Bangalore Turf Club felicitates Cyrus Poonawalla
The Hindu
The veteran industrialist had been conferred the Padma Bhushan
The Bangalore Turf Club on Sunday felicitated Cyrus S. Poonawalla on being awarded the Padma Bhushan for his distinguished service in trade and industry.
In a simple ceremony, Turf Authorities of India and BTC chairman Uday Eswaran and the BTC committee paid tribute to the man who has been called the ‘Vaccine King of India’ with a heart of gold.
Dr. Poonawalla’s close association with horse racing must have kindled the spark in him to take chances and grab the initiative at the right moment. He took that chance in 1966 to set up the Serum Institute of India on a budget of just $12,000. Today it’s a $12 billion company.
Dr. Poonawalla, while acknowledging the honour, said his vision was to make vaccines that would be affordable and available to people all over the world. That vision has not faltered and continues to this day.
He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.