KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW has always been seen as an iconic entrepreneur. Mazumdar-Shaw, who is widely credited with a biotech revolution in India with the around ₹20,000-crore Biocon group, is now busy preparing her company for the future. While the previous decade was about getting ready with investments that would catapult Biocon into the next phase of growth, the stage is now set for putting the strategy into action. With a hefty ₹10,000 crore invested in R&D and another ₹10,000 crore in manufacturing to prepare for future demand, Biocon is now set for the future. The next phase of growth will involve high-value biotech innovation, powered by emerging technologies like AI. Alongside, Biocon has put in place a simpler corporate structure, merged its generics and biologics businesses, and reduced debt. And in another major step, Shreehas Tambe — a long-time Biocon executive who was recruited as a management trainee by Mazumdar-Shaw — has now taken over as CEO and MD.

Fortune India’s P.B. Jayakumar and Joe C. Mathew met Mazumdar-Shaw in Bengaluru for a long conversation where she elaborated on her vision for future-proofing the company she is synonymous with. The most important part of the plan: succession. Mazumdar-Shaw spells out her succession plan in detail — Claire, her niece, 37, daughter of Mazumdar-Shaw’s brother Ravi Mazumdar, has been picked by her, while Eric, her nephew, 33, and Claire’s husband Thomas Roberts, 39, are also part of the business from the family’s side. Claire is the founder-CEO of Boston-based Bicara Therapeutics, founded by Biocon. “I am the sole owner of Biocon, and I need to make sure that I put it in good hands. I have seen my niece Claire as my successor, because I think she has proved to me that she can run a company. I would never give it to anyone who doesn’t know how to follow me,” Mazumdar-Shaw says. “The first 10 years, I was developing the company itself, but the first 10 years was enzymes, the next 10 years was insulin, the next 10 years has been biosimilars, and the next 10 years can be very, very high-value innovation, based on a lot of new technologies.” Clearly, Biocon Next, as we are calling it in our cover story, is in place. Mazumdar-Shaw, one of the sharpest minds in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem, has ensured that.

Even as the Biocon game plan is playing out, in Mumbai another iconic entrepreneur, the media-shy and soft-spoken Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma, has made a characteristically bold bet, buying the U.S.-based women’s health company Organon for a staggering $11.75 billion, the second-largest acquisition by an Indian firm. Shanghvi’s latest acquisition, which comes after other big buys like Taro of Israel and Ranbaxy, serves to double Sun Pharma’s revenues to $12.4 billion, placing the company as the third-largest global player in women’s health and the seventh-largest biosimilar player in the world. For those who know how Shanghvi works, this massive acquisition would not come as a surprise: the quiet billionaire is known to let his smart business moves do the talking. And while there’s loads of action brewing in the pharma and biotech space, massive steps are also being taken in India’s booming data centres sector. Nevin John and P.B. Jayakumar get you every detail of the mega investments — upward of $70 billion — flowing into data centres, where Reliance, L&T, Adani, Tata, Google, Microsoft, Meta and many others are jostling for a piece of the action.