With an investment of Rs 50,000 P. D. Shylendra opened his first textiles shop in Bengaluru and later opened a Raymond franchise store, which was a runaway success. Usha Prasad profiles the entrepreneur heading a Rs 22 crore turnover company 

What happens when your family’s financial situation hits rock-bottom? If you were Gaurav Rana, you would fight back. Gaurav made cow-dung cakes for his home kitchen, worked as a barber, and later launched a company of his own, says Bilal Handoo

A first generation entrepreneur in Tiruppur, India’s textile hub, Raja M Shanmugam, has been supplying garments to a single client in Germany for 16 years, and grown along with his client to touch a turnover of Rs 80 crore, says P C Vinoj Kumar

For Amar Singh, who was driving an auto for a living, an investment of Rs 1,200 in 60 amla saplings changed his life forever and made him an icon in his village. Partho Burman profiles the rural entrepreneur whose annual turnover is Rs 26 lakh

For India’s top space scientist Mylswamy Annadurai, whose low-cost missions to the moon and Mars has won him many accolades, thriftiness comes naturally. P C Vinoj Kumar has the story of how young Annadurai outsmarted poverty with his ingenuity  

Abhishek Rungta started his website hosting venture, which is now a Rs 55 crore turnover company, hiring a stall in an IT exhibition spending Rs 3,000 from his pocket and another Rs 50 for printing leaflets about his services, says G Singh

Biplab Ketan Paul, who developed a water harvesting system that has benefited farmers around the country, received The Weekend Leader – VIT Person of the Year (2016) Award from  India’s ‘moon man’ Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, director, ISRO, Bengaluru

In 1994, a 25-year-old young man invested Rs 5,000 in a flower shop in Delhi along with a friend who put in Rs 2.5 lakh and later withdrew. Today, the business has grown into a Rs 650 crore turnover flower retail chain   

Two friends started a fruit juice shop in a 26 sq ft rented space in 2014 and have now grown into a six-outlet chain. Operating on a no-frills model and even selling on carts, they are inching toward a one crore turnover mark, says G Singh

When a man who created a business empire that is today valued at Rs 3,600 crore from a small investment of Rs 1 lakh talks about success strategies, you would want to listen. Usha Prasad did, and took away 10 Success Mantras from his speech

He dropped out of college to start a business and did not give up after his profitable trade went bust. The founder of a Rs 15 crore turnover coffee chain had suffered losses and underwent humiliations before achieving success, says Usha Prasad

K R Raja landed in Coimbatore with just Rs 25 in his pocket as a 16-year-old and had even slept on the pavement. Today, he owns three biryani outlets and a lodge in the heart of the city that is worth more than Rs 10 crore, says P C Vinoj Kumar

At an age when people start planning for their retirement, three 40-plus men from Kolkata decided to set up a company with their PF and gratuity money. Sixteen years later, two of the co-founders look back and tell their story to G Singh  

Somma Banerjee gives a blow-by-blow account of how V P Lobo, the son of a daily wager, who came to Mumbai from a village near Mangaluru with just Rs 50, built a business that has achieved a cumulative turnover of Rs 75 crore in six years

A first generation entrepreneur, Yuvraj Aman Singh, who entered the refurbished mobile phone market eight years ago selling his products outside a Sony Ericsson outlet in Delhi, has now reached a turnover of Rs 150 crore, says Narendra Kaushik