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 At
74, most technocrats would be happy if anyone remembered their
names at all. But in the case of Delhi Metro boss, E. Sreedharan,
getting people to let him be is the problem. Even before he reluctantly
accepted a three-year extension at Delhi Metro last year, Sreedharan
was being wooed by state governments for their metro projects.
Now, the man, who also built the Konkan Railway, is helping Kolkata
Metro plan a Rs 907-crore extension from Tollygunge to Garia.
Don't blame the states for overworking one man. In his business,
there's no one else with Sreedharan's competence or ethics.
 Right
Connections
As
the former CEO of network equipment giant Nortel and former Vice
Chairman of the US armed forces, William "Bill" Owens knows
more than just a few people who matter in corporate America and
Washington, D.C. Now Owens, 66, who quit Nortel less than two
years after fixing a wide variety of problems, will have an opportunity
to open some big doors for Wipro, which has roped him in as an
additional director. If you've read our cover story this issue,
you won't ask why Wipro made the offer or why Owens agreed.
The
Game Changes
 Recruiter
pop quiz: what's more important in a CEO candidate-knowledge or
enthusiasm? If you picked knowledge, forget about a career in
private equity. At least with one Australian-Israeli realty group,
which has chosen IMG/TWI South Asia Managing Director, Ravi
Krishnan, to head its $100 million (Rs 450 crore) sector fund.
What does Krishnan, 38, know about India's murky real estate industry?
Little in terms of its mechanics. So, what got him the job? Must
be his-no, not his Australian passport, but-attitude. "The real
estate boom is for real, it is by no means a bubble," he says.
Let's hope he's right.
 The
Fall Of A Prodigy
Move
over, (Enron's) ken lay and Jeff Skillings. Make way for Sanjay
Kumar, 44. On April 24, former ca (formerly Computer Associates
International) CEO and Chairman, Kumar, admitted in a us court
that between 1999 and 2000, he had "incorrectly booked" revenues,
lied about it to prosecutors, even paid $3.7 million to a customer
to cover up a bogus deal, and thus contributed to a $2.2-billion
fraud that brought ca to its knees. "I know my conduct was wrong...I
apologise for my actions," said the man who once was ca founder
Charles Wang's blue-eyed boy. With each of the 12 charges against
him carrying a five-to-20 year sentence, Kumar-son of a fisherman
who landed in the US as a 14-year-old to escape the ethnic violence
in Sri Lanka-can look forward to a long prison sentence. At the
time of writing, Kumar was out of jail on a $5-million bond.
Pay-day Ahead
 Neeraj
Bhargava has been one of the earliest
BPO cheerleaders. As a consultant with McKinsey, he was one of
the authors of the McKinsey report that heralded the BPO boom.
Then, as a private equity investor at eVentures India, Bhargava
invested in offshoring firms, and most recently as the group CEO
at WNS Global Services, a former British Airways captive back
office where Warburg Pincus is now a major investor, Bhargava
may oversee the first overseas listing of a pure-play Indian BPO.
Bhargava refused comment, but according to some estimates WNS
may be worth about $500 million (Rs 2,250 crore) on Nasdaq. Given
that Bhargava has shares in WNS too, his belief in the industry
is about to be richly rewarded.
 On
His Own
It
is a mere formality, but one that needed to be done. Come July,
Gautam Thapar, 45, will succeed bachelor and septuagenarian
uncle L.M. Thapar as the Chairman of group flagship, Ballarpur
Industries. But it will hardly be business as usual at the paper
maker. The young Thapar, a chemical engineer, wants to more
than double capacity to 1 million tonnes by next year.
"I am bullish on the paper industry," quips Thapar.
 The
India Bug
Nokia's
Sanjeev Sharma isn't the only one quitting his job to avoid a
posting out of India. American Express India's country manager
K. L. Muralidhara has quit rather than move to New York.
Internal politics may also have done in this straight-talker,
since rumours of his departure had been in the air for sometime
now. Muralidhara wasn't available for comment, but the buzz is
he may be headed back to Citi come June.
-Contributed by Ritwik Mukherjee,
Rahul Sachitanand, Archna Shukla,
Ahona Ghosh, Kapil Bajaj and Aman Malik
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