Through the lens: Our best photos of the past year
A selection of Forbes India’s best photographs in the past year, and the stories behind them
Image by : Vikas Khot
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In the cover story of our October 3 issue, we looked at AM Naik, the man at the helm of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) for half a century. The 72-year-old has been steering the company’s ambitions in the defence manufacturing sector, despite a decade of inertia shown by the previous defence ministry. L&T has continued to invest serious money into building capability, and not just capacity. Of its projects, the most ambitious would be the Warship builder. Whether or not Naik’s bets will pay off now depends on the new man in charge of India’s defence, Manohar Parrikar
Image by : Amit Verma
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Prithvi Raj Singh ‘Biki’ Oberoi is the quintessential hotelier, and was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement honour at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2014. Having inherited a nine-hotel business from his father in 1984, he has not only overseen its growth, but has made the brand synonymous with luxury. Stories about him—whether it be about his meticulous attention to detail, or his calm demeanour—abound among those who have known and worked with him closely over the decades
Image by : Vikas Khot
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As recently as 2013, in its IPO filing in October that year, Twitter had said that it did not see the country as a “high-growth market” and highlighted “governmental risks” in doing business here. Things have clearly changed: India is now one the social media giant’s top 10 markets, and the fastest-growing. Today, Twitter in India finds itself not just an enabler of public discourse—tweets routinely make newspaper headlines and drive prime-time TV shoutfests—it is also a vehicle marketers are taking seriously. In the cover story of our January 23 issue, we spoke to the man of the moment, Rishi Jaitly, market director, India and South Asia, Twitter
Image by : Amit Verma
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Forbes India’s 30 under 30 list has, in just its second year, become a sought-after property. It takes a few months to put together, going through several stages of research, an open call for submissions, expert selection and meetings. Many from the ‘class’ of 2015 are already making waves. If you haven’t heard about them yet, you soon will
Image by : Vikas Khot
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In a candid chat, Ajay Devgn, who ranked 25th on our 2014 Celebrity 100 list, spoke about how he feels the film industry has changed: “It was around the turn of the century that [it] started becoming more corporatised. Gone were the days when plans were sketched on a piece of paper and filming began. Now, there were proper business plans and people tried to target specific audiences... If I were to put it in one phrase, ‘everything became a contract’.”
Image by : Mexy Xavier
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In our october 31 issue, we traced the career path of Ramesh Tainwala, whose success has been shaped by chance and choice. Rejected as a trainee at Indian luggage giant VIP Industries, Tainwala worked for one of VIP’s vendors, became a commodity trader, expanded into chemicals, and then into a JV with the world’s largest travel luggage maker, Samsonite. Now, 34 years after not getting that VIP job, he is CEO of Samsonite International. India is one of the few countries where the MNC is not the market leader. Who’s number one here? His old friend, VIP
Image by : Amit Verma
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Naveen Jindal may not have had a pleasant result in the 2014 general elections (the two-time Congress MP lost his Kurukshetra seat) but the chairman of Jindal Steel & Power Limited has more than his work to occupy his time: At least twice a week he’s at his farm, tending to his horses and practising with his Jindal Panthers team-mates (he owns and captains the team). We got a close view of his love for the royal sport in our annual Luxury Issue, in which he spoke about how his father introduced him to horses when he was just six
Image by : Mexy Xavier
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Just Dial has become synonymous with its voice search service, but founder VSS Mani aims to go far beyond. Probing his ambition and vision was the cover story of our September 19 issue, in which he says that not only does he want to become an ecommerce player, he also wants to build a global ‘local search’ e-engine. Following its 2013 IPO, which raked in Rs 900 crore, Just Dial’s net profit rose by 76 percent to Rs 120.62 crore in FY14
Image by : Joshua Navalkar
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TPG Capital is one of the largest private equity firms in the world, and has been in India since 2004. In our December 12 issue, we try to understand its investment strategy. What we come away with is the single mantra that is common to all its moves: TPG plays for the long term, taking months to understand the companies and promoters it may invest in, and stays with them for years. As of November 2014, TPG had deployed $1 billion in India, of which nearly $550 million was in four companies from the Shriram Group. And it has paid off handsomely
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