If a book is written on the proverbial subject - how to innovate and get rich - probably here is the man who would aptly fit as a model case study. It's no wonder that today, Sabeer Bhatia has become synonymous with Hotmail for his out of box innovation and as a man, who has been getting richer with his revolutionary innovations. And now, his latest baby is InstaAssist - a web-based support service, which helps to complete all the formalities through an interactive guided online assistance. Yes, Sabeer Bhatia's yen for innovation has no ending. Born in Chandigarh in 1969, Bhatia grew up in Bangalore and had his early education at Bishop Cotton's School in Pune, then St Joseph's College in Bangalore.

He studied in the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS), Pilani for short time and in 1988 went to US on a Cal Tech Transfer scholarship to get a bachelor's degree at the California Institute of Technology and later earned his masters in electrical engineering from Stanford University. After doing his graduation, he briefly worked for Apple Computers as a hardware engineer and Firepower Systems. While working there, he was amazed at the fact that he could access any software on the Internet via a web browser. Along with his colleague Jack Smith, he then set up Hotmail on July 4, 1996. Today, Hotmail remains the world's largest e-mail provider with over 50 million registered users. As president and CEO of the Hotmail, he guided its rapid rise to industry leadership and its eventual acquisition by Microsoft in 1998.

Bhatia worked at Microsoft for a little over a year after the Hotmail acquisition and in April 1999, he left Microsoft to start another venture, Arzoo, which was an e-commerce firm with a revolutionary new way to shop online. Now, he is busy with InstaAssist. Launched by InstaColl, InstaAssist would enable customer care representatives or technical service representatives to track down customers having problems, identify their problems and resolve them within an online support structure. With its unique data-centric philosophy and peer-to-peer technology, the service provides high quality, personalized customer care service similar to onsite visit without the expenses or delays associated with travel.

And when you talk about Bhatia's personal achievements, these too, like his innovations, have been unending. He is one of the top professionals, whose name comes first in the IT list of who's who. And there have been floods of awards, accolades and recognition that have come to Bhatia. The venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson named him 'Entrepreneur of the Year 1997'. The MIT chose him as one of the 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology and the New Economy named him 'Elite 100'. Certainly, Bhatia's thunderous success is a great tribute to the tireless efforts, unparallel entrepreneurship and indomitable spirits of young Indians, living outside the country, who have made India proud.