CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Dr Suman Sharma, Principal, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi Volume 2, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
January 16-31, 2017 / `50
guest talk
Dr Devdutt Pattanaik on Mahabharata as a story of flawed human beings
women power
In conversation with the young women scientists behind Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan
THE TAX MAN COMETH-26
A little understanding of tax laws, notifications and amendments can clear the fear
Dynamic Duo: 45 Zia Hajeebhoy and Shakeel Kudrolli on their Aquasail adventure
Smooth sailing
Loved & Married Too
Ashwini and Kedar Deodhar on their mutual camaraderie
2 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 67
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Guest Talk Devdutt Pattanaik
I
Mahabharata is a story of flawed human beings
want to begin with a story, for the best way to tell you about the Mahabharata is to narrate a story. On the 18th day of the war, Duryodhan suddenly realises that he has lost all his brothers, generalseverybody has been defeated, destroyed, killed. The Pandavas are victorious, so he decides to run away from the battlefield. He runs towards the river, which is on the edge of the Kurukshetra. It has turned into a river of blood, but he thinks that if he goes to the other side of this river, he will be safe and he will stay alive. Suddenly he is consumed by the fear of death. He jumps into the river but he is so scared, that his legs are paralysed and he feels that he is going to drown in the river of blood. However, luckily, he sees a tree trunk and he holds on to it. By holding the tree trunk, he moves to the other side of the river. When he reaches the other side, he suddenly realises that in his fear, the log of wood which he
was holding was the body of his most beloved son. It was his dead son that was taking the frightened father to the other side, to save him. Duryodhan looks at the dead son and starts to cry, and he realises the horror he has inflicted on the world, all over a piece of land. He decides he should not run away but return to the battlefield and meet his inevitable death. You won’t find this story in the critical edition of the Mahabharata. You won’t find it in any Sanskrit literature. You will find in the Odiya version of the Mahabharata. Is this the correct story? Or is that the correct story? Which story is the correct story? That is a very difficult thing to decide. If something is written in Sanskrit, does it become correct? If it’s written in Marathi, is it correct? This is the question you ask when you discuss Mahabharata because Mahabharata is a parampara. Asking the origin of Mahabharata is like trying to find the origin of the river. A river has many tributaries and many branches. You
Asking the origin of Mahabharata is like trying to find the origin of the river. A river has many tributaries and many branches. You don’t know when a river begins and when it ends. It is very difficult to decide which the starting point is. A tree for example. What point of the tree is the starting point and what point is the ending point of the tree? Is it the root, leaf, fruit or flower?
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 3
Guest Talk don’t know when a river begins and when it ends. It is very difficult to decide which the starting point is. A tree for example. What point of the tree is the starting point and what point is the ending point of the tree? Is it the root, leaf, fruit or flower? Mahabharata is something like that-there are many fruits, flowers, leaves, trees…there are roots in many languages. We have to appreciate the vast body of literature when we try to understand Mahabharata and that is the way the Indian thought has always been. We don’t believe in singularity, we believe in plurality. Everything in nature is diverse; many stories
Incomplete knowledge exists on both the Kauravas side as well as the Pandavas side. All of us also have incomplete knowledge - that makes us human. We function, we take decisions on the basis of incomplete knowledge and we have to be aware of it. The only one who has complete knowledge is perhaps a theoretical idea called Krishna
of Mahabharata from different traditions have come and bear such diversity. But how do you decide what defines the Mahabharata? Whenever there are battles, we assume it is the Mahabharata. That is the nature of storytelling; we automatically assume there is a hero, a villain and there is a victim-this design of storytelling is not Indian. It’s Greek, and we have to be very careful about this - because the earliest translators of Mahabharata were not Indian-they were Americans and Europeans. They assumed that Indian pastors followed the Greek structure and so they constructed heroes, villains and victims, when none of our shastraas talk about heroes, villains or victims. Our shastraas talk about human beings, flawed human beings. Arjun is a human being, Bheem is a human being-they are struggling with humanity. Only when you see it as the story of human beings who are fighting for what is considered theirs, then you understand the Mahabharata. But what makes it special is (that) there will be a character who is identified as Bhagwan. But you cannot constrict this God because when you say God your mind immediately goes to Judeo-the Christian version of God. Krishna in the Mahabharata is the Bhagwan. That patra changes everything because every other character other than him, has incomplete knowledge. So everybody else has only a slice of the whole reality. But Bhagwan is someone who knows all the slices; he knows everything. He sees every side. And therefore, when he takes a side, it is not because
4 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
it is the right side or the wrong side-this EuroAmerican approach destroys the understanding of the scriptures. Both Ramayana and Mahabharata are full of human characters who listen and don’t listen. Amongst the Pandavas there is a boy called Abhimanyu, who knows how to enter the Chakravyuh but does not know how to come out of it because of incomplete knowledge; still goes to battle and dies. (Among the) Kauravas, there is another warrior who knows how to shoot the brahmastra but does not know how to pull it back due to incomplete knowledge. He shoots the brahmastra and is cursed. Incomplete knowledge exists on both the Kauravas side as well as the Pandavas side. All of us also have incomplete knowledge, that makes us human. We function, we take decisions on the basis of incomplete knowledge and we have to be aware of it. The only one who has complete knowledge is perhaps a theoretical idea called Krishna. He sees everything I don’t, and so the conversations in the Mahabharata are between someone who has incomplete knowledge and someone with complete knowledge. To make it simple, it is a conversation between people who know something and (someone) who knows a little bit more. How does a teacher deal with a student who knows very little but arrogantly believes he knows everything? Usually people with very strong opinions have very less knowledge - you find them on television shows, on Twitter and on Facebook. They are continuously having opinions as if they are
shaastris and the actual shaastris are stunned into silence by their bravery. And that’s what is happening around the world-everybody is making declarations, passing policies, so are they Abhimanyu or Ashvathama-that you decide. One will be killed, the other will be cursed. And Krishna will watch and smile. When you understand this structure you will realise how different it is from a mere story comprising hero, victim and villain of the Greeks. The Mahabharata is full of affection. Krishna is saying both sides are my children-I love the Kauravas but the difference is that they don’t listen, Pandavas listen, though that doesn’t make them smart. Ask yourself a simple question-in the Mahabharata, where is the servant class? There are Brahmins, Rishis, Rajanyas, soldiers, rich people and educated people. Where is the servant? Where is the cook, where is the massagewala…where are the servants? There is one servant, Sutta, the charioteer, who is treated horribly and then you realise why in the Mahabharata there is agyantvaas (incognito sojourn) and why all the Pandavas had to spend five years thus. Yudhistir took the form of a gambling companion, Bheem, the form of a cook, Arjun had to take the form of a eunuch dancer, Nakul, a groom in the stables and Sahadev had to take care of horses-basically all had to be servile-naukar. Draupadi, the great queen, had to be sairandhri, the hair dresser. And then, you realise what it means. Bheem cooked food and served others before he could eat. This man who was considered to be always hungry had to first cook and serve others before he did so. Why is this story told? Why has somebody included the story in the Mahabharata? I don’t think it is a part of the critical edition. Doesn’t matter, but you suddenly see: the King’s nose is put to the ground. Yudhistir the king is slapped by Virat (because powerful people slap their servants); Draupadi is publicly humiliated by Kichaka-she is told to take the wine glass and give it to his brother though she knows she is going to be sexually abused. Arjun the stud who has so many wives has to spend one year in the women’s quarter without his genitals and to explore what it means to be a woman, somewhat, and be vulnerable to the sexual innuendos the men pass at you. Nakul and Sahadev are anyway invisible. More invisible. When you start thinking and you realise that Krishna Bhagwan is staring at the Raja, what it means (is that) when you are in power, you can’t keep lying to the people who serve you. But you don’t tell the story like this. We are too busy talking about the Yuddhabhoomi and Ranbhoomi… We want to be heroic, but Mahabharata is about
We want to be heroic, but Mahabharata is about empathy; about how people of position abuse their power. The Rajas have been taught the lesson, be it Yudhistir, Bheem, Arjun, Nakul or Sahadev. We also don’t see those 13 years where a tribal man defeats Arjun and tells him ‘tu raja hoga raaj mahal main’ (you may be king in your palace). It has to be compared with the story of Eklavya empathy; about how people of position abuse their power. The Rajas have been taught the lesson, be it Yudhistir, Bheem, Arjun, Nakul or Sahadev. We also don’t see those 13 years where a tribal man defeats Arjun and tells him ‘tu raja hoga raaj mahal main’ (you may be king in your palace). It has to be compared with the story of Eklavya. Bheem was shown humility by Hanuman. The Pandavas take water without entitlement, Yaksha kills them. We are never told about the Mahabharata like this; we are too obsessed with war, we are too obsessed with its drama of great battlefields, brahmastra and so on. Useless questions because we don’t want to read the psychology; we don’t want to deal with hierarchy, power.
The Mahabharata talks about these feelings - it is not about valour’s heroic narrative which was loved by the Americans and Europeans; it is the Indian story-it is about love and empathy, sahanubhuti, aatmiyataa. We must not valourise violence, as, in the end, blood will flow; such details are never given in television serials. We would like to think that Krishna gave a motivational speech, Arjun went to war, killed the Kauravas and became king. This is a complete misreading of the Mahabharata. Krishna tells something to Arjun but in the end he said that jo karna hain kar, karke tujhe hi bhugatna hain (do what you want to do; in the end it is you who has to suffer). When his children die, Krishna says, well, collateral damage, and at the end of the Mahabharata war Arjun comes back-and this part nobody tells us-and asks Krishna to give the summary of his narration of the war. This is Anugita. To which Krishna says. “I don’t remember anything; at that time I was in another state of yog.’’ But we are not told such details because you want to reduce the story into a tension filled drama. You have to focus on emotions and when we focus on emotions, we will understand it is our desire for power and failure to understand what it means to be powerless. (Dr Devdutt Pattanaik is a physician turned leadership consultant and author of several books. He is also a well-acclaimed newspaper columnist. This piece is excerpted from his brilliant keynote address which he gave at the inauguration of the Pune International Centre’s film festival of Mahabharata, to celebrate the centenary celebrations of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.)
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 5
Contents
Volume 2 Issue No. 21 January 16-31, 2017 www.corporatecitizen.in
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Cover story Dynamic Duo 45
Smooth sailing
Zia Hajeebhoy and Shakeel Kudrolli of Aquasail share with Corporate Citizen how they define their shared vision and strike a work-life balance
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09 COLLYWOOD
Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 13 MANAGE MONEY
How to analyse the condition of organisation using the working capital statement 14 WAX ELOQUENT What our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and
their experiences in the business world 16 THE TAX MAN COMETH-26 Former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, S K Jha on how a little understanding of tax laws, notifications and amendments can clear the fear while there is panic due to demonetisation 28 INTERVIEW Avijit Bhattacharya, CEO of Tata
Cleantech Capital Ltd on what it takes to chart your own path in the corporate world 30 WOMEN POWER In conversation with the three young women scientists of ISRO, behind the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan
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36 Cradle of Leadership Dr Suman Sharma, Principal, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi has been enabling students to go beyond academics and engage in social and intellectual challenges 44 STARTUPS How a ‘barbequed’ situation drove three IIT (Guwahati) graduates to launch Bangalorebased GrabOnRenta-a product rental online marketplace
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48 STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT Soumyadeep Chakraborty shares his experience of campus placement with Corporate Citizen 50 LOVED & MARRIED TOO Ashwini and Kedar Deodhar, at the helm of software solutions firm Zestorm Technologies, on their mutual camaraderie 52 SURVEY Future trends 2030 survey by Oxford Economics on what would the scenario be like in 2030 56 health Prasoon Shrivastava, Founder & CEO, Helpmebuild explains how fitness is a passion and a confidence builder
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Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh Assistant Editor Prasannakumar Keskar
58 PEARLS OF WISDOM We must be as conscious, as sensitive, as particular about time, as we are with our money-by Dada J.P. Vaswani
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Senior Sub-Editors Neeraj Varty Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur / Sharmila Chand Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar Pune Bureau Suchismita Pai / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra
60 BOLLYWOOD BIZ Corporate Citizen presents the best movies based on entrepreneurs
Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389
62 CORPORATE OPINION Corporate Citizen captures what money means to some corporate citizens
Circulation Officer Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560
64 MOBILE APPS Food delivery apps specially made for train journeys 66 LAST WORD The vision of a truly digital India can be achieved slowly but surely if right steps are taken to transform technology, processes and mindsets across the country-by Ganesh Natarajan
Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao
Creative Direction Kiyan Gupta, The Purple Stroke Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar
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Be A Corporate Citizen
How do you like this issue of Corporate Citizen - The Cool Side of Business? Send in your views, news, suggestions and contributions to corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! 8 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
On Cover Page Zia Hajeebhoy and Shakeel Kudrolli Cover Page Pic Katya Matrioshka Photographers Yusuf Khan Website / Online Subscription www.corporatecitizen.in For Advertising, Marketing & Subscription queries Email: circulations@corporatecitizen.in (Corporate Citizen does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage) Tel. (020) 69000677 / 69000672
collywood
People in the news
Arnab floats Republic
Modi among the world’s most powerful
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ndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ranked among the top 10 most powerful people in the world by Forbes, in a list that has been topped by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a fourth straight year and has US President-elect Donald Trump in the second place. Modi ranks ninth in the list of 74 of the World’s Most Powerful People. Forbes said, India’s populist prime minister remains hugely popular in his country of 1.3 billion people. Modi has also emerged as a key figure in the international effort to tackle climate change, as planetary warming will deeply affect millions of his country’s rural and most vulnerable citizens. It also took note of the unexpected decision made by Modi to demonetise India’s two high-value currency notes in a bid to reduce money laundering and corruption, creating a nationwide frenzy to quickly swap out the bills. US President Obama comes in on the 48th spot. Forbes’ annual ranking of the World’s Most Powerful People identifies
one person out of every 100 million whose actions mean the most. On the second spot is 70-year-old Trump who will become the first billionaire president of the United States. The list includes Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on the 38th spot. Forbes said the 59-year-old oil and gas tycoon sparked a price war in India’s hyper competitive telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio at the annual shareholder meeting of his Reliance Industries in September. The list also includes Microsoft’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella on the 51st spot. The third most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman: Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and the backbone of the European Union. The list includes Xi (4), Pope Francis (5), Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (7), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (10), French President Francois Hollande (23), Apple CEO Tim Cook (32), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (43) and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (57), among the others.
Exactly a month after his last show on Times Now, senior journalist Arnab Goswami has announced that his new venture would be called Republic. Goswami resigned from Times Now on November 1. Rahul Shivshankar has since taken over as Editor In Chief of the news channel. Reports suggest the new channel will start airing before the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections in the first quarter of 2017. Goswami shot to fame for his daily prime time debate show The News Hour that reportedly brought in over 60% revenue for the news channel and has a dedicated audience base across the country. He also conducted detailed interviews with politicians, sportspersons and celebrities on Frankly Speaking. Because of Goswami’s primetime appearance, Times Now was able to sideline a lot of the older players in the English news space. This success led to Arnab Goswami being promoted as President, News, of Times Now and ET Now. He resigned after working at the top position for ten years at Times Now. Goswami has started his career at The Telegraph in Kolkata.
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 9
collywood Sushma Swaraj listed ‘Global Thinker’
VK Sharma, new LIC chief External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been included in Foreign Policy magazine’s 2016 list of 15 Global Thinkers ‘for fashioning a novel brand of Twitter diplomacy’. In a website posting, the magazine recalled how, when around 10,000 Indian workers in Saudi Arabia faced a ‘food crisis’ earlier this year due to job losses, Sushma Swaraj tweeted about the issue to her six million followers there. What followed was a week-long social media operation in which Swaraj posted information for migrants about rations provided by the Indian embassy, claims for unpaid wages, and government-organised transportation home. Stating that this was not the first time that Sushma Swaraj used the internet to reach out to people abroad, the posting said, “From evacuating Indians from Yemen to helping replace lost passports, Swaraj has earned the nickname ‘the common tweeple’s leader’ for her aggressive use of Twitter.”
V K Sharma has been appointed as the chairman of state-owned behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for the next five years. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the proposal of the Department of Financial Services for the appointment of V K Sharma, MD, LIC, as chairman. Sharma has been serving as LIC’s managing director (MD) since 2013. Having joined the body as a direct recruit officer in 1981, Sharma has served as the chief executive of its mortgage subsidiary LIC Housing Finance Ltd and zonal manager in charge of the south zone. As Managing Director at LIC, Sharma was already acting as chairman since September 16 when the then chairman S K Roy was relieved of his duties. Roy had resigned in June, nearly two years ahead of his retirement. Roy, appointed by the previous UPA government, was serving as the chairman since June 2013. LIC is the largest financial institution in the country with over `22.10 trillion in assets, which is over 15 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) of `134 trillion. With around `40,000 crore profit last fiscal, LIC is the most profitable entity in the country, next only to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which transferred `66,000 crores of its surplus profit to the government in the past fiscal.
Government seeks industry help for Northeast Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh recently held a meeting with top industry leaders to discuss ways and means of promoting tourism and trade in the Northeast. It was attended by Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC) President Deepak Premanarayan, former IMC president Pradeep Chenoy, Maharashtra Tourism Minister Jaykumar Rawal and leading Mumbai industrialists. The decision to set up a Northeast desk in Mumbai to promote tourist and trade investment from Maharashtra and other western parts of country in the Northeast was taken. Singh proposed medical tourism for a well equipped place like Mumbai to attract healthcare seekers and patients from the Northeast, who presently travel to distant places like Vellore in Tamil Nadu. He asked corporate hospitals to set up referral clinics in the Northeast.
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Indra Nooyi on Trump’s strategic, policy forum PC, brand ambassador of Assam tourism Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra was picked up by the Assam government as the state’s tourism brand ambassador for two years, according to state finance and tourism minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Chopra will attend a tour operators meet, she will also engage in shoots for TV commercials and still photos for the tourism campaign for Assam. “Priyanka Chopra is beyond doubt one of the top-most popular faces in India as well as abroad. She will be in contract with us as brand ambassador for two years, during which she will promote
Assam tourism. She will also visit Assam several times in the next few months to take part in shoots for TV commercials and still photographs in different locations of the state,” minister Sarma said. Sarma also said that Assam would go global in its campaign to attract tourists to the state. “We are this time not restricting our tourism campaign only within the country. Instead, we are going for a massive global campaign, particularly targeting tourists in the US, England, Japan and other such countries that have some connect with Assam,” said the minister.
Bhartia gets France’s top civilian honour Chairperson and Editorial Director of Hindustan Times, Shobhana Bhartia has been conferred France’s top civilian honour, ‘Officier de la Legion d’Honneur’. Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler gave away the award at an event at the French embassy recently. Bhartia, a former Rajya Sabha member, said the award is a matter of privilege for her and an opportunity to add to the ‘strong ties’ shared by India and France. A self-confessed ‘Francophile’ and an admirer of the country’s “sense of aesthetics”, Bhartia said that one of the first interviews she gave was to French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’, which, she said, inspired her towards experimenting in the Sunday newspaper segment. Bhartia also hailed the resilience shown by the French people in the face of repeated acts of terrorism.
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi on the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum that will consult with him on implementing his economic agenda. The forum is headed by Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of the investment company Blackstone and includes Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, and CEOs Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla, Uber’s Travis Kalanick, Jamie Dimon of Chase and Mary Barra of General Motors. Trump’s transition team said that forum members will give Trump their views on government policy, job-creation and productivity in a frank, non-bureaucratic and non-partisan manner. America has the most innovative and vibrant companies in the world, and the pioneering CEOs joining this Forum are at the top of their fields, Trump was quoted to have said. He went on to add, “My administration is going to work together with the private sector to improve the business climate and make it attractive for firms to create new jobs across the United States from Silicon Valley to the heartland.” Nooyi heads a multinational with an annual revenue of $63 billion that employs 1,10,000 people. A graduate of Madras Christian College in Chennai, she has management degrees from the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata and Yale University. Earlier Trump had appointed Shalabh Kumar, the chair of the Republican Hindu Coalition, to the transition finance and inauguration teams. The finance team members review prospects for administration positions and make recommendations to Trump. January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 11
collywood
‘Bewafa’ Sonam Gupta on Google’s ‘most trending’
NTPC on Green Mission The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has embarked on a mission to reduce India’s carbon footprint by phasing out all inefficient thermal power plants older than 25 years, with modern energy efficient super critical ones. The plants would be replaced in about five years, with an investment of around `50,000 crore, said Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal at the 26th National Energy Conservation Day 2016 function organised by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) recently.
