Business

One of seven children, Jayaram Banan had a harsh upbringing with an abusive father. His father, a driver by profession, punished him severely, even using chilli powder on his eyes…

Abel Joshua Higginbotham was born in 1819 in Cannanore (now Kannur), Kerala. His father, Joseph Higginbotham, passed away a year after his birth. Joseph served in Bangalore as par…

The rosogolla, a beloved sweet, has catalysed both harmony and strife. Odisha and Bengal recently settled a Geographical Indication (GI) tag dispute over the origin of Banglar Ros…

The Havmor story began over 75 years ago in Karachi, undivided India, with Satish Chandra, an engineer employed with BOAC (now British Airways). Despite his engineering career, Sa…

Growing up in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, the Padmanabha Potti family faced financial difficulties. Padmanabha Potti ran a small Udupi restaurant, while his wife, R. Kasiam…

In 1972, at the age of 15, Chandubhai Virani, along with his brothers Bhikhubhai and Meghjibhai, migrated from Dhundhoraji, a small village in Kalavad Taluka, Jamnagar district of…

Zoho Corp. (in an earlier avatar) emerged sometime between 1995 and 1996. Founding Years and Initial Struggles 1995 saw the launch of two bootstrapped businesses, one in the…

Kochouseph Chittilappilly was born to C. O. Thomas of the Chittilappilly house in Parappur, a neighbourhood of Thrissur in the former State of Travancore-Cochin (now Kerala). He a…

On the one-acre plot of land around his mud-and-straw dwelling, where he resided with his wife Shantabai and seven children, Srinivas—a trader hailing from Mulki in South Kanara—g…

In 1909, a priest named T. S. Kalyanarama Iyer formed the Kalyan Group in Thrissur after striking off alone. He and his family migrated from Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, where the…

Pyare Lal and his sons handled the distribution of Austin vehicles in Lahore and Rawalpindi. While Raghuveer Saran, his oldest son, looked after the business, Raghunandan, his you…

T. Sathish Kumar's father, who, with his brother, had launched a power loom unit in 1983 but sold it after three years due to poor performance, passed the entrepreneurial spirit o…

The hamlet of Punnaiyadi in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is the site of Pitchai Rajagopal's birth on August 5, 1947. His mom, Mani Ammal, stayed at home while his dad, Pitchai N…

Hailing from a traditional Vysya family of rice merchants in Kolar Gold Fields, Karnataka, BA Lakshminarayana Setty wasn't destined for the traditional route. After …