In October 1999, as the Super Cyclone tore through the Odisha coast, killing thousands and flattening entire districts, a teenager in Bhubaneswar was preparing for one of the toughest selection processes in the Indian Armed Forces. Electricity was unavailable for days, and there were no phone lines, coaching institutes, or online mock tests, none of the scaffolding that today's aspirants take for granted. What he did have was a decision he had already made: to serve.
That decision, made in the shadow of the Kargil War, would eventually carry Capt. Arun Kar from a modest household in Odisha to the officers' mess of the Indian Army's Regiment of Artillery, then to boardrooms in London, Amsterdam and Ahmedabad, and finally to the head of a conglomerate spanning technology, sustainability, gaming, agriculture and film.
A Cyclone, a War, and a Decision
As per his description site, two events that had nothing to do with business shaped Kar's early life. The first was the 1999 Super Cyclone, one of the deadliest storms in Odisha's recorded history, which struck while he was still a student at University in Bhubaneswar. The second was the Kargil War, which broke out the same year and, by his own account, reframed how he thought about his future.
