Lalit Suri can be called as the uncrowned hotel king of India. He is the Chairman of the Bharat Hotels chain and is the single-largest hotel owner with over 1600 rooms. Bharat Hotels chain comprises seven hotels which include the flagship InterContinental The Grand in Delhi, and six Grand hotels in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Srinagar, Udaipur and Khajuraho.

Lalit Suri is an alumnus of St Columbus and Sri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi. He represented both his school and college in swimming and athletics at the state level. Lalit Suri was trained as an automobile engineer and started his career manufacturing vehicle bodies. He commissioned his first hotel in Delhi in 1988. Since then there has been no looking back.

In the last few years Bharat Hotels has invested Rs 500 crore on its properties in Mumbai and Goa. In addition, the group has spent Rs 42 crore on a 30-year lease on the former Bangalore Ashok, and a further Rs 40 crore on renovations. Lalit Suri is currently on an expansion mode. Sites for hotels have been identified and negotiated in Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Jaipur, while search is on for the right locations in Chennai and Hyderabad. In the first phase hotels will be constructed in Amritsar, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur adding 400-600 rooms to the Grand chain, while the next phase in Chennai, and Hyderabad) will take the tally up by another 500 five-star deluxe rooms.

Apart from a successful businessman, Lalit Suri is also an avid traveler and an art lover. Presently, he is also a Rajya Sabha MP.

Sir Ratan Tata, the younger of group founder Jamsetji Tata's two sons, died in 1918 at the age of 47. A sensitive and artistic personality, Sir Ratan was a man whose ideas were far ahead of his time.
He supported the non-cooperation movement in South Africa in 1912, led by a then relatively unknown lawyer, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He extended financial support to Gopal Krishna Gokhale to set up the Servants of India Society.
Sir Ratan endowed a house at Shantiniketan for European research scholars coming to India to study Oriental literature and culture. He funded the first archaeological excavation at Pataliputra between 1913 to 1917, which resulted in the discovery of the 100-column Mauryan throne room in Emperor Ashoka's palace.
In 1912, when few men from backgrounds comparable to Sir Ratan were even remotely interested or even aware of poverty and destitution, he encouraged the University of London to institute a chair at the London School of Economics to investigate and research the causes of destitution and poverty.
Sir Ratan had a passion for the arts and enjoyed being able to indulge his well-developed aesthetic sense. He bought and built some of the most extraordinary, elegant homes, ranging from York House in Twickenham, England, which he bought from the Duc d'Orleans, to the elegant and exquisite mansion he built in Bombay, Tata House.
His deep interest and discerning eye for art led to the finest collection of that time, which he bequeathed to the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. Understanding the importance of arts and culture in human development, he wished that the widest cross-section of people have free access and opportunity to appreciate, value and gain as much as he did from his collection.
Sensitive to the suffering of mankind, he bequeathed property worth Rs. 8.1 million to a trust fund. At the age of 47, Sir Ratan died, leaving behind his widow, Lady Navajbai Tata, who was to outlive him by 44 years. In his will he noted: "If I leave no children, I give the rest of the residue of my property for the advancement of education, learning and industry in all its branches, including education in economy, sanitary science and art, or for the relief of human suffering or for other works of public utility. Such work is not (to be) undertaken from a stereotyped point of view, but from the point of view of fresh light that is thrown from day to day by the advance of science and philosophy on problems of human well-being."

Few men in history have made as dramatic a contribution to their country’s economic fortunes as did the founder of Reliance, Sh. Dhirubhai H Ambani. Fewer still have left behind a legacy that is more enduring and timeless.

As with all great pioneers, there is more than one unique way of describing the true genius of Dhirubhai: The corporate visionary, the unmatched strategist, the proud patriot, the leader of men, the architect of India’s capital markets, the champion of shareholder interest.

But the role Dhirubhai cherished most was perhaps that of India’s greatest wealth creator. In one lifetime, he built, starting from the proverbial scratch, India’s largest private sector enterprise.

When Dhirubhai embarked on his first business venture, he had a seed capital of barely US$ 300 (around Rs 14,000). Over the next three and a half decades, he converted this fledgling enterprise into a Rs 60,000 crore colossus—an achievement which earned Reliance a place on the global Fortune 500 list, the first ever Indian private company to do so.

