At age 26, I was chairman of UB Group but living like a 26-year-old. I lived my age. Which youngster doesn't like a Ferrari? Which youngster doesn't like a good time?... but my contemporaries were R. S. Goenka and Dhirubhai Ambani, captains of the industry but twice my age. You wouldn't necessarily expect them to be driving around in Ferraris.

I'm no hardened criminal who the authorities need to hunt.

I am an honest, straight guy.

I am an Indian to the core.

India has given me everything. It has made me Vijay Mallya.

It’s not quite right to be sitting outside India and to be judging what is happening in India.

I’m a person who promotes the concept of accountability to a great extent, and I’ve spoken in the Parliament and reinforced the need for accountability.

One of India’s biggest advantages is our young demographic and that we have a youthful population that is indeed our future.

Everybody keeps saying that India’s a poor country. Yes, we have poverty. But I blame the government of India, the political establishment, for their failure to educate and therefore their failure to control the poverty.

My father was very clear; I had to have an ordinary upbringing. I was put to work as a lowly-paid trainee after college. I didn’t like it at the time, but I can’t help but feel that that was probably the best thing for me.