Sanjay Kumar from Asian News International interviews Dr. Shan Nair, co-founder of Nair & Co., after he was award the “Bharat Samman”; a prestigious award presented each year to 20 prominent Indian expatriates.

1. A nuclear scientist turned accountant gets Bharat Samman
By Sanjay Kumar
New Delhi, Jan.13, 2009 (ANI): The journey of life is weird and highly unpredictable. It is not
necessary that one reaches the place where one starts out for. This applies for Dr Shan Nair. An
Oxford educated and trained nuclear scientist from UK, Nair retrained himself as an accountant in the
early 1990s. He founded Nair and Co. in 1994 and currently oversees the group’s overall
development, its policies, strategies and goals.
On January 9th, Dr Nair was awarded the “Bharat Samman”; a prestigious award presented each
year to 20 prominent Indian expatriates. Founded by the NRI Institute, a global non-profit, the ”Bharat
Samman” annual awards recognize the economic and philanthropic achievements of the Indian
Diaspora.
“I feel honoured for getting the award and it further reinforces my connection with my birth place”, this
was his reaction after joining the illustrious list of past awardees that include Sam Pitroda ,Chairman
of India’s Knowledge Commission, Lord Swaraj Paul, British Parliamentarian and the founder of
Caparo Group and Baron Karan Bilimoria, CEO of Cobra Beer.
Nair is keen on expanding his business ventures in different cities of India with his current Mumbai
office being the main headquarter.
Today, Nair and Co. supports more than 700 client operations in over 40 countries, offering a one-
stop solution for companies seeking to make their overseas expansion less risky, stress free and
more strategic in the finance, tax, HR, compliance and legal arenas. Headquartered in the U.K., Nair
& Co. has key offices in India, China, U.S. and Japan.
Nair feels that India is still “far away from realizing its full potential as an economic power house” and
the country needs to be more assertive and confident” in presenting itself at the international foray.
He doesn’t see any hope for economic upturn in the next two years with the recession hitting the
world. However, Nair feels that India is “much less affected as India’s growth rate is internally
generated.”
The Satyam fiasco for him is similar to the World.com that happened in America and it’s the “problem
of proper auditing” but this will not affect the country’s growth story.
“Terrorism is the biggest obstacle for India and the government is not handling the situation at home
very firmly as the USA did after 9/11,” he added.
An avid political watcher, Nair wants a coalition of Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) for
a stable political and economic growth of the country.
Interestingly Nair is one of the few Indian expatriates who were against Indo-American nuclear deal.
He thinks that India stands to lose from this tie-up.
“The deal is a setback to India’s indigenous growth of nuclear technology”. The nuclear deal should
not be the reason for strategic tie up between India and USA. “It should be India’s economic strength
that should be the premise on which the relationship between two largest democracies of the world
should be defined,” he adds. Born in family of a diplomat, Dr. Nair has lived in over 15 countries. He
married Vyoma in 1976, and the two jointly founded Nair and Co, Inc. in 1994.
The ”Bharat Samman” adds to a growing list of accolades for Dr. Nair who received the ”Gullands
Excellence Award” and ”Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” award earlier in 2008.