The minister also urged state governments to work in mission-mode to modernise their 25 year old thermal power plants with new super critical technology. He said his ministry would be providing a 300 KW solar panel, 8-hour battery backup, 5 LED bulbs, an energy efficient ceiling fan and a solar power based mobile phone charging socket free of cost to each of the over 16,000 households in about 800 inaccessible villages lacking grid connectivity under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY).
Don’t write off India’s outsourcing prowess: CP Gurnani CP Gurnani, the 57-yearold boss of Tech Mahindra said that Indian technology outsourcing companies have always transformed themselves in the past and that it will be wrong to write off the country’s $150-billion outsourcing industry even as new technologies disrupt the landscape. In an interview in Pune last week, Gurnani shared the bets Tech Mahindra is making and why he remains confident that the company will be able to remain relevant even as technology fundamentally
changes the way companies across industries do business. “It will be wrong to write us off. I see the present as exciting times. Remember, Indian IT has seen changes all throughout its life. It all started with Father Kohli (F.C. Kohli, the first CEO of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd). The model then was that companies said, ‘we have consultants and we will give them to you’. Then the Y2K moment happened, which was like an inflection point. ‘In all these decades, the industry has grown,’ he said.
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Sonam Gupta, the name synonymous with betrayal that ruled social media through the year, especially post-demonetisation, made a surprise entry at No 3 in the Google India list of top 10 trending personalities. The fictitious name first appeared on a torn `10 note in August this year and was back on a new `2,000 note after demonetisation and went viral on various social media platforms with the tagline ‘Sonam Gupta bewafa hai (Sonam Gupta is unfaithful)’. The list of top trending personalities was led by US president-elect Donald Trump, followed by Olympic medallist P V Sindhu at second spot. Gymnast Dipa Karmakar took the fourth spot, followed by actor Disha Patani who recently made her Bollywood debut in a biopic on Indian cricketing star M S Dhoni, at fifth place. Indian female wrestler and Olympic champion Sakshi Malik also featured among the top 10 trending personalities on Google. Rio Olympic Games 2016 emerged as the top trending search query among Google users, followed by the augmented-reality (AR) game Pokemon Go. Among top trending news events, Rio Olympics 2016 again topped the charts, followed by the US elections and Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit) at the second and third spot, respectively. Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com
manage money Dr Anil Lamba
Evaluating the financial health by reading a Funds-Flow Statement In the previous issue, we did a clinical analysis of this Funds-Flow Statement. Now, let us look at the working capital statement too to further analyse the condition of organisation In the previous article, we had done a clinical analysis of this Funds-Flow Statement and gone into the details of the working-capital statement to understand how the reduction in working capital has been effected and had seen how reduction in inventory will affect the production.
Funds-Flow Statement Sales
Uses
Profit 400,000
Redemption of bonds @5% premium
210,000
Decrease in Working Capital
700,000
Plant purchased
900,000
Sales proceeds of investments
250,000
Dividends paid
240,000
1350,000
1350,000
Statement showing in Work Capital Year 1
Year 2
(A)
1200,000 500,000 240,000 1940,000
800,000 560,00 80,000 1440,000
(B) (A)-(B)
1000,000 1000,000 940,000
50,000 1150,000 1200,000 240,000 700,000
Current Assets Inventories Debtors Bank Balance Current liabilities Short-Term Creditors Net Working Capital Decrease in Working Capital
The next item in the working capital statement is debtors. These have risen from 500,000 to 560,000. The amount due from debtors increasing is fine, as long as sales also increase. However, the footnote has told us that sales are constant. Debtors have no business to increase in the absence of an increase in sales! With constant sales, debtors can go up only in two ways. Either the old customers are delaying payments, or the organisation is being forced to offer longer periods of credit to achieve the same sales value. Both of these are negative signs. The next item shows that the bank balance has fallen from 240,000 to 80,000. Money lying in the bank is the most obvious of all non-performing assets. At the same time, a less-than-necessary bank balance would mean an inability to meet expenses and commitments on time. Therefore bank balance, like the investment in all other assets, should be at an optimum level. We are also aware that organisations must maintain a minimum liquidity ratio of 1:1. When this organisation had a bank balance of 240,000 it had a liquidity ratio lower than 1, indicating a need for increased liquid assets. A further reduction in bank balance to one-third of its erstwhile level indicates an alarming deterioration of the situation, as reflected by
the worsened Liquid Ratio of 0.53:1. The next item reveals that the organisation has taken a fresh short-term loan of 50,000. This should have actually increased the bank balance. And despite this the bank balance has reduced. The reduction in bank balance is even more than it appeared at first to be! As we can see, creditors have increased from 1 million to 1.15 million. Just as in the case of debtors, if the organisation has purchased more and thus owes more to creditors, it’s fine. But in this case, sales are constant. Therefore, production and consumption of materials must also be constant and creditors should be constant too. I’m afraid not.
I agree that sales, production and consumption of raw material must be constant. But where do you get the material to consume from? You must either purchase material to consume it, or you must consume material already available in the warehouse. Part of this organisation’s requirement of material has been met from the stocks held (indicated by the reduced inventory levels). Now if consumption is constant, and if part of the requirement is met from existing inventory, this means that the current year’s purchases must have been lower than before. If the purchases were lower than before, the company should also owe creditors less than before.
So how do we now explain this contradiction: the company has purchased less but it owes its creditors more?
This can only mean that the old creditors are not being paid. This is the only way in which an organisation can have reduced purchases and still owe more.
What can we conclude from all this?
This organisation appears to be in serious trouble. Its sales are not increasing. Its collections are inefficient. Its liquidity is so poor that it seems unable to pay its vendors on time. In this situation, a few questions to the management might be in order.
And the first question is—why was the plant purchased?
Nothing in this example seems to justify the purchase of a plant. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the organisation did indeed need the plant, for reasons, which are not apparent to a reader of the funds-flow statement. If they were so keen to purchase the plant, they should also have realised that this was a long-term use of funds, and they should have organised a long-term source to finance it. But apparently, they were so desperate to acquire the plant that when they could not organise long-term resources, they deemed it fit to release money from working capital and divert it for a long-term use, not understanding that this investment would actually result in a further additional requirement of working capital and they would soon be trapped in a vicious cycle. (to be continued) Dr Anil Lamba is a practising chartered accountant, financial literacy activist and an international corporate trainer. He is the author of the bestselling book ‘Romancing the Balance Sheet’. He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 13
wax eloquent
What drives the economy Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in the business world Making India a cashless society
Would pain result in eventual gain
“Good policies sometimes cause pain, but whatever causes pain – no matter how intense is not necessarily good policy.” Amartya Sen,
Bharat Ratna and Nobel laureate, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University
In such a transitional stage in a country like India, there are opportunities also to speed up digitalisation, use of debit cards, E-wallets etc quickly. Otherwise, things take time. RBI and banks have played their role to catalyse this process by fee waivers and other steps. Urjit Patel, Governor, RBI,
Courtesy: www.bloombergquint.com
Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com/
The game of moving things digitally “If the game is also to compress the amount of currency in circulation, and move things digitally, I think the government ends up holding a lot of cards in its hands. There will be an impact on interest rate and inflation. Ultimately, that is what drives the economy. I believe that if we have the patient in good condition after this exercise, the patient should be doing well for a long period of time.” KV Kamath, former chairman, ICICI Bank
India-US relations on upward trajectory
“Relations between India and US is on an upward trajectory and irreversible. Indians settled in the US will continue be the natural bridge between the two countries. We believe it is the strategic interest of the US to see a stronger India. We strongly believe in that.” Richard Verma,
US Ambassador to India
Courtesy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
14 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
Courtesy: Economic Times
Two ways to be the market leader “There are two ways through which you can be in the game and be the market leader in the industry. One is through innovation by providing more asset utilisation, using economies of scale, bringing down the costs, passing it on to the customers and the drivers and technology innovations. The second way is what the competition is doing today, which is through capital dumping.” Pranay Jivrajka, COO, Ola
Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com
I definitely enjoy advertising “Between filmmaking and advertising, I definitely enjoy the later most. The process of filmmaking is lovely when you write it, laborious when you shoot it and by the time you market the film, you are dead” R Balakrishnan, Filmmaker & Former Group Chairman, MullenLowe
Lintas Group
Courtesy: http://www.adageindia.in/
Questions on RBI autonomy
“The RBI and the government have to work in consonance. The word autonomy means various things. You are an autonomous writer, but you can’t defame. So you have to discuss, and hopefully what you do in the RBI will be consistent with what is good for the economy, and for the people.” Bimal Jalan,
former RBI governor
Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com/
Digital disruption is an opportunity to propel CIOs
The unsung heroes
“Unless you address the inclusion of women in India’s growth story, you will never be meeting your potential. Women have been directly and indirectly part of India’s success story but in many unwritten ways. They have been the unsung heroes. We are not talking about urban elite, but the bulk of the population, living in rural areas.”
When you have inflation, digital is advantageous
“There are places in America where you can’t park your car even if you have cash. They only take mobile or card payments. These things do take time, but when you have inflation, digital is very advantageous.” Courtesy: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com/
Faith is moving this mountain called Sensex “This market is vacillating in our view, between perhaps a lot of hope and faith on one side and a sobering reality on the other side. I think faith is moving this mountain called Sensex really speaking because there is nothing else that is driving it but pure faith. So, when you drive on faith you only have to ensure that in a game of musical chairs you shouldn’t be the guy left standing when the music stops, you need to grab a chair.” Ajay Srivastava, CEO, Dimensions Consulting Courtesy: Mint
New technologies create new value Make in India, finance in the UK
“Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi wants to ‘Make in India’. We say: ‘Make in India, finance in the UK’. We want Indian companies and public sector entities to see the City of London as the natural home for raising offshore finance – for quasi-sovereigns as well as corporates.” Alok Sharma, minster in charge of Asia, parliamentary under-secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
Courtesy: http://www.business-standard.com/
Tejinderpal Singh Miglani,
chief creative officer, Indeco Inc Courtesy: Business Standard
Bill Gates, billionaire philanthropist and co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Sher Singh Verick,
deputy director, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia
“Instead of worrying over change, re-examining the benefits will help one understand that in the long-run, digital disruption is an opportunity to propel CIOs who can talk the business language into the boardroom.”
“When the industry needs changes, it decides which skills to hire. If you look at all the emerging technologies, like mobile internet, 3D printing, automation of knowledge work, genomics, renewable energy, robotics—all these new technologies will create new value. If we don’t capture the value that these new technologies will bring in and we don’t prepare as a nation, and government policies are not aligned to those technologies, we are missing something.” Bijay Sahoo, group president-HR, Reliance Industries Courtesy: Economic Times
Re-attachment to roots “I have seen a different aspect of fashion industry in India, but what I have to say is that there is a strong identity in the Indian fashion which is based on one very simple thing and it is the re-attachment to its roots. It doesn’t mean that when you are attached to your roots then you are not thinking, or are not evolving.” Christian Louboutin, World-renowned French footwear designer
Courtesy: http://www.indiawest.com/
To get more women involved in the Indian startup
“Right now, in the Indian culture, there is real yearning to be entrepreneurs. There are still only a few women role models. We struggle sometimes because we end up doubting ourselves and don’t have the confidence that we can grow big. My dream is to have one Flipkart-like company by a woman.” Telle Whitney,
CEO and president, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Courtesy:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 15
The Tax Man Cometh-26
Demonetisation not so demonic!
by S K Jha
(IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)
While demonetisation has led people to hit the panic button, a little understanding of tax laws, notifications and amendments can clear away the web of fear. But the dishonest tax payer has still to beware
Unlike the regular tax desk which is manned by a tax officer whose job is to levy tax on you, this desk is manned by a non-serving tax officer who wishes to share his experience of 35 years in the tax department, while, discussing tax provisions. It is advantageous to know how the tax department thinks and acts when, as said by Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing is certain except death and taxes”
W
e have all seen some natural calamity or the other, like earthquakes, cyclones or floods. We have seen the after effects of such calamities when we see uprooted trees, devastated buildings and people running helter skelter for safety. We see these things in films as well, when calamities are depicted. The after effects of the recent demonetisation of high value currencies when 86% of the currency in circulation died a sudden death on 8th November have a symbolic resemblance with the after effects of natural calamities, though this has been introduced as a measure for the good of the country. We see long queues of people in front of banks; we see nervous people without cash at home; we see marriage celebrations without pomp and show; we see businesses, particularly cash based businesses going down. Yes, definitely there is pain felt by a large section of our people with this sudden change but yet, there is a hope for a better tomorrow. These people are suffering the pain believing in the old adage that there is no gain without pain. But there is a section of people stuck with a huge pile of unaccounted money in the form of dead currency who are running for shelter. They are trying all innovative and jugaad techniques to inject life into their dead money. They are fearful, moving with the corpse of their dead currency, but they keep moving to find the right place. There appears no difference between people hit by natural calamities running for safety, and these rich people with unaccounted dead cash.
Unfounded fear
I see a fear psychosis in the section of the people who have been keeping unaccounted money. Market gossip, social media reports and the lack of understanding of tax laws have added more to the fears of the people. Fear has gripped even honest taxpayers and people with marginal wealth. There has been an apprehension that like sudden demonetisation, there can be a sudden action regarding bank lockers when lockers will have to be opened before tax officers. There is fear that jewellery will be seized directly from lockers unless there is proof that they are accounted. There is a rumour in the market that retired tax officers have been called back to make enquiry along with serving officers against all doubtful transactions. People are
16 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
Pics: Shantanu Relekar
also scared about their future in the absence of enough cash. Many people came to me for advice and I found that in many cases their fear was because of a lack of knowledge of tax laws, government notifications and even the recent amendment of the Income Tax Act after demonetisation. Yes, definitely, there are enough reasons for dishonest people to fear, but there is no cause to fear for honest tax payers and people with marginal wealth who are not tax payers, like artisans and housewives. There is also no reason to fear by people having exempt income, like farmers. The purpose of this column is to make readers aware of the income tax provisions, which are relevant in today’s situation of panic.
Duty to pay tax
It is the duty of the people to pay legitimate tax if they have taxable income above the threshold limit, which is `2.5 lakhs as on today. The threshold limit for the senior citizens is `3 lakhs and it is ` 5 lakhs for the super senior citizens. Tax is payable as advance tax, tax deduction at source and self assessment tax. Taxpayers have to voluntarily file income tax returns before the specified dates. Notices can be issued to non-filers of tax returns. Notices can also be issued to people who have not properly disclosed their income, and when the tax department has information of tax evasion. In most cases, the returns of income are accepted, while in some cases assessment orders are passed after the scrutiny of the returns of income filed. There is nothing to fear if income returned and income assessed are the same. There can be cases where income assessed is higher than the income returned, and in these cases depending upon the facts of the case, penalty proceedings can be initiated. Penalty proceedings are separate proceedings and separate orders have to be passed in addition to the assessment orders. There are many provisions for the levy of penalty for technical defaults, but for tax evasion and concealment of income, the provisions are under section 270A of the Act, which have been incorporated by the Finance Act 2016, effective from 1 April 2017. Two situations have been envisaged under this provision. One is under-re-
porting of income and the other is mis-reporting of income. In the case of under-reporting of income, penalty levied is 50% of tax on such under-reported income, while in the case of mis-reporting of income, the penalty is 200% of the mis-reported income. The section lists out the situation when income will be construed as under-reported or mis-reported. The media had highlighted that 200% penalty on tax would be levied after demonetisation if a person deposited unaccounted cash in bank accounts, and the same referred to penalty under section 270A for mis-reporting. However, some tax experts had a different view in cases where tax was voluntarily paid on money deposited. This different view will now cease to exist after the proposed amendment to the Act. The amendment has been brought to stop unnecessary litigation. There are provisions in the Income Tax Act namely 68, 69, 69A, 69B, 69C and 69D as per which cash credits, unexplained investment, unexplained money, amounts of investments not fully disclosed in the books of accounts, unexplained expenditure and amount borrowed or repaid on hundi can be taxed. These sections were brought on the statute to put a curb on unaccounted income. Under the current situation after demonetisation, cash deposited in bank accounts until 30th December can be scrutinized under these sections. Money deposited can be considered as unexplained investment or unexplained money. The government has fixed a threshold limit of `2.5 lakhs for not selecting the case for enquiry, but any amount more than that has to be explained by the depositor that it is accounted as per the sources of his income. The government will definitely question high value depositors. Tax will have to be paid if the deposited money is not proved to be accounted by the depositor. Section 115BBE was incorporated by the Finance Act 2012 to levy tax where income had arisen on account of section 68, 69, 69A, 69B, 69C, and 69D which is effective from 1 April 2013. Irrespective of the tax slate, tax has to be levied at the rate of 30% of income added under these listed sections. The new amendment proposed after demonetisation is to make section 115BBE harsher for hoarders of unaccounted money. The
amendment will be effective from the date of the Presidential assent to the Bill passed by the Parliament. The tax rate now specifies 60% in the place of 30% on income falling under listed sections 68, 69, 69A, 69B, 69C and 69D. In addition, there is a provision of surcharge of 25% of tax. This will collectively mean a tax liability of 75%. The depositor of unaccounted cash in the bank will lose 75% of money deposited, so to that extent the depositor will have to pay tax from his other income. The buck does not stop there. There is also a provision of penalty of 10% of tax if the depositor has failed to pay tax voluntarily and has failed to offer the income in his income tax returns. Thus, including penalty, the liability will go up to 85% in the case of deposit of unaccounted money. To increase the cost of keeping black money, the penalty provision where search action has been initiated has also been sought to be amended under the proposed amendments. This connected provision for levy of penalty in search cases is under section 271AAB of the Income Tax Act. Prior to the proposed amendment there were three rates of levy of penalty. The first was 10% of disclosed income where the person searched admitted undisclosed income on oath in a statement during the course of the search and also gave details of his modus operandi of earning of such income and that he also proceeded to pay tax voluntarily by the specified date. The second rate was 20% of the undisclosed income if the person did not make full disclosure of such income during the search operation but paid taxes on the admitted income in the tax returns voluntarily. The third rate was 30% of undisclosed income if the case did not fall in the two above-mentioned categories and which could go up to 90% of the undisclosed income. The amendment has reduced the three categories into two by incorporating section 271AAB (1A). Now the two rates will be 30% in the place of 10% of the undisclosed income where undisclosed income was admitted in the course of the search, modus operandi disclosed and taxes paid voluntarily by the due date. In the second category, the penalty will be levied at the rate of 60% (minimum) and 90% (maximum)
‘The government has fixed a threshold limit of `2.5 lakhs for not selecting the case for enquiry, but any amount more than that has to be explained by the depositor that it is accounted as per the sources of his income’
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 17
The Tax Man Cometh-26
if the person searched failed to fall in the first category. It is apparent that the high rate of levy of penalty in addition to the threat of prosecution will serve as a deterrent for having undisclosed income. The provisions for prosecution remain alongside the penalty. The message from the government is clear: Pay proper taxes to have peace of mind. There have been queries as to how the Income Tax department can issue inquiry letters to persons who have deposited cash in bank accounts before the returns of income are filed, or before the returns have become due. There is a section 133C of the Income Tax Act inserted with effect from 1 April 2014 which gives power to the prescribed authority of the department to call information from any person even before the returns of income are filed. The depositor of cash above the threshold limit can be issued notices under this section seeking information about the source of cash deposited. In the case of non-compliance of these notices or in the case of unsatisfactory reply, the department may take appropriate action under the provision or while making an assess-
‘The worst and the most serious situation can arise when a person is seen as carrying out money laundering by jugaad techniques. Then, in addition to the provision of Income Tax, the provisions under the Prohibition of Money Laundering Act will also come into play’
ment of income. It is my advice that due precautions should be taken if notices are received.
