Volume3 issue 12 corporate citizen

EDUCATION STALWART Dr Govind rao, Professor, University of Maryland, USA Volume 3, Issue No. 12 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

September 1-15, 2017 / `50

Dynamic Duo: 57

The Kashmir Kiss(a) Civil Services Officers, Dr Bilal Bhat from strifetorn Kashmir and his wife Rehmat Bhat on their exemplary journey

CAREER FEST 2017

Careers in IT

Corporate Stalwart

Loved & Married Too

Rugwed Deshpande, Director, Setu Advertising, and his entrepreneur wife Shilpa on their journey together

Interview with Dr Aquil Busrai, mentor for senior leaders and HR teams SURVEY

Fraud assessment survey by multinational professional services firm EY

2 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 67

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feedback

Wonderful story on Patanjali Brand

The article “I am Pantanjali’s Unpaid Brand Ambassador” in the issue dated July 1-15 has elaborate content on Patanjali’s venture into various product categories like Ayurvedic medicines, FMCG, Clothing (Jeans) and so on. Also, the article has given details of future dream projects of Baba Ramdev like “Vishwa Vidyalay”-worlds largest university, which would be set up through the profits made

by Patanjali. The article has greatly elaborated about Pantanjali’s philosophy of doing business, which focuses on natural and herbal products for better quality life at lesser price. I definitely look forward more such articles in future editions of Corporate Citizen.

—Prof Suvarna Hiremath, Hubli

Academic Autonomy will take SRCC to world platform

I read the interview of Dr Rustagi, Principal, Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in the issue dated May 16-31. With an experience of 30+ years and also being a Principal of an engineering college, I may be deemed to be in a position to comment on this interview.

1. Dr Rustagi’s views on Autonomy are reflection of his poor subject knowledge. Being from a Government College he is apprehensive of full (Academics and Financial) autonomy.

As of now, no government college is awarded financial autonomy.

2. If he is keen to take SRCC to world platform then there is no option for Academic Autonomy.

3. In Academic Autonomy, one can devise, run any degree course with a concurrence of Delhi University, which is a simple formality.

4. He needs to display courage and apply for academic autonomy.

I am writing with my previous experience with a Government Autonomous institution.

Only cause of concern is its implementation.

Post autonomy, a lot of tasks are to be done in-house, which needs highly dedicated and motivated faculty, who will not compromise on integrity.

—Sunil Deshpande, Pune

A whiff of fresh air

Though I’m a relatively new reader of Corporate Citizen, I’m already a fan of most of your columns including Cradle of Leadership, The Last Word, The Tax Man Cometh, Dynamic Duo, Military to Management and Loved and Married Too, to name a few. The best thing about your magazine is that even though it is a business magazine, it gives you the feeling of a family magazine, which offers lots of interest-

Rahul Gandhi can’t be called an alumni of Doon School This is with reference to an article by Pradeep Mathur, on the Doon School in the issue dated May 16-31, 2017.

I would like to point out that Rahul Gandhi is not an alumni of the Doon School. He has completed only one year and a few months and then left. That does not make him an old boy or an Alumni however much he may want to be known as and also his hanger ons would like him to be known as.

To be an old boy, one must complete a minimum of 3+ years at the Doon School, which Rahul Gandhi has not completed. He may be known as having attended the Doon School for a brief period. But that is it.

—Dhruv Jolly , 598TB, batch of 88 ing corporate interviews and insights. Tadkas also add spicy tidbits to the taste. At a time when print media is losing its sheen, Corporate Citizen has brought a whiff of fresh air by its brand of positive journalistic content in India’s business journalism.

—Saumya Ghosh, IIM Ahmedabad

Interesting selection of interviews

magazines not only for the best quality of paper and the cover page, but even for the excellent content. Collywood, Wax Eloquent and Survey give the inside view of what is happening in corporate world. Cover stories make a good reading and the selections of Dynamic Duos are outstanding. Keep up the good work.

— Gopal Krishnan, Pune

Corporate Citizen is a unique magazine in many ways. This is the first magazine, which has opened new doors in the corporate world.

I happen to read the magazine, and found untold stories in the interviews of top corporates. The simple language makes CC different from the others. Hats off to the people in the editorial team who are behind this fortnightly.

Pearls of Wisdom is very inspiring. In the last issue ‘Let’s not Rob Our Own Country’ was a good read. Keep up the good work and wish you all the best!

—Desmond Pereira, Pune

We look forward to your feedback

Interesting inside view

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Corporate Citizen stands out from the other

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 new thoughts you may have, to enhance the content quality of our magazine, are 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:

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 3

Editor-in-Chief’s Choice / Pranab Mukherjee

Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian

What should the Universities of the Future look like?

I

ndia has a long history of higher education. Some of the oldest institutions of higher learning such as Nalanda, Vikramshila (in India), and Taxila (now in Pakistan), etc. dating back to the 5th century BC, were located within the Indian subcontinent.

These seats of higher learning attracted teachers, researchers and students from across the world. They produced mighty minds that shaped the politics, arts, culture, science and economics for over a millennium.

The higher education system we inherited was designed and established by the British colonial masters.

Though designed for providing lower level civil servants, this system ironically opened the way for producing many highly educated professionals and even noted

4 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

scholars, who made ground-breaking scientific discoveries and went on to become even Nobel laureates.

However, the needs of our contemporary times are very different from the aims and objectives of the colonial rulers that established the modern Indian higher education system. Our needs today are much more complex. Along with the post-independence emphasis on Nation-building through institution-building, we are now increasingly called upon to think about the role of Universities in the larger global context of an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. The Universities of today are being called upon to compete globally for research-ranking to help build ‘World-Class Universities’.

Higher education systems around the world are going through a massive overhaul. What should the Universities of the Future look like? What should be the curriculum of the Universities of the future? What should be the pedagogy of the Universities of the future? What kind of graduates these Universities should produce? These are questions troubling many academics and world leaders.

It is indeed my pleasure to receive the first copy of the book-The Future of Indian Universities: Comparative and International Perspectives edited by Professor Raj Kumar, founding Vice Chancellor of O P Jindal Global University and published by Oxford University Press, India. Today we have assembled here for the release of this book by a Nobel Laureate economist and philosopher, who was born in the land of the first futuristic global-minded University of modern India, i.e., Shantiniketan, the campus of Rabindranath Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. Most of his early education also took place in Patha Bhavan School set up

by Tagore in Shantinikentan, where many progressive pedagogic ideas were put into practice.

The curriculum and pedagogy in the school was not exam-oriented. Students enjoyed freedom to explore their inner creativity. Their natural curiosity to learn and explore their environment was encouraged. The school also stressed cultural diversity and embraced influences from the rest of the world. These ideals of education were also embedded in conceptualising Viswa-Bharati University, as is evident from the following quote of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore, elucidated in his ‘Ideal of Education:“University is there to offer us opportunity for working together in a common pursuit of truth, sharing together our common intellectual heritage, to enable us to realise that artists in all parts of the world have created forms of beauty, scientists discovered secrets of the material universe, philosophers solved the problems of existence, saints made spiritual truths organic in their lives, not merely for some particular race to which they belonged, but for all mankind. When we understand this truth in a disinterested spirit, it teaches us to respect all the differences in man that are real, yet remain conscious of our oneness, and to know that perfection of unity is not in uniformity, but in harmony.”

- Tagore, (“The Ideal of Education", Visva-Bharati News, January 1934, p.5) We would do well to take from reforms by great philosophers and visionaries, such as Tagore, who sought to revive the ancient Buddhist tradition of higher

Let our ‘Universities of the Future’ re-invent our rich past heritage of ‘Kautuhalshala’ (An assembly of inquisitive minds raising questions), hitherto silenced by the pedagogy of rote-memorising for test.

Let our students raise important research questions and break new grounds in scientific discoveries, artistic creativity and philosophical ruminations

learning and research in a ‘common pursuit of truth’ for all mankind. As our ‘Universities of the Future’ gear up for global competition to find their place on the tables of institutional rankings, let us not forget the difference between ‘world-class’ and ‘world-minded’.

Let our ‘Universities of the Future’ re-invent our rich past heritage of ‘Kautuhalshala’ (An assembly of inquisitive minds raising questions), hitherto silenced by the pedagogy of rote-memorising for test. Let our students raise important research questions and break new grounds in scientific discoveries, artistic creativity and philosophical ruminations. Let our “Universities of the Future” help reproduce the next generation of great scientists, philosophers, artists, teachers, doctors, engineers and innovators. In the pursuit of these Kautuhalshalas, let us reinforce the glorious spirit of India where ‘shashtarth’, ‘tark’ and ‘vad vivaad’, – continuous dialectics, led to constant synthesis. Let us produce Argumentative and Pragmatic Indians rather than intolerant and dogmatic citizens.

(Speech by the former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of receiving the first copy of the book ‘the future of indian universities: comparative and international perspectives’. https://www.facebook. com/POI13/posts/1130905667009413) September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Contents 30

Cover story

Dynamic Duo 57

The Kashmir Kiss(a) A detailed interview with Dr Bilal Bhat, a State Forest Officer from strife-torn Kupwara in Kashmir who recently ranked 10th in the All India merit list of UPSC exam, and his wife Rehmat, Assistant Director with the tourism department of the Karnataka government

09 9 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 13 MANAGE MONEY Why employees are assets of an organisation?

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Volume 3 Issue No. 12 September 1-15, 2017 www.corporatecitizen.in

14 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why 16 THE TAX MAN COMETH Preparation and precise planning behind Income Tax search actions 20 CORPORATE STALWART Detailed interview with Dr Aquil Busrai, People Managers at Aquil Busrai Consulting, who works as coach and mentor for senior leaders and HR teams

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26 CAREER FEST 2017 Jatin Meswani, Cloud Leader – Global Business Services ISA, IBM on careers in IT 37 CORPORATE TREND Capt (Retd.) N S Monhanram on importance of humour in corporate life 38 CII CONFERENCE Corporate Citizen brings you the session “Future of jobs in India: Enterprises and Livelihoods” 44 EDUCATION STALWART Dr Govind Rao, Professor, Chemical & Biochemical Engineering and Director of the Centre for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST), University of Maryland, Baltimore County in USA on “Disruptive Innovations to transcend health care challenges”

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48 LOVED AND MARRIED TOO Rugwed Deshpande, Director, Setu Advertising, and his entrepreneur wife Shilpa on their journey together 50 SURVEY Fraud assessment survey by multinational professional services firm EY

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contents

Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinitapune@gmail.com Assistant Editor Prasannakumar Keskar prasanna.keskar@gmail.com

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Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

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Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com Sub-Editor Vineet Kapshikar vineetkapshikar@gmail.com

54 PEARLS OF WISDOM Sri Sri Ravishankar on happiness 56 BOLLYWOOD BIZ Corporate Citizen brings to you the Bollywood Stars who have starred in web based shows

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Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072, circulations@corporatecitizen.in West : Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389

61 MOBILE APPS Apps which gave rise to criticism and concerns

Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com

56

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 / September 1-15, 2017

Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra

58 HEALTH Angad Manchanda, an entrepreneur from the USA on his journey in fitness

66 LAST WORD Hawaii, a place worth visiting at least once-by Ganesh Natarajan

Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur, mathurpradeep1@gmail.com/ Sharmila Chand, chand.sharmila@gmail.com

Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar On Cover Page Rehmat and Dr Bilal Bhat Cover Page Pic by M. Imran 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

collywood

People in the news

Apple sales head Deirdre O’Brien to lead HR

Mukesh Ambani’s race at what cost?

