Global 3000 | Social Entrepreneurs: Devi Shetty,India

Devi Shetty is a surgeon,a businessman and a philanthropist rolled into one. He counts among India's most famous heart specialists,and in 2001 used donations to build the country's largest private heart clinic,with 450 beds and 8 operation theaters in continual use.There he pursued an unusual low-cost business model - aiming to make cost-intensive heart operations accessible to India's lower income classes. Smart management and mixed sources of finance have enabled Shetty to reduce costs dramatically,more than half of his patients are treated at cost or even for free. Shetty's work earned him the Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2005.