No fear on lockers, gold
I must clarify that the department will not take action on bank lockers unless there is a search action against the person owning the lockers. Search action is a serious action, and it is never done in a generalised way. Search action takes place in the pursuance of credible information against a person, and that too when officers at three levels have applied their minds. There is also some fear about gold and other jewellery. It is only when search action has taken place that this issue will arise. The department will have the power to seize jewellery, which is not explained as accounted. But here also the department will not seize all jewellery. As per departmental instructions, there will be no seizure of gold jewellery weighing 500 grams with each married lady, 250 grams jewellery with an unmarried lady and 100 grams of gold per gent in the household. The department may also show discretion in the case of ancestral jewellery and will also consider social
18 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
customs while making the seizure. Thus, you can see the department will be reasonable while making seizure of the jewellery. The worst and the most serious situation can arise when a person is seen as carrying out money laundering by jugaad techniques. Then, in addition to the provision of Income Tax, the provisions under the Prohibition of Money Laundering Act will also come into play. There are serious consequences including prosecution and imprisonment under the law.
Positive amendment
There has been a positive amendment to the Income Tax Act after demonetisation as per which by paying 50% tax including surcharge and penalty, the balance 50% can be saved, with a rider that 25% of the total money will be paid back by the government without any interest after four years. A new chapter IXA has been inserted in the Income Tax Act, under the heading ‘Taxation and Investment Regime for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana 2016’. After many ‘sticks’, this is a short ‘carrot’ scheme. It was seen that some people were spending 30% to 40% of dead cash on living life following unethical and illegal practices, and in the process black money was again getting reborn as black money. The scheme of the government is a positive one, and with 50% cost and lock-in-period of four years for 25% of the money a person can have white money. The scheme of the government says that resources generated under this scheme will go for the alleviation of poverty. The demonetisation scheme has already come and there is no going back, and I feel that a taxman has once again become important.
Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps for two couples of young dedicated IAS officers, who have set examples for others to follow. One couple belied all traditional trappings of big fat Indian weddings, while the other developed an app to help locate ‘Swachh’ toilets
Corporate Citizen Slaps the mindless twitterati for backlashing people, especially celebrities on their choice of clothes, festivals they celebrate and even the names they choose for their offsprings
In a set up when bureaucracy can make or mar administrative ‘satraps’, it is refreshing to acknowledge budding officers of the administrative services taking their jobs above the ‘expected’ or minimum thresholds. With the current wave of demonetisation and black money jamboree being played out around us, it is indeed warming to idolise IAS couple Ashish Vashishta and Saloni Sidana, who set an excellent example by getting married for a mere total expense of `500. In an environment when wedding celebrations reel and smell of gluttony and greed, theirs is a tale of love and simplicity. Both graduates of the 2014 IAS cadre got smitten during their training at the Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. Post training, Ashish is currently posted as Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Gohad, Madhya Pradesh, while Saloni-an MBBS-is attached to the Andhra Pradesh cadre in Vijayawada. Post a long distance relationship for about two years, the couple decided to get married but without the trappings of the ‘band’, ‘baja’ and ‘baraat’ syndrome. They followed government norms with Ashish filing his notice of marriage intent in Bhind at the Additional District Magistrate’s (ADM) court which was approved by the ADM’s office in November. Following this, Saloni reached MP and the couple signed their marriage declaration, accompanied by a simple ceremony of traditionally garlanding each other. Ashish hails from Alwar district in Rajasthan and Saloni is from Jalalabad in Punjab. As per government rules, they are looking forward to their joint postings in Madhya Pradesh. The marriage, solemnised by the Collectors office and its staff was a simple affair. Our 2nd IAS couple, Vipul Ujwal and Sonali Giri from Punjab, are pioneers of an app-the ‘Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator’ that functions as an independent toilet locator app of the Ministry of Urban Development. The app will soon be collaborating with the to-be launched ‘Google Toilet Locator’. The innovative app found its inspiration during a 2015 visit to Delhi, when Sonali was unable to locate a single washroom in Connaught Place, a popular place in the Capital city. The 2009 batch IAS couple then went on to develop the app that also gives a cleanliness report based on user reviews. The app offers features providing information on whether the toilet is Indian or Western-style, free or paid, and whether it has additional features such as seats for the differently abled or the availability of sanitary pad dispensers. It also has an interface where users can rate public restrooms on hygiene, infrastructure and safety. As Vipul said, “...So, if a toilet is dirty, or permanently closed, user feedback could help others avoid that property. Pretty much like a Zomato for toilets!”
A section of vehement and vicious twitterati, donning the garb of moral policemen or opinionist, have been poking fingers into personal lives of those who happen to be followed and troll them daily. Celebrity trolling seemed to have become more venomous in 2016. The latest victim of the online trolls is Indian cricketer Mohammed Shami, who was criticised after he posted a family portrait, ‘beautiful moments’. Trolls chose to translate the elegant sleeveless gown worn by Shami’s wife to his ‘un-Islamic insensitivities’; to have allowed his wife to flaunt herself in that attire. Trolled on the heels were new parents and cinestars Kareena and Saif Ali Khan who, according to the moral twitterati, had ‘blundered’ in the naming of their first born as ‘Taimur’. The trolling twitterati took offense, relating the name of the newborn to that of the Turco-Mongol conqueror ‘Taimur’-deemed a barbarian by many as his military strikes had caused deaths of 17 million people. But, ‘Saifeena’ have rightly ignored the trolls and played the silent game; a ploy to perhaps reverse the ‘barbarous’ thoughts of the social media monsters. Come Christmas, and yet another celebrity succumbed to the twitterati outburst. This time, it was Kolkata’s effervescent and much adored RJ, Mir Asaf Ali. He came under the fire for celebrating Christmas with his wife and their daughter and posting the pictures. This surely poses a risk to India’s unity in diversity. Early 2016 witnessed celebrity couple Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma facing the flak as Anushka was blamed for Kohli’s poor on-field performance. But,2016 proved to be Kohli’s best year yet as he scored a whopping 1,215 runs at an average of 75.94 in his 18 innings-a feat that hopefully would shut his detractors from trolling him and his beau. The support garnered by Sunny Leone in matching her wits with an unforgiving journalist of the broadcast media, for her dignified handling of the interview, proves the advantage that social media can have in making or breaking one’s reputation. The list of ruthless trolls can be endless, lest the social media, in its current glory, builds self regulatory tactics and every individual user ensures that the conscience is fair in expressions on open social media platforms. If not, we are signalling trends that could slap regulatory measures on our freedom of expressions even for innocent trolls that is otherwise entertaining and enlightening. The need is for self-restraints on our expressions, lest we get regulatory ‘Big Brother’ to police us all and that would spell the death knell for democratic speech! (Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar) January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 19
Cover story Dynamic Duo: 45
Zia Hajeebhoy & Shakeel Kudrolli
Smooth-Sailing
He is a sportsman, determined and introvert, while she is an expert marketer, industrious and extrovert. But they have one thing in common-sailing. For Zia Hajeebhoy, sailing was fun and Shakeel Kudrolli was into competitive sailing. Sailing, they say, brought them together and adds meaning to their life. Today, this enterprising couple is running a successful business, Aquasail, a leisure sailing company. They say they are doing what they love the most and co-creating something that brings them joy and fulfilment. For others it may seem an idyllic dream, but they say that it is also a challenge to integrate a business as unconventional and testing as sailing, with the rest of your life together. Zia is Director while Shakeel is founderdirector of Aquasail. They share with Corporate Citizen how they survive and thrive as life and business partners, define their shared vision and strike a work-life balance By Rajesh Rao Sailing got us together
Both Zia and Shakeel had a passion for sailing, and for high standards of excellence—same common ground. But it was the love for sailing that got them together, says Zia. They met each other in Mumbai through the sailing circuit. She says, “Shakeel sailed competitively representing the country. I sailed for leisure. Obviously our paths crossed and we felt deep respect for each other. Sailing is a common passion but so is our commitment to excellence and success—we have a partnership in sailing. We also share a very deep common value system which is critical for two people who want to share a life and also a profession.”
Life, education and career
Zia is from Mumbai and done her schooling in Mumbai. She then went to St. Xavier’s College and passed out with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Thereafter, she did her MBA in marketing and sales from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS). Her first job was at Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), where she started as a management trainee. “I studied in Mumbai and have always been keen on the outdoors. I enjoyed trekking and sailing and first experienced windsurfing in Goa during college days. My Corporate career with companies like Unilever, Reckitt Benkiser, IL&FS and Monsanto all helped me fine tune the skills needed to create a business and run it. I met Shakeel while sailing and after many years of both of us pursuing our respective professional careers we left our corporate jobs to give wings to our dream of building a world class sailing company in India,” she said. She adds that she is more of a leisure sailor, enjoys sailing on weekends and relaxing with friends. In the 1960s, Shakeel says the Cuff Parade area didn’t exist and there were no high rise buildings, like today. “It was the narrowest point on that island part of Mumbai, where on both sides of the road you could 20 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
Pics: Katya Matrioshka
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 21
Cover story
“Sailing is a common passion but so is our commitment to excellence and successwe have a partnership in sailing. We also share a very deep common value system which is critical for two people who want to share a life and also a profession” - Zia just step into the sea. As young children, we spent time on the seashore, catching crabs, swimming in the sea and so on,” he said. The comfort and the happiness they had was quite evident, he added. Shakeel says he accidently heard about the Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) in Mumbai. A voluntary organisation SCC had been started in 1938 in Karachi (now in Pakistan). After partition, it was relocated to Mumbai in 1948 and renamed Sea Cadet Corps. It is a charitable trust, privately run by volunteers. He added, “I was just 10-year-old when I joined the organisation. I accidently came to know about the Sea Cadet Corps in Mumbai and I decided to join. The organisation helps build character and confidence in kids using nautical training as a discipline.” Sailing came naturally to Shakeel and he focused on honing his skills and also coaching. He spent over three decades as a volunteer officer in the Sea Cadet Corps. He says, “It gave me the opportunity and the joy of coaching over 22,000 kids. I coached the 1988 Junior Squad that won the Junior World Cadet Championships. I also found time between studies and working to train and went on to win the first Asian Gold in China and then to win at the World Championships in Zimbabwe and South Africa.” For him it’s all about focus and passion and hard work. At the same time, he was studying at St Xavier’s Academy School. After his graduation in Science, he studied law from Government Law College. As his father was a lawyer, he says he also got drawn into law practice.
Career in sales and marketing
Growing up in a family where her mother was a teacher and her aunts 22 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
were all working women, Zia proudly says, “My family is one where women work and make their mark and I don’t think there was any question in mind about whether or not it is possible to succeed.” Zia pursued her MBA, joined Unilever and focused on building a career in sales and marketing. There were a lot of challenges, she says she had to travel a lot to small towns. “In the early days for a woman to travel in rural India and to work in areas which are more male dominated was challenging but also very fulfilling. The companies I worked for were committed to making it work and once again if you are committed and passionate about what you do you are bound to succeed,” she said. Only when she looks back now, it gives her a feeling that she had a tough time, but she says, “At that time I only knew that was what I had to do. If you have set your mind to do a great job, you will do a great job.” To work in sales and marketing at that period of time was a tough job for a woman. As she looks back now, and more so as she is very much involved with gender diversity, she says, “You realise that it was not that easy. Compared to the opportunities we had then, women have much more opportunity today. There is flexibility, more opportunity, you can work from home, and there are many businesses where women are more acceptable.”
“Because we love the sport, your desire is to make it a success at much faster rate. Your determination makes you get very deeply involved. We however enjoy what we are creating and believe deeply in it. The family too is very supportive and loves what we have created”- Shakeel Partnering for business
With her corporate career background, Zia has always been a professional manager, says Shakeel. He founded the company Aquasail, and she joined him after two years. “When I started, I didn’t really know where I wanted to go. It would have been very difficult for me to build the business without Zia, as she has the business management background. I have a good knowledge of the product in terms of operational and technical capability as well as risk taking ability. Zia had both the passion for sailing, as well as the requisite skills. It was a logical choice for me to have her on board,” he added. As the company grew, Shakeel found Aquasail needed a strong sales and marketing person at the helm. Zia said, “The passion to build the sailing market is common. The skills we both bring to the table are complimentary. Shakeel brings deep product knowledge, coaching and mentoring skills, and market vision. I bring customer insights and the ability to go to market. On fronts like hiring, we take joint decisions. There could not be a better synergy.”
Will you marry me…?
“I was waiting for him to propose to me and he was waiting for my birthday. He proposed to me on my birthday, on 1st December, 1998, and I immediately responded by saying, Chalo let’s get married,”says Zia. The interesting fact is they got married on Republic Day, on 26, January 1999, which they say was decided not out of patriotism but because they would get a holiday from work on their wedding anniversary day. But, Zia adds, “He was a sea cadet, so he went for parade on Republic Day. So, all the plan I made went for a toss—now I cannot do anything but go to see his parade.”
Understanding each other in life and business Zia: Nothing in life comes easy but if you believe in something you
make it work. Couples who work together must have common passion and common values. The complimentary skills are obvious but not enough. Both must believe in the final end goal and that is what Shakeel and I share. It is also important to be disciplined about the framework within which you work. I would say that if couples have to work together, they really have to think about it. If you don’t have a common passion, then I don’t think it’s a good idea. But, because I love sailing and I am so passionate about it and he loves sailing—so the vision is the same. With common passion and complementary skills, you can segregate your roles. A common vision is also very important—then it is worthwhile. It can at times consume you, but you have to be disciplined about it. Otherwise it can get into your home life, your personal life—it shouldn’t be like you go home and at dinner or breakfast you want to talk about it.
Shakeel: It is difficult—you have to be disciplined. I respect her judge-
ment on marketing matters and she respects mine on the operational and technical requirements of the business. I bring the deep product knowledge and total clarity of what I want to achieve and how. Combining this with Zia’s customer experience and knowledge of how to build markets and products is what makes us a successful entrepreneurial couple. There is also deep respect for each other’s capabilities and a high commitment to succeed. We believe the sum of the two parts is larger than the whole.
Managing work-life balance Shakeel: That has been one of the biggest challenge for us. This is com-
pletely unchartered area, we don’t know where this will grow, how fast it will grow. It requires a lot of persistence, deep involvement and it can be all consuming. And also because we love the sport, your desire is to make it a success at much faster rate. Your determination makes you get very deeply involved. We however enjoy what we are creating and believe deeply in it. The family too is very supportive and loves what we have created.
Zia: I think people who are committed to excellence are single-minded. Shakeel has always been focused and it has worked for him. He spent free time and holidays sailing and focusing on the Sea Cadet Corps or sailing and later on his career. What works for him is that he is a very deep and authentic person and that helps him build relationships and connects at a very deep level. So we find time to connect with each other and with the family and the very large group of friends. The important this is to have purpose and to believe in what you are doing and to love doing it and work life balance automatically takes care of itself. How would you describe each other? Shakeel: Zia is more extrovert, she enjoys friends, relationships and con-
nects with a lot of people. She is of course very talented, good in music, communication, very creative, and very good at connecting with people. She is exceptionally diligent, has a talent for detailing, has immense capacity and energy to work. I marvel at her exceptional hardworking capability.
Zia: He is very single-minded and focused, with a very strong passion
for sailing and immense talent for sports. As a person he is an exceptional leader—authenticity is a very strong leadership skill, which he has and is inherent to him. He says he doesn’t connect with people and he is an introvert, but whoever he connects with, he makes a very deep connection. January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 23
Cover story Dynamic Duo: 45
Zia Hajeebhoy & Shakeel Kudrolli
Dream Sailors
What dynamic husband-wife duo, Shakeel Kudrolli and Zia Hajeebhoy have done is taken the sport of sailing and created it into a tourism product—bringing the joy of sailing to others. They started Aquasail with the desire to grow leisure boating. Today, they are pioneering the leisure sailing industry in India. Their brand is all about sailing, engaging and getting wet, they say. Shakeel is passionately into sailing, Zia is a marketing and sales pro and with these complementary skills, they make perfect synergy. The journey they say happened because they reached out to people and people believed in them. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Shakeel and Zia talk about their entrepreneurial journey, how they got attracted towards their natural talents, and how they brought their dream to succeed By Rajesh Rao Corporate law is big money. Moving out from the law profession and then getting fulltime into sailing—how did that transition happen? Shakeel: One has to balance things—whatever free time I found, I spent
on the water after studies, work, coaching and volunteering at the Sea Cadet Corps. Nothing is easy but when there is passion and focus, one gets the energy and the drive to achieve. Discipline is required and I would train early morning, get to office and find the time for sailing, coaching and the Corps. As a lawyer I enjoyed law practice and I enjoyed arguing in court. I also then moved on to more corporate work, doing intellectual property rights, technology law, and cross-border transactions. It was an exciting period. The idea of Aquasail emerged and I found myself focusing on wanting to achieve a dream of getting people to sail—safely and responsibly. I gave up the law practice, after having practiced law for over 20 years. Commitment is required to make anything succeed and we have not looked back—we now have 80 boats, 3 sailing centres, 29 global destinations and 30,000 customers who have sailed with us. The dream of course is to create a truly vibrant sailing community in the India.
Tell us about you being selected for the Asian Yachting Championship in 1989, in China? Shakeel: I was the National titleholder in 1989 and won the selection trials 24 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
and represented the country. We managed to beat the 3 time Asian games gold medallist and won the first gold for India on international waters taking the competition to a different level and bringing India and Indian sailing into focus on the world map.
How was the journey to becoming a world championship? Shakeel: The focus was not to become a world champion but to excel and
peak in sailing. I somehow knew I had the talent. The tough parts were getting equipment, getting recognised for the talent—I did not have access to funding and also in those days there were severe restrictions on getting equipment from abroad. But as they say, ‘Where there is a will there is a way.’ I started with second hand equipment and a second suit of sails. I
“The draw towards the sailing was too high-I felt that this was something that I needed to do, that I need to get people on the water. Commitment is required to make anything succeed and we have not looked backwe now have 80 boats, 3 sailing centres, 29 global destinations and 30000 customers who have sailed with us. The dream off course is to create a truly vibrant sailing community in the India” - Shakeel
started doing very well at the national levels. The lack of resources made the journey longer and harder but today it was well worth it—that taught me much more than sailing and the lessons are invaluable and the rewards so much more fulfilling. Once the skill was recognised there was no looking back and I went on from the Asian Regatta to compete and win at the world championships. What of course gave me most pleasure and pride is the training of young minds to believe they could win and in 1988, we won the Junior World Cadet Championships when I was the coach of the Indian squad. I set up a full training programme never done before in India, with mental training and getting kids to experience monsoon sailing to prepare them for tough conditions abroad and it worked – the kids started believing they could win
which is half the battle won and they trained as a team ultimately bringing home the Gold. Many of them are highly successful and fulfilled individuals and nothing gives me more pleasure than to meet some of them as they successfully cross important milestones in their personal and professional lives.
What was your aim in founding the Indian Marine Federation? Shakeel: Any industry to grow requires a congregation of like-minded
people in the trade—to come together and work on policy, safety, on engaging with the government and all the stakeholders. The industry was growing and norms are required and someone had to get people together to share a common vision, to define self-regulatory rules and to help define sensible policies that would help all players and customers alike. We took January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 25
Cover story guidance from age old organisations like the British Marine Federation and worked on our constitution and are working on getting members to put help champion the industry needs and imperatives so that all can benefit from the growth of a vibrant leisure boating industry—growth that is responsible and sustainable.
How did you get into entrepreneurship and convert your lifelong interest into a business? Shakeel: For an entrepreneur to succeed first and foremost
you need a vision—a clear vision that is beyond just a business goal. However, you must have the maturity and the capability to convert that vision into a commercial success. Passion gives you the energy and the resilience, but business acumen is required to translate that into a commercial success. We started with one small boat and now have a fleet of 80 boats and three world-class centres delivering a range of product experiences catering to diverse market need. We are truly pioneering leisure boating in the country. The business models is based on my observations on how the rest of the world developed but keeping in mind the uniqueness of the Indian customer.
