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In the dynamic landscape, newsmakers from diverse segments navigated the industry by taking on unprecedented challenges. These individuals shaped headlines with their transformative actions and impactful decisions. Let's take a look at the newsmakers of 2023...Chairman and Managing Director Irfan Razack’s keen business acumen came to the fore when his company Prestige group, eyeing a Rs 60 billion topline, launched its largest (spread across 71 acres) residential township project, Prestige Park Grove, in Bengaluru. SN Subrahmanyan became Chairman and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) from 1 October 2023. With his foresight, he set up the ready mix business in India for the first time and led L&T into the HITEC City project in Hyderabad and Bengaluru International Airport, forging deals without precedent in the construction space.Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, MMRDA, Vice Chairman and MD, helped kick off the Navi Mumbai Metro and is now planning the Third Mumbai city around the Navi Mumbai international airport. Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce, for her work on logistics and Gati Shakti where the detailed project report (DPR) time has rapidly brought down project launch time.Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister, Railways, for scaling up railways and giving it a new lease of life with mega plans to enhance capacity, build massive rail corridors, accelerating speeds, Vande Bharat, High Speed Rail, Zero waiting list, etcAAV Ranga Raju, MD, NCC, who bagged the CWAB Person of the Year Award, heads the company which is a trusted name in infrastructure, electrical (T&D), railways and mining.Vinita Singhania, Vice Chairperson and MD, JK Lakshmi Cement (JKCL), in a one of the first of its kind project in India where demand for procuring low-carbon cement will drive decarbonisation of the construction industry in the country, led the company which will be the first cement company in India and across Asia to start commercial production of Portland calcined clay limestone cement (LC3). The estimated carbon footprint from this project is up to 35 per cent CO2 savings. Dimitrov Krishnan, MD, Volvo Construction Equipment, marked a significant milestone in its commitment to sustainability ambitions with the biggest showcase of electric machines in India at Excon 2023. The event saw the first-of-its-kind commercial launch of EC500 Electric, India’s first grid-connected electric excavator in the 50-tonne class.   Vinay Kumar Tripathi, Chairman, Railway Board and CEO, Indian Railways led the Indian Railways to a record with completion of India’s longest (12.89 km) escape tunnel on the under-construction Banihal-Katra railway line in Jammu and Kashmir.  Under the leadership of Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhary, Director General, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) spelt success with the opening of â‚�7.25 billion and the 100 m long Siyom Bridge in Arunachal Pradesh.  MV Satish, Whole-Time Director and Senior Executive Vice President (Buildings), L&T, made it to the books with construction of the world's largest (Birsa Munda) international hockey stadium in Rourkela with a seating capacity of 20,846 in a record 15 months.Mudit Garg, Project Director, NHAI, completed the Rs 121.50 billion 246 km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section of India's longest expressway, the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which also serves 13 ports and eight major airports.Rajeev Kumar Vishnoi, Chairman and Managing Director, NHPC, added a new success story as the 2,880 MW Dibang (Arunachal Pradesh) project, the country’s largest-ever hydropower project, at an investment of Rs 319 billion received approval. Ajit Kumar Thakur, CEO, Indradhanush Gas Grid (IGGL), set a new record with Asia's largest (4,080 m) underwater hydrocarbon pipeline of size 24-inch diameter, and second longest in the world, beneath the mighty Brahmaputra river, which connects North East India to the National Gas Grid. Jaspreet Singh Bhullar, MD and CEO, added a feather to Hindustan Construction Company’s cap with the completion of Anji Khad, India's first cable-stayed railway bridge with a total length spanning an astonishing 653 km.Ponni M Concessao, a Chennai-based architect, made history by becoming the first woman architect in India to design a State (Telangana) Secretariat. The 10 lakh sq ft building despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic was completed in just two years.SV Desai, Whole Time Director and Senior Executive Vice President (Civil Infrastructure) L&T, bagged the contract to construct the 135.45 km stretch Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR Bullet Train project) which will cover about 508 km, with 155.76 km in Maharashtra and 348.04 km in Gujarat. Parminder Chopra became the first woman Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and the first woman to lead India’s largest NBFC. She played a key role in implementation of Rs 1.12 trillion liquidity infusion scheme (LIS) for power distribution and signed MoUs with clean energy developers worth Rs 2.40 trillion.Jaya Varma Sinha became the first woman Chairman of the Railway Board and assumed charge of the board at a time when the Indian Railways has received a record budgetary allocation and highest-ever allocation to the national transporter of Rs 2.4 trillion in the Union Budget 2023-24.  Olivier Loison, Managing Director, Alstom India, helmed the company when it reached a milestone with inauguration of RAPIDX, India’s first semi high-speed regional ‘Made in Indiaâ€� train which has set a new world standard and marks the world debut of Level 3 European Train Control System (ETCS) advanced signalling technology, in alignment with the ‘Make-in-Indiaâ€� and Atmanirbhar Bharat commitment.  SK Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL, helmed the firm which performed the world's first ship-to-ship (STS) liquefied natural gas (LNG) transfer between a large conventional LNG vessel and a Q-Flex LNG vessel to save on shipping costs and cut emissions. GAIL's innovative arrangement resulted in saving about 8,736 nautical miles equivalent to 7,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions  and reduced the voyage from 54 to about 27 days.  Ankit Agarwal, MD, Sterlite Technologies, developed and patented the world’s slimmest 160-micron optical fibre, which packs 3X more capacity than a traditional 250-micron fibre. In a large-scale project like Bharatnet where India needs to deploy 20 million fibre km cables by 2025, using 160-micron instead of 250-micron fibre can reduce deployment time by 15 per cent and the plastic footprint by 30 per cent.