B. V. Rao

Banda Vasudev Rao, known as B. V. Rao and born in 1935, died in 1996, is recognized as the father of the poultry industry in India. After training in dairy and poultry farming at Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, he launched a poultry venture in 1970 with roughly 500 birds on a seven-acre plot, building it into the VH Group, a conglomerate with interests spanning poultry, meat, pharmaceuticals and cattle feed that later expanded into Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Vietnam and Brazil. He founded the National Egg Coordination Committee in 1982 to stabilize market conditions for farmers after a price collapse, later headed the World Poultry Science Association's India chapter and organized the 1996 World Poultry Conference in New Delhi, and was honored with India's Padma Shri in 1990 and induction into the World Poultry Science Association's Hall of Fame in 2004.