Entrepreneur Ananth Pai dies

Mangaluru: The coastal city is mourning the untimely death of one of its resourceful entrepreneurs, Ananth G Pai. Away at Indore to attend a business conference, Ananth, 46, executive director of Bharath Group of companies, succumbed to what his family surmises as a cardiac arrest in sleep at his hotel room. He leaves behind wife Suma Ananth Pai, daughter Anvitha and siblings. His body will be flown in for the final rites on Monday.
Grandson of B Manjunath Pai, founder of Bharath Group, Ananth was the eldest son of former chairman B Ganapathi Pai and Geetha Pai. A student of Chinmaya Primary School and Canara High School, Ananth, who completed his PU from St Aloysius College, pursued BBM at SDM College of Business Management. Later he took MBA from Mangalore University, specialising in international marketing.
He started his career in Bharath Group of companies in 1994 handling diverse responsibilities in its various constituent units. A soft-spoken person and yet a go-getter, Ananth’s simplicity was seen during his MBA days on Mangalore University campus. Never flaunting his family affluence, Ananth mingled with his peers.
As director of Bharath Builders and Cineplex Pvt Ltd (Bharath Big Cinemas multiplex), he was in-charge of strategic planning and diversification of the group, and also handled the investment portfolio.
Bharath Builders was his brainchild and Ananth has the credit of pioneering the first modern shopping mall of Mangaluru, namely Bharath Mall at Bejai. It was also one of the first malls to be established in entire south India in 2006.
Ananth was also a passionate hobby radio enthusiast. He was a licenced HAM Radio operator and had earlier served as president of Mangalore Amateur Radio Club and member of governing council of Amateur Radio Society of India. He took part in all national and international HAM Radio events and had links with other HAM enthusiasts across the world. He had won the CQ Worldwide Ham Radio Contest for many years in the past 10 years. The mortal remains of Ananth G Pai will arrive from Indore by flight on Monday, and will be kept for public viewing, at about 12 pm at theBharath Beedi head office at Kadri.