India's finest!

Deepak Parekh, head of housing-finance giant HDFC, received a Padma Bhushan. Interestingly Parekh and Nilekani both serve on the Indo-US CEOs forum.

Parekh started his career at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. In 1987 his uncle H T Parikh recruited him back to India to work for HDFC at half the salary he was earning at Chase. From offering affordable housing, today HDFC, under Parekh's able management, offers consumers almost any kind of financial product.

Also See: Profile of Deepak Parekh: An unofficial crisis consultant