CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Air Marshal Jasjit Singh Kler, Commandant, National Defence Academy Volume 3, Issue No. 01 / Pages 68
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Global CEO’s and the conundrums they face in 2017
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Cosy Confederation Sarita and Vinod Sawhny
INSIGHT
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Kudos once again
Your cover story on Admiral (retd) Madhvendra Singh and Kaumudi Kumari in the Corporate Citizen issue of February 16-28 is very inspiring and interesting. Thank you for giving us one more positive story on couples who have walked hand-in-hand with each other and made success of family life and their
The nation needs Hazaro Annas!
The youth syndrome described in the Anna Hazare’s guest talk in the 16 February, 2017 issue (Volume 2, Issue 23), kept me up reading the article. The responsibilities that comes with youthhood—he rightfully reminds them how nation requires their constant attention and they are truly India’s power. He rightly says that adult life becomes very complicated with work and family issues and its rather challenging to find the time for social-political issues. He stresses on the point that what the nation needs is the youth connection and could make a big difference to the country that is bubbling with youth energy. What Anna did with his life was profoundly human and his views has the power to connect with the heart and soul of youth today. I really enjoyed reading the article. —Deepali Mehta, Entrepreneur careers. It is indeed amazing how Admiral Madhvendra Singh who was the Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy has easily slipped into the role as an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry. It shows how if you have no ego, you can achieve wonders in life. —Mohini K
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We look forward to your feedback We, at Corporate Citizen, believe that information should not be a one way street. Your opinion and views about this issue are most welcome. Your ideas and some new thoughts you may have, to enhance the content quality of our magazine, is most welcome. We rely on you to keep Corporate Citizen, on the positive and cool note, through your interaction on this page—just as you trust us with the content that we bring you, every fortnight. Mail us your views on: corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 3
Guest Editorial Lt Gen (retd)Vinay Shankar
Military & Management: plenty in common
D
oes the corporate citizen know what a bayonet is? It is a lethal blade. Soldiers carry it slung to their belts. They use it for cutting through the underbrush in forests, carving meat, hacking at reptiles, building huts and bridges in remote areas and sundry other jobs. But it is primarily meant for use against the enemy in close combat. Clamped to the front end of his rifle, this blade becomes the soldier’s sole weapon other than his body when handto- hand combat begins. It is at this stage that full throated battle cries of “Jai Mata Di”, “Jai Gorkhali” and “Jai Bajrang Bali” reverberate as he engages in mortal combat. Mortal combat and the supreme sacrifice!! There is a view that frequently finds expression from the political leadership, the bureau-
4 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
cracy and some sections of society that the armed forces comprise of volunteers who knew what they were getting into, so why should they now make a big deal of service conditions and seek better pay and perks. They are more wrong than right. Admittedly, the majority join the armed forces in search of a livelihood. But that does not necessarily mean service beyond the call of duty. And serious combat in war or in counter terrorism is only about taking risks, exposing yourself or your comrades or your subordinates to death or injury. It is high morale, motivation and a willingness to pay the ultimate price that counts in battle and not the rule-book or the defence accounts paycheck. These critics forget that there are good armies and bad armies, armies that believe in valour, honour and the glory of the nation, and armies that just draw their pay and don’t deliver. Most citizens
in India do not really understand the military ethic, its code and the unwritten compact of the sailor, soldier and airman with his organisation and the nation. Reverting back to the corporate citizen and the military: Most corporate citizens do know that many of their management structures, practices and products have been adapted from the Armed Forces. This process began with the advent of the industrial revolution and continued well after the Second World War. Thereafter, it has been a two-way traffic, both learning and adapting from each other’s tools and best practices. The examples are many: guided missiles to driverless cars, satellites for surveillance and mapping to the GPS, or for instance, drones that are being explored for mind boggling commercial applications. It is conjectured that “swarm” drones will be the next game changer on the bat-
Accolades for Lt Gen Vinay Shankar when he was DG, Artillery: 1.An Israeli officer pins a medal during his visit to Israel 2.Accepting the PVSM medal from President of India 3.The training exercise 4.Reviewing a new equpment.
tlefield. And it is equally likely some other type of drone might take the commercial world by storm. We share the quest for new technologies, their applications and management practices that must keep evolving for maximum exploitation in war or in business. Maximising team motivation is an important goal for leaders of both the corporate sector and the Armed Forces. The transformations that digitization and the information age are bringing about throw up fresh challenges on a daily basis that demand capacities for dynamic adaptation and evolution. It is here that the corporate citizen is perhaps ahead of his counterparts in the military. The Armed Forces have to make a special effort to acquire the required flexibility and willingness to change and stay ahead of the curve. Better interface with the corporate world can be a big facilitator. Take logistics, there is much that the military can learn from Amazon, Flipkart or Walmart. Such interaction can also contribute towards honing of the sixth and seventh senses -- so vital for success in the competitive and complex world that we live in. Many of the management practices are common to both the corporate citizen and the military. But what the corporate citizen is unaware of perhaps is the specifics of what the military does to prepare for war both conventional and asym-
metric, and the counter-insurgency/terrorism operations that it has been fighting for many decades. Besides gruelling training rigour, it places great emphasis on physical and moral courage. It focuses on tradition, “Izzat”, history, bonding, camaraderie and loyalty. Preparing soldiers to willingly accept extreme and unimaginable hardships and keep them motivated for the supreme sacrifice requires great leadership and more often than not, personal example. Leaders have to lead from the front. In this endeavour religion is an invaluable motivator. Our Army is deeply religious sans the bigotry that goes with the way in which religion is practiced. To illustrate, wouldn’t it be hard to imagine that a Muslim Colonel is currently commanding a fighting unit comprising only of Brahmins? This Colonel as the ‘head of the family’ attends all functions in the unit “Mandir” and sits in all rituals as a father of a family would be expected to. Every military man/ woman accepts and in public practices the religion of the majority. Religion is so deeply embedded in the Army’s way of life that it has in its lexicon the term “ Mandir Parade” and these parades are almost a daily affair. Can such practices lead to better motivation of the corporate citizen? Unlike Europe, UK, USA, China, Russia, and the other East and West Asian countries the citizenry in India knows very little about the Armed
There is much that the military can learn from Amazon, Flipkart or Walmart. Such interaction can also contribute towards honing of the sixth and seventh senses - so vital for success in the competitive and complex world that we live in
Forces or about warfare. This lack of knowledge leads to a divide between society and its military and that in turn adversely impacts national security. Clearly, the military or the people have failed to bridge this gap in awareness levels. To cite a simple example, not many can list the rank structure of the Armed forces or have any clue about its organisation, weaponry and enablers. Could the corporate citizen consider seizing the initiative to bridge this awareness gap? For starters can the corporate citizen learn to address military officers by their ranks and not “Mister”. The military man/woman does not encounter such ignorance and indifference anywhere else in the world, and it rankles. The next step could be to include military ranks in all forms/ documents that customers and employees are required to fill in the space for ‘designation’ and the software must support these designations. India today faces two major challenges. First is security both from external and internal threats and the second, development. The Armed Forces and the corporate citizen have to together shoulder these two challenges and deliver. Providing security and creating wealth are two vastly different missions. But the ingredients of success for both have plenty in common like industry, enterprise, innovation, commitment, drive, flexibility, robust and dynamic organisations, an insatiable appetite for new technologies and most importantly great leadership. Hence there may be a case for increasing interaction between the military and the corporate citizen. Nothing will be lost but much could be gained. “Jai Hind!” (That is how we greet each other in the Armed Forces.) (Lt Gen (retd) Vinay Shankar is former Director General Artillery and a celebrated columnist in various leading newspapers) March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 5
Contents 20
Cover story
Dynamic Duo 48
Cosy Confederation Sarita and Vinod Sawhny, she a corporate communicator, he a veteran consumer, telecom and retail professional, they show how one can build on both commonalities and differences and foster an energetic and harmonious life together
09 COLLYWOOD
Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 13 Claps & Slaps
Roses and Brickbats for the fortnight 14 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why... 6 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
Volume 3 Issue No. 01 March 16-31, 2017 www.corporatecitizen.in
16 THE TAX MAN COMETH ‘Raid Raaj’ the need of the hour 19 Opinion Climate change in the times of Donald Trump - Sunita Narain 28 interview Gaurav Dua, GSVP - Consulting, Frost & Sullivan, believes industries need to embrace new technologies to survive and grow
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32 Cradle of Leadership Air Marshal Jasjit Singh Kler, Commandant, National Defence Academy, on the iconic military academy that produces valiant officers of the Indian Armed Force 40 Corporate debate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of treating examination period as a pleasure activity, has had a thought provoking reaction from a cross-section of society
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43 WHAT’S NEW? Signs of life beyond our Earth as revealed by NASA 44 INSIGHT Dr Karuna Ganesh, PhysicianScientist at the world renowned Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, on the latest developments in cancer research
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48 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Pooja Mehta shares her experience of campus placement 50 LOVED AND MARRIED TOO Rahul Venkit and Severine Perronnet’s story in their own words
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contents
Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh Assistant Editor Prasannakumar Keskar
58 52 SURVEY CEO’s and the conundrums they face in 2017
Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur / Sharmila Chand
56 health 11 foods to avoid with diabetes
Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Suchismita Pai / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra
58 PEARLS OF WISDOM Swami Chaitanya Keerti on how friendship is a form of spirituality
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60 BOLLYWOOD BIZ Corporate Citizen brings you the best Bollywood movies on politics
Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389 Circulation Officer Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560
62 mobile apps The best self publishing apps for budding authors 66 LAST WORD Managing over four hundred million rupees of corporate investment in the social sector, NASSCOM Foundation is an idea whose time has come - by Ganesh Natarajan
Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao
Creative Direction Kiyan Gupta, The Purple Stroke Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar
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Be A Corporate Citizen
How do you like this issue of Corporate Citizen - The Cool Side of Business? Send in your views, news, suggestions and contributions to corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! 8 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
On Cover Page Sarita and Vinod Sawhny Cover page pic Vivek Arora Photographer Yusuf Khan Website / Online Subscription www.corporatecitizen.in For Advertising, Marketing & Subscription queries Email: circulations@corporatecitizen.in (Corporate Citizen does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage) Tel. (020) 69000677 / 69000672
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People in the news
Balesh Sharma is the COO of Vodafone India
Rajiv Bajaj takes a dig at demonetisation
Industrialist Rajiv Bajaj, takes a potshot at the centre after being aggrieved at the hurdles faced by his company to launch its quadricycle in India. He snuffed the centre by saying ‘Made in India’ is Mad in India. The managing director of Bajaj Auto, pondered as to why a vehicle (quadricycle), which is cleaner, fuel-efficient, safer and whose benefits are as “obvious as daylight”, is facing troubles, despite having a good run in and across countries like Europe, Asia and Latin America. The adverse impact of demonetisation continuing to hamper two-wheeler sales, the MD felt that the idea of demonetisation itself was wrong, forget about blam-
ing only the execution side of it. He went on to say that demonetisation was not working, stated that the execution of this idea is not right, as the idea of demonetisation itself is wrong—while talking at the annual Nasscom Leadership Forum in Mumbai, recently. Bajaj Auto’s total domestic sales in January dipped 16 per cent to 1,35,188 units from 1,61,870 units sold during the same period last year. Based on data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, two-wheeler sales stood at 12,43,251 units in November, compared with 13,20,552 units during the corresponding month last year.
Bhargava appointed LIC MD Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, gets a new face up on board as, Hemant Bhargava takes charge as the managing director. This move was initiated by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet who have called in Bhargava, the zonal manager (LIC) Delhi. According to the personnel Ministry, Bhargava’s appointment to the post till his superannuation, till July 31, 2019. He has been with LIC for over three decades serving in different capacities all over India and abroad. He has been the country head of LIC Mauritius, head of International Operations SBU of LIC. He also served on the board of National Mutual Fund Mauritius LIC. He has vivid interests in the collection and study of postage stamps (philately), numismatic (collecting coins) besides reading, gardening swimming, rowing and table tennis.
Balesh Sharma will take over from Naveen Chopra as the chief operation officer of Vodafone Group, India. Sharma who was the head of the Czech Republic, comes in as the part of major organisational changes. To better tackle competitive pressures triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm, Sharma will take over from Chopra from April 1 this year. India’s No. 2 telecom carrier is further streamlining its structure by integrating its commercial functions with operations, both of which will be under Sharma. He has been the CEO at Vodafone Czech Republic since 2013 and has been with the company since 2011. Sharma has worked for Vodafone in Malta, Delhi and Bengaluru markets. Before joining Vodafone, he has worked with BPL Mobile and Xerox. The organisational changes come at a time of immense strife for the telco, which has been struggling to deal with competitive pressures and a resultant brutal price war since the entry of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm.
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 9
collywood Sanyal is new principal eco adviser
Sanjeev Sanyal, former global strategist and managing director of Deutsche Bank, has been appointed as the principal economic adviser in the finance ministry. He will work under chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian. Sanyal is a well-known economist and has authored several books including the Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India’s Geography. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, visiting scholar at Oxford University, Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, and a Senior Fellow of the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund). The bestselling author, Sanyal, has made his mark in diverse areas such as environment and sustainable development, urban issues, microfinance as well as foreign investment, making him eminently suitable for this public policy role. Sanyal was among the others to visualise when micro-lending was a non-profit initiative and had not reached any scale.
Tata Power appoints N Chandrasekaran as chairman
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, is the new chairman and additional director of Tata Power. Tata Sons has exercised the authority under the Company’s Articles of Association and nominated N Chandrasekaran as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company, according to a BSE filing. Currently the chairman of Tata Steel and Tata Motors, Chandrasekaran is also the director of The Indian Hotels Company and the Reserve Bank of India. Tata Sons in a release stated that they exercised the authority under the Company’s Articles of Association and nominated N Chandrasekaran as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company with effect from February 11, 2017. “I am honoured to be appointed as the chairman of the Board of this historic organisation which has been serving the nation for the past 100 years with dedication. It will be my endeavour to help the management team fulfil Tata Power’s commitment to light up the lives of our future generations,” Chandrasekaran was quoted in the statement.
Gulati, Kumar, Sabharwal on RBI board Three non-official directors were in the Reserve Bank of India’s board for a period of four years. The three new directors who were named by the government of India are, Ashok Gulati, Manish Sabharwal and Rajiv Kumar. Gulati, Indian economist writer, also focuses on agriculture and also is the Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations
10 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
(ICRIER), while Sabharwal, also a writer serves on State and Central government committees of education, employment. He was also a chief executive officer of Hewitt Outsourcing (Asia)
based in Singapore. Rajiv Kumar, senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research, is an economist and the author of several books on the Indian economy and India’s national security. Kumar is also chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune and the founding director of Pahle India Foundation, a non-profit research organisation that specialises in policy-oriented research and analysis.
Arun Kumar takes over as CEO of KPMG India
The former assistant commerce secretary in the Obama administration, Arun Kumar, is the new chairman and CEO of KPMG India. He takes charge from Richard Rekhy who resigned, after being the CEO of the audit firm for four years in his five-year tenure. KPMG, one of the world’s leading professional services firms, started its India office in the year 1993. In the last four years, it doubled its India workforce strength to 14,000 people and inducted over 70 partners. Kumar is an old hand at KPMG, having
spent most part of his career with the firm’s US unit. He had served on the boards of KPMG US and KPMG Americas between 2008 and 2013. He then had a threeyear stint with the US government as assistant secretary of commerce for global markets and director general of US and foreign commercial service. He had also worked to strengthen commercial ties between India and the US and played a key role in establishing the India-US strategic and commercial dialogue and a renewed India-US CEO Forum.
NSE board picks IDFC’s Limaye as its MD
Vikram Limaye takes over as the Managing Director of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The chartered accountant, Limaye takes over after Chitra Ramakrishna quit NSE, citing personal reasons after a long stint of 23 years. Limaye worked with Credit Suisse First Boston, Citibank, Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen. He was also on various committees of government in areas like infrastructure, economic policy, markets, trade and minority affairs. Beyond the world of finance, Limaye is also a sports buff. He was a member of the Maharashtra tennis team that played in the nationals, and played cricket for Shivaji Park Gymkhana, in the Mumbai Cricket League.
Alibaba to provide free Internet in India Free internet is on cards as Alibaba’s UCWeb, the internet software and services provider has big plans for India. The company is currently negotiating with telecom operators and Wi-Fi providers to provide free internet in India, says Jack Huang, President of Overseas Business, Alibaba Mobile Business. Incidentally, this is not for the first time to provide free internet in India. Social networking giant Facebook had launched its internet.org and then Free Basic initiatives in India but both failed to get past the regulations in the country. Also, Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio is currently providing free services including data to all consumers. As for Alibaba, it is yet to be seen what kind of free internet services the company is looking to provide but the company is in talks with potential partners. Current rules in India do not allow anyone to connect content with usage and the telecom regulator is in the process of defining Net Neutrality for the country. If Alibaba is looking at connecting its own content to the free usage it will inevitably have issues with the telecom regulator as was seen in Facebook’s Free Basics. March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 11
collywood Vijay Joshi takes charge as PTI Editor-In-Chief Veteran journalist Vijay Joshi returns to Press Trust of India as as the Editor-in-chief and takes charge from M K Razdan, who retired from the post in September. The former Associated Press’s director, Joshi will oversee text, video and photo operations. Joshi has been with AP for over three decades, besides a previous stint at the PTI in the ’80s. He will oversee the work of some 900 reporters, editors and part-time journalists across India and in bureaus in major world capitals. Last year, when the selection process for the new Editor-in-Chief began prior the retirement of Razdan, there were reports that the government was apparently pushing the candidature
of three journalists, namely, Ashok Malik, KA Badrinath and Shishir Gupta. The three are perceived as being closely aligned with the BJP. During his long stint with AP, Joshi shuttled between the continents of Asia and Africa as he worked out of Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Joshi acquired higher education in the field of geology but opted to work as a sub-editor at The Indian Express after obtaining a degree in journalism from Hyderabad’s Osmania University.
