Revised issue 7 volume 2 by Corporate Citizen

Top Position

Union Power Minister, Piyush Goyal talks on vision of energy-efficient India Volume 2, Issue No. 7 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

NHRD CEO panel discussion

Leadership Imperative

June 1-15, 2016 / `50

Interview

Clifford Mohan Pai GPHR, Associate Vice President, HR, Infosys BPO Ltd

Dynamic Duo: 31 Jhean Carlos and Jenny Gautam

Wheel of love Loved and Married Too

Uttara and Deepak on love and commitment

CII - Western Region 2nd EdgeFarmHR Case Study Writing Competition 1st runner-up secondary category

2 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

ing M ow

l CASE STUDY: 25 tru m

Lost Opportunities

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Star actor and much-loved political figure, SS Rajendran (right) with Dr (Col.) A Balasubramanian , Editor-in-Chief, Corporate Citizen

illing the golden goose’ can be interpreted as short-sighted action that destroys the profitability of an asset. This case highlights this proverb to the hilt.

Read on... This is a story of the renowned Tamil actor and politician, S S Rajendran, popularly known by his screen name, SSR. He was a famed film actor, director, producer and politician who passed away in 2014, at the age of 86. On the silver screen, he was in the top-notch bracket along with MGR, Shivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan. SSR was noted for his charismatic personality and command over Tamil diction. In politics, he has the glorious distinction of being the first actor in India to become an MLA. His leader was the late CN Annadurai, stalwart founder of the then fledgling DMK party. He was more active than legendary MGR, in the party. SSR, however, also has the dubious distinction of having scuttled the passing of the Privy Purse Bill way back in 1969.The Motion to abolish Privy

Purses and the official recognition of the titles of princely states was brought before the Parliament in 1969 by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, but was defeated by one vote in the Rajya Sabha. This singular vote was not cast by SSR, though DMK was with Indira Gandhi and thus he was attributed to be the cause of the failure of passing of the Privy Purse Bill. Indira Gandhi, cornered by powerful senior leaders like K Kamaraj, Nijalingappa, Atulya Ghosh, Biju Patnaik and so on dissolved the Parliament and ordered a national election. SSR is said to have been offered money to oppose the Bill, which brought disrepute to his political image. Thereafter, his political career started to decline. The Bill, meanwhile, was re-introduced in 1971, and was successfully passed as the 26th

Amendment to the Constitution of India. This apart, SSR was the pillar of DMK’s political movement. He was a star campaigner during elections and generously donated money for the young political party which came to power within a short span of its existence. On the 51st birthday of CN Annadurai, the founder-leader of the DMK, SSR invited him for a feast and offered him 50 tolas of gold. An overwhelmed Annadurai invested this generous gift to buy a house for himself in Chennai. In 1967, SSR steered the fundraising campaign of DMK, as the target set by Anna for election fund collection was a whopping ₹10 lakh. At that time, Karunanidhi was the treasurer of the party. An iconic public figure, he is a great orator and a prolific writer, besides being a film scriptwriter, film

The world belongs to those who are in power. If you are out of power, you are out of sight, out of mind. As a fan of SSR, I intensely felt that someone should write his biography June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 3

Blowing my own trumpet Whenever I go to Chennai, I have the habit of going to a bookstall and buying all the magazines and newspapers. One of the magazines I bought was Devi. There, to my utter shock, I saw that the biography I had got written by Erukooran was being serialised. I was angry and shocked that the writer had played the Brutus producer and poet. However, it was the charismatic SSR who provided the glamour for the DMK. In those days, to attend their public lectures which had a lineup of top-notch leaders of the DMK, you had to buy tickets for entry, costing between one and five rupees. That is how the fund was collected by the DMK. As a school going boy, I used to attend all such meetings, held in various villages. Traditionally, Tamil films portray contemporary politics. SSR was under the scanner of the then ruling Congress government as he happened to show the flag of DMK in his film, Thangarathinam–(thanga means ‘gold’, rathinam means ‘pearl’). Thus, SSR was arrested many times. That was in the 1960s. SSR was perhaps the first ever film producer in world’s cinema history to use a political flag as logo. The legendary MGR too followed his footsteps and used DMK flag as the logo. Then, party flags were not acceptable to Censor Boards, which were rigid. SSR also showed DMK’s National Convention for a good half an hour as part of the movie. When he was at the peak of his career, he also held an anti-Hindi agitation in his house, by hoisting a black flag. The police threatened to shoot him. He, in turn, pulled out his pistol, aiming at them. He was instantly arrested. Despite toiling hard and giving his heart and soul for his party, Karunanidhi only ‘used’ SSR and never allowed him to grow. So, subsequently, when MGR left the party, SSR joined him, with the hope that he would be given better treatment. However, he could not shine there too and so he went into oblivion. He was a dedicated party worker but lacked leadership qualities. For his fans and followers, SSR became the proverbial case of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ He remained unsung. Being his most ardent fan, I always remembered him very warmly and used to watch his films, which I do even today. In the meantime, I carved a niche for myself in the society, with my educational entrepreneurship. I knew one Erukooran, a noted writer. He was the former assistant editor of a weekly called Muththaram. I used to write prolifically for this magazine. After retirement from the weekly, Erukooran began penning a series of biographies of prominent people in Tamil Nadu and publishing them in the form of books. Poverty was his best friend; suffering was 4 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

his main companion. Whenever I travelled to Chennai, I used to make it a point to meet him at his residence. His real name was IM Sultan and his pen name, Erukooran. I remember that his wife used to make very good biryani and I used to enjoy eating it. About two decades back, he showed his desire to pen my biography and publish it. I told him I was not interested as I didn’t have time for it, and besides, I didn’t consider myself to be such a big guy. But since he persisted, I told him he could come and stay with me in Pune. Whenever I could spare some time, we could have a dialogue. He took this invitation seriously and stayed with me for a few days. He was very sincere in his assignment and used to take down copious notes. He did extensive research on me by visiting my village and meeting my friends. Only one-fourth of his research was left to be completed, for which I was supposed to give him four to five days’ time. That did not happen. So, the matter rested there. In the meantime, I was staying in a hotel in Chennai and happened to see an old film on the TV in which SSR had acted. During those days, the other heroes, besides SSR who ruled the Tamil Nadu film industry were MGR, Shivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan. All except SSR had passed away and all of their biographies have been written and published. How about a biography on SSR, I thought? Since he did not possess any market value, no one bothered to pen one. Tragically, the world belongs to those who are in power. If you are out of power, you are out of sight, out of mind. As a fan of SSR, I intensely felt that someone should write his biography. So I called up Erukooran and asked him to meet me at the hotel. I told him, “Forget my biography; write the biogra-

When MGR left the party, SSR joined him, hoping he would be given better treatment. Here too he went into oblivion

phy of SSR. It is not just a story of a single individual called SSR but it will cover the political history of Tamil Nadu of the ’50s and ’60s.” Erukooran was initially reluctant. He asked, “Sir, who will buy this book?” So to push him to do this book, I gave him a proposal—I would pay him ₹25,000 per week, out of which he had to employ a typist or any other staff he would need. Once he completed the biography, I would pay him ₹1 lakh. His job was to meet SSR, record the interviews and write the biography quickly. I told him, I would get it published at my cost, and get the book released at the hands of the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi at the Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Film Artistes’ Association), which would be attended by superstar Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, and the like. Erukooran agreed. When he met SSR, the latter was delighted. He wanted to speak to me immediately. I could make out that he was overwhelmed with emotion. He asked me, “Friend, who are you? Why do you think of writing about me? I have always been used, misused and abused. Those who got a lot from me are running away from me.” I told him, “Sir, I am your fan. I know your credentials. You were in the limelight once, maybe you are nowhere now. There is nothing unusual about this phenomenon. What is important is your colossal contribution to Tamil Nadu through politics and through Tamil films, as producer, actor, director and what not.” So he agreed and Erukooran completed writing the biography within the scheduled time. During the course of his writing, I too visited SSR and asked a lot of critical questions. Due to his old age, he had become forgetful; hence it was necessary to provoke him to revive his memories. I signed a cheque for the final payment of ₹1 lakh. But I suggested to Erukooran that since SSR was alive and since this was a biography, why not ask him to initialise the pages, in order to make it more authentic. He agreed and handed over the manuscript to SSR. While SSR was going through the manuscript, which took several weeks, I kept visiting Chennai for work. Whenever I go to Chennai, I have the habit of going to a bookstall and buying all the magazines and newspapers. For, books and magazines have always been my thickest friends. Give me magazines and newspapers and I need nothing else. One of the magazines I bought was Devi. There, to my utter shock, I saw that the biography I had got written by Erukooran was being serialised under the heading ‘Nan Nadanthu Vantha Padhai”. I was angry and shocked that the writer had played the Brutus. I immediately went to the modest house of Erukooran and showed him the magazine and questioned him, “What is this?” I asked. “I am also surprised,” he replied, but I did not trust him.

SS Rajendran (left) with MGR

For the first time in a Tamil movie, SS Rajendran used the DMK flag as logo in the movie Nadodi Mannan

SSR was the pillar of DMK’s political movement. He was a star campaigner during elections and generously donated money for the young political party which came to power within a short span of its existence. On the 51st birthday of CN Annadurai, the founder-leader of the DMK, SSR invited him for a feast and offered him 50 tolas of gold. An overwhelmed Annadurai invested this generous gift to buy a house for himself in Chennai I had gone out of my way to ensure that Erukooran, who was in dire financial straits, would financially benefit from writing this biography and it would make his retirement life comfortable. For, besides paying him for writing the book, I had told him to keep the royalty money, which would have amounted to a good income, enough for a comfortable pension. The book would have been bought by all the libraries, besides good sales would be assured through bookshops, considering the personality on whom it was written. So in front of me, he made a call to SSR. SSR pleaded with him to get me to him for a dialogue. We went to his house. He extended all the courtesies and then started abusing his wife in front of me. This was his third wife and one of the reasons for SSR’s problems was marital conflicts. He said,

“It is this lady who has given away this script. I am extremely sorry for it. It was you who took the initiative. I don’t know how to show my face to you now.” I asked him to ask the respective publication to stop publishing the serialised content further. He said that withdrawing this would not be easy since the publication had put up big advertisements all over Tamil Nadu. And then he had the audacity to console me by saying that I need not worry as he had many more interesting things to tell about his life which could be included in the book. His two children also joined us. I told one of his sons, “Your father doesn’t know what he has lost. I wanted to recreate his glory by releasing the book at the hands of the chief minister at a big, star-studded function. Since he was the president of the South

Indian Film Artistes’ Association, all the stars would have made a beeline to the function. And had I met Chief Minister Karunanidhi even, he would not have rejected the request. With all the stars and the CM present, the media would have given maximum coverage and publicity to this biography of SSR. I was to get nothing out of it. I wanted the new generation to know about your illustrious father. Now that it is being serialised by a magazine, there is no point in having a release function. That’s it, thank you.” And I walked off. Now, time has flown by and SSR is no more. He passed away in 2014. On his first death anniversary, people from his community called me up and told me very enthusiastically that during this function, the biography of SSR under the title of Nan Nadanthu Vandha Pathai (On the footsteps of my past) was to be released. To this, I asked them if they knew the name of the author who had serialised the biography in the magazine, Devi. They said it had been written anonymously. I told them that I was happy that the biography was published, not wanting to rake up the ugliness that had gone into it, as I had already forgotten it as a bad joke. Whoever was the culprit in this game—perhaps SSR’s wife—was immaterial. The fact is, for both the actor and the writer, it had been akin to killing a golden goose. SSR lost out on an authentic and comprehensive book on him, for posterity. Erukooran lost out on his handsome pension which he would have earned from the sales of the book. In his last days, he suffered a financial crisis and I stretched myself once again to pay his hospital bill. Erukooran too is now no more. He died in penury. Recently, I got a call from his wife, seeking financial help. I have decided to meet her and present her the ₹1 lakh which I had promised to her. As for me, the ardent fan of SSR, the turn of events was so disheartening.

Dr (Col) A. Balasubramanian editor-in-chief June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Contents 32

Cover story

Dynamic Duo 31

Wheel of Love

Columbian ‘Wheel of Death’ artiste, Jhean Carlos and Nepalese ‘loose rope’ artiste Jenny Gautam speak candidly about their love affair, marriage and life in the circus, shorn off its glamour

COLLYWOOD

Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World

MANAGE MONEY

Dr Anil Lamba on Marginal costing principles and break-even analysis

WAX ELOQUENT

Who said what and why

nhrd pune chapter

Annual conclave “Towards 2020”, valuable discussion from CEO panel 6 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Volume 2 Issue No. 7 June 1-15, 2016 www.corporatecitizen.in

INTERVIEW

An in-depth interview with Clifford Mohan Pai, Associate Vice President, HR Business Leader & Head - Employee Relations, Infosys BPO Ltd

TOP POSITION

Piyush Goyal, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, Government of India, speaking on ‘India’s efforts in shaping the Global Solar Alliance’

CORPORATE HISTORY

Thought-provoking journey of Weikfield Industries, on the occasion of its 60th-yearanniversary

CLAPS & SLAPS

Our brickbats and bouquets for the fortnight

THE TAX MAN COMETH - 13

‘Round-tripping, the FDI way’ by S K Jha, IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax

CII CASE STUDY

CII – Western Region 2nd EdgeFarm - HR Case Study Writing Competition

SURVEY

Behaviour to bottom line analytics firm Jombay reaches out to India’s biggest start-ups to capture their organisation’s culture

STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT

Rasika Titarmare on her journey from the campus to corporate world

50 50

LOVED AND MARRIED TOO

Uttara Subramanian and Deepak Agarwal on how marriage is about keeping an open mind to the winds of change

54 June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 7

Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh

PEARLS OF WISDOM

To establish a link with God

Ways to beat jet lag side effects

Pune Bureau Dinesh Kulkarni / Suchismita Pai / Kalyani Sardesai

VP - Marketing & Sales M. Paul Anderson +919444405212

MOBILE APPS

Best free apps for healthcare solutions

FEATHERLITE

ASTRO Create your own prophecies rather than live predictions

THE LAST WORD

Circulation Officer Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560

Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar

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 / June 1-15, 2016

Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389

Creative Direction Kiyan Gupta, The Purple Stroke

Ganesh Natarajan, Founder, 5F World and Chairman of Global Talent Track, Pune City Connect and NASSCOM Foundation, on how â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Farewells are such a sweet sorrowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty

Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

HEALTH

Senior Business Writers Mahalakshmi Hariharan / Rajesh Rao

Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur / Sharmila Chand

Tweets on two years of Modi Government

Assistant Editor Joe Williams

On Cover Page Jenny and Jhean Cover Story Pic Yusuf Khan Photographers Yusuf Khan, Ahmed Shaikh 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 Ajeet Kandachar is Criteo’s new India MD

Melba Pria, the Mexican envoy shows the way

Mexican ambassador to India, Melba Pria, opened a new leaf in the embassy’s history, as she set off to the New Delhi office in a colourful auto-rickshaw complete with a blue diplomatic number plate, making it as the official vehicle of the Mexican ambassador to India. During a visit, the ambassador, dressed in a black skirt and a printed top, her shoulder-length hair pulled lightly back with a hair band, she looks like an empress at ease in her kingdom. She laughs when asked about her transit. “Yes, it is quite a celebrity now.” She said after she was posted to India, and decided on the new mode of transport in an auto-rickshaw, which evidently, her official vehicle. “It was a way to honour something that was so Indian,” said the ambassador adding that this three-wheel vehicle, has the lowest carbon footprint compared to other means of transport. “The air we breathe does not distinguish between class and race; it is the most democratic aspect of life in that sense,” said the diplomat whose main concern for air quality, she says, stems from her roots in Mexico and Mexico City’s appalling record with pollution. “ While, Mexico City has 286 good air days, Delhi has only 16, she says. “I share the same air and water as millions of Delhiites. While I am still Mexican, today, here and now, I must think as a resident of Delhi.”

Criteo, the performance marketing technology company, has appointed Ajeet Kandachar as Managing Director of India, to lead the business in one of its largest strategic growth markets globally. The company entered the India market in late 2014 and has been working with e-commerce companies such as AskmeBazaar, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, nearbuy and Urban Ladder. The new office and Kandachar’s appointment will enable Criteo to expand operations in the country and further grow its portfolio of local customers. “We are beginning to see strong growth in India and are happy to welcome Ajeet to the Criteo team. His breadth of experience across the technology industry will help us develop and execute a long-term plan for growth acceleration in India,” said Yuko Saito, Managing Director of Criteo Southeast Asia. Kandachar will be responsible for the strategic direction, operational execution and overall leadership of the India business. He will also focus on cultivating and strengthening relationships with advertisers and publishers. Kandachar joins Criteo from Vizury, an international Internet marketing company, where he was responsible for growing the business throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 9

collywood Highest teaching award in US goes to Rupa Iyer An Indian-American biotechnologist has received University of Houston’s highest teaching award for her sustained and significant contributions to education. Rupa Iyer , an Indian-American Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Houston’s College of Technology, has been presented the “Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award”. An Indian-American biotechnologist has received University of Houstons highest teaching award for her sustained and significant contributions to education. Rupa Iyer, an Indian-American Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Houstons College of Technology, has been presented the “Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award”. It is the highest award given in teaching and the only one given in this category by the varsity. “My journey from being an international graduate teaching assistant to having the privilege and honour to lead the biotech programme at UH has been extremely humbling and rewarding,” Iyer said.

PM Modi’s mother comes visiting at RCR Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted pictures of his mother Heeraben’s first visit to his Race Course Road residence in Delhi. “My mother returns to Gujarat. Spent quality time with her after a long time & that too on her 1st visit to RCR,” PM Modi said in social media posts, attaching three pictures of him and his 95-year-old mother. Heeraben lives in her ancestral home in Vadnagar, a small town in North Gujarat’s Mehsana district. It has been after two years in office, Modi has at last brought his mother to his official residence in the capital to show her around. PM Modi tweeted photos of himself pushing his wheelchair-bound mother through gardens, pointing out flowers and sharing a drink.

In the post that also appeared on Facebook, PM Modi said he had seen her “after a long time” adding that it was her first visit to 7 Race Course Road, the official residence of the prime minister of the world’s largest democracy. His post got more than 14,000 likes on Twitter, and 1.1 million reactions on Facebook. Modi brought himself close to tears last year when talking about his mother during a Q&A with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in California. “When we were small, what we used to do to get by,” Modi said, before a long pause, “we used to go to our neighbours’ houses nearby, we

used to clean the dishes, fill water.” With his voice breaking, the prime minister added, “So you can imagine what a mother had to do, what a mother had to do to raise her children, what she must have gone through. It is not what you become that a mother is going to want or wish for, it’s how you become that,” Modi said in front of hundreds of people that had gathered at the Facebook headquarters to see him speak. Narendra Modi@narendramodi My mother returns to Gujarat. Spent quality time with her after a long time & that too on her 1st visit to RCR.

AR Rahman to add music to Rio Games Ambassadors’ gang

Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman, accepted Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) invitation to be one of the goodwill ambassadors for the Indian contingent in the forthcoming Rio Olympics. Rahman would now join legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood actor Salman Khan and ace Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra to become the fourth goodwill ambassador. Jubilant with the offer, the musical maestro said that he felt honoured and pleased to be a goodwill ambassador of the

10 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Rio Games. Welcoming Rahman as the goodwill ambassador of Indian contingent, Rajeev Mehta,

Secretary General, IOA said, “I would like to welcome AR Rahman on board as a goodwill ambassador of Indian contingent for Rio Olympics. It’s our privilege to have the Oscar-winning living legend-music composer on board to spread awareness and promote the Olympic movement. As per our plan to reach out to maximum people in the country for Olympic Sports, we are happy that Rahman has come forward from the field of music to support our athletes.

Uday Kotak in the Forbes ‘Most Powerful’ list Kotak Mahindra Bank Chief Uday Kotak, who has a net worth of about US $ 7.1 billion, is the sole Indian in Forbes’ list of 40 of the most powerful people in the financial world who control the flow of trillions of dollars around the global economy. The 57-year-old Kotak is ranked 33rd in the Forbes, list of ‘Money Masters: The Most Powerful People In The Financial World’ topped by Blackstone Group’s CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who has a net worth of US $ 10.2 billion and oversees assets worth US $ 344 billion. It said the 40 financiers on the list dominate the world of money, from banking to buyouts, trading to takeovers. “The hedge fund managers, private equity moguls and lenders who control the flow of trillions of dollars around the global economy impact just about all of us one way or another,” Forbes added. With the Kotak Bank over-

Rohit Philip is the new CFO of IndiGo seeing US $ 34.6 billion in assets, Forbes said the Indian billionaire, who has a net worth of about US $ 7.1 billion, has made his fortune lending to the sprawling masses between Mumbai and Delhi and has also taken a stand on behalf of savers. “His bank is continuing to offer six percent on savings accounts, even as falling rates make it harder to do so. Kotak is gung-ho on his native country and believes investing in India is like a Bollywood movie—long, but with a happy ending,” it said. The list also includes JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on the third spot, Berkshire Hathaway head Warren Buffet (4), Goldman Sachs Chairman Lloyd Blankfein (9) and Soros Fund Management chief George Soros (10). The candidates on the list were, judged on net worth, assets under management or overseen, three-year track records and influence on markets.

Paytm rope in Ruchita Aggarwal, Priya Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform has announced the appointment of Ruchita Taneja Aggarwal as its lead of banking operations, whereas Priya Karnik will be working on products for bank. Both Ruchita and Priya were previously associated with Citi in leadership roles; while Ruchita was Director Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) and Singapore Head - Regional Product Sales, Priya’s last role with Citi was as a Director- Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) - Regional Implementation. Speaking on their appointments, Vice President Paytm, Amit Sinha said, “We at Paytm, are committed to keep enhancing our services and product portfolio by bringing more experience and talent into our team. We are confident that with them on board, we

will be able to drive greater growth and success for the organisation.” Later, Ruchita stated, “Paytm is one of the most renowned Indian companies today, and joining the team is a source of immense pride and delight for me. I will be looking forward to work with this extremely talented bunch of

professionals and play my role in the company’s continued success”. Holding an MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai, Ruchita brings almost 14 years of experience in the field of payments and finance. She has been integrally involved in

execution, ideation and planning of new business strategies at Citi Transaction Banking as a part of her job responsibilities, and has led sales of complex, multi-country working capital solutions to corporate in India and Singapore. For her efforts, she was also named the Best Woman Sales Director at the first-ever India Women in Sales Awards, 2015. “It is no secret that Paytm is expanding and diversifying at an exponential rate. Joining the organisation gives me an unparalleled opportunity to work with some of the most wellknown industry thought leaders who are trying to build something new and unique. I am very excited to be a part of Paytm, and am eagerly looking forward to growing in tandem, both professional and personally, with the organisation,” said Priya.

IndiGo’s parent InterGlobe Aviation appointed of Rohit Philip as its Chief Financial Officer.Philip, coming in place of Pankaj Madan, who has put in his papers, would be joining the no-frills carrier from global document management and business services major Xerox Corporation. InterGlobe’s board approved the appointment of Philip during its meeting recently. His appointment as the Chief Financial Officer and Key Managerial Personnel of the company would be effective from July 18, 2016 for a period of five years, the company said in a filing to the BSE. At Xerox, he was Corporate Vice President and Treasurer. His appointment comes at a time when IndiGo, which got listed on the stock exchanges last year, is implementing ambitious expansion plans amid growing competition. IndiGo is the country’s largest carrier by market share. Philip had worked at United Airlines for 17 years, where he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development. Besides, he had also held various other positions. He graduated in Mathematics from St Xavier’s College, University of Mumbai and has an MBA from Cornell University. InterGlobe Aviation saw its net profit remain flat at ₹579.31 crore in the three months to March.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 11

collywood UPSC topper Tina Dabi picks big paradox

Waking up and getting a good news is something everyone would crave for,. This is what happened to 22-year-old Tina Dabi, as she discovered she had topped the Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) civil services examination in her very first attempt. The rest of the evening, at the family home in BSNL Colony on Kali Bari Marg near Gole Market in the heart of New Delhi, was taken up by interviews to the press, congratulatory phone calls and visits from friends and family. “I was sleeping when the results came. I knew they would be out on that day but

there’s usually no particular time. When my phone started buzzing repeatedly, I realised the results had been announced. Since then we have been so busy that I still haven’t had time to actually register what has happened,” Tina said. Congratulating Tina, Northwest Delhi MP and Dalit leader Udit Raj tweeted, “Napoleon said that without opportunity ability can’t be cultivated. Dalit girl topped IAS & this could not have been possible 40-50 years back.” Tina has opted for the IAS, with Haryana as her cadre preference. “I opted for Haryana because it presents such

an interesting example, where you have a lot of economic progress but when it comes to social indicators you are lagging behind, and that is a very big paradox.” “What is actually holding Haryana back is its patriarchal mindset and the gender inequality, which is a subject very close to my heart, since I am a woman from a progressive family and have also studied in a college that lays great emphasis on gender equality, so that is something I want to change about the state,” she said. Born in Bhopal, Tina moved to Delhi with her parents and younger sister when she was in Class VII. She completed her schooling from the Convent of Jesus and Mary, opting for humanities in Class XI, by which time she had also started seriously considering attempting the civil services examination. Himali Dabi, her mother, trained as an engineer. Father Jaswant Dabi works in the Department of Telecom. “My parents were the ones who suggested I consider a career in the services. They felt this was something I had a flare for, that I had the requisite qualities required for a bureaucrat, and could master the field. They were the ones who encouraged and guided me.” Tina spent a year attending coaching for the UPSC examinations, waiting until she reached the eligibility age of 21.

