For a man who says he never planned his career, Ajay Banga, 45, hasn't done too badly. Starting out at Nestle in India as a trainee 25 years ago, Banga, brother of Unilever's Vindi, is now the head of Citigroup's Global Consumer Group businesses. That makes him not just the senior-most Indian in the Citi set-up, but one of its top rainmakers: At $5 billion (Rs 22,500 crore) a year, his business pulls in a quarter of Citigroup's bottom line. "I have found it very exciting whenever somebody needed my help to understand things," says the New York-based Banga, who likes to teach students. A role model, if there was any.

Rajeev For Rajya Sabha?

After UB's Vijay Mallya, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, 42, may become the second young businessman from Bangalore to make it to the Rajya Sabha. The man, who recently made Rs 1,200 crore selling his telecom business to Essar, is all set to get the support of ruling JD (S)-BJP combine as an independent candidate from Karnataka to the upper house. "If elected, I will ensure that infrastructure development gets priority and public private partnership gets impetus," Chandrasekhar told bt. For that reason alone, Bangaloreans must wish him all the best.

Pantaloon's Hot New Arrival

The hottest new arrival at retailer Pantaloon isn't on the store shelves, but in its corporate offices in Mumbai: Roopa Purushothaman, 27. Yep, the very same "BRICS" lady from Goldman Sachs will now be heading Pantaloon's (to be renamed the Future Group) strategic and economic research unit. Apparently, Pantaloon's Kishore Biyani met her in India and sold her the job. "Here was this idea of doing this unique thing by combining economics with social sciences," explains the lady, who has resigned from Goldman. Having hired her, Biyani must now worry about keeping her interested.

Teaming Up For Infrastructure

Finally, instead of just bemoaning India's poor infrastructure, some corporates have decided to do something about it. Deepak Parekh's IDFC and Vinayak Chatterjee's Feedback Ventures were set to launch an India Infrastructure Initiative when BT went to press on the 20th. Details weren't available at the time of writing, but BT understands that the initiative will develop infrastructure projects through a public-private partnership. Critics of the initiative (there will be some) may say that India's infrastructure deficit is too big (by some estimates we need $150 billion or Rs 6,75,000 crore) to be bridged by something like this. Our advice: Lend the triple I a hand if you can. Else, shut up.

For Kids' Sake

Gary Knell loves kids not just because he's got four of them himself. Rather, as President & CEO of Sesame Workshop Worldwide, Knell, 50, runs an NGO that creates content for children with the aim of making them better human beings. "Through our (TV) programmes, we try to instill social values in children, an aspect that largely remains ignored in modern education system," he says. The NGO recently announced the launch in India of a localised version of its award-winning series, Sesame Street, which will be on air by the end of this year on Cartoon Network and pogo. "We hope to make a positive contribution to the lives of millions of children in India," he says. Can't get your kids off TV? Give them Sesame Street to watch.

Civic Champ

The government's national Urban Renewal Mission could not have found a better man for the job than its newly appointed national technical advisor, Ramesh Ramanathan. For the 42-year-old Yale-grad-turned-Citibanker and advocate of grassroots democracy, it provides a bigger platform to improve urban India. "Transparency, greater involvement and accountability are some of the issues, we will focus on," says Ramanathan.

Shine On Him

Here are three reasons why Sameer Nair's recent elevation as CEO of Star Entertainment in India should not surprise anyone: One, on his watch, flagship channel star Plus has remained the market leader for five years now and others in the bouquet are also doing fine. Two, two-thirds of Star's Asia revenues ($400 million) come from India. Three, Anil Ambani's Reliance Entertainment was said to be eyeing him. Get it?

-Contributed by Shalini S. Dagar, Venkatesha Babu, Ahona Ghosh and Archna Shukla