The economic boom has spawned hundreds of entrepreneurs, many of them first-generation businessmen. Not only have they scaled up their businesses in a relatively short time, they have done so in the face of stiff competition from players who are far bigger and well-established.
What is more, it is often new entrepreneurs who have made the pioneering moves into sectors such as organised retailing that saw the entry of the bigger industrial houses only later.
The year 2006-07 has been special because the BS 1000 list has never before seen so many new entrants. For 2006-07, there were as many as 120 debutants. In our annual edition of BS 1000, we bring you up close with some of the most enterprising and successful of these entrepreneurs.
In keeping with the spirit of entrepreneurship, the Business Standard award for the CEO of the Year has been won by Dilip Shanghvi, chairman and managing director, Sun Pharma.
Shanghvi has built his firm into India's most valuable pharmaceuticals company and was voted CEO of the year for becoming the market leader in the home market and enjoying the best margins in the industry. The Rs 2,237- crore (Rs 22.37 billion) Sun Pharma commands the biggest shares across six therapeutic segments.
The CEO of the Year was selected by a distinguished jury chaired by Sunil Mittal, chairman & CEO, Bharti Enterprises.
The other members of the jury were Doug Baillie, MD &CEO, Hindustan Unilever, B Ramalinga Raju, chairman, Satyam Computers, Rajiv Memani, CEO & country managing partner, Ernst & Young, Jagdish Khattar, former managing director, Suzuki Motors and Ashok K Puri, CMD, BHEL
The jury also picked winners for the other categories. The Business Standard star PSU of the year is NTPC, the star SME, Praj Industries, the star MNC Bosch and the star unlisted company Cognizant Technologies.
Read about the achievements of the winners in the BS 1000 edition that you will receive with your copy of Business Standard. Read also about how exporters are learning to cope with a rising rupee and how the slowdown in the US could help Indian companies continue to shop for acquisitions overseas.
Apart from our ranking of the top 1000 companies, there's also a list of the top 300 unlisted companies. An additional list of 200 listed firms that have turnovers exceeding Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), has been provided; some of these stand a good chance of making it to the top 1000 in the near future.
