BS STAFFER PASSES AWAY

died on August 12, following a prolonged illness. He was 49. He was head of the Weekend and editor of

Business Standard’s Hindi edition. Before that, he had served as Resident Editor in Delhi. He had also written several books.

Bhupesh Bhandari, senior associate editor, Business Standard, died on Saturday after a cardiac arrest. He was 49.

Bhandari was head of the weekend section and the editor of Business Standard’s Hindi edition. He had joined Business Standard in April 2000, from Businessworld magazine, starting out as a writer for the weekend section.

A commerce graduate, Bhandari came to Business Standard with a reputation for solid corporate reporting, and over his 17 years in the paper, he headed the corporate bureau; served as Resident Editor, Delhi; edited The Strategist, a weekly management and marketing section; and became the first editor of the Hindi edition, before going on to edit Business Standard Weekend. His knowledge of the intricacies of telecom policy and the pharmaceutical industry was unsurpassed, making him a critical contributor to the paper’s editorials on these subjects. He also wrote a fortnightly column, White Knight. He has authored several books, including The Ranbaxy Story: The Rise of an Indian Multinational, (Penguin, 2005); The Satyam Saga (2009), for which he was a coauthor; and The Spectrum Grab: The Inside Story of the 2G Scam (2012) – the latter two published by Business Standard’s book publishing division.

In Business Standard, Bhandari leaves behind many friends and colleagues who will miss him for his quiet, puckish humour, his deep knowledge of Urdu poetry — Ghalib was a particular favourite, quoted at will — and, not least, a formidable workout routine. He fought his illness gallantly, accepting with grace and equanimity the adversities of medical setbacks and the debilitating treatment that accompanied kidney failure. August 18 (Friday) would have been his 50th birthday, and before he left for his final surgery, Bhandari had said he would take his colleagues out for dinner to celebrate. That isn’t to be, but many of us would be happy to raise a toast on that day in affectionate remembrance of a colleague who left us far too soon.