NAME: PRATHAP CHANDRA REDDY AGE: 74 DESIGNATION: Executive Chairman GROUP: Apollo Hospitals

He's been in the news ever since he launched Apollo Hospitals in 1979. His latest splash: the $1.08 billion (Rs 4,860 crore) buyout of Aircel, a cellular service provider in Chennai, in partnership with the Malaysia-based Maxis Group. No, the hospital chain is not entering the booming telecom sector. Its promoter, Prathap Chandra Reddy, made this investment out of his personal resources to help out a son-in-law.

But heading Asia's largest healthcare services provider and making billion-dollar investments in high-tech businesses were the last thing on his mind when this chest specialist and surgeon gave up a lucrative 10-year practice in Massachusetts General Hospital and Missouri State Chest Hospital in the us and returned to India in 1971 in deference to his parents' wishes.

In 1979, he witnessed a situation that changed his life-and the concept of healthcare delivery in India. One of Reddy's patients, who could not afford $40,000 to travel to the US for treatment of a coronary heart disease, died. That was the trigger for the launch of the first corporate hospital in Chennai in 1983. His dream: combine the medical skills available in the country with the best technology from the West to provide a healthcare delivery system that was both affordable and efficient.

It was a concept still ahead of its times. The bureaucracy worked against him at every step-the Urban Land Ceiling Act entitled him to only 500 square yards of land; 12 applications were needed to import a single piece of machinery (he needed 340 pieces of machinery just to start out); funding a hospital didn't rank very high on the agendas of state-controlled banks and financial institutions. Endless pilgrimages to various Finance Ministers later, Reddy finally had his hospital. It took three years for the first 150 beds, another seven to add 300 more (in Hyderabad) and six more years for the next 700 (in Delhi). "I believe in driving from behind; my executives have successfully built on my thought processes," says Reddy, who likes delegating authority to his senior managers. Now, he's aiming higher: he wants his 7,500-bed group to be the #1 healthcare services provider in the world. Given his track record, only the very foolish would bet against that.