Last week, Shivinder Mohan Singh, called SMS by his colleagues, finally emerged from the shadows of his pioneering grandfather Bhai Mohan Singh, illustrious father Parvinder Singh and hardworking older brother Malvinder Mohan Singh, or MMS, when he led Fortis Healthcare's [Get Quote] Rs 650-crorea acquisition of the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre.

The largest takeover in India's health care delivery space has catapulted Fortis to the second spot in the country after the Apollo group of hospitals.

Fortis has gained more than 1000 beds through the three Escorts hospitals at Delhi, Amritsar and Jaipur. And Shivinder, the 30-year-old joint managing director of Fortis, has earned a slot in the list of the country's takeover artistes.

In spite of all the precautions taken by Shivinder and his team (Fortis was advised by Ernst & Young), several problems have cropped up in the deal.

Anil Nanda, the younger brother of Escorts Chairman Rajan Nanda, was the first one to cry foul when he appealed to the Delhi high court to annul the deal, alleging his brother had fraudulently sold the hospital. He subsequently moved the ministry of company affairs.

As if acting on cue, the Delhi Development Authority has cancelled its lease agreement with EHIRC. Even Naresh Trehan, the high-profile executive director of EHIRC, has started expressing unhappiness over the deal.

Clearly, Shivinder has his hands full with various flanks opened against him. Some analysts have gone to the extent of saying that Shivinder was reckless in acquiring EHIRC as he was fully aware of the issues involved.

Some critics even believe that Fortis overspent on its maiden project at Mohali near Chandigarh. "It was our first project and we had to make a statement about several Fortis' ventures that were to come by. And someone had to absorb the costs," Shivinder says.

Shivinder should know all about health care. After a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Delhi's St Stephen's College, he did his MBA with specialisation in the health sector from Duke University in the US.

"There is no customer interface in the pharmaceuticals business except through chemists or doctors. I took up health care for the simple reason that it is a service industry where you can give back something to society," he says.

His friends call it the influence of the Radhasoami Satsang. Shivinder is a devout Satsang follower - his maternal grandfather was its previous leader.

Interestingly, Shivinder is not even on the board of the family flagship, Ranbaxy Laboratories [Get Quote]. In 1999, immediately after Parvinder Singh had passed away, Bhai Mohan Singh had pitched for board seats for his two grandsons, Malvinder and Shivinder. But the brothers issued a statement saying that they were not ready for board positions at that time.

For a man who counts maths and game theory as his favourite subjects, the switch to health care may seem like a 360-degree turn, but it is not so. Singh is lending an all-new dimension of maths and game theory to the Indian health care sector with his concoction of acquisitions, buyouts and expansions.

"I am using more of my subjects in business than I did back then," he says mischievously.

The hiccups in the EHIRC acquisition notwithstanding, Shivinder has lined up an investment of Rs 1,100 crore in putting up a string of hospitals in the country. "One cannot put a number in a market as dynamic and nascent as health care in India. Funding will be opportunity-dependent. Things like Escorts just happen; you can't plan them as part of your strategy," he says.

Ask him where does he see SRL and Fortis five years from now? "Next to Mt Everest!", he says with a laugh. Well, this is one SMS that you will surely hear buzzing a lot in the future.