NEWSMAKER: Jagdish Khattar

When Jagdish Khattar joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1965, he became the first in his family to take up a job. Everyone else was self-employed. Last Tuesday, in announcing that he had become an entrepreneur, Khattar finally responded to the call of his genes. The journey to Carnation Auto India Ltd — that’s the name of Khattar’s company, which will set up an independent, pan-India, multi-brand sale and service network for cars — has had more than its fair share of twists and turns. Some time after his family moved from Dera Ismail Khan, in the North West Frontier Province, to Delhi after the Partition, Khattar acted in a film called Gandhi Path. The film never got released but he still got offers to act in Jagriti and Raj Kapoor’s Boot Polish. But Khattar was in Class II then and his father thought he ought to... [read full story]