Cover Story: Sudhir Pal Sabharwal and the Long Work of Friendship Between Nations
Sudhir Pal Sabharwal has worked on India–Russia relations for nearly four decades, and his cover line explains why: “True diplomacy is not just about nations, but about people.” He is Chairman of the India–Russia Foundation and President of the Centre of the Russian Geographical Society in India.
His career has had to prove that idea under pressure. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, trade between the two countries was at risk of stalling altogether. Sabharwal played a leading role in setting up an escrow accounting system in 1991–92, a debt-for-goods arrangement that let commerce continue while institutions were still finding their feet. Decades later, when sanctions and fragmented banking made payments harder again, he advised on Special Rupee Vostro Accounts and argued for direct Rupee–Rouble settlement where regulations permit.
Yet the cover story is just as much about culture and memory as about money. Sabharwal helped revive attention to Afanasy Nikitin, the 15th-century Russian traveller to India, which led to an India Post special cover and a road in Kerala named in his honour. He was involved in the Russian-Indian Friendship Forest at Royal Global University in Guwahati in 2025, and in June 2026 he facilitated the English edition of General Andrei Snesarev’s India as the Main Factor in the Central Asian Question. His work has been recognised by Russia’s Foreign Ministry with the Badge “For Cooperation” and, in June 2026, with a Special Recognition Award.
For business readers, the lesson is clear. Trade agreements last when relationships support them, and those relationships are built long before any contract is signed.
Nayeem Ahmed Siddique
Nayeem Ahmed Siddique launched BookUrTicket in 2019, only months before COVID-19 shut down global travel. He kept the company running and used the slow years to widen its services. Today it handles flights, hotels, trains, visas, cruises, holiday packages and corporate travel, backed by a 13-person in-house team and more than 50 corporate clients. His belief is simple: a travel company should not disappear once the booking is confirmed. That is why 24/7 human support sits at the centre of the business.
Wing Commander (Dr) Rakesh Kumar Prashar:
After more than twenty years in the Indian Air Force and 26 years in corporate safety leadership, Wing Commander (Dr) Rakesh Kumar Prashar has reached an uncomfortable conclusion for any compliance department: rules alone do not make workplaces safe. His concept of Attitude-Based Safety asks people to understand why safe behaviour matters, so that they practise it when nobody is checking. He has delivered more than 3,000 training programmes, published over 900 videos on his Organic Safety channel, and written Safety Leadership – Shaping Business Excellence, an Amazon No. 1 International Bestseller in April 2025.
Nilesh Kumar Shrivastav
Customers in professional hair care usually pick between a premium brand with a premium price and an affordable product that disappoints. Nilesh Kumar Shrivastav, founder of Forest Finch Professional, built his Made-in-India brand around a “third choice”: a premium look, a professional result and a fair price. After more than 500 samples and feedback from working salons, the first hair serum launched in 45 ml and 100 ml sizes at ₹169 and ₹349. It is a strong example of differentiation that comes from solving an existing compromise rather than inventing a new category.
Dr. Ravindra Saini
ARIA Telecom Solutions has worked in telephony, IVR and contact-centre systems since 2004. Founder and CEO Dr. Ravindra Saini is now taking that experience into voice AI, speech technology and secure on-premise artificial intelligence. His argument is that sectors such as government, PSUs and telecom cannot always send sensitive data to external cloud platforms, and that AI must also understand Indian languages, accents and the way people actually switch between them. For ARIA, the future grows out of what the company already knows.
Veeir Chaudary
Veeir Chaudary has been part of Indian entertainment since 2005. He made his Bollywood debut in Uvaa in 2015 and appeared in Bhouri alongside well-known names of Indian cinema. Along the way he moved into music and production, with more than 100 songs to his name and his own banner, Veeir Filmz Entertainment. Based in Delhi, he shows that talent no longer has to live in Mumbai to succeed. He also uses his position to give new directors and artists their first chance, and for nearly fifteen years he has fed more than 100 animals every day.
Chethan V S
Chethan V S leads ExcellenC, an edtech company that teaches data analytics, business analytics, data science and AI through live instruction, real projects and structured career support. The company reports 495 placements among 606 learners over the last three financial years. Its view is that AI should be woven into learning rather than taught as a single module, so that professionals combine their own judgement with the tools they will meet at work.
