He's donning a new cap--and by (social) choice too. Early last month, Amartya Sen, the 64-year-old would-be Nobel Prize-winning economist, became the first non-Briton to be chosen to head Cambridge University's most prestigious college, Trinity College--incidentally, his alma mater--as its master. Only the second Indian to bag such an honour--remember: I.G. Patel, was appointed the director of the London School of Economics (LSE) in the mid-1980s--England is Amartyada's favourite playground. For, he taught at both the LSE and All Soul's College at Oxford University before moving, in 1985, to Harvard University where not only did he attain the distinction of holding a dual chair, he was also elected the president of the American Economic Association in 1993. In this economist, there has never been a famine of ideas

She has researched her business strategy well. And is now poised to carry it to its logical conclusion. Any which way you look at it, 43-year-old Kamini Banga, is a pro. Recently, the vivacious wife of M.S. `Vindi' Banga--who is the head of the soaps and detergents division of the Rs 6,600-crore Hindustan Lever--called it quits after a 20-year stint at the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB), where she used to head its qualitative research division, PQR. Next stop: launching her own consumer consultancy firm, Dimensions Consultancy & Qualitative Research (DCQR). "There's a worrying trend of qualitative researchers short-circuiting the route to strategy. You can't take data straight into strategy; you have to convert it into meaningful information," avers Kamini. But, for this alumnus of IIM-a (Class Of 77)--in fact, Kamini and Vindi were batchmates at the B-school--qualitative research is the means to a strategic end

He's the alien among the Androids. It's Take Two for Born-In-India CEOs of the Big Six. On the first day of the last month, Jim Wadia, 49, took over as one of the two worldwide managing partners of the $5-billion Arthur Andersen--as the head of the firm's accounting practice--emulating 48-year-old Rajat Gupta, who became the managing director of McKinsey & Co. in July, 1994. Born in Mumbai, Jim left the country to study law and accounting in Switzerland in 1970. An attorney and a chartered accountant by training--and a consultant by choice--he joined Andersen's tax practice in England in 1977. Since then, his rise has been meteoric: he became a manager in 1978, a partner in 1982, and was elected the managing partner of the UK practice in 1993. Now, Jim is set to have seven years at the helm of the world's largest multi-disciplinary firm since Arthur Andersen has an informal policy which stipulates that senior managers start divesting themselves of their responsibilities only after they turn 56. Good show, Gentleman Jim

Al Capone and he share the same passion: cars. In fact, one of the prized possessions of Pramode Kumar Mittal, the 54-year-old vice-chairman of the Rs 1,366.24-crore Ispat Industries, is a soft-hood, six-cylinder 1928 Morgan--the very mobile in which the idiosyncratic gangster stalked the streets of Chicago in the early 1930s. That's only one of the 15 vintage beauties that the young Mittal owns. "And all of them are in perfect running condition," he boasts. An avid collector of vintage cars and a rallyist--Pramode stopped rallying two years ago only because of paucity of time--the steel-maker recently set up a personal garage to restore and maintain his golden collection. Says he: "It's relatively easy to buy an automobile from the vintage era, but the tougher part is to restore it." As is Pramode's wont, he has kept the tougher part to himself. His new garage looks after everything: from restoring the original leather upholstery to retooling each engine's original piston-valve. Little wonder, then, that when these beauties, ranging from the 1904 Standard Coventry to the 1932 Bentley Tourer, roll along the streets of Calcutta--only in winter, mind you--heads can't stop turning. That's what we call vintage forward integration.