Mukesh Ambani’s race getting past Li Kashing to become Asia’s second-richest man has investors rallying behind his efforts to arm India’s poor with cheap data-loaded phones. Some analysts are beginning to focus on the costs of his ambition. The Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Mukesh Ambani has added $12.1 billion to his wealth this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as shares of his refining-to-telecom company surged.

Spurring the rally on is optimism that a new $23 phone launched last month will expand the market for Ambani’s fourthgeneration mobile network into India’s hinterland. The whistles and applause that greeted the JioPhone obscured the fact that by one measure the company’s debt has climbed to at least a 15-year high. The telecom business, Ambani’s seven-year labour of love, has sucked in more than $31 billion in investments and is yet to earn him and his shareholders any profits. It’s contributed to a near

tripling of the group’s total debt since March 2012 and sparked a vicious price war in the world’s second-largest mobilephone market. About 90% of Reliance’s revenues continues to come from its legacy refining and petrochemicals units, with retail, media and energy exploration contributing the rest. Ambani described Jio as ‘a jewel among Reliance assets’ during the company’s annual general meeting early this year. “Its business and societal value will grow immensely over the next decade,” he said. “Jio will become India’s largest provider of data service, products and application platforms,” he added. Jio took just nine months after launching with a free introductory offer to rope in 117.3 million users and become India’s fourthlargest operator, according to government data compiled by Bloomberg. Optimism about the telecom upstart’s prospects grew after Ambani announced initial pricing for the service in February, sparking an almost 50% surge in Reliance shares.

A veteran of Apple who has put in three decades in the company, Deirdre O’Brien has been appointed Vice President of People. She had joined Apple in 1988. As part of the new role, Deirdre O’Brien will be responsible for handling almost all HR functions at Apple, including talent development, recruitment, benefits, compensation, business support and handling Apple University. She will report to Tim Cook, Apple CEO. Prior to this appointment, she was working as Vice President for the worldwide sales and operations of the company.

She has a huge experience and is well versed with company culture and practices. Commenting on the appointment, Tim Cook said, “As long as I’ve been at Apple, Deirdre has been the glue that bonds our operations, sales, marketing and finance teams to deliver products to our customers.

She is a superb leader and I’m thrilled she will be bringing her experience and talent to this critical role.” O’Brien said she is very excited to lead Apple’s team of 1,20,000 incredibly talented people around the world, who are motivated to do amazing things every day.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 9

collywood Panagariya resigns from NITI Aayog An economist picked by none other than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Vice Chairman of the government’s main policy think-tank NITI Aayog, 64-year-old Arvind Panagariya, stepped down after 30 months in the job and returned to Columbia University, New York. The Indian-born, US educated economist was named by Modi in January 2015 as the first manager of the Policy Commission, which replaced an earlier body responsible for drawing up Soviet-style five-year economic plans. PM Modi sees NITI Aayog as an enabler of his brand of ‘cooperative federalism’, coordinating reforms with India’s 29 states and drafting a new longterm development strategy.

In practice, the commission’s performance has been sketchy, and change incremental. So far, it has only circulated a draft of a proposed three-year ‘Action Agenda’. Panagariya said he expected a successor to be named. A person familiar with the matter said the economist had spoken to Modi, whose agreement on his departure was seen as a formality.

Move out of family-run models, says Bandhan Bank CEO C S Ghosh, Managing Director and CEO of Bandhan Bank has advised the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to select the best Chartered Accountants, saying that this would not add to their cost but is an investment in the long run. “The signature of a reputed CA or CA firm boosts banks’ confidence,” he said. Ghosh, while addressing the CII-organised MSME FinFest in Kolkata, spoke in favour of setting up of reputed and efficient training institutes to recruit cadre comprising ‘simple graduates’ who would be willing to go to the villages. The conference was attended by members of various MSME units, senior government officials and bank executives. His MSME mantra was that these units need to come out of their family managed format and incorporate professional management, transparency and good governance to help them to win any bank’s trust. Once funds are disbursed, MSMEs need to be in touch with their banks as loans might not be an immediate requirement but the long term relationship would ensure goodwill.

The panel also witnessed speakers the like Siva Kumaravel, General Manager, Syndicate Bank who admitted to the problem of easy availability of credit. Ashish Agarwal, Chairman, CII Eastern Region MSME Subcommittee and Executive Director, OriPlast Ltd took up the ‘Rebuild East, Invest in Development’ as the theme of CII Eastern Region for 2017 and strongly felt that “MSMEs will play a vital role towards achieving it.” Indranil Choudhury, Member, CII National Council for MSME and Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Lexplosion Solutions also underscored the need to strengthen the entire support structure by way of mentoring, financing, quality standards, marketing inputs and technology acquisition for MSMEs.

Shikha Sharma gets yet another term as Axis CEO

Axis Bank’s board has approved a fourth three-year term for Shikha Sharma as MD and CEO with effect from June 1, 2018. The board’s move, which comes nearly a year ahead of Sharma’s term coming to a

10 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

close, appears to be aimed at quelling speculation on the future leadership. The bank said that the board had taken the decision subject to compliance with prescribed formalities and receipt of regulatory approval.

There had been speculations about Sharma continuing after reports that the bank had appointed Egon Zhender to identify CEO candidates for the board to consider.

Axis Bank had responded to the news, stating that the

search for candidates was part of a process and it does not preclude Sharma from being reappointed. Sharma has over three decades of experience, a large part of which was with the ICICI group where she began her career. Besides being part of the start up team in ICICI Securities, Sharma was the founding CEO of ICICI Prudential Life, which she led for close to a decade. She was appointed CEO of Axis Bank in 2009.

Prep-camp in New York for Davis Cup team Aamir Khan to the aid of flood hit Assam

The Indian Davis Cup team will get an American connect as they will travel to the indoor courts of the University of Colombia in New York a week before their crucial Group Play-Off tie against Canada in Edmonton, which is scheduled to start from September 15. Incidentally, this is the first time a preparatory camp for the Davis Cup team makes it to a foreign soil, according to skipper Mahesh Bhupathi. “The team will assemble in New York before they leave for Edmonton for the camp,” he said, and went on to add, “I wanted to get the boys together and practice indoors before the tie.” The AITA had approached the Sports Ministry to fund the week-long training camp and provide the financial support. It will be the fourth straight year that India will be in contention for a place in the elite 16-nation World Group. India lost to Spain (2016), Czech Republic (2015) and Serbia (2014) in their last three attempts at home. The last time India played an away World Group Play-Off tie was against Japan in 2011, when it lost 1-4 to the hosts. Elaborating the move, the Davis Cup team coach Zeeshan Ali said that Canada is far away, and there are possibilities that the players will be jet-lagged, which could take a long period to recover, so having a camp close to the venue would make a difference. More importantly, since the US Open will be on, the players will also get to play with the world’s best players during their practice. “Only Rohan and Yuki Bhambri will be there (US Open) and others will have to travel to New York from Asian territory. The more we practice, the better for us,” Zeeshan added.

Meanwhile, Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni will be back in the team, having missed the Uzbekistan tie in Bengaluru in April this year. Prajnesh Gunneswaran and N Sriram Balaji, who made their Davis Cup debuts in Bengaluru are likely to be reserve members.

Bollywood star Aamir Khan donated `25 lakhs to the Assam Government for its flood relief operations which has so far killed over 80 people and the devastating catastrophe has rendered many homeless. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal took to Twitter to thank Aamir Khan for his kind act as a responsible citizen.

The Bollywood star voiced his concerns over various social issues plaguing the country, and had recently posted a video on Twitter asking people to come out in support of flood victims in both Assam and Gujarat. The 52-yearold ‘Dangal’ star said, “Friends, many areas of Assam and Gujarat have been affected by heavy floods. And our brothers and sisters there, are facing a lot of difficulties. Lots of lives have also been lost and there has been a huge financial loss too. We are helpless in front of nature but we can help those staying there.”

He appealed to his fans to help people staying

in Assam and Gujarat by contributing to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The Centre has already announced an ex-gratia of `2 lakhs each under the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the next of kin of people killed and `50,000 to seriously injured persons in the recent flood in Assam. The flood situation in the state has improved but one more person was killed in Morigaon district taking the toll in the natural calamity to 83, including eight in Guwahati. According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), about 5,000 people are still affected in Lakhimpur and Jorhat districts and 366 people are taking shelter in four relief camps in the two districts. This year, two waves of floods in the state affected around 25 lakh people from 29 districts prompting the administration to set up 1,098 distribution centres and relief camps, where about 1.32 lakh people took shelter.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 11

collywood Sunitha Lal to head HR at Ather Energy Sunitha Lal has been appointed the Head of Human Resources by Ather Energy, the hardware startup. Her immediate focus in her new role will be to define the culture at Ather, as they scale up production. She was with Matrimony.com as CHRO. Commenting on the move, Sunitha Lal said, “It is rare to find an opportunity where you can be a part of culture building of not just an organisation, but a nascent industry as well. To weave a pervasive culture across everything we do, be it business processes to employee assimilation is fantastic.” She went on to add, “The most enticing aspect is the chance to outline what Ather stands for and perpetuate that through our frameworks, values and our other programmes.” Expressing his views on the appointment, Tarun Mehta, CEO of Ather Energy said, “Lal comes with 20 years of experience across all HR verticals. She is a strong coach and has a significant background

Global role for Ericsson India HR head,Khanna in organisational and leadership development, performance and coaching systems and frameworks. It’s the perfect time for us to focus on our team, on development and on the systems that enable this.” In 2007, Lal was appointed Vice President and HR head at AIG Systems Solutions, which is an offshore development centre for AIG. There, she focused on organisational development and succession planning initiatives.

An alumnus of Madurai Kamaraj University, Lal took over as the Chief Human Resources Officer at Matrimony.com in 2012. There she was involved in organisation-wide decision making to shape business agenda on performance and growth.

Lal played a key role in identifying, developing and implementing organisation effectiveness and change management initiatives.

Geethaa Ghaneckar moves from Raymond to Raheja Geethaa Ghaneckar, who has been the Director-HR for the Raymond Lifestyle Business for over eight years moves to Raheja Universal as the CHRO. She joins at a time when the industry is moving towards greater professionalism and standardisation, experiencing a significant transformation in terms of the work environment. She said, “I am looking forward to leading the people agenda in the firm’s journey towards becoming a leading player in Platform Projects.” Her tasks will include building a professional work environment, creating a transformative performance management process, building a high-quality leadership team across verticals and nurturing a culture that fosters innovation. Ghaneckar has been working closely with the stakeholders and the leadership team to design and implement HR strategy in line with the busi12 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

ness strategy, and the future work scenarios in the VUCA space at Raymond. She has also been handling a team of 100 HR professionals spread across ten different locations and managing peaceful industrial relations across nine manufacturing facilities. Before her stint with Raymond, Ghaneckar was the VP-Learning & Organisation Development (OD) at AIG. She was the head-learning and OD at RPG Enterprises for two years. Being a certified OD trainer from the National Training Lab, she has also worked with Manford and Aptech in the past.

The Vice President and Head of Human Resources at Ericsson India, Sameer Khanna, will now manage global HR for Product Area (PA) and Managed Services (MS) network, PA managed services IT and MS strategy. He will be based at the company’s headquarters in Sweden. Khanna has been working with Ericsson India since 2012, before which he was the head-HR at Jones Lang LaSalle. Prior to that, he has also worked with Logica, which is now CGI, as well as Britannia, Hewitt and NIIT. Commenting on his new role in the company, Khanna said, “This opportunity to interface and work with different nationalities, driving global systems and processes with managed services from the headquarters perspective, will help me contribute globally and enrich my HR experience. I am looking forward to the global responsibility and learning the new role will offer.” Global mobility is offered to top performing employees at Ericsson as part of their holistic development and talent management within the company. That makes Ericsson a truly global workplace with presence in more than 180 countries.

Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com

manage money Dr Anil Lamba

Are employees, assets?

With employees of the organisation being biggest assets, why do their names not appear on it? The contentious point is, if some employees must appear on the assets' side, there may be others who should be on the liabilities' side There is a perception that learning to make Balance Sheets and Profit and Loss Statements can be very complicated and needs years of training and practice. To a certain extent that is correct.

But I have a simpler way by which, in two to three minutes I can teach you how to make these statements.

All you really need to understand is that a Profit and Loss Statement reveals ‘expenses’ and ‘incomes’ and Balance Sheets list out ‘assets’ and ‘liabilities’.

These two statements are the end result of the entire accounting process, which captures every financial transaction that takes place over a certain period.

This tells you that if every financial transaction that is recorded must eventually appear either on the face of the Profit and Loss Statement or the Balance Sheet, and, between them, all these statements reveal are expenses and incomes and liabilities and assets, then every financial transaction must eventually get classified under one of these four headings.

Once you understand this, making these financial statements becomes very simple.

You just need to look at the transaction the moment it occurs, choose the relevant head and place it accordingly.

The process can be made even simpler, when you realise that all transactions, by and large, involve either an inflow or an outflow of money. If money has been spent you actually need to choose between ‘expenses’ and ‘assets’ and if money has been received it will be either ‘income’ or ‘liability’.

When is money received an income and when it is a liability is relatively easier to determine. But choosing between expenses and assets can be a little more complicated.

However, I will not delve further into that discussion since the objective of this article is to discuss something else.

Are employees assets?

A question I'm often asked during in-company training programmes by participants is: "Anil, you've told us that Balance Sheets have assets and liabilities, and we the employees of this organisation are its biggest assets, then why does our name not appear on its Balance Sheet?”

In daily conversations, words like ‘assets’ are used in a colloquial sense. Which is why in HR-jargon and in motivational speeches it is very well to say that employees are an organisation's biggest assets. However, it is not the ‘employee’ per se, but the ‘cost of the employee’ that will be shown as expense I can give a long answer to this question, which will also include discussing the contentious point that if some employees must appear on the assets' side then there may be others who should be listed on the liabilities' side. But I have a shorter version of this answer too.

When an employee asks me, "Why does my name not appear on the assets' side?" I have a counter-question for the employee. My question is, “Tell me, if you purchase a car for yourself, where would you show the cost of the car?"

Probably the answer I receive is “As an asset on the Balance Sheet."

"And if you hire the car, where would you show the hire charges?"

"As an expense on the P&L statement”.

My next question then is "Has this company purchased you or have they hired your services?”

Folks, an employee could be the Rolls Royce amongst employees, but what is paid to her is similar to hire charges.

In daily conversations, words like ‘assets’ are used in a colloquial sense. Which is why in HR-jargon and in motivational speeches, it is very well to say that employees are an organisation's biggest assets. However, when one realises that it is not the ‘employee’ per se, but the ‘cost of the employee’ that is in question, from an accounting perspective, it will be shown as an expense.

(Dr Anil Lamba is a practising chartered accountant, financial literacy activist and an international corporate trainer. He is the author of the bestselling book ‘Romancing the Balance Sheet’.

He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com)

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 13

wax eloquent

Engines of High Growth

Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in the business world

I believe in mankind

Working in India

“The most striking thing I experienced in India is a particular kind of emotional involvement of people in their work.

This quality makes even the most daunting tasks easy, and I am quite moved by it.”

Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara

“I believe in mankind. Human beings are very intelligent beings. They certainly will be able to erect for themselves a social arrangement that actually promises and gives everybody freedom and liberation to ensure creativity.

I think my belief in socialism basically comes out of a belief in human beings.”

Prabhat Patnaik, Economist and emeritus professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University Courtesy: https://thewire.in

Courtesy: Mint

If the fourth industrial revolution comes “Technology is changing so profoundly that we may have to construct completely different kind of society.

If the fourth industrial revolution comes, which we barely understand, there will not be very many jobs left for manual workers or even skilled workers to do. Like driverless cars, artificial intelligence may even take away white collar jobs.”

Lord Meghnad Desai, Economist and Labour politician Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com

Mozart of Madras

“When you follow simplistic rules it becomes boring so you have to dodge and find ways to do that again and again and still sound new. It’s a challenge and a pleasure. I think music is a combination for me at the same time innovation. It’s also about not losing its earthiness, the connectivity to myself and to the listener.”

AR Rahman, Music composer Courtesy: http://www.dnaindia.com

14 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

The next wave of growth “The new momentum of truth has arrived due to the rapid growth and change in the last four years. If business to consumer (B2C) is the opportunity, then business to business (B2B) is the new demand. Today, the focus is on how do we co-create a solution.”

KS Vishwanathan,VP, NASSCOM & head of ‘NASSCOM 10,000 Startups’ programme, Bengaluru Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com

Brand personality “The era of personality has given way to the era of personalisation. Social media and mobile connectivity have made it possible for brands and consumers to engage in a dialogue. Now brands have to work hard to find relevance.”

Frits Van Paasschen, Global hospitality veteran Courtesy: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

What people buy now and how

“Now, smaller products, local brands and speciality products are outperforming the bigger, global brands, they are winning market share from the bigger companies.

And it all starts with the consumer, in particular, the younger generation.”

Mitch Barns,

CEO, Nielson

Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com

Fierce technology momentum

Filmmaking is in my blood

“People forget that I am the granddaughter of a man named Nanabhai Bhatt who had made more than 150 films.

Mahesh Bhatt came after him. So, filmmaking is in my blood. It was a natural progression. To be an actor, you have to be self-obsessed, but when you are a filmmaker, you get a macro view. For me that is a bigger turn on.”

Pooja Bhatt,

Film actor and producer

Courtesy: http://www.hindustantimes.com

Indian consumer a challenge to deal with “In India, people always want to buy a luxury car at the price of a value car. But, having said that, a situation like this is also a company’s delight as one needs to keep discovering new ways to stay abreast. We keep devising new ways (to stay ahead). While it’s not easy to be the first in everything, one must ensure one is not a distant second.”

T Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India

“If you look at Chinese companies, they focussed on domestic market first, and then went abroad. Indian companies have done the reverse. We’re very proud of Infosys and TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), but we don’t have any Alibaba or Tencent. They became big because they operated in the domestic market, and now they’re expanding abroad. India doesn’t really have a player in the future. The future of the economy is going to be an internet economy, and there’s no big player out there.”

Lose from a winning position

Rajesh Janey, president &

MD, Enterprise DELL EMC, India

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com

Courtesy: http://www.printweek.in

Focus on domestic market first

Courtesy: http://indianexpress.com

“When a customer today says ‘I want to drive my digital initiative’, we are telling them that you need to do 2-3 things to drive your digital initiative— IT transformation, workforce transformation and security transformation.”

Suresh Gupta, Chairman of Huhtamaki-PPL (HPPL)

Courtesy: http://www.forbesindia.com

Soumitra Dutta, Founding dean, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

To drive your digital initiative

“There are two things we have adhered to throughout: Be clear about our innovation ambition and strike and maintain the right balance. Transformational initiatives are the engines of high growth and these transformational changes can come swiftly only with a fierce technology momentum.”

“I think it was the inexperience of playing on such a big stage on such a big occasion. Cricket experts always talk about keeping things simple. But what I have figured out in my long career is that the hardest thing to do in a crisis is to keep things simple.”

Mithali Raj, Captain, Indian women’s cricket team Courtesy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Not making mistakes is a bigger problem “In business, the fact is, if everything everyone did was right then all organisations and individuals would be great and all résumés would look fantastic. So I don’t look at business from the point of view of ‘Yeh galat kiya...’ It’s important to not repeat mistakes, but I am perfectly okay with making them. Not making mistakes is actually a bigger problem.”

Punit Misra, CEO, domestic broadcast business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Courtesy: http://www.afaqs.com

I just go by gut instinct

“I can’t follow somebody else’s career path. In my career, what’s always paid off have been the risks. I just go by gut instinct.

So, this is the person I am. I am going to have lots of failures in my life; hopefully I’ll have some successes too. But I can’t really plan anything. I’m just spontaneously living my dream.”

Ranbir Kapoor, Actor

Courtesy: http://www.mid-day.com

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 15

The Tax Man Cometh

Search action is a serious business

by S K Jha

(IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)

Income tax search actions are complex operations that take immense preparation and precise planning: From identifying the target to pinpointing the locations, the people, the investigating team, timing and logistics, down to the last detail. All this, with utmost secrecy. Such meticulous planning and preparation does not lend itself to ad hoc or impromptu action at the behest of political whim, as is sometimes believed…..

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

remember my days with the Income Tax Department with a lot of nostalgia. Once, I had a tough time explaining to my newly-wed wife as to what I was doing in the office when I did not come back home for a few days. My only interaction during those days was to inform her telephonically that I was alright and there was nothing to worry about.

At that time, I was a young officer posted in the investigation wing of Mumbai and the last minute planning for the big search action prevented me from going home for a few days.

Small search actions covering less than ten premises can be planned quickly but where many premises are targeted, particularly when premises are in more than one state, a detailed logistical planning is required to be done. The planning has to be done maintaining full secrecy for any successful search and this makes the job difficult and time consuming. Planning an all India search within a stipulated time frame while maintaining secrecy of the highest order becomes a big event management job. The success of the search action depends on foreseeing and planning the minutest of details.

Many steps to a search

There are many stages involved before a search action is executed. The first step is the identification of the target. This requires collecting and processing information against the targeted person who is suspected of tax evasion. The information can either be self-generated by the department or acquired through informants.

Self-generated information is preferred, as there is no cost involved in the form of reward payable to the informant, and at the same time, it

gives job satisfaction to the concerned investigating officer. The self-generated information comes out of mining available data or by physically pursuing a clue to its logical conclusion.

Finally, only those cases are selected for search where the amount of suspected tax invasion is substantial. The information is processed to arrive at a credible proof that the information received is prima-facie true. The department does not believe in hurting innocent people but only goes after those who are tax evaders and against whom there is an objective belief. While processing the information, efforts are made to find out the modus-operandi of tax evasion adopted by the identified targets so that the search action does not become an act of fishing in the dark.

The second stage is the identification of premises for the search. This requires getting details about the persons who are very close to him with whom the targeted person may be keeping his unaccounted assets or secret documents. This will mean getting addresses and road maps of the places collected after physical inspection by the investigating officer. Normally, premises include residences, offices, factories, and godowns of the targeted persons along with the premises of his close relatives, personal assistants, accountants and his very intimate allies. Sometimes, there is specific information about the places where

16 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

the targeted person has kept his belongings in hiding and in such cases, these places are also selected for search.

Clear road map

It is very important for the investigating officer to prepare a distinct road map for the premises to be searched so that the deputed search party can reach the place without loss of time and without creating any suspicion in the locality that the income tax search party is visiting the area. The premises selected for search may include motor cars, aircrafts, ships and bank lockers.

Against specific information inputs, search at the premises of servants, drivers and relatives have been very successful.

The third stage is the preparation of the satisfaction note before the issue of warrants for search. The satisfaction note is a legal document as per section 132 (1) of the Income Tax Act. The preparation of this document requires the application of mind by officers at three levels, which starts with a Deputy Director and ends with a Director General. A detailed note is prepared recording the objective reasons for the search action against the identified person at the chosen premises of the search. A search cannot be authorised unless the officers at the three senior levels of the department agree.

