CNN-IBN Indian of the Year: Business barons

New Delhi: 2007 will be remembered as the year that corporate India made its is most emphatic mark on the global map.

Big-ticket global acquisitions, a fast growing billionaire club, and a stock market that went on a roller coaster ride ending as the second most richly valued market. So who are the men and women who took India on this heady corporate ride?

The other contender for businessman of the year is Mukesh Ambani for creating one of the world's largest refining capacities, for daring to change the Indian retail sector & for dreaming of parallel cities through the creation of mammoth special economic zones. The stock market acknowledged his achievements in 2007, tying him for a place as the world's richest.

Thanks to the booming stock market Anil Ambani too saw his wealth triple in a single year. And despite getting a smaller share of the Reliance pie after the split, Anil has managed to take his telecom and Power business from strength to strength. He is now working on launching the cheapest internet-enabled mobile phone in the country.

“What Reliance communications has achieved in this short period would exhilarate Dhirubhai Ambani personally her would have been delighted at the progress the company has made and what he would have enjoyed more is not creation of wealth but sharing it,” Anil Ambani said.

The other takeover tycoon this year was Kumaramangalm Birla, who engineered the acquisition of Canadian aluminum giant Novelis, making Hindalco the world's largest aluminum rolled products company. Under his mantle the aditiya Birla group has just forayed into the retail space.

Liquor baron Vijjay Mallya also had a heady year in 2007. He took a swig of Scottish whisky major Whyte & Mackay for $1.1 billion and after than made news by acquiring a strategic stake in Air Deccan.

Mallya is now looking to merge Air Deccan with Kingfisher Airlines. His CV also boasts of an FI racing team and television channel

2007 saw Bharti chief Sunil Mittal make it to the Forbes list of 20 self-made billionaires, Bharti Airtel is considered the nation's largest mobile-phone operator with today over 50 million customers and despite controversies, this telecom czar is committed to launch his first retail chain along with Wal-Mart next year.

But one man is neither a billionaire or an entrepreneur, he is SBI chairman OP Bhatt, credited with breathing new life into an age old institution. He has put India's largest bank in a position to compete with rapidly growing and biggest private sector players. Under Bhatt, SBI has forayed into new business streams like mobile banking and general insurance.

So vote for your favourite from among these.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)

#cnn-ibn indian of the year 2007 #business