The dark side of B.R. Shetty

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Editor's note: In August 2015, the mood at the cricket stadium in Dubai was electric. After 34 years, an Indian prime minister was visiting the United Arab Emirates and over 50,000 cheering emigrants had gathered to hear Narendra Modi speak. Inviting him on stage was B.R. Shetty, the most successful Indian entrepreneur in the Middle East, who built his fortunes in healthcare and financial services. Few, however, knew of him in India. That was just about to change. A little over a year later, in December 2016, at his electoral constituency in Varanasi, Modi announced that Shetty was going to set up a big hospital in the city. The plan was for a 500-bed modern, multi-speciality facility with a big chunk of the beds allocated to treat poor patients. Shetty was to bring in Rs 400 crore for the facility and the target date for final completion was set for September 2019. Till date, the project has not taken off, though Shetty managed to negotiate a piece of land from a local religious institution. He has so far deployed Rs 24 crore …