Nitin Prasad to head Shell India Shell India announced the appointment of Nitin Prasad as its new chairman after the incumbent Yasmine Hilton retires in September. Prasad is currently the cluster general manager for lubricants sales and marketing for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He will take charge from October 1, the company said in a statement. Hilton, who has been the chairman of Shell companies in India and vice president for IT project excellence at the parent Royal Dutch Shell, will end her 12 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

assignment on September 30, 2016, after a career spanning 37 years with Shell, the statement added. Hilton began her career with Shell in 1979 in IT and went on to hold a number of senior posts in the Group including, chief information officer for Britain and for Shell’s global retail business, operating in all five continents. In October 2012, she took up a four-year assignment as country chairman, the first woman leader in the Indian oil and gas industry.

Make money, but pay taxes: Arun Jaitley Investors must pay taxes on money they earn in India and the domestic economy is now strong enough to depend on any “tax-incentivised route” to attract foreign investments, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said recently. He said there was no ‘serious apprehension’ of investors shifting base to other tax havens and he sees no depletion in FDI flows due to re-drawing of decades-old tax treaty with Mauritius – the biggest source of foreign investments into India. The amendment would also help check round-tripping of funds and boost the domestic consumption, Jaitley added. After toiling for almost a decade to redraw the tax treaty with Mauritius, India will begin imposing capital gains tax on investments in shares through Mauritius next April onwards. This has been made possible with amendment to the 34-yearold tax treaty between the two countries. As markets reacted cautiously to India expanding its crackdown on tax treaties to make it harder for investors to use tax havens as a shelter to avoid levies, Jaitley said, “Eventually, markets have to operate on inherent strength of (Indian) economy.”

manage money Dr Anil Lamba

Marginal costing principles and break-even analysis Apply marginal costing principles to understand your business better, and to take financially intelligent decisions

n the previous few issues we have discussed principles of marginal costing. Let us now take a few examples to understand the practical utilisation of the knowledge of marginal costing to understand your business better, and for day-to-day decision-making purposes. Example 1: In this example we will see how marginal costing principles can be used to work out the break-even point, the profit at any level of sales and the sales to achieve any amount of profit for any organisation, by knowing just three numbers, namely, the selling price, the variable cost and the fixed cost. Let’s say we have the following information about three different businesses A, B and C as shown here. All in ₹ Selling Price Per Unit Variable Cost Per Unit Fixed Cost

A 200 50 30,000

B 200 80 30,000

C 200 100 30,000

Let’s try and calculate in each case: The break-even point, The profit on a sale of 400 units and the sales required to generate a profit of 90,000. 1) To calculate the break-even point, we use the following formula: Break-Even Point = Fixed Cost / Contribution Per Unit We know the fixed cost. But we do need to work out the contribution in each case. Contribution per unit can be calculated as Selling Price less Variable Cost. Applying the formula, we can calculate break-even point as shown here. All in ₹ Selling Price per unit (-)Variable cost per Unit = Contribution Fixed Cost Fixed Cost Contribution Break-Even Point

A 200 50 150 30,000 30,000 150 200

B 200 80 120 30,000 30,000 120 250

C 200 100 100 30,000 30,000 100 300

2)What will be the profit on a sale of 400 units? Before we work out the profit let me tell you about the PV Ratio. Everyone involved in running a business must know its contribution margin as a percentage of sales. This, in marginal costing language, is called the PV Ratio or the Profit-Volume Ratio. PV Ratio is calculated using the formula: PV Ratio = Contribution / Sales x 100 The PV Ratios work out to 75 percent in case A (150 / 200 x 100), 60 percent in case B (120 / 200 x 100) and 50 percent in case C (100 / 200 x 100). What does PV Ratio indicate? PV Ratio of 75 percent in the case of company A means that if A has sales of 1,00,000, it will generate a Contribution of 75,000 and if it generates sales of one million it will have a Contribution of 750,000. Contribution = Sales x PV Ratio We need to find the profit on sale of 400 units in each of the above cases. If A sells 400 units, it will generate a sales value of 80,000. Since it has a PV

Ratio of 75 percent, it will have a Contribution of 60,000 (80,000 x 0.75). From the Contribution, if we deduct the fixed cost of 30,000 we can see that the profit is 30,000. This means that if A sells 400 units it will earn a profit of 30,000. Similarly, the profit in the case of B works out to 18,000 and in the case of C to 10,000 as shown in the table. All in ₹ Selling Price (400 units @200) (x) PV Ratio Contribution (-) Fixed Cost Profit

80,000

75% 60,000 30,000

60% 48,000 30,000

50% 40,000 30,000

30,000

18,000

10,000

Let’s convert this into a formula. How did we arrive at the profit? We multiplied sales of 80,000 by the PV Ratio to arrive at the Contribution, from which we deducted the fixed cost. Formula to find the profit at any level of sales: Profit = (Sales x PV Ratio) - Fixed Cost or FC 3)What should be the sales to generate a profit of 90,000? To arrive at the sales to generate a certain amount of profit we will have to work backwards. The profit required is 90,000 and the FC in each case is 30,000. This means that in all three cases the Contribution required for a profit of 90,000 is 120,000. Contribution = Fixed Cost + Profit. If Sales multiplied by PV Ratio gives us Contribution, then Contribution divided by PV Ratio will give us Sales. Now if A needs a Contribution of 120,000 and the PV Ratio is 75 percent, then A will have to generate sales of 160,000 (i.e 120,000 / 75%). Sales = Contribution / PV Ratio

In the case of B it works out to 200,000 (120,000 / 60%) and in the case of C to 240,000 (120,000 / 50%). All in ₹ Sales(Contribution/PVR) Contribution Fixed Cost Profit

A 160,000 120,000 30,000 90,000

B 200,000 120,000 30,000 90,000

C 240,000 120,000 30,000 90,000

So what formula did we use to arrive at the sales? We started with the desired profit. To this we added FC which gave us the Contribution required. We then divided the Contribution by the PV Ratio to arrive at Sales. Formula to find the sales required to generate a certain amount of profit : Sales = Desired Profit + Fixed Cost / PV Ratio (to be continued) Dr Anil Lamba is a corporate trainer of international repute on finance management. His clients comprise several hundred large and medium sized corporations across different countries of the world. He is the author of the bestselling book Romancing the Balance Sheet. He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 13

wax eloquent

Quest for India’s growth I believe in acquiring next generation technology

“I don’t believe in acquiring yesterday’s technology, I believe in acquiring things that are relevant for the future. So acquiring next generation technology by collaboration, design, intelligent services−people that solve complex problems with software that can be amplified by people and that we can bring large scales of these kind of companies” Vishal Sikka, CEO and MD, Infosys Courtesy: www.livemint.com

Ex-bankers better at handling money

“The parlance in the start-up world might be unit economics, but we as bankers always spoke about branch viability, business viability and product viability. This type of a background makes investors feel secure that bankers will always try to run a revenue-generating business, rather than burning cash for meaningless customer acquisition.” Manavjeet Singh, founder, Rubique

Millennials need coaches rather than bosses

“Believing in the tenet of equality, the millennials seem to be averse to the notion of hierarchy and position. Traditionally, we have thought of teams as being ‘owned’ by managers, but this generation cannot be ‘owned’. They work with you and not for you. Organisations would, therefore, be better off providing them with coaches rather than bosses.” Pratap G, senior director of HR, Maersk Global Services

Courtesy: www.livemint.com

Courtesy: Economic Times

Get India to double-digit growth Big getting bigger

“India is a unique example of the ‘big getting bigger’ in an extremely competitive landscape. Its IT-BPM exports have doubled in last six years, driven by increasing focus of the industry in new drivers such as digital technologies, growth of an innovative startup ecosystem, and adoption of multiple business models such as partnerships, collaboration, local presence and mergers and acquisitions.” Achyuta Ghosh, head of research, Nasscom Courtesy: http://www.zdnet.com

14 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

“The quest for India’s growth prospects to improve is a journey and not a destination. So, we are improving methodologies, we are killing crony capitalism, we are trying to have fair taxation, we are trying to obstruct the blocks to infrastructure. So, I want to repeat that the journey to get India to double-digit growth is a journey, not a destination. So, that is improving everyday.” Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, investor Couresty: http://www.moneycontrol.com

Endpoint security

“Technology can do its bit to secure enterprises, but there is always the human element. I believe technology plus education go hand in hand and make it difficult for anyone to hack into company data.” Parvinder Walia, sales and marketing director, ESET Asia Pacific Courtesy: http://www.computerworld.in/

It’s fun to be a misfit

“I am extremely proud of my rags-to-riches story, it’s fun to be a misfit or an underdog if you acknowledge your gifts and befriend your obstacles.” Kangana Ranaut, actress, said while talking about her decade-long Bollywood journey Courtesy: http://www.business-standard.com/

What I believe will transform India

“The greatest pleasure I get is in working with iSpirt and building on the Aadhaar platform for things such as authentication, eKYC, digital signatures and digital repositories. These will enable government services to be paperless and cashless. This is at the heart of re-imagining government and business, which, I believe, will transform India.” Nandan Nilekani, entrepreneur, bureaucrat and politician Courtesy: http://www.businesstoday.in/

prospects

Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in business world We are at an inflection point

“We believe the Indian economy is showing incipient signs of recovery and we are at an inflection point from equity markets perspective. If the recovery in Indian economy gathers steam, we might as well be at the start of a new bull market for Indian equities.” Chandresh Nigam, managing director and CEO, Axis Mutual Fund Courtesy: Business Standard

Building Brand India Staying relevant

“Relevance comes with your work and how good you are at your core job. Nobody is going to keep me as a brand ambassador if I am failing at my core job.” Shah Rukh Khan, actor and co-owner, Kolkata Knight Riders Courtesy: Business Standard

“Five mega trends will shape the future-digitisation, economic power shift from West to East, widening economic disparity, changing relationship between us and our planet and urbanisation. These mega trends have brought into focus digitisation and smart manufacturing. We need digital technology to be more competitive, faster to market and improve quality. This will build Brand India.” Kamal Bali, managing director, Volvo India Courtesy: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/

Think big, even when failure hits

“Indians have a unique entrepreneurial spirit and an immense amount of talent, both those individuals who have come here to the US and those still in India. My advice to entrepreneurs is to never stop believing in what is possible and thinking big, even when failure hits. Failures pave the road to success, as many say here in the Silicon Valley.” Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe Systems

Online reputation is paramount “Online reputation is paramount in this digital age when it comes to building a brand. No organisation, which aims to be successful, can think of ignoring online reputation management.” Manish Vij, founder and CEO, SVG Media Courtesy: Business Standard

Courtesy: Business Standards

Economically strong India good for US

View Bollywood and regional cinema as a whole

“In today’s time, I don’t think that there is anything like Bollywood and regional cinema. I think it is cinema and everybody gets a space to showcase their work. Everybody works hard. Bollywood works as hard as regional cinema makers. Our job is also very difficult,” Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Filmmaker Courtesy: http://www.businessstandard.com/

I believe the relationship between the US and India over the past couple of decades has fundamentally changed-we have forged strong ties in security, defence and political coordination. But our dialogue on trade is weak-an economically strong India is good for the US. And India has put in office a government that is showing determination to reform the economy. Frank G Wisner, former US ambassador to India and board member, US-India Business Council Courtesy: Times of India

People are coming to read, connect and stay informed

More and more people are coming to read, connect and stay informed, so it’s not just about recruiting. We have influencers like PM Modi and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who are regular writers on the platform. That has been a huge driving factor for our marketing business as well. Akshay Kothari, country manager, LinkedIn India

Recipe for success “Once you experience other people showing it, you learn. It is an acquired quality. I was not born ruthless, I had an aptitude for chess and then you keep trying, you have to figure out the recipe for success and find out what makes it work for you.” Viswanathan Anand, chess player and India’s first Grandmaster

Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com/

Courtesy: Economic Times

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 15

NHRD Pune chapter

CEO and Leadership Imperative CEOs have seen visible change in the last five years and the demands on their jobs with multiple mergers and collaborations across diverse continents and time zones have provided them new learnings. While the expectations are to deliver quarter after quarter, there have been new competencies that their successors need to develop. Ability to

energise the workplace, create succession, develop others while improving the bottom line is a run-up-the-treadmill in this world of faster, higher, stronger. What is the role of CEO in these turbulent times and how are the rising numbers of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) actually creating New Age economy? The National HRD Network Pune Chapter

CEO panelists (L-R) Alok Kumar, Kishore Jayaraman, Anshoo Gaur, Sandeep Arora, Prashant KS, Pramod Achuthan at the NHRD Pune Chapter organised annual conclave ‘Towards 2020’

16 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

organised its annual conclave ‘Towards 2020’ recently in Pune. Corporate Citizen brings the valuable discussion from CEO panel at the event, wherein expert CEOs shared insights on the need to innovate and increase productivity, how to handle rising inequality, political instability, and regulatory concerns. The industry experts included Alok Kumar, author and MD,

 New trends bring big changes

O Sears IT and Management Services India, Kishore Jayaraman, President, India and South Asia, Rolls-Royce India, Anshoo Gaur, President and Head, Amdocs India, Sandeep Arora, CEO, Axa Business Services India, Prashant KS, MD, IDeaS Revenue Solutions, a SAS company, Pramod Achuthan, Partner, Ernest & Young. By Rajesh Rao PICS:YUSUF KHAN

ne big change we see is great rebalancing of larger and smaller companies and you start to see that smaller companies have become lot more relevant. There is a rebalancing of the economy, emerging economy is starting to play a larger role compared to developed economies. Another trend is productivity imperative and you need to look at the workforce and reimagine the workforce. In the developed market, you see the situation where you have the ageing population and massive automation. In the developing world, you start thinking about productivity, which needs to get better. Start-ups are doing well but they are also having layoffs. The third theme is we are getting to be a global grid, all connected and massive amount of data flowing. We have got the power of technology and technology is getting more central to economy. Every company is going to be a software company, whether we like it or not. The fourth trend is about scarcity, with challenges of food and water. There is a situation of scarcity but there is also a lot of advancement of technology, which might result in world of abundance. Recently, I was at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley think tank, where I went for executive education programme for a week. It talked about the exponential changes taking place in the world, whether it’s technology, food, ageing, pharmaceutical, robotics, 3-D printing and so on. What you start to realise is that if all these things start to happen, we might actually get some of the scarcities behind us. The final large trend is the complexities. The world is getting incredibly complex. There is inequality, political instability, there are haves and have-nots, and regulatory concerns. The average lifecycle of an S&P company was close to 67 years, about 40-50 years ago and today it’s 15 years and shortening. There is an interesting quote from David S. Ross (entrepreneur, angel investor, author) that says, “Any company designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st”. There are lot of companies here that are designed for success in the 20 century, including ours and we are in effect designed for failure. Theoretical physicist, Jeffery West, talks about why cities grow and corporations die and life gets faster. He says primarily why cities grow is because of the fact that they are non-bureaucratic and corporations die because as they get larger, they get more bureaucratic and it starts to show up in their metric-revenue per employee and profitability per employee. Mapping that on to a curve, he finds out that the average life cycle of a corporation is 30 years and shortening. So, how do companies break out of that curve? By spawning of new curves, you reinvent yourself and become a different company.

Anshoo Gaur

President and Head, Amdocs India

Over time, you start to get more leaders in place, structures in place, processes in place and now you actually become an enablement officer. You start to enable success of your customers, enable success of your leaders or your employers Role of a CEO

I joined Amdocs about nine years ago and we had lot of challenges in the company. I was the chief executive officer focused on execution, getting things right, getting into the details, getting quality, productivity, business, engagement and all those other things that leader is supposed to do. Over time, you start to get more leaders in place, structures in place, processes in place and now you actually become an enablement officer. You start to enable success of your customers, enable success of your leaders or your employers. So, in effect that’s a transition. June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 17

NHRD Pune chapter changing very fast. The demographics around where it is young or experienced workforce, are becoming very diverse. You need very diverse workforce, where the expectations are very high. They are expecting faster career progression. They look for organisation, where their own personnel values are aligned. Similarly, when we look around the Gen-Y population, which for us is more than 70% of our workforce, the mindset is very different. It is more towards the consumer mindset… we call it ‘smartphone mentality’. Their thinking is that everything you do can be either acquired, upgraded, or disposed. Their way of thinking about their jobs is becoming a

Sandep arora

CEO, Axa Business Services India

 Skills we need

etting the outside view in terms of the Business context, the complexity and the ambiguity level is going very high. With the disruptions which have come through various technologies, whether it is on a social or mobility piece, today we don’t know who our competitors are. It is very difficult to predict (which was much easier earlier) what our competitors could be. For example at Axa, which is into insurance business, we used to believe that insurance is a very specialised market, but it is not the case now. We sometime back launched a product called ‘Telematics’ around motor insurance, wherein your insurance premium gets decided by your driving behaviour. And driving behaviour comes through the technology, where you analyse the data based on the information you capture on the smartphone application. Nowadays there are start-ups getting into it. There are big companies which are far advanced in innovation, like Google, which is exploring this space. I won’t be surprised when lot of these companies will become our competitors in the insurance space. It will be no more about having the actuaries and the underwriters as our technical expertise, you will need more data scientists. Similarly, if I look at space like the global in-house centre like Axa India, where we support our Axa entities, the question is not about how many people you can add to generate the labour arbitrage, the question is not also of the quality of service. What the partners are expecting iswhere are you going to add values and how are you going to partner with them in terms of innovation? Given this context, the talent dimension is

18 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

CEOs need to leverage the technology as a competitive advantage. Technology will help us to optimize existing products, to define and get into newer products, to identify which customer segment you want to get into. It will help you to connect with your customers and employees through various channels very difficult challenge for HR and business head.

Key dimensions changing CEO role

CEO has to drive the culture transformation and make sure that the transformation structure and the decision making structure are aligned with it. The organisation structure is moving towards role-based and not driven by title. It’s more driven by the expertise rather than by level. The second dimension which is changing the CEO role is around demonstrating courage, which is more inching towards experimentation of new things that will lead to more innovations. What we believe in Axa, is a concept of ‘fail fast’, so you need to fail fast if you don’t succeed and keep experimenting till you succeed. CEOs need to leverage the technology as a competitive advantage. Technology will help us to optimise existing products, to define and get into newer products, to identify which customer segment you want to get into. It will help you to connect with your customers and employees through various channels.

 What CEO has to deal with

or a CEO, it is all about results. Every quarter and every year, the CEO has to stand up to the board, investors, public at large, employees and commit on revenue and profitability results. We are in a business of providing revenue management solutions for hotels, taking decisions on how they should price their rooms. For example, the Starwood Hotels was recently acquired by Marriot in the year 2010 and they had properties in China and also those that were getting built. So, Frits van Paasschen, the CEO of Starwood Hotels, casually mentioned to his wife that with so much activity going on in China, it probably makes sense to move headquarters there. And his wife said, why not? Six months later, Frits van Paasschen, along with six of his executives, moved the headquarters to China. He spent one month out there, meeting employees, customers, investors and vendors. They sold out to Marriot in late last year; when the last results were declared, China had the highest growth rate-about 8.5 percent, which is very high for the hospitality industry, even higher than North America. What I am saying may be symbolic and kind of epitomises the pressure multinationals are going through. Emerging markets are there to stay, they are reality. Gone are the days when the leverage of emerging countries is only for manufacturing services or back-end services. We have moved far ahead and not only do we provide markets but we also provide opportunities for what we call as ‘blowback innovations’. Having said that, of course lot of profits still come from the West but the revenue growth is coming from the emerging markets. In this sce-

Prashant KS

MD, IDeaS Revenue Solutions, a SAS company

nario, do CEO supposed to have multiple strategies, one for developing countries and one for emerging markets? Even within this context, there are lot of changes that are happening, like economic fluctuation, political upheaval and lot of intertwined complexities. Take the case of Zika virus, it emerged in Central American-Caribbean region and Tata Motors in India, had to delay the launch of their car because they had named it ‘Zica’. They had to go through regulations again and it has directly impacted their revenue and profitability. These are the kind of uncertainties that CEO has to deal with, but yet stand up in the beginning of the year and at the end of the year and promise a very minute variation on what he/ she had promised. So how does the CEO deal with this? We always use the much-abused word ‘strategy’. It is important and helps us make choices. Strategy is supposed to give us sustainable competitive advantage. Strategy, as far as old times are concerned, was applicable to an industry. So you take an industry segment and say this is the strategy logic, I am going to win with this. That has now changed from sustainable competitive advantage to transient competitive advantage. What it means is that playing arena is no longer the entire industry. The playing arena is your product offering in a certain geography, for a certain customer segment. You need to have a quick strategy for seizing that opportunity, because that opportunity is fleeting, it will go away. Coming to M&A part, in order to seize transient competitive advantage, one of the trends that we are seeing is the fact that larger companies are not looking for smaller companies, to get this transient competitive advantage. And this could be for easy market access, quick market access, quick technology skill sets acquisition, or removing excess from the market. Out here, the role of the CEO is first of all being very clear why we are making an acquisition. The second thing is making sure that you are able to communicate the value of your acquisition to your employees on both sides and the other stakeholders. The third thing is to ensure quick successes in what you thought was a value. You need to align your sales force and your employees to be able to do that. And finally, there are different models of how companies integrate. You integrate wholly so you have sales force integration, operations integration, HR policy integration… everything integrates, your brand changes, the old vanishes and it’s the new thing that comes forth. That’s one way of integrating. The other one is, you do that but do that after some time. First of all, play to the earlier brand and make sure that you derive the benefits and then move slowly. The third one is keep it on at an arm’s length-allow it to work and keep a distance and allow it to function. The role of the CEO is to decide, what to integrate, how much to integrate, when to integrate and derive the benefits.

 Evolving frameworks beyond governance

T Alok Kumar

Author and MD, Sears IT and Management Services India

he military term ‘VUCA’ used to describe volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, is the kind of environment we live in. We are talking a lot about our demographic dividend and somewhere statistics show that 69 percent of our workforce is going to be employable by 2030, which is huge. How do we employ them, is going to be a big task. Government is taking its measures. Regulatory aspect is a critical dimension. We know about provident fund law changes and the whole question around it and now you will have lot of employees demanding National Pension Scheme (NPS) in their flexi basket. How will the Payment of Bonus Act and CEOs becoming key managerial person under Companies Act, impact?

 How job equations are changing for CEO

f you are in service industry, customer is the king, because they start dictating what you want, how you behave and how you automate, to give them better and better. If you are in product industry, the story is completely different. The customers are the people who are looking for innovations and new ideas and they lap it up very quickly. The CEO and leadership imperative lies in how quick you are and how innovative you are in taking that step. Be a leader or change agent and subject to change, try to rapidly move up and cope up with that change. That is the cat-and-mouse game we are playing every day. We are in the retail industry, which is one of the most volatile and technologically very sensitive. All the new technology that is coming, is because it is not regulated as of now. But somewhere it is getting impacted. So, there are jobs which are going and there are new opportunity which are getting created. So, as a leader and CEO, how to cope up with those changes? For a leader, fundamentally everything remains the same. But the data and incremental context continue to change. One of the context of changes is specifically, the CEO or someone like me, have to adapt to learning, unlearning and relearning every time. It is the biggest problem what we face. Most of the time when the CEOs grow, they feel that they know everything and that’s when the problem starts. The market also forces them to change and think differently. So, the pace of this learning, unlearning and relearning has to increase with time. A CEO has to be a big influencer, because we cannot take a decision and say do it. Those days are gone when people looked for jobs and stuck to one place all their life. Today, we are interviewed by the candidates, as to why he/she should join our company. This is where the fundamentals have changed and where we say that the CEO has to be a great influencer.