Many snap deal with Snapdeal
Abhishek Kumar, head of M&A and investments, and Sandeep Komaravelly, SVP of Shopo, a C2C marketplace, add to the list of exodus e-tailer, Snapdeal is losing ground to rivals in the last few months. Komaravelly, one of the oldest employees, joined after his startup Grabon was acquired by the ecommerce player in 2010, while Kumar played a key role in multiple acquisitions has had a three-year stint with the Snapdeal. The exit of Kumar and Komaravelly, comes after the SoftBank-backed Snapdeal announced a senior management reshuffle in November last year, when Vishal Chadha, SVP, business, became one of the key executives at the firm and last month, ex-Housing CEO Jason Kothari joined as chief strategy and investment officer of Snapdeal. Earlier, Anand Chandrasekaran, chief product officer, resigned to join Facebook. In the past couple of weeks, the industry has been abuzz with talks of an imminent round of layoffs and a down round being on the cards for the e-tailer. A down round is when a company raises fresh funds at a lower valuation than its previous one. Snapdeal last raised capital at a $6.5-billion valuation. 12 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
Pirojsha Godrej to head Godrej Properties Pirojsha Godrej will anchor Godrej Properties as the executive chairman, in one of several top-level executive changes announced. In a release to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the company stated the reason behind the change, because the group chairman Adi Godrej stepped down as director of the company but will continue to provide support as chairman emeritus. His responsibilities will be handled by Pirojsha Godrej, who was the managing director and CEO. Mohit Malhotra, an executive director at Godrej Properties, will take on Pirojsha Godrej’s responsibilities as the MD and CEO. In another change, Karan Bolaria, who heads Godrej Fund Management, a subsidiary of Godrej Properties, has been appointed as the CEO. Pirojsha, joined Godrej Properties in 2004, has been the managing director and CEO of the realty developer since 2012. In the years that he has led the company, Godrej Properties has been one of the fastest growing real estate developers in India and for the first time in fiscal year 2016, emerged as India’s largest publicly listed real estate developer by sales. Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com
Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps for Uttar Pradesh (UP) police for rescuing over 6,000 freshwater turtles in one of the ‘largest’ turtle haul in the country which was definitely not an isolated case According to senior officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, the first 15 days of 2017 saw close to 14,000 turtles being rescued in operations across Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The UP police force have shown some benevolence to these ‘timeless creatures’ weighing over four tonnes, as they recovered them from poachers that touted to smuggle them off to Southeast Asia. In fact, UP is home to fourteen of the 28 endangered turtle species and close to 20,000 turtles are allegedly smuggled off each year. In a sad state of affairs, around 6430 flap shell turtles were found stuffed into 140 jute bags, ready to be smuggled despite being ‘protected’ species under the Wildlife Protection Act. Not a rare species though, but the ‘protection’ tag definitely meant the deployment of a Special Task Force to rescue them. The enormity of such a number being confiscated from one single location in interior of Gauriganj town is a cause for worry. According to officials, the poachers had filled half a truck with the turtles to take them to Kolkata and thereon the route was set to transport these creatures illegally to Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Sadly, turtle meat is valued for its aphrodisiac elements in these South East Asian countries and the bones are known to provide good medicinal efficacy under certain customs of ancient and traditional medicine. In India, turtle meat is on high demand around the harvest festival of Makar Sankranti especially in the eastern and northeastern parts of India too. According to US-based Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), smugglers can earn up to `1,000 ($15) per flap shell turtle, while meat of a bigger soft shell variant is considered a delicacy and is sold for up to `8,000 ($119). Turtles are found all along the river Ganga and its belt across Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and the smuggling network in extends from Uttar Pradesh to Bihar and from West Bengal and Assam. The wild cats found in Mirzapur were bound for Hyderabad and the other confiscated species would have found themselves in Myanmar, Thailand or Vietnam. The turtles, too, were headed to South Eastern Regions via Nepal or West Bengal, a prime transit point for wild life smuggling. While conservation experts do agree that enforcement has definitely improved in some Indian states, it however fails to match the rate at which these turtles get poached annually, which could soon enlist them as ‘endangered’ species. While all cheers to the UP police, authorities need to hurry or face endangered species ‘scurry’ away under our very nose-a loss to mankind and environment!
Corporate Citizen slaps all forms of cultural insensitivities in the name of merchandising, and this time the scanner is on Amazon Inc for online sales of doormats bearing the Indian flag’s image and the images of Mahatma Gandhi on flip-flops This is not the first time that an Indian imagery has been mocked at in the name of fashion statements or for quick commercial gains. Run back to 2015, images of Lord Ganesha on flip-flops by an American company had irked religious sentiments and pushed the group - American Hindus Against Defamation (AHAD) to protest against the same. The company then removed these flip-flop shoes from their stores to restore good will of the Hindu community. But reports emerged later that images of Lord Ganesha were found as prints on handbags manufactured by the same company! Despite old mishaps by other American merchandisers, Amazon Inc., trying to pitch itself as a ‘local’ outfit in India, seems to have faltered in understanding Indian sentiments and psyche. Even though these items were not directly targeted at the Indian market, it is time that Western sensibilities find some in-depth understanding of the markets they serve or don’t serve’ in a globally effervescent environment made borderless at least on virtual social platforms. This time, it needed intervention of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj whose strong reactions to the Indian tricolour doormats on Amazon’s Canadian website, demanded that the product be taken off the sale site. It needed a strong statement from Mrs Swaraj – “... If this is not done forthwith, we will not grant Indian Visa to any Amazon official. We will also rescind the Visas issued earlier,” to get an apology from Amazon’s India Head and the subsequent withdrawal of the product from the online market. Whether it was Converse shoes that launched designer canvas shoes in India in 2010 with pictures of Hindu deities and named it after guitar legend late Jimi Hendrix or images of deities such as Ganesha and Lakshmi on beer bottles as was done by an Australian brewery or for that matter images of Mahatma Gandhi on a label that was used by another US based beer manufacturing company; each of these episodes evoked a controversy. Notwithstanding, western morale failed to see sanctity in Indian and religious imagery in all the cases, and Gods (literally) would have to save themselves if political or religious might failed us all. Most importantly, the country needs to assert itself to the Western world – a sad state if all this leads to legal wrangles in a free society with diverse world culture. (Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar) March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 13
wax eloquent
Moment of Historic Change
Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in the business world
Good governance is about…
Tag of being the biggest
“How big you are doesn’t matter. What matters is how brilliant you are in delivery. You could make a great product but may not be able to deliver it. Delivery, cost and quality are the parameters.” VC Sehgal, chairman, Motherson Sumi
“Good governance is about doing what is fair in a transparent manner with full accountability accepted by senior leaders and board members for their actions. Good governance results from following the adages – when in doubt, disclose; and let the good news take the stairs and let the bad news take the elevator.” NR Narayana Murthy, founder, Infosys,
Courtesy: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Courtesy: Business Standard
Shining philosophy “The ideal American Dream is that anybody can come to America and work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from - as long as you’re willing to do the needful and try hard and build a life out of your own two hands, that you can do it. You’ll be given a fair share in America. And that shining philosophy of what it means to be American and be accepting has been squandered in mere weeks with the flick of a pen.” Padma Lakshmi, author, actress, model, Courtesy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Data is the new oil
“The 4th industrial revolution is connectivity and data. Data is new natural resource. India is naturally blessed with 1.3 billion people. Data in its raw form is useful but it to have real value, it has to be processed into intelligence. We are at the beginning of that era where data is the new oil.” Mukesh Ambani,
chairman & MD, Reliance Industries
Courtesy: economictimes.indiatimes.com
14 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
Whatever we can do together “What we are offering is not just transfer of technologies but transfer of capabilities to India. I don’t think we should reinvent, there’s a lot of capabilities in India that already exist—whatever we can do together we will take it as a challenge. We see an excellent fit between our technology leadership and India’s abundance of skilled manpower.” Jan Widerström, chairman and managing director, Saab India Technologies
Courtesy:http://www.defensenews.com
Only thing you can control is the work “Legacy is more important to me than money. Films are enduring and for posterity. Fame and money are byproducts. You cannot control it. The only thing you can control is the work that you do.” Rajkummar Rao, actor
Courtesy: http://www.huffingtonpost.in
People like authenticity
“Man, you have to be yourself. You can’t live a lie. If it’s not your personality, you can’t pull it off for too long. At the end of the day, you score runs, take wickets and play for a long time. Life will look after itself for you. People like authenticity. They can see through eventually if you are not being authentic.” Rahul Dravid, former Indian cricketer and captain,
Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com
Time to diversify
Idea behind the store
“The current situation has made it even clearer that it is time to diversify our trade relations, and we are focussed on seizing that momentum for more Mexican companies to turn their attention to India. If the US does enforce some of its harsher immigration proposals, on which Indian IT companies are heavily dependent, we will be more than happy to have Indians relocate to Mexico.”
“It is about working smart. It’s about the large intangible aspects of waste. The store is a conversation starter more than a place to buy, sell and make profits. The process needs a shift in attitude and for that, we need conversations around consumption.”
Melba Pria, Mexico’s
Cognitive is India’s future
“As a country, India has been digitising and digitising the world. Digital is the foundation. India’s next path is to now make the world cognitive. That would be the difference maker. You are a country of developers, which is why I say cognitive is India’s future. This is a moment of historic change and you have to embrace it. Build a future around cognitive. I think no country has a more important role to play than India.”
Avinash Rebello,
founder and MD, Remade in India Waste Solutions Courtesy: www.deccanchronicle.com
Ginni Rometty, president, IBM
Courtesy: http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com
Ambassador to India
Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com
We are doing our bit “The best way that a central bank can support growth on a durable basis is to ensure that the inflation is low, stable, there is financial stability and that is the role that the central bank plays. Very few countries grow at high rate, if inflation is high and volatile. I think, in a way, we are doing our bit to support a higher growth rate but on a durable basis.” Urjit Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Courtesy: http://www.moneycontrol.com
Personal advice to Trump Time is now
“Change in technology is happening faster and it is becoming more and more real and if there is ever a time for the companies in the IT services industry it is now; (there is) uncertainty around the US elections and the Brexit, and you have shareholder activism on top of that.”
“Any head of state cannot have only yes men around him; he must have honest advisors. He needs to keep disruptive people also in his team because they can see the point from a very different angle so they enrich one’s course of action. Hence a leader like Trump needs to include the dissenters among his advisors, and take into account counterpoints as well.” Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder, Art of Living
Courtesy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Key to success
Rishad Premji,
“The first key to success in any profession is hardwork. Without that you can never achieve what you want. Added to that, it is important to be instinctive. We all are born with an instinct. If you don’t use it, you cannot be good. You have to bring out your instinct in its truest form.”
Courtesy: Economic Times
Courtesy: : http://www.lifehacker.co.in
chief strategy officer, Wipro
Raghu Rai, photographer and photojournalist
Sport is drama
“If you are a very bright young kid who understands the game, feels the emotion, follows analytics, and tells a great story, it’s not the television channels alone that are looking for you but also a plethora of websites. You need to have a mix between analytical and emotional commentary, because sport is drama and you cannot forget the drama around sports.” Harsha Bhogle, Indian cricket commentator and journalist
Courtesy: http://www.thebetterindia.com
Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 15
The Tax Man Cometh-29
‘Raid Raaj’
the need of the hour by S K Jha
(IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)
Search operations against tax evasion are not pleasant, but become essential in a country where more money is hidden than declared. What goes into a tax raid, why is it conducted, what happens before, during and after a tax raid? Here are the facts, laid bare...
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”
I
ncome tax raids at the premises of a leading industrialist! Top Bollywood actors raided! Famous doctors in the tax net! These are some of the headlines we occasionally see in the newspapers. Such news generates mixed reactions. While a section of the people think that ‘raid raaj’ has come, which is fearful, the other section feels happy that black money is being flushed out. An income tax raid definitely produces two opposite emotions: fear among the affluent, and sadistic pleasure among the under privileged. The one common and underlying thread is curiosity about the search action. People always want to know more about it. Why does it take place? How does it take place? What happens after it gets concluded? Is it not an intrusion into our right to privacy and therefore unconstitutional?
Fighting ‘war profiteers’
The present Income Tax Act was enacted in 1961. The earlier version of this legislation was codified in 1922. There were no provisions for conducting Income Tax raid till 1956. The need for it was felt after the Second World War, when a new class of people emerged on our horizon, known as ‘war profiteers’. As the name suggests, these people took undue advantage of shortages of goods and commodities on account of the war by resorting to hoarding and black marketing. There was a windfall gain of illegal money for those war profiteers, which required some stern action. The old Income Tax Act 1922 was hence amended to bring laws for search action. The provision for the search action in the pres-
ent act is under Section 132, which codifies the reasons for the search action and also of the procedures of this action. For conducting a search, a warrant of authorisation has to be issued by the designated authority of the Income Tax department. The warrant of authorisation orders a team of named officers to enter a place of search. The place of search is fully identified in the warrant. The search team cannot go to any place other than the names placed in the warrant. Subsequent warrants can be issued for more places if new places come to the notice of the search team. Subsequent warrants are normally issued in the course of the search action by the designated authority who may be a subordinate of the higher authority who issued the warrants initially. At the time of the initial issue of warrants, officers of three senior ranks are involved and they have to apply their mind separately. These three ranks are Deputy Director, Director, and Director General of Investigation. The officers at these three levels have to record objective reasons for conducting the desired search. This document incorporating the reasons is called the ‘satisfaction note’. The recording of the reasons for conducting the search or satisfaction note is based upon information in possession of the concerned officers, and the reasons should be adequate enough to give objective satisfaction to them that unaccounted assets or documents for unaccounted income are kept at a particular place which may belong to a person having unaccounted income. The information in the possession of the department against a person having unaccounted income can either be self-generated by the department or it may come from informants. There is a scheme of giving cash rewards to informants which may go up to 10% of the tax collected on the basis of their information. The reward given is tax free, and all efforts are taken to maintain secrecy about them. Normally, the informants are disgruntled employees, jealous friends and neighbours, partners in the business having a dispute and even members of the same
16 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
family. There is also a class of informants who work professionally, having their office and staff who invest their money to begin with by purchasing information from the market. Recently, a new class of informants has emerged who do not work for rewards but with the patriotic motive of cleansing the system of black money. These nationalist whistleblowers contribute towards nation building. Sub sections 132 (1)/(a), 132 (1) (b) and 132 (1) (c) codify the reasons for issuing the warrant
of authorisation of the search. The first and second of these sub-sections speak about the non compliance and the possible non compliance of summons to produce the books of accounts or documents, while the third sub section speaks about the possession by a person of money, bullion, jewellery or other valuable articles or things which was not disclosed or not likely to be disclosed to the Income Tax department.
What happens in a ‘search’
Section 132 (1) vide its various sub-sections from 132 (i) to (v) provide as to what the search team can do while conducting the search operation. The search team is empowered to enter any place like a building or flat and also can search vehicles, vessels or aircraft. The search team can break open the lock of any door, box, locker, safe, almirah, where the keys are not available. A person available at the premises can be physically searched, including persons going out or coming into the place of search. There is power to seize money, bullion, jewellery or other valuables found at the place of search-documents, papers and books of accounts can also be seized. The search team can also make an inventory of
things found and can put a mark of identification on documents found, but not seized. The search proceedings are done in the presence of two independent witnesses and at the conclusion of the search a panchanama is drawn giving details of the proceedings. The search begins with showing the warrant of authorisation to the person searched or any of his men/women found at the place of search and taking the signature of the person on the warrant. The panchanama is also signed by the person searched or his representative, independent witnesses and the officer-in-charge of the search operation. The services of the police can
be requisitioned or that of any public servant as deemed fit. Government valuers can be called for valuation of the jewellery or other valuables found in the course of the search. The valuation work can be even got done at the very place of search. Statements of oath can be recorded under section 132 (4) of the Act of the person found at the place of search. There is a provision for placing prohibitary orders on items not seized which the searched person cannot use or dispose till the order remains in operation, which is for a limited period. The things or documents found will be presumed to be belonging to the person who is the owner of the place from
‘There were no provisions for conducting Income Tax raid till 1956. The need for it was felt after the Second World War, when a new class of people emerged on our horizon, known as ‘war profiteers’. As the name suggests, these people took undue advantage of shortages of goods and commodities on account of the war by resorting to hoarding and black marketing’ where they were found. The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 relating to searches and seizure shall apply, so far as may be, to searches under the Income Tax Act.
After the ‘search’
Once the search operation is over, the seized valuables and documents are taken to the office of the director of Income Tax investigation, cash seized is deposited in the bank account of the government while valuables are kept in safe lockers. The seized documents and books ate minutely examined by the officers of the investigation wing. Following the information gathered in the course of search and the clues on examination of seized documents, a search enquiry is conducted. The post search enquiry may lead to more searches or surveys against connected persons or even examining them in the office of the department. Within four months of the conclusion of the search operation, a detailed report is prepared by the investigation wing and sent to the assessing officer of the person searched and to his commissioner. This report is known as ‘appraised report’ and it is a secret report. The appraisal report gives full details of the search operation and it works as the basis for assessment of income of the person searched and also of the connected persons. Search assessments are normally done by a specially created assessment wing, called the ‘Central Circle’. Immediately after the search, the case of the searched person, together with the connected cases are transferred to the Central Circle. Here the assessing officers have fewMarch 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 17
The Tax Man Cometh-29 er cases to handle, so they can devote more time to pass the detailed assessment orders. The assessment in the search cases is done under the specific provision of section 153 A of the Act. In addition to the year of the search, the assessment is simultaneously done for six proceeding years. The assessment of the six previous years gets automatically reopened due to the search. There is also provision of a search assessment in the case of a third person whose assets or documents are found and seized from the premises of the search of the main person. In the case of a third party, section 153 C of the Act applies and again assessments of the six previous years prior to the year of search get reopened. The tax demand is raised based on the evidence found in the course of the search and on the basis of unaccounted assets found. There is a separate and very strict provision for levy of penalty in search cases. The provision is given as per Section 271 AAB of the Act for searches after 1st July 2012. This penalty section has undergone amendment in November 2016, and the provision has become harsher. Now, the penalty will be 30% of the undisclosed income in addition to tax if the searched person
decisions of the Court. Also, to safeguard the interest of the Revenue, the Budget proposes a new sub-section under section 132 of the Act to attach the properties of the searched person for six months. This will help the department in collecting tax speedily.
Not ‘unconstitutional’
A search action definitely violates the privacy of the person searched, but it has been held by the Supreme Court that it is not unconstitutional.
‘The search team can break open the lock of any door, box, locker, safe, almirah, where the keys are not available. A person available at the premises can be physically searched, including persons going out or coming into the place of search. There is power to seize money, bullion, jewellery or other valuables found at the place of search-documents, papers and books of accounts can also be seized’ admits to the undisclosed income in the course of the search action and pays tax voluntarily; otherwise it will be 60% of the undisclosed income, in addition to tax.
Changes to ‘search’ provisions
There are some changes in the search provision under the budget for the year 2017-18. To safeguard the identity of informants, it has been proposed that the satisfaction note for conducting the search will not be produced before any person including the Tribunal. This proposal has been made to neutralise some conflicting
Safeguards have been built in the procedure to least disturb the person being searched. The Income Tax department does not have power to arrest a person, but the department can inform other departments having power of arrest, if the search process reveals violation of other legislations. Normally the CBI, DRI and Enforcement Directorate are given information depending upon the nature of the violation. Sending tax defaulters to jail is possible under the Income Tax Act only when the prosecution case is filed and the court passes orders giving the sentencing.
18 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
During the process of search operation, the team leader of the search party gives some instructions to the inmates of the house or office for conducting the operation smoothly. Such instructions should be respected. The persons coming for search are doing their duty and full co-operation should be given to them. Creating obstacles in the process of government work is a criminal offence. It is advisable to keep cool during the search operation and if some part of your income or asset found in the course of search or if some entry in your document is not fully explained, then the same should be admitted. An honest admission of unaccounted income reduces the burden of penalty from 60% to 30% and this may also help in the prosecution case.
Painful but necessary
The search action gives pain but the same may be considered as an occupational hazard. If there is no black money with you, then except for some temporary inconvenience, there is nothing to worry. A search action cannot be considered a good thing in a civilised society but it cannot be done away with in our country where hardly 2% of the population pays tax. People have money but they hide. Even the persons who file tax returns hide their income except in the case of salaried employees who cannot hide. If the department does not conduct searches, the hidden wealth will never come out. It will be injustice to honest taxpayers if the hoarders of black money are not taken to task. Our people are very intelligent and many of them misuse their intelligence for the wrong things and for earning illegal income. There is no way possible, other than the search operation, to catch such people.
Opinion Sunita Narain
Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and the Editor of Down To Earth magazine. She is an environmentalist who pushes for changes in policies, practices and mind-set
Climate Change in times of Trump
What does the ascension of Donald Trump to US presidency mean for climate change? Also, what does Trump mean for our inter-connected and by now highly globalised world?
