STEPHEN BREEN

Arti Poddar has been in business full-time for just two years, but in that short period of time she has amassed more professional accolades than most people achieve in a lifetime.

Aged just 23, she has already been named young achiever of the year at the Scottish Asian Business awards and newcomer of the year at the prestigious Eastern Eye Asian Business awards. And in London on Wednesday she almost completed a remarkable hat-trick but narrowly lost out on the young achiever of the year title at the coveted Asian Women of Achievement awards.

As director of operations at Lambhill Court, which runs three residential homes for the elderly in Glasgow, she works seven days a week, putting in gruelling 14 hour shifts on weekdays.

The company, which has an annual turnover of £6m, is poised for a £10m expansion when it opens what it believes will be a ground-breaking residential complex in late 2008 that would offer live-in care for either the elderly or young adults with acquired brain injury.

To achieve such a glittering business CV in such a short period of time, it would be easy to assume that Poddar has done nothing else except work relentlessly. But somehow she has also found time to serve on the British board of directors of Aastha Broadcasting, an Indian channel that boasts a daily audience of 100 million, and to organise the Patanjali Yog Peeth, a campaign to improve the health of thousands of Scots through free yoga classes.

A devout Hindu, Poddar has an almost evangelical belief in the power of her everyday work to be a force for good.

"I don't treat this like it is my job - it is my passion, it is my life," she explains from her office in Kinning Park, Glasgow.

"I enjoy doing it and I definitely don't look at the financial rewards because what is important to me is the difference I can make in people's lives. I can make a positive difference in people's day-to-day lives and the harder I work, the better their lives will be."

Poddar's parents, Sam and Sunita, arrived in Scotland from India 30 years ago and settled in Newton Mearns, just outside of Glasgow, after her grandfather, Mohan Lal, a doctor, was given what was supposed to be a six-month hospital placement.

A fiercely strong work ethic has been central to the success of generations of immigrants, and Poddar's family instilled in her and her brother and sister the importance of devotion to the service of others and charity.

Her father took a degree in civil engineering and converted a series of Glasgow buildings into nursing homes, and Poddar began doing volunteer work with the elderly residents when she was a child.

At 16, she began to work part-time at Lambhill Court before studying for an honours degree in science at Strathclyde University.

After graduation, she had the opportunity to go straight into management, but decided to work her way up, beginning as a personal assistant to the finance director before taking over as operations director in January 2006.

"We recognise that all of our residents are individual human beings who can't all be grouped together, so we tailor our care to their requirements," she said.

"Rather than manage the business from the office, we are very hands on and visible, always listening to the individual needs of the employees and taking them on board to make them feel valued."

The company's most ambitious project to date is a £10m apartment-style complex for up to 90 residents on a site between Maryhill and Bearsden in the north of the city, which Poddar believes will be unique in the UK.

Her father travelled to countries such as India, South Africa and the United States to develop what he calls the "golden nest" concept.

The idea is to build a self-contained residential community - something between a care home and sheltered housing - for the elderly or victims of brain damage, complete with a swimming pool and café.

The partners or carers of the residents could also live with them.

"As the years pass, they will build up a relationship with the neighbours and if a partner passes away, the person left behind will have built up a close network of friends," she said.

Poddar's latest passion is a campaign to get more Scots involved in Patanjali Yog Peeth yoga classes. She became interested in it last year when her mother Sunita, who had weight problems and was on a cocktail of medicine every day, lost six kilos after just six days doing the classes.

Sunita travelled to India and trained to be an instructor and now she and her daughter are offering free classes at 20 locations throughout Glasgow.

Poddar is one of the key organisers of Scotland's largest-ever yoga workshop, a six-day event being held at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in July.

Poddar knows her achieve-ments to date make her a role model for other young business people, but she is much too modest claim all of the credit for her success.

"A lot of people in my generation try to prove that they can do it all by themselves, but I know that my parents did all the hard work and I am going to put in as much effort as I can to take it further," she said. "I believe in leading by example, and if my awards and achievements inspire other people then that is great."

Family valued

What was your childhood ambition: To make a difference.

What was your best moment: Becoming an aunt.

What was your worst moment: Losing my dear grand-dad two years ago.

What drives you: Compassion. Swami Ramdev Ji (founder of Patanjali Yog Peeth Trust (PYPT), the world's leading and most popular results-orientated yoga master) and Achariya Balkrishan Ji (co-founder of PYPT) are the first individuals that I have ever come across that live and breathe simply for humanity. Seeing how hard they work certainly compels me to work harder.

Who do you admire in business most, and why: My parents, due to their determination and dedication to redefine and continually improve care for our elderly in Scotland. They continue to put social responsibility far above any financial reward.