Pramod Achutan

Partner, Ernest & Young In an evolving framework, earlier it was all about salary and how to attract people with more salary. It was the main driver and continues to be so. But today, especially for the millennials, they are looking at it a little differently. They also want things faster and more, which is one thing we have to see constantly. It is not just about salary but there are other dimensions which play a critical role. One of them is individual growth. How does the individual grow? What are the learning frameworks that you offer to him? What are opportunities that you offer to him? The other one is about a compelling future and what is the future that the organisation offers? Building a better working world for our clients, people, government, regulator, and communities that we live in, is the purpose that we exist for. The third dimension is positive workplace. One thing the CEOs are paranoid about is, how do one communicate and reach out to everybody in the organisation? A person who has newly joined today can come up with an innovative idea, which can change the organisation. CEOs play a great role in energizing those people. June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 19

NHRD Pune chapter

Q&A Session

Specialist CEO versus generalist CEO, how would each one impact an organisation?

Kishore Jayaraman

President, India and South Asia, Rolls-Royce India

 Evolving role of technology and employees

ast week we had our leadership conference and as we were debating about what topic we should talk about, we were also hiring 500 people. Most of us unanimously felt, do we really know how the next generation thinks? We have experiences of 20-25 years and certain mindset we carry. But are we flexible enough to appreciate the needs and the wants of the next generation? Because, the life we saw when we were 20 years old is not the same for the 20-year-old today. So, we had a session called ‘the millennials’ and had a few of the recently-hired talk to us on questions like, what do you feel? What we have done so far; has it been good for you or not? It was interesting the way they approached the challenge and came out with explanations. They were stitching together the thought process of how the company has to do a cultural shift. How they would view the training process should go forward. What we created was a wave where this next generation is trying to say how people should start thinking. As we look at employment, productivity and technologies, it is going to be very critical that we are able to adapt, able to be versatile and appreciate that change is always there and change for the sake of change is always bad. Moving into the technology area of RollsRoyce and look at manufacturing, it’s been almost 100 years now, but the journey as we come to today, it’s been all process-based, new mathematical models, data analysis, front and centre and everything. Today as we talk, it is about big data-each turbine blade you see in the aircraft engine can generate one terabyte of data during the manufacturing process. It is great that you have this data-what you do with this data and what you do with this data so that you can effectively 20 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

‘As we look at employment, productivity and technologies, it is going to be very critical that we are able to adapt, able to be versatile and appreciate that change is always there and change for the sake of change is always bad’ analyse it, effectively take it to the next level from that analysis towards either creation, incremental innovation or disruptive innovation, whichever way it falls. And the second piece of it is, with this data, what are you going to make sure, so that you are able to provide value to the customers? At the end of the day, in the 100 years of journey, one thing has never changed… customers are centre to everything and they dictate what you should change, where you should change and when you should change. In the process of innovating and talking about culture, learnings and transformations, if we miss the opportunity to serve the customer, the question that arises-Is every single product or service that I sell, going to make money for the customer? If the product or service makes money for the customer, at the end of the day it will be a success, regardless of what it is. Bottom line is adapt, change, recognise that people are different, cultures are different, and global business is transforming at a rapid pace than ever before.

Arora: In a specialist role, you are focusing on a culture but the way you look at it is very different. The dynamics in a generalist role is very multi-fold and I personally believe that it’s much more challenging than a specialist role. A specialist role is much strong, with control on the domain and you have grown up the way you have learnt. In generalist role, you have to be prepared for anything that may come and hit you-competition can hit you and you can’t predict everything. So, generalist role is far more challenging than specialist role. A CEO has to be a generalist, they have to pick a hat on what the HR is doing, on talent, culture, from CIO, leverage the technology, leverage what’s happening in the market. So CEO has to wear multiple hats as a generalist. Prashant KS: CEO would have to be grown from the ranks either from the company or somewhere else. He/she would have been a specialist at some point of time and then they are doing a generalist role. One of the things I see transforming is the organisation structure. Hierarchal is passé, we are now use to hearing matrix. I am proposing slightly different structure called ‘T-Structure’, which will have the matrix at the base, but the long vertical is going to be very geography-and speciality-oriented. And this part has to have specialist, because this is the part which is actually going to compete with nimble start-ups. This is the part where just generalist will not exist, you need to have generalist-specialist or specialist-generalist. But at the same time I want to bring in one particular theory… ‘Big Bang Theory’ is one of my favourite sitcoms, which deals with bunch of nerds at Caltech, each of them

bringing their own idiosyncrasies. But I derive slightly different perspective from there. I believe the Big Bang Theory is all about a platform and an ecosystem for skewed people to exist and be comfortable with each other. Everybody say that if you deal with a person of skewed excellence, we will advise him/her on what the organisation policies are and how you should behave. I think that has to change, we need to learn if we have to survive that long T, we have to survive on how to deal with skewed excellence and allow them to nurture and contribute. Because these are the guys who are going to help us win that transient competitive advantage, compete with the nimble start-ups and make a difference.

What are your expectations from changing role of HR heads? Alok Kumar: Going back 70 years, there were JM Juran and Edward Deming, who changed the way and quality, what we see today. When Juran went to Japan, he asked those people, to tell him whose job is to maintain quality. A Japanese stood up and started pointing to a person, saying he is the quality manager. The first thing Juran told was that is the problem, because you have one person who is responsible for maintaining quality, remaining of you are not bothered about quality. That’s exactly what I would like to say about HR. If HR is only HR manager’s job, then everybody else is actually anarchist. It’s not that way now, HR as a principle, is in the genes of the organisation and HR team has become facilitators and innovators who come with new ideas. The word HR started in old times of control, when it was industrial relations and about how to control people. Even today, a lot of HR practices are centred around controlling-this is the policy, this is how you should follow. That is all going to fade away and the way HR are going to work, will not be about control but about empowerment.

How is the CEO going to create more corporate athletes? The corporate life from executive to leadership is about 30-35 years. How does one sustain that athlete energy for longer period? Jayaraman: It is about mind, body and soul. It’s about introspection and learning one’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s about constantly

‘A CEO has to be a generalist, they have to pick a hat on what the HR is doing, on talent, culture, from CIO, leverage the technology, leverage what’s happening in the market’ - Sandeep Arora learning. There is not one thing that goes into it. People talk about many different things as we go through this journey. But what has worked best for me is looking in the mirror every morning and say what is missing today in my life. And it may not be whether it is my strategy at work, my solving issues, or celebration with the team. It has got to be whether it is my family, health, or friends. I think there is something that strikes us every morning that we need to take care of this. It is about making sure that every single morning, every single hour of the day, constantly our body and mind are programmed to keep us healthy and strong. But if we ignore those signals, it is easy to fall prey to it. For a CEO or any employee or any human being, there is enough stress that goes around; we all talk about productivity but what productivity does at the end of the day is squeeze more within a certain time frame and if you squeeze more within a certain time frame and life becomes faster and faster, it’s easier for us to get on to the treadmill and forget the weaknesses. Everybody talks about work-life balance, but 99 percent do not follow it. Every HR and CEO will say we got to have work-life balance and every new employee will come and say I have work-life balance. At the end of the day the work-life balance comes from the individual. I have certain rules which I keep for myself, certain time for the family, friends and myself. And at the end of the day, this whole, rounded initiative is what keeps me going.

three position will be filled between so and so date. Now that business can take that up and tie it up to time-to-market. If the HR can start talking this language, I think the business has no choice but listen to HR.

HR needs to learn business, but will business be learned only if someone is teaching somebody business?

Jayaraman: Impedance loss is given and it is going to be there. What we do is communicate at all levels frequently and clearly, so that it is never lost in translation. Second piece is practise what we preach and it is always the shadow of the leader that’s cast upon the employees. If the leadership is very clear and the values that company believes in is communicated very clearly to the leadership, then for them to communicate is very clear. So create an organisation that is absolutely free in communicating and create an organisation where the leaders believe in what they preach, practise it and show it. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

Prashant KS: Business would love to hear from HR, but they would love to hear the music and words that business understands. What I mean by that is would it be possible… there is so much data that HR has, so can we not use technology like predictive analytics to look at a profile and predict if a person will join or not. Then based on all this analytics, is it possible for the HR to stand and say that this person will join or your

One of the important findings is, no matter what sort of programme the talent management or HR team is running, there is clear intent in the minds of the leadership. But when it comes down to implementation by the middle management, that intent is lost in translation. What is the critical factor that is missing? Arora: Most important element you will see in many organisations… if the intent is there and if from top you are trying to drive something and it is not done at the grassroots level, what you are really missing is the education culture. It is not about the micromanagement, it is about having right set of controls, governance and right set of priorities. If you have strong governance and strong education culture, you will see that what you are trying to drive is actually getting down at the grassroots level. Other important dimension is keeping a tab on what you are hearing from employees and getting their feedback from the grassroots level, whether there is change or not.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 21

Interview

Be hungry for learning With over 20 years of experience in managing Human Resources, Clifford Mohan Pai â&#x20AC;&#x201D; GPHR, Associate Vice President, HR Business Leader & Head Employee Relations, Infosys BPO Ltd has had a rich and diverse exposure across industries. He joined Infosys BPO in 2007 and is responsible for the Business Partner - HR and Employee Relations function. His organisational structure includes a team of over 100 HR professionals. His broad responsibilities cover employee engagement, developing a strong employee value proposition, driving a culture of productivity, process excellence and building a positive and upbeat employee relations environment. He is a member of the HR Management Council of the organisation. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Pai spoke indepth about his career, tackling attrition levels in the industry and youngsters today By Puja Patil and Mahalakshmi Hariharan 22 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Take us through your education and career.

I am a graduate in Sociology from Fergusson College after which I post-graduated in Labour Studies, Personal Management and Industrial Relations from the Maharashtra Institute of Labour Studies (MILS). I started my career in the service industry working with Blue Dart, Fedex, then moved to Reliance Life Sciences, worked with an FMCG company, Cadbury and then

moved to the pharmaceutical industry before I joined the ITeS industry. Learning was my motive back then and today as well. I feel if you are not learning, you are not enjoying.

What are the kinds of challenges you have seen and experienced working with youth today?

The challenge before today’s youth is to simplify the workplace, ensure more end-to-end processes, minimise manual intervention, and to provide a wide variety of choices to our clients. The competencies required from our youth are totally different from the days of the past. Seeing and understanding change and proactively acting is important to influence the change. Aligning to the business requires understanding the business and adding value to it. HR will have a seat at the table with the business only when it can impact the business. Today HR is in the boardroom because it can add value. There are lots of HR professionals today who are driving businesses.

How do you tackle attrition levels in your industry?

Attrition will continue to exist due to the aspirations of our youth. A certain percentage of attrition is healthy, a bit of churn is required. Compensation is just one part of the reason for attrition. Employee engagement is very important to combat attrition. We have a target to connect to 10,000 employees per month—not just digitally but physically. Leaders are walking the talk and connecting, engaging, and ensuring that their teams are able to see a future, growth and learning. I have stuck on with my present company for nine years because of the learning I get.

Tell us about your centre at Mysuru.

Infosys has created a smart city in Mysuru, where at one go they have the potential to train and house more than 15, 000 employees. With an investment of over $184 million, this smart city grooms Infosys’ talent. This is a global education centre which is spread over a 335-acre campus and ranked as the best in the world for education and training. To top it all, Infosys has Infy Bubble, Infy TV, Infy Chats, and its own way of using social media to communicate and get feedback from employees.

What are the issues with young minds today? Is it true that the industry is struggling to develop leaders?

Pics:Ahmed Shaikh

Youngsters today are perceived to be individualistic rather than collaborative in their approach. They need to do things differently, find ways to relax, to think differently, minimise manual processes, be agile, be flexible, and simplify the workplace to ensure improved collaboration. We should be comfortable with allowing our professionals to work from home or restaurants,

encouraging freelancers, evaluate performance management systems so that the right kind of feedback is provided to the team. It eventually boils down to keep learning and innovating at the workplace. We need to understand and challenge our comfort zone, as true magic happens when you challenge the status quo.

What qualities do you look for in youngsters today while recruiting?

As an HR professional, when a student comes out of college, I don’t expect him/her to have a lot of practical knowledge. The least I expect them to know is to have the basics of their theoretical knowledge right. Do they know their theories thoroughly enough to make them ap-

Attrition will continue to exist due to the aspirations of our youth. A certain percentage of attrition is healthy, a bit of churn is required. Compensation is just one part of the reason for attrition. Employee engagement is very important to combat attrition plicable at work? I look at a balance of theory and practice and also how flexible they are in moving across functions, geographies, carrying a positive attitude.

What is your advice to the youth of today?

Be hungry for learning, challenge yourself, think out of the box because if you are not doing that somebody else will and will take away your job. We need to stay updated and upgraded.

Today, the role of HR is so challenging. How do you maintain a work-life balance? If you enjoy your work, you find the balance automatically. If you are passionate your job, you will enjoy it. You can strike a balance once there is enjoyment in the work you are doing. Music is my idea of relaxation. I drive for about an hour daily but I don’t find it hard, as I have music at hand. There might not be time to read but one can always listen to audio books.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 23

Interview

Dancing to the hi-tech tune At a recent conclave, Clifford Mohan Pai, said, “You cannot afford to achieve the same result that you achieved yesterday. And if you need to achieve a different result tomorrow, you need to think differently in order to exceed.” He enlightened the audience with a statement by Jack Welch, “Globalisation has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to source, but to find Intellectual Capital”. This statement truly reminds him about how Palo Alto and Stanford University are coming out to be the hub of innovation, design thinking Hi-tech reality is here

Pai’s focus during the session was on developments in technology and what we could be taking from it. He said, “The reality of the world today is that human beings are becoming like computers and robots and we are trying to put a human element in the robots of today and tomorrow.” No doubt machines are taking over the world. They are sensing the environment, supplementing human jobs and reducing the cost of operations. For example, Philips sells LED bulbs but they aren’t talking about LED bulbs. Instead, they talk about selling ‘light’ to the world. “I hear that Philips Global has got a digital panel which tells a technician which bulb is inefficient in the city and in which part of the city. This technology helps not only save cost but also time. Today, sitting in Pune you can switch on the lights of your house in the Netherlands to prevent a robbery there. The time is not very far when we would find refrigerators sending messages to grocery stores and the grocery store delivering vegetables to you at your balcony through a drone.”

Future of digital technology

“The future of digital technology is bright. Recent research tells us that the digital business of the future will require 50 percent software professionals by 2018. However, the business of tomorrow will also have 500 percent more digital jobs available. While new-technology jobs will increase by fivefold, we will require a different business model, a new technology, a new set of skills and competencies to survive. It’s not only about the IT industry but also about non-IT industries. Traditional IT roles such as tester, programmer will be automated. Folks will have to upskill to work with smart engineering technologies which are not taught in engineering schools today. In Europe alone the gap between the skills required versus expectations will cause a shortage of about 90,000 IT professionals by 2020.” He further added, “In the near future, we will see head-to-toe wearable technology coming in. The shirt will have conductive thread with a computer built into the fabric which will provide processing power for all other wearable gadgets. 24 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

We already have the Fitbit that can sense and track all movement to determine the number of steps taken through the day and monitor sleep through the night. Trousers will soon be made of conductive thread which would measure movement and power gadgets. We already have wristwatches which vibrate with a message and tell the time. In future, technology will have the potential to have a chip underneath the skin that would maintain all sorts of data, from medical reports to fast food data to creditors’ reports and information can be

The reality of the world today is that human beings are becoming like computers and robots and we are trying to put a human element in the robots of today and tomorrow transferred to any other gadget just by waving the hand. We already have technology available where shoes contain a GPS chip providing directions using LED lights. Research has already begun to develop an electric shaver that can capture body data when a guy starts using the shaver on his skin. A very recent newspaper article spoke about our very own Indian government thinking of bringing this technology into the country.”

SMAC driving business innovation

‘SMAC’ i.e. Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud Computing, are areas where the social media platform has provided businesses with new ways to reach and interact with customers, while mobile technologies have changed the way people communicate, shop and work. Analytics allow businesses to understand how, when and

where people consume certain goods and services and cloud computing provides a new way to access technology and the data a business needs, to quickly respond to changing markets and solve business problems. While each of the four technologies can impact a business individually, their convergence is proving to be a disruptive force that is creating an entirely new business model for service providers.

Digi-tech has pluses and minuses

Digital technology has been changing our personal as well as our professional world. It has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is cyber threat. It is one of the major challenges the world is facing today. Cyber attacks could be a possible reason why trading was stopped on the US stock exchange sometime back. The repercussions of the Internet being down just for a day could be serious and would lead to 196 billion emails waiting in our outboxes, 12 billion Facebook and YouTube videos not being seen and 900 million tweets waiting. However, there are positives to it too. We see huge support to Digital India through social networking sites. Digital India is all about bringing the power of the Internet to the betterment of India.” “Nevertheless, how much ever digitisation happens, the human angle will never be compromised,” Pai further added. pujapatil18@gmail.com

tadka

Bad loan nightmare As of FY12-16 for every `100 parked in shares of public sector banks, investors carry the burden of `150 as bad loans, which have cumulatively ballooned to `4 lakh crore or 1.5 times the market value of these banks

Consumer Alert

Should we ban celebrity endorsement of junk food? The impact of such restrictions worldwide, has been reported to be significant By Ananya Tewari

he ninth report on the consumer protection Bill, aimed at replacing the current Consumer Protection Act, 1986, was presented in Lok Sabha last week. No objections were raised against the 2015 Bill as per the committee report. But different views on issues such as definitions, misleading advertisements, adulteration of products for human consumption and jurisdiction of Central Consumer Protection Authority were expressed by stakeholders. The committee recommended passing of the Bill, observing that misleading celebrity endorsement of food needs to be taken seriously, considering the influence of celebrities and high net worth individuals or companies, on masses. Since the enactment of Consumer Protection Act, 1986, consumer markets for goods and services have undergone profound transformation, giving rise to complex products and services and providing new opportunities for consumers. This has made consumers more vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade practices. Misleading advertisements, marketing and selling pose new challenges that need appropriate interventions for consumer protection. The consumer protection Bill provides recommendations and suggestions that can modernise the existing Act to address constantly emerging consumer vulnerabilities. . Since existing legislation is not enough of a deterrent, the committee recommended stringent measures to tackle misleading advertisements and fix liability on endorsers or celebrities. The committee has recommended a penalty of Rs 10 lakh and imprisonment of up to two years or both for the first offence. For the second offence, a fine of Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment for five years has been recommended. For subsequent offences, the penalties increase proportionally based on the sales volume of such products. Imposing such penalty is not enough since impact has already been created when such advertisements are broadcast. Endorsers or ce-

lebrities may not always be aware of the negative health consequences of the foods among consumers, especially children who form the most vulnerable group. In a way, this is also cheating the consumers based on their trust in the image of the celebrity or endorser as a role model. Aggressive marketing and promotion strategies adopted by the industry have been proved to impact the buying behaviour of consumers. After viewing TV commercials where celebrities such as actors and sportspersons endorse a product, people tend to recall the messages while purchasing the products. This can greatly impact their food choice, especially of children who are not the best judges of their dietary choices. Considering celebrities as their role models, they believe what is portrayed in the advertisements is real. There are several food products such as biscuits, frozen foods, sugar-sweetened beverages and instant noodles that are endorsed by famous actors, such as Mc Vities by Bipasha Basu, Mc Cain by Karishma Kapoor, Pepsi by Ranbir Kapoor and Nestleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Maggi Noodles by Madhuri Dixit. Some of these are also often positioned as healthy food alternatives. People tend to see only the positives highlighted in the advertisements and not the potential negative impacts. For example, Maggi Atta Noodles were advertised as a

After viewing TV commercials where celebrities such as actors and sportspersons endorse a product, people tend to recall the messages while purchasing the products whole grain food with real vegetables. Nowhere was it mentioned that instant noodles have high salt and fat content. A better way to deal with such situations is to ban celebrity endorsements completely. This would address the issue of misleading food advertisements and also act as a key public health intervention to prevent increasing risks of non-communicable diseases in India. Internationally, several countries have made regulations related to advertisements of unhealthy foods targeted at children. The impact of such restrictions has been reported to be significant. In the UK, restrictions on TV advertising of food and drinks were implemented in 2006. Research shows that by 2009, children in the UK were exposed to 37 per cent fewer advertisements that promoted foods high in fats, sugars or salt as compared to 2005. (Article courtesy: www.downtoearth.org) June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 25

top position

Le(a)d, kindly light

Every unit of energy saved is going to have that much lesser impact on the environment. Energy efficiency and clean, green and renewable energy, will be the defining features of India’s contribution as a responsible global citizen to the world. To continue with India’s energy security and still achieve the benefits of development and progress, it is time India does not follow the world but starts leading the world. Minister of State with independent charge for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy in the Government of India, Piyush Goyal, speaking on ‘India’s efforts in shaping the Global Solar Alliance’ recently at Pune International Centre, stressed on how India can become more energy-efficient. Corporate Citizen brings to you excepts of the informative and engaging speech, offering relevant and on-topic insights LED bulbs programme potential

The Energy Efficiency Services Limited, a Government of India company and a public sector undertaking, managed by a team no larger than probably 80 people, which used to manufacture 6 lakh LED bulbs per year until 2013-14, has currently crossed 7 lakh bulbs a day. It’s an effort which only needed a change in mindset, ability to think positively, think big and be bold and confident in the team’s ability to achieve some extraordinary results. There was this LED bulbs programme talking about some 10-20 lakh LED bulbs to be given out on subsidy basis, and in the future, they will give out over 1 lakh solar streetlights. I thought if I put this up to the cabinet, I am certainly going to lose my job. But then as we got thinking, we realised the huge potential of LED bulbs. India had moved a little away from the incandescent bulbs to CFLs, but then technology evolves. At that point of time, it was thought to be a great energy saver. It’s very easy for me to say that it should never have been bought to India given the severe risk of ground contamination caused from mercury, due to disposal of these CFLs. While we were looking into the LED pro26 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

gramme potential, I was surprised with the reports that India continues to use 77 crore incandescent bulbs and if all of them were to be replaced by LEDs, the country would save 10,000 crore units of electricity annually, bringing down consumers’ bills by about ₹40,000 crore, at an aggregate. In addition, saving the country from 22,000 MW of additional capacity requirement in the peak hours, since the bulbs or lighting are usually used during the peak hours. And to top it all, it will reduce carbon dioxide emission by 6 crore tonnes per year. For those of you who are concerned citizens worried about the environment, reduction of 6 crore tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from a single programme is a huge potential.

What were we planning?

We were planning to replace 20/30 lakh incandescent bulbs out of those 77 crore, with LED bulbs. And that was a cabinet note I had been preparing for nearly one-and-a-half years. I tried to tell my colleagues that let’s scrap the programme and rework on it, but then they pointed out to me that if we don’t get it approved by the Cabinet, the budget will lapse. It was suggested to me that if the

budget goes, the department has to wind up… so let’s grab it while it’s there. So, I approved it; it went to the Cabinet. The PM asked me a few embarrassing questions and I had to say that I will come back with a modified story a few months later but at this moment let’s approve this. When I came back, I just spoke from the top of my hat to my team about what was possible to do in this programme. If any of you has been buying LED bulbs earlier, you may recall that these bulbs about three years ago were about ₹2,000 each, for a good-quality brand. At that point of time, in February 2014, it was the last time, EESL had purchased these 7-watt bulbs at ₹310 per piece, with all the taxes

loaded on it. And with interest for giving it out on deferred payment, it costs somewhere around ₹500 effectively to EESL. Then they would give some subsidy on it and give the bulbs out in the small number. That purchase was 6 lakh bulbs in the whole of 2013-14.

