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 Good
times never stop rolling for Vijay Mallya. Having cobbled
together an empire spanning liquor to pharma to aviation, the
51-year-old Chairman of UB Group wants to diversify into resorts.
But it will be the man himself, and not UB, doing the investing.
Initial reports suggest Mallya's private firm, VJM Resorts, is
developing resorts in Lakshwadeep, with plans for another in Kerala.
In between, Mallya is said to be looking at acquiring an airline
in the US. MAXjet Airways, an all-business, low-fare carrier that
flies between the US and UK, is said to be one of the airlines
Mallya is talking to. If successful, the acquisition will allow
him to take his airline business global. The King of Good Times
is on overdrive, all right.
 A
Bull For Sure
Never
mind that the sensex continues its rollercoaster ride. Rakesh
Jhunjhunwala, Mumbai's stock market bull, is putting his money
where his heart is. The 46-year-old stock broker reportedly plonked
down Rs 25.52 crore for a 4,400 sq. ft apartment in Mumbai's über-posh
Il Palazzo at Malabar Hill. Jhunjhunwala, who currently lives
in the comparably tony Walkeshwar, was apparently keen on snagging
the property. How keen? In an e-auction conducted by CB Richard
Ellis, Jhunjhunwala paid a jaw-dropping Rs 58,000 per sq. ft,
compared to the (now old) market price of Rs 30,000-40,000.
A
Pesky Affair
 The
UPA-made Frankenstein, the office of profit controversy, threatens
to claim the seat of another party leader. A PIL filed against
Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Commerce, has brought
him under the Election Commission's scanner for allegedly holding
an office of profit as a member of the National Advisory Council,
while being a Rajya Sabha mp from Andhra. Congress chief Sonia
Gandhi had resigned from her Lok Sabha seat in March this year
for the same reason (but has since been re-elected). Ramesh, 52,
couldn't be reached for comment, but help may be on the way for
this IIT and MIT alumnus. When BT went to press, the Union Cabinet
had rejected President's demand for changes in a bill that excluded
a number of offices of profit, including NAC.
 A
Dig At Big Money
Big
business is never usually the first to protest over a movie. But
Madhur Bhandarkar's movie Corporate, which looks at games
business people play, has raised the hackles of Assocham, an industry
lobby. The 38-year-old director himself is quite amazed at the
reaction. "For God's sake, it's just a film. In fact, it's not
even about corporate India, but about two people and their relationship,"
he says. He also doesn't buy the argument made by some critics
that the movie was poorly researched. "I didn't just wake up one
morning and start making the film. We spent six months researching
the subject," he says. In contrast, the other two industry chambers,
CII and FICCI, have kept their cool. After all, it's just a movie.
Here today, gone tomorrow.
Back To Auto
 So
it was entrepreneurial ambitions that made B.V.R. Subbu
quit Hyundai Motor four months ago. Subbu, 51, is trying to set
up an integrated automobile park in Tada, which is in Andhra Pradesh
but close to the Tamil Nadu border. "It is still at an ideation
stage," insists Subbu, who made a presentation mid-July to AP
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his team of bureaucrats.
Subbu is also considering Tamil Nadu as an alternative, but whatever
be the final location, the project-if implemented-will be the
first of its kind in the country. It is conceived as a complete
automotive ecosystem, with all the pieces of vehicle designing
and manufacturing present in it. Subbu says it is a concept driven
by the needs of the auto industry to cut costs and improve production
economy. He should know.
Corner Room Spat?
 In
November last year, when silicon Valley entrepreneur Raju Vegesna
bought Sify from Satyam Computers, he said he was "excited
at the prospect of helping Sify realise its great potential..."
As it turns out, he wasn't feigning excitement. Sify watchers
such as G. Mihalos, an analyst at Gilford Securities, are attributing
MD & CEO R. Ramaraj's abrupt departure mid-July to "serious differences
among the top management". Apparently, Vegesna, who came on board
as Chairman, wanted a more active management role-something he's
now got as the Chairman, Managing Director & CEO. Ramaraj, however,
says that he had been planning on quitting even before Sify declared
its maiden net profit of about Rs 2 crore for the year ended March
2006. "Discussions were on, but we did not make it public, because
sec would have to be notified," he says. Ramaraj now plans to
spend his time mentoring entrepreneur wannabes. It is not unknown
for new investors to change management, but Vegesna will have
to prove to investors that he is as capable as enthusiastic.
-Contributed by Venkatesha Babu,
Mahesh Nayak, Shaleen Agrawal, Shivani Lath,
E. Kumar Sharma and Nitya Varadarajan
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