What did you aim to do through the products Aquasail offers? Shakeel: For me, it is growing the sailing market and to
evangelize the sailing to create a destination of sailing in India and also a vibrant community of people who love to sail. We have built clear product segments and verticals catering to experiential markets, to those seeking a hobby and to those seeking a lifestyle. We have club memberships and holidays products. We have developed unique products for Corporate India including team building, client networking programs and superb formats to deliver reward and engagement and learning based experiences. In a short time, we have created a brand that stands for 360 degree sailing and also for highest levels of safety and quality.
You have been coaching youngsters for the last 20 years, is the sports catching up with youngsters today as competitive and leisure sport? Shakeel: Again, it is about opportunity and about evange-
lising sailing. In a new market you evolve the market and the market evolves with you. In a short span of time we are confident that people will move from trying or experiential sailing to learning and sports based formats. Sailing is a multi-dimensional sport catering to adventure, leisure, relaxation, training based and more. Aquasail is unique in the suite of products we offer and the quality we deliver for a diverse set of needs and a unique target audience.
Every youngster today wants to be an entrepreneur. How do you see this growing trend? Shakeel: I think there are many opportunities today within organisations
that allow people to indulge in entrepreneurship without actually taking the risks of running a business. It sounds romantic to be an entrepreneur but one must have a great idea, be passionate about it and the knowledge of how to translate that into business success. One also has to have deep resilience and knowledge on matters which may be quite mundane but key to success like cash flow management, building teams, managing for profits etc. Also key to running a business is the ability to stay on and make it work. One has to face unplanned challenges and obstacles. So excel in whatever you do and
26 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
do it for the right reasons—whether running a business or pursuing hobby or a professional career.
Zia: It is important to have the right reasons to be an entrepreneur. There has to be deep drive that is sustainable, a great idea and the ability to back that idea with execution. Entrepreneurs dream but successful entrepreneurs dream and make it a reality by focusing on nuts and bolts of the business. It also requires knowledge of the domain area. So as long as the reason is strong and sustainable it’s great. But, today’s youth also needs to realise that opportunities are vast in the professional world and they must know their own mind set and personality before embarking on an entrepreneurial journey. Then again, nothing ventured nothing gained or as we say in sailing “A ship is safe in harbour but that’s not what ships are meant for”. So if you want to be an entrepreneur do it for the right reasons and be prepared for a long journey.
Has your earlier work experiences, helped you in your entrepreneurial journey? Zia: Yes certainly—the how to do things, the ability to build a foundation
for growth comes from the corporate experience I was fortunate to have— for example we have invested in CRM, SOPs, data management and IP all of which are key to build sustainable growth. We also built a great support system along the way and people have been amazingly helpful at different points in time on our journey.
At Aquasail it is all about teamwork, how do you prepare your team members for role play? Zia: There is no comfort zone in start-ups and people who succeed are
those who are problem solvers, builders and people with positive attitudes. Shakeel is a motivator, he is a coach, and he is an inspiration. I bring in processes that help people perform. This combination is what helps create a team. What binds a team is ownership and a common vision and in a start up there has to be a passion for excellence and high levels of resilience and an undying attitude to win.
Did you face problems initially while setting up your leisure boating business in India and how did you overcome them? Zia: Problems are always there—regula-
tory, setting up of financial systems, finding the right talent at the right time. However, we have found the market support to be positive and the trends are highly encouraging. We also innovated considerably, literally creating market segments out of nothing—and that is a rule in new markets that there are no rules on market creation. You have to find opportunities and select the right ones to back.
execute products. However, our vision is to grow fast so we have a range catering to diverse needs. We therefore have verticals—Retail and Corporate Sailing and within each we have product formats that deliver diverse objectives. For example, a person can simply come to try sailing or they can learn and keep learning with us going thru a range of certified courses. On the corporate front organisations can simply use sailing as a onetime exciting dimension to a conference or take it to the next level as a training and leadership tool. All this has been fine-tuned in terms of product design, pricing and delivery framework based on deep customer insight and feedback. The result is 500-plus corporate organisations and 30,000 delighted customers and growing.
But how will you define Aquasail growth over the years? Shakeel: Growth can be defined in many ways: getting new people into
the sport, defining your pricing, defining your product, finding processes, seeing acceptance for a particular product. We have gone into deep detail giving real value to the customers. I would define my company as a leisure boating solutions company. If you give me a brief, I will provide a solution using my sailing practice. We have been very careful on our capital investment into boating. We have spent a lot on building the products, building the market for the product, making sure the product is really right because of its quality. Presently I think we can scale up this business in many ways. It’s all a factor of investing and marketing and investing in resources, there is nothing else I need to do. It has a market here, but you need the right resources. I will not allow any compromise on safety or quality.
“Entrepreneurs dream but successful entrepreneurs dream and make it a reality by focusing on nuts and bolts of the business. It also requires knowledge of the domain area. So as long as the reason is strong and sustainable it’s great” - Zia
Shakeel: Being focused on what one wants to do and not do is also criti-
cal—and choosing the opportunities to ride on and letting go those which don’t fit into our vision or plan. Sailors by nature are flexible and the sport of sailing taught me to tack when the wind shifts but to keep my eye unfalteringly on the goal. And that has helped through this journey. We spotted opportunities, we created some and we slowly built the dream we had—no short cuts at all.
How did you benchmark your products and courses to international standards?
Shakeel: I have travelled the sailing world during my competitive period and already had in depth knowledge which is quite unmatched. When I started Aquasail, I visited and studied different sailing companies focused on different market segments as well shared experiences and thoughts with leading personalities at boat shows and other events. We were hosted by many and all of these helped us pick and choose our strategy. We picked the best of all observations—top boat brands, high quality equipment, right processes and SOPs. However one fundamental rule—we customized significantly to our knowledge and understanding of the Indian market and the Indian customer. This we believe makes Aquasail equal to the best of the sailing centers in the world. In fact in many ways we are actually better—we are unique in the range that we offer and we have products that no one in the world has delivered so far and have really catered to a market for the first time sailor.
Tell us about the progression of Aquasail from a simpler to a more complex form. Shakeel: In an early market, it is about creating simple, to understand and
How can sailing be a team building activity and be part of character building for school children? Zia: Sailing is a team sport, which involves leadership and team building
skills–more or less like how you handle company management dynamics. In company dynamics, the biggest challenge is about dealing with uncertainty, change, adapting, working with the team—with different strengths and different levels of capability. When you make a person sail a boat, he has to deal with many variables. Sailing has the maximum number of variables, which makes it an ideal sport. Then it’s got team dynamics. With Shakeel as a racer and the combination of the boats and people we have, we are able to organise first timers’ racing events. In racing event you have a goal, which is to win, come first, to sail well, to do better in each set of races—it’s like a business environment. So, we use all those metrics related to business. There is a very powerful sailing term that we use, “You can’t control the wind but you can adjust the sails”. So, when you look at it like that, it makes business sense.
Shakeel: Sailing moulds a child – teaches him respect for the environment,
it develops self-confidence and self-esteem. I have coached and taught more than 22,000 kids through the Sea Cadet Corps and have seen many transform and grow. Many draw on their sailing experience as a child in their adult life. It is a life skill which is invaluable. At Aquasail I use my deep experience as a coach and a sailor to ensure that kids who come and sail really enjoy every moment on the water and for them it is often a self-discovery that can be transformational. We teach much more than sailing—environment consciousness and respect for the sea, for equipment and for each other. It is a life skill we impart. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 27
Interview By Neeraj Varty Take a little bit through your education and where you are right now? I am an engineer, a student of IIT Kanpur, where I did my B.Tech in Electrical Engineering. After that, I was working for a couple of years then I went on to do my MBA from IIM Bangalore. Once I graduated, I joined a program called Tata Administrative services (TAS), which is a group level management program in the Tata Group. I joined TAS in 1996 and have been there till now (2016). It has been exactly two decades and in the Tata group I have primarily been on two broad sectors, financial services and the automotive services. Within the financial services I have been involved in setting up number of companies. I was involved in setting up a broking company called Tata TD Water House Securities, I was involved in setting up Tata capital, Tata Securities, Tata Cleantech Capital so these are all subsidiaries within the financial services. I was the CEO of Tata Securities and Tata Cleantech Capital till 2015. Tata Cleantech is a set of primarily five companies and we are in the financial services phase, we are in non-banking financial services company, we are a lending organisation, we have a housing finance organisation, project finance organisation, investment banking and securities organisation and we have two other small subsidiaries which are into travel and forex. We are around 7000 people strong. Then, I moved in as the CHRO of Tata Capital. As I said, I have been a business leader and now I am an HR leader and I think over the last 20 years I have exposure to probably all areas of business especially in the financial services sector. In your experience, you have been through IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore, which are Ivy League institutes. How was that experience? Very enriching. In fact I am a fulbright from the Carnegie Mellon institute in 2006. Fulbright is not like a MBA or a under graduate program, it is more developmental in na-
Agility with Stability is the Key Some people are born to lead. Avijit Bhattacharya, CEO of Tata Cleantech Capital Ltd has everything it takes to lead at the financial services arm of India’s largest conglomerate, the $103 Billion Tata group. Stellar credentials, grit, and a unwavering focus were more than apparent as Corporate Citizen sat down with Avijit to discuss his inspiring journey, views on corporate India and what it takes to chart your own path in the corporate world 28 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
ture, where you explore certain areas which are important to society or business at large. And once you get into program you continue to be sort of associated with it for as long as you would wish to be. If someone who has exposure to both international education especially in the management area as well as the best in Indian education, how do you think it differs from the perspective of preparing students for what’s ahead, and in what way do you
“Financial services are available to a larger number of people than were probably available 20 years ago. As a society we are more open to not taking loans and buying or creating assets, so therefore the entire loan deployment in the economy has gone up” think it differs from the quality of Indian education we have today? Honestly speaking, at the top level of education in India, we are probably almost at par with the world. Where the difference comes in, is in the opportunity to immerse in the industry. In the US, you have more opportunity to interact with the business or the place where you will apply the knowledge rather than having just theoretical knowledge, so this is the gap I think the Indian institutes are trying to bridge but, I think it will evolve over a period of time; where they exchange people from industry and educational institutes start to happen, so the people who have worked in the industry come to teach as faculty, faculty go over as professionals for a short stint and come back. There is a lot of congruence in what the industry requires and what has been taught in the institute. In your experience in the financial services space, how do you think evolution has been in the Indian context, I think you joined a little while after the liberalisation. In the last 20 years how you think the evolution is happening? There has been significant evolution thanks to the new private banks and other non-banking finance companies. Financial services are available to a larger number of people than were probably available 20 years ago. As a society we are more open to not taking loans and buying or creating assets, so therefore the entire loan deployment in the economy has gone up. We still are debt ---but our future generations or the new generations won’t be and technology has played a great role in that. In India, most financial services have actually gone cutting edge by scaling technology. Public sector banks had a legacy and they also have transformed themselves but their transformation is a lot more difficult because they still cling to the past. Comparatively, the private sector banks did not have the legacy so they were able to actually leapfrog in terms of technology to deliver financial services that much faster. What we require as an overall system is a central repository of credit information which a developed country has. We don’t have credit or income information,
it is getting created, but again it is the beginning and it will take some time to mature. As we speak there is fair amount of data but it is much smaller compared to the 1.2 billion people that we are, therefore that economic information about the people is something that needs to get created. The government is already working on it, and aadhar is a good pillar to lean on. I am sure we are on the right track but it will take some time before that information becomes liberally available and when it is available then there will be huge growth in financial services. How do you look at companies like Uber who just within a few years has a valuation of $66 billion. Do you think that is the way forward this is how the companies are going to be made overnight? In my personal opinion, somewhere the valuations maybe a little too inflated but they are not totally wrong. The reason being is that, these companies have been able to bring in business models which engage customers and suppliers in a different way on a technology base which gives a lot of agility and flexibility and they are going to stay. Consequently it is the old companies or the old business models which need to change to this. Institutes like banking for example have always been resilient to changes. Do you think the banking industry also must evolve at the same pace? Indeed they have to. Banking is based on trust and has to be stable but stability is about the security of the money that people have entrusted them, and that does not stop make them from being agile; so agility and stability is where the trick is; typically speaking it is difficult. When you are not very agile, then you have a semblance of stability. When you are trying to be agile you are running on a zig zag path and that’s a tightrope to walk. Agility with stability is the key. Do you think women are adequately represented right now at this moment in Indian Industry or more needs to be done? If you consider the overall population you could safely assume that 50 percent are women. Given that representation in society the representation of the workplace is far lesser but, things are changing rapidly because of education which is now available to women, primarily urban women. Rural women are still kind of struggling to get the equality in education. However, companies are now actively trying to increase women in their workforce. Any words of advice to young students or who have just started their career, what would you tell them from your experience? They should be open to take on to the world, and not have any fixed ideas. They should feel free to take challenges, they should not be too scared of failing and they should be flexible in their own ideas of about what they want to be. The more flexible they are they more successful they will be. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 29
woman power
MOMS of Mars Mission The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, is a space probe orbiting Mars. It was launched on November 5, 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). In conversation with the three young women scientists of ISRO’s MOM mission—Ritu Karidhal, Moumita Dutta and Meenal Sampat By Vinita Deshmukh
R
itu Karidhal is a senior scientist at ISRO and she has played a key role in realising the Mars Orbiter Mission, also known as Mangalyaan. She has created history by being part of the first mission to reach Mars in its first attempt. She completed her M.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science. Ritu always had a fascination for space and yearned to do something different from what normal women did. She used to collect news clippings from various newspapers and she wanted to learn everything about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and activities that the ISRO was doing, during her school days at Lucknow. She has worked for many prestigious missions of ISRO and has been operations director for many missions. For the Mars Mission, she was project manager and deputy organisation director, responsible to execute the critical operation of the orbiter leaving the earth and ‘capturing’ Mars. She has been recipient of many awards including the Young Scientist Award in 2007 and ISRO Team Award for MOM (The Mars Orbiter Mission) in 2015. She is currently working on a very important mission, not related to Mars. It is mission on moon this time, Chandrayan II. That is interesting! From Mars to the Moon!
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Women Power
“Since my childhood, I had fascination for space. As a child I used to wonder why the moon changes its size and on a number of days why it has to become full moon and on a number of days it has to disappear”— Ritu Moumita Dutta obtained her M Tech degree in Applied Physics from the University of Kolkata. She joined the Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad in 2006. Since then she has been involved in many prestigious projects like Oceansat, Resourcesat, HySAT, Chandrayan I and Mars Orbiter Mission. She was chosen as Project Manager for the Methane Sensor for Mars and was given the responsibility for the development of the complete optical system, optimisation and characterisation and calibration of the sensor. Presently she is also leading a team in the indigenous development of optical
sciences and working towards the realisation of the ‘Make in India’ concept. Her research area includes miniaturisation of gas sensors which involves state-of-the-art technologies in the field of optics. She is a recipient of the ISRO Team of Excellence Award for the Mars Orbiter Mission and besides being a space scientist, she is interested in literature, creative writing, recitation and music. Minal Sampat is a gold medallist in electronics and communication engineering. She began her career in ISRO and initially served as a Satcom Engineer and then got transferred to
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the Space Application Centre. She has 12 years of experience in satellite technology. She has played a very important role in developing and delivering the Mars Orbiter Mission payloads from the Space Application Centre. She is currently Project Manager for the systematisation of many upcoming projects including Chandrayan II mission. Minal received the ISRO Team of Excellence Award for 2013 and she was conferred the Young Scientist Merit Award by ISRO for her contribution in the Telemedicine programme. Kalpana Unadkat, Partner, Khaitan Co, interviewed the three women scientists who played such a critical role in the MOM project. Excerpts: Kalpana: Ritu, what made you become space engineer? Especially 18 years ago when women were not even thinking of going into this kind of field? How did you decide to start as a space engineer apart from keeping the news clippings? Ritu: Actually, I don’t know how it happened but since my childhood I had this fascination for space. As a child, I used to wonder why the moon changed its size, why on a number of days it became a full moon, and disappears on some other days. What were the dynamics behind it? What is the force behind it? What lies beyond this earth and space? That fascination
has driven me and when I grew up I started collecting news articles relating to any activity of ISRO and NASA. Then I applied to ISRO and I cracked the interview and then I entered into my dream space. Kalpana: Who was the driving force? Ritu: Actually 18 years ago in the University of Lucknow it was not that easy an atmosphere for a girl to continue with science or engineering. But my parents - I have to thank them - they have always been my inspiration. They put confidence in me and their expectations on me. That has always been the driving force for me. Even when I got this opportunity to join ISRO, 2000 km away from Lucknow at Bengaluru, it was not an easy thing, and 18 years back I took that decision. It was not an easy decision for my parents to send their daughter so far. But then, their confidence in me and in my capabilities, has been the driving force till today. Kalpana: Moumita, tell us what is your story? How did you start thinking of satellite and space? Moumita: I was studying in the 9th or 10th Std when one day, experimenting on light, I suddenly saw magnificent colours coming out of a prism. That’s when I told myself ‘Oh! I love this.’ I think that is the time when my journey with physics began. My curiosity to know the physics behind everything, started in right earnest. I also believe that in school, it is not always the subject but it is the teachers who sometimes make the subject very lively. I was very fortunate to come across some of these teachers who not only made the subject interesting to me but also made it the obvious choice for me. So, as far as space science is concerned, I was always thrilled with some of the keywords like ‘space’, ‘UFO’, and ‘aliens’. Also, when I was young, for many days, the term ‘space communication’ meant to me communication with the aliens. I got thrilled with the idea that someday I will be able to communicate with the aliens. It is another story that now for me space communication means something else. I would like to mention another incident that when for the first time I was in Kolkata in 2004, I was reading in the Kolkata daily, Anand Bazar Patrika, about Chandrayan I mission and I was thinking how fortunate those scientists are who are getting this opportunity to work in this awesome mission. At that time, practically I had no idea that one day I would be working in this project. So it was God’s gift to me that I got this opportunity and put my heart and soul in that mission. Kalpana: You are working on Chandrayan II mission too? Moumita: Partly, as a panel we are working there in the Chandrayan II Mission.
Kalpana: And Minal’s story is interesting. I would like her to tell that story to the audience. Minal: Actually, I never wanted to become a space engineer, never. I wanted to become a doctor because I wanted to serve the common man of our country. It so happened that I was in the 8th standard and I was watching some TV channel and suddenly I saw some rockets coming on the screen. I just got hooked up to that channel. They were showing this countdown and I was so excited and a lot of people were in white garments, caps and talking on the headphones. That fascinated me. That day, that launch which I saw live, triggered the thought in my mind. How good to be there! How lively! That team spirit kind of a thing. But I never knew that I was going to be in one of those launches to Mars, facing the same scenario. It is just, I feel, within you. It tells you what you want to be. You may not listen to it sometimes, but it comes to us. Whenever the time comes, it comes in front of you. That’s the story of my entry into space engineering. Kalpana: I’ll now jump to the next question. What was the feeling when that actually happened in Mission Mars? Minal : I was numb!