Economically viable proposal

When I talked to my team, I had said, “Look, at this price point, it can never work in India. The poor of India are not going to shell out ₹500, or even if you subsidise it to any amount of money close to that, to replace the incandescent bulb. So it’s going to always be a non-starter”. I suggested, instead can we plan that 77 crore incandes-

cent bulbs have to be replaced in the next four years; and can we use economies of scale and bring in competition from all across the world and build up the manufacturing base in India to leverage on India’s competitive advantage, and

I need to see a double-digit price on this. Actually, they didn’t even understand what I meant by double-digit price. It took me a lot of painful effort to explain that by double-digit I meant a below-₹100 price. They thought I must be an idiot coming out

I was surprised with the reports that India continues to use 77 crore incandescent bulbs and if all of them were to be replaced by LEDs, the country would save 10,000 crore units of electricity annually June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 27

top position But that process was so useful that between February 2015 when I first floated the first purchase contract through the electronic platform in a most transparent manner and until the last bid for 5 crore bulbs in March of 2016, the price had fallen from `310 for a 7-watt bulb to `54.90 for a 9-watt bulb. It’s a reduction of about 83-84 percent from Mr Modi’s party for suggesting that ₹310priced LED bulb, has to be brought down to ₹99 and giving out these bulbs without a single rupee subsidy. It should be made an economically viable proposal because as long as we remain dependent on subsidies, we will never be able to scale it up to the level that we want. Then we had a series of discussions with all the manufacturers, suppliers, technology experts and international companies. I personally would sit into those discussions and articulated this concept of ₹99 and got it drilled into everybody’s head that this is going to happen: we are going to get ₹99 and we are going to replace 77 crore incandescent bulbs. I am delighted to share with you that prices kept falling. In fact, we didn’t reduce the technical specs by even an iota, we made it even better. The qualifying criteria to bid in our process are electronically-operated reverse bidding. I think by the time I finish my term, the government of India will hate me for having brought reverse bidding and e-auctions into everything that I do. But that process was so useful that between February 2015 when I first floated the first purchase contract through the electronic platform in a most transparent manner and until the last bid for 5 crore bulbs in March of 2016, the price had fallen from ₹310 for a 7-watt bulb to ₹54.90 for a 9-watt bulb. It’s a reduction of about 83-84 percent. And who are these suppliers? They are Phillips, Osram, Surya, and Crompton Greaves, amongst other companies. They fit into very exacting standards and qualifying criteria and gave us a product which has three years of warranty. Our test reports give us the confidence that they will work for seven to 10 years in the normal course. They are able to withstand the huge voltage fluctuations, by and large, in most parts of the country and are given out without a single rupee subsidy. I have announced that we are further bringing it down to ₹80 a bulb, for which people can pay ₹10 upfront and the balance ₹70 in seven monthly installments of ₹10 each. There are savings even for the most common ordinary consumer of power, who can pay for this bulb in four to five months. 28 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

India’s contribution as a responsible global citizen to the world

I would like to bring it to your notice that the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), that India has put forth in Paris and the leadership role that Prime Minister Modi plays through the negotiations in Paris, is indeed a matter of great pride. For each one of us those targets, even though they are not a commitment in legal terms, it’s a moral assurance we are giving to the world and to the people of India. We can’t afford to let climate change get any worse and despite the reality that India’s own contribution to this problem is very small—supporting 17 percent of the world’s population, we have only contributed to some two to two-and-a-half percent of this greenhouse gases. It’s the United States and Europe supporting barely 10-12 percent of the world’s population, put out more than 50 percent of these carbon and greenhouse gases. And they are doing nothing concrete, nothing of substance, nothing of significance, when it comes to addressing the problems of climate change. It’s a very unfortunate, bitter, inconvenient truth that I am sharing with you. But India does not want to get daunted by that—irrespective of any support the rest of the world gives to any significant effort of India, this government stands committed. In India, we revere the trees, nature, rivers, sun, and we recognise the value of the universe. In fact, there is a native African proverb which says that we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we actually borrow it from our children. And effectively that is the level of commitment that we have taken upon ourselves that we will leave behind a better planet than the one we inherited, so that the next generation will understand the value of the natural resources on the earth and in this universe. Hopefully, this global effort can save the planet from a potential catastrophe. In some sense, as the world is evolving and developing newer and newer technologies, India hopes to be at the forefront of this movement. And the same thing we did with LEDs—we do the same to introduce solar energy usage in India in a big way.

India embarking on the world’s most ambitious solar programme

I have actually penned a book, which never got published as I got busy with the elections. In that, I had penned down a whole ecosystem where we should plan for a 100-gigawatt of solar power for the country. That was somewhere in late 2013, when I had gone to my daughter’s school programme to London. Between two programmes, I had about a week in London when I was quite free. So I called my colleague and I actually used to talk to him and he would record it on his phone as we walked in Hyde Park for hours. One of the topics that I had written about was this 100-gigawatt solar. It’s probably God’s own way of challenging you that okay, you want to give fancy ideas, let’s see if you can do it yourself. And I got this opportunity and I articulated this concept of 100 gigawatts solar energy for India. At that point of time, Indian Solar Mission had planned for 20,000 megawatts by 2022. When I became a minister, the actual achievement was 2,400 or so. I first talked of 1 lakh megawatts and you can imagine the ridicule that I had to face. I got flak from almost every quarter across the board—the power sector, the power producers,

vious year and more than the previous four years put together. Actually, at one point, Coal India was growing at 9.8 percent and we had to regulate production because we didn’t have enough offtake, we were not even able to move coal out. I had to allow them to come down from 9.8 to 8.6 percent to maintain the level of stocks that the mines can hold.

Benchmark for how government projects have to be executed

power associations—my own department, they pointed out all the possible challenges that can come in. I don’t say that all the challenges have got mitigated as yet. But I am delighted that our Prime Minister had the confidence and the courage of conviction to accept this challenge. And today, India has embarked on the world’s most ambitious solar programme. It’s the largest programme in the history of mankind that has been embarked on in the solar power sphere. We are committed to doing a 1 lakh-megawatt by 2022. And I am happy to share with you that in the last 12 months, opened out for bidding are 21,000 megawatts of solar projects. I am very confident that next year we’ll add more than 12,000 megawatts of solar power to the country’s requirement. By 2017, we look forward that India would cross 20,000-megawatts of solar power, a target we originally had set for 2022—five years ahead of schedule. It’s really possible if one challenges your own ability and is willing to work with an open mind; prioritise what your work has to be… do a root cause analysis whatever is required to be done; figure out what is the inhibiting factor, where does the problem come from.

Coal India growing

I say that India will produce a 100 crore tonnes of coal by 2020, I may be ridiculed by my former power minister for thinking of Coal India growing at 10 percent. But then unless we are willing to dream big, we are never going to be able to achieve even the 8.6 percent, the target for last year. And we never will be able to get out of the syndrome of our two-thirds of the power plants based on coal, running on critical stocks. But see, what two years can do. In the first year, Coal India grew by 6.9 percent. The Coal India output was 3.2 crore tonnes for the year 2014-15, which was more than the pre-

In Varanasi, I recently started the work of underground cabling in the old city of Varanasi, where the Kashi Vishwanth temple is, in a congested part of the city. I was told it will take about a year-and-a-half to two, for completing the project. I have challenged them to do it by December, which is within eight-and-a-half months. They said they will do it in one year. I am continuously going to follow it up. So, have deputed a senior IAS officer from Delhi, who goes every Tuesday to review the progress of the work there. That lady officer travels to Varanasi, diligently follows up what’s happening. I promise you, it will be a benchmark for how government projects have to be executed—in a defined time frame and through focused concentration. And to enable me and empower me to get that done, I have released an app yesterday in Varanasi, called ‘Kashi-IPDS’ on Google Playstore. I have put out the entire project in detail like what work has to be carried out and broken up the entire project into 8,800 milestones. We are monitoring every activity and as it gets completed, it’s logged on to the system so that everybody in the entire Varanasi area knows exactly what was expected, when that part of the work was expected area-wise, this is the nature of work, and this is the quality of goods that will be used. We have put out all that transparently through the app for the people to monitor the work. One can also give feedback, suggestions, and complaints to help us perform better. Can we not think, that if we start a road project, flyover, or a rural electrification project, we take it from start to finish. There are times people say why I didn’t get any new projects in our constituency, but they listen to you when you explain to them that look, you have 12 projects in your

It’s the largest programme in the history of mankind that has been embarked on in the solar power sphere. We are committed to doing a 1 lakh-megawatt by 2022. And I am happy to share with you that in the last 12 months, opened out for bidding are 21,000-megawatt of solar projects June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 29

top position area which are incomplete, allow us to focus on completing them, so that people benefit, passengers benefit, from travelling on those lines. Our first focus should be money and how our resources should be used to implement what’s already on the ground. And these are the type of changes we need—the change in mindset will bring the self-confidence in the system.

Fertiliser story in India

Three of the ministers sat down to see what we should do with the fertiliser story in India. And the fact that so many years after independence, knowing full well we need a certain level of fertiliser, should India continue to import? And those of you who know this industry, will realise that the day India opens a tender, prices just shoot up through the roof, though we are the largest buyer of fertiliser, internationally. But if we can produce another 60-70 lakh tonnes and become secure and have 100 percent production in-house, we can actually save maybe thousands of crores on fertiliser subsidies.

India’s tradition—conservation and effective utilisation of scarce resources

Climate change is one area in which India will lead the world; we will show the world the path forward; we will demonstrate to the world. Many of us as children were asked by our parents, when we walked out of a room, if we switched off the light and fan. We were told not to waste food served in our plate. Use only as much water for bathing, as is needed. That is traditional India, a conservative society which believed in conservation and effective utilisation of scarce resources. I don’t think the Western consumer-driven model will work for a country like India, where still one-third of the people still find it hard to get two square meals a day.

Clean energy financing

In fact, India’s coal consumption today is what it was in the United States, 150 years ago, in 1860s. America used to consume 0.5 times of coal per capita what we do currently, a little more or less. And even today, as we speak on clean energy financing, something which the Western world has been talking of for the last 15 years but has done nothing about it. There is so-called ‘clean energy

fund’, ‘clean climate fund’, where some $100 billion were committed, $5-6 billion of pledges are there; but there is zero money in the bank. The poor of India who opened those 210 million JanDhan accounts are probably better than the world economies. They have put in $ 6 billion into these accounts. But the world has put hardly anything towards clean energy financing.

Continue to support every domestic manufacturer

Look at the tremendous potential that the world has, to become more energy-conscious to save electricity. We are told to stop our coal plants—it amazes me that a country which talks of encouraging renewable energy, goes to the WTO against India and says why have we put up 400-megawatt

of domestically-produced panels. Should I have allowed US to compete even in those 400 megawatts that India has produced domestically? This happened when India’s domestic manufacturers had gone to the government before I became a minister, to impose anti-dumping duty on solar imports. I had extensive discussions to explain to them that I’ll ensure that every piece that they produce, we will procure, but allow us to think of a 100-gigawatt. Because if we impose anti-dumping duty, I won’t even be able to do the 20-gigawatt that is originally planned. I pleaded to domestic manufacturers not to insist on anti-dumping, because it will kill the solar projects. Solar power will become so expensive, nobody will buy it. I want to, in fact, scale it up so that cost will come down. And I am delighted and I am obliged and I am proud of our domestic manufacturers who withdrew their case. And thanks to that, today not only are we confident of achieving 1 lakh megawatts, we are well on path to achieve our targets. We will continue to support every domestic manufacturer, and use every piece of equipment they make. Those of you who monitor your bills will know that in the last 10 years, electricity prices would have, at least, doubled, if not more. So imagine, you are going to get power from a natural resource, where we don’t have to be

capital—is what we have in abundance.

Climate change is challenge to the world

In fact, publicly, the world has recognised terrorism and climate change to be the two biggest challenges before the world. And I would think any forbearance on trade pacts, any concessions on encouraging renewable energy, encouraging green energy, on making the world a better place to live in, should have actually been welcomed by the world. The International Solar Alliance, rests on India’s commitment that what has happened to India—and a country as large in dimension and scale—if this can happen to India, you imagine what happens to the rest of the underdeveloped world, to other emerging economies. It pains me when I hear people in Davos say their company has given 3 lakh solar lamps to villagers in Africa. One 7/9watt LED bulb and then they boast further that they have also added a mobile charger. So, now they have got energy and now they have got connected to the world. If the world is truly series about affordable energy access and a decent life for the underprivileged sections of society of the world, then we should be planning a life or a level of existence which is not suboptimal, but of a certain decent standard.

Off-grid solutions for remote villages

We have villages which are going to be connect-

We have villages which are going to be connected through off-grid solutions. There are around 800 villages in Arunachal Pradesh which are so remote that it will take years for the grid to reach. What would India do before? Give a 25watt small solar panel, maybe just two LED bulbs could work in that and nothing else, not even one fan—and then say we have connected them worried that some foreign country will cut off your supplies.

Let’s have a fair, two-way trade

Underdeveloped countries and emerging economies should open their boundaries to allow foreign capital to flow in, to allow foreign goods to flow in, unhindered. Everybody wants a free trade agreement. But this complete opening up should be a two-way traffic—you have surplus capital, you have technologies, which we want and we have human capital and skilled manpower. It should be a two-way trade. You bring in your investable surplus to India, I will take my investable surplus to your country. Let’s have a fair, two-way trade. Our capital—human

ed through off-grid solutions. There are around 800 villages in Arunachal Pradesh which are so remote that it will take years for the grid to reach. What would India do before? Give a 25watt small solar panel, maybe just two LED bulbs could work in that and nothing else, not even one fan—and then say we have connected them. We have said, we will give at least 200 watts, and with that, considering these people have been deprived of energy for seven decades after independence, living in such a sensitive border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, we’ll not only give you a 200-watt unit free of charge, we’ll also give you LED bulbs along with that. We’ll also give you a small LED television, to truly connect you to show you what’s happening in the world; make

you feel a part of growth, development, progress that India is making.

International Solar Alliance (ISA)

The whole world has to be connected with renewable energy, particularly solar energy; all should benefit from energy security, clean energy, and better environment. The benefit should be to a scale which is respectable. And India would like to contribute to developing solar energy across the world—faster, more effectively, more efficiently. ISA is going to be that platform, which will help us engage with countries around the world; also help the developed countries, if they really so desire to contribute to the efforts we are doing in other parts of the world. And this international platform will help us truly integrate energy as an important part of the global ecosystem, be it in terms of climate change, be it in terms of economics, be it in terms of the financial world. We believe, the leadership role that India is providing to the solar energy revolution can best be taken to all parts of the world through a multilateral agency like the ISA. On April 22nd, we shall be opening it up for formal signatures and membership in New York and I am very confident and hopeful that countries from around the world will participate in that. Those which are not within the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, beyond the 121 countries, will come in as partner countries—all will benefit from global trade but also global technology, global finance, and all will chip in to help the rest of the world benefit. The alliance rests on the fundamental belief that India deserves to have a rightful place in the committee of nations and that rightful place can only be achieved when we, as a nation, as Team India, believe in ourselves. We should have some optimism, we should trust our own ability. An attitude of pessimism and cynicism that is often reflected even in our own international engagements, is a narrative that India needs to change. (Excerpts from a public lecture delivered by Piyush Goyal at Pune International Centre)

tadka

This is the most irrigated country India is the most irrigated country in the world, with 57 million hectares of irrigated land. Andhra Pradesh is the most irrigated state in India, whereas West Bengal is the least irrigated.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 31

cover story PICS: YUSUF KHAN

32 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Dynamic Duo: 31

JENNY & JHEAN

Columbian ‘Wheel of Death’ artiste, Jhean Carlos and Nepalese ‘loose rope’ artiste Jenny Gautam, who defy death with every performance at the Rambo Circus, found love in the interlude—and live a life of togetherness, laughter and joyous submission to God’s own supreme plan

By Vinita Deshmukh

‘There is too much tension and hatred in the world. People want to cheat and snatch away things. So love is missing. We, in this circus, only give, give and give to others and are always ready to help each other’

Mention ‘power couples’, and you conjure up visions of those who have made it big in the corporate world; who, through their entrepreneurial or professional skills have become leaders; who have earned the luxury of a rich lifestyle, own highend cars, work in beautiful spaces with classy interiors; who are impeccably attired, suited to the occasion, and travel business class. Materialistic convenience is an integral part of their lives, and they have well-charted present and future plans for themselves and their families. They are part of that privileged fraternity which is heard by the government before it carves out its budget, year after year. Undoubtedly, India is studded with such power couples that represent the successful side of the nation’s economy, who have defined the economic and lifestyle status for thousands and thousands of young professionals. Corporate Citizen through its Dynamic Duo series has been covering remarkable stories of togetherness, work-life balance and values that keep such couples together and provide inspiration to young corporate managers. For a change, Corporate Citizen this time features a unique couple fitting the bill of Dynamic Duo, but come from outside the conventional corporate world. Thirty-year-old Jhean Carlos, hailing from Columbia, South America and 24-year-old Jenny Gautam from Nepal are death-defying artistes of the Rambo Circus – stars of their own accord. Carlos’ tryst with the ‘Wheel of Death’ and Jenny’s loose rope act

(slackwire walking—she dances to the tune of Bollywood numbers on it) twice a day, for two daily shows, stun the audience. In the course of these nail-biting stunts, they fell in love with each other, challenging language and cultural barriers. They spoke candidly about their love affair, their marriage, their new baby and life in the circus, shorn off its glamour (thanks to television), but which for them is the only genuine showbiz world. Carlos spoke in broken English, while Jenny, in Nepali Hindi. Generally, I walk into palatial bungalows or apartments to meet a Dynamic Duo couple. This time, I entered a large barren public ground in Pune, hired by the Rambo Circus. It was noon, the heat was scorching and there was stillness in the air on the hot, dry ground. The huge tent was a dusty brown, awaiting the sunset when the lights would glow and make the place bright and glimmering. I walked through the large Iron Gate and was escorted in by a staff member. I went through the circus tent—the largest one in Asia, 235 ft in diameter and 60 ft in height. Empty chairs —2000 of them – were lined in circular rows dotted by several huge air conditioners – waiting for the audience to walk in, in a few hours. At the centre was the ‘Wheel of Death’ machine, 50 ft in height—the star attraction of the circus and our ‘star’ of the story. I was taken to the rear side of the circus tent, where the stark reality of circus life hits you hard. Studded with cloth tents—110 of them—the uneven ground was strewn with plastic litter, June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 33

cover story despite the fact that 400 trucks of garbage and construction material had been flattened by a battery of JCBs. Pesticides had been amply used to kill and drive away the mosquitoes. Through the openings of the tents you could see artistes going through the daily rigmarole of washing, cleaning, cooking and relaxing. My escort pointed out to a white coloured house—what looked more like a caravan without wheels. Painted in stark white, it was made of wood—and was all of 18 ft by 6 ft. It looked cute, with a door bell in place. A tall, well built and handsome guy was seated outside, repairing a device. An elaborate and intricately etched tattoo popped out from the sides of his sports vest; his head was fully shorn of hair. Meet Jhean Carlos, the superstar of Rambo Circus: the death-defying acrobat of the ‘Wheel of Death.’

Warmth within a doll’s house

He ushered me into the 18 ft by 6 ft house – it seemed like a magnified doll’s house, aesthetically studded with photo frames and other decor. The house comprised a living room-cum-kitchenette cum baby’s room-cum-guest room; a master bedroom, with heart shaped pillows and cosy blankets neatly placed around a TV, an air conditioner, and a ceiling fan. Then, there was a near perfect bathroom, with a western w/c. My first impression was that, in this little fairy-tale house, Carlos and Jenny lived life kingsize! Another observation – there was positivity, happiness and laughter aplenty, marking the disposition of its star inhabitants. Once you sat inside the house, you did not feel the paucity of space – in fact, you felt the warmth of a nice home. His beautiful wife, Jenny Gautam, a Nepalese and the female Star of the Circus, who has also participated in TV shows like ‘India’s got talent’ and ‘Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega’ looks very demure and petite – in contrast to when she does a death-defying balancing dance act on the ‘loose walk rope’ and receives thunderous applause. The couple have recently been blessed with a beautiful baby girl who they have named Sharon. The love story of this Dynamic Duo revolves around two golden hearts almost making you remember the famous Boyzone number ‘… it’s only words and words are all I have, to take your heart away…’ It also reminds me of a quote by legendary Marathi littérateur, Kusumagraj who said, “Love is the essence of the human civilization, the conclusion of our history and the sole hope for tomorrow.’’

Death-defying performances

In order to understand their death-defying acrobatics, particularly by Carlos, it would be relevant here to describe what the feats are all about and how this ‘Dynamic Duo’ faces the challenge day 34 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

after day, but make it looks so easy, as entertainers. The first image that comes to one’s mind when you mention ‘circus’ is that of a clown, trademarked by Bollywood’s legendary star, Raj Kapoor in the movie ‘Mera Naam Joker’. However, it is the acrobats and stunt artists who make the reputation of any circus, as well as serve as magnets to bring in the audience. In the Rambo Circus, Carlos is the Superstar, for he maneuvers through the deadly ‘Wheel of Death’ like an agile Spiderman; only, unlike him, he wears a charismatic smile throughout the show, making you feel it is a cakewalk. He stuns the audience with his acrobatic swerves and captures their hearts by interacting with them through gestures while displaying his daredevilry. To understand what exactly he is doing, we need to understand the concept of the ‘Wheel of Death’ which has its origins in American circuses

as far back as the 1930s. The Wheel of Death is a large rotating apparatus, made of iron, on which two performers carry out synchronised acrobatic skills at either end. The two wheels are actually large space frame beams, connected with hooped tracks, within which the performers can stand. As the performers run around on either the inside or outside the hoops, the whole apparatus rotates. His wife, Jenny is a slackwire or loose rope artiste. The audience applause is thunderous when she dances delicately on this rope to the tune of ‘Dhoom Tana Dhoom Tana’ from the film ‘Om Shanti Om’. Although her flexi-rope is barely four feet high, the fact is, one slip could mean grievous injury. Surely, it is a less dangerous feat than Carlos’s but it is in the delicate balancing and movements that makes it equally daring. Loose rope walking is a type of wire or rope walking where the support is flexible or ‘slack’.

The Wheel of Death is a large rotating apparatus, made of iron, on which two performers carry out synchronised acrobatic skills at either end. The two wheels are actually large space frame beams, connected with hooped tracks, within which the performers can stand. As the performers run around on either inside or outside the hoops, the whole apparatus rotates

The tension on the wire or rope is mainly provided by the weight of the performer and their props. The difference in technique required to maintain balance on a slack wire is that the performer moves the wire under his or her centre of mass. The flexibility of the wire or rope allows the performer to achieve this.

Jab we met

There are strict rules in Rambo Circus to ensure discipline when it comes to interaction between the two sexes. Hence, romance is taboo, to a large extent. So when Carlos arrived in India, straight into the Rambo Circus premises in 2013, he was anyway too busy to indulge in any affair. His first job was to get the ‘Wheel of Death’ constructed to his specifications through Sujith, who had hired him for the purpose. With an expenditure of around ₹3 lakh, it was put in place, but says Sujith, “It became very heavy as here in India we used solid iron, as against abroad, where they insert aluminum inside. Thus, due to its weight, once the wheel was set in rotation, it became difficult to bring it to a halt. We had to use counter weights to slow down the movement through improvisation and innovation. Finally, we brought it to international standards.’’ Carlos, who had gained expertise in this death-defying act at his previous circus, became He said he loved Jenny and wanted to marry her. I understood as I would often see him clicking photographs only during her show. However, I told him that he would have to go by the Indian culture. He had to take her parents’ permission if he wanted to marry her Sujit Dilip Owner, Rambo Circus

Grind behind the Glamour

ambo Circus was established by P T Dilip in 1991 – it was a merger of three circuses earlier owned by him - the Erina Circus, the Great Oriental Circus and Victoria Circus. Now, his sons Sujith and Sumit Dilip are trying to bring in innovation to an entertainment industry that is losing its sheen. The innovations introduced by them include a custom-made, fire-proof Italian tent; bringing international artistes like Jhean Carlos; experimenting with the upgradation of canvas tents into caravan-like homes; and making the largest movable circus tent in Asia, measuring 235 feet in diameter and 60 ft in height. Rambo Circus is a member of the World Circus Federation, Monte Carlo, Monaco and has represented the country in the World Circus Day Celebration, 2011 at Monte Carlo and showcased Indian circus history through a documentary. Film shoots like Luck By Chance, Mujse Dosti Karoge, TV shows like Comedy Circus and many advertisements and music albums have been shot at Rambo Circus.Sujith Dilip speaks to Corporate Citizen on the trying job of running a circus in the entertainment industry.

Paucity of large public grounds

“We need a minimum of 3.5 acres to install our circus town, but find it difficult to get public grounds, as open spaces are shrinking in the cities. We are unable to hire private grounds due to their exorbitant rent. While we get municipal corporation grounds for `1,000 per day, grounds belonging to private persons cost `1 lakh per day or more. Recently, citing a National Green Tribunal (NGT) verdict, the Rambo Circus was denied a public space in Pune.” Sujith argues that the NGT order was for permanent structures but the Pune Municipal Corporation did not budge. So, now the Rambo Circus has been shifted to another location.

