Newsmakers this past fortnight

Whether it be the decision to broadcast the ICC World Cup 2015 in the 4K format or launch its video-on-demand platform, Uday Shankar has always been a step ahead of his peers to ensure Star India is not just the market leader in terms of viewership, but also a trendsetter for ground-breaking technology. He has now shifted his focus to regional television, something he was passionate about ever since he took over the reins of the Rs 7,000-odd crore entertainment network. With its recent decision to acquire Hyderabad-based Maa TV for Rs 2,500 crore, Star India will consolidate its position in the southern markets. Earlier, the company had acquired Vijay TV and Asianet to gain a sizeable market share across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. The non-Hindi TV entertainment market contributes close to 30 per cent of the Rs 43,000 crore Indian broadcasting industry's advertisement revenues. Shankar is going the whole hog to get a slice of that pie. - Ajita Shashidhar

His detractors had written him off after he failed to make it to the 2015 World Cup squad, but Yuvraj Singh, 33, is on course for yet another spectacular comeback. In the recently-concluded IPL players' auction in Bengaluru, Delhi Daredevils picked him up for a whopping Rs 16 crore - a price that was never heard of before in IPL history. Barely two months ago, his previous employer, Royal Challengers Bangalore, had decided to let him go. But, he was back in the reckoning with three tons in the domestic league. Yuvi, as he is referred to by his friends, had surprised everyone with his form in the last World Cup, running away with the 'Man of the Tournament' award for his impeccable all-round performance. Earlier, he had come out a winner successfully battling a rare form of lung cancer to represent India at the highest level. In the next edition of IPL, his new franchise would expect Yuvraj to silence his critics with yet another stellar show. - Anilesh S. Mahajan

Punit Renjen's elevation as the CEO of Deloitte Global, effective June 1, will put him in the growing club of India-born global managers running multinational corporations. Renjen, who has been with the consulting firm for almost three decades, has specialised in mergers and acquisitions. With the global economy showing signs of a slowdown, he will surely have a few challenges to deal with. But nothing comes close to his struggle as a 14-year-old assisting his father to run the family business while burning the midnight oil to master the grades at school. - Anand Adhikari

Michael Bloomberg, 73, who also serves as the UN envoy for cities and climate change, says he shares Prime Minister Narendra Modi's belief that "cities are key to driving innovation and progress" and considers India's renewable energy targets ambitious, but achievable. During his recent trip to India, he committed $125 million to Mumbai, one of the participating cities of a global road safety programme, through Bloomberg Philanthropies' Global Safety Initiative. - Arpita Mukherjee

T. Venkattram Reddy, 54, the high-profile and flamboyant newspaper baron with a penchant for expensive cars and horses, has found the going tough over the past couple of years. He was recently arrested by the CBI, along with his brother, and Vice Chairman, T. Ravi Vinayak Reddy, in connection with a loan default case. The CBI has alleged that the Reddy brothers had entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat Canara Bank. Reddy, who was also the owner of IPL team Deccan Chargers, has always been considered as a man with a high risk appetite. - E. Kumar Sharma

Robert Niblock, the Global CEO of Lowe's, the second-largest home improvement retailer in the US with annual revenues of $53.4 billion, is upbeat about the company's new captive global innovation center at Bengaluru. The company invested $8 million to set up the facility spread across 1.1 lakh sq.ft. At present, it has 135 employees. "I am very excited on what this centre can do for Lowe's, globally. We want to grow this centre to 500 people by the end of 2015," said Niblock. - Venkatesha Babu