At 21, she got married. By 31, she was the mother of two daughters and held a steady job at Hyderabad's International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (icrisat). At 37, she completed a PhD in plant molecular biology from France's University Louis Pasteur. At 45, she founded a company. And Dr R.A. Mashelkar, the Director-General of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research describe her as "a committed and enthusiastic visionary whose emphasis on creating intellectual property is important to a country like India". Doesn't read like the typical introduction to a CEO, does it?

It wasn't easy as Patell discovered when she returned to India in 1995. "I went to Dr Anji Reddy, who is a good friend, and explained what biotech could do. He gave me a budget of Rs 50,000 and asked me to write a report; I did a thing called DNA To Drugs; he made polite noises but nothing came of it because he felt it was way ahead of its time." Then came efforts to start-up a R&D hotshop but "all these guys would ask for a revenue model". So, Patell went back to Belgium and to a company called Plant Generics System. "PGs didn't have a revenue model but was eventually acquired by Bayer for $800 million, all because of its IP," says Patell. "That opened my eyes." Research grants from Rockefeller Foundation helped provide the seed capital-other early funders include the Tata Group, Global Trust Bank, and ICICI Ventures, which recently exited in favour of two multinational VC funds-and Avestha was born. In three years, the 95-employee company has filed for 42 patents and been granted seven, including the global patent for genetically-modified drought resistant seeds. Money still remains a problem but Patell is confident that Avestha will get there. "I am passionate about fundamental research," she says.

-Venkatesha Babu