Condition of public grounds

“When we get the public ground, it is often in a much neglected state. The present ground at Sanghvi in Pune, which is of four acres, was filled with plastic litter, construction material and mosquitoes. We had to use several JCBs and pesticide sprays. We had to pour 400 trucks of mud and use several water tankers to level the ground. This cost us around `3.5 lakh. During storms and rains, the circus town becomes vulnerable to breakages and people and animals too can get injured. In countries like the USA, public grounds are given along with water supply, electricity and they are well maintained. In India, we have to undertake excruciating effort to make the ground liveable and worthy for shows.”

Moving the circus

“We need 45 trucks and three trailers to move the circus from one town to another. The two new types of caravan-like homes made for our star performers like Jhean Carlos requires an entire truck, the rental being `45,000 for that truck alone.

Circus’s prosperity depends on rains

While people in the cities come to see our shows during the holidays those in the rural areas come only if there have been good rains. Hence, we always wait for the summer to get over before we shift from a city to a rural town. The mood of the villagers depends upon the South West monsoons. If the rains come in time, they are in a rejoicing mood after they sow the seeds. Then, we know that they will spend money on entertainment and will throng the circus. The pain and suffering of the farmer in times of drought is very much our pain too.”

Trouble from animal activists

“Although we take good care of our animals – 12 dogs, four elephants and four horses -- and despite procuring all permissions (we have two cupboards filled with documents pertaining to permissions by various authorities for our animals) we are always under the radar of NGOs. They will file a complaint to the authorities without bothering to read the documents which are with us. After capturing our animals, the government does not question what happens to them. One of our animals was just left to die. Instead of that why can’t they be more pragmatic in their approach and let the animals be under our care?”

On why donations would help

“With the help of its wings, a bird flies higher and higher in the skies. With the help of its fins, a fish swims across the endless oceans. Wings for a bird and fins for a fish act as their keys to success, which helps them triumph the blue skies or oceans! Similarly, circus artists also need such a key for their success! And this key is their equipment. Yes, the artists need the latest equipment in order to entertain people more and more. Indian circus artists are in no way inferior to international circus artists in terms of their courage, determination or hard-work. It is the lack of the latest modern equipment that keeps them behind. They need high quality products to help them improve their performance. We therefore request you to sponsor our wonderful artists so that they can show their talent to the world.” June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 35 June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 35

cover story an instant celebrity overnight. He became the crowning glory of Rambo Circus and much ink has flown on his feat and many a camera man has captured this heart-stopping act of valour and entertainment. As for Jenny, she was leading a sedate life in a small town in Nepal where her father worked as a driver. However, one of her sister works in Rambo Circus as a trapeze artist. As a teenager, Jenny got curious about her sister’s workplace and decided to try her luck there. Says she coyly, “I came here out of curiosity and when I saw artistes performing feats, I too decided to try out. Soon I realised it was very hard work. Besides rehearsing, I also had to carry out routine duties. However, I enjoyed the pulsating act and balances on the loose rope walk. Only once, my hand was injured. Otherwise, despite it being challenging, I enjoy every bit of it.’’ However, someone else, besides herself and the audience was also enjoying her performance. Each time she walked the loose rope, Carlos would sit amidst the audience, clicking her photographs, in action. She says, “I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was a passion someone had, for photography.’’ Says Carlos, “Earlier, I too didn’t look at her as a special person. I only thought she was beautiful. But as days passed by, I realised that my heart was growing fonder for her. So one day I decided to ask one of the girls for her mobile number.’’ He says he was rudely denied the number as the girl said that the company (meaning the circus management) did not encourage any dialogue between girls and boys. Says he, “I said, okay baba, but the yearning to tell her my mind, loomed large in me.’’ Finally, the girl took pity on him, as he kept making the request often, and shared her mobile number with him.

Language of love

However, what about the language? He knew broken English and pure Spanish and she only knew Nepali Hindi. Says he hilariously, “The first time, when I spoke to her on the phone, she only kept laughing. She said nothing.’’ This happened several times, he says. Finally, they took to WhatsApp and Facebook in a big way. Says Jenny demurely, “We didn’t know each other’s language but I understood when he said ‘I love you’, but I was very scared.’’ Slowly, she dropped her inhibitions. When asked where else had he dated her, she interrupts, “This circus is our life. We do not go out of this world. We are not permitted to. So, we dated here only, secretly, mostly by cell phone.’’ An impatient Carlos wanted to have her as his wife and so one day told Sujith that he wanted to meet him. Sujith understood when he said it was something personal. Says Sujith, “He said he loved Jenny and wanted to marry her. I understood as I would often see him clicking pho36 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Happy family: Newly married couple with their new-born baby girl, Sharon

There was positivity, happiness and laughter aplenty, marking the disposition of its star inhabitants. Once you sat inside the house, you did not feel the paucity of space – in fact, you felt the warmth of a nice home tographs only during her show. However, I told him that he would have to go by the Indian culture. He had to take her parents’ permission if he wanted to marry her.’’ Carlos agreed, and so Jenny’s parents came down from Nepal. They were apprehensive as he was a foreigner and asked Sujith whether he could vouchsafe for him 100 percent. Sujith replied, “I cannot vouchsafe for anyone even if he is an Indian but although this guy is a foreigner, he is an orphan and is looking out for true love. So I think he could be loyal to your daughter.’’

Hurdles to cross

Thus, history was to be made, as it would be the first-ever marriage ceremony at the Rambo Circus. However, there were many hurdles to be crossed. Elaborates Jenny, “When my parents agreed to the match, I was very happy. However, because both of us belonged to different countries, we were not getting permission to get married. I am thankful to the pastors who intervened and made this happen.’’ Adds Sujith, “Actually it was a case of ‘absence making the heart grow fonder’ that made the marriage happen so fast. Although Carlos was courting Jenny, he decided to make a trip to his circus family home in Columbia. However, within three to four days of going there, he called me up and said he wanted to come back here. He was sobbing over the phone. I asked him why was he crying and why did he want to come back. He confessed that he was madly in love with Jenny and he must get her forever. He could not live without her.’’ Finally, on May 25, 2014, Rambo Circus premises turned into a wedding venue and received great media attention. Like a celebrity couple, their pictures got splashed in various newspapers

and magazines all over India and even overseas. Jenny was dressed in a long white flowing bridal gown and makeup, aided by her artiste friends of the circus. Carlos was dressed in his formal suit, helped by the male artists of the circus. It was a happy occasion, under the arc lights, where they usually performed their acrobatic feats. The honeymoon which was spent in the little white house, soon gave way to their daily routine. However, they got themselves the most wonderful first wedding anniversary gift with the arrival of little Sharon.

And they are living happily ever after…

Says Carlos, “In my country, Columbia, there is no such discipline in the circus. Girls and boys go out together, even nights out, and when the girl becomes pregnant, the boy-friend deserts her. I don’t like that – my father died very young and my mother abandoned me as a child, so I know how important it is for a child to have parents. I was seriously in love with Jenny so I am very happy today that I have a beautiful wife and now a beautiful baby. God has given me everything.’’ Adds Jenny, “He is very nice. See, how he has decorated this house. These were just blank walls painted white—he has made them come alive. He just loves to do that – he is so creative. He is also very nice and helpful. He is an all rounder – good in plumbing, electrical fittings, electronic repairs – you name it and he knows how to do it. He has given much more than I ever expected.’’

Golden hearts, beat as one

So, what is it that Carlos particularly likes about Jenny? Putting his hand to his heart, he says proudly, “She has a golden heart. Many girls are very beautiful but not all have a heart as beautiful as Jenny’s. I am blessed.’’ So, which language do they talk in now? Says Carlos, “She has learnt a bit of Spanish,’’ and then urges her to have a conversation in Spanish. She does that coyly and with relative ease. Sometimes you find gloom, distress and negativity in grand and swanky homes, but here in this midget home, there seems to be so much of warmth, laughter and happiness. I asked Carlos the reason. He said, “We enjoy everything, the struggle as well as the success.’’ Isn’t this a valid tip for young corporate managers? He tells more. Says he, “There is too much tension and hatred in the world. People want to cheat and snatch away things. So love is missing. We, in this circus, only give, give and give to others and are always ready to help each other.’’

Circus teaches you life

For Carlos, who seems to have conquered life in all its brightness and gaiety, it is the tough experience in the circus since he was an eight year old boy, that helped him grow positively. Like the proverbial ‘when the going gets tough, the tough

get going,’ Carlos relives some heart-tugging childhood experiences. He narrates, “When I was two years old, my father died. Thereafter, my mother looked after me for sometime but then abandoned me. My father’s sister took me to her house to bring me up but she too said she had no resources to look after me anymore. So, at the age of seven years, I took to the road. I slept on the roadside. As I walked, I found a small circus by the roadside. It was called ‘Circo de Osos Rusos.’ My father and grandfather were both circus artistes, so I found the environment familiar. There I used to run errands for almost everyone. I helped everyone happily and with a smile so they named me ‘Lucesitas’ meaning the one who brings brightness.” Soon he became an all rounder boy. He narrates. “For the next four to five years, I repaired any-

Thereafter, Columbia brought in stringent laws against the use of any kind of animals in circuses and that seemed to put a halt to Carlos’s career. However, he took part in international circus shows that were held in countries like Germany, Japan, China and so on. Thereafter, he worked in Kaos, Vegas Circus in Resort World, Philippines, Le Cirque in Brazil and thereafter in the Magic Circus, Samoa. Says Sujith, “We had a tie up with Magic Circus, Samoa where we used to exchange artistes. That is how Carlos and Manuel (partner in the Wheel of Death show) came to Rambo Circus and that’s how we started the ‘Wheel of Death’ show.’’ Carlos today is an internationally acclaimed acrobat for the deadly ‘Wheel of Death’ show. Says Sujith, “He needs a partner, so initially there was Manuel. After he left, there was Kev-

‘The circus is my only life. There is no other life. When I go back home to Columbia, I go back to my circus family who looked after me since I was a child. No circus, no life.’ thing that was out of order; I helped the Music Master in recording songs, I was put in charge of the light system, I learnt to train horses and became the Horse Ring Master. I left that circus when I was 12 years old.’’ Carlos then joined the Circo Royal. There the owner asked him whether he knew how to train lions. Says Carlos, with a twinkle in his eyes, “I said, yes, yes, of course I know. The owner was relieved and told me that there were three lion cubs which were resting as their trainer had left. He asked me to start the training immediately. I was totally shocked, and with fear filled in my heart and in my brain, I was benumbed. I requested him to give me a couple of days as I was tired after the journey.’’

In the lion’s mouth!

For Carlos, it was a case of survival and he kept contemplating. Says he, “Every time God comes to my help. I have no knowledge about anything but it comes to me, whenever I desired it, so this time too I prayed to God. I calmly took command, though I suffered many injuries from these three lion cubs. I love animals too much, so there was no question of using a whip. I got an idea. I tied a chicken to the end of a long stick and dangled it like a carrot in front of the lion. Then I would take it in a straight line away from it. It would sense food and start walking towards it. Similarly when I moved the stick with the bait with in a curved fashion, it would jump up to grab it. That’s how I trained each one of them and commenced the show within a few weeks. Thus, by the age of 14 years, I was an accomplished lion ring master.’’

in. Thereafter, he has been training some young Indian acrobats, but once one such trainee was thrown off the Wheel, falling from a height of 60 feet. The MRI scan showed that he did not suffer any fracture, but he was in a state of psychological shock and took a long time to recover from it. Sometimes Carlos gets upset that Indian artistes do not have the strength and stamina for such a show, but I ask him to be patient as most of them are first generation artistes.’’

Tryst with India

Says Carlos on his tryst with India, “I had not even heard the name of this country. When I was asked to go to India, I was totally blank. I was asked to google and then found the country which had Taj Mahal. I saw some videos on YouTube and Discovery Channel and became familiar with the country. I said okay, and landed straight at the Rambo Circus which in 2013 was located in Pimpri.’’ The biggest stumbling block for Carlos was the food. Says he, “Indian food is so spicy that I had too much trouble with my stomach. So I requested Sujith to provide me with a kitchenette, gas cylinder and utensils. He did so and I cook Columbian food which is bland compared to Indian food. I am much better now.’’ Jenny has learnt to cook this cuisine too. Don’t they get bored of this vagabond life? Answers Carlos spiritedly, “The circus is my only life. There is no other life. When I go back home to Columbia, I go back to my circus family who looked after me since I was a child. No circus, no life.’’ vinita.deshmukh@corporatecitizen.in June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 37

Corporate History

Custard powder’s

yummy success Bahri Malhotra, Chairman, Weikfield Industries, known in Indian homes for its custard powder and jelly—pens an emotional and thought-provoking journey of this enterprise, on the occasion of the 60th-year-anniversary of the company that is synonymous with lip-smacking desserts, sauces, mushrooms and now health foods By Bahri Malhotra

ixty years is quite a long time, a lifetime almost, in any journey. I am grateful to the Almighty for giving me the opportunity of being part of this journey from its very inception till today. My misfortune lies in the fact that almost all of those who began this chapter with me are no longer with us to see the fruit of their hard work. To say that I miss them would be a big understatement, and I take this opportunity to pay my heartfelt homage to those dear departed souls. I must especially mention here the tremendous role and impact that my most respected elder brother, SP Malhotra and my Revered Bhabhiji, Smt Rajinder Mohini Malhotra played in both my life and the life of Weikfield. It was SPji’s inspirational and visionary leadership and innate business acumen, and a never- saydie spirit, that was at the heart of our success. The values he laid down and practiced himself, became the guiding forces for all our family members, old and young. Our Bhabhiji was the glue that kept us all together through thick and thin. Her love, generosity of spirit and common sense wisdom, kept us all going whatever be the circumstances. I wish they were here today, to share this very important milestone in the history of their creation. I miss them dearly, most of all. Having been part of the beginning of Weikfield, I thought I would share with you how it all began and some interesting facts and anecdotes of our early formative years, when it was a make -or-break for us.

38 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

We were refugees from Rawalpindi, who made Poona our home. Having left everything behind, we struggled to make a living and tried many things. Having been auctioneers in Rawalpindi, we started buying government and military surpluses in auctions and selling them all over the country. One of the lots we thus purchased in 1955 was of custard powder, a product we knew very little about. I brought a can home, and my Revered Bhabhiji said, let me try and make it. After a couple of missed attempts, she made a lovely custard pudding which we all found delicious. Many schools, hotels and bakeries used to buy this product and this set off a chain of events, where my elder brother the late SP Malhotra, decided to get into the manufacturing of this product. The presence of the NCL in Pune was a great resource for our R&D and with trial and error and much effort, where my younger brother Harish and I would blend the recipes and Bhabhiji would prepare the pudding and give us her suggestions for improvement; we were eventually successful in making a delicious, tasting product. We had a product. Now came the question, to sell the product, we needed a name or brand. Our product was a Western dessert, and we instinctively knew that calling it “Malhotra” Custard or “Bharat” Custard, would not be ac-

cepted by the consumers. It had to have a European or English-sounding brand to be accepted or we would fail. During our trading days, one of our associates had a small office in Ballard Estate in Bombay. Every time we walked from VT station to his office, we would cross a lovely heritage building called `Wakefield House’. Spelled WAKEfield. It sounded typically British and we really liked that name. It belonged to the company that made Castrol lubricating oils. We decided to name our brand 'Wakefield'. However, we also knew that if we copied the name ditto, we could attract trademark litigation. So using our own desi ingenuity, we tweaked the spelling, keeping the pronunciation the same and well, WEIKFIELD was born. The rest I suppose is history. The first few months of our existence were especially tough. I was allotted the sales portfolio by Bhaisaheb. I used to load one or two cases of custard powder on my cycle carrier and go shop to shop to sell. Many of them had been my customers from my auction purchase and sales days, especially the convent schools and missionary institutions. It was very tough to convert them to stock our products in place of the multinational brands they were well accustomed to. I learnt many lessons during those days, but with persistence, I succeeded in most cases. Then I was deputed to expand the market all over the country and I restarted travelling continuously for 20 to 25 days a month appointing distributors in every important city and town. Our first distributor was Lucky Stores in Panchgani who still continue today, 60 years later. Mr Sharom Javanmardi, son of my good friend the late Merwan has carried forward the enterprise. The boarding schools in Panchgani were, and even now are, good customers for our products!

We were refugees from Rawalpindi, who made Poona our home. Having left everything behind, we struggled to make a living and tried many things

Bahri Malhotra with next gen entrepreneurs Mukesh (left) and Ashwini Malhotra (standing)

Weikfield Products Deserts & Ingredients ◆ Custard Powder ◆ Baking Powder ◆ Cornflour ◆ Vegetarian Jelly ◆ Cremelle Powder ◆ Freeze Ice Cream Mix ◆ Cocoa Powder ◆ Icing Sugar ◆ Vanilla Powder

Fresh Vegetables & Fruits

◆ Fresh Button Mushroom

Processed Vegetables & Fruits ◆ Sweet Corn Kernels ◆ Canned Mushroom ◆ Tutti Frutti

Sauces, Pickles & Condiments

◆ Condimental Sauces ◆ Chinese Sauces ◆ Chilli Vinegar ◆ Mustard Powder ◆ Prepared Mustard ◆ Mushroom Pickle ◆ Mayonnaise

Health Foods & Beverages

◆ St. Dalflour Fruit Preserve ◆ Glucovin-D ◆ Drinking Chocolate

Powder

◆ T-Lite’ Zero Calorie

Sweetner

Organic Tea We appointed some of the biggest distribution houses of that time like G Atherton & Co, as our regional distributors, which gave us quite a good boost in retail sales. In the mid-1950s, such products were either imported, or imported in bulk and packed here by some well-established multinational companies, like corn products, which, over the past 12-15 years is part of Hindustan Unilever. They sold just one pack....a one pound can. So if a restaurant needed 10 pounds they bought

10 cans, and if a housewife needed only 50 or 60 grams she also had to buy 450 grams. We saw an opportunity there. We started offering 10 pound and 25 pound packs to the bulk consumers. Since the packing and labour costs were much lower, our price was half of the 10 one pound tins, they used to buy. And for housewives, we introduced the quarter-pound or 113-gram packets, which again meant that she had to make a very small monthly investment to make the moderate quantity of dessert she

needed for family and guests. This multi packaging innovation, gave us an advantage over our well established multinational competitors, who, then, were forced to copy us, but, thankfully very slowly. Our next big challenge was how to expand our consumer base over and above the small population that was used to Western cuisine, hotels and restaurants etc. As struggling startups, we certainly did not have the means to go for massive advertising. And also, advertising June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 39

Corporate History would not have changed the food habits of the people. So thinking back to how we ourselves discovered custard pudding, by actually tasting it, we knew that getting people to taste and like the product was essential to our Then and Now. Savouring sweet success success. In 1958, there was an International Trade Fair in Delhi, on what later became the Pragati Maidan Exhibition complex. Putting all our meagre resources together and negotiating very strongly with the authorities, we took up a large pavilion at this fair. We purposely chose a site where there was a big open space abutting the stall. On this status under the Defence of India rules in force space, we set up a number of tables and chairs during the war, for priority on scarce raw matewith garden umbrellas, and here we served our rials like sugar and logistics support for trucks, custards and jellies to the vast numbers of visetc. We were very proud indeed that we could itors, from mainly North India. It had the deserve the nation in our own humble way. sired effect. People loved the taste and bought Those were days of extreme foreign exchange and took back small packs of these products to shortage and the food machinery manufacturtry at home. Our experiment had succeeded, ing in the country was in its and sales at the stall even covered a large part of infancy. We needed up-to our exhibition costs. Soon North India became date equipment to modour biggest market. This showed us the way ernise our production and ahead, and we repeated such participations in the only way was to import. many cities with good results. Getting import licences was My brother Shri SPji was very strict and firm a backbreaking task, involvand obsessed that the quality of our products ing numerous trips to The had to be as good as or better than anything else DGTD and CCIE offices in the market. Also, we knew that the Army was in New Delhi to plead our a big consumer of products like ours for solcause. In 1960-61 we finally diers, comforts, hospitals, etc. But the Army succeeded in getting some had their own very high-quality and hygiene small licences to import standards, much more stringent than the civil some equipment from West standards under the PFA Act. Germany. We thus took on the challenge right from I recall that my dear 1957, to conform to Army standards, and friend the late Shri H K worked very hard at it. The result was that we Firodia was on the same were successfully registered with the armed hopping Air India flight to Frankfurt. He was forces, which, at that time became one of our also going to buy a plant to make the legendary major customers. This registration and accepthree-wheeler tempos from Germany and we tance as the sole suppliers due to our quality and shared our experiences and difficulties many hygiene standards in our small factory behind times even after returning home from that visit. our home in Koregaon Park, paid us rich diviThe shortage of foreign exchange and impossidends. We were able to serve our armed forces ble import licences, forced us to motivate local in the 1962 Indo China war. We supplied huge vendors to develop suitable machines and we quantities of vitamin fortified juice powders to brought in many such manufacturers to our facour jawans fighting in the high altitudes in Latory to copy the imported machines. I’m really dakh, etc which were very important nutritionhappy to say that many of them were equally al aids to their health in those difficult regions enthusiastic and worked very hard and closeand conditions. Our products were regularly air ly with us to develop indigenous equipment of dropped to the jawans. We were given a special

almost equivalent quality and output, in terms of performance, but perhaps not in looks and elegance!! That was the first era of ‘Make in India’ of which many of us were an integral part, and proudly so. It was always our endeavour to promote import substitution and go for imports only as a last resort, as part of our national duty. Of course, things have changed a lot especially since 1991, and while Indian industry has developed by leaps and bounds, we do resort to imports of specialised equipment now and then when necessary. We were operating from an improvised factory behind our rented home at 116 Koregaon Park from 1957 to 1961. Once again, my Bhabhiji was the catalyst who insisted that we should have an independent modern factory of our own at a respectable place. While we men wanted to buy ourselves a home with some funds we had accumulated by then, she flatly said that a new factory was her first priority and a home could wait. So we set out to find some land. The Commissioner at that time, one Mr Naik, offered us land in the newly industrial town of Pimpri-Chinchwad. We almost purchased the plot on the main Bombay Pune Road at Akurdi where later Formica set up their plant. However, while driving back from a site visit, SPji thought aloud that if we built the factory there, we would be far from home and would have to carry a dabba for lunch. This was unacceptable to him. He said “arre, roti ke liye Sab kucch karte hain, toh yeh nahi jamega!!” Thus began our search nearer to Koregaon park, and we bought our plot on Nagar Road, where we built our landmark factory in 1962. This was inaugurated by the late Shri Y B Chavan, the then Defence Minister, and a great visionary of Maharashtra. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin of Russia was the first man to have orbited the earth in space and we were very elated that the world had entered the Space Age. To commemorate this, Bhaisaheb asked the architect to design a rocket-shaped entrance to the new factory, and this was a unique landmark feature on Nagar road for over four decades. From a one-room, two employees and two product start-up on Main Street, is how it all began. And today spread over three states with over 900 working, this plant has come a long way. And the state-of-the-art plants producing over 50 products and sold in over 25 countries has been a long journey, but very satisfying story of sweet success.”

We were able to serve our armed forces in the 1962 Indo China war. We supplied huge quantities of vitamin fortified juice powders to our jawans fighting in the high altitudes in Ladakh

40 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen claps for the 23-year-old cadaver donor from Pune. He succumbed to a road accident, but had his heart rushed from Ruby Hall Clinic to AIIMs (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), Delhi, for transplantation to revive another 24-year-old youth, suffering from a heart ailment for the last four years.

Although no longer unique, cadaver donations need ample cooperation from traffic sergeants and local traffic management to create green channels, as also timely action on part of the families of the deceased in transporting the organs in a usable state. The Pune episode is the first such episode reported in the city where six organs—heart, liver, kidneys, two corneas—were harvested from one cadaver in a healthy state and transplanted in different needy patients, in different locations, within and outside the city. Also, it was the first time that Pune was involved in any kind of inter-state heart transplant. For this, the Pune traffic police department deserves a round of applause for creating a green corridor in a record 6.5 minutes to transport the organ, to the local airport for its “life saving” sojourn. The green corridor facilitated unhindered transportation of the organ between Ruby Hall Clinic and the airport which is 7.8 kilometres apart, was covered in an astonishing 6.5 minutes’ time. This success was a result of planned and coordinated efforts of the traffic divisions that involved two assistant commissioners of police, one police inspector, four assistant inspectors and 32 traffic cops. The story of biker Harish Nanjappa from Karnataka—who, while in a state where his body was “split in half” in an accident early 2016, pledged to donate his organs as his dying wish—has helped to reduce the stigma linked to organ donation. The ministry of health and family welfare has set up a 24×7 toll-free helpline number: 1800114770 to encourage more cadaver donors. A call centre has been established to provide information on organ donation and coordinating efforts for retrieval and allocation of organs recovered from donors. Statistics states that this year itself, Pune reported occurrences of 12 brain-dead donors and a total of 17 kidney transplants and 13 liver transplants. As more families open up to the idea of cadaver donations of their braindead loved ones, Zonal Transplantation Co-ordination Committees in individual states have a strong responsibility to coordinate between donor and recipient families—they thus gain our utmost reverence to carry forward such life-saving noble deeds.