The document is kept in utmost secrecy even

Only those cases are selected for search where the amount of suspected tax invasion is substantial. The information is processed to arrive at a credible proof that the information received is primafacie true. The department does not believe in hurting innocent people but only goes after those who are tax evaders”

after the search to protect the name and safety of the informant, or even when the information is self-generated. In the rarest of rare cases, the higher courts can call for the satisfaction note for their perusal when the validity of the search action is challenged. Even the courts are not supposed to reveal the contents of the satisfaction note to the agitating litigants. Warrants are signed based on the contents in the satisfaction note and simultaneously search briefs are prepared for the search parties. The brief is important, as it enlightens the search parties as to what they have to look for at the various premises of the search.

Hair-splitting logistics

The fourth stage is the logistic support arrangements. This stage becomes very arduous where it involves large-scale all India searches. The job is in two parts. Firstly, manpower planning, creating search parties for each premises, involving requisition of officers, staff and security personnel. Even outstation personnel are called in case of shortage at the local levels. Security personnel are taken mainly from the state government, but sometimes, to maintain secrecy, even central government police are called. Secondly, transport is arranged for the search parties. Arrangement for hotel stay is made in advance for the outstation officers and staff. Planning is also

done for lunch and dinner for the search parties. All this planning and arrangement is made in topmost secrecy so that there is no whisper in the town about the impending search action by the Income Tax department.

For each search party a team leader is selected, who is normally the senior most. A plan of blue print is maintained at the search control room in the main office for the officers and staff who man it. The job of the control room is normally to coordinate the search teams and assist them if needed. The control office is headed by a senior officer.

At this stage of planning the date and time of striking the search is decided, and planning is done in such a way that each search party reaches each allocated premises at exactly the same time. The search parties are not supposed to open the envelopes containing the warrant and other related secret documents until they reach the landmark specified on the face of the sealed envelope, which is always very near the selected place of search, to ensure secrecy. Kits for the search parties are also prepared which include all necessary items like paper, forms, notices, tapes, candles, scissors, sealing materials, etc., thus making each search party self-sufficient. Some cash is also given to each party for legitimate expenses while conducting the search. Special

needs for specific premises are foreseen and provisions are made for the same.

Routine needs

The search commences after elaborate planning in different stages and the same take considerable time with big searches. After the search has commenced, the need may arise to call registered valuers for valuing the jewellery that has been found. Sometimes government engineers are also called to measure the properties. Needs also arise for carpenters and lock and key makers during the search and they are accordingly called. Two panchas (witnesses) are called from the neighbourhood as per the requirement of the search proceedings.

The search proceedings means looking for evidence of tax evasion and for this, documents and valuables hidden at the premises of the search are hunted for by the search parties. Statements of the people at the premises of search are recorded. Statements of the main person before starting the search and at the conclusion of the search are a must. The search commences by showing the warrant of search to the main occupant of the premises and taking his signature on the warrant, and it concludes with the drawing of a panchanama. Valuables and documents seized are recorded in the panchanama. The panchanama is counter signed by the witnesses, besides bearing

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 17

The Tax Man Cometh the signature of the main person and the leader of the search party. The names of officers and staff comprising the search party are mentioned in the panchanama. The search party carries the seizure and panchanama and other related documents to the control room and hands them over. The search proceedings ends there and thereafter the investigation wing makes the post search enquiry and gives a detailed report (Appraisal report) to the assessment wing and the process of assessment or re-assessment starts.

The actual proceedings of the search becomes very important for the department as the future of the case depends upon the credibility and quality of evidence collected.

Unlike other central enforcement agencies, the income tax department does not have the power of arrest, and consequently of custodial interrogation of the alleged tax evader. The search proceedings get dragged for many days if any bank lockers are discovered, the keys for which are not given by the searched person. Search proceedings also get prolonged if stock checking in warehouses and factories are required to be done.

Elaborate process

The elaborate search process with its various stages shows us that a search action is not a quickly thoughtof operation, particularly when many premises have to be searched. Any allegation against the department that the search action was hurriedly taken against a specified person for some malafide intention or on the bidding of higher-ups is misplaced”

The elaborate search process with its various stages shows us that a search action is not a quickly thought-of operation, particularly when many premises have to be searched. It is something like the process of a daughter’s marriage, which starts with the selection of the bridegroom, followed by the arrangements at the venue for the various functions leading up to the actual wedding. In such a situation, any allegation against the department that the search action was hurriedly taken against a specified person for some malafide intention or on the bidding of higher-ups is misplaced.

The morale of the investigating officers requires to be boosted in their thankless job of fighting against black money. The search action

is the ultimate deterrent action to clean our system of black money, and the same should be respected and also feared.

The deterrent action may not be liked but it helps to boost our economy. Recent statistics have shown that in the aftermath of demonetisation, there has been a huge jump in the number of personal income tax returns filed so far this year, which is 25% more than last year.

Advance income tax payment has jumped by 41%.

Income tax raids carried out against the big guns of the society will have a positive ripple effect, and people below will automatically fall in line. Honest people need not fear as search action is taken only against corrupt tax evaders. On the contrary, the honest citizens should help the department by informing it about the existence of black money in the neighbourhood. The battle against corruption and black money should be the battle of a civil society and the same should not be limited to a few officers of the Income Tax department.

Build on the positives

It is painful to see that there is continuous discussion on politics and politicians in our country instead of the social and economic health

18 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

of the country. We do not discuss as to how to improve our resources and how to clean out social evils. We do not discuss as to how to make our defence forces more powerful when we are being confronted by two inimical neighbours.

Even the media gives headlines to issues, which are more saleable rather than highlighting positive news which can unite the country. Governments will come and go, but if our country is weakened where will we go?

We have to understand these things and we have to nourish our institutions and not demolish them by unwanted criticism. There are black sheep everywhere but there are good people in every department, as well as in our armed forces who think for the country and do their jobs honestly. There are people amongst us who do things for publicity and not for the love of the country. These people should introspect and change their behaviour. We have to resolve to make our country great. After 70 years of independence, it is sad to see the bad things, but we have to start positively before it is too late.

CC

tadka

Indian kids’ pocket money close to GDP of 52 countries “Kids in India spend more than `22,000 crore, given to them as pocket money stated the ‘Turner New Generation 2016’ a study by Cartoon Channel Pogo. This amount is more than GDP of 52 small countries, which included Maldives and Bhutan. The latest report says not all kids spend all their pocket money, in fact, 50 per cent of them, mostly girls save money.

Corporate Trend real life, which you aren't doing presently ▶ Establish a time allowance for your digital devices and gadgets on a daily basis ▶ Enjoy social interactions in person instead of online ▶ Keep devices shut or away while sleeping, eating food, participating in a get-together, on a holiday or while driving ▶ Spend your social time with family, friends and colleagues, being off-phone ▶ Limit your social networking accounts to bare minimum ▶ Connect with nature and world around through various nature activities

Digital Detoxing

By Rajesh Rao

I

f you are refrained from using your mobile phone, laptop, internet, or communication gadgets for say 24 hours, and if it makes you panicky, restless, angry and craving—may be you are technoholic and its time to reassess yourself for digital addiction.

Though technology has become part-and-parcel of our work and personal life, may be your overindulgence is leaving a negative impact and there is a need for you to find a right balance between your virtual and real life.

It is stated that an average person’s screen-time, staring at screens of mobilephone, laptop, PC, tablet, TV and other digital displays, at home, workplace and public places, is eating away real time in our life.

Symptoms of digital addiction ▶ Your mobilephone is always in your hand during day time ▶ Your mobilephone is always at your bedside in the night ▶ Constantly checking your mobilephone ▶ Social networking is withdrawing you from social life ▶ You are browsing through

end number of websites daily ▶ You are constantly texting while you eat, drive, talk or do other activities ▶ Ignoring people while being preoccupied with mobile phone When you need digital detoxing When you start seeing the world through screen and remove yourself from social life, living a reclusive life glued to your computer or mobile screen all the time, you need to break free of this compulsive behaviour. Check when there are physical symptoms of technology addiction like neck and backaches, dry and red eyes, headaches, numbness and tingling in the hand and arm. Technology addiction disorder is now an acknowledged problem and keeping away leads to withdrawal symptom similar to those experienced by drug users.

Steps for digital detoxing ▶ Cut down your technology use and dependency ▶ Enjoy doing things in your

Digital detoxing helps you ▶ Increase social interaction ▶ Decrease physical effects ▶ Relieve from tech related stress and anxiety ▶ Improve your inter-personal relationships and interactions ▶ Increase your productivity at workplace ▶ Become more people oriented Detox trend for technoholics Technoholics are detoxifying themselves from technology addiction at specially arranged unplug retreats.

Here they are helped to understand their tech induced addictive and compulsive behaviour, its negative impact. They get to reconnect with nature, self, body, soul and the world around them. Problem is not technology but how we use technology. Technology usage consumes your time and energy—productive engagement of your screen time for work or leisure is claimed to be beneficial. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 19

Corporate Stalwart

Passionate Practitioner Celebrated doyen of India’s HR fraternity, Dr Aquil Busrai, who has led HR in blue-chip companies across diverse industries, geographies and cultures says HR has come full circle, and believes it is time we re-focus on the H factor in HR

By Pradeep Mathur

20 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

Pics: Vivek Arora

‘The biggest challenge before HR today? is to bring the H (or the human element) back into HR operations.

Technology can never be a match for the H element. You can’t digitise and commoditise the human element’

Dr

Dr Aquil Busrai is a most honourable leader of the HR community. A genuine and simple person, he has led the HR teams of top blue-chip companies like Unilever in India and Kenya (1979-94), Motorola (1994-2002), Shell Malaysia (2002-06) and IBM Corporation (2006-10) for over four decades. This big daddy of HR is currently coaching and mentoring senior leaders, HR teams and working as People Managers at his own firm, Aquil Busrai Consulting, Gurugram.

Admired for his roles in designing and implementing Leadership Management, Performance Management and Change Management processes, Dr Busrai has lived in Kenya and Malaysia and worked in 15 Asia Pacific countries.

An acknowledged expert on both operational and strategic HR for start ups, acquisitions, mergers and re-structuring, Dr Busrai is an insightful commentator on how top Indian companies and MNCs in India have handled their business and HR issues and shown extraordinary performance consistently over the years. A motivational speaker at top management schools and HR conclaves of major industry forums including CII, ASSOCHAM, FICCI, NHRDN and AIMA, Busrai loves to talk about values, culture, managerial practices and leadership challenges.

He has won many awards. Some such include the “Pathfinder Award” by National HRD Network, “Most Powerful HR Professional Award” at the Asia-Pacific HRM Summit in Singapore and “Lifetime Achievement Award” at Top Rankers Meet in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Distinguished Alumnus Award from his Alma Mater XLRI. But that’s not all. He’s a “serious” wild-life photographer, a social activist and a keen student of non-verbal corporate communication too. Dr Busrai recently shared with Corporate Citizen the important landmarks of his career. Excerpts: With five decades of experience, what’s the one advice you have for future HR professionals?

If you really want to succeed, understand the business and its nuances. Also understand the company’s brands, go-to-market system, the levers of growth and the financials it works with.

You’ve closely observed the growth of HR in India. Which major change you’ve observed?