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et’s discuss climate change first. As my colleague Chandra Bhushan argues so forcefully in this issue (see ‘Why the US should quit the Paris Agreement’), firstly, Trump is not the only climate denier in the US. All Republican nominees and even Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton avoided using the “C” word during the election campaign. But there is no doubt that President-elect Trump is of another shade of this grey. He denies climate change is happening, though recently he said to CNN that “humans have some connectivity” on climate change. He is certain that the US needs to dig more coal, build more power plants and do everything to ramp up production, which will increase greenhouse gas emissions. So, he is bad news for climate change. But this is not new. As Chandra Bhushan says, the US has invariably made the multilateral world change rules; reconfigure agreements, mostly to reduce it to the lowest common denominator, all to get its participation. Then when the world has a weak, worthless and meaningless deal, it will walk out of it. All this while, its powerful civil society and media will hammer in the point that the world needs to be accommodating and pragmatic. “Our Congress will not accept” is the refrain, essentially arguing that theirs is the only democracy in the world or certainly the only one that matters. This happened in 1992, when in Rio, after much “accommodation” the agreement to combat climate change was whittled down, targets were removed and there was no agreed action. All this was done to bring the US on board. But it walked out. Then came the Kyoto Protocol, the first and only framework for action to re-
duce emissions. Here again, in December 1997, when climate change proponents Bill Clinton and Al Gore were in office, the agreement was reduced to nothingness—the compliance clause was removed, cheap emission reduction and loopholes were included. All to bring the US on board. Once again, they rejected it. Then came Barack Obama and his welcome commitment to climate change actions. But what did the US do? It has made the world completely rewrite the climate agreement so that the targets, instead of being based on science and contribution of each country, are now based on voluntary action. Each country is allowed to set targets, based on what they can do and by when. It has led to weak action, which will not keep the Planet’s temperature rise below 2° C, forget the guardrail of 1.5° C. This was done to please the Americans who said they would never sign a global agreement that binds them to actions or targets. Paris fatally and fundamentally erased historical responsibility of countries and reduced equity to insignificance. This was done because the US said this was the redline—nothing on equitable rights to the common atmospheric space could be acceptable. Also, the Centre of Science and Environment’s analysis of US climate change action plan in the report, Capitan America showed that even under Obama the proposals were business as usual. This is when the world tiptoed around equitable rights, was bent out of shape and scraped the bottom of the barrel. Now the US will even walk out of this. Chandra Bhushan, then, rightly asks: is it time we thought of a world agreement without the US?
Paris fatally and fundamentally erased historical responsibility of countries and reduced equity to insignificance. This was done because the US said this was the redline
Let’s now turn to what the Trump era means for globalisation. It was in the 1990s that the world stitched the global trade agreement and made rules for free, unfettered movement of goods. It wanted an interconnected world, where cheap labour could be used to enhance corporate profits. It got this. The two decades that followed saw the amazing rise of China as a provider of these goods; it also saw consumption increasing manifold. It was also in the 1990s that this same world agreed that there was a need to moderate economic globalisation so that climate change could be mitigated. This was ecological globalisation, its counter to economic globalisation. But it failed. Trade won over climate; consumption won over emission control. The success of economic globalisation showed up in the balance sheet of emissions: the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the rich who gobbled up these goods did not decrease and the (CO2) emissions of the countries who manufactured these increased. The Planet was fried. This is where we are today. We have Trump, who openly denies climate change and has won elections. A large majority stands with him. Calls for protectionism are growing in this already rich world. The UK’s Brexit vote is also a testimony to this anger. It is the revenge of the rich, who did not get richer. It is the revenge of the educated; the well-off who believe they are entitled to more and that this is being taken away from them by “others”. This is also a time when the already developed world, which has long exhausted its quota of the global atmospheric space, wants to burn more fossil fuel for its growth. It believes it is growth-deprived. (Article courtesy: www.downtoearth.org)
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 19
Cover Story Dynamic Duo: 48
Sarita and Vinod Sawhny
Cosy Confederation Sarita and Vinod Sawhny - she a corporate communicator with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and he a veteran consumer, telecom and retail professional now turned advisor to entrepreneurs, show how one can build on both commonalities and differences and foster an energetic and harmonious life together By Pradeep Mathur 20 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
W While Sarita, a student of psychology and mass communication from the University of Bangalore, is a trained journalist-turned-corporate communicator, currently works for the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Vinod is a hard-core Consumer, Telecom and Retail professional. He has worked in top positions in some much respected companies like Godrej GE Appliances, Spice Communications, Bharti Retail, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications. He currently enjoys his new avatar as Senior Advisor to new-age entrepreneurs in the telecom and such other sectors, out to change the Indian corporate scenario. Sarita and Vinod are both very articulate, and specialists in their respective fields. Though they possess very different traits and have firm opinions about everything, they have found innovative ways to maintain a happy married life and strike a decent work-life balance. Corporate Citizen spoke to this amazing dynamic duo whose energy and passion for excellence makes you realise that despite differences of opinion, you can still have a successful marriage and balance high-powered careers.
‘I just felt there was some magic in the way he talked. For me, how one talks and communicates matters a lot because it’s important for having any intelligent communication’
No, there weren’t any violins playing in the background, nor any romantic dialogue baazi but, in their very first meeting, something happened and they knew they had met their partner for life. “No, nothing of that kind happened,” confesses Sarita. “I just felt there was some magic in the way he talked. For me, how one talks and communicates matters a lot because it’s important for having any intelligent communication,” Sarita explains. That, however, wasn’t crazy, because most journalists are sensitive to the way one talks. But what was really crazy was that they had come from all possible directions to have this meeting which changed their lives forever. How? Explains Vinod, “I’m a Kolkata lad who was working for Godrej in Mumbai, while she’s a Bengaluru girl who at that time was working for Sunday Herald and we were both meeting in the North because her aunt and my grandma were very good friends,” recalls he with a smile.
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 21
Pics: Vivek Arora & Ajit Ranhotra
So, what was it? Did love happen just like that?
Cover Story But what did Vinod like in her when he saw Sarita for the first time? “See, I’m a Capricornian. I’m very earthy and so it’s very difficult to pinpoint what I liked in her. It was just that there was some degree of congruence—the way we conversed, our likes and dislikes and our priorities seemed to match. So I think that’s what brought about the click.” He then quickly explains it further, “I’ve always been a very career-focused person who believes in excellence and works for perfection and innovation because that’s what I like. In this whole quest for perfection, I found we both seemed to resonate on many things and that resonance became what you call attraction.” That means even if it wasn’t love at first sight, there certainly was some mutual liking at first sight. “Oh yes,” chips in Sarita, “He was on work in Delhi. I was also there because my elder sister was going to deliver her daughter and I wanted to be with her during her delivery. One day when
‘I’ve always been a very career-focused person who believes in excellence and works for perfection and innovation. In this whole quest for perfection, I found we both seemed to resonate on many things and that resonance became what you call attraction’ -Vinod
everybody said, let’s go to maasi’s place for tea, I also went there just like that. They also came there and that’s how we met. But it wasn’t like those formal rehearsed things that you see in Bollywood movies.’’ What did the conversation revolve around? Says Sarita, “Nothing very significant, but in the process we discovered that my father-in-law-to-be and the person closest to my father were very good family friends. He and my father-in-law turned out to be not just school friends but they had also worked in the same company for years. So, in this way, we discovered that there were many commonalities. One thing led to the other and things progressed. The families also hit it off well and before I knew it, our roka was done. We met in December-January of 1985 and on February 24, 1986, we got married.” Recalling those good-old days of courtship, Sarita recalls,“We exchanged a lot of letters and cards. He would also come down to Bengaluru occasionally, though on work, but we’d meet and all that was very nice.” Going down memory lane, she adds rather thoughtfully, “It’s been more than 30 years since our wedding and life with Vinod has generally been wonderful!”
New career path
S
What happened after their marriage? Could she continue with her job with the ‘Deccan Herald’? Sarita interrupts, “No, when I left Bengaluru, I said goodbye to DH because it’s a Bengaluru-based paper and there wasn’t much that I could do from Mumbai except for writing Middles occasionally.” Going a bit nostalgic, she adds, “I still have very fond memories of DH because 30 years ago, there were very few women in the profession. It was a very caring and nice set-up. Even when I’d work in the evening shift, my dad would pick me up and drop me. “So, when I moved to Godrej Colony in Mumbai, it took me some time to get used to the idea of living together in a marriage, that too in a different city, plus managing on one's own because we were also setting up a unit on our own. We were not staying with parents or family. So, I took my own time to entertain the thought of taking up a job. But once things fell in place, I recalled that my father was a member of Diner's Club and we used to get their magazine called ‘Signature’, published by Parsiana Publications belonging to Mr Jahangir Patel. Once earlier, while I was in Bengaluru, I had written a letter to them that I would love to join them. They replied that since they were Mumbai-based, they only took on locals.” Continues Sarita, “When I’d moved to Mumbai, I just thought of exploring that option. When Vinod went on a tour for a week, with some difficulty, I rang them up and reminded them of my correspondence a year back. Luckily for me, one of their staff was going on maternity leave and they were also looking for somebody, so they asked me if I could meet them quickly. I said, yes, though until that moment, it didn't even occur to me that I was supposed to ask or consult or discuss it with Vinod. I just felt, this is what I want, and I'm going to do it. Then I thought, how will I reach VT, because I had never travelled in Mumbai’s local trains. So, when Vinod came back from the tour, I said, I want to go to VT to meet these people. He said, that’s great, but only if you can manage it. So, the next day, we went there, met them and I started working for ‘Signature’.” “Instead of writing features, restaurant and book reviews which were my forte in the DH, here I had to get more involved with travel and life-style writing. Later, in 1992, when they gave up ‘Signature’ and launched their own magazine called ‘Voyage’ an out and out travel magazine, I continued with them.”
Shifting priorities
“But a year and half later, when our son Arnav came along, I took 22 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
(From left) Sarita with Vinod and her father-inlaw Bal Mohan Sawhny Sarita and Vinod Sawhny with their son Arnav (right)
leave because I've always taken time-off from work whenever I thought it was needed. Writing is a profession you can practice pretty well from home too. So, after he was born and till he went to college, I didn't work full-time. I’d come home by 3:30 and do the rest of my work from home. I had that flexibility because thankfully magazine journalism allows you that. In those days, we used to edit by hand. I also remember the first PC when it came. I've even worked on typewriters and seen those beautiful days when typesetting in newspapers was also done by hand.” Post-marriage, how has been their respective career journeys? Answers Vinod, “For me, it was wonderful and very clear. At the time of my marriage, I was with Godrej which became Godrej-GE and, from 1983 to 1999, I worked with them for 16 years. Then I moved to the telecom sector, went to retail and then again went back to telecom. When I joined Bharti Airtel around 2002, we found that people were not so hungry for journalism. So, she moved to the CII and has been there for almost 16 years now. What I like about her is that she has maintained a very fine work-life balance and always kept her home priorities-- which are to her in-laws, to me and to our son-- above her career.” Adds he, “All these years we’ve always had something nice to discuss every morning and evening which is of common interest. We're not the typical ‘wife plays the wife and husband plays the husband’ kind of couple. We have common subjects to talk about.’’
A Shifting sides
“Actually when I joined CII in Chandigarh, I hopped across from journalistic writing to writing for Corporate Communications for a good fourfive years. Instead of interviewing people, I was dealing with the Press working on the other side of the fence,” Sarita explains. She adds, “But besides dealing with the media, I also started bringing out CII’s monthly magazine. When Arnav appeared for his class X and XII board exams, both times, I took three-month sabbaticals.”
From Chandigarh to Gurgaon
Says Vinod, “I joined Godrej in 1983 and stayed with them till 1999 and out
‘All these years we’ve always had something nice to discuss every morning and evening which is of common interest. We’re not the typical ‘wife plays the wife and husband plays the husband’ kind of couple’ - Vinod of the 16 years, for at least 13 years, we lived in Mumbai. So, Mumbai was like home.” Adds Sarita, “Except for three years when we moved out and then went back, we’ve lived in Mumbai. Though our son was born in Bengaluru he was also raised in Mumbai.” In that sense, we are more Mumbai guys. We became Delhi-ites only when I joined Bharti Airtel in 2002 and then I shifted to my parents’ house in Gurgaon,” Vinod points out. Sarita reminisces with nostalgia, “I thought, since there are so many options available in Gurgaon, maybe I can try something new because by this time Arnav was also going to university for his engineering studies. But in just two months, when I’d settled down a bit in Gurgaon, my boss from Chandigarh rang me up and said, ‘How long does it take to set up a house and put up curtains, etc? You had enough time to do all that, but now we want you to please report to the Gurgaon office and start working without any further delay.’’ So that’s how I’m back again at the CII office here in Udyog Vihar.”
So, what is their son doing?
“He has finished his studies and is now working in Amsterdam,” Sarita says. Vinod adds, but with a little pride, “Post-schooling, he has done all his education in the US. He has done his engineering from Purdue and management from an Ivy League business school, Cornell University. Now he is working in the Netherlands and that gives us more time for our careers. March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 23
Cover Story
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espite facing huge work-life pressures, more and more women are taking up professional roles. So, what do they feel about this changes at the work place? This time, Sarita takes the lead. She says, “I think the pressures were always there, maybe of a different type. In terms of conveniences also, things were different because there were not many available as you’ve now. For example, I’m a person who loves to cook and serve home-cooked food on the table but now you have so many options. In terms of practicalities, you’ve get the mixes and such other things, you’ve got the dosa batter and these things were not available easily in those days. Moreover, with so many working women around, the general understanding of their issues has also gone up. But in my time, aunties would say that if you’ve to work, why don’t you become a teacher. Bachhe ke saath jao aur usi ke saath vapas aa jao. But every woman in the world should not become a teacher. So, things have changed a lot for women today and while there is more empowerment of women today, respect for women in the sense of security and comfort which a woman feels is less now than it was then. Somehow, women are not given that kind of respect and it’s more of a socio-economic kind of thing. Otherwise, opportunities are so much more today that you don’t need to become a teacher or a nurse or a doctor because there are so many careers opened today that you can pursue what you really want to become.
But are you happy with these changes?
Sarita says emphatically, “Very much so. I’m very happy. The glass ceilings have shattered and this is the happiest thing in the world, though in the corporate world, I feel, the women are not there as much in numbers as they should but nevertheless some beginnings have been
made. But in banking sector, I see a lot of women doing pretty well. But things are changing. You’ve Chanda Kochhar, Naina Lal Kidwai, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Shikha Sharma and lots of others who’re sitting on top positions. And now, even in the combat roles of the armed forces, we’ve women doing wonders.” Adds Vinod, “In the consumer sector also, women have made a lot of mark. You’ve Vinita Bali at Britannia and many others but in the banking sector, whether it’s Stanchart or HSBC or SBI or ICICI, they’re doing extremely well and heading really big organisations.” “What is really encouraging is that today men are also sharing a lot of home duties with them in terms of cooking meals or changing the diapers of the kids and so on and so forth,” Sarita adds. “But you also see that the HR policies of the organisations have also become very women friendly in terms of relaxed maternity leave and work from home kind of thing. Everything has got aligned to the fact that both men and women pay equal roles and that’s the new thinking which is very welcome change,” Vinod concludes with a twinkle in his eyes.
24 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
‘For matters related to finance, I know he’s the best, so I don't even step in there. But for stuff like running the house, it's mostly me, though occasionally he also indulges in that’ - Sarita Whose writ runs?
Whose writ runs in the house? Who calls the shots at home? Vinod smiles, “You don't have to ask that question. Women are always bosses in their house, Right?” Sarita disagrees. “No. Not right, not right,” she asserts because “There is always a clash of opinions in our house.” Vinod then adds, “Let me comment on that. She has a view on everything and so do I. There are differences of opinion also. But I don't think they turn ugly. I think one of us relents.” Sarita again chips in, “No. In matters related to finance, I know he’s the best, so I don't even step in there. But for stuff like running the house, it's mostly me, though occasionally he also indulges in that.” Vinod interrupts, “I think even if it's a matter of house, I can add value to it because I don't keep a distinction between a woman's role and a man's role. For professionals, equally qualified, with right thinking, I don't think we can we can box a woman into a particular role and a man into another,”
Of energy and momentum
What is his basic philosophy of life? “I like things in action. I like stature. I embrace change. I love energy, change, and momentum,” declares Vinod. Adds Sarita, “At this age while most people retire and slow down, he’s gone hyper active. He always used to say ‘I want to retire and I want to put my feet up and then we’re going to travel the world and do this and do that’. But now all that has become a big dream.” mathurpradeep1@gmail.com
Cover Story
Connecting India Technology has made the world a global village, and telecom is the thread that connects us to each other, no matter the distance. The telecom sector in India has exploded from a nascent industry to a certified heavyweight within a short time, and Vinod Sawhny has had a bird’s eye view of the transformation. The former CEO of Reliance Communications is one of the pioneers of the Indian Telecom sector, and now serves as a senior advisor to several technology companies. Corporate Citizen sits down with Vinod for a chat about his Ivy League beginnings, his experiences in the telecom sector, and his plans for the future By Neeraj Varty
March16-31, 16-31,2017 2017/ / Corporate CorporateCitizen Citizen / / 25 25 March
A Cover Story
Take us through your education.
All of us go through an academic process to shape us up for the future. I was fortunate enough to be born in the city of Kolkata, because a lot of legacies of our pre independence movement are focused there, and since that time Kolkata has been renowned for its love of education. I studied in a good school in the city, after which I went for engineering in BITS Pilani. I spent five years at Pilani, and I got a chance to experience the northern part of India. I graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and started working. I worked for a couple of years on the shop floor, because I believe that's the place to start of you want to appreciate the art of managing a business. That is where you learn the ropes of the trade. After a couple of years, I enrolled for MBA in XLRI in Jamshedpur, and graduated with my management degree. That's my academic profile in a nutshell.
You have a love for teaching.
I became the CEO of Reliance Communications Ltd. in 2000 and for 16 years, I’ve done CEO roles. But now it’s a different role. And, who knows what I’ll be doing in my next phase of life? If my instincts are correct, in my next role, I just want to get into hardcore teaching. I have kept aside whatever little time I have to try to meet students and inspire them and be a part of academics, not necessarily as a teacher, but in some capacity or another. In fact, London Business School (LBS) came along as an opportunity when I was heading Bharti Retail, and retail was booming at that time, and I was invited by LBS to be one of the speakers on their forum. I loved that experience of teaching.
Apart from Bharti Airtel you have had a major stint with Reliance Communications. You are one of the pioneers of the Telecom Industry in India. Please share your experiences.
Vinod Sawhny enjoying the company of his pet dog Bailey I consider myself as a person who has worked with three distinct segments. I started my career with consumer durables and automation. I then moved on to telecom and had a sprinkling of retail. Almost 50% of my time has been spent working in telecom. I was fortunate to get into the sector when the mobile phone penetration in India was under 5.5%. Taking that 5.5% to 70% penetration in urban areas (which today is over 100%), has been one of the hallmarks of my experience. It's an industry I have helped build as a mason right from the start. Building an indusgap was very small between 3G and 4G. 3G was the start of a data led try is like building a house, it requires multitasking, taking a lot of risks, network. By the time India got data dependent, technology evolved. India and a lot of strategy. When I started in telecom it was a startup industry. has in essence skipped 3G, but we have latched onto 4G pretty fast. Going There was no other telecom company in the country except for BSNL and forward, whether it is 4G or 5G, connectivity will drive the future, and I MTNL, which are government companies. There were very few telecom don't think there is any looking back on this. people in the country. You had to bring people from other industries into telecom. Putting together a team was one of the key challenges. When Do you think there is a gap between the output of the edutelecom was opened to the private sector, you saw a lot of global compacation system in India and the requirements of the Industry, nies entering India, especially in the area of infrastructure. Amalgamating especially in the face of rapidly evolving technology? global culture into Indian companies was also one of the major challenges Definitely. However, the optimistic part is that it is about to change. Acof that time. Outsourcing was a whole new concept we tried when I was at ademics earlier were places where students came in and were exposed to Bharti Airtel, and it was one of the biggest learning experiences. classrooms primarily, and to the industry only between summer breaks or other rare occasions. Things have now started to change. A lot more indus3G never really took off in India the way everyone expect- try members are now being roped in as visiting faculties. That brings practicality in the fundamentals that you build through academics. There people ed. Do you think LTE will see a faster adoption rate? share their own experiences with students, which are often priceless. The India was late to the 3G party. In developed countries, 3G was introduced exposure of students to the industry now is far greater than it ever was in the in the early 2000s. By the time companies started building their 3G netpast. There are some things that still need to be done. The private sector and works in India, the advent of 4G was right around the corner. The time
‘I was fortunate to get into the sector when the mobile phone penetration in India was under 5.5%. Taking that 5.5% to 70% penetration in urban areas (which today is over 100%), has been one of the hallmarks of my experience’ - Vinod
26 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
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the industry need to start utilising their academic resources by giving them projects that they otherwise give out to consultants. My own alma mater XLRI runs the marketing fair, whose basic idea is to get industries to come and recruit students to run their projects. Academic institutions also need to start running research laboratories or incubators where students can start to work on projects and gain the entrepreneurial acumen, which will prove them very useful in their careers.
