Room for growthHe spent the last few years in exotic locales suchas Borneo, Phuket, Auckland and Kuala Lumpur managing properties.Now, 38-year-old Australian Shaun Langdon is in India with a toughjob in hand. As General Manager of the InterContinental Hotels Group- the largest global chain in terms of number of rooms - he isexpecting to set up as many as 150 properties in India over the next10 years. While the chain already has a presence in this countrythrough its up-market InterContinental and Crowne Plaza brands, hebelieves the mid-market segment has more potential - the growthprospects of Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are bright. To addsome zing, Langdon is flying in Thai, Malaysian and Italian chefs."We need to understand the needs of both Western and Indian guestsand have tailored packages for them," he says. With about 90,000rooms expected to be added over the next five years and a raft ofglobal hotel chains making their entry in India, Langdon will havecompetition aplenty.
-Rahul Sachitanand
High flying!
Not many politicians would have spent as much quality time withthe likes of Sonia Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Lal KrishnaAdvani as retired army heli copter pilot Colonel Jayanth Poovaiahhas. He has piloted them all - and many other politicians - onnumerous occasions to varied locations. Not surprisingly, Poovaiahhas many amusing anecdotes to narrate, such as the one about thetime he persuaded former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti toaddress a meeting standing on the bonnet of a car parked close tothe helipad, instead of travelling to the stage, so that they couldsave time and fly off before sunset. Poovaiah joined his old Armyfriends, G.R. Gopinath and K.J. Samuel, after they started aircharter company, Deccan Aviation, in 1997, and has been leading it(now called, Deccan Charters) since 2003. With the upcomingelections in five states, demand for heli copters is expected toshoot through the roof. "If a helicopter takes three months to do 90hours in normal times, it will do the same in just three weeksduring elections," he says. With more helicopters now available withindividuals as well as companies, Deccan Charters has managed only ahandful of bookings from Assam so far. But Poovaiah is not worried.Business has been going good since they tied up with the TataGroup's Taj Air - aptly named PowerFly
-K.R. BalasubramanyamFresh pasturesThe career of Hotmail inventorSabeer Bhatia has been very different from that of FICCI secretary-general Amit Mitra. But the two are playing an unexpected roletogether for the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. While Mitra isgearing up to contest the upcoming Assembly polls in the state,Bhatia, a one-time poster boy of Indian dot-com, has decided to helpthe party build a two-way communication platform using mobiledevices. Mitra has been close to Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjeefrom the days he chaired a Railway Expert Committee recently.Bhatia, on the other hand, took up his new role after a 15-minutechat with Derek O'Brien, one of Banerjee's lieutenants. Will both ofthem end up as ministers in Banerjee's dream Cabinet? We have towait until the results to find out.
-Kushan Mitra/Rahul SachitanandHealing touchA seemingly smallevent in Bangalore on March 17 was big enough for a host of VIPs,including Ratan Tata and Sam Pitroda, to mark their attendance. Itwas the launch of the Institute of Ayurveda and IntegrativeMedicine, or I-AIM, and a 100-bed healthcare centre, for which Tatatrusts have pumped in Rs 17 crore. The project is the result of theefforts of Darshan Shankar, 62, who has been striving to revivelocal health traditions. While I-AIM focuses on education andresearch, the centre looks at curative care. "We want to make I-AIMinto a modern Nalanda for the traditional health sciences," saysShankar, who also advises the Planning Commission on Indian systemsof medicine.
-K.R. BalasubramanyamHelping the helpersInfosys co-founder N.S.Raghavan is not sitting back after retirement. At 67, he is anevangelist of entrepreneurship and is now on a philanthropic missionto make life easier for NGOs. Raghavan has teamed up with YaleUniversity alumna Priya Naik, 30, to launch Samhita, a supportinfrastructure for donors as well as recipients. Says Raghavan: "Theportal is designed to ensure that the donation is quickly passed onto the NGO. We mandate the NGOs to provide progress reports to thedonors.'' With the government becoming more proactive in keepingtrack of the flow of funds to NGOs, Samhita's effort might turn outto be truly valuable.
-K.R. BalasubramanyamMotorheadPawan Goenka, 57, has spent thelast decade making Vice Chairman Anand Mahindra's vision of becomingthe global leader in utility vehicles a reality. Mahindra's ManFriday is now set to become the chairman of South Korean carmakerSsangyong, the group's latest acquisition. Whether Goenka will beable to bring about a reversal in Ssangyong's currently saggingfortunes remains to be seen, but the IIT-Kanpur graduate, who spentover a decade in the US before returning to India, is proud of hisnew role, in addition to running Mahindra's burgeoning automotiveand farm equipment businesses. Perhaps he could start by ensuring afacelift for all Ssangyong models.
-Kushan Mitra
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