What if it doesn’t happen?’ If you could share some such moments… Moumita : Yes, there were these moments of frustration. Mars Orbiter Mission was a really fast mission. Minal spoke about the countdown. So for 18 months, every day was counted. Even if we tried our best to optimise and avoid any delay for this mission while we were working on the project, there would inevitably be some delay at some point for unknown reasons, or unavoidable ones, which were beyond our control. I would like to mention one incident in this regard. I was expecting an instrument to come. That was a very important instrument for a very important set up to characterise an important function. And all official formalities were completed. The instrument was just about to reach when I was informed that it could not be delivered at all - it was never going to come. But fortunately I had a backup plan ready. I thought of another setup and I took the initiative to develop that setup. In 15 days we were in a position to make the whole setup with a parallel instrument. It was even better, I would say. But for these 15 days, you cannot imagine my situation because I was almost at the point where things may get stuck. But
“I am very fortunate to come across some of these teachers who not only made the subject interesting to me but also made it obvious choice for me” — Moumita Kalpana: I thought you wanted to cry? Minal : Ya, ya! I loved that moment and I will cherish it throughout. Because you never know. But it lifted. I thought, ‘My God, it lifted!’ Kalpana: You can see how passionate she is. This is what happens when women work. They put their heart and soul into it. That’s the most important thing about women working on this. I have a question to all of you - there must have been difficult moments while you were working on this MOM -- were there any frustrations before the launch? And did you feel, ‘Oh God!
fortunately that did not happen and we were able to complete all testing as per the planned schedule because of the backup plan. So as she mentioned, we always had to have our backup plan ready. We also had the same situation for our engines, which she could highlight. Minal : Yes, we would always have some backup plan. What happened was we had to capture Mars, which meant that the satellite had to rotate around Mars, along its gravity. It is like you have to push something along the `gravity well’ of Mars, so it needed force to be applied on the satellite when it goes into the `gravity well’-- that means the engines had to fire for that. So it was very critical that the big engine should fire with
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 33
Women Power 99 per cent accuracy. Then only would we be able to capture Mars and we would be able to get the orbit which is where we would really operate the cameras and take the pictures of Mars. But then we had only one engine. What to do if that engine didn’t fire? What happens when the satellite leaves the earth’s gravity? That happened in the month of November in 2013. Then it has to travel some 10 months’ time to reach near Mars. So then for 10 months’ time, this engine is sleeping. We do not know how it will perform. So how do we ensure that it is really going to fire at the time of that particular moment? What we did is, we thought, if it doesn’t fire, what is the next option? At least, we should be able to capture Mars. Even if we don’t get the right orbit or we don’t get the right numbers, we should be able to at least capture some of Mars. So we were ready with our Plan ‘B’ Plan At the end of it, Plan ‘A’ got, well executed, but Plan `B’ was nevertheless ready. In case we did not get Plan ‘A’ Plan ‘B’ would let us capture Mars. This is how it helps in any situation. That’s how women do it, because
have laid down procedures. If a certain thing is to be done, it has to be done in a certain way. Third is a ‘Backup plan’ that we all talked about. If you handle these three nicely, your family and office both go hand in hand very smoothly. Kalpana: I agree with all these three P’s, but how do you keep up with all the demands? Like you mentioned at home too you have to have backup plans, but how do you balance work life and family life. When you are working 24x7 especially during a project such as the MOM project, what I understand is that you were getting hardly four or five hours sleep. So how did you manage in general with young kids at home and only four or five hours sleep? Ritu : As I mentioned earlier, basically it is planning and time management that play
“I was watching some TV channel and suddenly I saw some rockets coming on the screen. I just hooked up to that channel. They were showing this countdown and I was so excited and a lot of people were in white garments, caps and talking on the headphones. That fascinated me” — Minal they are very conscious of their work and like to give 100% to whatever they have taken up. Kalpana: Do you always have Plan B at home as well? Ritu : Yes, because that is how it is about raising the kids. Now I cannot go home, what should I do next to get the work done? Moumita : Actually, I would like to say that whether at office or at home, wherever you go, there are almost similar kind of scenarios. We have bosses in the office; you have somebody else to take care at home. So there are three simple P’s I remember. First is ‘Priority’. That is prioritisation of your work. Second is ‘Procedures’. You
a key role, especially when it has to be done in 10 months flat. We never had this type of mission earlier, because this was for the first time we were going to go beyond the earth’s gravity. We did not know what would happen in space. If the satellite faces some problem, it had to be able to self-diagnose and then undergo self-recovery. That is called an autonomous satellite. We had to build that. So during those 10 months, it was really tough for us because we had to start from scratch, really. My prime responsibility was to bring out the draft of that autonomy. For six months during office hours I had lots of work. Then again from 12 am to 4 am, there would be a second office at home. So in those days, I had two offices – one in my regular office and
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other, the office at home, and in between I had to manage my kids. Because of the excitement of this challenging mission, it really had driven me to do that. If I could do that, I feel, nothing is impossible. If something as complicated as this can be achieved, with all that self-confidence and belief, anything can be achieved. Kalpana: Tell us what were some of the challenges you faced apart from dealing with the technical issues? What was the team like, at ISRO? This is team work, right? Moumita : Actually in our work on the Methane Sensor for Mars, we were five ladies. Now you know what happens when more than two ladies come together. And with five members, specialists in different subjects, you won’t believe, how these five went hand in hand. That was coordination! I always felt it was very difficult to bring women together and support each other; that men may do it but women will not. Minal and I had to work shoulder to shoulder. When testing was going on, Minal had to come before me and I remember at 2 o’ clock, Minal going back and I coming to office and we saying ‘Bye’ to each other.. Minal : Today we are here to support each other but that’s what women are about! If the need comes, they will support each other. Kalpana: What about other men at ISRO? What is the work environment at ISRO? Minal : For women, it is really very nice and they are very comfortable working with other
very strong engines. So that is going on and the next Chandrayan mission is on the cards. We will demonstrate much more complicated technology and advancement from ISRO. Kalpana: Apart from realising the dream of Mars, what else was there in the last ten years? Moumita : Actually when I thought of this question, the first thing I thought was my husband telling me in a lighter note that now I might be seeing him and at least talking to him. For ten years, I was not able to see him because there were lot of missions. But this was on a lighter note. What I would like to convey here is that after ten years, we are all lucky to have an audience here. We got this opportunity to be part of this CII function and we were lucky because we could hear a lot of people giving good thoughts. But there are women equally strong in the villages. They have not been touched. So we, after ten years, should at least transfer this to village areas and have a CII function at the village level.
male colleagues. When they see you are putting your heart and soul into something, you are taking responsibility, you are working hard and you are working towards achieving your goal, they look at you with a different kind of respect. They mentor women and there is not at all any clash with the male colleagues. Ritu : Actually, I want to make one point here. In this field of science, or engineering or whatever field it is, what matters more is talent and not gender, anytime and in any field. If you are able to put up solutions to some critical problem, they are accepted. If we have to come up on our own, face the problems, face the challenges and give solutions it is accepted. There is nothing like who has given the solution -men or women? Solutions are required for problems. That’s what is more important. Moumita : Finally it is the potential that matters. No gender bias, we never faced that. Kalpana: I think ISRO is a very different organisation compared to the private sector where I come from. Probably it doesn’t behave like a government organisation. But tell me something, are there enough female engineers? In the 16,000 strong workforce, do you think there are enough female space engineers? Minal : Right now, they make up for 20 per cent of the employees. Things are changing. In the last few years, the number of female employees who joined - I would not say it has skyrock-
eted, but yes, there is an appreciable increase in the number of women employees joining ISRO. That is a clear indication that women are thinking of taking up Space Science as a career. Kalpana:Ritu, we discussed about this. Is there any difference in India and globally? Are there enough women getting into planetary science, especially space engineering? Ritu : In terms of science or any technology, the situation is similar, whether it is within India or outside. Now, I would say, India is showing better representation of women in planet science, or take any science, IT or anywhere. Their representation is growing; times are changing. I think here it is even better than the outside world. Moumita : Yes. India is taken as an example. They are interviewing Indian journalists and projecting to their countries, saying, ‘Look, this is the country where women were restricted.’ I think that is a credit to all of us. Kalpana: What next then? I think now you are the nation’s favourite women scientists. So what is the future? Ritu : Right now, I would be sitting with Mars and having panel discussions about how to go beyond the solar system. Actually there are many missions in ISRO’s plans. The next mission which is just about to come is a technologically challenging mission, which is the Lunar Mission. We have to come up with our own,
Kalpana: Well said! I think the last question is what advice would you give to our young generation and young students about starting their career in Space Science? Minal : Space Science has multiple dimensions, like Mathematics or Physics or Engineering or Rocket Science. It provides multiple dimensions for all students and there are still many unanswered questions about space; many discoveries need to be done. It is not only that we are going into space, but in that process when we come up with some technological inventions or discoveries, they also help improve the quality of life of the common man. So there are many things yet to be done. There are so many dimensions and work needs to be continued. It is a continuous process and needs all young students. They need to come and join Space Science and contribute work for the nation. vinitapune@gmail.com
CC
tadka
Modi’s Magic Is there any connection between PM’s Digital India initiative and India’s changing healthcare landscape? Obviously not, but curiously, yes. A FICCI Study titled ‘Health Insurance in Digital India’ reveals our insurance market is set to quadruple from its current size of US $60 billion over the next 10 years. But that’s not all. Online sale of health insurance will also grow 15-20 times by 2020.
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 35
Cradle of Leadership Dr Suman Sharma,
Principal, Lady Shri Ram College
o etter irls
While many institutions focus exclusively on academic acumen, the main emphasis of Delhi based Lady Shri Ram College for Women, is all round development. Its motto is ‘Sa vidya ya vimuktaye’, which means “That alone is knowledge which leads to liberation.” Thus, the college believes that academic achievements are only a part of one’s education: liberation of your own self and engagement with the social and intellectual challenges of your times is equally important By Pradeep Mathur 36 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
In the early years of independent India, there were many barriers to women’s education. But our founder, Sir Shri Ram, had very clear vision. Being a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, he firmly believed that only the enlightened and educated women could change India
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 37
H Cradle of Leadership
Higher educational institutions are aplenty in India but Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) of Delhi University (DU) is one institution that has been dominating the study of courses in Liberal Arts (or Humanities) for quite some time. So much so that today it has become the benchmark for all other colleges in India and even South Asia. No wonder, it has been ranked number one by India Today-Nielson survey consistently for the last five years, a no simple feat! LSR is the destination where every girl wants to reach, but where getting admission is tough, as you have to be the best of the best to gain access to its brilliant faculty and the brightest of students. What really makes this 60-year-old all women’s institution a leader in the comity of India’s best colleges? Is it its aestheticallyappealing and environmentally-responsible campus, which has won several DU awards for providing that welcome “touch of inspiration”? Or is it its elegant and striking landscaping and architecture that surround its lush green lawns and serene spaces that create an old-world charm in its otherwise chaotic surroundings? Or is it the fact that it has a very impressive list of alumni who dominate the world of India’s civil services, politics, media, entertainment, corporate world and the rest? Survey reports say besides all these, LSR and the top colleges like DU’s St Stephen’s and Chennai’s Loyola share a few common traits: besides providing quality education and lots of extra-curricular activities to explore hidden talents, they also offer a memorable campus experience that instils pride and loyalty for decades and help you earn well-paying jobs quite early in your career. But what about its focus on academic prestige, intellectual horsepower and scholarly excellence and, above all, high-premium success in the post-college high-end job market that places LSR students, especially from the Economics stream, stand tall amongst from the rest? To know what makes LSR a great institution, Corporate Citizen spoke to its extremely articulate Principal, Dr Suman Sharma, who is well-known for her expertise in South Asian affairs. Herself a product of LSR, she has been associated with Delhi University colleges for over three decades and contributed significantly for well-being at different levels. Excerpts:
What makes LSR different from other DU Colleges? What is its USP?
I can’t single out one factor but we’re different because besides focussing on academic excellence, we also encourage our students to think critically, live honourably and engage with social and intellectual challenges. Another key factor in the style of teaching. LSR faculty is known for its professional competence and
students to make a positive contribution to commitment. We’re different because our faculty community development and social welfare. We student mentoring ratio is 1:5 and the average also have Dhyana, the Society for Consciousness class size is only 30. LSR is also recognised for its and Awareness, which encourages experiential traditions of discipline and scholarship. We also learning. We’ve also launched several have a non-interfering management and a pool community-related projects including a health of top-ranking students from across the country. initiative for women of the nearby urban village These are our USPs. Besides, we offer our students Zamrudpur. Under a program called Connecting vibrant and dynamic campus life, brimming Dreams, our students have adopted a village and with intellectual exploration and celebration of set-up a community radio to be in constant touch diversity and inclusivity. We’re also passionate with rural women. LSR has also begun Project about life outside classroom and encourage free Maati, an initiative to encourage organic farming and spirited exchange of ideas through group in a village in Faridkot (Punjab) and to help interactions that motivate students to speak up market the products made by village women in their mind and take up leadership roles. We also Delhi. To provide a truly inclusive expose them regularly to leaders environment, the college offers a who have made an impact in their Some top state-of-the-art Resource Centre fields and encourage students’ ranking that enables differently abled and community initiatives. institutions lesser-privileged students’ access where LSR to the latest assistive technologies. Can you please elaborate some graduates We also have extremely active units of those initiatives? have made of NCC, NSS and National Sports We’ve started initiatives like the their mark Organisation. Women Development Cell which engages with gender-related issues • Berkeley and consistently highlights issues of How has been the journey of • Bristol violence against women. Another LSR over the last six decades? • Bryn Mawr is REACH, which is an acronym LSR was founded in 1956 in • Cambridge for Reaffirming Equity, Access, New Delhi by one of the top • Columbia Capacity and Humanism and nationalist corporate leaders of • Cornell deals with issues of affirmativeness independent India, late Sir Shri • Faculty of and inclusive learning. Voluntary Ram, in memory of his wife. It had Management Agency Placement Program, helps its modest beginnings in a school Studies of DU building in Daryaganj in Central • Georgetown Delhi with just 243 students, nine • Harvard faculty members, four support staff • IIM Ahmedabad and three distinct study courses. It • Indian School aimed to provide access to higher of Business education of quality to women Hyderabad and has since blossomed into an • Kenyon institution of national excellence. • La Trobe Today, the college has a beautiful • Leeds 15-acre campus in South Delhi, • London School with approximately 2300 students, of Economics over 150 faculty members, 80 • National person administrative and support University of staff and 16 study courses. The Singapore entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled. • Oxford The college has 103 classrooms, University most equipped with multi-media • Princeton projectors and two state-of-the• School of art computer laboratories with Oriental and Internet connection. Besides, we African Studies have two well-equipped seminar of University of halls and an auditorium with a London capacity to accommodate 700 • Stanford persons. Under the inspiring • Sussex chairmanship of industrialist and • Warwick philanthropist, late Dr Bharat Ram, • Xavier’s Labour LSR became a byword for academic Research and extra-curricular achievements. Institute (XLRI) A Board of Governors, drawn • Yale from the fields of industry, law,
We offer our students vibrant and dynamic campus life, brimming with intellectual exploration and celebration of diversity and inclusivity. We’re also passionate about life outside classroom and encourage free and spirited exchange of ideas through group interactions that motivate students to speak up their mind and take up leadership roles
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The entire LSR campus is Wi-FI enabled
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Myanman leader who is an alumna of Lady Shri Ram College For Women, planting a tree during her visit to the institution. LSR has opened an ASSK Centre in her name.
Prime reason why LSR stands apart from other institutions because its faculty mentoring ratio is 1:5
LSR product herself, Dr Suman Sharma with mission statement of LSR
The main building of LSR
The library at LSR LSR imparts knowledge that leads to liberation to students
Faculty that works with commitment and dedication is the strength of LSR
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 39
Cradle of Leadership
journalism, academics and the bureaucracy, assist the current Chairman, Arun Bharat Ram, in running the college.
LSR is famous for its world renowned alumnae. Tell us about some of your notable ones.
We are very proud of our alumnae who have been trailblazers in various fields—be it media, entertainment, politics, diplomacy, law, academia, civil services, NGO sector, corporate world and the rest. Among them are NDTV’s news anchor Nidhi Razdan, documentary filmmaker Vandana Kohli, Union Cabinet Minister Maneka Gandhi, Chhavi Rajawat (Sarpanch of Soda village, Rajasthan); actresses Sakshi Tanwar, Shriya Saran, Priyanka Sharma, Lushin Dubey; interior designer Padma Shri Sunita Kohli, corporate leaders Vinita Bali (MD & CEO of Britannia Industries), Naina Lal Kidwai (CEO, HSBC India), Sushma Berlia (Industrialist, Educationist and Entrepreneur) and Sindhushree Khullar (CEO, NITI Aayog); Painter Arpana Kaur; Bharatnatyam exponent Geeta Chandran; Social Activist Anjali Bhardwaj; Academician Gita Gopinath (Professor of Economics at Harvard). The list is just endless. The tallest among them is the Nobel Prize for Peace winner and Myanmar’s charismatic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in whose name we’ve opened
In the early years of independent India, there were many barriers to women’s education. But our founder, Sir Shri Ram, had very clear vision. Being a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, he firmly believed that only the enlightened and educated women could change India. So, he established LSR as a protective space for young girls from conservative families, who would otherwise not get an opportunity to get quality higher education
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an ASSK Centre—where we run a short-term diploma course in Conflict Transformation and Peace Building. It’s open to even outsiders, including boys. Lots of professional engineers, doctors, journalists and defence personnel have participated in it.
Wasn’t the last year’s IAS topper also from LSR?
Oh yes! Tina Dabi, the IAS topper of 2015, is from LSR. She got lots of media attention because she’s very articulate and has a very sound sense of social responsibility. Moreover, she wrote her IAS exam immediately after passing BA (Hons) and made it. When we felicitated her at LSR, she said, “Please don’t judge me now, but judge me by what I’m able to do for the people in general.” She had many options but she chose Haryana cadre because the gender sensitivity is very low in Haryana and she wants to work on women-specific issues of the State. Tina truly reflects the LSR spirit and we are very proud of her. Former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh was also from LSR. We’ve LSR alumnae at the level of secretaries in various government departments. Lots of our young girls are doing pretty well in the NGO sector. In politics, former Delhi Minister, Kiran Walia and current Union Minister Anupriya Patel have been our students. In the fashion world, Ritu Beri is from LSR. In
Bollywood, Leena Yadav has been our student. Shah Rukh Khan’s wife Gauri Khan and Shahid Kapoor’s wife Meera Rajput are also from LSR.
Do these celebrity alumnae ever visit their alma mater?
Oh yes. A number of them keep coming and asking me, “Ma’am we’ve received so much from LSR, how we can return it?” We’ve a very active alumni association, called ELSA, which has a very deep connect with the college. The distinguished alumni are beacon lights and source of inspiration for our students. They are always available as resource persons and in any other capacity needed by us. We’ve a very liberal fellowship and freeship program. Last year, thanks to their support, we gave scholarships worth more than `60 lakh to our students.
You’ve also been a LSR product. How has it changed since your days as student?
I stepped out of LSR in 1979. I took admission 40 years back, in 1976, and even then, it was an institution of excellence, though life was simple and things were a little different. In those days, you would find lot of Muslim girls on the campus. LSR started from Daryaganj. Therefore, a lot of girls from the Chandni Chowk and Lal Qila area would come here and deposit their burqa at the gate. Coming from traditional families, they would experience the change and do extremely well in studies.
What makes LSR girls different?
They become smart, intelligent and women of substance. Even those who become homemakers, are different because they speak their mind. Whatever they want to do, they’re able to do because at LSR, as they get empowered with the tools needed to make it happen. This place is different. It is not commercialised. Body language and confidence level of even those, who come here from India’s remote areas, changes in just six months, and it reflects on their personality. For example, recently, while taking interviews for some job positions for Fukuoka University of Japan, I met an LSR student who came from Jharkhand. She said, when she joined LSR, she was overawed by the ambience for a month. But with the help of some senior students, she picked up the language and understood how things work here. Thus, she regained her confidence. Now she wants this international job because the experience will help her change the scenario in her extremely backward village in Jharkhand. She wants to be a role model for her village just like Chhavi Rajawat, India’s first and youngest woman sarpanch of Rajasthan’s Soda village.
Tell us about your various Societies that showcase talent?
We’ve around 22 societies covering dramatics,
music, dance, public speaking, debating, elocution, quiz and a whole lot. They have a very healthy competition within themselves. We’ve an annual event−Tarang−and last time, the footfall was around 15,000. We had invited students from DU colleges and even from outside Delhi. So, this time it was a national event. We got teams from all over India. Last month, our Commerce department organised a function attended by more than 50 teams from within India and around 65 students came from Nepal and Bhutan. Our very active and elected students’ union co-ordinates working of these Societies.
How good is LSR’s industry interaction and campus placement?
LSR’s record is pretty impressive in this respect. Our placement cell has helped students get respectable jobs in top corporate houses including Google, GE, McKinsey, Ernst & Young, HLL, Watson Wyatt, Capital IQ, Jaypee Capital, Indian Express, Zee News and Star Magna, to name just a few. Students of Economics and Commerce departments are always in big demand. As for industry interaction, thanks to the alumnae network, LSR students get a good industry exposure. We also try to give hands-on experience to students. For example, the Sociology and Education Departments take their students on field trips. LSR has a society called Voluntary Agency Placement Programme, which places students with NGOs in diverse fields. The college also imparts skill training through its outreach programmes and placement cell. Experts are called regularly to interact with students.
