The personality that emerges is that of the quintessential entrepreneur, driven by both lofty vision and hard-nosed opportunism
Captain Gopinath has led an interesting life. Son of a village school master, he attended Sainik school before joining the army and seeing action in the Bangladesh war. He farmed, ran an Udupi restaurant, an automobile sales and service agency and an agricultural consultancy and stood for elections twice. Of course, he is best known for showing that low cost airlines could work in India.
(This story appears in the 19 February, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)