Corporate Citizen slaps the constant elevations in environmental pollution in the country. The WHO categories air pollution as the sixth biggest cause of deaths in India which depicts studies showing breathing ailments were on the rise in Indian cities.

The WHO report measured air quality in 1,600 cities. The alarm bell therefore rings loud and definitely calls for a concerted national environmental and pollution audit. The new report slots Delhi on 11th position on the world chart, which offers some relief as the capital city is no longer the most polluted cities, as reported earlier. The capital’s pollution levels have improved slightly at PM 2.5 concentration falling from 153 micro gram per cubic metre of air from the previous WHO report to 122, but was still six times above the safety limit of 20. This pinpoints on industrial and vehicular exhaust as the main culprits that are choking large parts of the country with little oversight or faulty audit mechanisms. While the Iranian city of Zabol ranks as the topmost polluted city globally, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) and Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) are ranked at 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively. The report considered annual average concentration of the particulate matter (PM) 2.5 in 3,000 cities from 103 countries. Delhi’s data is from 2013 and that for most Indian cities are from 2012. The other cities are placed as: Patna (6th), Raipur (7th), Ludhiana (12th), Kanpur (15th), Khanna (16th), Firozabad (17th) and Lucknow (18th). According to the report, Uttar Pradesh had four of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. Other than Allahabad, the other UP cities in the top 20 are Kanpur (15), Firozabad (17) and Lucknow (18). Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of polluted cities followed by Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. India’s pollution watchdog data for the past 15 years have shown that air pollution in smaller cities such as Gwalior, Allahabad, Kanpur, Jodhpur, Ludhiana and Bhopal, has outpaced the bigger metros. Sunita Narain, Director General of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, observes that these upcoming cities are a public transport nightmare and that there is a deeper need now to transform these tier-2 and tier-3 cities into ‘smart cities’ that take care of safe public transport which is non-polluted and also considers public health during planning and execution stages. Experts say that while there is growing awareness and as more cities monitor their air quality, there would be stark changes in the quality of global respiratory and cardiovascular-related illnesses. June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 41

The Tax Man Cometh-13

by S K Jha (IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)

Round-tripping, the FDI way Believe it or not, it is through FDI or FPI most black money is re-routed to India. Mauritius and Singapore form almost 50 percent of the FDI in India. Though the recent amendment in the DTAA with these two countries will effectively curb this unhealthy practice, the onus is on us Indians to win this battle against the black money decisively

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”

ather of modern China Deng Xiaoping once said, “It does not matter if a cat is black or white so long it catches mice.” His school of thought leads to the belief that if objective is to make money, then go on making it as a game without a pause or hesitation, whether the money generated is ‘white’ or ‘black’. Generally, in the normal way of making money, the person making it has an option after he has made his money to account it and pay taxes thereon. If he does this, the net income going to his pocket becomes ‘white money’ and if he does not do that, then the gross income becomes ‘black money’. There are also illegal ways of making money which are different from the normal ways, such as taking bribes, dealing in prohibited items like drugs, smuggling and human trafficking. Money comes in a big way but because of secretive nature of these transactions, the person making such money does not have the option to account this income and pay tax thereon as his primary objective is not getting caught for criminal action. The money so earned goes into complete hiding as a result. Recently, IMF has issued a paper on corruption which says though it is hard to measure correctly, the economic cost of corruption will be substantial. The IMF has made an estimate of bribery at around US$1.5 trillion (tn) to US$2 tn, which will amount to roughly two percent of global GDP. India’s share in corruption money will be very high as it is ranked 76th in Transparency Perception Index, of 2015, out of 168 countries. There has been a lot of discussion on black money in our country these days, both on public platforms and before the apex court and in the Parliament. The questions being asked are about 42 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

its quantum which has gone outside India and how and when it will come back, in addition to the estimate of black money still in the country. There is no official estimate of our black money abroad as per the Government; however, one recent estimate based on IMF data by Italian economists says that about US$181 bn of our money is in tax havens. The movement of black money and its speed is governed by the nature of source from which it is generated. If the source is normal business, then it moves faster to generate more income and if the source is illegal, then its movement is slow and for safe hiding with a few exceptions. The movement of black money out of the country sometime is for safe hiding but sometime it is for face change and bringing back to the country to earn more and again it goes out after income is earned. The black money coming back to the country comes with a face of foreign fund which comes from the route of FDI or FPI (foreign portfolio investment), with a tourist halt in Mauritius or Singapore, the countries with which India has a friendly Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). The carrier of money for movement back to India is Participatory Note (PN) which enables that the actual

owner of the fund is never known. The device of choosing friendly DTAA country is called ‘treaty shopping’ and the movement of money as such is called ‘round-tripping’. Mauritius, an island country in the Indian Ocean with 1.3 million people is a beautiful tourist place famous for sun, beach and sand. It is a favoured tourist destination of many Indians. But, it is also a favoured holiday destination of our black money. The cumulative figure of foreign FDI or FPI coming to India since April 2000 till December 2015 is US$278.1 bn, out of which fund coming from Mauritius is US$93.66 bn and from Singapore it is US$43.17 bn. Thus, the foreign fund coming from Mauritius alone comes to 35 percent of our total incoming investment and if considered together with Singapore, then the share of the two countries goes up to roughly 50 percent. The fund coming from Mauritius comprises of some genuine foreign investment which takes this route for softer tax treatment under the cover of DTAA between India and Mauritius but it also has a sizeable share of our own black money coming back on round-tripping for investment in our share market. The purpose is to make more money in the capital market and keeping the mar-

misused and after closure of Mauritius and Singapore routes, there is a possibility of more misuse of this route, particularly in the case of funds coming from Europe. Cyprus route also requires a more minute look for correction of aberrations. Black money illegally earned and kept in hiding is difficult to be located and brought back to India. In many cases, the money is in tax havens under the cover of offshore shell companies like what has been detected by Panama Papers. The Government has legislated a very strong black money law for this purpose, and the owners of unaccounted money kept abroad can go to jail and the tax and penalty together will be more than the money itself kept in hiding. Our country has joined the scheme of automatic exchange information programme and this will enable us to receive information about the hidden money from other countries from January 2017. Tax department has also opened offices in 10 countries already and many are in the process. These offhe lacuna in our DTAA with Maurishore offices will provide intelligence input about tius was being felt for a long time. In the hidden money and assets kept abroad. fact, there were legal cases fought beIndia ranked fifth largest exporter of illicit fore apex court in the name of ‘Azadi money between 2002 and 2011, with a total of Bachao Andolan’ being party in the US$343.04 bn and in 2011-12 it was placed third case against state. The good news is that just a few when US$84.93 bn was sent abroad, according to days back, the present Government has been able a 2013 report titled ‘Illicit Financial Flows from to bring a protocol for amendment of the articles Developing Countries’. The quantum of black and clauses which have been hurting us. As per money inside the country gets an indicator from the press release, the capital gains will be fully taxthe fact that in 2,746 cases between assessment able in India on the sale of shares in India from years (AYs) 2007-08 and 2015-16, agricultural April 2019. In the interim period, between April income more than ₹1 crore in Fighting black money, both each case was declared. The agricultural income is non-taxdomestically and globally, is like able in our country and it is fighting with darkness. We can have apparent that some rich and a small remedy by putting light here mighty tried to convert their and there, but the battle will never be black money into white. It is really ironical that the farmers won till there is sunlight are committing suicides because of drought and low yield of the crop but the rich and mighty are having 2017 and March 2019, the capital gains will be more agricultural income when they are really taxable at the rate of 50 percent of the domestic not engaged in agriculture. The Governor of the rate, provided the Mauritius entity is a genuine Reserve Bank has said recently that due to elecentity that has spent minimum ₹ 27 lakh in Mautions in a few states, the cash movement in the ritius and is not a shell company. To provide time market has gone up by ₹60,000 crore. to investors, the amended provision will not apply Recently, in Tamil Nadu alone, ₹200 crore in till April 2017. Since Singapore DTAA on capital cash have been seized by the Election Commisgain is linked with our DTAA with Mauritius, the sion. What is the cause for the generation of so amendment will automatically affect our DTAA much of black money in our country? The answer with Singapore. is that the causes are many but a few important It is visualised that proposed amendments will among them are our election system, the conspicstop a normally travelled route of round-tripping uous consumption, greed and corruption. and work against the speedy movement of our black money. The real investors will also now come directly to India, if they want to invest in ighting black money, both domestiIndia. The country will get the legitimate tax due cally and globally, is like fighting with to it. The foreign fund coming to India will be darkness. We can have a small remedy genuine FDI or FPI and this will also stop volatilby putting light here and there, but the ity in the stock market. Though in a smaller way, battle will never be won till there is our DTAA with the Netherlands is also being sunlight. In this context, the sunlight will mean ket volatile. Once income is earned as capital gain on the sale of shares, it again goes out, paying no taxes in India and negligible tax in Mauritius or a small tax in Singapore under DTAA. Our DTAA with Mauritius was entered into 1983. As per this, the capital gains earned in India on the sale of shares will not be taxable in India but in Mauritius where there is a negligible rate of three percent for taxing such income. In our DTAA with Singapore, the capital gain on shares will be treated in a similar manner, linking it to our DTAA with Mauritius. Because of the tax advantage many ‘postbox office companies’ have been opened in these two countries for routing money to India. But, this also provides a cheaper option to our black money owners for round-tripping. It is being said that India’s biggest source of FDI has been India herself, money departing on a short holiday and then routed back as FDI.

the change of attitude of our countrymen. We countrymen have to be patriotic and we should think of the country first, and as the country grows, we grow collectively. Taxes have to be paid for the development of the country and if this happens, then there would be no black money. In the meanwhile, we have to fight the menace of black money at two fronts: Firstly, we have to ensure that there is no additional generation of black money, and secondly, we have to unearth the black money already lying in our country and also sent abroad. For stopping the generation of additional black money, we have to demonstrate strict action against tax evaders. This may necessitate some amendments in our tax laws to enable us to send the tax evaders to jail. The tax department has to evolve as the dreaded IRS (Internal Revenue System) of the US. Secondly, our transactions should take place only through banks and only in very deserving cases, cash transactions of small amounts should be allowed. Agricultural income, after a certain limit which can take care of the real farmers, should become taxable. The loopholes in the Income-Tax Act in the form of several exemptions should be removed. As for the black money already prevailing in our country and also sent abroad, we have to hire professional informants who will help us in locating the hidden black money. The Central Board of Direct Tax (CBDT) has initiated a project for data mining against all permanent account numbers (PANs). This project will continue for three years to identify our hidden income and the project is named ‘Project Insight’. We have to make tax evasion so expensive so that our people will find not worth indulging in this. The budget this year has announced a scheme ‘The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016’ as per which persons will be entitled to declare their black money in cash or in assets for the FY15-16 or of even earlier years by paying tax and penalty totalling to 45 percent of the income declared. This scheme is only for domestic black money. Window for declaration will open on June 1, 2016 and will close on September 30, 2016. The scheme assures that there will not be any enquiry or scrutiny or prosecution. The objective behind this scheme to give opportunity to people to come clean voluntarily. The world has seen that the persons have become super-rich by following the principled path. We commit mistakes out of greed but this path doesn’t take us anywhere. Steve Jobs said, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” Mistakes are committed thinking that we are immortal. Warren Buffet has something to say to our young corporate citizens, “Do not save what is left after spending, but spend after what is left saving.” My young readers can aspire to be the Warren Buffets of tomorrow by following his advice. You can build your capital and create wealth in a rightful manner and if so, there is no need of black money. June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 43

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The race is on - ‘Organization Transformation: The Case for Gamification’

by Name of the Author: Professor Vijayan Pankajakshan, Dean- HR Academics, Research & Industry Interface; Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research Name of the Co-author 1: Ms. Neha Bhat, Student, Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research Name of Co-author 2: Ms. Avani Thakkar, Student, Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research Name of the Co-author 3: Mr. P.V. Aditya, Student, Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research

CII - Western Region 2nd EdgeFarmHR Case Study Writing Competition 1st runner-up secondary category

Co-Author 1: Neha Bhat

Neha Bhat aspires to be an HR professional & comes from mechanical engineering background with the thought that ‘people’ are most vital for the success or failure of the organisation and ‘attitude’ is most vital for the success and failure of an individual..

Prof. Vijayan Pankajakshan

Professor Vijayan Pankajakshan has over 26 years of Corporate experience in the areas of Personnel, Employee Relations, HRD, OD, TQM and Manufacturing Management. Worked in a range of organisations like ICI, Hindustan Ciba Geigy( now Novartis), Marico, Best Foods, IFFCO( Sharjah), AC Nielsen, Sharjah, Mahindras, Chep India Pvt Ltd. He was the first HR professional in Marico to be job rotated as Head of Manufacturing at Palakkad, Kerala. He did his Masters from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations. He was the Gold Medalist. He is now the Dean, Human Resources at WeSchool, Mumbai for the past six years.

Co-Author 2: Avani Thakkar

Avani is firm believer of “Today, power is gained by sharing knowledge, not hoarding it “. She is a software engineer with the vision - walking with others on the path of success - Empowering others &Society. She aspires to be an HR professional.

Co-Author 3: P. V. Aditya

Aditya is an electronics engineer and an aspiring HR professional. He strongly believes in inculcating management skills through practice and bringing about change in people for controlling the output of processes.

Corporate Citizen, the Exclusive Magazine Partner of the event, will publish the series of top Case Studies, one by one 44 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

cii Case Study-4 The race is on

December 27, 2015 : On this Sunday late evening, Rajesh Kumar was stuck in the thick of traffic. This afforded him a moment to reflect on some of the dilemmas, he was facing at work. He looked around and saw that most other motorists seemed to be very satisfied and showed visible signs of the celebratory environment of the impending New Year. Rajesh was far from being excited. He thought aloud, “Can one have the best of everything and lose nothing at all?” He sighed. October 5, 2015: Dilip Chadda, the Chairman of the global giant Indian manufacturing firm Vectorix Ltd was disappointed with the company’s decreasing profits, year on year, quarter after quarter. He felt disappointed and frustrated. None of the new initiatives/strategies he had initiated were delivering results or for that matter followed the PDCA loop. Some of these initiatives included, brand building, lean manufacturing, enhanced technology level & automation in manufacturing processes, HRMS. While these initiatives should have moved the needle of the company’s performance northwards, it seemed to go the other direction. Dilip pondered as to what could be the root cause. The worry lines on his forehead were getting accentuated. Dilip decided not to let things drift any longer, with the flow taking the organisation somewhere. He wanted to get to the root cause(s), as to why the organisational performance was not improving. He summoned the chief executives of all the SBU’s, for a meeting on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. This session turned out to be very exhaustive but did not throw any new light. Each Manager seemed to be more interested in ‘defending’ his SBU, while blaming his colleagues, for all the evils. Dilip was in a fix. He had a ‘real’ problem on hand. He contemplated whether the experience of this meeting was only a symptom of a larger malaise, when placed in context of the organisational performance repeatedly missing the bull’s eye!!!!! Fatigued, after the 6 hour discussion, Dilip decided that he would have to alter the status quo, with a fresh approach. After all, ‘same stimuli’ would again possibly lead to ‘no enhanced result’, he surmised. He wanted an unbiased and an outside-in approach, to aid him surface/diagnose the real problems, besotting the company. He decided, as a first step, to commission a diagnostic surveyincluding design- to be conducted by a consulting firm. Perfect Solutions Ltd. was known for its comprehensive and rigorous approach, while conducting detailed diagnostics of corporate problems. Dilip had got to know about this firm, through the YPO network, that he was a member of. Dilip did speak to a couple of Perfect Solutions’ clients, prior to making up his mind that PS was the right choice. The consulting team from Perfect Solutions Ltd spent a month engaging with the different businesses, Managers and other employees. Their initial focus was to identify what could be the ‘scratch the surface’ issues that would lead to improvement opportunities (e.g.: operational efficiency, reduced quality failures, improved despatch scheduling etc. ). Nothing substantive, on these lines, caught the attention of the diagnosticians. The consulting team then decided to change tack. They decided to explore differently and focus on examining the human element/aspect of the business. This

The consulting team from Perfect Solutions Ltd spent a month engaging with the different businesses, Managers and other employees. Their initial focus was to identify what could be the ‘scratch the surface’ issues that would lead to improvement opportunities (e.g.: operational efficiency, reduced quality failures, improved despatch scheduling etc. Nothing substantive, on these lines, caught the attention of the diagnosticians. seemed to be the right key to open the rusted lock! Within two weeks of this fresh approach, the team seemed to have ‘struck oil’. The findings were shocking to say the least. They shone the torch on the key issues, that were the likely root causes of the problems, which in turn showed up in widening gaps between organisation’s performance v/s its aspirations. Some of these important findings were: 1. The employee profiling revealed that approximately 60% , working in offices (excluding factories), were in the Gen Y category. Amongst this group of employees, the attrition rate was rising alarmingly. The current metric was close to 1516%, whereas an ‘acceptable’ range was between 6 and 7%. 2. The findings of the latest employee engagement survey had highlighted that the Millennials category of employees were the least engaged. ( 28.9% as compared to 32.9% engagement scores for Gen X & Boomers) 3. Culture was not consistent and coherent, with practices/ behavioural standards differing between factories and offices, and even between offices (across the Global operations) 4. Monotonous working routines seemed to be suggesting that there was stagnation in organisational and individual learning. It was also noted that most employees had no interest/enthusiasm in attending training programmes, as it was perceived to be soporific and not dealing with the ‘real issues’, hence adding no value. Dilip was flummoxed and disturbed, to a certain extent. He wondered how his Managers or his HR team or himself missed to ‘see the elephant in the room’. He felt angry and concerned. He had only God and the Board of Directors, with whom he could share his emotions!!! Dilip dialled Rajesh Kumar (CHRO) and summoned him to his office. Dilip wanted to lose no further time in moving

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 45

cii Case Study-4

Rajesh dusted his archives- physical and virtual- and searched for a possible hook/ trigger. He trolled magazines, internet, management books and resources from various databases. Nothing seemed to be ready to plug and play. Nothing was even sounding very coherent and logical. He instinctively knew, that much of what he researched may work in another context, but is likely to be a complete flop, considering the current context of Vectorix. He could identify some innovative and interesting options, which had a high degree of uncommonness. However, the very newness of the same meant that there was a big risk in deployment (whether it would work or not) ahead . Rajesh was perplexed, as Dilip rarely summoned him to his office. Besides, the Chairman’s tone also seemed to be terse and abrupt.( Dilip had taken Rajesh into confidence while appointing Perfect Solutions). Rajesh guessed that the news was not going to be good. He took a deep breath. Dilip handed over the diagnostic report to Rajesh and directed that he create a plan with feasible, implementable suggestions, and revert to Chairman’s office in three weeks flat. Rajesh knew that his personal plans of taking a break from work was now in jeopardy. He called up his wife, and conveyed that the weekend family trip had to be cancelled. Rajesh knew that the spotlight of Vectorix’s organisational performance was turned on him and his function. He felt nervous, excited and tense, all rolled into one. 28th November, 2015 - 10am on a Saturday morning. Pondering over the huge responsibility assigned, Rajesh was already preoccupied in free flow thinking, almost talking to himself. He imagined ‘putting himself in the shoes’ of those employees, who faced challenges, blockages and problems while going about doing their job in the company. He could not think beyond the box, so to say. Hackneyed terms like ‘engagement’, ‘outbound’, ‘bonus’, ‘overtime’ filled his mind space. He even wondered if some of the hygiene conditions (lighting, bathrooms, canteen food etc.) could be worked upon. Would that lead to higher levels of employee satisfaction, which in turn would lead to improvement in organisational performance? Instinctively, Rajesh knew that none of the above approaches, on its own, was likely to work in ‘as is where is’ condition. He knew, if the above practices/processes had to be ‘effective’, then something new and exciting was needed to add to the mix . Rajesh dusted his archives- physical and virtual- and searched for a possible hook/trigger. He trolled magazines, internet, management books and resources from various databases. Nothing seemed to be ready to plug and play. Nothing was even sounding very coherent and logical. He instinctively knew, that much of what he researched may work in another context, but is likely to be a complete flop, considering the current context of Vectorix. He could identify some innovative and interesting options, which had a high degree of uncommonness. However, the very newness of the same meant that there was a big risk in deployment (whether it would work or not). He also wondered over the likely collateral

46 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

damage if the approach ‘bombs’. He also knew the ‘knives will be out’, from the Finance function, if the committed higher costs (not factoring opportunity loss in time and money) did not fire on all cylinders!!!!. Rajesh fantasised if a ‘fairy’ would have underwritten the above risks of embracing a fresh approach!!!! A week had passed. Dilip’s office checked the progress with Rajesh and pushed him on meeting the deadline. The deadline was important, as Dilip was travelling overseas, and immediately on his return, he wanted to share the plan with the Board. Rajesh was getting edgy. A few more days went by. Rajesh’s fingers twitched and wondered if his blood pressure needed to be checked. 13th December 2015 - During a hot Sunday afternoon, over the weekend, Rajesh was viewing a movie at home, with his family. The protagonist in the movie, an engineering student, tells his friends “When you enjoy your work it doesn’t remain work anymore, it becomes play”. This seemed to be an ‘aha’ moment for Rajesh. It triggered a thought process within his mind. He recalled how, only a few days ago, his colleague Mr Sharma was sharing about his 2 year old son. Sharma had said to Rajesh “Chintu is always on the phone and I’m really worried about his eyesight. However, I feel so proud when I see him singing all nursery rhymes and recognizing various objects, only with the help of these ‘games’”!!!! Rajesh felt that the movie could wait and rushed to his work desk. It seemed to dawn on him that “This is what my company needs! Why did I not think of this before?” It seemed so elementary!!! He frantically started leafing through the business magazines - looking for an article that he had noticed in the recent past but had not given much attention to the content. He recollected that it had something to do with the implementation of games at work. Relieved at locating the article, Rajesh sat on his chair and eagerly began devouring the same. “Ah! It’s gamification, I remember”. 1 Gamification is the concept of applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. Gamification taps into the basic desires and needs of the users’ impulses which revolve around the idea of ‘status’ and ‘achievement’. 1 Source - https://badgeville.com/wiki/Gamification

cii Case Study-4 The next morning, Rajesh fixed a meeting with Dilip. He was given the 14:00 hrs. slot. The Chairman was surprised to see Rajesh.Rajesh shared his insights around implementing gamification as a medium/platform to address the organisational performance gaps and initiate related countermeasures. Dilip was not exactly aware how gamification could help. However, he sensed its potential, as generating life and excitement , when the employees would engage with the organisation systems and processes. He asked Rajesh to craft a detailed presentation, with analysis, to be presented before the Board of Directors on 12th Jan 2016. Rajesh almost felt like he had won a battle!!! He scheduled a meeting with his team, on Tuesday 15th Nov 2015, wanting to share his ‘eureka moment’ and his thoughts . He wanted to elicit ideas and suggestions from them, so that the proposal could be enhanced. Rajesh and his 8 member team assembled, in the meeting room of the office headquarters at Mumbai. He explained the context & scenario of the appointment of Perfect Solutions Ltd and shared the key findings. He also told them about the various facets, based on his understanding of gamification. He presented a model (Exhibit 1), that could guide the way forward, and invited critique . The motivation level amongst the team members shot up. They were very enthusiastic and excited about the impending implementation of gamification in the company. They volunteered to divide the work amongst themselves, based on their areas of interest and expertise. Compensation & Benefits, Talent acquisition, Learning and Development, Culture management were the processes that were prioritised. At the subsequent meeting, on 17st Dec 2015, Abhishek and Rita (HR Lead for Learning & Development), who had studied practices in various companies/sectors as to how gamification was embedded in the L& D process, presented their findings to the HR team. Their assessment highlighted that gamification was more prevalent in sectors like Management Consulting, IT & ITeS. They shared some specific benchmark practices. As an example, a well-respected global Big 4 major had created an online platform & environment. This platform had game elements to attract and engage the employees in learning programs and processes. Badges formed the recognition and reward for motivation and reinforcement of behaviour. This approach had helped the consulting firm simplify the learning, training, education processes. It also contributed to making these processes much more interesting, engaging, and yet at much reduced costs (compared to brick and mortar approaches). The other significant point, Abhishek and Rita shared, was the architecture with which the Big 4 company had linked the above gaming led L&D engagement approach / program with its PMS(Performance Management System) .This, in turn, had led to a stronger reinforcement of gamification elements, as a key ingredient of the HR sub-stem; L&D in this case. Mansi and Prakash could not wait till Abhishek and Rita completed their update. The former had done deep dive research in the space of Talent Acquisition/HR-Recruitment. They had many interesting ideas on gamified techniques for possible application in the recruitment process. First, they