A tectonic shift happened over the last five decades. HR is the only profession where we have different labels for different decades. In the 1960s, the key word was welfare. In the 1970s, handling

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 21

Corporate Stalwart Industrial Relations and Labour Unrest was primary job of HR. In 1980s, Change Management was the buzz word. But since the 90s, people say we must become Business Partners. In HR, we’ve actually done a self-fulfilling prophecy of defining this is what is expected of you. As a result, Industrial Relations (IR) has now become obsolete-a low-end priority, especially among younger people joining the profession.

Why do you say so?

When you ask the youngsters what they want to do as HR, the reply is OD. You ask what OD is and they say, ‘Oh, you don’t know OD” Its Organisational Development,’ as if asking, “Which Jurassic Park are you coming from?” Ask them, how about a stint in IR and they smilingly say, “Sir, in our times, we don’t do that” as if we’re idiots who spent years in IR (smiles). My first gherao happened when I was twenty-three and a half in Kolkata, and I learnt employee relations, labour relations, HR development and even OD because of IR. But having lost the focus, IR is not seen as the attractive part of HR any longer.

How is this change impacting the HR scenario?

Neither have tensions due to IR disappeared, nor has labour unrest vanished. Economic disparities have widened. Though with the advent of technology, many transactions have been automated

and paper work of HR has been replaced by webbased facilities, the human need for interface has not diminished. We’re forgetting is that industrial unrest is simmering in India. There is lack of communication between employees and management, but nobody is trying to understand. We need is to refocus our attention on engagement, which is the hallmark of IR. But young CEOs say, since the days of strong labour unions are over, IR is now redundant...

I disagree, because it is a misconception that unionisation happens only with blue-collar workers. We’re ignoring the likelihood of white-collar unions. It’s true that unions are not formed by well-educated people, but today unionism is happening on the web. They’re not going for conventional things like agitations and gheraos. They’re making their presence felt on digital platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.

Are you against HR technology?

No. I’m not. I’m all for gadgets and tech-savvy approach, but tell me who is listening to employees?

We’re just not listening to them. For everything, we go to the net. I remember four decades back, when a worker would walk into my office in the then Personnel Department of the Dalda factory in Kolkata asking for a form to apply for leave.

The last thing he wanted was that form. He would

come to seek a human interface which could give him an opportunity to ‘relate his real’ reason for walking into my office. I knew it so I’d ask him to sit down and encourage him to talk. I’d listen and he’d go back without taking the leave form.

Is this not happening today?

Today, we’re missing out on engaging and listening to people because we’re becoming either too smart or too tech-savvy. We feel as long as we pay them well, give them recognition, rewards and promotions, nothing will happen. But this area needs to be brought back to life as employee engagement is ending with increasing use of technology. It’s a business imperative.

What’s the biggest challenge before HR today?

It is to bring the H (or the human element) back into HR operations. Technology can never be a match for the H element. You can’t digitise and commoditise the human element.

Why did you go for HR? My basic interest in human relations made me give up an IIM Calcutta admission in Marketing and go for HR. I enjoy dealing with people's issues. So when I first faced a gherao, it was a good experience. I was a bachha at that time, but when you're genuine in your work, people take you seriously. There are many instances of union leaders becoming my teachers and protecting me. I worked in Blue Star for seven years and then in Unilever (Hindustan Lever in those days) for half my life, where I worked in factories in Garden Reach area near Kolkata, then at the Dalda factory in Shyamnagar, followed by a remote milk-processing factory in Etah (UP) and finally at the head-office where I was Head of recruitment and job evaluation. I held 11 charges in Unilever before going to Kenya on an overseas assignment and spent about six years there.

How did Motorola happen?

In 1994, the American electronics giant was set-

‘Neither have tensions due to IR disappeared, nor has labour unrest vanished. Economic disparities have widened. Though with the advent of technology, many transactions have been automated and routine paper work of HR has been replaced by webbased facilities, the human need for interface has not diminished’ 22 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

ting up an operational unit in India. It was the first time that Telecom was coming to India and Motorola was not known in the Indian market. It was a completely technology-driven company and I had only FMCG background, but I took a calculated risk, which proved to be good. I was made to look after the entire South AsiaSri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh-and within a year, they made me HR Head for the software division of the entire Asia-Pacific. So, besides ASEAN nations, I looked after the HR operations of 17 countries including Japan, Korea, China, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and, of course, India.

Then, in 2002, Shell Malaysia offered me two jobs. One was as head of HR for Malaysia and the other was as MD of a company they wanted to set up within Shell Services Companies. That was an unusual opportunity to manage the balance sheet of a company. I picked it up and moved to Kuala Lumpur for the next five years (2002-06).

I set up the company and worked as its HR Director. Then my mother’s health started deteriorating, so I moved back to India in 2006 to join IBM Corporation as its Executive Director HR. Since you worked in so many countries, how did you adjust to the changing cultural and technological milieu?

Two things helped me. One, I kept an open mind about culture because working and living in countries like Kenya, Malaysia, Singapore, the Netherlands, UK and other, the South-East Asia is quite fascinating. Each country has its own culture. I enjoyed it without passing any value judgement and took everything in my stride. For instance, Kenya was a very different culture with very exotic food. I enjoyed being with its people and that made me feel comfortable because this cultural fit is something we miss out.

What factors must an HR person keep in mind while switching from one industry to other?

From my own experience, I can say industry change doesn’t matter much. What matters is how connected you feel with the business.

I changed many industries-from FMCG to Technology to Oil & Gas to IT. Each time it was a big shift, but my ability to connect with the business helped me. Rather than doing an isolated

That was a cultural shift and I struggled to adapt to it without sacrificing my principles.

Moving to Shell Malaysia was an entirely different experience-very traditional, old-time culture, very silent upstream, downstream, strong personalities, people working there for a lifetime.

Why would they take a newcomer at this level?

So, the cultural fit was to adapt with respect, but without succumbing to anything being said.

HR function, I tried to understand the viewpoint of those heading the business so that I would be able to do something that could make sense to them. Shell was an amazingly good company. So was IBM and Motorola. In each case, I tried to connect HR with business.

Did you face any challenge on account of Culture and engagement?

Oh yes. The very first challenge I faced was the culture of the parent company. For example, Unilever was an Anglo-Dutch company with a predominant European culture. The approach in Unilever was that everything must be thoroughly prepared before execution. So, every option would be considered, thorough preparations would be made, leaving nothing to chance before execution. That was a very strong culture and no wonder they were successful because of this. The culture in Motorola again was very challenging because it was purely American Midwest Texas culture of ‘even if you're half ready, go ahead.

Don't worry. We'll change the thinking half way’.

My boss got frustrated with me in the first three months because he was waiting for a proposal, which was ready, but I was not submitting. For four weeks, he waited, and then he said, “I've seen it. It's ready with you, just submit it.” I asked him, “Suppose this doesn't work, then what?” Pat came his reply, “We'll see it at that time.”

What were the turning points in your life that brought a major shift in your thinking?

One was to go and voluntarily work in Unilever’s Etah factory in 1979. It was a turning point because had I not done that, I wouldn’t have got the richness of experience and the reputation. So when I would come to head office, seniors would ask, “Are you the same Busrai who did great jobs in a tough place like Etah?” In bigger locations your reputation never goes ahead of you but that happens at small locations because of the type of exposure you get there. That was a big turning point. The second was to have the courage to go and experiment with the business heads, to leave the comforts of HR and to say, “I want to work for the business needs of the company.”

How has the nature of HR functions changed today compared to your times?

I look at it this way: HR has not changed, the process of delivering HR has changed. That's why I say, the H in HR has changed and you have to keep H in focus. Earlier, we used to do appraisals on paper, now we do it online. But to have a dialogue, you still have to put the process in place and as HR Head, I insisted that my line managers spend time with the ranks and files.

Even in IBM, a company with 52,800 employees, if I went to a town location, I’d speak to a focussed group of at least 16 people for 90 minutes. Now, 16 people are nothing, but if you do it all the time, they become equal to 1600 people.

So, connecting with people, keeping yourself humble despite big things happening around you, is very important. If you get carried away

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 23

Corporate Stalwart greater responsibility.” When you're so powerful that your one signature can separate people or hire people, you must not use this casually.

with technology or machinery or brand name, you’re gone. Unilever, Motorola, IBM and Shell are big brand names, but I made sure that people came first.

With women joining the workforce in big numbers, what’s your take on gender diversity?

Gender diversity is a misnomer. Many companies profess about their gender diversity. If you don't talk about them, you're outdated. I feel diversity is of three types. One is gender, one is of thought-can you bring people who think differently? We avoid the divergent views coming into the company. The third aspect is to respect that we're different but we have a common goal. So, if you take up a triangle and divide it into four equal parts, women are in the lowest part in any company. Very few in the second rung, hardly exist in the third and almost zero in the fourth.

How did the affected people react?

It was most touching. We had to close down the whole factory and part with about 400 people in Motorola because pagers went down. We gave them extra benefits. We found them jobs. We gave them alternate training at the company's cost. We even gave bus coupons for three months for travel from home to the training centre. That year, I received six to seven New Year greeting cards from those very people.

Besides gender diversity, what other things must one look for in a company?

Besides gender diversity, I looked for ethical values with the freedom to speak your mind and a clean working atmosphere with no room for sexual harassment.

So, it was easy transition for me because all companies practised highest ethical values.

As HR boss, what measures did you take to make sure that women were treated well?

At IBM, where we were hiring 1500-1700 every month, I did two things.

One was to look at the number of CVs received and the other how many were called for interview. When you ask the right questions about the data, results improve. Second was zero tolerance for unethical behaviour towards women. Once a very senior officer was involved with something not in line with the IBM's practices, we asked him to go, though there was a lot of pressure.

How do you describe ethics in the corporate world?

That depends on how much you are committed to ethics. Either you're ethically committed or you're not. I’ve sacked people in Motorola for just 400 rupees, though it cost us over a lakh. One bottle of Benedril medicine for cough was for `40 then. He bought one bottle and changed 1 to 10 by hand and 40 to 400 in the invoice. Somebody

in the accounts found that out. I sent a man to Pune to verify. In two days, we confirmed the facts and sacked that man. Integrity is also non-negotiable.

What kind of relationship should ideally exist between an employer and employee?

The relationship should be of a Mentor-Mentee.

Tasks must be defined, delivery time-lines fixed and then if you don't deliver, you've got to go. But if you deliver, you must also get benefits.

How painful is it to cut someone’s job?

It is painful, but if you’ve got to cut, you must cut. For that, you must have the mind of a surgeon and heart of a mother. I've done the separation of the job hundreds of times. Once, we separated 754 people in one go. But people have never said you did wrong because the process to identify who to separate was personally supervised by me. If I knowingly or unknowingly do any wrong, I should leave the chair. I don't see many movies but I saw Spider Man. When his father was dying, what he told Spider Man struck me. He said, “With great power comes

24 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

Why did you decide to open your own consultancy firm?

After over four decades of HR experience, I realised lots of things were pending in life.

I had not finished my PhD. So in 2010, I got myself enrolled for PhD at Udaipur University. Another pending thing was my passion for wildlife photography and writing. I decided to give time to both of them. My writing had gone.

So I type-wrote a book. I always wanted to do some work for disadvantaged children. So, I’m trying in my own humble ways. But I was also scared to leave the comfort of the industry and so, seven years ago, I started my own consulting firm. I decided that I won't go into anything or everything—no recruitments or other such things. I wanted to do only executive coaching, HR strategy and leadership training and development. So, I certified myself as a coach.

Now I do coaching for the senior and mid-level management high potency courses. It's giving tremendous results.

What kind of companies are you working for?

One of them is a big-four type of company. Then there are big consulting companies. One of them is the largest in the automobile industry, and one in publishing. The industry doesn't matter. Humans are common everywhere. This is a principle I have learned.

