Forbes India - Aug 13, 2010 Issue

ISSUE DATE Aug 13, 2010

Independents' Day

Fifteen years back, a bunch of private equity guys quit their jobs and started their own funds. Things didn't work out as they planned and they burnt their fingers. Today, another slew of PE heavyweights are branching out on their own. And they are creating their own path, away from the way they used to operate at their previous jobs at bigger firms. They include veterans like Ajay Relan (formerly of Citigroup), Renuka Ramnath (ex-ICICI Ventures), and Rajesh Khanna (former Warburg Pincus). This time around, the environment may just be right.

Do You Know this Man?

HDFC Mutual Fund's Prashant Jain has consistently beaten the markets for the past nine years. This chief investment officer manages a corpus of Rs. 86,000 crore and two of his funds, HDFC Equity and HDFC Top 200, are the best-run ones in India. Can he maintain his winning streak?

On the Ropes

Ad agencies are in a soup. Large clients are raising uncomfortable questions about their performances and the way they operate. Agencies have gone into lockdown and neither side is willing to budge. If the clients get their way this could, forever, change the way ad agencies operate.

Will Our Trains Ever Be Safe?

Railway accidents are getting to be a common occurrence in India today. But Indian Railways refuses to get its act together and implement technology that will ensure better safety standards. There are technological advances that have been implemented across the country in parts. Indian Railways still has to come up with a plan to implement it on a national scale.