You have had an Ivy League education. How necessary is that for success? Do you think the institutes you come from determine your career?
make most out of state-of-the-art technology. I want to work with lots and lots of young and bright people, who want the strength of my networking and my ideas which in turn will gel with their relevant ideas in terms of cutting short the learning curve. That’s what I want do.
Have you moved on from the telecom space in your new role as advisor?
Right now, it’s more in internet space, whether it involves smartphones or it’s got to do with internet-enabled services, it is routed via the smartphone and therefore in the overall ambit of telecom.
‘I think a good education helps you at the entry level. What’s more important is how people take advantage of the opportunities available. Your career depends on how you have handled your opportunities’ - Vinod
I think a good education helps you at the entry level. People bet on you better, because you have qualified yourself for a better education. But is an Ivy League education necessary for success? No. What's more important is how people take advantage of the opportunities available to them. Your career depends on how you have handled your opportunities. Most important is your ability to learn while you are working for organisations should never cease. Your education is your foundation, but your career is built, based on how you skill yourself.
How is automation going to impact jobs in the future?
How do you find the perfect work-life balance?
Work-life balance only comes in when you do both well. You can't say that you need to work less to have more of a personal life, nor can you say vice versa. When you work well, and you enjoy what you are doing, it drives you to achieve an overall fantastic life. When you work well, it leaves you refreshed and more energetic. You go home with a better attitude and a better mood and that provides the balance, as far as I am concerned. On Monday's I feel geared up for work, and on the weekends, I feel like seeing a movie with my family. I don't believe in demarcation of work-life and personal life. However, I do try to keep one day a week where I don't work and only focus on thinking which helps me re-energise my batteries.
I
I feel automation is going to be creating a lot more jobs in the future. Let's look at the digital payments space. A lot of people are being roped for digital jobs that did not exist in the past. Data scientists are emerging, is a profile which was unknown earlier. Chief digital officers are coming into being. Data analytics is now a major job profile. I would say more automation means newer categories of jobs, and a lot more people doing those jobs. Without automation, people would be stagnant in a majority of monotonous jobs which can be automated. People who are job worthy always like to try out new challenges and roles. Automation will also boost productivity, which in turn will lead to a higher GDP in the country which will create more jobs.
What’s your opinion on the cashless initiative taken up by the government?
I wouldn't like to comment directly on the government's initiative. In a broader sense, a cashless economy is a very good way to transact. However, it needs great infrastructure. The rich and the poor need to transact using the same infrastructure. You cannot make any section of society devoid of the infrastructure necessary to transition into a cashless mode.
After leaving Reliance, you have now become a consultant. Tell us about this next phase of your career.
I don't like the term 'consultant'. My new role is to offer strategic advice to companies in any domain. I am advising a couple of startups, as well as a few established companies, who now want to get ready for the new economy and a new digital setup, and want to re-orient their talent to the new ways of doing things. I get to work with entrepreneurs who’ve setup larger organisations and now want to professionalise them. I get to work with 28 and 29-year-olds who have fantastic dreams. Just sit with them and work the day out and the satisfaction that you get vis-a-vis the ivy towers that I’ve done for many years of my life, is a very different flavour all together. I thoroughly like it. I’m adding value to myself every day. I am working on processes, talent and people and helping them set up new business models and executing them. Instead of channelising my efforts only in one direction in one organisation, I now work for the greater good. I’m happy with whatever I’ve done and in this phase of life I don’t want to be a CEO any more. I don’t want to even do consulting any more. But I want to advice companies which want to improve their processes and
What is your idea of relaxation?
I find plenty of time in the day to relax. When I am travelling home back from work, I just plug in my earphones and listen to music. I travel about an hour or more to work and back, so this time to myself helps me relax and refreshed by the time I reach home. Music is a great way to unwind; I would even say it is my way of meditating. I also like going to the movies, and kicking back with a drink over the weekend. However, I am not a loner. I like having people around me, whether it is at work or home.
For someone of your stature, what does money stand for?
Money has kept me focused on what I am doing. It has motivated me to enjoy doing what I am skilled for. It has helped me provide a comfortable home to my family, and that's about all that money means to me. What money does not mean to me is stressing yourself or doing things, which your values do not agree with. Money is a catalyst to continue to instil the values which your eco-system has provided you, in order to lead a life which is comfortable and meaningful.
What is your philosophy of life?
I don't have any motto. I keep reinventing things because I get bored very easily. I don't follow any philosophy, but I would be happy if I lead my life in a way which would make others consider me a good human being. I like to be someone people can trust.
What your advice be to young students who are about to start their corporate careers?
I would tell them to roll up their sleeves, put on their work clothes, and just get out there and keep failing as fast as you can, because that's what will teach them to multiskill, to adapt and create something new and have fun in the process. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 27
Interview
‘Automation is happening and that is a real concern for a lot of companies. For example, if you see the IT industry, a lot of jobs they do will be automated in the next five to ten years. With a lot of robots coming in, it is a good trend and a bad trend as well. It will lead to quite a bit of unemployment few years down the line’
28 28 // Corporate Corporate Citizen Citizen // March March 16-31, 16-31, 2017 2017
It’s the age of
Robotics and
Artificial Intelligence Gaurav Dua, Global Senior Vice President (GSVP) – Consulting, Frost & Sullivan, who is one of the key leaders involved in the setting up of a global innovation centre for consulting/research in Malaysia believes industries need to embrace new technologies to survive and grow – because disruptive technologies and automation across industries will determine the paths of the future
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By Vinita Deshmukh
As Global Senior VP - Consulting, Frost & Sullivan, what is the definition of your job?
As the Global Senior Vice President at Frost & Sullivan, based out of Malaysia, I work across geographies and across sectors, predominantly on various kinds of consulting and research projects. I am also working with our clients very closely on various kinds of transformational programs in the field of Sales, Marketing and Innovation that we want to drive as per our clients’ requirements. Of course, it entails quite a bit of travelling. I am based in a place called Iskandar, which is a new smart city coming up on the border of Singapore and Malaysia. We are setting up a global innovation centre in that city - the reason I decided to move there and contribute to the building up of that centre.
Could you elaborate on what the Global Research Centre is all about?
The Global Research Centre at Frost & Sullivan is an interesting initiative where we are trying to set up a hub, a centre of excellence and innovation hub, to cater to our global clients from Europe,
pics: Shantanu Relekar
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 29
Interview Americas, APAC, Middle-East, Africa and so on. The entire objective is to showcase Malaysia as a destination for high-end consulting and cutting edge research. We have close to 150 odd consultants/analysts based out of that centre and we have a pretty ambitious goal to ramp it up to 800 odd people by 2020.
Who are your clients?
We work with clients across sectors including manufacturing, public sector, technology, telecom, healthcare/pharmaceutical and so on. In terms of the kind of projects that we do, it could be anything from market entry strategy, product feasibility, competitive benchmarking, market assessment, market sizing, product assessment etc. So it is quite diversified. The beauty of Frost & Sullivan is we cut across sectors, so we have analysts and experts catering to different sectors and sub sectors globally.
Are your clients startups or do they include well entrenched companies as well?
We cater, right from fortune 100 companies, to a lot of small and medium size enterprises as well. We also cater to some of the startups who are trying to make it big and they want some consulting support in terms of which parties to cater to and which products to launch in the market. So we have a much diversified clientele.
This is because Frost & Sullivan has been in the market for almost close to six decades now; we started way back in 1961. Some of the biggest and best names you can think of in the industry are our clients and we have been working with them for quite some time now.
Would you say that nowadays companies are more conscious about planning their venture well, before they embark upon it?
There is so much disruption happening today in the industry, be it in terms of business model or in terms of disruptive technologies, that organisations are unsure whether they will survive in the next five to ten years down the line. They want us to tell them what the big and disruptive trends out there in the industry are that will impact their business. So, we work with them closely and help them understand what these disruptive technologies mean to them and their business, how to mitigate the risks, and help them to move up the curve in terms of the next big things they want to do, be it in regards to product diversification, innovation in terms of the business model and other related areas.
What are you seeing in terms of disruptive technologies, good and bad?
Disruption is happening on multiple accounts. One is disruption related to the business model, like you have seen with companies like Uber, Airbnb and Netflix which have completely disrupted the business model in the respective industry that they are operating. The second disruption that we are seeing relates to technologies. Just to give you an example, artificial intelligence is one of the biggest and the most disruptive things we are seeing in the market today. As a result, big technology companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and so on are buying and acquiring artificial intelligence companies like crazy, because that’s where the future lies. That is one big trend we are seeing in the technology space. Another big trend is around Big Data analytics. A
lot of companies are struggling today because of the huge amount of data that is being generated. Earlier, data was very structured; today you are talking about lot of unstructured data being generated from various kinds of mediums, including social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedI`n and so on. Now, how do you make sense of such a large data? That’s how Big Data has become so important today for a lot of organisations. We see a lot of companies actually spending money to really implement some of the big data technologies and to make sense of the data that they have.
Artificial intelligence - what exactly does it mean?
Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims to create intelligent machines. Some of the examples of AI technology include Robotics Process Automation, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing. Robotics process automation is catching up really fast and it will eliminate lot of jobs in the near future. For example, if you see the IT industry, a lot of jobs they do will be automated in the next five to ten years. With a lot of robots coming in, it is a good trend and a bad trend as well. It will lead to quite a bit of unemployment few years down the line. However, you cannot stop technology or disruption happening. This is bound to happen. The key is how you adjust and how fast. The moot point out here is, rather than staying away from it, companies that embrace technology and make the best use of technology will stay ahead of the curve. Otherwise, companies will struggle and perish and we have so many examples of those in the last few years.
Considering that artificial intelligence and robotics are coming in a big way, how do you foresee the industry in the near future?
To be honest, there’s a serious threat to manufacturing, for, that’s where you can automate a lot of things. Service industries like IT services can be automated, so that is another big industry that would likely go that way. From India’s standpoint, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry which is very process oriented,
‘Rather than staying away technology and make the best use curve. Otherwise, companies will threat to manufacturing, for, of things. Services industries like that is another big industry that standpoint, BPO (Business Process in nature, can get automated. So it 30 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
years old. Malaysia is a very nice country and it has a lot of similarities in culture with India.
lot of activities can be automated and one can expect lot of jobs being made redundant in the next few years. So it is going to be all-pervasive, as artificial intelligence and robotics will play a very critical role in some of these industries.
Who do you attribute your success to…
So human beings have to upscale themselves on technology…
My parents for being the pillar of strength and my wife for being so supportive and coping up with my crazy schedule and travel all these years. My dad has been by biggest critic. It has never been easy to please him and now when I look back I realise that whatever little I have achieved in life I owe it to him.
Exactly. The key is to embrace technology. If you don’t then be it an individual or an organisation, you will find it really difficult to sustain in this market.
What percentage of success you have on the predictions you make for your clients, based on your scientific analysis and research?
It is difficult to put a number to it, but the way we look at it - it is not just about getting the number right. When we predict and give recommendations to our clients, it is not the size of the opportunities, like whether the market may grow from X to Y and touch ‘$X’ billion by so and so years. The key thing is, are we directionally correct? The recommendations that we give to our client are based on lot of analysis, facts and figures. Nobody can predict the future. However, the key thing is, we should not be off tangent, that is the key thing that we always keep in mind. Whatever recommendations we give is backed by a lot of research; hypothesis tried and tested methodologies that Frost & Sullivan has adopted and practised in the last few decades.
Generally, Indians are not inclined to research, perhaps because of the rote system in education. What is your view on Indian youngsters, and on which country brings out the best researchers?
In terms of research skills, I would say India has talent in abundance. It is just a question of polishing these skills. Today, India has so many home grown startups. Earlier, we only used to hear about startups coming from Silicon Valley or somewhere in Europe, but now we really see home-grown startups coming in from India. Which basically means, since the last five to ten years there has been a massive change in our
What was your vision of a career when you were growing up?
thinking and our ability to conduct in-depth research and come up with innovative ideas. We are becoming more entrepreneur-oriented society. People are willing to take that risk, they do not fear failure; they want to try again even if they have failed once or twice. That is the beauty; that is the big change I am seeing right now in India.
Tell us about yourself…
I am from Delhi and my parents still reside there. I stay with my wife (Shweta) and two kids in a new city that has come up on the border of Singapore/Malaysia. My daughter (Riya) is seven years old and my son (Aryan) is four
from it, companies that embrace of technology will stay ahead of the struggle and perish. There’s a serious that’s where you can automate a lot the IT services can be automated, so would likely go that way. From India’s Outsourcing) which is very mechanical is going to be all-pervasive’
Right from my graduation days, I was very clear that I wanted to be a consultant. I got myself acclimatised to the consulting environment by reading lot of books, consulting magazines and journals and then went on to pursue my MBA. I think it is very important to have clarity of thought and that’s my advice to young students too. Be very sure about what you want to do in life and don’t get swayed by economic cycles. Ups and downs will come, but at the end of the day you need to be clear about your passion. And if you work towards that, it’s no longer a job, it is like a hobby for you, which is turn helps you to really succeed in that field.
What is the philosophy of life that you live by?
I truly believe that there is no substitute for hard work. Perseverance, hard work and being honest to yourself and your profession are the keys to success. If you really have a passion towards something, don’t get swayed by what’s happening in the market or don’t get concerned by how you are doing currently. However, you should be setting up big dreams for yourself and just keep on working hard and have that patience. Eventually, you will win! I end with this famous quote from Steve jobs, someone who has inspired me a lot “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” ~ Steve Jobs vinitapune@gmail.com March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 31
PiCs: Yusuf Khan
32 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
Cradle of Leadership Air Marshal Jasjit Singh Kler,
Commandant, National Defence Academy
National Defence Academy:
Tender teenagers to tenacious leaders
The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the premier joint training institution and centre of excellence in the world for producing leaders, equipped with intellectual, moral and physical attributes required to cope with the challenges of future battlefields and capable of leading troops to victory. An insight into this iconic military academy that produces valiant officers of the Indian Armed Forces By Vinita Deshmukh
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 33
I
Cradle of Leadership
n the words of Air Marshal Jasjit Singh Kler, the present Commandant, the National Defence Academy is an iconic institution and hallmark of global excellence in the sphere of military education. Over the years it has emerged as a unique military academy, attracting the best of youth from our nation and also from friendly foreign countries and transforming them into Scholar Warriors. During the last six decades of its glorious existence, the National Defence Academy has grown both in grace and grandeur and from its portals have emerged ‘Leaders of Men’, who have demonstrated the essence of inter-services camaraderie and jointmanship thereby vindicating the faith and vision of its founding fathers. Air Marshal Kler, a third generation soldier and recipient of the Vayu Sena Medal, possesses amazing acumen in helicopter flying having amassed 8000 hours, mostly in Siachen and the Eastern Sector. His deep passion and pride in moulding over 2000 teenagers into dynamic officers of the three wings of our Armed Forces, is admirable. Corporate Citizen interviews this tenacious NDA Commandant who gives an in depth insight into the tough and comprehensive training in academics, warfare, technology and the mastering of mind and body to transform a bumbling teenager into an Officer and a Gentleman…
Cadets who get admission into the National Defence Academy (NDA) are teenagers. What is their personality as freshers and what different backgrounds do they come from?
We get young children who have completed the 10+2 education. They go through a very rigorous system of appearing for pre-admission test to the NDA through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Then they go to the various Service Selection Boards (SSBs) which have a scientific system to assess cadets and that is where the culling takes place. Their method is so precise that 99% of the time, they pick out the best. So, when the cadets come to NDA, they have gone through the second sifting, so to say. They come from rural as well as urban backgrounds. But the thing they have in common is the glint in their eyes and fire in their belly. When somebody walks in, I can immediately tell whether this guy has a problem and I am right, nine times out of ten. Having trained so many people, I can make such an assessment. They don’t know what they are getting into but they are aware that 1.3 billion people will look up to them because they will represent honour and integrity when they don the uniform. That is the only common bond which binds them when they come here.
How many cadets do you take in every year?
Our intake per semester is 250-350 cadets. We can take in a total of 2,100 cadets in six terms. We divide these fresh cadets into five battalions. Each battalion has got four squadrons. So when they come here, we distribute them among the squadrons. And the best part is they don’t get to see each other till they pass out. They are being mentored by the seniors. Presently, 137th course is coming in, but 131st course has passed out. Cadets after passing out go to finishing academies like the Indian Military Academy, Indian Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.
How tough is the regimen for these teenagers?
We have a strict regimen comprising 80% academics and 20% physical training. However, it is the 20% physical regimen which is a killer. So out of every course, there are relegations. Relegation means a cadet who does not make it and is relegated to the next course. He can be relegated under many circumstances. It could be discipline, medical problems, studies, or it could be physical regimen. Mostly, cadets get relegated for lack of physical attributes. On an average, we have about six cadets who get relegated and around four go home because if anyone is caught in an act of moral turpitude, he is withdrawn. We cannot accept such cadets in the Armed Forces. We have got a very clear set of attributes required for an officer. 34 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
So what are these set of attributes?
Ethos, Values, Camaraderie, Team Spirit and Leading from the Front. It is well structured and is called the Academy Honour Code. He has to abide by this honour code in every action. Even while breaking bread, there is an Honour Code on how he eats, how he passes dishes to the other person, how he uses his fork and knife and so on. That’s why I tell these cadets, once you clear our regimen, then you are incomparable, you stand apart.
Who are the types who get relegated?
If you dig deep into these children who face relegation, it is always to do with their family backgrounds. They have to forget where they came from.
“When we get these children, they really come with pink cheeks. They don’t have muscle on the torso. We have a scientific way of building their muscles. The NDA cadets are the best in the country as far as endurance is concerned. Their physical and mental toughness is incomparable” But then they test the system. They are told very clearly by the Academy Adjutant when they come in, as to what is expected of them here. This is an officer, specially selected from the Armed Forces and you will see him on a horse at the parade ground. He ensures discipline of the cadets on the parade ground and otherwise. Maj PK Rathore is presently the Academy Adjutant. We have transgressions, for which we have a set system of negative points. It is called earning negative points. Every action has got a point. When you earn 180 negative points in a term, the cadet is relegated. So he is given enough chances. There have been very special circumstances when we bring them back. After all, we are playing with their lives. I can’t afford to give a wrong decision. So when I sit on judgment here, I have to be very careful myself.
That’s a very fascinating insight into the reasons why the Armed Forces are so different and why the countrymen need to honour them right from the time they are cadets. Nowadays, Indian children do not undergo much physical exercise or training during their school days, so don’t they find NDA, very challenging in that aspect?
You are actually right. When we get these children, they really come with pink cheeks. They don’t have muscle on the torso. We have a scientific way of building their muscles. The NDA cadets are the best in the country as far as endurance is concerned. Their physical and mental toughness is incomparable. We have a number of sports
that’s the way we have been brought up. This is toughening of the cadet. That means, you are doing an endurance run or an endurance hike which is not a punishment, really. It is toughening and they undergo it as their reputation and that of their Squadron is at stake. We have something called the Academy Honour Board, which honours the commitment that they made and work as a team, not alone. There is no physical punishment given in the academy. The best part is that the Divisional Officers and Squadron Commanders keep an eagle eye on all these issues and they are a part of their toughening. Whenever these boys run, they are there with them.
So to conclude, is it right to say that no matter from which background a child comes from, it is his mental make-up that is most important?
It is not about physical stamina when they do a 12.5 km run or a 23, 33 or 52 kms run with a backpack. The last few miles are covered because of mental, not physical strength. All cadets here may be wiry but they have got great upper body strength, muscle and endurance.
That’s a beautiful insight that you have given. Tell us more about the academics.
facilities here. It toughens them up. There is also a jump from 10 meters into a swimming pool. And it is not just a jump. It is his commitment, courage, following of orders and trying to master his fear that spurs him to make that leap of faith. Anybody who can’t jump from 10 meters is relegated. For, it implies that the boy cannot overcome his fear. All this counts for points to the squadron for the Banner. Banner is the ultimate glory for them. A Banner is given to the Squadron that stands first, so this is extremely important.
