Bharti with his wife

When restaurant chain McDonald’s recently had to atone for deliberately concealing the use of beef extract in its french fries, there was none happier than Harish Bharti. Bharti had taken the initiative last year when he filed the class action suit on behalf of vegetarians. The 49-year-old Seattle-based lawyer, whose suits have ensured that McDonald’s will issue a public apology, pay $10 million as charity and also disclose ingredients in its menu items, is modest about his victory. Says Bharti: “Ten years down the road, no one will remember the money. But this apology and disclosure will change the way the food industry treats its customers.” And with lawyers like him, they had better.

An American-style management, an Indian head, a German bank. Can it get more global than that? Anshu Jain, 39-year-old global markets chief of Deutsche Bank who also recently made to its decision-making executive board, would agree. Ever since Jain headed global markets last year, 80 per cent of the investment revenues poured in from outside Germany. The switchover from the laidback English management system to an aggressive American one, thanks to Jain, may have upped the profits. But he says, “Europeans can take pain, believe in a vision and stick to it.” It pays to be diplomatic, Mr Jain?

Winner Sukhdeo flanked by Bhatt (left) and Bhim

Silicon Valley last week played host to a different genre of Indians. San Jose, California, was the venue for the 11th Miss India Worldwide pageant, the proceeds of which went to charity groups, American India Foundation and Home of Hope. The winner was 20-year-old Miss India-South Africa Sarika Sukhdeo. Miss India-Trinidad Tricia Bhim was first runner-up and Miss India-Tanzania Ekta Bhatt second runner-up. Sukhdeo, a Durban-based health and beauty therapist (now we know!), won several cash prizes and a round-trip travel to the US and India. “I’ll devote myself to charity causes in South Africa,” says Sukhdeo. Sounds familiar? The pageant’s next venue is Durban. Is Sukhdeo smiling?

Sanjay Basu, a Massachussetts Institute of Technology student and Rhodes scholar, made big news in the Wall Street Journal last week. His United Trauma Relief project, operated solely from his dorm mails, networks 200 aids organisations, helps collect unused aids drugs—16,000 doses a month—and ship them to a clinic in Haiti. “Rhodes was a pretty horrible colonialist,” says Basu, who plans to use his scholarship to study underdeveloped countries. “It’s best to use the money from colonialism to repair what colonialists left behind.” Touché.

—By Anil Padmanabhan and Ishara Bhasi