How Alkem's 83-year-old founder is remaking India's 4th-largest pharma firm

Sitting in a corner office in the heart of Mumbai’s business district of Lower Parel, Basudeo Narain Singh sounds excited about the future. He is 83, does not use a laptop, and relies on his brain to do most of the computing. He can conduct a meeting without any notes, firing questions from memory.  

Hailing from Okari, a remote village in Jehanabad district of Bihar, Singh and his brother, Samprada, moved to Mumbai in 1973 to start Alkem Laboratories with a seed capital of Rs 5 lakh. This was the next stage in their journey, which had started with a