The motivation level amongst the team members shot up. They were very enthusiastic and excited about the impending implementation of gamification in the company. They volunteered to divide the work amongst themselves, based on their areas of interest and expertise. Compensation & Benefits, Talent acquisition, Learning and Development, Culture management were the processes that were prioritised shared (reference to the above company ) how the firm had also been using ‘serious games’ as an architectural element of their selection process, for apprentices. This respected company had used gamification , while hiring Business Apprentices.. The game was deployed to assess the “innovation, creativity and problem-solving” capabilities of applicants, aged around 17-18. Applicants would play the ‘game’, for 20 to 30 minutes, which had inbuilt challenges that stimulated different behaviours, which in turn surfaced the personality traits and/ or the “candidate’s natural preferences”. This company had used this approach, towards broad-basing their recruitment catchment area. In the past, their “unconscious bias” about how a good university being better than another , had ‘limited’ the footprint of the recruitment catchment area. (Mansi and Prakash added that many employers do struggle with hiring processes, particularly at Graduate level, where entry has been long dominated by applicants from a limited pool of educational/ social backgrounds). A smaller catchment area in the hiring process would also be economically non-productive, besides the organisation being perceived as being not sufficiently inclusive and diverse. The global consulting major (mentioned earlier) usually recruits about 1,500 graduates and school-leavers every year. They experimented with a pool ,of 200 applicants, using the above gamified approach, including concealing the names of the university/ school attended by applicants (to remove recruiter bias). The results were reported to be extremely encouraging and positive and the Big 4 giant was planning to pursue gamified hiring approaches on a much large scale in future. Snehal and Pavan were not to be left behind. The previous two presentations had palpably raised the excitement and expectations also seemed to be rising!!!! The duo (HR leadsfor Culture Management) explained how a few U.S-based life science/other service agencies had outsourced the culture

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 47

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The online platform, developed and maintained by the outsourced company, helped the principal employer in many ways. One of them included receiving employee feedback, based on a thorough, research driven and customizable survey, e.g.: Pulse survey. This enabled real time data analysis and hence real time responses too. It also generated updates on how a company’s culture management process was stacking up against other benchmark companies. This outsourced culture management gamification platform, in addition, also has a library of initiatives to strengthen the culture

management process to a separate entity, to enable building a stronger organisation culture. The online platform, developed and maintained by the outsourced company, helped the principal employer in many ways. One of them included receiving employee feedback, based on a thorough, research driven and customizable survey, e.g.: Pulse survey. This enabled real time data analysis and hence real time responses too. It also generated updates on how a company’s culture management process was stacking up against other benchmark companies. This outsourced culture management gamification platform, in addition, also has a library of initiatives to strengthen the culture. “The service provider company can even provide dip stick/ larger sample feedback on a newly implemented organisation initiative”, Snehal and Pavan said, “besides enabling the client organisation to continuously refine and rebuild”. After intently listening to the three presentations and posing many questions, Rajesh was confident that the gamification based approach will prove to be a contemporary, reliable lever that would enable Vectorix to drive/knit all the priority improvement processes. His thoughts now moved, from the team meeting, to that of the presentation that he had to make to the Board of Directors. He did not know how time had passed. The clock struck 7pm. He remembered that he had to be home, to attend a relative’s engagement ceremony..... With the New Year round the corner, on 25th Dec 2015, Rajesh spoke to a few of his close friends and colleagues, inviting them for lunch the following Saturday. The invited group had a good mix of HR professionals, Chartered Accountants, Manufacturing people and a few others. Rajesh shared the challenges his organisation was facing. He also explained how he had identified that a gamification based intervention (to engage all employees), would be the defining character of the Organisational Performance Improvement Plan. He also told them that he had to make a presentation to the Board of Directors (while also updating that his direct Boss had agreed in principle to the suggested approach). Rajesh also spoke about the key findings of his HR team colleagues on the gamification concept, while adding his own perspective. He asked his friends to be candid and blunt in surfacing loop holes/blind spots in the proposed approach. Rajesh, at the back

48 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

of his mind knew very well that no recommendation could be assumed to be flawless. There could be significant obstacles, which he may not have anticipated till then. He was however very confident, by picking the minds of those he trusted, that his Board presentation would be more robust, coherent and concrete. As the luncheon meeting progressed, Rajesh had to contend with more questions than answers. His friends posed searching questions. While on the one hand, he was ‘personally’ excited that gamification was the way forward, some of the questions tempered Rajesh’s bullishness. Laxman, who was from a legacy manufacturing background said, “Rajesh, do you think your Managers- those who are above 40 years of age- would allow their team members to ‘play games’ on their computers? Don’t you think engaging in gamification could lead to time waste and shamming?’ Another invitee to the lunch, who worked in a Learning and Development consultancy, Gopal, assured Rajesh, “This is a brilliant way forward. I have seen this work in many Fortune 500 companies. After all isn’t ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ also a game with big bucks? What is wrong?” Laxman felt he was being targeted. Manoj, an IT professional, cautioned Rajesh, “What about data security? How many people get cheated with their passwords being stolen and money phished out of their accounts? I think the Gen Y is overwhelmed with wasting time. They feel that Technology is the panacea. I am not saying that you should not go down the gamification route, but be careful to take your CTO and CIO along with you.” Rajesh’s fault lines on his forehead began to show up. However, he did not want to stop the flow. Shravan, who had considerable experience in designing performance management systems said, “It’s a brilliant idea Rajesh. You could actually apply it to the PMS too”. To this, Manoj argued, “No Shravan, I think PMS is better off without gamification. How can you rely upon a gamified platform to judge an employee’s contribution? It’s difficult to apply on a large scale. I’ve seen PMS systems failing badly when HR people try to intervene with gamification”. By this time, Laxman raised a fresh point, “Rajesh, how can you make sure that the technical topics/knowledge could be taught through gamification? After all, learning the ‘fun’ way also has its own limitations”.

cii Case Study-4

“Rajesh, how can you make sure that the technical topics/knowledge could be taught through gamification? After all, learning the ‘fun’ way also has its own limitations”. After almost four hours - where speaking outperformed the consumption of food - Rajesh was posed with a few more questions/advice. (i.e.: Gamification may work in case of Gen Y employees, but not for older employees.’ ‘In Manufacturing, there would be lots of problems including union resistance’ After almost four hours - where speaking outperformed the consumption of food - Rajesh was posed with a few more questions/advice. (i.e.: Gamification may work in case of Gen Y employees, but not for older employees.’ ‘In Manufacturing, there would be lots of problems including union resistance.’ ‘What about sanctity of the results, in terms of test environment?’ ‘Will gamification be able to test soft skills?’ Rajesh went straight home, after the late lunch. In one way, he felt relieved that he had been sensitised in advance,

regarding the challenges. However, he also knew that he had to take a decision/stand and present to the Board. The road towards gamification was already ahead. The train had left the station. There was no going back. While driving home, Rajesh got stuck in traffic, which made his mind work overtime as to how he should now proceed. He thought “Is it possible to implement my plan , that will be able to address, if not all, most of the concerns/challenges/ ‘wet blankets’?.......... the traffic lights turned green……

Exhibit 1

Collection of Secondary data

Study of bench marking pratices

Understanding of relevance with respect to areas of consideration

Implementation stage

Planning for their organizaton

Disclaimer: n n n n n

The views expressed in the published CASE STUDIES belong to the Author / Co-Author (s) of the respective case studies, and not necessarily those of CII’s. The copyright of these case studies, however, belong to CII. Reproduction, in any matter, without prior permission from CII is expressly prohibited. NOTE: CII has given exclusive permission to CORPORATE CITIZEN to publish the CASE STUDY only, in full, and without any changes / modifications. Reproduction in parts is not allowed. For further information, please contact: Snehada Fatterpekar, Executive – Human Resources & Industrial Relations, CII Western Region, Email: f.snehada@cii.in

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 49

#Organisational Culture Survey

‘Culture’ of Success

The success of an organization depends on several factors such as the founder’s vision, business plan and perhaps most importantly, the Organisation’s culture. Organisational culture is a meticulously cultivated work ethic that percolates to every single employee in the organization, and makes them a part of the shared values of the company. At a time when a company’s employees and the workplace are its biggest advertisers and the most telling reflection of the company culture, JOMBAY, India’s fastest growing Assessments & Development company, ran a survey called #CultureCanvas, reaching out to more than 100 start-ups and SMBs to capture their workplace culture and understand its influence. Corporate Citizen takes you for the captivating ride By Neeraj Varty

Godrej Industries About: Godrej Industries is an Indian manufacturer of oleochemicals for use in over various industries. It also manufactures edible oils, vanaspati and bakery fats. Location: Mumbai

A regular day in the vibrant offices of Godrej Industries, where employees are made to feel at home.

50 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

We take much pride in fostering an inspiring workplace with an agile and high performance culture to attract, develop and retain the best global talent. As part of the over 118-year young Godrej Group, we are fortunate to have a proud legacy built on the strong values of trust, integrity and respect for others. At the same time, our exciting and ambitious growth plans allow us to offer unparalleled career opportunities relatively early on. Core to our employer brand, is the philosophy of tough love. We expect a lot from our team members, differentiate on the basis of performance and potential through career opportunities and rewards and lay particular emphasis on developing, mentoring and training. We believe that passionate, rounded individuals with diverse interests make for better Godrejites. And we understand that our team members play multi-faceted roles. This is why we encourage them, not just to explore their whole selves, but also create an enabling space for them to do so. - Sumit Mitra, Head - Group Human Resources and Corporate Services

At Freecharge, collaboration in encouraged through a blend of open spaces and informal seating areas which put employees at ease.

Oyo Rooms Freecharge About: Freecharge is an e-commerce website which provides online facility to recharge any prepaid mobile phone, postpaid mobile, DTH&Data Cards in India. Location: Mumbai

ZS Associates About: ZS is the world’s largest firm focused exclusively on helping companies improve overall performance and grow revenue and market share through end-to-end sales and marketing solutions—from customer insights and strategy to analytics, operations and technology. Location: Pune The office space has been designed to emphasize what defines ZS’s business, culture and people. Bold

“Our offices have always been a reflection of what we are – humble, passionate and fearless.”, says Freecharge founder Kunal Shah. Several parts of the office were designed by Freecharge’s own employees. Freecharge has several seating arrangements that encourage collaboration. They’ve got couches, window seats, and even a hanging

graphics featuring photos of real ZSers and motivational quotes line the walls. A gym, recreation room and cafeteria promote wellness and socialization. An inviting reception lounge welcomes visitors. And in a nod to our global working model, meeting rooms and collaboration areas are named after regions around the world. - AbhijitNimgaonkar, Capability and Expertise Center Head, India

seating unit. The office is a perfect amalgamation of open spaces and informal seating areas allowing relaxed and free flow of more opportunities for employees to collaborate. We are always excited to embark on new adventures – and every time we strive to make it a bigger, bolder, swankier canvas - Kunal Shah, Founder & CEO

About: India’s largest branded network of hotels spread across 178 cities with 5000+ hotels offering standardized stay experiences at an unmatched price. Location: Gurgaon At OYO Rooms, employees are empowered to solve complex problems and take fast decisions. Each day at work is a celebration of our conviction, commitment and drive. The energy on the floors is palpable and the office is always buzzing as folks brainstorm and exchange ideas uninhibitedly. - Dinesh R, CHRO

Recreational facilities are in plenty at the ZS Associates workplace

Individualistic art adorns the walls of the OYO rooms offices

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 51

Idyllic Software

About: It’s a unique Web Application development company that architects and delivers exciting Ruby on Rails solutions to our demanding customers in the US and around the world. Location: Mumbai, Pune “You take the blue pill the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Morpheus in The Matrix. At Idyllic Software, we believe in going down the rabbit hole. It’s all about the choices one makes in the “Pursuit of (their) Happyness” With the choices we make it is also important to stay humble. The

TrulyMadly About: TrulyMadly is an Indian online dating platform that helps you find your match using safe and secure methods. Location: New Delhi The main workspace comprises of two long tables across a hall, so everyone can work together! Nobody has their own cabin/ office or even fixed seats. We sit where we please and work in collaboration at all times. Even our lunches are a collaborative affair. We always eat our lunch together and never discuss work at lunch. Lunches and the tiny library resembling Juliet’s bal-

tree in the center of our workspace is a constant reminder to always stay grounded and not get carried away by whatever happens around us. Our humility has carried us this far and we hope it stays with us for the years to come. - Jinesh Parekh, CEO.

Employees having a blast at Idyllic Software

cony helps us ‘Unravel’. While our meeting rooms have glass walls and are named ‘Get a Room’. But that’s not all, we also UnScramble messages and birthday wishes on a huge board with alphabet blocks for everyone to see. - Sachin Bhatia, Co-founder & CEO

Healthkart

A truly unique workplace greets employees at TrulyMadly

About: HealthKart.com is India’s premier e-health store. It aims to be the go-to destination for all consumer healthcare needs for people in India. Location: Gurgaon At HealthKart, we follow five Success Mantra’s - Be the Owner, Be Open, Act Fast, Empower Others, Know Your Actions. We have names our teams after superheroes and believe in being extraordinary like them. Every corner of our workspace speaks of our culture. We also believe that our employees form a big part of our culture and give them complete freedom to design the workspace they share with us. - Jitender Panihar, Chief People Officer

52 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Inspiring quotes adorn the walls of the Healthkart ofice

It’s all about working hard and having the most fun at Paytm

Paytm

About: Paytm is India’s largest mobile commerce platform. Location: Noida ‘Work hard. Have fun. Create history’ is what our culture revolves

around. At Paytm, we believe in giving freedom and enough room to our employees. We stress in the spirit of teamwork and collaboration which has always helped us in keeping our customers happy. - Sonia Dhawan, DGM - Marketing & PR

PaperBoat

About: Paper Boat is a brand of non-carbonated beverages and energy drinks produced and marketed by Hector Beverages, which is located in Bengaluru, India. Location: Bengaluru Working in sync and very close to natural surrounding is out of the usual and promotes creativity. Productivity is simply higher. Be it working or recreation. The biggest benefit that we have seen so far is the way our organization’s culture is taking shape. A lot of conversations start around the office, be it internal or external people. It has become an integral part of our identity. - Neeraj Kakkar, Co-founder - CEO, Hector Beverages (Paperboat)

LimeRoad

About: Limeroad.com is a portal targeted at women and offers products only for the fairer sex. Location: Gurgaon At LimeRoad,we follow the ‘great rights plus great duties philosophy’ wherein we empower and make employees used to taking decisions on their own. The flexibility is hence combined with responsibility. We also encourage our employees to ‘Think Hatke’ and make sure that every idea is heard. But you need to do as you say, we care deeply about your say : do ratio. - Suchi Mukherjee, Founder & CEO

LimeRoad’s employees love to ‘Think Hatke’ at work

PaperBoat encourages conversation at work, which is evident from it’s open office spaces.

A Joint Initiative by Jombay and Corporate Citizen

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 53

Star Campus Placement

‘Believe in yourself’ Meet Rasika Titarmare, a young, bright, dynamic student, who completed her post-graduation from a leading management college and is successfully placed with a leading IT firm today By Mahalakshmi Hariharan ‘Believe you can and you’re halfway there’ — is her motto. Today,

Rasika Titarmare is successfully placed with Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd as a Support Account Manager. She talks to Corporate Citizen about her journey from the campus to corporate world.

Campus placement

“The placement season began in the month of November and I was interviewed by about four or five companies. But sadly, I couldn’t crack any of them. Even though things did not go the way I had expected them to be, I decided to stay positive without being disappointed,” recalls Rasika. She adds, “Somehow I’ve always believed that whatever happens, happens for the best and some things are just not meant to be. I decided not to give up and started solving some aptitude tests online which actually helped me develop confidence in cracking them. I must say it was also my best friend who guided me throughout to prepare me for the interview process.”

Ray of hope

After days of struggle, but still staying positive, when Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd visited the campus for recruitment, Rasika stayed hopeful. “When I sat for Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd, which was the fifth company I was interviewing with… I was slightly nervous but pretty excited. It was a day-long interview process. With every hour passing and clearing each round, I started to feel better. The process started with an impressive PowerPoint presentation which talked about the job profile. This was followed with shortlisting of CVs by the company. I was thrilled when my CV was shortlisted for further processes after the aptitude test. I was the first one to go when the rounds started. I was pretty nervous, yet excited. I confidently went in. The panel members 54 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

“These two years have completely changed my life. My experience on the campus was wonderful. From day one, my college encouraged me to do well and created a passion in me to achieve something in life… My college has played an integral role in making me what I am today—more dedicated, determined and confident”

consisted of both technical and HR personnel. When the question and answer session started, I was bombarded with questions even before I could finish answering the one asked. I could figure out that they just wanted to see how spontaneous and impromptu I was and how smartly I tackled situations,” says Rasika. Being an IT student, Rasika knew the company well. While the aptitude test was tough enough but she gave her best. “My technical round lasted for 20 minutes and went smoothly. After my interview, I got positive feedback for my technical round. I was all focused on the next HR round that took place for 15 minutes. The HR round was slightly tougher than the technical one as the former was focusing on technical questions but I decided to give my best. Within an hour, when they announced the results, I was chosen, along with two of my other batchmates,” she adds. Like it is said, you never grow by how much you win; you only grow by how much you put in. Rasika had interned with Capita India in Pune for three months. As an intern, she learnt about the corporate culture. The project was completely based on the company’s work processes and the learnings attached to it.

Life at the campus

Rasika has a lot of memories attached with her college days. “Today, when I look back, it feels like a dream. These two years have completely changed my life. My experience on the campus was wonderful. From day one, my college encouraged me to do well and created a passion in me to achieve something in life. The induction process, also known as ‘The Honeymoon period’ of our college was a great experience of one-and-half month to learn many things, to interact, to make new friends and to do many activities that helped me to open up a little,” reminisces Rasika. As part of the systems specialisation, there were too many technical subjects, with various other management subjects. In the beginning, she found it pretty difficult to cope with the schedule and pressure but later found it easy. “My friends have been a big support system for me, thanks to whom I could strike a balance in personal and professional life with ease,” adds Rasika. The course kicked off with induction classes till the evening and lectures by corporate stalwarts, post that. “The evening lectures by eminent corporate personalities brainstormed our buzzing minds, made us to contemplate, introspect what we had been doing, what should we do and what should we target in our lives,” she recalls. Rasika’s motto in life is—Be brave and believe in yourself. “My college has played an integral role in making me what I am today— more dedicated, determined and confident,” she notes.

 Rasika (C) with her friends  Rasika’s parents

Rasika did her schooling from Mount Carmel School in Nagpur. Post that, she completed her Diploma in Computer Technology from G.H Raisoni Polytechnic College, Nagpur. She then joined GH Raisoni College of Engineering to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering, after which she decided to pursue her post-graduation. Rasika’s father, Ramdas Titarmare, works as a senior accountant in Postal Accounts office while her mother Dr Nandini Titarmare is Head & Associate Professor of the Physical Education Department at LAD College. Her elder brother, Sumit, who has also done his master’s in telecom from the same management college as her, is placed well with the Indus Towers. “My family is my biggest strength. They have always supported me to take my decisions and I completely adore them for everything they have

done for me,” says Rasika. Rasika’s parents have always taught her that simple living and high thinking make a man perfect. Rasika is fond of dancing, cooking, listening to music, reading and is always keen on learning new things and exploring herself.

Advice to juniors

• Fear is not good and if you are good, don’t fear. Be confident and stay calm in any situation • You should be clear with your basics. This will help you in your interview • Work hard and seek knowledge from your faculty members. Practical knowledge is equally important • Start doing what is necessary than what is possible and suddenly you will discover that you are doing the impossible “I wish my juniors a great time and all the very best for their career ahead,” she signs off. Mahalakshmi.H@corporatecitizen.in

tadka

Ae Bhai Zara Dekh Ke Chalo Not many know that Indian roads were deadliest in 2014, claiming as many as 514 accidental deaths every hour due to overspeeding, an increase of 2.9 percent in deaths over the previous year.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 55

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 that got sealed in marriage

the

evolution of a

Journey

Marriage is about keeping an open mind to the winds of change. “This is especially important since you start off dating, then become a couple and then you are parents. At each stage, this journey is different and beautiful,” say Uttara Subramanian and Deepak Agarwal. Married for 12 years, and currently based in Dubai, this is their story, and this is how they tell it By Kalyani Sardesai

ou could call it a campus romance... for that’s how they met and got to know each other. Then again, it’s not quite the typical campus romance, for, the romance wasn’t part of the deal on the campus. Not really. “We were good friends who really appreciated each other for the people we were,” says Uttara Subramanian, who along with Deepak Agarwal, her husband of 12 years were a part of the Pio-

56 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

neers batch at BIMM way back in ‘99-2000. They were good buddies who hung out a lot, but amidst the rough and tumble of a gruelling academic schedule (both were studying marketing and sales) and then the pressure of campus placements, there wasn’t much time to reflect on a future together. “It was only when we started working in different cities that the penny dropped,” says Uttara. “We realised we really missed each other. We could both talk to each other, and we missed our conversations.” And to think it all started with her snapping at him.