Is there Ragging in NDA?
There is no ragging. There is only ‘toughening’. Even I as the Commandant will do 50 push ups if I do something wrong. I don’t mind doing it because
The UPSC exam is extremely tough in the sense that the percentage of candidates who get through the written and the SSB thereafter is very low. So only the special few come to us. We have just commenced B Tech for the Navy and we’re in the process of introducing it for the Air Force cadets as well. All cadets here are given a laptop when they join the academy. They are thin clients connected to the Campus Area Network. Every room of every squadron has connectivity with the CAN. They have six to eight periods of classes every day and we have the best academicians teaching them. Let me tell you, a cadet may be good in outdoor activities but if he doesn’t make it in academics, he gets relegated to the next term. We have a very strict system of monitoring the cadets. This is one of the very few military academies in the world after WestPoint, USA and the PLA National Defence University in China that give such weightage to academics. During the non-academic hours, a cadet has to make sure he is physically fit. Every cadet has to be physically fit and intellectually capable. We are looking for scholar boys who stand on moral high ground and are extremely motivated. What gives me ultimate happiness is, when they pass out of the academy, they are a changed lot. The system has withstood the test of time and is working well. The feedback that from the finishing academies - that is the IMA, AFA and INA is positive. They go for the ex-NDA brand and it is a matter of great pride for us. March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 35
Army Training Team is where the teenage officers-in-the making undergo rigorous training
The four Squadron Flags represent the four squadrons that cadets are divided into Sudan Block, the nerve centre of the National Defence Academy
What are the graduate degrees you offer?
We offer Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Bachelor of Technology (B Tech).
What is the daily schedule of a NDA cadet?
All NDA cadets wake up at 0500 hrs (5 am) to the sound of the morning reveille. They get ready by 0615 hrs and do their PT or Drill until 0800 hrs. Then they go the mess for breakfast. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served by an army of waiters to 2000 cadets. They get piping hot food. Each cadet takes in about 4600 calories because he burns so many calories. After breakfast at 0830 hrs he attends classes in the classrooms which continue till 1350 hrs. This is followed by lunch break. Lunch again is to be finished expeditiously. Immediately after lunch is the Squadron Period. During these Squadron Periods, things like ‘Military Virtues’ ‘Social Graces’ and ‘Jointmanship’ are taught to them. This goes on till 1600 hrs. From 1600 hrs to 1800 hrs he participates in PT, games, swimming, boxing etc. Each cadet has to compulsorily play two troop games and one racquet game. This is followed by self-study which starts at 1825 hrs and goes on till 1950 hrs. Their dinner time is between 2030 hrs to 2115 hrs. Lights are out at 2215 hrs and believe you me, when they crawl into their beds, they are exhausted. This is the routine which they follow. The food they get is of a very high quality and the high standard is maintained by means of stringent norms. We have five fireless kitchens. These modern kitchens churn out food at a very fast rate. The intriguing bit is, that you will never get the odour of food in the cadets’ mess.
Tell us more about the cadet’s diet. How much do you spend on each cadet?
It is difficult to tell you in terms of money, but I’ll tell you in terms of calories. That’s what is more important to us. A cadet takes in about 4600 calories in a day. We have to ensure that his diet is absolutely balanced. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet is looked at very carefully and a good quantity of food comes directly on the table in smart utensils. It is not given to them in 36 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
portions. Each cadet is given 20 minutes to eat his food. The entire cadets’ mess is on the CCTV cameras. We monitor how he eats his food, how he sits down, what are his eating habits and the Divisional Officers are always there, watching the cadets with an eagle eye. The calorie intake is monitored very carefully. Even if one cadet misses a meal, it is reported to me by the Deputy Commandant. And that is for my worry, as to why did he not have a meal. Is he unwell, where did he go, and so on.
Tell us more about the enormity of the mess…
The mess has been extended recently and can accommodate 2000 cadets. There is a mentor to every young boy who comes in and they are seated squadron-wise. The Champion Squadron who gets the Banner, always sits opposite the Commandant. They learn to break bread together. Eating is a very sacred activity as far as we are concerned. We eat food together. Behind the dining hall, there are five kitchens where we have an army of very loyal civilian cooks and waiters who have been here for many years, who have seen cadets pass out and become Generals and remember them very fondly. The aroma and the taste has remained the same over the years. We have four large cold rooms where we can store food for any kind of contingency and emergency. The doctors come and check this food every day in the morning and a 24 hour sample of the food is preserved and checked again after 24 hours. I personally monitor the quality of food and an officer of the rank of Brigadier takes feedback from the cadets. We have
Cradle of Leadership Passing out Parade to mark their transformation from cadets to officers & gentemen
“A cadet takes in about 4600 calories in a day. We have to ensure that his diet is absolutely balanced. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet is looked at very carefully and a good quantity of food comes directly on the table in smart utensils. It is not given to them in portions. Each cadet is given 20 minutes to eat his food” (Above) Passing Out Parade (Below) The expansive Cadet’s Mess
A mock ship at the Peacock Bay where naval cadets learn about the Navy
to focus more on the vegetarian cadets because they need to consume more calories. So, the mess and the quality of food is my thrust area. I cannot afford to have an incident as far as the mess is concerned.
Which is the toughest endurance test for a cadet?
The jewel is the Cross Country because that’s an endurance run of 12.5 kms run at full tilt. We also have three camps, Camp Greenhorn, Camp Rover and Camp Torna. The cadets run a distance of up to 52 kms in these camps. Camp Rover, by the way is the toughest camp in the world in this age group. Squadrons are awarded marks for each camp. It isn’t only the cadets, but even the Divisional Officers and Squadron Commanders are totally immersed because it is a matter of pride for them in case their squadron does well. We don’t want individual sparks of brilliance. We need team players, who the men can trust.
Is the NDA one of its kind in the world? With the kind of encompassing training you are giving, how do you compare with any other institution in the world?
We have had heads of the American Forces who visited us recently. We also had the Chief of the UK Armed Forces. We stand apart as far as uniqueness is concerned, because we are in a constant state of low intensity conflict. Other nations are not sending their children to war in their own country. In our case, our officers, when they join the Army, Navy and Air Force are seen on the border. You always see them on the front and that is where an exNDA proves his mettle. We recently lost four ex-NDAs, two in the Nagrota attack. Whenever I speak of this, my heart actually wells up. I tell these cadets that these two officers have been in these very chairs that they sit in. March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 37
Cradle of Leadership They were all of 24 years but they knew if they didn’t get those terrorists in Nagrota, there will be a hostage situation. They barricaded themselves to save families. They lived and fought the way they were trained. This is who we are. This is what we do. We lead from the front. I am happy to inform, that we have two instructors who are Kirti Chakra awardees. This is the second highest peace time award.
With such tight schedule of the cadets, how do they get time for creative clubs?
It is work in progress as far as clubs are concerned. I still want to improve on them. These clubs also instill and inject the right amount of courage, commitment and stamina in the cadet. We have 30 clubs, out of which 20 are outdoor clubs. The clubs that are most sought after are the sailing club, and the running club. Our cadets recently got accolades in a unique Triathlon held at Goa. It included cycling, running and rafting. Our cadets have also done extremely well in marathons. We also have clubs like Drama Club, Cycling Club, Photography, Western Music etc. Our horse riding club is also renowned. A cadet won Gold at the national level. These clubs also act as a stress buster and the co-curricular activities add to the over personality and skill set of a cadet.
But when do they do it?
They do it either in the afternoons on club days or in term breaks. There is a mid-term break and a term break. They themselves elect to stay back for these activities. On Sundays, when the routine is relatively free, they are free to visit these clubs. The boys have done well in trekking and mountain climbing. In the recently conducted Adventure Activity, our cadets stood second. To give you the essence of NDA, it all boils down to one little incident. In the triple event our boy was cycling and he was ahead of the others. Suddenly, his wheel came off on a down slope and he crashed on the ground, injuring himself. Without thinking, he picked up his bicycle and started running the rest of the nine kms. He was running, lifting his cycle up while others were cycling. This boy stood second, beating 21 others in the team. Look at the spirit; he did not want to let NDA down. We are ex-NDAs, we always lead from the front It was one of our most defining moments. This boy was injured and bleeding, but he still ran—this is the NDA spirit.
“We have 30 clubs, out of which 20 are outdoor clubs. The clubs that are most sought after are the sailing club, and the running club. Our cadets recently got accolades in a unique Triathlon held at Goa. It included cycling, running and rafting. Our cadets have also done extremely well in marathons. We also have clubs like
Drama Club, Cycling Club, Photography, Western Music etc. Our horse riding club is also renowned”
Do you feel bad that over the years the Hut of Remembrance has so many more additions to it?
The Hut of Remembrance exists in every training institution. The walls are getting covered faster than we can make them. It’s like a religious place for us, and for the cadets. Every course which passes out pays homage here because officers who sacrificed their life for the country were all cadets once. We are soldiers. We all know there is an element of risk. So we all go there together and a silent prayer goes up from our side as far as these soldiers are concerned. Deep down, there is a sense of loss as far as I am concerned. We recently lost four ex-NDAs in two days, two in the helicopter crash in the East and two at Nagrota. I keep telling my cadets that these people are now in the astral world and they look down at you and they guide you. So we have to give that commitment to them. It’s an incredible legacy these cadets inherit because these people in the Hut of Remembrance - they walk with you. I also tell them, ‘Lead from the front. When you were born, you were destined to die. It is how you die which is more important’. Would you like to die of old age, or would you like to die leading from the front? You can see the fire raging in their eyes because these people are behind us. I always bow my head when I cross the HOR.
Tell us about the technology that has come into the campus in terms of training for war.
We have a robust Campus Area Network and we have also hooked onto something called the National Knowledge Network. We are connected to the IITs via the NKN. We are also connected to all training institutions of the 38 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
Army, Navy and Air Force. Video Conferencing facilities are also available. Our cadets can attend B Tech lectures remotely. The NKN is a stockpile of useful information for the cadets. Each cadet has a laptop. He plugs in this laptop in his classroom, in his room in his squadron and in the library, which is rather well stocked. He doesn’t have to pick up that proverbial pencil and take notes. He goes straight to his laptop and goes about his learning. It helps us save a huge amount of time as far as cadets are concerned. We also plan to provide 100 tablets to the B Tech cadets
What about training in technology in warfare…
The Armed Forces are becoming increasingly technology oriented with time. But in the end, the last green mile or the golden mile is walked by the boots on ground. Towards that extent, we are abreast with the technological developments in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. We have the Army Training Team, Naval Training Team and the Air Force Training Team. This is where we teach service specific subjects. I am still a migrant into such technology. These cadets come armed. They are already well versed with technology. I also get feedback from the field saying that these boys are very quick to learn about the technology in the Su-30s, or MIG-21s, or the Bofors, the UAVs etc. We’ve also started a new system of tracking the cadets on our mobiles
used on this 21 kilometre lake. Cadets have won accolades even in sailing. I insist that all officers go into these waters as it gives you a sense of adventure. Kayaking is also a fun activity that requires a lot of skill. I even encourage wives of officers to participate in these activities.
You have done your MBA. Many of the officers are now in the second career. What is it that inspired you to do MBA? Are you now looking in the future for second career in the corporate world?
I am a reluctant M Phil. It was imposed on me. I am a soldier. I do one thing best, that is flying. I have clocked 8,000 hours of helicopter flying. I do not want a second career. I’d rather go and play my Golf. I have done my duty for 38 years. I have two years left to retire.
What made you join the Armed Forces?
My grandfather joined the British Army in 1904 in an armoured unit called Skinner’s Horse, a renowned regiment. In 1948, my father joined the 18th Cavalry, a very famous regiment. My brother is a serving Major General in the Armoured Corps. So, in my case, I had nowhere else to go. Only thing I realised when I was a child that I am pretty good with my hands and feet and I will fly fairly all right. So I joined the Air Force. So yes, there is no other way I would have had it.
What’s your most memorable moment of your career?
The most memorable moment was saving 15 lives in the Valley and bringing those 15 injured soldiers back to Military Hospital (MH) Srinagar.
When was that?
This was between 1991 and 1995. I picked up the soldiers with gunshot wounds and brought them back. I didn’t even have the permission to do so. I have been doing this all my life. I mean, if you do a good deed, nothing will happen to you.
Your NDA Ball is very popular…
through GPS trackers during camps and navigation exercises. They are not very happy about this because they don’t want to get caught. They would rather sleep somewhere when they are tired. We can now pick them up on the tracker system.
Are mobiles allowed here?
There are no mobiles allowed in National Defence Academy. We feel it’s a distraction. Every squadron has been given six STD phones for the cadets to use. I am keeping an open mind though. May be 10 years from now, things will change. May be they will have smart watches with mobiles. Presently this is working for me, but we are ready to change. So yes, I have a very open mind on this.
Tell us about the Peacock Bay
We have a large number of water vessels in Peacock Bay. We have 160 boats that can be
During NDA Ball, all officers and ladies are dressed in their finery. What I mean to say is that the officers are in their uniform, the ladies are very graceful in their sarees. The cadets are also in their uniforms and this is where the cadets make their first mass contact, with girls. The NDA Ball is an extremely sought after event. It is a very happy and sombre occasion. It also helps us in actually advertising these youngsters who are going to join the forces. I am happy to inform you that last time 200 plus girls came from all corners of the country, which is no mean feat. It speaks volumes of the parents who left these girls in our safe custody and we ensured that they returned home safely. Who would leave their daughters to come in and dance the night out? We also selected the best dancing couple for boys and girls and they were awarded gifts. It was a great success. The feedback I got from the girls was that they would love to come again for the NDA ball because of the dignity, poise and grace that is associated with it. Also, another interesting fact is that nuptial unions are made here. Last NDA Ball, we had three marriages.
“We have also hooked onto something called the National Knowledge Network. We are connected to the IITs via the NKN. We are also connected to al training institutions of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Video Conferencing facilities are also available. Our cadets can attend B Tech lectures remotely”
What is your philosophy of life? Bash on regardless!
vinitapune@gmail.com
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 39
Corporate Debate
Shyamshree Ajay Bhonsle,
Exam time Should be a festive Celebration Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of treating examination period as a pleasure activity has had thought provoking reaction from a cross-section of society. Corporate Citizen brings to you the various opinions
P
By Kalyani Sardesai
M Narendra Modi recently created quite a stir when he stated unequivocally on his first 'Mann Ki Baat' in 2017 that exam pressure should not dominate students' lives. Focusing mainly on students set to appear for their Class X and XII Boards and other competitive exams across the country, he urged the students to take exams as a 'pleasure activity' and minimise their stress. Beseeching the youngsters to refrain from cheating, he also asked the parents to create a celebratory, festival like atmosphere and encourage students to be themselves. Educationists and parents across different strata react to his comments and add their own wish list to the same. After all, it's not every day that the premier of the nation acknowledges the woes of the youth. And then the questions arise: some in your face, others more nuanced. But everyone agrees across the board that the change in education system and parental attitudes have to go hand in hand!
40 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
Special Educator, Ex-Principal of JIDD School for Special Children, Thane Municipal Corporation and parent to Atul and Anita
“I
definitely laud the Prime Minister's statements, though I would also press for an awareness programme on the ill effects of parental pressure, especially with regard to special children. This sense of awareness would be most welcome, and in keeping with the principles of the Right to Education Act of 2010. As a special educator, I deal with MR (mental retardation), cerebral palsy, Autism, Muscular Dystrophy, Polio, Down's syndrome and so on. And one of my long-standing, continuous tasks has been convincing parents to accept and love their children with their limitations. Over the years, I have seen several cases where the child has been beaten up by frustrated parents for not conforming to certain standards- though the child is limited by his or her condition! It's sad and traumatizing for both the child and parent. But then this sense of pressure is all pervasive and affects even the parents of normal children just as severely, thereby creating obstacles in their child's overall growth and happiness. After all what is the end goal of education? Skill sets for survival-right? But we tend to lose sight of this basic fact, even as we push our kids to score more, more and more. At least parents of special children have one advantage in that they have a continuous and on-going dialogue with their child's teachers. But this does not happen in the case of regular kids who are unfairly pushed too. In my own experience as a parent, I realised that giving my children a degree of freedom and autonomy with regard to their studies meant that they got a chance to breathe and explore different avenues. My son Atul, despite being academically inclined, once complained that I always 'made him do' what I wanted him to! This got me thinking and backed off a little. When it came to younger child Anita, I was more relaxed and let her be, despite her not being the bookish kind. It sure did her no harm. She graduated with a degree from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, in a subject that she loved and enjoyed. This approach also helped meant that the kids developed their own independent personalities and learnt to take their decisions early on. And I think that's very important too.
Dr Sanjay Pande,
Dean JJ School of Applied Arts, Nagpur; Former Dean of JJ School of Applied Arts, Mumbai
I
Dr Manjiri Bhalerao,
Associate Professor of Indology, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth and mother to 19 year old Aishwarya
I
am happy the Prime Minister has chosen to speak on such a crucial subject. The examination system in our country, coupled with the fierce competition, makes things very hard for our students. Since most activities are exam-centric, it does tend to diminish the process of learning by reducing everything to marks. Even today, a disproportionate amount of importance is given to memorising by rote, whereas the focus should be on understanding cause and effect. The class that I teach at Indology, on the other hand, has students across varied disciplines coming together to study the story of India. What is noteworthy is that that most are as interested in the process as the actually marks they eventually score. This happens because it's a subject of their choosing; they are here out of keen interest not because it's been forced on them. When you enjoy what you are studying, it becomes a joyful and rewarding process, instead of a punitive one. Hopefully, with so much debate on the subject, we should increasingly move towards a pro-choice, student centric ap-
proach, in which students have both an open hand in choosing what they want to do--along with a sense of accountability towards the consequences of that decision. As a parent, I have given my daughter Aishwarya, freedom to pursue subjects of her choice while ensuring she understands her responsibility towards her academic and career choices. Even as she is pursuing a BBA-IB degree in MIT, my role is essentially that of a facilitator and guide. Let her take her own decisions and live up to them--for education is ultimately about the confidence of making a choice!
whole-heartedly welcome the Prime Minister’s comments, and believe it to be a step in the right direction. At JJ School of Arts, we have always believed strongly in cultivating and nurturing a light, friendly, interactive atmosphere in the campus. This belief system finds expression not just in the manner of instruction but also in the way we conduct exams. After all, we create artists of all hues, and they must be free-thinking, open minded and fearless. Thus at JJ, our exams are not a grim, stress filled business, but instead just a milestone in the process of learning. We allow light music, and the students are provided with the atmosphere conducive to creating art, sculpture, handicrafts and more. As a teacher, it has been my endeavour to be as approachable as possible. My students feel free to come and share their experiences and issues with me, even after they have passed out. Overall middle class India needs to change its attitude towards education; parents need to understand that marks are the not the end-result of education; a broadened thought process most definitely is! And great art which is the result of that accepting thought process is the fulcrum of a healthy, functional democracy.
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 41
Corporate Debate
Arnavaz Damania,
Former President of Indian Women's Hockey Federation, founder of the NGO cum helpline, Connecting, that focuses on mental health and suicide prevention amongst the youth
I
t is so very good of the Prime Minister to notice such a pertinent issue that is troubling our youngsters. Might I add that the education system needs to give importance to sports and extra-curricular activities apart from academics ? Sufficient weightage needs to given to various aspects of the child's growth, not just studies. It's so sad to see perfectly health, bright and happy teenagers turn into nervous wrecks before their exams; to listen to young teens complain that they are tired and cannot study anymore? That they feel so pressurised to perform in the exam like it will be the make or break event of their lives? To the extent that they would want to end their life over failure to score in an exam? Real life is so much more complex; just academics won't prepare you for it. At the same time, it offers ample opportunities to each individual to do what they love and make a career out of it. Each child is unique and born with an innate ability that needs to be tapped into, be it sports or art or music. Being a sportsperson myself, I understood how important it was for my younger daughter to play her inter-school hockey tournaments, and did not stop her from doing so even when she was in the Xth grade. Despite that, she managed to score over 75 per cent and has not suffered in any way for it. Therefore, my wish list would include a system that pays due attention to the students' emotional well-being as well.