If all humans are same, why is there so much noise about millennials in HR circuits?

I find it amusing because I was as big a trouble-maker as anybody when I was young. I was a rebel. I wouldn’t listen. I’d challenge authority.

Is my daughter different? No! She's exactly the

same—short-tempered, short fused and challenging. So the millennials are not different.

But it looks nice to talk about them in conferences. It makes people sound very intelligent and tell stories as to how difficult it was to deal with them.

How do you say so?

I worked with IBM, which had millennials galore. I didn’t have any problem with age because the day you learn not to have ranks, it doesn't matter. When I joined IBM, I took my HR team to Rishikesh for river rafting. We stayed in tents and went for rock climbing. I was past my age for rock-climbing but I also climbed. When you do something, which they don't expect you to do, you become one of them. It bonded the team together. If you ask them, they’ll say, I’m very tough, demanding and uncompromising boss as far as work is concerned. But when my boss asked them whether they would like to work again with me, many said yes. Why? Because the learning they got was priceless.

What kind of learning?

Unlike others, I believe that if you really want a high-performing team, you have to give them enough freedom, empathy and respect for their individual dignity to seek their feedback. All it needs is the right intention, and that works. Earlier in Motorola also, I had the finest and very young people in my team. Our meetings used to be very chaotic, noisy, people disagreeing, getting annoyed and saying absolutely divergent things.

But despite all the chaos, when the decision was taken, everybody would say this was my decision because they felt that their view was taken. So the policy document we took out was the finest piece of HR literature because it was both people sensitive and business sensitive too.

How do you see talent in Indian employee market today?

India has been looking at the cost arbitrage advantage but that is lost. We are not going to have the cost arbitrage any more. The cost of employees direct and indirect, has kept on increasing over the years.

Have the expectations of employees gone up many times?

Compensation rise has been very high over the last couple of years. Annual increase is in double digits. If you give 15% increase, you're actually doubling compensation every seven years. That means the base is very small but that's what gives us advantage. If you compare India's salary with those of Philippines and China, we're only a few percentages apart. So, we're losing on cost.

Why is it so?

Reasons are many, but whatever cost advantage

we’ve had will also disappear soon because of current compensation packages, rapidly shifting technology needs and return of protectionist tendencies in the post-Trump US talent market.

India is no longer the world’s favourite destination for high quality, low-cost technology skilled people. Even the skill development is low. We're not getting skilled people. Though there is a lot of talk of skill development in the country, the end result is low. We're getting influenced by fancy five star culture in the IT sector. If we don't improve our skills fast, India may lose its position.

We have a large number of people in the talent market, but not the right quality. So you have to spend that much time to train and spend on it.

What are your thoughts on our business schools?

Some are doing a good job. But there is a lot of room for improvement in their interaction with

that, I've got some people rallied-up to work.

My theory in just five words is: Don't Give Money, Give Self. Don't cut a cheque for me.

We don't need money. I feel social responsibility cannot be forced. It has to come from within and there are enough people wanting to donate money for a good cause. I tell them that simply giving money will not help, you’ve got to take responsibility. I’m networking such people who want to help even otherwise and the response is tremendous.

Then where does the money come from?

We do crowd funding. Instead of contacting just a few individuals, we go to 250 and more people, collecting small amounts for good causes. We had first experimented ISR in Kolkata last year with the help of my cousin who manages six NGOs there. On 31st July, we took 296 children from slums, many of them kids

‘Live life passionately and with full enthusiasm because your success depends on your passion.

You must be passionate about your work, love your work and work with love’ the industry. Industry-academics interaction is still pretty low in most of these B-schools .

What’s your take on the quality of students coming from our management schools?

They are very good. The filtration process takes care of quality. For example, I teach at IIM and they’re really good. Some concession has to be made for caste reservations but you have to live with this social issue.

But how well skilled are their products?

They are reasonably well skilled but not as good as expected. I've done my PhD on this subject of industry-academia interface. I know how big the gap is. The good news is, even the products from the B and C category B-schools are fairly good.

What business challenges do you face as a consultant?

I don't face any business challenges, but I've started a new initiative. I'm not a great fan of CSR. I don't believe CSR really works as it was intended to be. You cut the cheque mostly for some known NGOs. I've nothing against them but I've started my own initiative which I call ISR. What is that?

ISR means Individual Social Responsibility. In

of Kolkata’s sex-workers, to a Mall of Kolkata.

Manyawar, which sells designer clothes and gave sherwanis to them. We also gave `500 to each of them to experience the joy of buying.

We gave them simple food, ice-cream included, but what was most satisfying was that the children really enjoyed and remained disciplined.

We gave due respect to their mothers who came to see them off.

How do you unwind yourself?

I'm a very serious wild-life photographer. I go to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve Park in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur five times a year. I do a minimum of seven safaris in a year. In March- April, I usually go to East Africa.

What is your philosophy of life? What has kept you going?

I think it is to live life passionately and with full enthusiasm because your success depends on your passion. You must be passionate about your work, love your work and work with love. If at this age, I can go to Ranthambore in May when it’s 47 degrees plus for my love for wild life, you can imagine who I am. Why would I do such a thing if I’m not passionate? So, that’s something that defines the philosophy of my life. mathurpradeep1@gmail.com

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 25

NHRDN Career Fest 2017

Careers in IT

Economic transformation and employability is a key factor towards making India’s demographic dividend, the young workforce, a significant competitive advantage. In this context, the National HRD Network (NHRDN) Mumbai Chapter, organised a Career Fest at Nehru Centre in Mumbai recently to provide a platform to bring together industry, academia and students and helping students to make informed career choices.

Jatin Meswani, Cloud Leader – Global Business Services ISA, IBM, talked on how IT is changing progressively and how it is helping to create job opportunities worldwide, which are across industry. Jatin has over 25 years of experience in IT industry with various management roles in sales and marketing. In his current role at IBM, he is responsible for IBM driving cloud business solutions for global business services in India/South Asia

26 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

By Vineet K What is the current IT environment like?

In the last couple of years, key changes are happening across the world. While the world has moved towards protectionism, 70 per cent of Indian IT industry, which accounts to $144 Billion, is export driven. Forces like Infosys, IBM etc. work for companies outside India. It is very important to understand that as this happens, what will be the impact on IT industry. A major impact is the digital disruption. Many times, it is called Uberisation of industry. Today, Uber is the largest transport company in the world by valuation. They have more value or market capitalisation, which is not listed but the way it is funded, it has more valuation than Ford, General Motors, FedEx… all these combined. Currently, they are valued at $68 Billion and they don’t own a single asset. Similarly, AirBnB is the largest in hospitality business, ahead of Hilton and Hyatt, without owning a single hotel. What I mean is, increasingly, some people are thinking that a tech startup will come and disrupt the business, whether it is hospitality, banking or insurance. Walmart’s market cap was highest in retail; Amazon has taken over them. CEO of every industry, not just retail, is worried that there will be a small startup, which will replace us and change our business model.

Right now, it is a CXO agenda and in that sense, there is lot of promise for IT industry, even though there is threat of protectionism. Meanwhile, many opportunities are opening up worldwide. Believe me, India is in such a sweet spot that despite the H1B’s restrictions, today, they cannot afford without India because they don’t have this much of talent available locally. Even if they want to decide to stop these many H1Bs, the companies will figure out how to manage because it is not about salary alone, it is about getting that much talent. Therefore, they will be quite well placed in terms of sustainability. Whenever you hear IT industry is going down, don’t worry, it is still growing at eight per cent. Let me put it in this way, when you are a $20 Billion company and growing at 20%, you are still adding only four billion of actual and 4 billion translating into number of people, you are still adding x number of people.

When you are $144 Billion industry, which is growing at eight per cent, you are talking of close to 12 billion additional addition which translates to x number of people,

“When you talk about driver less cars, it is due to artificial intelligence. We are all consuming cloud based technologies, whether it is the e-mail or Facebook “ September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 27

NHRDN Career Fest 2017 Pics: Yusuf Khan

so there is still a significant opportunity available in IT industry or the area of Cloud, mobility and social, all these are opening up a huge opportunity for IT industry. If you read the annual report of an IT company, you will figure out that they all are talking about Cloud or digital disruption.

After demonetisation, India has become the highest digital payment adoption country in the world. All this is powered by technology in the IT industry.

Current trends in IT industry

Today, almost all businesses will have some data available in the connected world, which indicates progress. Firstly, you don’t even realise that your personal data is being tracked by different companies, for instance, your location, age, language and other such parameters. I met a friend who is from Google and their job is to go to various advertisers and sell collective data, they don’t sell individual data. There are marketers who will give you a very specific advertisement based on where you are, what is your age, what is your language, etc.

There are many parameters. Imagine if this data is leaked, the company’s reputation will be in a grave danger. That is how it becomes a CEO agenda– how secure is our environment, which means that IT is extremely relevant.

How is IT creating an impact?

In 2011, IBM developed a computer to play a game of Jeopardy! It is kind of Kaun Banega Crorepati type of a game, very popular game in the US. There, they put this computer with two past winners who were extremely intelligent and who have proven themselves. At that time, Watson Computers had a supercomputer, which was able to answer in natural language. The interesting part was the computer can do all of this and there are various other companies who work in this same field. IBM had that early lead, we developed this computer, and it can now do humongous tasks. We signed up with Manipal Hospital in India for cancer assessments, that being said, more than one lakh papers are published on caner every year. Traditionally speaking, what do you mean by an MBBS. They have studied medicine long back and they prescribe same medicines year over year. While the medical field is continuously updated, one cannot prescribe same cancer medicines over a long period, you are not talking about cough and cold, you are talking about life and death. So the Waton’s Computer assists doctors in Manipal Hospital to find out the most probable and the

best treatment for cancer. It will not replace the doctors but assists them. Today, doctors at Manipal Hospital treat patients at various parts of the world through telemedicine. Firstly, the computer reads the available content, understands it, processes it and based on the reports, the computer will tell the best treatment to the doctor. This cognitive or artificial intelligence is being applied in various fields. Medicine is one of the active field right now because it is still emerging.

When you talk about driver less cars, it is due to artificial intelligence. IBM even said that ‘We are a cognitive and cloud company’. We are all consuming cloud based technologies, whether it is the e-mail or Facebook, etc. Earlier what used to happen in schools and colleges was you would use computers at the computer laboratories. It used to restrict from what you can do. Cloud environment is changing that equation; it is changing in terms of how fast you can develop applications. Today, any project, which takes more three months, is not considered viable. People want small projects, which will not take much time; all this is possible due to cloud. In India, IBM did a project based on cloud with an animation company. That company works with lots of Indian movies and overseas as well. You might have heard of Karan Johar’s movie, Bombay Velvet, in that movie all the historical locations of 40s and 50s were created by this company. They engaged with IBM to create a huge animation for one of the largest theme park for Universal Studios in USA. The

“Today, any project, which takes more three months, is not considered viable.

People want small projects, which will not take much time; all this is possible due to cloud”

28 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

project was done on cloud in Universal Studios.

The project consumed more than 1000 servers for three months, and they don’t own anything. In that way, cloud is extremely important.

Due to Internet of Things (IoT), all the devices are being connected through a small sensor. Many devices are connected with other devices. For example, we had signed up a project with Whirpool, in which, every device of Whirpool comes with a sensor, which tells which part has failed and which part is likely to fail. There are going to be so many sensors, which are going to connect devices more than there are laptops or mobiles.

Who can join IT?

