Thirsty For More

BIRA’S ANKUR JAIN HAS SWIFTLY CARVED A NICHE FOR HIMSELF IN A DIFFICULT DOMESTIC ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE INDUSTRY. HE IS FAR FROM DONE YET.

- Sumant Banerji

WHILE GROWING UP, Ankur Jain never thought he would one day lead a start-up in a sector considered to be the toughest for new entrants in India—liquor. Beset with archaic state regulations and an overwhelming lack of transparency, the alcoholic beverage industry in India is not for the faint hearted. Born in a middle class family of professionals in South Delhi—his father is an architect, mother an interior designer—Jain was an above average student deeply passionate about technology. He followed the usual script till college and graduated with a computer engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2002.

Following a blink and you miss stint at Motorola, the entrepreneurial bug first struck him when he started a healthcare information start-up.

“I always wanted to start something of my own. The drab routine of a job is not for me,” he says in his usual matter of fact manner. “I did not really encounter any resistance from back home. My parents may not be entrepreneurs in the strict sense, but from my mother’s side my extended family is quite entrepreneurial. So it is not an unheard of thing.”