I Chetaan Joshii Author, Corporate Communications Trainer and dad to 5 year-old- Avnee
Abhradita Chatterjee Nahvi,
Associate Professor, St Mira' College for Girls, Pune
I
t's great that the Prime Minister is asking students to approach exams more positively; however, I would humbly state that the education system needs to undergo a sea-change in favour of students and all of us, educationists and parents alike need to do our bit. One way for responsible educational institutions is to acknowledge the role of overall personality development for the child, not just academics. At St Mira's College, for instance, we have been working towards autonomy that will allow us to implement the curriculum we believe in namely a value-based system that gives due weightage to different aspect of the child's personality. For instance, the exams are only for 60 marks, whereas 40 marks are accounted for through the year, including online exams, the child's sense of discipline and so on. This automatically takes the pressure off the children and makes things less mark-centric. At the end of the day, we believe that we are helping create human beings and our education system must help them develop various facets of their personality simultaneously. Life skills go well-beyond marks and tell you to be more positive, giving and tolerant.
listened the Mann ki Baat programme with some interest. And while there is merit to what our Prime Minister says, we need to redesign our entire system to reflect what we want to be exactly. Are we looking to simply send professionals abroad to work or are we looking to create well-rounded individuals with a strong sense of their own roots? The confusion needs to first give way to clarity in the minds of our educationists and communicated to all stakeholders accordingly, parents and students included. My wish for my little girl Avnee would be that she become an Indian Global citizen, someone who can hold her own anywhere in the world. This may happen only if her basic education includes an
42 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
understanding and pride in her cultural heritage--apart from inculcating a rational outlook towards all of life’s challenges--exams included. Right now, we seem to have a mark centric approach that oversimplifies everything on one level and makes the individual believe that marks are all that count. On the other hand, the pressure on the student vis a vis the exam is tremendous and lop-sided. This needs to change. But whatever the education module we design, the one question we need to answer for ourselves is: where do we hope to go from here? India has the inherent potential to be a hub for jobs---why not have faith in ourselves and work towards that goal. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com
What’s New?
Signs of life
beyond our Earth
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water
T
he discovery of seven Earth size planets around a single star, sets a new record for greatest number of planets in habitable-zone found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone. This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life, according to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Answering the question ‘are we alone’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal,’’ he said. At about 40 light years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets. This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system. Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven. The new results were announced at a news briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured
the sizes of the seven planets and developed first The planets may also be tidally locked to their estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing star, which means the same side of the planet is their density to be estimated. Based on their denalways facing the star therefore each side is either sities, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to perpetual day or night. This could mean they have be rocky. Further observations will not only help weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth. determine whether they are rich in water, but In the fall of 2016, Spitzer observed TRAPalso possibly reveal whether PIST-1 nearly continuously for any could have liquid water on This discovery could 500 hours. Spitzer is uniquely their surfaces. Mass of the sev- be a significant positioned in its orbit to obenth and farthest exoplanet has piece in the puzzle serve enough crossing – trannot yet been estimated – sciensits – of the planets in front of tists believe it could be an icy, of finding habitable the host star to reveal the com"snowball-like" world, but fur- environments, plex architecture of the system. ther observations are needed. Engineers optimised Spitzer’s places that are "The seven wonders of ability to observe transiting conducive to life, TRAPPIST-1 are the first planets during Spitzer’s “warm Earth-size planets that have according to Thomas mission,” which began after the been found orbiting this kind Zurbuchen, associate spacecraft’s coolant ran out as of star," said Michael Gillon, administrator of the planned after the first five years lead author of the paper and of operations. agency’s Science the principal investigator of the "This is the most exciting reTRAPPIST exoplanet survey Mission Directorate sult I have seen in the 14 years at the University of Liege, in Washington of Spitzer operations," said Sean Belgium. Carey, manager of NASA's In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pas– classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – so cool that adena, California. "Spitzer will follow up in the liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very fall to further refine our understanding of these close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planecan follow up. More observations of the system tary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercuare sure to reveal more secrets.” ry is to our sun. The planets also are very close to Following up on the Spitzer discovery, NASA's each other. If a person was standing on one of the Hubble Space Telescope has initiated the screenplanet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially ing of four of the planets, including the three insee geological features or clouds of neighbouring side the habitable zone. worlds, which would sometimes appear larger For more information about Spitzer, than the moon in Earth's sky. visit: https://www.nasa.gov/spitzer March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 43
INSIGHT
The Young Physician Scientist on
cancer research
Dr Karuna Ganesh, physician-scientist at the world renowned Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is involved in unravelling clues to cancer cell behaviour at their most dreaded phase, metastasis, to curtail its spread and impact
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Dreaded as the disease cancer is, it enters the most devastating stage when it turns metastatic – when it spreads to other parts of the body than where it first began. Metastasis leads to over 90% of cancer death. Dr Karuna Ganesh is a physician-scientist at the world famous cancer research centre, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, focused on investigating and treating cancer metastasis -- by understanding what drives these cancer cells to grow and flourish – and thereby kill. Following her early education in India, Dr Ganesh completed the International Baccalaureate at the United World College in NM, USA, and studied as a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University, UK, gaining a medical degree and a PhD in molecular biology. She then trained in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. She joined the medical oncology fel-
By Vinita Deshmukh
lowship program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2013, and since July 2014, has been working on metastasis. In an intense interview with Corporate Citizen, Dr Ganesh talks of her single minded pursuit of medical research and the need for intense medical and research interface to fight the scourge and bring it to more manageable levels. Did you always want to take up a medical career? All of this started when I was 12 years old. I loved reading books, I still do. I started reading novels by Robin Cook, an ophthalmologist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Institute. His books were all medical thrillers and the detectives who solved the mystery used medical mastery. There I came across the physician scientist for the first time -- a scientist and also a doctor. That captivated me and I decided what I wanted to do.
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You were 12 years old back then! How did you discuss it with your parents? At that age when you tell others about such dreams, nobody takes you seriously. Those were also the days of early Internet and I was lucky that both my parents were in the IT industry, so we had a computer at home and also the Internet. I started researching how to become a physician-scientist, I realised there was nothing like that in India and everything was primarily in the US. So I applied and got into an international school in the US and discovered that Cambridge University in England had a similar programme, where, like in India, your medical program begins right after school. So the night before the applications were closing, I applied to Cambridge and got in. Ten years later, I completed my education in medicine and science at Cambridge and moved to the US to pursue my career in this field.
Who would you credit for your being so decisive at age 12? My parents were of course a huge influence, specifically my mother. She has a very strong personality and was the dominant influence in my life while I was growing up. She sets high goals and does everything to achieve them and consciously or subconsciously that became ingrained in me. Also, I realised that it is always easier to achieve your goal if you know what it is. In terms of career goals, it is important to think rationally and make strategic decisions --to figure out your strengths, your weaknesses, what makes sense, and then just go for it!
What is your research in metastasis? Cancer is a group of diseases defined by uncontrolled growth. All cancer starts off in one part of the body - the breast, or the lung or colon (intestine) and so on. But usually, that tumour kills a person not because it is growing in one place but because it learns how to spread from the organ where it started to other parts of the body. For example in breast cancer, it typically spreads to the lung and brain and that’s what really kills people. We don’t fully understand how that happens at the molecular level and that’s what my research is focussed on. Cancer cells retain the ability to grow uncontrollably but they also Pics: Yusuf Khan
adapt to live in a different environment. You know breast cells are designed to grow in the breasts; they don’t know how to survive in the brain. But cancer cells learn to survive in the brain and other parts of the body like a parasite which ultimately devastates the functioning of the organ, the body and kills people. I am trying to understand the molecular drivers that enable cancer cells to flourish in alien places, in very hostile environments. If we learn enough about their vulnerabilities and can exploit them, we can then make new drugs to destroy metastasis, and eventually hopefully cure advanced cancer. Everyone is traumatised by the word ‘cancer’. Why? Because of the feeling that cancer is something that will kill you. With diabetes or heart problems, you can manage it with drugs and control it and keep going for a long time. But with cancer, it feels like death is staring you in your face. But that’s not always true; there are many types of cancer that we now know to treat and cure. The other fear is the treatment of cancer. Historically, we have had very aggressive treatments like chemotherapy that can have severe side effects, and people have very horrible associations with it, having seen their friends and near and dear ones go through it. We need to better cancer treatments that are less toxic. We are getting there, slowly, and with recent developments in targeted therapy and immunotherapy we are already making rapid progress.
‘All cancer starts off in one part of the body - the breast, or the lung or colon (intestine), etc. But usually that tumour kills a person not because it is growing in one place but because it learns how to spread from the organ where it started to other parts of the body’
If somebody in the family is diagnosed with cancer, how should one broach the topic with the patient? I am really glad that you asked me this question. Especially in an Asian family, culturally we are inclined to protect our relatives from the truth. But the most important thing to do is to stay honest. Even if you don’t tell your grandmother that she’s dying of cancer, she knows. Trust me. And it creates a barrier of fear if people cannot talk honestly. Truth is the first thing required and then clarity about the process. Sometimes, time is short, and it needs to be communicated in a sympathetic way to the patient. It is important for people to plan their lives, their families, their relationships, to have honesty and clarity. It also lessens fear if you know what you can expect. In such a situation, how can you keep
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 45
INSIGHT the patient psychologically motivated? That is a tough one to answer. You have to tailor it to every individual and it is hard. I know a lot of cancer patients who get very alienated because their friends and family don’t know how to respond. So they just stay away or sometimes people come and overtly try to provide support in their own way. You just need to be honest because honestly helps, and dialogue with the person helps too. You should ask the person what he or she wants. Sometimes, they need space; sometimes they want somebody to be with them. As doctors we can definitely reassure people they are not going to die in pain -- this is the big thing that people are really afraid of - dying in pain and agony. This is something that we fully have in our control now. Since the last decade, what progress has occurred in cancer treatment? There has been a huge revolution. Historically, our treatment for cancer was radiation and chemotherapy. They are very blunt instruments. They just kill anything that is growing fast. That makes for a lot of toxicity because our hair cells are growing; our blood cells are growing. That’s why we have such horrible side-effects. In the last decade, we have understood a lot about the molecular basis of cancer and now we have what we call targeted therapy. They specifically target the cancer cells, and do minimal damage to normal cells, resulting in fewer side-effects.. In the last decade, the real revolution has been in immunotherapy which is getting your body’s own immune system to fight against cancer cells in the same way as it defends against infections. It makes your immune system see cancer as the foreign object and destroy it. Sometimes, the responses are really miraculous. For instance, skin cancer – metastatic melanoma – was historically a near universally fatal disease. Patients with this disease who earlier were not able to survive for more than three months now live for decades with immunotherapy.
‘In India, there are fantastic hospitals and great research institutes but not really much crosstalk between the two of them. Crosstalk is crucial: we need science to develop medicines but we also need the clinical understanding of what the patients are facing, what the sideeffects of these drugs are’
What is Immunotherapy? Immunotherapy is about teaching your body’s immune system to fight cancer, through medicines. Our hope is that as we grow in this area, Immunotherapy will be a lot less toxic, and even better at destroying cancer. The beauty of immunotherapy is that unlike any other kind of treatment of cancer, you can get
long term durable responses for cancer. Right now, when you have an advanced stage cancer, it still is largely a death sentence. However, our goal is to convert cancer from that kind of death-sentence-disease into a more manageable disease, like say high-blood pressure or diabetes -- where you still have the disease all your life, but it can be controlled through medicines. Our goal is to convert cancer into a manageable chronic disease rather than a death sentence.
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Has Immunotherapy come to India yet? Yes definitely, it is available in India. Right now, ,we know it works only for some types of cancer. But there is tremendous interest worldwide in trying to improve Immunotherapy and make it work in a larger spectrum of cancer types. And not just Immunotherapy but chemotherapy and targeted therapy as well - someday we may see a combination of all three to treat cancer, and convert cancer into a chronic disease. These days, for every kind of lifestyle disease, there is a reversal through food,
exercise and so on. Is there any kind of reversal for cancer too? I would love to be able to say yes, for prevention definitely, but for treatment right now there is not enough evidence for any reversal or type of food or lifestyle that can truly treat cancer. For prevention, of course we certainly know that stopping smoking can prevent lung cancer. There is some evidence for not eating red meat to help prevent colon cancer. But to associate a lifestyle with prevention of a certain kind of disease - it is often difficult to establish causality. How was your learning experience at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center? It is a fantastic place to work, we have people coming from all over the world. There is very good integration of medicine and science which is exactly what I am doing. Both sides learn from each other. In India, there are fantastic hospitals and great research institutes but not really much cross-talk between the two of them. This crosstalk is crucial: we need science to develop new medicines but we also need the clinical understanding of what patients are facing, what the side-effects of these drugs are, and so on. There are Indian doctors in the UK and USA. Are they doing research too? They are, but primarily second generation Indian Americans. In the field that I am in, which is a super-specialised area of research and science, it is hard to get from India, as there’s no training available in India. Usually when Indian doctors go the US, they tend to be clinical doctors practicing medicine, and sometimes conducting clinical research. Some Indian doctors do get advanced research training in the west and then go on to conduct scientific research. Medical education and profession are commercialised to a great degree in India. What are your observations? How does it compare in the two countries? The UK and the US have very different healthcare systems. The UK has the National Health Service, so everybody pays for it through tax, but when you need the service, it is completely free. So no matter how rich or poor you are, you go to the same hospital and receive the exact same service and treatment and nobody asks you for money, which is really fantastic. In the US, the system is similar to India, where some people have insurance; some don’t. So depending on which hospital you’re working in, you may see different kinds of patients. At the lower end of the spectrum there are many people who have not had treatment for many years and when they come to the doctor, they may have a very advanced stage of disease. At the upper end, it is usually good as you may get the latest drugs, absolute cutting-edge technol-
ogy which may not be available here in India. But again, sometimes it is bad as people may get over-treated unnecessarily. But when you come to an academic teaching hospital like ours, where physicians are paid a fixed salary and are not driven by fee-for-service payments, you can get the best care based on the best scientific evidence. I’ve heard from my friends in India about incentives to doctors for overcharging patients, or pushing them to unnecessary procedures to make money which is an unfortunate part of our system. Do you believe in camps for detecting cancer? What is your opinion on that? For some kinds of cancer we know there are established protocols. Like for breast cancer, or cervical cancer, we know that if you use a certain technique there’s a good chance of detecting them. Camps are a great way for patients who don’t have access otherwise to get such preventive screening. The problem is that these screening procedures work if you do them regularly. If not, that may result in under-detection.
land, we had this multi-country relationship for a very long time. And it is only in the last two years that we have been in the same city.
‘As doctors we can definitely reassure people they are not going to die in pain -- this is the big thing that people are really afraid of - dying in pain and agony. This is something that we fully have in our control now. I can promise that they will not die in pain’
Tell us about your childhood, especially since your parents were busy professionals. Yes, very much, but that way, I learnt to be independent at an early stage. I left home when I was 15 years old, and then remained independent throughout. Also, I am in a field my parents know nothing about. I was not a pampered, protected child and they always set very high expectations for me. If I came home with 99% marks, the question would be where did that 1% go? Perhaps that was good for me, as it motivated me to try harder. Tell us about your husband, Dr Hugh Skottowe... He is a management consultant now, but trained as a particle physicist. We met at Cambridge, while we were both doing our PhDs. On our first date, he said he was leaving the country in one week and go work in Switzerland because that’s where his experiment was. He sort of disappeared for a year. After he finished his PhD, he moved to Harvard. While he was in Switzer-
You both come from different cultures and countries. What does it take for such a marriage to click? It is important in any relationship to keep an open mind and learn from each other. It helps that he loves Indian food! I had been living in the UK for a long time before I met him, which familiarised me with his culture. I went to an international school in the US, which broadened my mind and allowed me to be grounded to my Indian culture, yet left me open to new experiences, new ideas and new people. That probably helped us. Of course we grow together; every day is a conversation where we learn something new about each other. You try and respect each other’s perspectives as much as possible. That goes for any relationship, whether you’re of the same caste, religion or country.
The first time that you left home for the United World College, what was the transition like? It felt like I was hit by a truck! Everything was so overwhelming; you were plunged into a sea where everybody was totally different from you and from each other. I had to learn from everyone around. It really forced me to think about what my identity was. That helped me identify the parts of my background, my culture, that were very important to me and those less important. That is important when you leave your home and country and go to a different land. Adaptation is crucial. And while you adapt, you also get to reflect what is important to you from your previous identity. That helped me a lot, as I moved multiple times after that - from India to the US, then UK and then back to the US. What is your philosophy in life? It is important for me to make a difference, wherever I can, whenever I can. It’s important for me to have integrity, to be open to new ideas, people and different influences, wherever they come from. And to really understand that every experience you have is something to learn from. vinitapune@gmail.com
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 47
Campus Placement
‘Accept changes as they come’ Staying composed and confident during placement will come in handy to handle stress with authority in your life ahead, said Pooja Mehta By Joe Williams
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orn in Jodhpur, was brought up in Indore and got her career break in Pune. This is the story of Pooja Mehta, who, despite coming from a conservative family from Rajasthan, has made her mark many from her town would never dream of. As she ventured into the one of the top corporates, the Birla Sun Life Insurance, as Business Development Manager, Pooja, an MBA in telecom and management from a prominent college in the city, feels that hard work never goes waste. It is not the perks she looks at but the stable job in a reputed company she has got into, which has brought a smile on her face and on her near and dear ones. It is not only in school and college that learning happens, but all through life and every walk of life. Every minute and hour is a learning process, and that is what makes one prefect, feels Pooja. Pooja shares glimpses of her journey from school to Birla Sun Life Insurance, with Corporate Citizen. Placement period... Being self-motivated and patient are keys to success, and that was what made Pooja confident and come out a winner in the placement cell. “The entire placement process was a lifetime experience in itself. From studying about the companies to preparing for the placement process, it taught me a lot about myself as well as the industries. I learned a lot about how to go through the entire placement process keeping myself calm and composed,” she says. And it was here that this Jodhpur-born girl felt such experiences helped her handle stress. “I would say that those few hours were undoubtedly stressful, staying composed and confident, but this comes in handy to handle stress with authority. Never look at others for inspiration but yourself, and getting placed will automatically
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“My happiest moment in life was when my father decided to send me to Pune for higher education, followed by the moment when I returned to my family after getting placed with one of the leading brands of India, the Birla group, and seeing my family happy and proud of me” fall in place.” She goes on to make yet another important point: “Never think about perks as a fresher just out of college. A stable job in a good company will take care of that, but do not let hard work take a back seat. Great achievements will fall in place.” Early days… It’s all about learning in the early stages of anybody’s life, and Pooja’s was no different. “It is the most important time in life, as most of the learning happens then,” says Pooja. Coming from the second largest city in Rajasthan, life was simple, like for any school going girl. Growing amidst temples in a popular tourist destination, Pooja did have good schooling in Jodhpur, although it is a conservative place where tradition is followed every strictly. Technology and modernisation have changed life, compared to what Pooja’s parents and her grandparents went through. “Being the only girl child in the family, my parents were always cautious about my friends, but my brother was always with me. He did give me the liberty of going out with friends. This made me feel that I could become someone different.” It was in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, that she became confident, while pursuing her graduation. “Going out of the house and doing things all by myself boosted my morale, and it was here I realised I wanted to go ahead in academics.” After her graduation she wanted to go still further, and the best option she thought was an MBA.