There is a perception that Brand LSR is very elitist. How true is that?
Courses offered at LSR • BA Honours in Economics/ English Literature/ Hindi Literature/ History/ Philosophy/ Political Science/ Psychology/ Sanskrit/ Sociology • B Com Honours • B Sc Honours in Mathematics/ Statistics • BA Programme • MA Economics/ English/Hindi/ History/Mathematics/ Philosophy/Political Science/Sanskrit • Professional Courses in Journalism/ Elementary Education/PG Diploma Program in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding
Short-term courses at LSR • Mathematical Tools in Decision Making for Managers • Appreciating Indian Art • Women and the Political Process • Legal Literacy for Women • Non Violence: Techniques and Approaches • Computer Tools for Journalists • Communication Skills: Interviewing, Report Writing and Presentations • Publishing • Entrepreneurship • Film Appreciation • Photo Journalism • Modelling using Spreadsheets • Spanish
I strongly disagree with this. Many of our students come from very vulnerable sections of society and our senior students work very hard with them. In other places, you’ll find students bullying
and intimidating such students. But here, there is lot of handholding both by the senior students and teachers who go beyond the classroom to help. So, this perception is just not true. At least 12% of our students receive financial aid as they come from disadvantaged families. LSR’s performance in a common system is better than several other institutions. Hence, its achievements should be acknowledged rather than misconstruing it as ‘elitist.’
What was the vision of Sir Shri Ram? Why did he want to keep LSR for women only?
In the early years of independent India, there were many barriers to women’s education. But our founder, Sir Shri Ram, had very clear vision. Being a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, he firmly believed that only the enlightened and educated women could change India. So, he established LSR as a protective space for young girls from conservative families, who would otherwise not get an opportunity to get quality higher education. He was deeply committed to the cause of education for women.
Don’t you think in today’s liberal times, single-sex education is rather outdated?
I do not agree to this presumption that single-sex education per se is illiberal. Further, there is assumption that we live in liberal times – but our society remains essentially patriarchal and illiberal. Prevalence of female foeticide, high school dropout rate of girls vis-a-vis boys, dowry deaths, honour killing, female child abuse, triple talaq and denial of property rights to girls against law, etc testify to gender disparity and injustice. The 11th edition of the World Economic Forum report has also noted that the global gender gap is widening and it’ll take at least 170 years for women to earn as much as men and to participate equally in the workforce. The single-sex education is, therefore, very relevant and essential in the times that we live in.
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 41
Cradle of Leadership But isn’t it the trend the world over, towards co-educational institutions?
Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) −which incidentally was also established by our founder Late Sir Shri Ram, who owned the erstwhile famous company DCM Shri Ram.
For more than three decades, I’ve been teaching in co-educational institutions and I also thought this way, particularly after going to St Stephen’s and other places which were for boys only. But the When UGC gives same amount to all DU LSR story is different. It has a unique character. colleges, how come LSR is so different? You ask students and they will say they feel very It’s just because we’ve some very good practices safe and comfortable here. They feel it’s their own steeped in tradition and innovations. space and they can do here what they want−no inhibitions. They have all the liberty in terms of You attract the best of talent from the intellectual space too. Nevertheless, if LSR turns country but some feel there should be into a co-educational institution, maybe it’ll be 90% reservation for Delhi students in DU better for the girls. But let me tell you, the times colleges? What’s your take? haven’t changed much in this LSR is an institution for the respect. I feel that the things have entire country. We take pride Outstanding changed a bit only in the urban in the diverse geographical sportswomen educated middle class families and social representation of from LSR: but otherwise the environment students in our institution. Our remains the same elsewhere. international collaborations • Nonita Lal-GolfThere are a lot of parents from make us a unique institution Arjuna Awardee remote areas who are sending in Delhi University. The idea • Rajyashree Kumaritheir girls to LSR only because of a fixed local reservation is Shooting-Arjuna it’s an all girls’ college. Some of parochial, retrograde and against Awardee the girls coming from such areas the universal spirit of education. probably find it easier to cope International level up with pressures because it’s a How do you keep LSR campus sportswomen girls’ institution. So, we feel this so green and serene? from LSR: experiment is working extremely Whenever I give a presentation well and there is no need to on LSR, I usually say, it’s an urban • Ekta Bhambri, Ishani disturb it. LSR is imbued with oasis in a very heavy traffic area Baruah, Pallabi the sterling spirit of its founder of South-East Delhi. Commuters Parasar-They all Sir Shri Ram and we’re working who travel by the Delhi Metro represented India hard to keep intact its reputation say that when they see a small at the 6th Asian as a premier institution of higher patch full of greenery, they know Table Tennis learning. it is the LSR. The credit goes Championship to our Malis who work hard • Dhaara Guptathroughout the year. Being a leader in Arts and Chess Besides, there is a lot of Commerce, why is LSR shy of • Jyoti Maggupeaceful co-existence here. You’ll introducing courses in Pure Athletics find street dogs around, but the Sciences? (Represented India way our girls have adopted them, LSR has established itself as a at 2nd World IBSA it’s unbelievable. You’ll find the liberal Arts college and prefers Championship for street dogs sitting together on to continue in this field only. Visually Impaired, benches and girls feeding them. Besides, science courses would Quebec, Canada) That also shows how strong their require a different and enhanced • Shruti Prakash sense of social responsibility is! infrastructure. This can be - Shooting considered in due course by (Participated in the following due process in future, How good is your hostel Commonwealth if necessary, though we already facility? Games) offer B Sc courses in Mathematics It’s just a two-story building with • Monica Joonand Statistics. a lot of green space. Though Discuss Throw we can accommodate around (Junior National 290 students only, we’re very Where does your fund come Title) proud of our hostel. In most from? • Shweta Choudhury DU institutions, the hostel We’re a constituent college of DU -Shooting (National mess is outsourced but ours is a and 95% of our funding comes Record Holder, self-managed one. We manage from the UGC. The rest comes Gold Medallisteverything from breakfast to from our trust. We get the same CWG and Silver dinner. We have lowest hostel amount of funding that is given Medallist at Doha fees in DU and we’ve six visually to all other trust-run colleges Asian Games 2006) challenged students in the like DAV, Hindu College and 42 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
hostel. We make sure that they get supportive room-mates.
Tell us something about your own career journey. Why did you decide to go into teaching and not into civil services?
I was inclined towards academics right since my childhood days in Delhi’s Lady Irwin School. I received the offer to join a DU girl’s college immediately after I finished my MA and enrolled for M Phil at the age of 21. Though it was a fashion to go for civil services, I never wrote the exam because I always wanted to become a teacher. Most of my teaching career so far was gainfully spent in DU’s Motilal Nehru College in South Campus, a co-educational institution, which was not among the prestigious colleges in popular perception and where students from diverse linguistic and socio-economic background converge. It was quite a challenge. I’ve never emphasised on monotonous textbook monologues. Instead I have preferred spirited, interactive and participatory teaching wherein the inhibitions disappear and latent talent comes to the fore. This has blessed me with life-long relationships with students who come back with rich experiences of wherever they perform.
How do you feel being the principal of such a prestigious college, which is also your alma mater?
Obviously it feels good, but my becoming Principal of LSR was not the outcome of any conscious effort. Actually, my previous assignment as OSD/Principal of Dyal Singh Evening College was also a surprise offer to me. I gained precious experience in administration while working there. Being from an ordinary middle class background, my selection in LSR belies the popular perception that LSR is an ivory-tower and an elite institution. In fact, I am extremely happy to be Principal in my Alma Mater and highly motivated to do my best for the institution.
When you joined LSR last year, there was the vast legacy of Dr Meenakshi Gopinath, your predecessor, who served LSR for almost 27 years. How difficult was it to carry forward such a great legacy?
Dr Gopinath was my teacher when I was a student at LSR. Her contribution to this institution is immense. I, therefore, joined this institution as Principal with trepidation in my heart, but also with a steely resolve to carry forward the rich legacy of my teacher. Dr Gopinath, with her long innings and deep commitment, commanded great respect. Besides, I found out that the commitment of LSR faculty to uphold the institutional mission was equally deep. The
One of the problems we encounter is that the credits are not transferred. We get a lot of students from abroad. They are here for a semester. The credit transfer system is there, but in India, the University Grants Commission (UGC) doesn’t allow us to have the credit transfer system. If something could be done about that, it’ll be good.
Tell us about your faculty. How do they keep themselves updated with new developments taking place in their field of specialisation?
The ambience in LSR is quite unique. We have a dedicated faculty, which often goes beyond its call of routine duty. The faculty is highly motivated and conscious of its obligations to retain and enhance the quality of the institution. The faculty members update themselves in the field of their specialisation on their own volition. Further, introduction of the Academic Performance Index (API) score for promotions and professional progression has introduced a healthy competition among faculty to keep themselves updated and enhance their academic achievements.
Do you have any suggestions for the evaluation of your faculty?
latent and inherent institutional strength has maintained the quality standards of LSR. I’m performing my role as a catalyst to let the institutional strength have a full play and retain/enhance its position as an excellent institution. The ranking/score granted by NAAC (first such assessment) and other entities to LSR this year have given me confidence and satisfaction.
Which role do you enjoy more—being a teacher or being a principal?
The job of LSR Principal is full time and taxing. Though I enjoy this assignment, I miss my academic and research pursuits. I’ve been working on the politics of global discourse on Climate Change and South Asian response thereto for the last few years and since 2009, I’ve made presentations on this theme in five international and one national conference.
Tell us about your own early years, parents etc?
I am basically a Delhiite. Though I was born in Jalandhar (Punjab), I was brought up in Delhi. My father was very keen that I become a doctor, but right from the beginning, I was not interested in that. Impressed with my civics teacher, Mrs Sujata Mukherjee, I thought that I should go for social sciences. My father, a government servant, was quite put off but I convinced him.
The latent and inherent institutional strength has maintained the quality standards of LSR. I’m performing my role as a catalyst to let the institutional strength have a full play and retain/enhance its position as an excellent institution What about your PhD?
Mid-career, I did my PhD in South Asian Studies from JNU. My topic was India and SAARC and my guide was Prof SD Muni, a stalwart on the politics of South and South-East Asian countries. Except for Pakistan, I’ve visited all SAARC countries to gather their perception about Indian policies.
Though LSR has lots of international collaborations, you don’t have collaborations with extremely prestigious institutions. Why is it so?
Oh yes, just one suggestion regarding the Academic Performance Indicators (API) system. It is good but there are some teachers who are extremely dedicated to the institution and they’ve given their best. Though they have not been able to do their PhD, they have contributed a lot to the college. They should be given some credit for their contributions.
Being the principal of a prominent girl’s college in south Delhi, how do you feel about the safety issues and how do you deal with them?
I feel deeply anxious and worried about the safety of students. Though we can ensure a safe campus for students, the conditions outside are beyond our control. This is a larger social and cultural issue. We make efforts to empower and equip our students with appropriate values and responses to hostile situations. I personally keep in touch with police and other authorities as and when required. Recently the South East District Police launched some good initiatives to enhance patrolling on bikes, particularly in areas where students live on Paying Guest basis.
What is the philosophy of your life?
I lead a simple and straightforward life and want to do my best in the profession. I thoroughly enjoy being with youngsters and making things enjoyable for them in the institution. We should find happiness in small things in life rather than complicating it with complex designs. mathurpradeep1@gmail.com
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 43
Startups
Corporatisation of the Rental Business While the gaiety of the festive season brings families and friends to partake in each other’s prosperity; it has also generated an entire paraphernalia of ‘festive shopping’ fever. Most of us are lured by the temptations of ‘buying for less’ with ‘on your face’ online discounts and offers that shout out loud across billboards, online platforms and newspaper cover pages. But, not all get lured towards such sale and are looking for ‘value’ in tradition-especially for products that find one-off use during festivities but, remain redundant the rest of the year. Cashing in on this theory is a young team of start-up strategists who are gradually ushering in a concept that enables families and individuals to limit their expenditures by helping them to opt for rent-based festive essentials via an online platform. Bengalurubased, GrabOnRent is a product rental online marketplace that enables customers rent a variety of products that are delivered to their doorsteps. If you are thinking of a house party to ring in the New Year, GrabOnRent could just be your one stop shop for party paraphernalia to gear up and impress people By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar 44 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
Manish S Sugandhi
Aditya Sharma
Shubham Jain
Nikunj Agarwalla
T
hrown in together in a ‘barbequed’ situation, drove three IIT (Guwahati) graduates to chart out a solution not just for themselves but for consumers seeking short term utility items that could be offered on rent but with reliability and quality parameters. “It was during one of our own crisis moments that the idea for GrabOnRent struck us. We wanted a barbecue for a party and had a hard time finding whom to rent it from. We even went as far as resorting to buying one but, thankfully, saner heads prevailed that day. It was after this experience that we became acutely aware of the hassles people have to face while renting stuff ”, said Shubham Jain, Co-founder and CEO, GrabOnRent Internet Pvt. Ltd. He along with his co-IITians formed GrabOnRent Internet Pvt. Ltd. with Manish S. Sugandhi-Co-founder and COO, Aditya Sharma-Co-founder and CTO. Nikunj Agarwalla joined the tribe as Co-founder and Head, Supply Chain Management. The company connects rental product suppliers with consumers, enabling product discovery, quality assurance, smooth transactions and logistics support through its platform; which is often an ordeal with offline rental marketplace. They have tieins with event planners who can supply on a rental basis. Having known each other for the past six years, Shubham, Aditya and Manish have cashed on their skills in the start-up. Shubham is the visionary with product and marketing skills, Aditya is a techie by heart and Manish is methodological and innovative with operations and business development. “...Manish has had the experience of working with Flipkart (in their Supply Chain Management) and Aditya worked for Hewlett-Packard as a senior researcher. Shubham and Manish had also worked together as founding members of Perdix Business Solutions Pvt Ltd, a design consultancy. The core GrabOnRent team has therefore honed their combined knowledge and experiences whilst working with Flipkart, Snapdeal and Jabong and hyperlocal start-ups such as Tinyowl and Localoye. “This made for an obvious choice for us to come together and start working on the idea,” said Jain. No ‘Eureka’ Moment The rental idea developed as a resource platform to cater to the neo Indian professionals who have to migrate frequently within and across cities. This means dealing with skyrocketing real-estate prices and carrying a truckload of baggage each time that they relocate. So for team GrabOnRent, renting out utility objects to this migratory population made more than just economic sense. “It does away with most of the burdens associated with ownership, both financial and psychological. By choosing to rent instead of buying, one
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 45
Startups does not have to invest time, money and space to maintain and preserve the object, or, worry about having to spend a fortune to enjoy using it. In addition to this, one does not have to fear the object becoming obsolete and the investment being wasted,” said Jain. The GrabOnRent journey that began in September 2015 currently works with over 150 vendor network with over 1000 transactions per month. The 36 member team caters to a registered base of 15,000 customers with active customer rentals at 4,000. The company focuses on creating awareness about the advantages of renting amongst its target audience. Their immediate priority is to build a strong tech product and other services around it before hitting other cities. On managing their vendor network, “Vendor financing is being facilitated by helping them get loans at a mere 1.5-1.7% per month (which is very low in comparison to 4.5 - 6% that they take from secondary markets). This shall ensure a long chain of supply for GrabOnRent from the vendors,” said Jain. Initially, they researched online on the availability of funds and angel investors. “We got across a lot of investment funds and had the chance to interact with many. After many rounds of discussion, we understood the criteria on which we were judged.” Investors took note of the potentiality of GrabOnRent in the said sector, their team work and mutual trust and how well they had sorted out their business models. “I believe that having these criteria sorted out not just by words but also through our actions, made it fair for the investors to believe in us.” GrabOnRent has raised seed funding from IvyCap Ventures and Unicorn India Ventures in June 2016. Starting Out As the founders sketched out their plan they also mused over market driven factors on target segments, on the need for fully functional products, the category of products; whether to start off with an ‘app only’ or ‘app-website model’, etc. They then decided to execute their basic idea with products in two preliminary categories across one housing society with around 1100+ apartments. They started off by distributing pamphlets and did manage to grab a few orders in first week itself. Thereon, “The flow of orders coupled with feedback from customers and with guidance from industry leaders in var-
ious fields, we chalked out our long term plans.” Pacing up on their groundwork, they had their website in place within less than a week of starting out. “Today, we have a very robust product in the form of a website and mobile application which supports all traffic. Keeping compliance of government rules, we obtained a proprietorship licence which we later shifted to a private limited label.” Once the idea was on course, the next step was to define their target segments. The online rental platform took note of the floating and migrating professional and working populace who are often unsure of their tenure or stay in a specific city. They tagged home appliances and furniture to cater to this segment. “Likewise, the team also serves the aspiring segment that finds it difficult to afford a product but who crave the good life through luxurious products such as Mercedes A Class or a Harley Davidson; hence the rental path was seen as an option for this lot. Then there are individuals who wish to try a product before the big spend such as game stations like Xbox or Ps3 to decide what suits them better. GrabOnRent also considers individuals with one-off short term usage for the product such as adventure gear for a hiking trip...” Strategic Growth “We have built a strong back end solution that helps us automate a lot of processes with minimal human intervention. This in-turn helps us scale up rapidly without keeping the business human intensive. Understanding that marketplaces need to have sticky factors, we have built them into our systems to enable repeat transactions from customer’s end and more confidence amongst our vendors”, said Jain. “For enabling the transaction and taking care of logistics, a certain percentage of total transaction amounts is charged as commission. This stands as our primary source of revenue,” he added. Jain explains that although there are a few worthy competitors in the rental hire market, he believes none of them follows an inventory light model like them. “We have ensured that 100% of the inventory rented out through our platform is based on pure market place dynamics. This helps us in two ways; there is zero spend on inventory and with no capital getting blocked, it would enable quick expansions into new cities.” The company is toying with the idea of other suitable sub-models based on product branding
46 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
and consumer usage. These include a subscription model for consumers whereby they will be offered a package wherein they can rent a specific product multiple times during a given period. In this, it would be possible to rent a BBQ set five times in three months for one day each. They are also looking at brand tie-ups with concepts such as ‘Try before you buy’. Another idea is to provide bundling of add-on products. “We plan to add items along with rental products that would come handy such as for an adventure trip; one would require sanitizers, toilet papers and mosquito repellent. These could be bundled and given as a package via partner networks (via hyper local grocery start-ups).” Festive Tuning and Happy New Year With each festive season, the urge to shop becomes is most prevalent. “New clothes, new furniture, new electronics, sweets and gifts make an average Indian family of four to spend anything between `15,000 to `25,000 during the festive season. This is where renting renders extremely useful. A short time need of products such as LED Lights, sound systems, sofa sets, decoration units and others can be met by simply renting them for a short duration at just a fraction of the cost. The price for renting the above varies between 10% - 12% of the total cost of products
that one would otherwise purchase. GrabOnRent aims at assisting individuals and families in keeping a smart check on their spending behaviour on products that may serve a purpose for a limited period. Our October launch packed in all the festive requirements, including furniture, electronics and decoration (lights and sound systems). We believe that with more awareness and importantly a 'trust' upon the service, many families and individuals would tend towards limiting their expenditure by opting to rent.” Hosting a trendy House Party is yet another cool trend among the working population of Bengaluru. While pubs are fascinating, it might not be everyone’s idea of a fun place with family and friends. “GrabOnRent is aiming to offer New Year Eve 2016 parties rental accessories for making every in-house party a fun bash. For those that appreciate tending to the bar, rentals are also available for drinking helmet and beer pongs that highlight any celebration; along with funky props - wigs, goggles and disco light et.al.” “You can just rent party equipments and get rid of the same the very next day. No mess, only fun. Also, for adventure lovers looking forward to a long weekend getaway, we offer sleeping bags, tents and rucksacks on rent too.” GrabOnRent gets you off the overly crowded pubs and discotheques; while allowing you to celebrate in the warm company of your dear ones.”
