Among the many persons whom Bangalore can proudly call its own dear ones, biotech entrepreneur and CEO of Biocon India Group, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is definitely one. Forward looking, driven, enterprising and definitely outspoken, Kiran is everything that one would look to in a woman of her stature.

Just to indicate her background, she was born in Bangalore and educated in Bishop Cotton Girls School and then Mount Carmel College. She then went on to Ballarat College, Melbourne, specializing in Malting and Brewing Technology there to become India's first woman Brew master.

She started Biocon in 1978 collaborating with an Irish firm, floated 2 joint ventures, Biochemizyme and Biocon-Quest India Ltd. With her commitment to individual enterprise, she has held positions in industry councils, including Vice-President, Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE). Rightly, she was awarded Rotary Award for Best Model Employer, National Award for Best Small Industry, and most note worthily, the Padmashri in 1989 from the Government of India.

After the S.M. Krishna government came to power, she was accorded an even more prestigious assignment, as a Chairperson of the Vision Group on Biotechnology to draw up the State's Biotech Policy. The policy was announced recently, just before the 'Bio.Com' and is the first ever such policy in the country with farsighted provisions and help to the industry. It is only after Karnataka announced its policy that Hyderabad did so.

So how did Biocon India happen? Kiran, never the one to shy away, is open about the huge inspiration she got. "A chance meeting with the founder of Biocon International, Leslie Auchincloss marked the start of Biocon India. I had dreamt of doing many things but never of starting a company of my own,'' she has admitted.

But it was never smooth going. Banks and financial institutions had never heard of biotechnology back then and shied away from her proposals. An added reason was also that she was a woman. This was also the problem when she started recruiting, because people were wary of working for a woman. But it did not take long for Kiran to dispel those myths. Ask her today whether things have changed, and she will probably reel out statistics of the number of people working for her and remark with a twinkle in her luminous eyes, ''Ask my colleagues!''

Ever since Biocon became the buzzword in the market for the emerging field of biotechnology, Kiran has been a much-quoted personality. But she will always tells you that her belief in the field, a magnificent team of people who shared her passion for the subject, determination and urge to succeed have all contributed to Biocon's reputation as the leader in the field.

But there is another face of Kiran, which many Bangaloreans are familiar with, though it has been less visible of late. And that is her passion for Bangalore. She has actively campaigned and raised her voice for things, which she felt were need - civic amenities, roads, cleanliness et cetera. She was the core member of a group of Bangaloreans who used to meet regularly to discuss the problems ailing the city, which included among others former Chief Secretary T.P. Issar and former Union Minister Ramakrishna Hegde. Due to her commitments and added responsibilities, she appears to have discontinued these meetings.

But her commitment is solid nevertheless. She was among the first to hail the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) initiative and added her mite to it by contributing Rupeess One Crore. Her donations went towards starting the Swachcha Bangalore programme of door-to-door collection of garbage.

Kiran is never the one to be satisfied with what she is doing or started. New things fire her imagination and she yearns to do something different. It was this same yearning, which probably saw her researching, and publishing a book. Though not very different from her field of experience, the collaboration, she says, proved to be very fruitful. Her first coffee table book 'Ale and Arty' was released a few months ago. It is all about brewing beer and is juxtaposed with paintings by some of India's best artists. Finding place in the book are some of the famous brewing families in the world along with beer firms in the country. Artists who have worked for it include S G Vasudev, Yusuf Arakkal, Anuradha Nalapat, TM Aziz, Gurudas Shenoy, cartoonist Ponnappa and, Jatin Das.

So where does she go from here. "My vision is to grow into a global bio-therapeutics company with very innovative and proprietary products and technologies. Two years is a very short time to predict drug discovery but we hope to discover a few new drug molecules in three-four years through a new in-house initiative."

Way to go Kiran! Bangaloreans will surely back you all the way to the top!!