteristically, the minister fumbled for words, saying that Raha was a good man, but his company was not doing a good job.

-S P.V.

Out Of Favour

NRI industrialist and the blue-eyed son of West Bengal, Purnendu Chatterjee, found himself out of favour with powers that be at Writer's Buildings. The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government sold 7.5 per cent stake in Chatterjee-controlled Haldia Petrochemicals to Indian Oil, leading to a public fight between the two. Late November, the state agreed to sell its 36 per cent stake to Chatterjee, raising hopes of a truce.

-Archna Shukla

Airbus vs Boeing: The Dogfight

It was a deal that went on to become a transnational row between France and the US. Stung by Air-India's decision to award a $7-billion (Rs 31,500 crore) deal to Jim McNerney (left, top)-led Boeing, Airbus (CEO: Gustav Humbert) cried foul, insinuating that the deal wasn't above board. On its part, the GoI has cleared the deal, but wants to renegotiate the price.

-S P.V.

Utterly Bitterly Battle

Apparently, Amul's Verghese Kurien did too good a job of training his protégé-turned-bete-noire, Amrita Patel, Chairman of NDDB. The two-year-old fight between the two continued to rage most of this year, and seemed set to intensify with Patel announcing that her cooperative would enter Gujarat, thus challenging Kurien, 84, in his own bastion.

-AS

All For A Name

Matters between cousins Rahul Bajaj and Abhay Firodia came to a head over renaming of Bajaj Tempo as Force Motors. The Firodias, despite owning a smaller 11 per cent, managed to get the shareholder nod for the new name, but Bajaj (who owns 24 per cent) challenged the decision in the courts. At year end, the case was sub-judice.

-AS