Godfathers, brother, father…. It was her brother who has been the leading force for her. “It would not be fair to say that it was just my brother and father who were the driving forces behind my success story. My mother was always there. So I would credit my success to everyone in my family. However, brother and father motivated me, right from the time I moved out of the house. And stepping into Pune, the Oxford of the East, changed me overall. In college, teachers and friends helped me in their own way, and today I am in Birla Sun Life Insurance, one of the best corporates in the country. I should thank my seniors and teachers at college too, who not only taught me academics, but aspects that helped make me a better human being.” Unforgettable moments… School days are the best times one does not forget, but for Pooja it was the day her father gave her the nod to join the college in Pune that was the most unforgettable moment. “My happiest moment in life was when my father decided to send me to Pune for higher education, followed by the moment when I returned to my family after getting placed with one of the leading brands of India, the Birla group, and seeing my family happy and proud of me.” For Pooja, life is all about experiences, learnings, unlearning and again learning. It's all about accepting the changes as they come and moving forward with new ideas, all confident and motivated.
Six tricks to success... 1. Always be updated with the current affairs. You don't know when it will play an important part in your life 2. Keep your communication fluent, clear and understandable 3. Be keen and take an interest in knowing the practical aspects of what you study and the industry 4. Be a good listener first to be a good speaker 5. Make good connections with everyone, be it your seniors, batch mates or juniors 6. Keep the right attitude towards things as they come to you. The right attitude takes you to great heights Joe78662@gmail.com
CC
tadka
FDI expected to top last year’s mark While foreign direct investment flows may have gone down the world over, the faith in India continues to hold strong as illustrated by the fact that overseas investment is likely to surge to cross over $40 billion in the year ending March despite temporary growth hiccups due to the demonetization. India’s FDI in the April-December period rose 22% to $35.8 billion from the year earlier.
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 49
Loved & Married too
It is not often these days that a college romance fructifies into a wedlock. Corporate Citizen unlocks the story of love that has culminated into marriage, for we believe in the stability of a relationship and family unit. We bring to you real-life romances got sealed in marriage
For love does transcend the boundaries of the mind
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"Marriage works if you want it to," thus begins the opening line of a best-selling guidebook on marriage. And for some, it is actually that simple. So much for the sage advice on marrying 'one of your own kind' or to 'avoid adjustment issues.' He's a multimedia journalist and copy editor in Brussels, Belgium, while she (with her knowledge of Mandarin) works as a translator. He's Indian, she's French and they've been married since June 2011. This is Rahul Venkit and Severine Perronnet's story and this is how they tell it By Kalyani Sardesai When she cooks, he wants to know, "Where's the masala?" And when he does, her query is just as basic: "Where's the meat?" But it's precisely these little nuances that add to the flavor and fun of their married life. Five years on, this is one couple that knows only too well that differences can be celebrated, engaged with and even nurtured. And despite the challenges, Rahul Venkit and Severine Perronnet aka 'Sev' (both 33) wouldn't have it any other
way. Whether it is a difference of nationality (he's Indian; she's French) or of personality (she's quiet, he rocks the party), all of this is mere detail, provided you keep your eyes on the bigger picture: namely building a secure relationship that allows both partners room for expression. The fact of the matter? Yes, international marriages have their issues, and then again, maybe they don't.
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Back to the beginning
Their journey together starts in Beijing in 2008 at the time China was hosting the Olympics. While Rahul, an upcoming journalist from Pune, the first Indian to be recruited by China Radio International’s English service, was in Beijing to cover the games. Severine was studying Mandarin, apart from being a volunteer with the French Olympic team. The mood was buoyant, upbeat, lots of parties happening in the evenings--so it was a given that the duo with their set of common friends would hang out together at some point. And continue to do so over the next few months. "We met on a particularly memorable day," grins Rahul. "The day Barack Obama won the US elections to be precise." Dramatic as it may sound, perhaps it indeed was a day for boundaries to recede. Assignment over, Rahul had to leave for Brussels, Belgium, where a new job awaited him. "I joined the International Diabetes Federation as their new multimedia manager, whereas she stayed on in Beijing, having just started a job with a designer. But we found that we missed each other a lot. " So that first year was dedicated to testing the waters and the strength of their long distance relationship. A tough call if ever there was one. A few months later she found work in Brussels. But they still took their time getting to know each other. And discovered in the process that they were indeed quite good together. "She's a quiet person, sincere and grounded. I would
be running around, keeping crazy hours; it was she who would bring me back to basics, and get me to smell the flowers, so to speak," says Rahul. "What I admire most about her is her simplicity." As for Sev, she enjoys his enthusiasm for life. "He's this happy, friendly guy, always open to exploring different things," she says. Gradually, they were both ready for the next big step. But Rahul, ever the perfectionist, wanted to do things the proper way and formally ask her dad for her hand in marriage. "I hardly spoke any French back then. Still, I went all out to prepare a little speech for her dad," he shares. But no sooner had he started with his spiel-than when her dad broke in with a casual, "Sure, sure. It's her life. Just ask her." "What an anti-climax," grins Rahul in retrospect. "But I also got an idea of how very different the French culture is from our own. It's a non-interfering, hands-off approach that they have." "Ours is a society where you can be committed without marriage; there is no stigma to it. However, marriage was important to Rahul, and I was happy to say 'yes'," says Sev. For their part, Rahul's family accepted Sev just as easily. "They were thrilled that I had found a nice person with whom I could spend my life, The stumbling blocks vs The pillars and that was that," he says. And The building blocks so they were duly wed in 2011, in "Frankly, yes, the way we were of a both, a civil ceremony followed brought up was different. But marriage by a traditional Indian shaadi, a if you let little things go and few months later. work at the bigger things inRespecting What touched hearts, though, stead, such as companionship, differences and was the sincere interest that sharing things, spending quality concentrating Sev showed in Indian culture. time and so on—a so-called inon the bigger "Through dance, I got to know all ter-racial marriage is no different picture: namely about the basics of Hinduism, the from a set-up where both parta harmonious Gods and Goddesses, and so on," ners share the same roots," says relationship she says. At their wedding sanRahul. "Besides, we are a nu geet, she won hearts by performclear family living by ourselves Making time ing a Bharatnatyam piece, instead in Brussels and we have to be a to do things of paying the ubiquitous homage tight unit, in the absence of an together despite to a Bollywood number. extended family." the demands So did she find Indian culture Even as Sev points out, "We of work and overwhelming, given that this both have different visions of children is a country that does not set life and ambitions. I come from much store by the concept of uh, a country where the concept of personal space? "No, not at all," social security is a given, and so Supporting each she smiles. "I found the people I guess, I am more relaxed than other friendly, sweet and welcoming. I he is." guess the years I spent in noisy, Food is another arena where Taking an bustling China-another country they are poles apart. "Her notion interest in each that is crowded with people, had of cooking is rather basic. She's other's routes sort of, prepared me." like: here are the veggies, they are The most unforgettable memoboiled, perhaps you could add Presenting a ry ? "That moment I met his folks the salt. Whereas, I like dishes to united front as and his grand moms...they were be more elaborate. So when I put parents so kind and welcoming...I had no on my apron and make pav bhaji words or gestures to convey to instead, she wants to know how them how happy I was to meet them, so I just come there's no meat in it," he laughs. hugged them instead," she says. "But on the whole, what worked in our fa-
What touched hearts, though, was the sincere interest that Sev showed in Indian culture. At their wedding sangeet, she won hearts by performing a Bharatnatyam piece, instead of paying the ubiquitous homage to a Bollywood number vour, was that I knew literally nothing about India," says Sev. "Even so, she is so Indian in certain ways. What is particularly striking is she never takes off her mangalsutra," says Rahul.
Bringing up baby (and Papa with it!)
Giving sufficient space to both partners is key, especially with their three-year-old daughter Aria in the picture. "So when I take care of the baby, she goes to dance and yoga classes, while she does the same when I work on my side projects or music," says Rahul. "Our aim now is to plan a date night once in a way after having organised a suitable baby sitter for Aria." While Aria is too young right now for either parent to play 'good cop' or 'bad cop', each day is a learning experience. "The way we bring up kids in India is different. Here, it's not the done thing to shout at your kids or give them a smack, even if you think that would be the most effective way to resolve contentious issues such as bathing time and fussing over meals,"says Rahul. "Sev believes in leading by example, keeping her voice low and reasoning it out with Aria. If she's been naughty or impolite in any way, she has to be explained logically why it's not acceptable." What is especially important to him is that Aria gets to know India, and her roots. "We make it a point to come to Pune every year. She shares a great bond with her grandparents and misses them terribly. It's also encouraging that she enjoys the sights and smells of the city, the idlis at Hotel Vaishali and so on," he says. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 51
PwC CEO Survey
The CEO Conundrum
The CEO is the captain of his ship. As we enter 2017, that ship is entering stormy waters. The world is in the midst of volatile times, and CEOs are in the crosshairs. They must convert challenges into opportunities, and to do that, they must have a clear understanding of the current problems facing the business world. PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) has undertaken their 20th Global CEO survey by interviewing over 1,379 CEOs across 79 countries, to understand the conundrums faced by global CEOS. Corporate Citizen brings you the results.
R
apid globalisation, rapid urbanisation and constantly evolving technology are some of the major trends the world is seeing. One the one hand, connectivity has brought the world closer than ever before. On the other, the world is becoming increasingly polarised and has been developing a protectionist mindset. This mix has made it extremely challenging for global CEOs to steer the helm of their respective organisations. One of the primary aims of globalisation was to connect the world and facilitate equal opportunities for all, but so far the rich have become richer and the poor have become even poorer. Globalisation has failed to bridge the gap between the richest parts of the world and the poorest. One of the aims of globalisation was to remove barriers of trade across the world. However, recently the world has started displaying a nationalistic mindset, which has created international and regional barriers to trade. The idea of a single global market is under threat. Social media is a very powerful tool. Its benefits to both organisations and customers cannot be understated. However, social media has led to lower customer loyalty, as customers have become more fickle. This is a challenge CEOs need to address in the near future. Let us look at each of these points in detail.
52 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017 52 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
Methodology PwC interviewed over 1,379 CEOs in over 79 countries to compile the survey, 44% of them feel globalisation has not bridged the gap between the haves and have not’s, and over 69% feel that customers are not as trusting towards brands in the digital age with so many options available to them.
Western Europe
North America
294 interviews (21%)
152 interviews (11%)
Latin America
163 interviews (12%)
Middle East and Africa
130 interviews (9%)
Central and Eastern Europe
147 interviews (11%)
Asia Pacific
493 interviews (36%)
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 53
Global Cities Survey
The world we live in today
Figure 1: What’s thethe coming CEOs feel that theworld world is moving towardsto? ato? protectionist mindset (as can be attested by global incidents like Brexit and Figure 1: What’s world coming the 2016 American election), as opposed to the ideal open and free trade outlook. Regional trading barriers are
increasing and thethe world is becoming increasingly fragmented. Q: For alternative, select thethe one you believe is moretowards towards Q:each For each alternative, select one you believe theworld world is moving moving more
For each alternative, select the one you believe the world is moving more towards
Political unions Political unions
Nationalism and and Nationalism devolved nations devolved nations
39% 53% 53% 39%
Economic unions and unified
Economic unions and unified economic models economic models Single global marketplace
35% 59%
35% 59%
Multiple economic Multiple economic models
22% 75%
Regional trading blocs
15% 81%
Multiple rules of law andMultiple libertiesrules of law
14% 83%
Multiple beliefs and value systems Multiple beliefs and
72% 25%
Fragmented access to the internet access Fragmented
models
22% 75%
Single global marketplace
Single global rule of law
Single global ruleand of law liberties and liberties
Regional trading blocs
15% 81%
Common global beliefs value systems Common and global beliefs
and liberties
14% 83%
and value systems
Free and open access to the internet Free and open access to
value systems
72% 25%
the internet
to the internet
Regional investment banks
15% 79%
A global world bank
Regional investment banks
15% 79%
A global world bank Source: PwC, 19th Annual Global CEO Survey. Base: All respondents (1,409)
Source: PwC, 19th Annual Global CEO Survey. Base: All respondents (1,409)
World trade is now growing more slowly than world GDP
Between 1980 and 2007, global trade grew much faster than global GDP; since then it’s been lagging for the first time in many years. After 2007, globalisation is no longer driving growth to the degree it once did. Trade agreements could be most seriously affected going forward. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signed in February 2016, has been widely opposed by Donald Trump. In fact, one of his campaign promises was to pull out of trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) once he got elected. in India, the entry of global players like Walmart has been sections of the government. FigureEven 2: World trade is now growing more slowly thanopposed worldbyGDP
% per annum increase in volume of world GDP and goods and services trade
8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% 0% 1981-90
1991-2000
2001-07
Sources: IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2016: PwC analysis
54 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
2008-11
2012-15 ■ World GDP ■ World trade
CEOs are looking at a mix of countries for growth
The flipside of connectivity
If global trade is slowing down, where are CEOs currently looking for opportunities to expand? 33% feel that China is on a downward swing in 2017, falling from 39% in 2011. The US on the other hand, has risen in the eyes of CEO’s to 43% in 2017 from 21% in 2011. India, however, has fallen slightly from 18% in 2011 to 7% in 2017.
Q: Which three countries, excluding the one in which you are based, do you consider most important for your organisation’s overall growth prospects over the next 12 months?
2011
2017
39%
43%
China
US
21%
33%
US
China
19%
A sizeable number of CEOs are firmly convinced that, in an increasingly digitalised world, it’s harder for businesses to gain – and retain – people’s trust. While, 87% of CEOs believe social media could have a negative impact on the level of stakeholder trust in their industry over the next five years. And, 56% of CEOs feel that it is important to have a strong corporate purpose in order to gain their customers trust.
17%
Brazil
Germany
18%
15%
India
UK
■ Agree ■ Agree strongly ■ Agree ■ Agree strongly
36%
56%
It’s more important to have a strong corporate purpose, that’s reflected in our values, culture and behaviours
12%
8% Japan
Germany
10% Russia
7% India
7% UK
7% Brazil
6% Mexico ■ Agree ■ Agree strongly 5% France 4% Argentina
6% Mexico 5% France 4% Argentina
Source: PwC, 14th Annual Global CEO Survey and 20th CEO Survey. Base: All respondents (2017=1,379; 2011=1,201)
52%
33%
It’s more important to run our business in a way that accounts for wider stakeholder expectations
46%
22%
It’s harder for business to gain and keep trust
40%
24%
How we manage people’s data will differentiate us
CEOs recognise both the benefits and downsides of globalisation For the past 20 years CEOs have been largely positive about the impacts of globalisation on their businesses and markets. But, by 2007, they were beginning to express reservations about the short-term effects on society. CEOs are still ambivalent. Today the vast majority believe that globalisation has Figure14: 14:CEOs CEOs recognise boththe the benefits anddownsides downsides globalisation Figure recognise both benefits and ofofglobalisation helped to free up flows of money, people, goods and information, facilitate universal connectivity and create a skilled workforce. Yet a significant number Q: To what extent has globalisation helped with the following areas? Q: To what extent helped with the following areas? change, promote the development of fairer tax systems or close the gap between rich and poor. sayhasit’sglobalisation done nothing to mitigate climate Q: To what extent has globalisation helped with the following areas? %%
-3
Improving the ease of moving capital, people, goods and information Improving the ease of moving capital, people, goods and information
-4
Enabling universal connectivity Enabling universal connectivity
-3 -4 -8
-8
-10 -10 -20 -20 -28 -28 -35 -35 -44 -44 ■ Not at all ■ To some extent ■ To a large extent ■ Not at all ■ To some extent ■ To a large extent
60 60
35 35
62 62
33 33
Creating a skilled and educated labour force Creating a skilled and educated labour force
53 53
37 37
Facilitating universal access to infrastructure and basic services Facilitating universal access to infrastructure and basic services
54 54
34 34
Closing the gap between rich and poor Closing the gap between rich and poor
15 15
49 49
Averting climate change and resource scarcity Averting climate change and resource scarcity Enhancing the fairness and integrity of global tax systems Enhancing the fairness and integrity of global tax systems
21 21
55 55
Providing full and meaningful employment Providing full and meaningful employment
45 45 38 38
%%
14 14 13 13
neeraj.varty07@gmail.com March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 55
Health
Foods to
avoid with
diabetes Diabetes is a chronic disease that has reached epidemic proportions among adults and children worldwide. Uncontrolled diabetes has many serious consequences, including heart disease, kidney disease, blindness and other complications. This issue, Corporate Citizen lists 11 foods that people with diabetes or prediabetes should avoid 56 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
1
Sugar Sweetened Beverages
Sugary beverages are the worst drink choice for someone with diabetes. To begin with, they are very high in carbs, with a 12-ounce (354-ml) can of soda providing 38 grams. The same amount of sweetened iced tea and lemonade each contain 36 grams of carbs, exclusively from sugar. In addition, they’re loaded with fructose, which is strongly linked to insulin resistance and diabetes. Indeed, studies suggest that consuming sugar sweetened beverages may increase the risk of diabetes-related conditions like fatty liver. To help control blood sugar levels and prevent disease risk, consume water, club soda or unsweetened iced tea instead of sugary beverages.
Trans Fats
2
Industrial trans fats are extremely unhealthy. They are created by adding hydrogen to unsaturated fatty acids in order to make them more stable. Trans fats are found in margarines, peanut butter, spreads, creamers and frozen dinners. In addition, food manufacturers often add them to crackers, muffins and other baked goods to help extend shelf life.
Fruit Juice
Although fruit juice is often considered a healthy beverage, its effects on blood sugar are actually similar to those of sodas and other sugary drinks. This goes for unsweetened 100% fruit juice, as well as types that contain added sugar. In some cases, fruit juice is even higher in sugar and carbs than soda. Like sugarsweetened beverages, fruit juice is loaded with fructose, the type of sugar that drives insulin resistance, obesity and heart disease. A much better alternative is to enjoy water
with a wedge of lemon, which provides less than 1 gram of carbs and is virtually calorie free.
4
Sweetened Breakfast Cereals
Eating cereal is one of the worst ways to start your day if you have diabetes. Despite the health claims on their boxes, most cereals are highly processed and contain far more carbs than many people realize. In addition, they provide very little protein, a nutrient that can help you feel full and satisfied while keeping your blood sugar levels stable during the day. Even “healthy” breakfast cereals aren’t good choices for those with diabetes.
5
Flavored Coffee Drinks
Coffee has been linked to several health benefits, including a reduced risk of diabetes. However, flavored coffee drinks should be viewed as a liquid dessert, rather than a healthy beverage. Studies have shown your brain doesn’t process liquid and solid foods similarly. When you drink calories, you don’t compensate by eating less later, potentially leading to weight gain. Flavored coffee drinks are also loaded with carbs. Even “light” versions contain enough carbs to significantly raise your blood sugar levels.
6
Packaged Snack Foods
Pretzels, crackers and other packaged foods aren’t good snack choices. They’re typically made with refined flour and provide few nutrients, although they have plenty of fast-digesting carbs that can rapidly raise blood sugar. In fact, some of these foods may contain even more carbs than stated on their nutrition label. One study found that snack foods provide 7.7% more carbs, on average, than the label states.
7
Fruit Flavoured Yogurt
Plain yogurt can be a good option for people with diabetes. However, fruit flavoured varieties are a very different story. Flavoured yogurts are typically made from non-fat or low-fat milk and loaded with carbs and sugar. In fact, a one-cup (245-gram) serving of fruit-flavored yogurt may contain 47 grams of sugar, meaning nearly 81% of its calories come from sugar.
blood sugar levels in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. And this response isn’t exclusive to wheat products. In one study, gluten-free pastas were also shown to raise blood sugar, with rice-based types having the greatest effect .
Dried Fruit
Fruit is a great source of several important vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C and potassium. When fruit is dried, the process results in a loss of water that leads to even higher concentrations of these nutrients. Unfortunately, its sugar content becomes more concentrated as well. One cup of grapes contains 27 grams of carbs, including 1 gram of fiber. By contrast, one cup of raisins contains 115 grams of carbs, 5 of which come from fiber.
9
Honey, Agave Nectar and Maple Syrup
People with diabetes often try to minimise their intake of white table sugar, as well as treats like candy, cookies and pie. However, other forms of sugar can also cause blood sugar spikes. These include brown sugar and “natural” sugars like honey, agave nectar and maple syrup.