Whenever you talk about IT industry, first thing many of students in college will think that ‘IT industry means it has to be export’. If I have arrived in US then I have accomplished the goal’. That is not the case. Those who are working in domestic are close to the customer and they develop much better skills as compared to those who are doing project, which is onsite and doing some mundane work. IT industry is not just this, there are multiple small companies and because of these small companies and cloud, I think there are opportunities maybe for a small startup to become a worldwide leader.

When Facebook acquired WhatsApp, WhatsApp had 55 employees worth $19 Billion of valuation. Wipro with 1,50,000 people has $17 Billion of valuation. Fifty-five people are driving more value than 1,50,000 people are. I see that tomorrow there will be companies who will generate similar amount of wealth and value for everyone, including employees and other stakeholders.

People think that if you are not from a big college, you can not get into IT industry and there is no point in joining IT industry.

One important thing you should keep in mind

is that IT industry is not going down, more industries are becoming technology companies. Ford Motors has gone to the extent saying that, it wants to be a technology company than a car company.

Across industry, there will be technology components so that way IT industry has a huge potential.

Career growth

understanding technology for he/she to be successful. For example, those who have worked in manufacturing companies like Siemens or L&T, they can also join, because the IT solutions are for specific business requirements.

In addition, those who are CA (Chartered Accountant) or from commerce field, they also bring value in IT and they can be assistant analyst or a functional consultant.

They are the people who understand the business and they will translate that requirement for someone to program it. Infrastructure is another vast field, which earlier used to be a very domestically focused field but since last five years, there are companies who do remote management of infrastructure.

When I say infrastructure, it means the computer’s hardware, which is installed somewhere else.

Indian companies are managing out of India because even in a cloud era, you have servers and storage units and you need someone to manage it and because of internet, we have that advantage.

You can manage servers from Mumbai or Bengaluru or from any part of the world. You can be a security specialist of all this spread out network.

There is a famous story of two brothers who started as ethical hackers and later made millions by selling their companies back to back. Security is a high growth area, so those who are intuitively into that, they are interested in how the stuff works, a kind of detective mindset. There is huge potential in that field too.

“Please don’t keep in mind that if you are not from IIT or an engineer you will not have a great career.

Today, because of cloud and internet many resources are available for doing what you like”

As 70% of Indian IT industry is of export, the perception of career growth in India is that he/she will start as a developer then be a project leader and finally become a manager. This is not the case. In fact, there is a trend in the industry of creating a small cross-functional team-it is not about the designation anymore. There is more value to a programmer as compared to a manager. In India, people don’t put lot of efforts on specialising in something. While on the other hand, I find so many people who are working in US, they will do programming for a very long period and they are very good at it.

In today’s world, the focus is on good programmers. Those who love programming they need not have formal education. I will explain with an example, one of the most successful startup from India is called Zoho. This company from Chennai is one of the few cloud startups, which has scaled to a level, which is recognised worldwide. The reason for that is they recruit students, the students who are underprivileged.

They pay their fees, the students are given a test while they are studying, and in return, students do programming for them. This will help the students to have an early talent. What I want to say is, please don’t keep in mind that if you are not from IIT you will not have a great career in IT. Today, because of cloud and internet, many resources are available for doing what you like.

Don’t think that whatever the technologies I have mentioned, focus only on that, it is never like that. There are companies which do 70-80% of work in the area of traditional IT, where there they still do system management or application maintenance. Do not restrict yourself considering that right now, if I can’t get in those sectors, I will not work. IT is not only for engineers, if you like programming or if you like some of the other fields. IT is for every field.

What are the kinds of roles available?

If you are from sales field, you will know that sales job is everywhere whether it is insurance or IT. The only thing is one should have is a flair for

How do you decide a right job?

First of all you will not always have a choice, when you keep this framework in mind. You will know where you are and you will know what should be done. Look at your job in three pillars, what is the brand? What is the company status–is it a wellknown brand where I am joining, what is the role that I am going to get and what is the salary that I am going to get.

The framework is very easy to analyse and it will help you to analyse your job opportunity. Even if two of these questions are answered then also it is okay. First, if you have worked in big company such as Wipro, TCS or IBM, maybe without a get good salary but you have a good role. Second, you may have a good role and good salary but the company is not very reputed. The company is a startup and it is offering you a stock option and it is offering you a fantastic role then it is good.

On the other hand, the third possibility is you are working in a big company doing small work with a good salary. If you are getting only one of the

above three possibilities then you might always a check that am I in a right company or not? Keep this framework in mind.

How to be successful?

You need three things in order to be successful.

Attitude, knowledge and personal brand.

Attitude

Harsha Bhogle had given a lecture at IIM-Ahmedabad and one of the important thing he said was, ‘the most successful people are not always most talented. If you have more talent then it does not assure you success’. The reason is absolute attitude and sincerity towards work. There might be someone who is more talented than you are but if you have the right attitude, you will be successful.

Knowledge

There are so many changes happening, are you adapting to those changes, are you learning, if you say I have learned Java and I will work only in Java, then you will not be able to survive. Learning never stops.

Personal brand

Everyone has his or her personal brand, what he or she is known for. For example, whatever you post and comment on Facebook and LinkedIn, interviewer might check social media accounts while hiring. Develop your social media profiles and make yourself recognised to as many people as possible.

There is a website called klout.com, where you can check your rank of your social media profile.

Based on social media analytics your profile will get a score from 1-100 (100 being the best score).

It is good to have breadth of knowledge and better if you have depth of knowledge, pick a topic and go and develop in-depth knowledge of it. People don’t want superficial knowledge, they want in-depth knowledge. vineetkapshikar@gmail.com

CC

tadka

Cyber insecurity, continues to threaten Indian businesses Information and cyber insecurity has emerged as the biggest threat to business operations in India, followed by terrorism and insurgency, according to the FICCI- Pinkerton India Risk Survey 2017. Information and cyber insecurity has become more pronounced due to digitisation of various assets and services that are being delivered via Internet and mobile platforms, and the ever-present loopholes that hackers breach upon.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 29

the

cover story

−➢ Dynamic Duo 57←− •Rehmat and Dr Bilal Bhat•

ashmir (a)

Dr Bilal Bhat hails from strife-torn North Kashmir, his childhood spent under the crossfires of a militancy riven, military ridden region. His wife Rehmat hails from Karnataka. But Bilal proved his mettle, as he emerged tempered by the fires, as it were, by securing 10th rank in the prestigious UPSC merit list. Both have their fathers as role models in joining the civil services as well as seeing it as a means to deliver ‘good’ to the people. While Bilal has served in Uttar Pradesh and hopes to join the Kashmir cadre, Rehmat works in Karnataka. How do they grapple with the pushes and pulls of highly demanding jobs and long distance marriage? What is the binding factor? Rehmat and Bilal Bhat share their secret....

By Vinita Deshmukh 30 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

Pics: M. Imran

r ‘For any marriage to be successful one needs patience, adaptability and respect for each other’s thought processes. Two individuals collide at some point and sometimes integrate. It is up to both to work intelligently, for the love for each other' — Bilal September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 31

cover story

B

Bilal Bhat hails from the remote village of Kupwara in the remote border district of Handwara in strife-torn North Kashmir. Until recently, he was the State Forest Officer from Uttar Pradesh. In July this year, he ranked 10th in the All India merit list of UPSC examination and is now all set to be an IAS officer, hoping to get his state cadre. “Words can hardly describe my feelings. I’m on the top of the world,’’ he had told PTI when he passed the prestigious examination.

Speaking to Corporate Citizen, he said, “It is a great feeling because the standards you are judged by in UPSC is high and the success reflects how each and every effort you have put in has paid off. For the last one year it was sheer hard work for me and nothing else. More important was to maintain the tempo and interest throughout the process of the examination.’’

Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of J&K had tweeted: ‘Congratulations to all who passed the UPSC Exam esp Bilal Mohiuddin Bhat, resident of Srinagar for securing 10th position. Well done!’ — Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) May 31, 2017.

Earlier, he graduated as a Veterinary Doctor. His wife, Rehmat Bhat, has recently been appointed as Assistant Director with the tourism department of the Karnataka government. Like Bilal’s father, her father too is a former civil services officer, but of Karnataka government. They have an infant daughter, Mariam. Due to Bilal’s training period, which will shortly begin in Mussoorie before he joins the IAS, and Rehmat to serve in Karnataka, they will have a long-distance marriage for some time. This young and dashing couple is not worried though, as they have family support to look after their baby.

It is worth considering Bilal Bhat’s achievement against the backdrop of 32 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

the state he hails from. His home town is in Kupwara district where Army base camps are constantly under fire by the militants. According to the Economic Survey 2016 presented recently by the Jammu & Kashmir government, the state lost `16,000 crore due to violence during the 2016 summer months. This, besides laxity in governance, and government schemes and infrastructure projects not getting implemented. Due to long drawn curfews, particularly between July 2016 and November 2016, the economy also suffered due to low tourism and industrial activity.

A news report of 2007 on the website www.jammu-kashmir.com, it is pertinent to be mentioned here, as it was during this period that Bilal Bhat was growing up. The heart rending report says: “For a Kashmiri mother, the uncanny apprehension about the safe return of her son or daughter during the last 17 years of conflict has never abandoned her while seeing them off in the morning for the day's work. Kashmiri mothers have a typical style of seeing off their wards. Prayers gush out in abundance when a son or daughter leaves the home in the morning, asking the mother: Mouji Bahai Narai. (Mom, I am leaving).

“Those thousands of mothers, grandmothers and spouses, who had to come to terms with the most agonising experience of receiving the dead bodies of their loved ones, have unfortunately seen their apprehensions turning to be a reality. Public places in Kashmir like open fields, bus terminals, roadsides, residential areas and recreational spots have witnessed the dance of death over these years caused by variegated ogres in the form of cross-firing incidents, grenade attacks, bomb blasts and landmine explosions.

“The official records reveal that 5615 IED blasts, 11,660 grenade explosions, 786 rocket attacks, 14,826 random firing incidents and 21,309

‘I was exposed to the hard realities very early in life. Maybe that has helped me to attain emotional maturity at a younger age and I viewed the world in a different way as compared to those in stable areas' — Bilal cross firing incidents have occurred over the last 17 years of unceasing conflict. Kashmiris have seen their public places shrinking for them with meshes of barbed wire crisscrossing on the roads, bunkers erupting everywhere and security men flaunting their weapons at every possible place; roadsides, check-posts, streets, street-crossings, pavements, traffic junctions, near schools, hospitals, shrines, tourist spots, in and around rice fields, maize fields, vegetable fields, orchards and where not.’’

Corporate Citizen caught up with Rehmat and Dr Bilal Bhat for an in-depth interview on their personal and professional success, marriage and balancing work and home life.

On both opting for the civil services

Bilal Bhat: Well, I was inspired by my father. He was in the Kashmir services. I spent my childhood in a conflict prone district. I was born in a village of Haripura in Kupwara where militancy is rampant. Then we shifted to Srinagar where I did my schooling in Minto Circle. My childhood days have been full of colours of love, social fear, celebration, strikes, curfews, shutdowns. I was exposed to the hard realities very early in life. Maybe that has helped me to attain emotional maturity at a younger age and I viewed the world in a different way as compared to those in stable areas. But all this helped build the needed determination for my career and goal in life.

I always thought of the common man who is unaware of the outside world and often the victim of the turbulence in our state. So, there was this desire in me to bring administration to the grassroots level and deliver effectively.

The civil services give you the required platform to work in areas that

touch the lives of many. After all, in life one needs to become relevant to the society along with achieving personal growth. This service gives you the opportunity to be dynamic and work in different challenging areas that are basic to the survival of the society.

