Brown in Business

Sun King Jigar Shah (Fortune)

It’s no secret that South Asians have gained success in the business world, but it’s still gratfiying to see the mainstream business press give them some coverage (especially women—the Fortune cover with Indra Nooyi was quite the score for brown women). Here, a few recent profiles of young Indian-Americans with some interesting stories about business and business education:

The Sun King
The March 5 (print) issue of Fortune features a Q/A with Jigar Shah, the 32-year-old CEO of Sun-Edison, “the biggest supplier of solar energy in the U.S., [which] has built mini-power plants in about 200 locations, suppling juice for clients like Staples, Costco, Whole Foods Market and California State University at Chico.”

The company was Shah’s brainchild while he was a student at Harvard B-School, and two years and $26 million in venture funds later, Shah is securing his place as the sun king.

He isn’t sure whether the U.S. can become self-sufficient in energy, but he does “know that the Department of Energy has predicted that the U.S. will need to add capacity, about 20 megawatts a year [or about 2 percent of our current annual output] over the next decade, to meet rising demand. Right now renewable energy–wind, solar, geothermal–can supply that whole amount.”

Armed Forces
BusinessWeek.com offers a first-person narrative from Vivek Bhatnagar, who served in the Indian army before pursuing his MBA at Babson College. After the rigors of army life, Bhatnagar thought working in teams in an American MBA program would be a walk in the park.
Read the rest of this entry »

Cute Kids Tees, Kanchipuram Style

Mallika Malhotra and sons (Kid-Guru.com)

Mallika Malhotra stumbled upon hidden treasure collecting dust in her mother’s closet—a box of 1960s sari silks given as wedding gifts to her mother. Gathering the vintage textiles, the young mother with a passion for style started plannning her at-home business and launched Kid-Guru, an appliquéd t-shirt collection, in 2004.

Handcrafted in Denver, Colorado, with traditional fabrics brought back from Malhotra’s trips to India, the tees feature an assortment of charming designs—sailboats, spiders and pirate skulls, in addition to butterflies, hearts and snowflakes. You won’t find Kid-Guru at Baby Gap. Sold online and in boutiques and trunk shows, the cotton shirts are made from prints of limited quantity.

More:
Kid-Guru’s formalwear line
Kanchipuram saris

Surya, You’re Fired!

Yalamanchili’s back is turned in this photo with fellow team-members

Surya Yalamanchili gave the fight of his life on last night’s episode of The Apprentice, but it wasn’t enough, and Trump (reluctantly) gave the Rutgers-grad the boot.

Did anyone tune in?

I did, and it gave me no small amount of anxiety to see Yalamanchili’s adopted team gang up on him in the boardroom. He’s “different from the rest of us,” they told Trump.

Really? Different because he’s desi? Or because he’s competent?

Sadly enough, the only non-white member of his team (James Sun, a preppy, Korean American founder of the social networking company Zoodango) was the most hostile toward Yalamanchili.

Watch Yalamanchili’s audition interview video here.

Sethi Supplies Star-Swag

Pratima Sethi, of San Francisco-based Manak Jewels, helped the stars shine even brighter this Oscar season. Check out Sethi as she takes Carlene Davis of US TV behind the scenes to the TMG Luxury Swag Suite:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

More:
On Manak
Water misses Oscar boat

Show Me The Rupees

Mittal

Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s richest people has just been released.

In 2007 India has become home to the most billionaires in Asia—taking the top spot from Japan (effectively ending that country’s 20-year-domination ).

Lakshmi Mittal is the richest man in Asia (fifth globally). Estimates put his net worth at $32 billion.

This year India, where 400 million people live on less that one dollar a day, has added 14 new billionaires to the Forbes list.

Got Kites?

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Aaron Huey/ ATLASPRESS

The services of Noor Agha, a fourth-generation kite-maker, have been commissioned by the producers of The Kite Runner, the soon-to-be-made film based on the eponymous best selling book by California-based MD Khaled Hosseini.

These days Agha spends his time in his “factory” (his living room) where he has been putting his two wives and 11 children to work. One wife, he describes as the second best kite maker in Kabul–but quickly adds that he has 45 years’ experience and “she’ll never be able to catch up.”

“In a country where most success stories are haunted by failure…about the only thing going right these days is the kitemaking industry,” Time Magazine tells us. Go here to read their full feature on Agha and The Kite Runner.

Texas Twins On Next Deal

Deal or No Deal (nbc.com)

Look for contestant Uzma Lone from the Lone Star State on the Sunday, March 11, episode of TV game show “Deal or No Deal” hosted by comedian Howie Mandel. Uzma will have her twin sister Saima Bukhari on the show as her helper and the two will be donning desi duds, giving the show’s models a run for their money. Nirali interviewed Saima, the owner of Dallas salon and med spa Glow, for the October 2006 “Fall Beauty Trend Report.”

More: Play Deal or No Deal online
“‘Deal or No Deal’ risky business for Plano contestant”

Venti News For India

Starbucks.Com

American coffee colossus Starbucks is headed to India.

Talks are currently underway for the chain to open up shop there by year’s-end.

The company operates just under 13,000 outlets worldwide and is looking to expand to Bangalore.

While chai culture might still dominate, the consumption of coffee is on the rise in India (a whopping 80 thousand tons worth of beans were consumed there last year alone). “The growth is coming mainly from coffee bars mushrooming all over the country and more young people drinking coffee,” says Hamid Ashraff, the managing director of Tata Coffee, India’s largest coffee producer.

India Latest Victim Of “Everyday Low Prices”

(Money.CNN.Com)

Wal-Mart’s ruthless expansion into the global marketplace will continue, as the world’s largest retail conglomerate now plans to set up shop in India.

Bharti Enterprises, India’s leading cell phone company, has said it will be investing $2.5 billion to establish a “nationwide chain of supermarkets and retail shops” in partnership with Wal-Mart.

India, described as “the next big frontier in the battle for shoppers’ wallets,” was recently ranked as the world’s most attractive destination by the A.T. Kearney Retail Development Index.

“India’s rapidly growing middle class has more money to spend than any previous generation – but no place to spend it,” says Charles Fishman of the Gaurdian online. “Wal-Mart’s acres of low-cost merchandise from around the world, gathered under a single roof, will be like a carnival for a slice of Indian consumers.”

(Right. That’s one way of looking at it.)

Wal-mart, a $250 billion company, is often harshly criticized for its questionable labor and commerce practices.

More:
Goodbye family stores in India’s brave new retail?
Bharti moves ahead on retail plan
Wal-Mart goes abroad for growth

Duds For Modest Surfer Girls

Sama Wareh (AP/Chris Carlson)

In a real-life moment not right out of Baywatch, a lifeguard on a California beach once asked Sama Wareh, 23, “Dude, are you like a Muslim surfer girl or something?”

The article “High-tech fabrics keep Muslim women in the swim” doesn’t offer what reactions or questions Wareh gets these days after switching from her “jogging pants, skirt and long-sleeved shirt” combination to an all-body suit designed for athletic activity by Splashgear. Whether the suits actually help in fitting in at the beach or pool, or whether the wearers simply find them an improvement over wearing street clothes in the water, the news is that this niche market for all-body suits is expanding and that the women of all ages interviewed found the suits useful for activities like scuba, snorkeling and swimming. The gear offers a solution for those who want to do these things in a coed environment like a public beach while maintaining their sense of modesty.

More:
Splashgear founder and microbiologist Shereen Sabet’s story
Sama Wareh, artist

Previously:
Burqini Babes Make Waves