Karan Bilimoria

I had a good feeling about Karan Bilimoria from the moment I knew he'd chosen Satisfaction as one of his Desert Island Discs. Any Stones fan is all right by me. But frankly I have yet to hear anything but good stuff about this proud and patriotic Briton who nevertheless is one of our most outstanding internationalists.

I was keen not to waste the opportunity of this interview by going through every detail of his background and his entrepreneurial credentials, which can now be read in Bottled for Business, an autobiographical guide to entrepreneurship that charts the foundation and growth of Cobra Beer. Instead I wanted to ferret out some of the less familiar aspects of the first Parsi peer, particularly his insight into the future of the global economy, India's place in that - and how Britain can benefit from the special relationship and shared culture we have with the subcontinent.

You can't avoid the beer, though, much as Karan's father would have liked him to. Picture the scene. The young man was doing outstandingly well, having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young and subsequently graduated in Law at Cambridge. But then he started to develop eccentric behaviours, first importing Indian polo sticks to capitalise on a shortage occasioned by the Falkland war - Argentina was the primary source until then - then acquiring an obsession that bitter wasn't the ideal accompaniment to curry. Better than lager, which just blows you up, but still not right.

Creating a new recipe to fill this gap, and founding a company to produce it seemed distinctly more risky than the steady professional career for which he was prepared.

But he and his friend and flatmate Arjun Reddy went for it - always the first rule of entrepreneurship - and got the company going on a shoestring.

The Peer

Though that was 17 years ago now, Karan is still only 40, and as The Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea one of the youngest members of the House of Lords, a tribute to his energy, vision and talent. "It's a great privilege and honour to be able to sit in the House of Lords, and that at a relatively young age," he admits. "I have found that it's a truly amazing experience. There is so much to learn. So many of my fellow Peers are outstanding individuals, who have reached the very top of their professions not just in this country, but very often globally. Business people, journalists, authors, politicians, physicians, lawyers, all these are represented. So it means a great deal to me that I can go on learning from these people for the rest of my life."

Still, he is conscious that he can teach these grandees, who can give him on average a quarter…

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