Dr. Amit Kumar
Dr. Amit Kumar’s doctoral research focused on predicting software defects with ensemble-based machine learning, a problem that costs real businesses time and money when it goes undetected. He has taken the same practical approach to teaching. His 216-page book Machine Learning with Python, published by OrangeBooks on 11 September 2026, covers programming, data processing, model evaluation, deployment, responsible AI and generative AI for students and working professionals alike.
Yugesh S Mutha
In more than two decades of accounts receivable work, Yugesh S Mutha learned that a project can be delivered perfectly and still go unpaid because of documentation gaps, disputes or unclear ownership. He led teams of more than 25 people and reduced DSO by 15%. Now, as founder and CEO of DebCol Enterprise, he is building an AI-enabled platform for the order-to-cash cycle that gives finance leaders visibility from the shop floor to bank realisation. Organisations can try it free for three months.
Dr. Ashok Gopalakrishnan
Few careers cover as much ground as this one. A graduate of IIT Bombay with a doctorate from Georgia Tech, Dr. Ashok Gopalakrishnan worked as a Project Scientist at NASA in Houston from 1985 to 1992, spent more than eight years at IBM and taught at the University of Texas at Austin. He has mentored over 1,000 students and professionals and founded Dr. Ashok’s Academy for Excellence in Education in 2020. His message to leaders is that the next wave of innovation will come from combining disciplines, not from any single technology.
Jitin Aditya Kapur
Jitin Aditya Kapur is a Chartered Accountant with an LL.M. and over fifteen years of experience, including nearly seven at KPMG India. In 2025 he founded Chaitanya Global to help international businesses set up and grow in India, covering entity structuring, FEMA, international tax, transfer pricing and governance. His advice for foreign companies is to enter correctly, not just quickly, because a poor structure in the first year can cause trouble for a decade.
NP Jewels LLP
Based in Gold Souk Mall, Sector 43, Gurugram, NP Jewels LLP was incorporated in 2021 and is led by partners Pradeep Chauhan and Payal Chauhan. It specialises in diamond, gold, Polki and gemstone jewellery for weddings, festivals and everyday wear. Quality, craftsmanship, transparent pricing and personal guidance are the foundation. The partners understand that a jewellery purchase is both a financial decision and an emotional one, and that one satisfied customer often brings the whole family back.
Dr. Ankit Kayal:
Dr. Ankit Kayal, a Senior Consultant Urologist and Kidney Transplant Surgeon in Jaipur, has performed more than 25,000 urological procedures. He leads Kayal Urocentre and works in advanced endourology, laser treatment for kidney stones and minimally invasive options for prostate disease. He is also vocal about early diagnosis, because embarrassment keeps many patients from seeking care until the problem has grown. In his view, technology matters most when it is guided by good judgement and clear communication.
Dr. Manish Das
Dr. Manish Das is an advocate who practises before the Gauhati High Court and the Supreme Court of India. He is also an author, trainer and career counsellor, and he wrote 36 books in 36 months before passing 40 titles. He has supported rural education and free legal assistance, building on a family tradition of public service. In 2026 he took on the role of State President, Legal Cell, Assam, for the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
Shaantanu Ghosh
Shaantanu Ghosh has spent more than thirty years in business, starting with early IT-enabled services operations in India and later moving into knowledge management and legal process outsourcing. Today he advises on healthcare, investment, renewable energy and public-sector strategy across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. His book The Governance Arbitrage: Re-engineering the Indian State argues that well-designed institutions can create more economic value from the resources they already have.
Business Articles: Ideas You Can Use This Week
The articles section of this issue is built around a single theme: how to do better work with the time you have. Several pieces look at artificial intelligence in a grounded way. One asks how companies can move from AI pilots to measurable returns, another explains how manufacturers are using AI on the factory floor, and others show how chief executives use it to reclaim hours every week. A related set of articles gets practical, listing tools that simplify a leader’s workday, business tasks that should be automated, and a guide to building a personal AI executive assistant without writing any code.
A second group of articles is about people. They cover how leaders communicate during difficult periods, how to give feedback without draining motivation, why customers say no, and what decisions changed the course of successful companies. Another looks at the skills professionals will need to stay relevant in 2027, where AI literacy sits next to communication, adaptability and critical thinking. The tone throughout is direct and useful rather than theoretical.
The last articles deal with everyday habits. One shows how to turn LinkedIn into a steady source of B2B leads, another explains why so many meetings waste time and how to fix them, and the final piece looks at how successful leaders plan their day before anyone else wakes up. None of the ideas is complicated, but together they point to the same conclusion as the profiles: lasting results come from clear priorities, consistent habits and good relationships.