Back to the beginning

“My roommate was really sick that day,” reminisces Uttara, a hostelite on campus. “As I came to class with a worried expression, Deepak saw

the look on my face and politely enquired if he could help.” To which she retorted, “All you guys are the same, talking big and making tall promises to help. But when it actually comes to it, you never do a thing.” But help he did—and thereby starts the journey. “What I really appreciated about him is that though he was really smart and self-assured, he wasn’t the kind to go out of his way to make an impression. In a world full of people who are trying too hard at that, he came across a breath of fresh air, simply for being himself. He also happened to be very shy around girls. This was really endearing,” she smiles. For his part, Deepak loves her simplicity—and caring ways. “In every relationship—be it with family, friends or colleagues—she goes out of her

Says Uttara, “The thing about marriage is that it is always in a state of evolution. You start off dating, then become a married couple, and in some time, you are parents, responsible for young lives”

way to do things for people and make them comfortable. That’s just amazing.” However, when they both told their parents about each other, they were not very happy. He’s a Marwari; she’s the quintessential “Tam Bram”. Both communities are known to be traditional go for killer schedules, it would be and set in their ways. very tough on the relationship,” says Ouch. Deepak. “At all points, though, it has “But we did look at things from their point to be give and take steeped in a deep of view,” shares Uttara. “Change is difficult for sense of empathy for your spouse.” everyone, and parents do want to be involved in choosing a spouse for their beloved son and daughter. It’s natural they would be concerned The building blocks of a about the differences in cultural backgrounds. relationship So we allowed them the due time and space to While both Deepak and Uttara are accept us.” a study in contrast, it works out With a tiny corollary, though: While they well for them. She’s talkative, social, were respectful of their parents’ friendly and outgofeelings, both happen to be firsting. He’s a man of born kids and are known to stay few words. He’s the firm on their decisions. short-tempered one, It took a year, but they finally while she smoothens did get their families’ blessing, things out. • Time-manageand were wed in November 2004. Importantly, their ment is key strengths complement to keeping a each other. Despite the Marriage and its healthy work-life differences in personmilestones balance alities neither shy away Soon after, the couple made the from addressing issues. shift to Dubai. Now 37, Uttara • Talk each prob“It is vital to commuworks as Consumer Insights lem through. nicate and talk. Brushing things Manager, AMEA at General Communication under the carpet never works,” Mills, a billion dollar American is the lifeline of a says Deepak. food giant with brands like Betty relationship Uttara chips in, “The thing Crocker, Pillsbury, Haagen-Dazs about marriage is that it is always and many more. While Deepak • Celebrate differin a state of evolution. You start (40) is General Sales Manager at ences and make off dating, then become a marJotun Powder Coatings, a Northe most of ried couple, and in some time, wegian chemicals company that them, whether you are parents, responsible for deals with paint and powder they are personyoung lives. Through all this, it’s in over 90 countries across the al, professional a good thing to keep an open world. or cultural mind, celebrate differences and The duo is blessed with two keep on surprising each other. mischievous boys—Pradyun (7) • Laugh a lot, and Also, given the stresses around and Dhruv (1). do make it a us, it becomes all the more imSo how do they manage the point to spend portant to live in the moment all-important work-life balance quality time with and celebrate the little joys.” given not only the pressures of a each other Life may be tough and decorporate career, but also the fact manding, but having a sense of that they are in a foreign country, humour dissipates tensions. “We are able to joke away from traditional support systems? with each other…about each other—and our “Planning, practice, and lots of trial and erfamilies—and it’s all taken in the right spirit. This ror,” grins Uttara. “However, we do have reliable is achieved only after you are truly comfortable household domestics, and visiting relatives from and secure with each other,” says Uttara. India always chip in. That said, we are a noisy, Parenting is a vital arena of team work. “Over messy and rambunctious family, with a flurry of the years, we’ve managed to balance our roles. activity revolving around two very active chilShe’s friend to the kids, while I am the strict taskdren, and that’s how it’s going to be for a little master. But basically both of us want the same while. Time management is key, and there’s no for them: to grow up as loving and caring peoroom for procrastination.” ple, who are tough when the situation warrants “Post-marriage, one partner has to take on the it, and are respectful of traditions and elders,” major role at home, leaving the other person free says Deepak. to travel and work longer hours. If both decide to

The Mantras of a Marriage

One would think the difference in cultural backgrounds would be a toughie—but it’s not so. “We are both foodies, and bond big-time over food. It does not matter whether it is North Indian or South Indian, as long as it’s vegetarian and well-prepared,” grins Uttara. “Also, the way we look at it, absorbing and paying attention to different traditions and rituals, is a healthy way to be.” In the end, both have a simple tip for GenNext. “Be patient and give your relationship time. It takes considerable effort and luck to find a good person. Give them space, and love. At the end of the day, the material things don’t add up to much. Relationships do—and they are not transactional,” they sign off. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

tadka

India’s tax problem According to statistics released by the Indian Government, only 2.7 percent of workforce, or less than 1 percent of the national population paid income tax for the financial year 2011-12.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 57

Pearls of Wisdom

By Dada JP Vaswani

Chat with Your

Best Friend! You do not need a cellphone or a bluetooth device to contact God! You need to be attuned, ‘in sync’ as they say, with the still, small voice that is heard deep within your heart

oday, many friends who are separated by distance, ensure their contact is kept alive by constant ‘chat’ sessions and ‘text’ messages as they are called. God is the Friend of all friends. When all other friends fade away, He is the one friend who will remain. But how do you get in touch with Him? He is available to us twenty-four hours of the day and night, seven days a week, t365 days a year. He is ever-ready to help us. How can we seek His help? Prayer is the swiftest and surest way to establish a link with God. It cleanses your thoughts, purifies your mind and elevates your conscious58 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

ness. It enables you to talk to God directly and much more effectively than you can, to people. For, you can be sure that God listens carefully to every word you say! You do not need a cellphone or a bluetooth device to contact God! You need to be attuned, ‘in sync’ as they say, with the still, small voice that is heard deep within your heart. In the beginning, we do not hear His voice; but let us be sure that He hears us! We may not see Him; but He sees us. And ultimately a stage comes in the life of every seeker when he sees God and hears His voice. For, God can be seen; He can be touched and felt; His voice can be

heard. He is more real than all things which we perceive with the senses. But to be able to see Him and hear Him, effort is needed. This effort is to awaken deep longing, yearning for God. So it was that Sri Ramakrishna said, “Yearn for God even as a miser yearns for gold, as a lover for his beloved, as a drowning person yearns for a breath of air!” It is not necessary for us to offer set prayers. Prayer should flow spontaneously out of a lovefilled heart. One look of the eye, one exclamation, may be more acceptable to the Lord than hundreds of set prayers offered in a mechanical way, day after day. Feeling is needed; emotion is

“One look of the eye, one exclamation, may be more acceptable to the Lord than hundreds of set prayers offered in a mechanical way, day after day. God does not care for the form, the shape, the vocabulary of our prayer. It is the feeling that counts” many they are. He does not care for the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they may be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be; nor the music of our prayers how melodious they are; nor the logic of our prayers however argumentative they may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they be. But the sincerity and fervency of our prayers - how heartfelt they are.” Opening your heart to God is the most effective form of prayer. I urge my friends never, ever to forget their “daily appointment with God”, as I call it - a brief, simple prayer first thing when you get up and a quiet, reflective prayer before you fall asleep at night. Therefore, let us not miss our daily appointment with God. We take care to keep our appointments with clients, suppliers, business associates, and also with our doctors, dentists, bankers and lawyers. More important than all these is our daily appointment with Our Best Friend. Let us never fail to keep it! You may utter prayers from the scriptures; or use your own words when you pray. The language of the heart is the best for any prayer!

needed. For, more important than the words, is the vibration of love which they carry. God does not care for the form, the shape, the vocabulary of our prayer. It is the feeling that counts. A poor farmer, returning home from the market after a long, tiring day, found that the wheel of his cart was about to come loose. He was in the middle of the woods, and his cart was loaded with produce. Anxiously, he searched his pockets for the little prayer book, which he always carried with him. To his dismay, he found that he had forgotten to bring it with him.

He closed his eyes and began to pray thus, “Dear God, I have done something very foolish. I have left my prayer book at home, and my memory is not what it used to be. I don’t seem to remember a single prayer. So this is what I am going to do. I shall recite the alphabet—very very slowly—several times. Since, You know all the prayers, please put the letters together and form the right prayer for me!” The Lord said, “This prayer is the best I have heard today—for it came from a heart that is simple, pure and sincere!” It was William Law who said, “God does not care for the arithmetic of our prayers, how

tadka

India’s banking legacy The State Bank of India is the oldest bank in India, (established in 1806) and the only Indian bank to make it into the ‘world’s oldest continuously operated’ banks list.

June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 59

Health

Ways to

Beat jet lag

before-on-after flight tips

Jet lag: it’s the bane of the time zone-crossing frequent flyer’s life. We take a look at ways to beat this unfortunate travel side effect

ur bodies are naturally programmed to do a number of things throughout a 24-hour period such as eating and sleeping, and these circadian rhythms as they are known, get thrown wildly of sync when we travel long distances at high speed. A major change in time zones can mean that our bodies get very confused indeed. This can lead to extreme fatigue, indigestion and bowel problems, loss of appetite, memory and concentration issues or a general feeling of being unwell. Is one direction better than the other? Yes, west is best, east is a beast. Generally speaking, people find that travelling east produces the worst jet lag. This is because travellers find themselves trying to get to sleep when their bodies are actually waking up and are then forced to get up at what feels like the middle of the night. To put it another way, we are better at dealing with a longer day than a shorter one. Studies have found that it takes a full day to recover from each time zone one travels through. 60 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

TIPS Before you travel

1. People with rigid schedules of eating and sleeping suffer the worst jet lag so if you always eat your dinner in front of East Enders and go to bed at 11 on the dot you’re in trouble. If are more flexible about such arrangements, you begin with a natural advantage. 2. Tempting as it is to stay up all night before you travel so you’re tired and more likely to sleep, that’s a risky tactic. Better to be fully rested before you travel and get a good night’s shut-eye before you embark on your journey. 3. Try and alter your sleep patterns before you go to more closely match the times of your destination. Set the alarm for 3am, get dressed, fire off a few emails, and go back to bed. 4. Plan your flights so you arrive in daylight since you will feel more like staying awake and fitting in with your new schedule. Or only fly to places on the Greenwich Meridian. So, Ghana it is then. 5. Try and build in a stopover, so your body has more time to adapt to the new routine.

On the flight

6. Tempting though it is to take full advantage of the trolley service, the effects of alcohol at altitude can increase tiredness and also cause dehydration which will add to your woes upon arrival. 7. If you are due to land at night, avoid caffeine-heavy beverages such as coffee, cola and energy drinks that look rather disturbing when served in a glass, since this will affect your sleep patterns. But do drink plenty of water on board to keep yourself hydrated. 8. Leave the sleeping pills alone. They’re not worth it. They will do nothing to assist the jet lag and will just leave you feeling fuzzy when you land. Saying that, on a long flight, you should try to sleep. How about a nice camomile tea? 9. When you get on the plane, set your watch to the time of your destination to get yourself psychologically aligned. You could do this beforehand, but you run the risk of missing your bus/train/dentist appointment because you think it’s five hours later than it actually is. 10. Move around regularly and do exercises

• Living the healthy way! • 50-year-old Vijay Uttarwar, founder and CEO of Naturell India Pvt Ltd, simply refuses to give in to the sedentary lifestyle of this generation. He firmly believes that exercising and consuming a balanced diet is very important to stay healthy. Although he has not been able to give as much time for exercising as he would like to, he prefers waking up early in order to get his daily quota of exercise by making sure to go for jogs and runs near the Powai Lake in Mumbai. He also manages to make time for tennis and badminton tournaments with his friends and family on the weekends

to keep the blood circulating, which will make you feel better. A large brandy will make you feel even better.

When you arrive

11. Start eating three meals a day in line with the new time zone, even if that means a small snack at 11pm which some people enjoy as a suppertime snack anyway, so that’s no problem. 12. Get as much daylight as you can. Daylight makes you feel better unless you’ve been up all night. 13. Do some exercise to boost your endorphins and stretch out some of the kinks from a long flight. 14. Get as much sleep as you normally would in a 24-hour period — make up any shortfall with a snooze during the day if necessary.

And finally

15. Invest in a pair of jet lag glasses. Jet lag temporarily causes fatigue, insomnia, and other symptoms as a result of air travel across time zones. (Sourced from http://www.skyscanner.net)

Eating the healthy way As a CEO who inevitably has unusual and long hours of work, Uttarwar is someone who strongly believes in maintaining work-life balance, starting with food-eating habits on the go. “I am aware of the needs of a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, and so ensure that my intake is 50 percent of proteins, 30 percent of carbs and 20 percent of fat in all my meals during the day. I try to substitute most of the proportion of carbohydrates and fats with proteins,” says Uttarwar. With his needs for attaining this balanced with a proportion of protein, carbs and fat, Vijay took the plunge in the manufacture of proteins-rich healthy food. He believes in simple home-cooked meals and ensures that he eats plenty of dals, vegetables and fish during the day to attain balanced meals. However, while he is on the go, he ensures carrying meal replacement bars, protein bars and snack bars from Rite Bite. Controlling hunger pangs It is true that no matter how much ever a person tries to control his junk-eating habits, he inevitably gives in to his 5pm hunger pangs due to a number of foods available in the market. “There was a time when I decided to take control of these hunger pangs and not give in to the high fat-containing little packets. I introduced Max Protein chips to the market that ensures people have the choice of a healthier option through these chips. They are also a guilt-free way in which people can pamper their tongue without forgetting to take care of their belly. I always carry them whenever I am on the go,” adds Uttarwar.

Fitness Mantra Due to the growing concerns of obesity in the nation, Uttarwar inspires and encourages people to imbibe a healthy way of living as well. Being a farmer, he prefers to consume organic food. Vijay Uttarwar is the founder & CEO of Naturell India Pvt Ltd. Naturell provides the finest nature-based products that help consumer adopt a healthier lifestyle. RiteBite Nutrition Bars is a leading brand of Naturell. Naturell India Pvt. Ltd is a visionary healthy lifestyle company. Naturell’s vision is to provide the finest nature-based products that help consumers adopt a healthier lifestyle. (As told to Mahalakshmi Hariharan) June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 61

Mobile apps

HealthKart Plus

The app helps the user to order the medicines online by uploading the prescription and placing the order. Apart from medicines, one can as well order everyday personal care essentials. All orders will be delivered within 4 hours. The app has an intuitive UI which remembers your medical history, records of previous orders as well as payment preferences. The best part is that HealthKart Plus gives discounts on MRP, which is a facility is usually not given by drugstores.

Healthcare is just a tap away!

The Indian healthcare industry is booming, and is expected to touch $160 billion by 2017 and $ 280 billion by 2020. Couple this with technology, and receiving quality healthcare has now become a lot more easier for Indians. Using just a Smartphone, you can now keep an online medical history, order medicines, search for the best doctors in your budget and review the quality of care received at the tap of a button. With that in mind, Corporate Citizen presents the best free apps for a 360 degree healthcare solution By Neeraj Varty

Credihealth

Credihealth is an online healthcare marketplace that offers end to end services including information on various medical ailments, doctors, hospitals, treatments and their implications and post treatment care. The app provides its users with detailed information about hospitals and healthcare. It helps people to search for doctors and hospitals across major cities in India, book appointments with the doctor of their choice, and as well helps in getting quotes from hospitals for any treatment. It also enables users to get a second opinion about their medical diagnosis or treatment method by uploading medical reports from specialists, for a nominal fee. In addition, The Credihealth blog furnishes healthcare articles and interviews of specialists to help people become health conscious. 62 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

Healthonphone

Healthonphone is a secure online cloud service where users can upload, manage and analyze their medical records like medical prescriptions, diagnostic reports, daily measurements like Blood sugar and Blood pressure for themselves and their family members. Users can also find medical records from its network of partner Hospitals and Diagnostic lab center which gets directly available in user’s account for them to manage and share it on the go. All the user’s data is secure and only visible by user unless he/she wishes to share it with peers. In a case of emergency, doctors can get detailed history of the patient using Healthonphone through the app, thereby saving crucial time.

Tweet2Health

Tweet2health is a Healthcare App especially made for patients, where they can see the reviews and ratings of doctors and clinics in their locality, before planning their next medical decision. One can search for doctors according to their condition and locality. The search will be filtered out and the list of doctors will appear with ratings and reviews of each doctor suggested. After having taken the medical treatment, one can share their experience and interact with other registered members on the app’s discussion forum.The users can even rate and review doctors according to their experiences and gain points offered by the app. After one crosses a certain level of points, the points will be extracted to sponsor a child’s meal, a feature that gets this app a brownie point.

CallHealth

CallHealth enables you to access all healthcare services and products from the comfort of your home. Consulting a doctor, having diagnostic tests done, buying medicines, getting medical services like nursing,physiotherapy etc, is a walk in the park with this app. Even for visits to hospitals or imaging/diagnostic centers, we provide facilitation services to make the experience easier and smoother. By delivering the entire range of healthcare services - from Cure to Prevention to Wellness - CallHealth aims to become a one-stop-shop for all your healthcare needs. neeraj.varty@corporatecitizen.com

Featherlite

What people had to say about the two-year Modi Sarkar

Narendra Modi won a spectacular election victory two years ago on the attractive promise of combining minimum government with maximum governance. However, there have been ups and downs during his tenure so far. Modi’s foreign trips have been on the high and he has struck deals which will boost the foreign investments in India, while many executives like Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) talk about their respective firms and how could they contribute to the development of India in technology as well as other sectors. These are some of the tweets. Deccan Chronicle @DeccanChronicle: Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan most visible in two years of Modi government

Ankita Lal @iAnkitaLal: The last two years of Modi Government have been a prime example of good governance #NaMoVijayDiwas Tejasdhhanraj @tejasdhhanraj: Thank you@ modi government for

giving us corruption free scams free two years of governance. Its biggest achievement Surendra Singh @suren22680102: Two years of Modi government: Survey says nearly half feel ‘no change’ #ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY

Milli Gazette @milligazette: Two years of Modi government. Do saal mein janta behaal? http://fb.me/7juAjmItP

NDTV News feed @ndtvfeed: Two Years Of Narendra Modi Government: Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan Most Visible ET Politics @ETPolitics: Two years of #Modi government: Many key reforms remain stalled in the Parliament http://goo.gl/ kIWZxF Nakul Shenoy @NakulShenoy: “What do you remember most of these two years of Modi government?” Me: “Err... In addition to the daily finger-pointing by BJP &amp; Congress?”

Rahul Kanwal @rahulkanwal: It’s UP all the way for the BJP as the Govt plans celebrations of two years of Modi sarkar. Pramod Ranjan @Pramodrnjn: Two years of Modi sarkar: Broken promises and a sectarian agenda https://www. forwardpress.in/2016/05/two-years-of-modi-sarkar-brokenpromises-and-a-sectarian-agenda/ … Tanveer Ahmed @tanveer1729: “Buhut hua naari par vaar, abki baar Modi Sarkar” Two years of Namo, Two years of Lies SurakshaGupta @SurakshaBJP: SurakshaGupta Retweeted Samar Chaudhary! Two years of growth and development by Modi Sarkar June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 63

astroturf Aries

Mar 21- April 20 The planetary power is at its maximum moving towards the East and continues next month also. So the need of the hour is to maximize personal goals and look into your own needs and interests. People around you will also be supportive of your personal happiness.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 20 Health picked up nicely last month and will remain good this month if you keep at your diet and exercise routine. The grand trine of the Earth is still in focus and effect till the 13th. Hence you can enhance your health even further giving more attention to your arms, lungs, and shoulders until the 18th. You need to forcefully release the tension in your shoulders through massage or holistic therapies.

GEMINI

May 21 - June 21 Forget about your love life, do not try to sort things out as they may go more worse. Mars moved backwards out of your 7th house on the 27th of last month and will be in your 6th house for all of June. Jupiter your love planet is now moving forward, hence there will be less intensity to the problems.

CANCER

Jun 22 - July 23 The Planetary power is now at its maximum eastern position in your chart. This position remains so in the coming month too, so exercising your personal power is off paramount importance. You receive support from all sides for your personal goals. Strong support for your personal happiness is also predicted.

CAPRICORN

(www.dollymangat.com)

Fortune favours the bold and the lucky

Your attitude is your altitude, says Dolly Mangat, our renowned Astrological Expert and believes she helps people create their own prophecies rather than live predictions

LEO

July 24 - Aug 23 Ever since April 19th the power of the planets have been moving towards your direction- supporting every aspect of you. After having spent many months developing your social skills now is the time to devote some time to your inner desires and needs. This is known as the law of cosmic balance. So develop your personal skills- your personal initiative and independence.

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23 Expect an active hectic month but nevertheless a successful one. Until the 21st you are still in your career peak. On the 13th Mercury your ruling planet crosses the mid heaven and enters the 10th house. You will feel and project success and happiness. Promotions are likely even though you may involve yourself in large and complicated undertakings yet you will sail through successfully.

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22 This month you enter yearly career peak though you have had much stronger career periods, yet you will witness an upsurge

64 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

once again. This begins on the 18th As Venus crosses the mid heaven and enters your 10th house and the Sun follows suit on the 21st. So you are bound to have career success and advancement happening in life.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 22 Last month the planetary power started its shift to the upper half of your chart, though its yet not in its full dominance. You still need to pay your attention to your home family and emotional wellness. But since you are in the sunrise of your year, you will be ready and fresh to partake the activities which are most important to you. It is the right time to focus on your career and your outer goals.

SAGITTARIUS

Nov 23 - Dec 22 Now that Mars is in your sign for a while your love and social life picks up momentum. You will experience a high in your love life until the 21st. Mercury your love planet is moving forward as well. You will gain social confidence and many social opportunities- perhaps too many. Saturn in your sign can bring in complications if you are not discreet or over indulge.

Dec 23 - Jan 20 Your 7th house of love and romance and social activities has not been powerful this year, even though love has basically been stable and not a priority. Things change this month as the Sun and two other planets enter your 7th house. You begin your yearly peak of love and social networking. You will attend and give parties. Singles will experience love opportunities from the 18th onwards with a wide variety of people; foreign types highly educated types, powerful types and even fun and game types. Probably you will sample them all.

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19 The Sun has one of its Solstices this month. Mars had one last month – from May 7th to the 14th. Mars paused and then changed direction. This is what was happening with you too- a pause and then a new direction. You will feel this phenomena in your love life this month. Until the Summer Solstice love is all about fun and games, nothing too serious about it. But after wards love becomes more practical.

PISCES

Feb 20 - Mar 20 Mars retrograded out of your 10th house on May 27th, the demands of career are still there but less urgent than last month. You can afford to spend more time with the family and handle affairs in the home. The tension between home and career will have some therapeutic value this month. It will force up old memories and odd patterns that need cleansing. Address: 143, St Patrick’s Town, Gate# 3, Hadapsar IE, Pune-411 013. Tel.: 020-26872677 / 020-32905748 Email: connect@dollymanghat.com/ info.dollymanghat@gmail.com

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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

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June 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 65

the last word

Ganesh Natarajan

Farewells are such sweet sorrow The real warmth comes when people go the extra mile and show the leader that life will not quite be the same without them at least for some time

inishing three five-year terms as Vice Chairman and Managing Director is never easy and making a clean break after this period is tough. When I parted ways with Zensar, the company that I led to global success since February 2001, I knew that the blood, sweat and tears that over 10,000 Zensarians had invested to make us the incredible success story we became, would find expression in a number of ways as I served out my last month in the company. Sure enough, the farewell parties began early with various functions, notably HR and Marketing singing away at small events and then the global farewell rollouts followed —San Jose, Boston, London, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and finally Pune the city where Zensar was born as a British tabulating machine manufacturer in 1922 and which has been the home of the company ever since. The departure of people from organisations or for that matter any institution is handled in different ways in different cultures. The much-feared pink slip which is delivered to the desk of a person with very little prior warning may be an American method which is brutal to envisage in any Asian context but has often proved to be the most effective way of minimising potential impact on firms. At the same time, this is the same country which has celebrated during and after their tenures legendary founders and leaders like Sam Walton, Jack

Welch and John Chambers. It is a pleasure to see the Customer Experience Centre at the San Jose Building 10 of CISCO named the John Chambers Centre, a recognition of the immense contribution of a man while he is still the Executive Chairman of the company. One wonders how many Indian firms would accord such a gesture to a serving professional leader. While most high-performance leaders are bid farewell at parties organised for the occasion, they can very often turn out to be a formality where some mandatory speeches are made, a gift and bouquet are delivered and everybody goes home and gets on with life! The real warmth comes when people go the extra mile and show the leader that life will not quite be the same without them at least for some time. In my own case, the special touches came from our San Jose team who ensured that every manager wrote a personal message on the farewell card, our Hyderabad team who put together a collage of pictures that is visual evidence of the ways in which they felt I had touched their lives and of course the very warm and well-produced videos of people and events at many locations that will serve as memory joggers for a long time. And a most amusing touch by our youngest recruit from IIM Ahmedabad Sukriti who drew a card and presented it to me and promised to never lose contact. These are the incidents and gestures that make companies and people special. And the impact of a

66 / Corporate Citizen / June 1-15, 2016

fond farewell is more far-reaching than one might consider at first pass. Every manager attending an event that has large doses of nostalgia served in a climate of love and warmth feels better bonded to the firm because this is a visible demonstration that there is care and appreciation. Great institutions are built, not just by brick and mortar and broadband connectivity but by the imagination, behaviour and actions of people. It is easy to mouth phrases like “Triple Bottom Line” and “Supportive Culture” but when these are felt as true vibrations emanating from the words and deeds of leaders, they serve to build bonds that are so strong and resilient that

Great institutions are built by the imagination, behaviour and actions of people. The most enduring thing about Zensar will be the culture of love that has made this one of the finest companies in our industry and country and hopefully, the world!

the company can withstand all the buffeting that the occasional environmental storm can create. At Zensar we have been proud of many things—our 50-year listing on the Mumbai Stock Exchange, the two case studies taught about our culture and ambidextrous innovation at the Harvard Business School, the books that use our practices as teaching material and the 44 percent annual growth in market capitalisation that we have given our shareholders over the last five years. But the most enduring will be the culture of love that has made this one of the finest companies in our industry and country and hopefully, the world! Finally a thought on leadership and the role of leaders. In this day and age, there is too much ego involved in this task and leaders themselves surround themselves with sycophants and develop a self-induced aura of invincibility and superiority over all. As my colleague and CEO of Zensar Foundation and Pune City Connect Ruchi Mathur so eloquently articulated at my final farewell, “a true leader is one in whose presence you do not feel the aura of a dominant personality but the warmth of a friend who will bring out your own leadership qualities and enable you to be the best you can be”. Can you think of a leader like that in your life? If not, go and find one! Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Founder of 5F World and Chairman of Global Talent Track, Pune City Connect and NASSCOM Foundation.

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