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About SV Divvaakar Subramanyam Vidalur Divvaakar (formerly V. Divakar) is an Indian management professional. A Mechanical Engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (class of 1982) he is Managing Partner at ‘Ace Global Consulting LLP’, a firm that assists international businesses to set up, invest and grow their businesses in India. Divvaakar also monitors and evaluates international programmesaimed at poverty reduction, inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Life and Education The eldest among three children, Divvaakar was born in Chennai (earlier Madras) on July 3, 1960 to V Nirmala, home-maker, and VV Subrahmanyam, a gazette officer. He studied at the DTEA Lodhi Road, topping at school and making it to the top ten ranks. From there, he moved to the Indian Institute of Technology where he graduated in 1982 with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering.

Divvaakar currently lives in New Delhi with his wife Bhanu and two children: son Shreys is an aspiring digital filmmaker, and daughter Vasundhara, an accomplished Jazz artist.

Professional Career His first job was at WIMCO, Swedish Match with postings in Bombay and later, Assam where he spent three years. After a change of multiple careers, he joined Tecnova India, a consulting firm and later Assam Brooke, part of the Brooke bond PLC fold at the time. In 1990, he left for Dubai to set up a trading company, Merit Trading Est. After returning to India, Divvaakar set up Ace Global in 1995-96, a business advisory firm providing market entry services to foreign companies seeking to enter and grow in India. To date, Ace Global has worked for more than 165 foreign enterprises, including some recognizable names like Casio, Rolls Royce, Danone, Olivetti, Henkel, among others while also helping India’s FDI inflows. Besides private enterprises, the firm has cultivated a strong image with international government agencies, including embassies and trade offices of India’s key trade partners.

Since 1996, Ace Global has brought out the highly popular India Business Guide (the 8th edition will come out in 2013) in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; it remains the first reference for Dutch businessmen interested in India. The firm has also been associated with the principal trade and investment initiatives of the European Commission since 2000, and continues to be involved in its flagship programmes.

In October 2010, Ace Global also launched the India Italy Enterprise Centre, a business advisory service for Italian SMEs keen on expanding trade and investment in India.

Over time, Divvaakar’s professional interests have expanded into the social side of business - CSR and Sustainability reporting, besides formulating and monitoring programmes of UN institutions (UNCTAD, ITC, WTO, UNDP UNICEF), European Commission, DFID and other development partners. Since 2012, he also contributes as Fellow at the Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Writing

Divvaakar has been an avid reader all his life. His list of favourite authors includes Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie Nick Carter, Alistair Maclean, Harold Robbins, Arthur Hailey, Sidney Sheldon, Robert Ludlum, Frederic Forsyth, Ken Follet, Jeffrey Archer and Dan Brown.

The idea of joining the league of writers came in July 2011, after a friend’s chance remark about the liberal use of fiction in business reporting led to a serious resolution to compose a ‘real fiction’ novel. This remark resulted in Divvaakar’s debut novel, The Winner’s Price: Life beyond the Campus, set around the lives of five IITians meeting at their reunion event. The book received rave reviews and inspired his second book Beaten By Bhagath.

Beaten by Bhagath is the story of a successful analyst who takes to writing and publishing a novel, and in the process puts his personal and professional life at stake. The first ever book to give a ringside view of the underbelly of India’s publishing industry, it is a humorous account of the hardships and pitfalls that aspiring authors must face in their quest to become celebrated authors.

Beaten By Bhagath has generated favorable reviews and bloggers’ buzz and its revised edition is set to hit markets in July 2013.

''‘I appreciate the reality that was brought forward, aptly laced with humor and pun. This one deserves to be read by all the debutantes and definitely the writers.’'' –Manjulika Pramod on Beaten by Bhagath

''‘Mr. Divvaakar’s language is sharp and well structured. Every sentence is well structured, and the book has almost no grammatical error.’''- Anjit, Beaten by Bhagath

True to the intent behind the book, in April 2013 Divvaakar announced the National Author Mentorship Contest for aspiring authors who were invited to submit entries under the short stories and fiction category. The winning entries would be decided by a panel of eminent judges – Deepthi Talwar (Managing Editor, ‘Westland’), Nandita Aggarwal (Editorial Director, ‘Hachette India’), Reena I. Puri (Editorial Director, ‘Amar Chitra Katha’), Kirtana Krishnan (Chief Editor, ‘Basics Life’), and Faraaz Kazi (CEO, ‘Digi Imprint Solutions’).

Other Interests

Divvaakar has multifarious interests such as:

Music: He is well-versed in Bollywood music and also writes lyrics and composes music on national and public interest subjects. His popular song ‘Dilli Hamari Hai’ (‘Our Delhi’) – the common man’s tribute to the Commonwealth Games 2010 - played for 2 months in all of Delhi’s PVR Cinema screens. His compositions on ‘Corruption’, New Delhi’s 100 years, and a new rendition of the Madhushaala – a highly popular classic 135 verse grand poem – brings a young Indian’s perspective to Indian culture and social values.

Occult: Superstitious leanings kindled an interest in numerology and feng shui, reaching professional competence through self-study. He has a numero-analysis blog, showing numero analysis of celebrities.

Movies: A movie buff since school days, Divvaakar enjoys Hindi, Tamil and English films. His Bollywood favourites are Amitabh Bachchan, Dev Anand and Aamir Khan. Hollywood icons include Steve Martin, Peter Sellers, Robin Williams while from the Tamil film industry, he admires Rajnikanth, Vivek, Senthil and Goundamani.

Travel: He has a passion for travel and has touched 89 countries. His dream is to total up 100 countries and these must include all the 12 ancient wonders of the world. The ‘to do’ list as of June 2013 is: Australia, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar,Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Portugal, Norway, Finland, Ireland Bahamas, Brazil, Argentina Peru and Mexico. The ancient wonders include Machu Pichu (Peru), Chichen Itza (Mexico), Stonehenge (Britain), Xian Terracotta warriors (China) and Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq).

Food: Vegetarian most of the time, Divvaakar’s favourite cuisines are South Indian, Chinese Sichuan, Italian, Arabic, Punjabi and Rajasthani. Also a keen wine experimenter, Divvakar enjoys red wine and Barollo, Valpolicella and Proseco are his best picks.

External Links Newspaper links http://www.indianexpress.com/columnist/svdivvaakar/ Entrepreneurship http://yourstory.in/2013/07/entreprenuer-at-heart-s-v-divvaakar-a-consultant-and-the-author-of-beaten-by-bhagath/ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/switch-on-or-switch-off-/32278/ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mobile-phonebanking-is-failing-to-meet-its-potential/1084239/ Ace Global Consulting LLP http://www.aceglobalconsulting.com Blog http://www.svdivvaakar.in/ Official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SVDivvaakarOfficial Official Twitter profile https://twitter.com/svdivvaakar