Dhirubhai is widely regarded as the father of India’s capital markets. In 1977, when Reliance Textile Industries Limited first went public, the Indian stock market was a place patronised by a small club of elite investors which dabbled in a handful of stocks.

Undaunted, Dhirubhai managed to convince a large number of first-time retail investors to participate in the unfolding Reliance story and put their hard-earned money in the Reliance Textile IPO, promising them, in exchange for their trust, substantial return on their investments. It was to be the start of one of great stories of mutual respect and reciprocal gain in the Indian markets.

Under Dhirubhai’s extraordinary vision and leadership, Reliance scripted one of the greatest growth stories in corporate history anywhere in the world, and went on to become India’s largest private sector enterprise.

Through out this amazing journey, Dhirubhai always kept the interests of the ordinary shareholder uppermost in mind, in the process making millionaires out of many of the initial investors in the Reliance stock, and creating one of the world’s largest shareholder families.

Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh is a bustling 400 year old metropolis with an urban population of 4.2 million people approximately. The city is cosmopolitan, and is richly endowed with a variety of cultures. The city presents an attractive amalgam of old world charm together with ebullience of growth and enterprise. Beautiful old edifices built in the medieval, large glass and chrome temples of commerce.

The history of Hyderabad begins with the establishment of the Qutub Shahi dynasty. Quli Qutub Shah seized the reins of power from the Bahamani Kingdom in 1512 and established the fortress city of Golconda. Inadequacy of water, and frequent epidemics of plague and cholera persuaded Mohammed, the fifth Quli Qutub Shahi ruler to venture outward to establish the new city with the Charminar at its center and with four great roads fanning out in the four cardinal directions.

Hyderabad's fame, strategic location and Golconda's legendary wealth attracted Aurangazeb who captured Golconda after a long siege in 1687. After this defeat the importance of Hyderabad declined and the city fell into partial ruin.

As the Mughal Empire decayed and began to disintegrate, the victory, Asaf Jah-I proclaimed himself the Nizam and established independent rule of the Deccan. Hyderabad once again became a major capital city, ruled by successive Nizams of the Asaf Jah dynasty until the state was merged into the Indian Union in 1948.

In 1798, a subsidiary alliance for military and political cooperation was signed between the Nizam and the British East India company. Thereafter, an area north of what is now the Hussain Sagar lake was established as a cantonment. The area was named Secunderabad after the then Nizam, Sikander Jah. Both Hyderabad and Secunderabad grew together and have now merged. An imaginary line drawn across the Tank Bund is still used to distinguish the two cities.

The City of Hyderabad is famous for its minarets and its pearl bazaar. Pearl from all over the world are said to come to Hyderabad because the artisans here are skilled in piercing and stringing pearls without damaging them. The city's gypsy tribes called "Lambadas" and "Banjaras" are known throughout the country for their colorful costumes - and Hyderabadi cuisine is much sought after.

Hyderabad is at an altitude of 536 meters with the mean summer temperature going up to a maximum of 40 degrees Celsius and the minimum average temperature being around 22 degrees. The maximum winter temperature is around 22 with the minimum going down to around 12 degrees. Light woolens are required during early mornings and late evenings.

Culture
The infamous Hyderabadi pearl Culture. Who hasn't heard about the soft, rounded, luminescent, tear drop pearl of Hyderabad. People form everywhere flock here to possess a few of these pearls. But why Hyderabad? It neither is on the sea coast nor near to it. Yet it has become almost synonymous with pearls. It is because of the city's grand and very old history. Hyderabad was a princely state and a very rich one too! The royal patronage saw to the burgeoning growth of arts, crafts and cuisine. Their rich life-styles beckoned many a craftsman from distant parts of the world, especially the Arabian Gulf where the rare original pearls are found in abundance. Hence, Hyderabad became the one-stop-destination for pearls. There is an entire street which only comprises of pearl shops - Patther Gatti.

In the land of beautiful women, beautiful poetry, beautiful cuisine and beautiful pearls, one more can be added to the beautiful string, i.e. Beautiful bangles. Down the centuries, the lure of bangles still persists in the hearts of millions of women who love to adorn their arms with a dazzling set of Hyderabadi bangles. There are about 450 shops flanking either side of the world famous Charminar with around 2500 craftsmen weaving their magic around your arms. These bangles are so very purse and are of high quality too.