We have built a strong back end solution that helps us automate a lot of processes with minimal human intervention. This in-turn helps us scale up rapidly without keeping the business human intensive. Understanding that marketplaces need to have sticky factors, we have built them into our systems to enable repeat transactions from customer’s end and more confidence amongst our vendors... For enabling the transaction and taking care of logistics, a certain percentage of total transaction amount is charged as commission. This stands as our primary source of revenue Shubham Jain,
Co-founder and CEO, GrabOnRent Internet Pvt Ltd
Market Share and More Being a fairly new segment, the product rental space is taking baby steps across the world. Successful global business models are more skewed towards house and cars rental segments. Also, there exists a ‘used goods’ market in India that stands at $19.5 Billion (2015) and growing at a rate of 22% YoY (year on year). In a similar way, the product rental market in the US stands at $38.5 billion (2015), growing at a rate of 14% YoY and sets the upward pace for the rental retail market in India too. “We are at the beginning of making the masses aware of the profitability in renting products. Not just it saves your monthly expenditure, but relieves you off carrying a lot of asset every time one relocates.” The company is currently growing MoM (month on month) with a revenue growth of 45%. “We are aiming to acquire 4,000 new customers every month by March 2017. With this, expanding into newer markets becomes important and our expansion plans include setting services before March 2017 in cities like Pune, Hyderabad, NCR and Mumbai due to the higher migration rates there. We plan to create a business that makes sharing as easy as ordering online. This primarily involves driving people towards changing their ‘ownership’ behaviour from caring about ownership to thinking of accessibility to products as and when required,” said Jain. sangeetagd2010@gmail.com January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 47
Star Campus Placement
Excellent clarity, Excellent placement!
Soumyadeep Chakraborty comes across as someone who knows what he wants and better still, what he does not. Working by the same principle helped him fetch a placement that has everything he was aiming for, a good company culture and an ideal growth rate coupled with numerous opportunities for the newbies. He is placed with Edelweiss Tokyo Life Insurance, a name to reckon with in the industry, in a position that only a few can imagine in an organisation as big as this one. If you’re wondering about the package, well, it is naturally colossal... By Namrata Gulati Sapra
The best fit
Soumyadeep Chakraborty brims with confidence, and why not? He had everything going for him even before he joined premium B-school Indian Institute of Management, Indore-a work experience of three years in the field of digital marketing and a determination of steel about the kind of job he wanted, or to put it more precisely, the kind of job he did not want. “I had already been majorly exposed to the world of e-commerce which made it easier for me to decide the things I was not looking for in my placement.” And his clarity of thought did reward him generously as he grabbed a placement with Edelweiss Tokyo Life Insurance as a Management Associate, which he feels is “the best fit” for him. The excitement in his voice is hard to miss as he explains why, “Edelweiss is a very big and reputed organisation. The seven months I have spent here have been extremely enriching. I have been put into major products as the organisation does not differentiate between a new joinee, or an experi-
enced employee. It just lets you do what you do best. It is overwhelming!”
Extra advantage
“My interest lay in a role around marketing, sales, general management or consulting, basically one that was non-financial. As far as the preparation was concerned, I knew I had to stand out from the crowd as everyone enjoyed the tag of the prestigious B-school and not just me. Participating vigorously in extracurricular activities helped me bring something extraordinary to the table. I also brushed up on my leadership skills by analysing case studies with precision. Besides, I made sure that I justified the skills mentioned on my CV. I would say participation in ECA reflected well on my CV and so did my work experience!” Soumyadeep did not show any hesitation when it came to initiative-taking, “I started off an event that also involved sponsorship. That taught me how to handle stress. No wonder, I handled
48 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
stress well during my placement interview! But in the run-up to the day of interview, I had been focused on fine-tuning my communication skills too. After all, communications skills set apart the excellent from normal. What’s more, I was wellversed with the company background from day one. All of these points in conjunction gave me an advantage over all my peers.” “At the same time, I had begun planning my career even before I joined IIM. I worked with Teach for India as a Fellow. It provided me a great platform, wherein I met a number of people and some amazing mentors. Teach for India is a splendid learning ground, I would say.” Soumyadeep continues, “In a B-School, you have no idea where you will finally land as there are so many companies coming through and each one has its own set of recruitment standards. But frankly, I never really had any apprehensions as I knew I had what it takes to get into the companies to my liking and having industry experience helped me believe in my-
Soumyadeep with his proud parents after the convocation function
Soumyadeep receiving his degree
Participating vigorously in extracurricular activities helped me bring something extraordinary to the table. I also brushed up on my leadership skills by analysing case studies with precision self. Competition never gave me stress, instead it only fuelled my confidence.” He goes on to offer a different perspective on competition, “I had spent two years with my peers already and was well-aware of their strengths and weaknesses. But for a good placement, I invested in my strength and not their weaknesses.”
Smooth landing
Soumyadeep tells us about his placement, “It involved multiple rounds. In the interview, they asked me about my prior experience and ECA and they would prove to be relevant to the organisation. Questions surrounding my strengths and weaknesses were also asked. They also tested my general quantitative skills and checked if I was comfortable with numbers. All the rounds were quite long. I was very honest throughout my interview as I am of the belief that diplomacy backfires.” “Mock interviews with friends and trainers were a big help on the final day. Like most
Soumyadeep with his friends
B-schools, IIM also assigns a mentor to its students who check their preparedness. I also relied on the internet and on websites such as Quora. I have to thank for college and the director for being extremely helpful and lending their support anytime I required it.”
The four to up your placement score (four)
Jitter about the placement season? Worry not! Soumyadeep offers four invaluable tips that will sail your boat... Always have clarity about what you want to do, otherwise you may end up hating your job. A job that you love will take you places and make you into the person you want to be. Do not think much about the package offered as it will only change for the better over the years. What matters at the end of the day is your growth rate in the organisation you work with. Do a thorough research of the organisation before your placement interview. Study the
non financial aspects too-such as its culture, company growth. These aspects will take you forward as a professional. Build on your CV. It is important. namratagulati8@gmail.com
CC
tadka
India’s LED revolution Not long ago, India was seen as a country having very poor renewable energy credentials. No longer so! If India’s Power Minister, Piyush Goyal, is to be believed, India is today leading the world in terms of carrying out the most ambitious renewable energy expansion program in the world. “Our share of LED lighting has recently moved from 0.2% to 16% and that’s world record.”
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 49
Loved & Married too It is not often these days that a college romance fructifies into a wedlock. Corporate Citizen unlocks the story of love that has culminated into marriage, for we believe in the stability of a relationship and family unit. We bring to you real-life romances got sealed in marriage
The
freedom
of togetherness Ashwini and Kedar Deodhar are partners in both life and at work. First generation entrepreneurs helming software solutions firm Zestorm Technologies, their mutual camaraderie is the result of shared dreams and values. Not to mention a firm belief in respecting each other’s space
A
By Kalyani Sardesai s individuals, they couldn’t be more different. He’s outgoing, extroverted and social. She’s reserved, takes her time opening up, and doesn’t talk a lot. Yet they work as a couple. Sixteen years and counting, the Deodhars are testimony to the strength of a shared dream—as well as the importance of giving each other due space to enjoy their own individual pursuits, and nurture their friendships.
Back to the beginning
Their journey together dates back to 2000 when Ashwini, a first MCM post-graduate, joined Kedar’s start-up Zestorm Technologies as his second employee. First impression of her? “I was struck by her honesty; she was very clear and open about what she knew and what she did not. The attitude was refreshing,” Kedar remembers. The job portfolios were clear-cut; she was a hardcore technical developer, whereas he had to lead the young company. They got along pretty well—and a warm friendship blossomed. “Jobs in the field of IT tend to be like that. You spend long hours 50 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
The mantras of a marriage Communication Space Respecting the myriad relationships in your spouse’s life Understanding that families are forever
at work—and are thrown together a lot,” smiles Ashwini. Despite the differences, the both had a lot in common: a similar cultural background, exposure to the joint family system, not to mention a shared understanding of developments in the fast growing world of computers. Enough to envisage a future together, right? “Actually, it wasn’t quite like that,” Ashwini. “Coming from a fairly traditional setup my parents were on the lookout for a suitable marital alliance for me. At 23, my mom was very concerned about when I would settle down, and lined up different prospective suitors,” she says. “For one such meeting I was slated to travel to Mumbai. Kedar being both my friend and boss, I told him the reason for the trip.” To which his response was a cryptic, ‘’Meet me at the neighbourhood ice cream shop after work.’’ So when they did meet he asked her straightaway why she was taking the trouble to go all the way, and putting herself through the process. “I asked him jokingly
if he was prepared to marry me instead—and he said yes,” shares Ashwini. A short while later, they were duly wed.
Those early bonds
The pillars of a relationship
The Deodhars have kept their equation peaceful and resilient by giving each other due space. “While we work together, we have always handled different projects and portfolios,” says Kedar. While he is the Managing Director, and she the Director, her roles and timings are vastly different—especially since the birth of their second son. “My client handling has reduced a lot; I mostly deal with marketing support in proposals writing and so on,” she says. But given that their boys are now fairly grown up—Advay (12) and Aarush (7), Ashwini is venturing into new territory with ample support from Kedar. “My side of the family owns a space at the foothills of Sinhagad, which we have developed as The Mango Lounge—a place to hold events,” she says. “It’s early days yet, but I would like her to go full throttle at it—and take the venture a few notches higher. Times and lifestyles have changed; once the kids grow up, the empty nest syndrome tends to set in. I don’t want that to be the case with her; she has tremendous potential,” says Kedar. Parenting is an integral area of teamwork for a couple. Here, too, the roles are clearly set. “While she is the primary care-giver and the strict one especially when it comes to observing rules about bed-time and studies, I am the one who takes them out for swimming, trekking and outdoorsy activities. Building a friendly and loving relationship with the kids is crucial. In India, we tend to have support systems in the form of family and domestic help-people who can look after your kids for a few hours and more. Thus, it becomes all the more vital to make it a
Both Kedar and Ashwini believe in laying the ground work for closer family relationships. “His parents used to stay in Nashik then. Each fortnight we would make the journey from Pune just to spend a day with them. It was hectic, but a lot of fun. It also helped me understand his family better,” says Ashwini. And she is glad they took the trouble. “My in laws have emerged an invaluable support system for me post the birth of both our children,’’ she says. Foodies both, they enjoy inviting friends and families over. “We love doing that a lot. Friendships play a huge role in a person’s life, and fill a space beyond family and work. Having lived and worked in Bengaluru in the earliest days of my career, I do understand the importance of friends forming your support system and help you grow as a person,” says Kedar. Most unlike the average Indian husband, he has encouraged his spouse to have her own circle of friends. “This is especially important in a woman’s life as we have several complex roles to play, managing and running different zones,” says Ashwini. “For instance, despite having a young baby less than a year old, he pushed me to attend the Women Entrepreneurs Program run by Goldman Sachs. I was quite annoyed, given that it was time consuming and required me to travel during its latter half. But in retrospect, it was the best thing to happen to me. I made friends beyond those I already had from school and college; unlike the former, they belong to assorted backgrounds and age-groups but mingling with different people is what makes us grow as people.”
“Of course, communication is the foundation of every aspect of your life. Given the frenetic pace of our lives today, it is important to take out a few moments and communicate with one’s spouse. And the advent of tools like WhatasApp and a myriad other chats have made it easier to do just that—so why not use them to the optimum?” -Ashwini
point to spend time with the children, and do little things together. Instead of just lecturing kids to avoid screen time, take them in open air activities is my mantra. My kids have done quite a few treks including camping out ones to forts near Pune since childhood” Amidst all this, the couple make it a point to carve out few moments together by making short trips to coffee shops and ice cream parlours, late nights—just the two of them. “Of course, communication is the foundation of every aspect of your life. Given the frenetic pace of our lives today, it is important to take out a few moments and communicate with the spouse. And the advent of tools like WhatasApp and a myriad other chats have made it easier—so why not use them to the optimum?” she says. Both are appreciative of each other too. While he admires her for the maturity with which she handles relationships and keeps family bonds alive, she loves his untiring zest for life and the ability to enjoy all that he loves to do—cycling, running, swimming, triathlons and of course trekking, having done more than a hundred treks, despite his demanding schedules. How do they get over differences? “Either you celebrate them, or you accept them, without making an issue of them. One must keep the relationship above everything; don’t let negativities linger” says Kedar. After all, differences do make life more interesting—and the sharing that much more valuable! kalyanisardesai@gmail.com
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Tax nightmare India is one of the worst places for paying taxes and has been ranked 156th out of 189 nations by the World Bank. According to World Bank's latest 'Doing Business Report', the total tax rate in the country can be as high as 61.7 per cent, there are as many as 33 payments under the head of profit, labour and other taxes, and the time taken to comply with taxation requirements could be as much as 243 hours.
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 51
Future Trends 2030 Survey
How the global urban landscape will look in 2030 The world is growing at an exponential pace, in population and income alike. At the rapidity at which the world is changing, what would the scenario be like in 2030? This is exactly the question Oxford Economics, a branch of the reputed Oxford University, attempts to answer through their Future Trends 2030 survey, via a careful scrutiny of projected population growth rates and GDP projections. Corporate Citizen presents the results By Neeraj Varty
52 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
he world is witnessing large scale migration on a scale never seen before. The world’s largest 750 cities will soon be home to over 35% of the world’s population. By 2030, 30% of all the jobs in the world will be found in these cities. Over $40 trillion will be spend by consumers in these cities, which would account for over 55$ of the total consumer spending in the world. With so much concentration of population in these global cities, swathes of new real estate will be needed. By 2030, 26 cr new homes will be needed to support the burgeoning population. New city centres will arise, and old ones will lose their prominence. Cities like Jakarta and Lagos will see tremendous increase in their populations, and the populations in Indian cities will also rise considerably. On the positive side, due to an abundance of labour, the GDP of these cities is also set to rise. Cities such as Lagos, Shanghai, Delhi and Mumbai will see significant rise in their GDPs by 2030. Another noticeable trend that can be seen from the survey
is that there will be an eastward shift in urban economic power, from the current cities in North America and Europe, to Asian cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen. India, too, will benefit from this trend, although not on the same scale as China. When it comes to GDP, the rate of progress is good, but it still falls short of the New York’s GDP, which is widely considered the gold standard. For example, at the projected rate of increase in GDP, Beijing will take 24 years to catch up to New York, while Delhi will take 50. Lagos would take 150 years to be where New York is at now. There will also be a significant increase in high income households by 2030. Cities like New York, Tokyo and London will see the most increase in high income households, while Indian cities of Mumbai, Bangaluru and Delhi will see a considerable increase of middle income households. Chinese cities will see the biggest increase in high income households as compared to any other country. Lets now consider each of these points in detail.
Change in urban landscape across the 750 between today and 2030 150 million
410 million
extra elderly aged 65+
more people living in the 750 cities
240 million more jobs
$37 trillion increase in GDP
60 million
220 million more middle-income households
extra jobs in industry
$1.7 trillion
$18 trillion
extra spending on cars and eating out
increase in consumer spending
540 million m2
extra office space required
260 million
new homes needed
41 crore more people will start living in the top 750 cities in the world. Consumer spending will increase by $18 trillion. Demand for office space will increase by 540 million meter square by 2030. Urban infrastructure will have to expand considerably to support the rapid influx of population in the next decade and a half. January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 53
Future Trends 2030 Survey
Output of global cities by 2030 2.8 billion population,
US$80 trillion GDP,
1.1 billion jobs,
30%
35%
60%
world total
world total
200 million high-income households,
60%
world total
world total
US$40 trillion consumer spending,
55%
world total
By 2030, 2.8 Billion, or 35% of the world’s total population will be living in cities by 750. Over 1.1 billion jobs will be available in cities, and 55% of the world’s total spending will be in 750 cities in the world.
Shift eastward in urban economic power
GDP change 2013–2030 (US$ billions 2012 prices and exchange rates)
0 200 400 600 ≥800 GDP % growth 2013–2030 (US$ 2012 prices and exchange rates)
0%
450%
Chinese cities like Chengdu, Hangzhou and Wuhan will become as prominent in 2030, in economic terms, as cities like Dallas and Seoul are today. Indian cities like Bangaluru and Mumbai will also grow in global prominence.
54 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
Rise of multiple urban centers in China Europe
2013 2030
North America
China
Latin America & Caribbean
Rest of Asia
Africa
Oceania
Chinese cities will be at the heart of a radical shift in the urban centre of economic gravity by 2030 . Eight European cities will drop out of the global top 50 cities by GDP by 2030, while nine new Chinese cities will join that group, taking the Chinese total to 17. This total of 17 Chinese cites in world’s top 50 in 2030 is more than North America and four times more than Europe. China’s lesser-known mega cities such as Chengdu, Hangzhou and Wuhan will become as prominent in 2030, in economic terms, as Dallas and Seoul are today. Driven by burgeoning urban populations and rapid labour productivity growth, this handful of huge Chinese cities is just the tip of the iceberg. The aggregate GDP of China’s largest 150 cities will overtake Europe’s 139 largest cities as early as 2015, and North America’s largest 58 cities in 2022.
The long road to catch up for emerging and developing cities Selected global 750 cities: Catch up with New York New York
New York GDP (2013)
Moscow
New York GDP per capita (2013)
Istanbul Bejing São Paulo Jakarta Delhi Lagos
0
50
100
150
200
Years to catch up assuming baseline growth
GDP per capita in emerging and developing cities will trail developed cities for many years to come. Consequently, gaps in living standards and wages— even in the fastest-growing emerging markets—will take decades to close. For example, it will take citizens of Beijing some 24 more years, at projected growth rates, to achieve GDP per capita levels comparable to those of New York today. For Delhi that road to catch-up will take over 50 years, while Lagosians in Nigeria are some 150 years behind.
China will leap ahead in its number of high-income consumers Region global 750 urban aggregate: High-income households 2013 Africa
2013–2030 change
Oceania China Latin America & Caribbean Europe Rest of Asia North Anerica
0
10
20
30
Millions
40
50
60
Perhaps the most striking consumer trend to emerge from the Global Cities 2030 study is the way in which the number of high-income Chinese consumers is set to leap ahead over the next two decades. Starting from a comparatively low base today, China will boast some 45 million urban households in 2030 with annual incomes in excess of $70,0003, putting it well ahead of Europe and hot on the heels of North America. Shanghai will jump from a rank of 69th today to 8th for its number of high-income households in 2030. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 55
Health
Health matters the most Prasoon Shrivastava, Founder & CEO, Helpmebuild says that fitness is a passion and a confidence builder. Here’s how…
P
By Sharmila Chand Prasoon Shrivastava, Helpmebuild's Founder and CEO is a vetted architect, project execution specialist and entrepreneur. He is also a partner at Arkiplan International and has worked extensively in green buildings and sustainable design on several projects across India, Middle East, East Africa & the Caribbean. He has pursued sustainability in various forms. In 2007, he learned to make structures with earth (soil) and the sample project executed was presented in MIT Boston, USA. He became a LEED AP from US Green Building Council in 2008 and subsequently was part of India's green rating system viz. GRIHA. During the initial years of his career, he focused mainly on projects located in central India during which he was involved in the design of many residential, commercial and institutional projects. Over the years of working on various scale of projects, he found out that the industry needs a new perspective towards design and execution. Innovation through technology would aid in advancements within this field. This sprouted the idea of Helpmebuild in 2014. Shrivastava has since been working very closely with technology experts in India and USA to improve the way people design and execute the spaces around them. As a firm believer of "we learn until we die", Prasoon always ensured that professional learning is an integral part of the progressive entrepreneur. His achievements in life don't just end with successful business ventures but also include an active passion for fitness and body building that reflects in his physique. His hectic schedule at work doesn't deter him from focusing on his body but instead help him keep a stronger will for a better body. Extensive work out routines 56 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
The hard work and consiste and motivates me to push coupled with intense meetings at office define the day for Prasoon.
Your philosophy on Fitness?
I believe that fitness is a passion and confidence builder. Expressing passion for fitness is a great way to feel lively and engaged in the world. I challenge myself every day with my goals and workout. I don't approach fitness as a means to look good but, for me it’s a healthier alternative to life. I have set for myself clear goals and work-out regime and above all, I keep it enjoyable. Fitness enables us to do a lot; it teaches us how to stay mentally and physically strong. Not just that, it also trains us to set goals, celebrate victories and never give up.
