There are more details emerging on what the outgoing Maruti Udyog Ltd Managing Director Jagdish Khattar is expected to do after he hangs up his boots on December 18. The chief of India’s largest car maker is turning an entrepreneur at the age of 65. He is apparently looking to set up a chain of [...]

Jagdish Khattar is hanging up his boots at Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car manufacturer. But the man is not retiring from working life completely. Former bureaucrat-turned-MD Khattar is contemplating being an entrepreneur. Speaking to reporters on Monday on the sidelines of the company press conference, Khattar said he was yet to decide what venture he [...]

I am curious to know how many of the business plan contest winners have made it big or at least won a larger VC funding? If anyone knows, please comment. I know that Travelguru was a Harvard Business School business plan product. Is it largely a PR exercise for the organisers or do they really [...]

TiE-ISB Connect has sought entries for its annual business plan competition. Entrepreneurs are requested to submit a maximum of 5 page abstract of their business idea to TiE-ISB Connect Committee to qualify for an elevator pitch on November 14-16. This will be attended by some leading venture capitalists.
Applications are available at www.tie-isbconnect.com. The last date [...]

It has been a remarkable journey for Ess Dee Aluminium, an aluminium foil-based packaging company for pharma businesses, from Rs 1 lakh turnover in 1991 to Rs 1,600 crore valuation in 2007. The company has just raised Rs 81 crore by diluting 5 per cent stake to Morgan Stanley. This was a company which analysts [...]

Yahoo recently bought sports content website Rivals.com for $100 million. What is interesting is, in 2001, Yahoo had offered to buy the then-loss making Rivals for $25 million (via Bill Burnham). The company was on its last legs. The deal fell through as Yahoo insisted on “a incredibly complex structure” in order to keep the [...]

Rajesh Jain has an interesting series on his entrepreneurial journey on his blog. He talks about the successes and failures in his 15-year entrepreneurial career. Interestingly, he has had only one run-away success so far - IndiaWorld, a network of portals like Samachar.com and Khoj.com - which he sold to Sify Ltd for close to [...]

You are running a startup or you intend to become an entrepreneur? Read this presentation, it will go a long way in helping you towards achieveing your objective. I read it and I liked it. It’s written by David Spitz, a serial entrepreneur, and one who has headed several VC-backed companies.
[Via Southeast VC]

Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy is joining the board of trustees of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), the world’s largest network of entrepreneurs and professionals of Indian origin. TiE has 45 chapters in nine countries and a membership base of over 12,000. [Via The Economic Times]
The current Board of Trustees here.

Here is a message from S Subramonia Sarma, Director, Entrepreneurship Development, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Indian School of Business, in Hyderabad. If you are an entrepreneur, you could be interested in attending this event.
The TiE – ISB Connect 2006 is scheduled at the ISB from September 20-22, 2006. This year we have significantly up-scaled [...]

Have you heard of Bijoy Goswami who set up a Bootstrap Network? Here is a very interesting story on the man who set up an innovative association of entrepreneurs who are bootstrapped and how they are helping each other. It’s has now become movement - it started from Austin in the US, and spread to [...]

Keya Sarkar, a columnist with Business Standard, is a regular writer on microfinance issues. Here is a column from her on the microcredit phenomenon, and how it’s gaining strength these days.
She recently attended an event organised by Aavishkaar, a microfinance fund which started operating as a Sebi-registered venture fund in 2002. It was an award [...]

Don’t rack your brain. He is a 53-year old serial investor based in Bangalore and one who is thinking big. He has just acquired a manufacturing plant owned by MNC pharma giant Pfizer in Sweden for an undisclosed sum. Bagaria runs Kemwell Pvt Ltd, a $11 million contract manufacturing company. By the way, Bagaria is [...]

Here is “60 Seconds Chief” with Subbu Subramaniam, a partner in Baring Private Equity India. Subbu is a chartered accountant, cost accountant, and a company secretary, besides holding an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. He is on the board of MphasiS BFL, Maples ESM and B&M Hot Breads. He has also served on the boards of [...]

I have visited vMoksha Technologies Ltd, a Bangalore-based IT company, along with a few visiting venture capitalists from the TiE Silicon Valley chapter. It was sometime in February 2004.
Now I hear that its chairman and CEO and also the co-founder, Pawan Kumar, has quit the company and joined Scandent Solutions Corporation. Kumar is the new [...]