10
White Bread, Pasta and Rice
White bread, rice and pasta are high-carb, processed foods. Eating bread, bagels and other refined-flour foods has been shown to significantly increase
French Fries
French fries are a food to steer clear of, especially if you have diabetes. Potatoes themselves are relatively high in carbs. One medium potato with the skin on contains 37 grams of carbs, 4 of which come from fiber. However, once they’ve been peeled and fried in vegetable oil, potatoes may do more than spike your blood sugar. Deep-frying foods has been shown to produce high amounts of toxic compounds like AGEs and aldehydes, which may promote inflammation and increase the risk of disease. Indeed, several studies have linked frequently consuming french fries and other fried foods to heart disease and cancer.
The Bottom Line
Knowing which foods to avoid when you have diabetes can sometimes seem tough. However, following a few guidelines can make it easier. Your main goals should include staying away from unhealthy fats, liquid sugars, processed grains and other foods that contain refined carbs. Avoiding foods that increase your blood sugar levels and drive insulin resistance can help keep you healthy now and reduce your risk of future diabetes complications. authoritynutrition.com
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 57
Pearls of Wisdom
By Swami Chaitanya Keerti
The Spiritual
friendship
Making friends with the idea of using people is taking a wrong step from the very beginning. Friendship has to be a sharing. If you have something, share it—and whosoever is ready to share with you is a friend
58 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
E
very year on 5 August, people celebrate World Friendship Day. Friends are encouraged to express their beautiful feelings of friendship through messages on mobile phones and on electronic mail. Individually I can find that my life is full of friends and I feel really, really rich. It is beautiful to feel that you have friends in the world. This feeling must be nourished and nurtured in every possible way. The world media can do this very effectively if it highlights such news more than the bad news that vitiates our life. We are already being burdened by enormous madness and misery created by the politicians in the world! There are storms and storms of greed, lust, anger, violence, torture and terrorism. It is becoming very difficult to protect a small burning lamp of friendship and love in such storms. Gautama the Buddha had declared that he would come to the world again as a Friend after 25 centuries; perhaps he could foresee what was going to be needed today. Osho created
his commune of brotherhood of the citizens of the whole world called commune — a meeting place for friends. He declared himself a Kalyanmitra — a Benevolent Friend. We— his disciples, lovers and friends — must remember this and keep reminding each other. We must protect this tiny lamp of love. This should be our prime concern and meditation. Our life is worth living only when it is throbbing and pulsating in the cool breeze of friendship. Be welcoming and grateful to it but first, one needs to learn the art of being friendly to oneself. You cannot be friendly to others if you are not friendly to yourself first. In the Dhammapada, the Way of the Buddha, Osho makes a clear statement and gives a perspective about friendship and love: 'Making friends with the idea of using people is taking a wrong step from the very beginning. Friendship has to be a sharing. If you have something, share it—and whosoever is ready to share with you is a friend. It is not a question of need. It is not a question that when you are in danger a friend
‘What we call love is more animalistic than human. Friendship is absolutely human. It has something for which there is no in-built mechanism in your biology; it is nonbiological’
has to come to your aid. That is irrelevant—he may come, he may not come, but if he doesn't come, it is perfectly okay. It is his decision to come or not to come. You don't want to manipulate him; you don't want to make him feel guilty. You will not have any grudge. You will not say to him, "When I was in need you didn't turn up—what kind of friend are you?"’ Friendship is not something of the marketplace. Friendship is one of those rare things, which belong to the temple and not to the shop. But you are not aware of that kind of friendship; you will have to learn it. Friendship is great art. Love has natural instincts behind it. Friendship has no natural instincts behind it. Friendship is something conscious; love is unconscious. What we call love is more animalistic than human. Friendship is absolutely human. It has something for which there is no in-built mechanism in your biology; it is non-biological. Hence, one rises in friendship; one does not fall in friendship. It has a spiritual dimension. There is no need to think for the whole future. Think in terms of the moment and present. Live in the present. If this moment is full of friendship and the fragrance of friendship, why be worried about the next moment. It is bound to be of higher, deeper quality. It will bring the same fragrance to the higher altitude. There is no need to think about it – just live the moment in deep friendship. Friendship need not to be addressed to anyone in particular; that is also a rotten idea – that you have to be friends with certain person. Just to be friendly. Rather than creating friendship, create friendliness. Let it become a quality of your being, a climate that surrounds you, so you are friendly with whomsoever you come in contact. This whole existence has to be befriended! And if you can befriend existence, existence will befriend you a thousand fold. It returns to you in the same coin, but multiplied. It echoes you that my world was full of friendship and really rich.
CC
tadka
India’s job and business problems Of our 6.3 crore enterprises, 2.4 crore don’t have an office or work from home, only 85 lakh have any tax registration, only 12 lakh pay the mandatory social security, and only 18,000 companies have a paid-up capital of more than `10 crore. (Source: The Indian Express)
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 59
Bollywood Biz
The Best Bollywood
Movies on Politics Most of India is in the midst of election season, and it’s a time when even the most politically disinclined people take an interest in the subject. If you can’t have enough of politics and also have a taste for cinema, then you have come to the right place. This edition, Corporate Citizen presents the best political dramas in Bollywood By Neeraj Varty
Raajneeti Director Prakash Jha has made a career out of politically themed movies, and Raajneeti is one of the best examples of that. This political drama is a modern telling of the Mahabharata in the context of two rival political families in the Indian hinterland and their murky rise to the top. Starring Ranbir Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgan, Katrina Kaif and Manoj Bajpai, Rajneeti has a stellar ensemble cast and a gripping narrative which will entertain as well as enthrall you.
60 60 // Corporate Corporate Citizen Citizen // March March 16-31, 16-31, 2017 2017
Peepli Live Farmers’ suicide is one of the major tragedies in India. Peepli Live manages to tackle this complex subject matter artfully in a stinging comic satire. The movie shows the sad state of affairs where farmer suicides are used as a political tool by political parties to get elected, or by opposition parties to challenge the government. The movie manages to convey this mass oppression of farmers in an insightful manner. Watch it for the realistic performances of the relatively unknown but immensely talented cast.
Nayak
Yuva
Anil Kapoor stars in this commercial take on changing the system. Even though it had some farfetched ideas as to how to remove corruption from politics, it was a feel good movie and got a great reception from the audience. Amrish Puri was his villainous best as the corrupt Chief Minister of the state who is thrown off by zealous journalist Anil Kapoor using radical thinking and an unconventional way of handling things.
Made both in Hindi and Tamil, ‘Yuva’ was a great coming of age story with a unique story telling style. Made by legendary filmmaker Mani Ratnam, it demonstrated the need for the cleansing of the muck in Indian politics and need of youth participation in politics. It was an example of how student politics can play a positive role in democracy and how its influence can trigger a much needed change in the system.
These movies are available on Hotstar for free, or can be watched on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
March March 16-31, 16-31, 2017 2017 // Corporate Corporate Citizen Citizen // 61 61
Mobile apps
Blurb is an online application that is used to create and design books. Different types of books can be created including cookbooks, books about places, family and much more. The books are designed and printed with professional-looking formats and bookstore quality. The output can be ordered and printed as desired. Blurb is a fun way to be creative and get your book published hassle free.
Unbound provides authors and readers with a way to make ideas into actual books. The author can create a page to pitch their books idea. Unbound users can browse book pitches to find those that they might be interested in reading. When a user discovers a pitch they like, they can choose to support it. By providing a small donation to financially back the idea, the user can contribute to the book's creation. If enough users contribute to an author’s pitch, then the author commences writing the book. Those who donate are given rewards based on how much they donated. These could be anything from a digital copy of the finished book to a real signed copy, their name in the book or lunch with the author. The user can also monitor progress through the app
The Best Self-Publishing Apps Writing a book is a dream for many people, but they rarely follow upon it as they think publishing their work might be too expensive and time consuming. That may have been true in the past, but with the help of certain apps, writing and publishing your own book can be a walk in the park. This issue, Corporate Citizen presents the best free self-publishing apps for the budding author in you By Neeraj Varty
Lulu lets you publish and sell your books to anyone anywhere in the world. It’s also possible for you to use the website to connect with people with similar interests as yourself. Publishing your own book is very easy and simply involves uploading your text and artwork. You can
62 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
then choose a number of different things, including different types of binding and also customize the cover art work. If you don’t want to write your own book then you might still be interested in creating a photo book of all of your favourite photos. If you want to sell it on other sites and in bookstores then you will need an ISBN number, if you just want to sell the book on Lulu then you don’t need to get one.
LucidPress is a design and layout application that allows users to build and print digital documents. Less time is required to create a functional layout in a number of formats, including flyers, newsletters, brochures, magazines and photo books. Hundreds of fonts are made available
or the user can upload their own. Content is made accessible with the ability to import from Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, Google Docs and Google Images. Users can also drop a YouTube video into their layout. Print export options include PDF, JPG and PNG. LucidPress expands its ability by incorporating collaboration and social tools. Multiple users can work on a document and communicate through chat. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com
Corporate Grin
What figure of speech is Virtual Reality ? Let’s take a happy break smile, grin, laugh and think too!
One interesting word in English. OXYMORON What is an Oxymoron? An Oxymoron is defined as a phrase in which two words of opposite meanings are brought together.... Here are some funny Oxymorons : 1) Clearly Misunderstood 2) Exact Estimate 3) Small Crowd 4) Act Naturally 5) Found Missing 6) Fully Empty 7) Pretty Ugly 8) Seriously Funny 9) Only Choice 10) Original Copies 11) Open Secret 12) Tragic Comedy 13) Foolish Wisdom 14) Liquid Gas Mother of all Oxymorons is15) “Happily Married”
Lessons from Wall of China
When the ancient Chinese decided to live in peace, they made the Great Wall of China. They thought no one could climb it due to its height. During the first 100 years of its existence, the Chinese were invaded thrice. And every time, the hordes of enemy infantry had no need of penetrating or climbing over the wall... because each time they bribed the guards and came through the doors. The Chinese built the wall but forgot the character-building of the wall-guards. Thus, the building of human character comes BEFORE building of anything else... That's what our students need today. Like one Orientalist said: If you want to destroy the civilisation of a nation there are 3 ways: 1. Destroy family structure 2. Destroy education 3. Lower their role models and references
Such a Sweet Message
Baby mosquito came back after its first flying experience... His dad asked him, "How did U feel ?" He replied "It was wonderful daddy... All humans clapped hands for me!" Moral: Life is too Beautiful, it depends on our "way of thinking"... Negative people find problem / faults in everything and positive people have solution to every problem.
Below are letters that some children have written to God as a part of a class assignment. Dear God, • “I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday. That was cool.” • “Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you keep the ones you have already made" • “If you watch me in church on Sunday, I’ll show you my new shoes.” • “I bet it is very hard to love everyone in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I’m having a hard time loving all of them.” • “In school they told us what you do. Who does it when you are on vacation?” • “Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?” • “Who draws the lines around the countries?” • “Thank you for the baby brother, but I think you got confused because what I prayed for was a puppy.” • “I want to be just like my daddy when I get big, but not with so much hair all over.” • “I think about you sometimes, even when I’m not praying.” • “We read Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday school they said you did it. So, I bet he stole your idea.” • “Please send a new baby for Mommy. The baby you sent last week cries too much.” • “Could you please give my brother some brains? So far he doesn’t have any.” • “Thank you for the nice day today. You even fooled the TV weather man.” • “Please help me in school. I need help in spelling, adding, history, geography, and writing. I don’t need help in anything else. March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 63
astroturf 18th. This is the case until the 20th of course earnings will happen but they come in with much effort and hard work.
Aries
Mar 21- April 20 When Venus goes, retrograde or slows down, you just need to be careful and not take any important or impulsive decisions. Do not sit judgmental or be opinionated of loved ones. An introspection can refine matters. With 80 percent of planets moving forward this should be a profitable month for you from your respective birth dates onwards. So, if you are planning to start new projects or wanting to launch new products now is the time to do so.
TAURUS
April 21 - May 20 You may feel a lack of direction, though it needs to be noted that this will occurr during a period of strong independence and personal power. You do have the energy and power to have things your way, but the only problem you are not aware “what is your way”. Mars moves into your sign on the 10th and this makes you more independent than ever.
GEMINI
May 21 - June 21 The planetary power now moves towards you increasing your personal independence and power. Take responsibility of your own happiness and create the world the way you want to. When the Sun enters Aries on the 20th of March you will experience an added benefit of powerfully kick starting your own energy. . This is a good period especially from the 28th onwards to starting new projects or business as 80 percent of the planets are moving ahead.
CANCER
Jun 22 - July 23 There is not much you can do on the home front right now
CAPRICORN
(www.dollymanghat.com)
Fortune favours the bold and the lucky
Your attitude is your altitude, says Dolly Manghat, our renowned Astrological expert and believes she helps people create their own prophecies rather than live predictions as the Planet Venus goes into retrograde motion on the 4th and Jupiter the current occupant of your 4th house went backward from the 6th of February. Family dilemmas will be sorted in their own sweet time. Focus on career for that is where you will be successful now. Health remains reasonable until the 20th after which attention is required.
LEO
July 24 - Aug 23 Focusing on professional or career matters will be more beneficial and paying. You could bond with your family by spending quality time with them whenever you can be indulging in common sports while the rest of the time can be spent by succeeding in your career and being a good provider. Health also gets better after the 20th.
VIRGO
Aug 24 - Sept 23 On the 1st and 2nd the Sun travels with your love planet Neptune. So romantic opportunities can be found at your work place too. This brings in happy networking in your social circles too. Health needs to be monitored until the 20th and you will see great improvements in the health and energy sphere.
64 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
LIBRA
Sept 24 - Oct 22 Even though the home and family or personal life continues to be important you have to balance it out with your professional life as you also need to give more focus and attention to your career. Your drive to excel will be evident from the 1st to 12th and from the 28th onwards.
SCORPIO
Oct 23 - Nov 22 Cultivate your networking and social skills. How well you get along with others is what matters the most. This should be a happy period but in case you feel this is not the case then you could make your changes after five months when planets start moving back to the eastern sector. side effect.
SAGITTARIUS
Nov 23 - Dec 22 Health needs to monitored until the 20th, the most important thing is to get enough rest. Exercise is also good – as vigorous as you can handle. It’s very important to keep good muscle tone. Finances have been more stressful since February
Dec 23 - Jan 20 On the 20th the Sun enters your 4th house of home and family life and you enter the midnight hour of your year. The focus should be on internal activities, on getting the home and family life in order, on healing your past of your old traumas. Those of you involved in psychological therapy should make good progress now.
AQUARIUS
Jan 21 - Feb19 Your spouse or partner or current love is financially supportive and very active in your finances. Partnerships and joint ventures are likely especially on the 1st or 2nd. Investors will see increases in dividends or other investment income this month. Mercury in the money house until the 13th shows happiness in speculations as financially you are favoured. .
PISCES
Feb 20 - Mar 20 The Sun’s entry in your sign last month also brought and is still bringing in happy job opportunities for job seekers. The beauty of this is that you need not make much efforts, things will just happen for your benefit. You can accept and reject whatever you want at will. The love planet mercury is still in your sign until the 13th. Health remains good though you can enhance it further through proper diet. 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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CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP
PROF. SUDHIR K SOPORY, VICE CHANCELLOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU) Volume 1, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
January 1-15, 2016 / `50
CORPORATE CULTURE
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity
INTERVIEW
An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power
Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR
UNFLINCHING SUPPORT
March 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 65
the last word
Ganesh Natarajan
Doing good, bit by bit!
Managing over four hundred million rupees of corporate investment in the social sector, directly impacting nearly 1.5 lakh underprivileged in the country and partnering global leaders in the social space like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NASSCOM Foundation is an idea whose time has come
T
he buzz these days is always about Donald Trump, the potential impact of protectionism on export oriented-economies like India, China and Mexico and of course the continuing sluggishness of the Indian economy. The recent NASSCOM Leadership summit also saw many discussions on the future of technology and its impact on jobs and economic growth. Amidst all this, it was heartening to have NASSCOM Foundation (NF) and the NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum (NSIF) share the spotlight with industry outlook discussions in the opening hour of the three day conference. The willingness to do this is itself an endorsement of the inclusive and collaborative nature of the IT and Business Process Industry in the country and its single voice NASSCOM. And for good reason — NASSCOM Foundation has grown in scale and scope from a small adjunct of the industry managing a few collaborative projects to a full-fledged program manager of some of the most significant initiatives in the “Tech for Good” space of the social sector. Managing over four hundred million rupees of corporate investment in the social sector, directly impacting nearly 1.5 lakh underprivileged in the country and partnering global leaders in the social space like the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, NF is an idea whose time has come, thanks to the genuine interest of a world class industry to do great work locally in the countries in which we operate! A few data points will serve to highlight the excellent work being done across multiple tracks. The flagship program – National Digital Literacy Mission of the Government which NF is implementing across multiple Indian cities has scaled to 160 centres and other interesting interaction points like refitted municipal schools, buses and even shipping containers parked in school yards. The related agenda of skills has also received support from corporations not just in the IT and BPM sector but also national and global majors in Financial Services who see NASSCOM Foundation and its network of NGOs and social enterprise implementation partners as worthy participants in their own mission to skill India. Over 80,000 youth from the under-privileged segments of society and Tier 3 and 4 locations in the country have participated in these programs and efforts are underway to build and deploy digital platforms for community building, mentoring and ongoing future skills and opportunities for all participants. Beyond these ambitious programs that affect the lives of individuals all over the country, the Indian Public Libraries Movement
66 / Corporate Citizen / March 16-31, 2017
which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by NF has got off to a robust beginning in its first year, with 106 libraries in 25 states touched and opportunities being explored to restore the public libraries that many of us who grew up in small towns in India regarded as a primary fountainhead of knowledge. The Big Bridge program for software donations to NGOs has enabled over 75 crores of software donations and the Big Tech program which accepts computer hardware from corporations, refurbishes them and makes them available to NGOs has not only ensured minimization of e-waste but also benefited over 4500 NGOs over the last five years and more. NF and NASSCOM over the years have also done a great job in recognizing individuals, NGOs and corporations. An ambitious program called “Mobile for Good” launched in partnership with the Vodafone Foundation attracted 550 applications this year and over 1.4 crores grants were disbursed. And
NASSCOM Foundation has grown in scale and scope from a small adjunct of the industry managing a few collaborative projects to a fullfledged program manager of some of the most significant initiatives
NF’s own NSIF initiative, where over 500 applications have been received, 23 worthy NGOs recognized and in some cases provided both cash awards and mentoring has grown in popularity and relevance and is today seen as a prestigious milestone in the journey of any social enterprise seeking to deploy “Tech for Good” in the country. With all the seeding that has been done by NF, Social Venture Partners, Dasra, Samhita, NES and so many other active and well managed initiatives in the country, there are opportunities for cities and states to truly leverage the strategic thinking and implementation capabilities of willing corporate led initiatives and build virtuous partnerships for social good. An exemplar in this area is Pune City Connect, led by IIMA graduate Ruchi Mathur. Ruchi and her team have brought many years of corporate and social sector experience to bear to enable five tracks – Digital Literacy, Municipal School Education, Swacch, Citizen Engagement and Skills Lighthouses, to do great work for the city. The success of Pune City Connect can be attributed to three elements – the active support of the corporate sector, an excellent partnership with the Pune Municipal Corporation under the admirable leadership of Commissioner Kunal Kumar and Assistant Commissioner Ganesh Sonune and last but not the least the willing support lent by many NGOs . Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect & Social Venture Partners, Pune.
Printed and published by Suresh Chandra Padhy on behalf of Sri Balaji Society. Editor: Suresh Chandra Padhy. Published from : 925/5, Mujumdar Apt, F.C. Road, Pune - 411004, Maharashtra. Printed at Magna Graphics (I) Ltd., 101-C&D Govt. Industrial Estate, Hindustan Naka, Kandivali (W), Mumbai - 400067.