Your idea/mantra about keeping fit?
My fitness mantra is "health matters most." I am a fitness freak and have shaped my body
ncy put in by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in his body greatly inspires me myself a little harder to achieve my goals, whether at work or in the gym through proper workout routine. I believe that the foundation for a strong and fit body is a healthy diet and following a disciplined routine to keep myself active and focused. For me, the good effects of exercise are shown by doing the right kind of work-outs. The core secret to champion the fitness of your body is developing healthy habits in and out of the gym. Small alternatives and changes can make a big difference. I prefer climbing up the staircase instead of using a lift; my workout regimen also focuses on the fitness of the body instead of developing a muscular one. I do not believe in taking food supplements and steroids to build up my muscles. My fitness secret is to get up early in the morning and mix fitness regimes to avoid repetitive exercises.
What keeps you fit and healthy?
My workout regime of two hours every day in-
cludes weight training and functional training along with strict control over food and of course no alcohol keeps me fit and healthy. I believe that by staying fit and making healthy choices, we give ourselves the best chance and opportunity to live a healthy and happy life.
Your stress busters?
Intense functional and cardio workouts are my stress busters. We all have, at least once in our lifetime, heard or read that `a healthy body inspires a healthy mind', and I couldn't agree more. Exercising gives you a fresh boost of energy and positivity that is of great help during the course of the day.
Your Food Philosophy?
I am a firm believer in the fact that consistency is more important than perfection and that is what my daily diet is made up of. I make it a
point to eat a minimum of six meals per day with necessary protein content. Cutting down on carbs is an important aspect of staying fit, so, I try to avoid them as much as I can and consume only complex carbs, that too in the first half of the day. I also keep the intake of milk and milk products under check throughout the day. Exercising control over my diet has proven to be crucial for my body and has also taught me great self-restraint.
Your Healthy Dose as Parting Shots?
I believe that physical well-being is an important and essential part of mental and psychological well-being. And as Dwayne Johnson correctly points out, “The road to success and greatness is always paved with consistent hard work. Outwork your competitors, be authentic and above all else, chase your greatness.” chand.sharmila@gmail.com
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 57
Pearls of Wisdom
By Dada J.P. Vaswani
Our Birth is
A Priceless Gift Life is not meant to be a joke! We must be as conscious, as sensitive, as particular about our time, as we are with our money. We must use time creatively and never forget that every moment is just the right time to do a right thing
T
his great gift of the human birth is bestowed on all of us—billions after billions of human beings—down the ages, but how many of us have realised its value? There is one question which we face in life repeatedly: How can we get out of this futile quest, this endless cycle of pursuing material pleasures and make our lives meaningful? We need to introspect on our life, whenever we find ourselves drowning in mundane routines. We need to ask ourselves, “Why did God create me?”, or “Why am I here?”, or “What is the purpose of my life?” I don’t think a flippant answer to these questions will satisfy you. As Socrates put it with such clarity and certainty, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and, indeed, thousands upon thousands of ordinary men and women have reflected upon these and other related questions such as, “What is the meaning of this existence?”, “What is life all about?”, and “Where is this life leading me?” Our scriptures tell us that there are thousands upon thousands of beings, including devas, demigods, insects, worms, flies, beasts and birds that God has created in this vast universe, one speck of which is this planet that we human beings call our home. There are in all, 8.4 billion life forms
that a soul may enter at the end of any life cycle. In other words, each one of us has an approximate 0.00001% chance of receiving a human form again in our next lifetime! Of all these creatures, it is only humans who are given the opportunity for liberation from the circle of birth, death and rebirth. It is believed that one is born as a human being only when one has performed good karma in overwhelming measure in one’s previous birth—in other words, one must have a credit balance of good karma to be blessed with this human birth. This is why our saints and sages emphasise the inestimable and invaluable attainment that is human life. “You have been blessed with a human birth, which is difficult to attain,” Adi Shankara tells us. “Don’t waste the precious moments
58 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
of your life in pursuit of sensual pleasures.” Tulsidas too emphasises the same truth: “This human body is the gateway leading to liberation. Having attained it, you must strive to take care of your spiritual progress.” The question is: are we doing justice to this priceless gift that God has bestowed on us? Friends, with each breath, a precious moment passes by; we have spent one of our precious moments away; what have we done with that golden moment which will never ever be ours again? Time is passing by! None of us can ever be sure how long we will be here in this human form. It may be that many years are left to us; or it may be that our days on earth are numbered. Whatever the time left with us, we have to make the most of it, put it to the best possible use. And this is
“With each breath, a precious moment passes by; we have spent one of our precious moments away; what have we done with that golden moment which will never ever be ours again”
certainly not to eat, drink and be merry, but to devote it to the Lord. Let us ensure that our higher-self manifests itself in this human birth. Let our eternal bond with the Divine be strengthened here, during this lifetime. Become aware of the value of the human birth. It has been bestowed on each one of us for a specific purpose—that we may realise what we are, whence we came, and whither are we to return. The river of time flows on. The hours quickly change into days, the days into months and the months into years. Suddenly, one day, the bell tolls for us and the call goes forth: “Vacate the house (of the body)!” The body drops down and man realises, too late, that he has lost the golden opportunity of the human birth, thrown away his precious life without ever really coming to
terms with its true nature and purpose. “If life was meant to be a joke, I’m sorry, I haven’t got it,” exclaimed a great comedian. He did not realise this—that life is not meant to be a joke! We must be as conscious, as sensitive, as particular about our time, as we are with our money. We must use time creatively and never forget that every moment is just the right time to do a right thing. If we wait for more opportune moments, we may have to wait till eternity. Take care of your moments, I say to my friends, and the years will take care of themselves. Life is precious. Let me make the most of it. Let me not go back from this ocean of grace without tasting its sweet waters. Let me not go back exhausted. But let me drink the Divine Nectar and be blessed with bliss and peace!
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Delhi overtakes Mumbai as India’s economic capital
Delhi overtakes Mumbai to become the country’s top metropolitan economy in 2015, according to the data released by Oxford Economics, a leading independent global advisory firm. Delhi ranked 30th in Oxford Economics’ study of the top 50 metropolitan entities globally for the year 2015, whereas the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, ranked 31st.
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 59
Bollywood Biz
The best movies base Entrepreneurship is fraught with several challenges, yet it remains one of the most desired career choices for people around the world. Although extremely risky, for those who succeed, entrepreneurship can be a gateway to not just incredible success, but even an instrument to change the world. This edition, Corporate Citizen brings you the best movies on entrepreneurs to motivate you to take the plunge By Neeraj Varty
Steve Jobs (2015) Starring : Michael Fassbender Box Office Collection : $34 Million Steve Jobs paints the story of perhaps the most charismatic and enigmatic man in corporate history. Steve Jobs single handedly took Apple form near bankruptcy in the 1990s to becoming the most profitable company in the world in less than 15 years. The movie tries to portray the man behind the legend, from his early days as a young student who started Apple in his garage all the way to his ascendancy to the position of the world’s most admired tech genius.
Pursuit of Happyness (2006) Starring : Will Smith, Jaden Smith Box Office Collection : $307 Million Will Smith stars in the true story of Christopher Gardner, who goes from homelessness to opening his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm. This movie not only portrays Gardner’s momentous journey from penury to success, it is also a very touching tale of a father and his son who support each other through the bad times and help each other become better versions of themselves. 60 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
d on Entrepreneurs
Guru (2007) Starring : Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Box Office Collection : `100 Cr Guru is a fictionalised version of India’s biggest rags to riches story, Dhirubhai Ambani. Guru traces the story of Gurukant Desai, a man who comes to Mumbai in 1958 and rises from its streets to become the country’s leading tycoon. Guru demonstrates how sheer perseverance can lead a person to overcome even the most daunting of odds.
The Social Network (2010) Staring : Jesse Eisenberg Box Office Collection : $224 Million It was no surprise that The Social Network was a blockbuster when it was released in 2010. After all, everyone wanted to see how Mark Zuckerberg transformed from a Harvard student to launching Facebook, the most popular social-media network in the world. The movie does a great job of showing Zuckerberg’s transformation from a shy, awkward geek to one of the most powerful CEO’s in the world. Also, the movie shares some really interesting anecdotes about how some of the most popular facebook features were conceived.
Coco before Chanel (2009) Starring : Audrey Toutou Box Office Collection : $50 Million Everyone, whether they belong to the fashion industry or not, have at least heard of Chanel. Today, the brand has become famous for its high end clothing line and luxurious perfumes. However, it’s creator, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, came from a far removed reality. She grew up in an orphanage and rose from a humble seamstress to become one of the most influential fashion designers of all time. The movie chronicles her rise from obscurity to opulence. It’s a great reminder to never let your beginnings define your ambitions. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 61
Money, Honey Corporate Opinion
you’re not my
There are so many adages and philosophical expressions when it comes to money. They say, `Money can’t buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy’; or `Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much’ or `The real measure of our wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money’ and so on. Corporate Citizen captures what money means to some corporate citizens and learn that they have a balanced take on it. Read on….
Money should be a medium
Equitable distribution of wealth I’ve always considered money as an essential enabler for life, to take care of the bare minimum needs and garner sufficient savings for self and family, to take care of the morrow and also provide an avenue to help the underprivileged, in some small ways that I can. In effect, I’ve never been motivated to accumulate wealth beyond my means and needs, which would border on avarice and materialism. Earning rightfully, with lots of hard work, focus, intensity and consistency, has always rendered total satisfaction. I’d go one step further in wishing and praying that there is more equitable distribution of wealth, for all around us which would help in professing and practicing core values of living, learning and leading life G Udayakumar, CEO, CORE MIND
Money’s multiplier effect
You can’t live with zero money but unlimited amount of money may also not be enough to sustain your lifestyle! Money to me is understanding this paradox and trying to make less money go a longer way. Money has a multiplier effect-for example, when I spend money at a shop to buy clothes, the shopkeeper in turn pays it to his vendor, his employees; then they spend it for their expenses and so on. I generally like to spend money where there will be a stronger multiplier effect than at places where it is likely to be hoarded or stashed away. Prajakta Shetye Deo, Director, Posiview Consulting Partners Pvt Ltd
62 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
For me money is the instrument that exhibits expression of wealth, prosperity and resources. In mythology it is known as Goddess Lakshmi, a mark of good fortune and also as `Riddhi’ a consort of Lord Ganesha signifying riches. It is a by-product and reserve through which I can chip in and serve the diverse facets of my existence. Money extensively supports my journey in achieving my goals, mission and vision towards substantially contributing to the society in a constructive manner. In hindsight it should always remain a medium not the purpose or motive of being. Sanjay Sharma, Director, Chatak HR Services Provider
Everything and at the same time nothing!
Money is everything and at the same time it is nothing! In some situations money becomes the key component in our lives while in other situations its importance is the least! Shivam Chopra, Project Engineer, Wipro
Means of fulfilling my requirements
To me, money is a means of fulfilling all my requirements. At the same time, I would like to add that these requirements are limitless. Smita Mathur, German Language Trainer, Accenture
Money is an invisible force
Money is a source that makes me feel empowered and also gives me the power to empower other people if channelised in the right way. Money is an invisible force; when acquired makes many dreams visible. As a woman it makes me feel very independent and confident to live my life my way. It is a big sense of security for my present and future. It makes dreams come true and gives happiness to my family and me. It enables me to put a smile on the face of the needy. It brings in a sense of accountability and responsibility towards my family. As they say money attracts more money, I also see money as a source of investment to bring a profitable future. At the end of the day your money is in your hands! Make good use of it. Kritika Khanna, Sales Engineer, VEGA TECHNIQUE
It has limited significance
Money is significant in today’s world since it is a medium of exchange. However, in my view it has limited significance such that it equips me to lead a respectable life in today’s material world. It becomes important when it helps me to help others in the community and society at large. The means of earning money are equally important. To me it means, upholding integrity at all times. Happiness cannot be equated or bought with money, hence it has limited significance Aparna Sharma, Independent director on the board of T S Alloys Ltd
Fulfilling experiences of life Money is not my priority
The definition of money has changed for me over the time. When I started my career, money seemed to be the priority, but now, family and peace of mind matter much more. If you work for money, you will be unhappy in the long run. Money is a necessary by-product of my hard work, but it isn't my priority. Rohit Joshi, Marketing Manager, EaSol Pvt. Ltd.
I consider money to be just a simple way of financial dealings. Money is a better way of transaction than the earlier method of barter system. Money is a means to take goods and services in an easy way. The true joy of money to me is to help my family run a good life and also help people around me lead a good life. With money, I would like to fill my life with experiences and not things; would like to have stories to tell and not stuff to show. Manoj Agarwal, Co-Founder, Giftxoxo and Frogo
A temporary high
Money I believe is a means to live, but not life itself. Money is a facilitator for buying and seeing things you want. It fulfils the wants and the indulgence—it’s like a chemical that gives you a temporary high. But whether it fill the vacuum will always be a million dollar question! Prakash Rohera, Director, The Redwood Edge
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 63
Mobile apps
Railrestro.com
Railrestro an e-catering company directly connects railway passengers with partner restaurants. Passengers can enjoy vegetarian, non-vegetarian, North Indian, South Indian, Gujarati and Chinese cuisines, Biryani, Pizza or fast foods from different cities. The service provides food at over 275 railway stations across India, and has tied up with over 1500 restaurants. Apart from paying using cards and Cash on Delivery (CoD), you can also pay using mobile wallets like Paytm and Freecharge.
Best food delivery apps for railway journeys Train journeys in India can be quite long, sometimes lasting over a couple of days. At such times, it may not be feasible to carry your own food, and you can easily get bored by the meals offered from the pantry, not to mention the hygiene risks of having food sold by hawkers on station platforms. Thankfully, these woes are now a thing of the past as long as you have a Smartphone. Just download these food delivery apps specially made for train journeys, and ensure scrumptious meals on your next train ride By Neeraj Varty
64 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
IRCTC Catering
This is the official app of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation. If you are a fan of the food made available by the Railways on your train journey, this app is for you. You can pre-book your meal for your train journey using the app, and it will send you the order details including estimated delivery time via SMS and email. The main advantage of using this app over others is that it offers auto cancellation of your order in case your train reservation is waitlisted/cancelled.
Travelkhana
TravelKhana is a train food order booking application, which delivers to over 300 railway locations across India. The app offers a wide variety of food especially suited for the Indian palate, which includes Veg, Non-Veg and Jain Thalis, Chinese and Punjabi combos, Sandwiches and South Indian snacks, etc. Once you download the app, all you need to do is enter the train number or name and station of departure or you can simply key in the PNR number of your ticket, and the app throws open menu options available for your route. You can choose to pay using debit or credit card, or choose cash on delivery. The app promises freshly made hot food delivered to you at the time of your choosing.
KhanaGaDi
KhanaGaDi is a train food delivery app, which offers all the services of the above mentioned apps, with one important addition. It also offers meals for specially made for diabetics. If you suffer from diabetes, then this app is a must have in case you aren’t carrying your own food. (The meals available on the app range from `100-300 per person. If individual food items are ordered they will be charged a la carte as per the restaurant prices. Complete menus are available on these apps.) neeraj.varty07@gmail.com
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64 / Corporate Citizen / December 1-15, 2016
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CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP
PROF. SUDHIR K SOPORY, VICE CHANCELLOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU) Volume 1, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
January 1-15, 2016 / `50
CORPORATE CULTURE
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity
INTERVIEW
An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power
Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR
UNFLINCHING SUPPORT
January 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 65
the last word
Ganesh Natarajan
The tale of the cashless ATMs
The vision of a truly digital India can be achieved slowly but surely if the right steps are taken to transform technology, processes and mindsets across the country. This may not happen at the pace that was needed for the demonetization move but should be pursued assiduously to take our country to a better place
T
he biggest beneficiary of the lacklustre implementation seen in the demonetisation movement over the past many weeks has been the WhatsApp humour brigade. We all have our favourites and mine must be the joke that said, “When India was asked to follow the ‘Cash Mukt Abhiyaan’, the only ones that took the directive seriously were the ATMs.” The long lines at banks and ATMS and the patience with which the nation saw the campaign through even in its roughest weeks is probably a testimony more to the faith that millions of our countrymen have in the Prime Minister and his intentions and certainly to our ability to make such dramatic campaigns work without considerable pain!
“In this matter, there is much to be learned from the experiences of large business corporations, who have embarked in a similar fashion on the digital journey”
While the critics may carp at the demonetisation move and the cynics will jump to point out the somewhat abrupt shift in narrative from black money reduction to cash free digital money exchange to a future tax rationalisation outcome, there can be no doubt that the vision of a truly digital India can be achieved slowly but surely if the right steps are taken to transform technology, processes and mindsets across the country. This may not happen at the pace that was needed for the demonetisation move but should be pursued assiduously to take our country to a better place. In this matter, there is much to be learned from the experiences of large business corporations, who have embarked in a similar fashion on a digital journey and are in various stages of making the transformation a reality. If one were to look at a global ‘best in class’ case, there is none better than China’s Ping An Financial Services company which aspires to be the global market leader by 2020. Ping An is on a path to becoming the first truly customer centric integrated digital financial services company in the world. The company’s vision for 2018 is to address over four million leads and prospects, create a loyal customer base of over twenty-five million and have a fourfold jump in transactions and revenues with 80 per cent of transactions being digital.
66 / Corporate Citizen / January 16-31, 2017
Ping An, or Citibank or visionary Indian corporations like HDFC and Bajaj Finserv pride themselves on their ability to effect large scale transformation by focusing on a well-planned and superbly orchestrated digital adoption movement which will necessarily be played out over two or three years in a thoughtful and systematic manner. This will call for investments in deep understanding of every customer segment, the ability to predict and plan customer journeys, provide ease of access and become the lowest cost and highest customer satisfaction digital corporation in their segment. Attention is paid to culture, talent management, business processes and technology with leadership completely involved at every stage of the transformation. How does one transplant this approach to a national canvas and enable significant steps for realisation of a financially inclusive and digitally savvy country in 2017? Institutions like Niti Aayog, Ministries of IT and Telecom and partners like NASSCOM and Internet and Mobile and e-Commerce and m-Commerce groups have worked hard in designing scalable models to provide the reach and ease of use. The Common Services Centres (CSCs) of the Ministry of IT are running well in over 1,00,000 locations and in city slums, NASSCOM Foundation has already partnered the National Digital Literacy Mission to deploy over a hundred Digital Literacy Centres (DLCs) and multiple municipal schools, corporation buses and volunteers in many IT cities. A massive volunteering
movement will help taking citizens towards being digital through a simple step by step understanding of digital access, e-Banking through Aadhar and Jan Dhan accounts and e-Payments through options like Oxigen, PayTM and Mobikwik. Pressing hundreds of call centres and telecom companies into the mission and conducting collaborative public awareness programs will also show every Indian citizen the road to a truly digital future! For many of us-individuals, companies and even the chambers of commerce-the fear, doubt and uncertainty at the end of the last year can open up doors of collaborative opportunity in the New Year. In Pune, where the role model partnership between the Municipal Corporation and Pune City Connect has seen municipal school transformation, DLCs and the world class skills lighthouses make an impact across many wards of the city. We have already started a “Digitise India” movement through our centres and individual volunteers and expect to impact over five lakh citizens by enabling them to participate in the financial and digital literacy adoption processes. Our belief has always been that it is easy to sit on the sidelines and criticise, but a few hours every week invested by people can make a difference to many fellow citizens. When the history of Indian is written and the digital success is spoken about, will you join us in saying, “I made it happen?” Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect & Social Venture Partners, Pune.
Printed and published by Suresh Chandra Padhy on behalf of Sri Balaji Society. Editor: Suresh Chandra Padhy. Published from : 925/5, Mujumdar Apt, F.C. Road, Pune - 411004, Maharashtra. Printed at Magna Graphics (I) Ltd., 101-C&D Govt. Industrial Estate, Hindustan Naka, Kandivali (W), Mumbai - 400067.