Baba Kalyani is Business India's 25th bizman of year

In its Silver Jubilee year, Business India's Businessman of the Year 2006, the country's most coveted corporate award has been conferred on Baba Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Forge Ltd.

Mr. Kalyani was selected for this distinction by an eminent jury, which met recently in Mumbai. As is the tradition at the magazine, Business India's Businessman of the Year 2005, K.V.Kamath, Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Bank, chaired the selection panel.

Other members of the jury were: Rana Talwar Chairman, Centurion Bank of Punjab; Arun Maira, Chairman of Boston Consulting Group India; Asim Ghosh, Managing Director of Hutchison Essar; Harsh Mariwala, Chairman & Managing Director of Marico; Rajiv Lall, CEO of IDFC and Sanjiv Bajaj, Executive Director of Bajaj Auto. An MIT-trained engineer, Baba Kalyani, is the second generation head of the Rs 6,500 crore Kalyani group founded by his father Neelkanth Kalyani in Pune. Baba Kalyani is credited with the transformation of group flagship Bharat Forge from a modest outfit to the second largest forging company in the world, after Germany's Thyssen Krupp. The company is aiming to occupy the number one slot by 2008.

Powered by this vision, Baba Kalyani took the lead in making global acquisitions. Today Bharat Forge's global footprint includes manufacturing operations across nine locations and six countries "� two in India, three in Germany and one each in Sweden, Scotland, USA and China.

Its customers include the top passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world, including Daimler Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen. Business India's Businessman of the Year is clearly one of a kind. Not only is it the first such distinction to be introduced in the country, but has enormous goodwill and prestige, unmatched by any other. Each year the magazine confers this honour on that ONE outstanding individual in the business community who is chosen as a role model for our times.

The exclusivity of Business India's Businessman of the Year award makes it stand out in a sea of clones. The pre-eminence of the selection panel and the very selection process itself, year upon year, has ensured that Business India's Businessman of the Year distinction remains the most coveted by the business community.