B. R. Shetty

Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty (born 1 August 1942) is an Indian businessman from Udupi in Karnataka who emigrated to the United Arab Emirates in 1973 and founded NMC Health, UAE Exchange and Neopharma, building one of the largest Indian business empires in the Gulf before NMC collapsed into administration in 2020 amid investigations into undisclosed debts. He received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2007 and the Padma Shri in 2009, and signed the Giving Pledge in 2018. ^{1 2}

Shetty was born on 1 August 1942; the English article gives his birthplace as the family's ancestral estate, Bavaguthu House at Udupi, and the Arabic article as Kaup in Karnataka. ^{1 2 3} He was born into a Tulu-speaking Bunt family, trained as a pharmacist, served as vice-chairman of the Udupi municipal council and was active in his youth in the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, background recorded here and not relied on for his faith settlement. ¹ He emigrated to the Emirates in 1973; he is married to Chandrakumari Shetty and has four children. ¹ His WikiBio profile states that he follows Hinduism, and in February 2018 BAPS, the organisation building Abu Dhabi's first traditional Hindu temple, reported him as a leading member of the temple committee and quoted his own words at the foundation-stone ceremony. ^{4 5}

Shetty founded NMC in 1975, beginning with a clinic and pharmacy in Abu Dhabi, and UAE Exchange in 1980; Neopharma followed in 2003 and the payments group Finablr in 2018. ¹ NMC Health became the largest private healthcare provider in the Emirates and listed in London. ¹ In February 2020 he resigned his posts amid governance investigations; NMC entered administration in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2020, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank filed a criminal complaint over the group's debts, and on 27 April 2020 the UAE central bank froze his accounts and blacklisted his firms, as the articles present the collapse. ^{1 2}

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