Top 5 business newsmakers in 2013

Raghuram Rajan: The former IMF (International Monetary Fund) chief economist who took charge of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September amid the rupee storm- which was the worst performing Asian currency then- stayed in the news ever since he took over, not just for turning around the rupee's fortunes but also for his suave demeanour and gift of the gab. When Dr Rajan took the hot seat of the RBO Governor, the rupee was trading at 68 levels against the dollar, and as the calendar year comes to a close it has stabilised at 61-62 levels.
P Chidambaram: At a time when the government came under severe criticism for letting the country's current account deficit (CAD) - which is the difference between its imports and exports- spiral out of control to a record 4.8 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) in the last fiscal, Finance Minister P Chidambaram slowly and steadily brought the situation under control. Mr Chidambaram has said that CAD will be checked below 3 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal year ending March 2014. Other voices like RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan have lent credence to the projection. The Finance Minister's efforts to curb imports of gold and other non-essential items helped the country's CAD narrow sharply to 1.2 per cent of GDP in the September quarter- the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2010-11.
Phaneesh Murthy: Former Infosys top-level executive who was forced to quit India's second biggest software services exporter in 2002 following a sexual harassment lawsuit, which was settled out of court, once again found himself in the eye of the storm in March, when he was sacked as the chief executive of IT outsourcing company iGate Corp for not disclosing a relationship with a subordinate. iGate said its investigation showed Mr Murthy had violated the company policy by failing to report his relationship with the employee. He did not violate iGate's harassment policy, it said in a statement.
NR Narayana Murthy: The Infosys co-founder came out of retirement to lead the company he co-founded in 1981. Infosys, India's second largest outsourcer, had been struggling to meet its own high standards, as a severe slowdown in the global economy hurt the company's business. Mr Murthy, who served as Infosys' chief executive from 1981 to 2002, and was the company's chairman from 2002 to 2011, was appointed as executive chairman in June. Ever since Mr Murthy took back control, there have been eight top level exits from Infosys.
Jignesh Shah: The founder and vice chairman of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), resigned from the board of the exchange he built from a start-up in 2003 into India's biggest commodities bourse. Mr Shah at the time of stepping down had said he wanted to avoid any harm to shareholder and investor interests from the "mud-slinging" over allegations concerning National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), which along with MCX are promoted by his Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. NSEL had been under investigation by police after the country's commodities regulator ordered it to suspend trading of futures contracts in July over suspected violations of rules on contract duration. Mr Shah is also the founder, chairman and CEO of FTIL, which owns a 26 per stake in MCX.