Jamsetji Tata

Jamshetji Tata is the founder of the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate which employs more than four lakh people and enjoys the revenue of over $83 billion. Tata is regarded as the legendary "Father of Indian Industry".He was so influential in the world of industry that Jawaharlal Nehru referred to Tata as a One-Man Planning Commission. He started out by setting up cotton mills in Bombay and then Nagpur. His dream was to set-up an iron and steel company, an institution of science, a world-class hotel, and a hydro-electric plant.

Verghese Kurien

Verghese Kurien used his entrepreneurial skills to enrich not only himself but also all of India. The “Father of the White Revolution,” Kurien planned and implemented Operation Flood, the world’s largest agricultural development program, which turned India into the world’s largest milk producer. He is also the founder of the Amul brand of dairy products, which invented milk powder processed from buffalo milk rather than cow milk. One of the world’s strongest proponents of cooperative movements, his work has lifted millions of Indians out of poverty.

Dhiru Bhai Ambani

India’s largest private sector company. Created an equity cult in the Indian capital market. Reliance is the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list. Dhirubhai Ambani was the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur.

His life journey is reminiscent of the rags to riches story. He is remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global corporate group. Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). A poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000 voted him “greatest creator of wealth in the century”.

Dr.Arokiaswamy Velumani

Though he is a founder of Thyrocare’s but owns no car, lives in a small quarter, but helms a Rs 1,320-crore company. Born to a poor landless farmer in a nondescript and obscure village of Appanickenpatti Padur in Tamil Nadu. Velumani was so poor that he sought government subsidy to go through school and college. Today, he is the owner of the world’s largest thyroid testing company, that boasts of 1,122 outlets across India, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Middle East!

Vijay Shekhar Sharma

From being a small-town boy from Aligarh who bought second-hand tech magazines to the founder of one of India’s most trusted technology brands, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has come a long way. After passing out from college, he started his first company- ‘XS Communications’, a college-based startup that created Content Management Systems, which was being used by major publications including The Indian Express. While trying to set up (One97 Communications) Paytm, Vijay once ended up with a loan of Rs. 8 lakhs, which got him into a vicious cycle of unpayable debt. Vijay’s investors were not confident about the idea of a mobile-first consumer service that would cater to the masses, while India’s telecom infrastructure was improving in 2010. He personally put $2 Mn at stake to finally launch the brand. The rest, as they say, is history.

Question to Consider:

1. Discuss how an ordinary entrepreneur turns out to be an extraordinary with suitable examples