Celebrating Success

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”—  Bill Gates

It has been a tough season for entrepreneurs, not to speak of business and the economy in general, as was evident in the GDP numbers that showed a contraction of nearly 24 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Yes, everyone has been feeling the squeeze but Covid-19 has had a few positives too. It has made us introspect and transform. The pandemic has ensured that the world pauses and reworks all its outdated models.

The cover story in this issue spotlights the sixth edition of BW Businessworld Young Entrepreneurs Awards (YEA). This is a platform that highlights the ideas of tomorrow’s unicorns. An endeavour of BW Disrupt, the YEA is an annual initiative conceptualised to recognise India’s most enterprising young minds. In 2020, over 100 companies joined the BW Businessworld YEA club, exhibiting resilience and future readiness in their business propositions. Of this list 42 young entrepreneurs have been profiled for their pathbreaking ideas and innovative businesses models. The section titled ‘Jury Speak’ gives a glimpse into the ideas and the thought process of our eminent jury, especially on entrepreneurship in today’s climate.  

In an in-depth report on the state of healthcare in India, we focus on the issues of the day as Covid-19 cases cross the 43-lakh mark. Healthcare services feel the strain and are waking up to the need for improvement, especially in areas like infrastructure and medical education. We examine the sector’s readiness to adopt technology, especially in the light of the National Health Digital Mission (NHDM) initiative launched by the government. We bring you conversations with leaders from across the spectrum of the healthcare sector on poignant issues.

We shine the light on the commercial real estate space and are pleasantly surprised to find that it has been able to negate the adverse impacts that the pandemic has caused to the market, partly because of the resounding success of REIT and the bright and new prospects for office space. Read more on this sector in a conversation with real estate tycoon Niranjan Hiranandani.

Another in-depth report on the cooking and automotive fuel, LPG, reveals a mysterious conundrum, whereby the  increase in production, distribution and consumption of LPG across the country over the last four years, is not reflected in consumption per connection. We also bring you a conversation with the enigmatic Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash.

And of course, this edition of BW Businessworld carries all the other regular columns and features that you look forward to. We hope you enjoy reading the magazine as much as we did compiling it.  Happy reading!