Rehmat Bhat: My father was also in the civil services, in Karnataka. I was greatly inspired by the way he worked, his energy and proactive lifestyle - all my inspiration came from him. He has the rare capability to make any good idea work, especially the one that benefits people at large. Civil service is one of the distinguished services of the nation and we need talent, energy and intelligent, hardworking officers to move this government machinery. I feel it is one way to contribute to better the life of others and an opportunity to apply intelligence and potential for a good cause.

Experiences as young officers

Bilal: I was undergoing training in Dehradun, after which I was posted to Gonda in Uttar Pradesh. I dealt with social forestry and related issues.

I learnt a lot about the nature of work there. I initiated several events like involving the local community in forest fests. I arranged bird watching during winter for school children and educated them briefly about the importance of wildlife, forest and the environment. So I enjoyed working in the Kuana Forest Range there. The bad experience was the connectivity issue there. It was difficult travelling, but a great learning experience.

My cadre for forest services was UP so I know about the forests there.

In Kashmir, I feel the forest is mainly in Kashmir whereas Ladakh Region has less forest. Also, compared to other states, the forest as such is intact in Kashmir. There is no major destruction done, either to the wildlife or forestry as compared to the rest of India.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 33

cover story Cost of Conflict to the State of J&K in general terms J&K State is a hilly state. Its net area (in the Indian part) is 1,01,387 sq. kms. Its population (2011 census) is 1.25 crore. The forest cover of J&K State is 20% of its total geographical area (comparable). The density is 124 people per sq. km.

Its Gross State Domestic Produce (GSDP) (at constant prices 2011-12) for 201516 is `91,806 crores and the per capita income (NSDP 2015-16) is `57,858. The growth rate is 7.79% over 2014-15. The composition of GSDP (2015-16) is as under:-

Composition of GSDP 2015-16 (Rs in Cr) Primary Sector (Agriculture): `13,893 (making 15.89% of the GSDP) Secondary Sector (Industries): `23,710 (27.11%) Tertiary Sector (Services): `49,848 (57.00%) Now, let us compare the economic progress of J&K State with sister state Himachal Pradesh, which is not a conflict area state:- Its total geographical area is 55,673 sq. kms with population of 68,64,602 as per the 2011 census. The density is 123 people per sq. km. Its forest cover is 20% of the geographical area.

The GSDP of Himachal Pradesh for the year 2015-16 at constant /Base 2011-12:-

`95,929 cr. Per capita income (NSDP 201516) is `1,11,977. The growth rate is 7.72 % over the previous year.

Composition of GSDP of state of Himachal Pradesh:Primary Sector (Agriculture) 15.44% Secondary Sector (Industries) 39.70% Tertiary Sector (Services) 44.86% Conclusions from the comparison:J&K State is trailing behind in the following indicators:GSDP (Constant) less by `4123 cr (2015-16) NSDP (Constant) less by `2263 cr (2015-16 (The above information is sourced from Kashmir Life.

The link is: http://kashmirlife.net/kashmir-economicsuncertainty-conflict-129154/)

‘The civil services give you the required platform to work in areas that touch the lives of many. After all, in life one needs to become relevant to the society, along with achieving personal growth. This service gives you the opportunity to be dynamic and work in different challenging areas that are basic to the survival of the society’ — Bilal Rehmat: I have been selected as Assistant Director Tourism this year.

Earlier I was Deputy SP, Karnataka Government. I have still not started work in the new assignment. But I feel there is great potential to attract tourists - both national and international-because Karnataka has one of the best medieval temple architectures, sea shores, wildlife in the Western Ghats and is a hotspot for several species. It also has salubrious climate and great connectivity. It has metros and smart cities that make the stay for tourists a pleasure. Moreover the luxurious train tourism is another attraction for those who love to have a glimpse of life in India along with the travel.

Jab We Met

It may not have been a love marriage, but like they say, marriages are made in heaven and this union is indeed a true representation. Says Bilal with pride, “Ours was an arranged marriage, arranged by the elders, but it was love at first sight, followed by great chemistry and blessings from the Almighty.’’ Adds Rehmat, “I feel the arranged marriage instantly turned to love and I feel great about it.’’

What did they like about each other? Says Bilal, “I feel both of us are crazy about good work. Both of us are imperfect and strangely share the same qualities; the only difference is that our timings are happily different. Like, when I am impatient, my wife is calm. And when she is stubborn, I am easy going. So it is divinely fixed by the Heaven Above.

And she has been my source of strength throughout my struggle.’’ Agrees Rehmat, when she says, “Yes, I agree there is nothing like I have some qualities and he has another set. It is just the perfect timing. He has always supported, encouraged and motivated me to be myself and that is why I am able to evolve as a better version of myself each day.’’

34 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

She further states, “Dr Bhat has this great quality of making things light for me by just laughing at it. He is humble, caring and has a great sense of humour. He is an eleventh-hour person and so hurries up at the end, while I am a slow and steady planner. As he says, it is divinely matched, so no issues.’’

Bilal proudly says about Rehmat, “She is methodical and disciplined in her lifestyle. She thinks in many different dimensions and manages

me well. Her energy and activeness motivates me to do more for her.

All dislikes turn to likes when two people care enough and trust each other. So it gets fine in the end.’’

What is it that keeps your marriage going?

Says Bilal, “For any marriage to be successful one needs patience, adaptability and respect for each other's thought processes. Two individuals collide at some point and sometimes integrate. It is up to both to work intelligently, for the love for each other.

Says Rehmat, with a twinkle in her eyes, “Yes, I agree because we are brought up in different cultures but different people with different views can make the journey complete and beautiful. Both need to have mutual understanding and be responsible towards each other. I feel youngsters must select their life partners with deep thought and not adopt shallow considerations such as looks, position, etc.’’

How are they managing long distance marriage, with Rehmat in the Karnataka cadre and Bilal all set to go to Mussoorie for training? Says Bilal, “Well, so far we have managed with the help of family, sometimes alone, sometimes together... distances don't bother us anymore.’’

Rehmat, who is a new mother, confesses, “Yes, it is difficult sometimes, especially when you have kids, but I guess it can be managed, provided we know how to handle it. Ambition and career need not be sacrificed for trivial reasons but togetherness cannot be traded off for a career that demands long distances in time and space, because I feel the kids need both parents in their life and that is important for me.”

Baby upbringing

Says Bilal proudly, “My little daughter is the apple of my eye. Right from feeding to putting her to sleep I do everything for her. Parents must not force kids of any age, but let them explore. But parents must create an atmosphere where they pick up the right attitude, right sense of life and imbibe the values we practice, but all by choice and an open mind. I would want my kids to develop the right bent of mind towards self and life in particular. I want them to be strong in values and true to their selves.”

For Rehmat, it is a double whammy. Says she, “Well, in terms of parenting, my job is double as I need to be there 24*7 with my daughter, like every mother. Yes, I agree that forcing kids would make them stubborn, educating them enough to instil all the right values is essential and for that both of us need to work to create that environment where our kids grow and learn without compulsion, fear or hesitation.”

Role of bureaucrats

Bilal: We all know the role of a bureaucrat is to deliver to the public at large. Yes, it is true that corruption has handicapped the whole system. Misuse of power and position is seen everywhere. I feel we need more checks and balances, more transparency and a vigilance not just from enforcement agencies but from the civil society. Still, I feel all this is not enough if there is no attitudinal change by all sections of society -- by those who are compelled to bribe, and those who accept the bribes.

Rehmat: The role of bureaucrats is indispensable for the society. From the cradle to the grave we need a system and group of officials to run the chores of public life. Corruption in the system has hollowed it from within. It is like a monster destroying the good work. I feel the new lot that is entering the administration must clean this malaise and maintain professional dignity and integration without falling prey to such shallow practices of corruption or misuse of authority.

Life in Kashmir

Bilal: Well, I must say a paradise resides here: Beautiful landscapes, our climate and our own cuisine and culture with a fragrance of mystic

Dr Bilal Bhat and Rehmat with his parents Mohiuddin and Fatima Bhat and daughter Mariam

Don’t stop at just one profession: Rehmat Intellect is not born in a day. It includes discipline, ambition and the will power to fulfil those dreams. You may think whether I have the capacity to scare someone, but as Deputy Superintendent of Police of Karnataka, I have handled weapons, even AK 47 guns.

You need to sit down calmly and plan out your career.

You should shape your own personality and become relevant to society. I got into police service. At that age it looked nice; I saw reality of life at close quarters. I got out of it and entered the corporate world, which gave me a different perspective.

Thereafter, I went back to Karnataka State services and would now hold the charge of Assistant Director, Karnataka Tourism. Maybe after some time, I would try to get into a business enterprise.

There is a subject called General Studies in UPSC which

will help you in gaining entry into practically all other fields.

You need not stop at just one profession.

I am a daughter-in-law of Kashmir. Every two days there is curfew in Kupwara, where my husband hails from. He has seen conflict from child but that has helped him to come out strong. Students in cities are hardly under pressure; they are in cool comfort as compared to youngsters in strife-torn States like Kashmir.

Students, who are mostly in their early 20's have this emotional balance. Don’t worry about getting a life partner; someone is sure to hold your hand. I’m lucky that I have a wonderful partner. He praises me a bit too much sometimes.

But think of us and our lives in Kashmir. During the floods, we didn’t have power and the Army came to rescue our baby from there.

Students should make a diary and write down all their dreams; even if it mean getting wet in the rains. Fulfil every dream of yours. Make a beautiful plan for yourself.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 35

cover story

‘Central teams, civil groups and activists now realise the harm done to the larger community that has nothing to do with militants or the military. All they need is the system to deliver basic amenities, infrastructure, may be more schools, professional colleges, industries, more connectivity, more employment, health, disaster management−in a nutshell, more work on the ground rather than mere promises’ — Bilal love and splendour. I don't need to give reasons why Kashmir should be our pride in this regard. But yes, there is perennial turmoil and conflict here. Militants and the military both have paused its growth and development.

Are Indians from other states insensitive to Kashmiris?

Bilal: I have met a lot of people from different regions of India. I have seen a lot of sympathy in their heart for the Kashmiris. People are educated and can differentiate between militants, military and the common people. People today understand all sides of the chaos going

Live for today: Bilal Bhat We all have dreams and we should aspire for those dreams by working hard. All of us are different by nature and genetics, so we should identify our strengths and come up with a vibrant idea. We should explore that part for betterment and then even have more than one career.

I have not been closely touched by conflict but the impressions of the Armymilitant conflict has profound impressions on my mind.

However, the dream of doing something was the engine that kept me going.

I am not a professional motivator but words like determination, will power, consistency and hard work makes you into a successful person and I am a practical example of that.

The aspiration of becoming a civil servant kept me going.

My hard work has paid off by determination and hard work – both these qualities can help you crack any examination and you can be on the top of the world.

You should be able to contribute to the society and the nation. Seventy percent of India lives in villages and you should be able to serve that sector. Why not visit a soldier’s village who has gone to Siachen to serve for us?

And be a part of welfare to the village in terms of housing, health, water supply and so on? You will then understand reality and know why we are lagging behind.

Civil services for that matter is a motivation to work for the society and the poor. When you are an IAS offier, you tend to go to people, identify, understand and proactively try to solve those problems.

Of course you should have integrity and honesty.

Do not see too much into the future. Live with full joy and confidence. Goerge Bernard Shaw says that 'may you live everyday of your life.' We have life but living it is a different experience. Very less people who live a positive life. Work towards positivity, for that achievement.

Leadership is not a trait, you can be trained. So work hard towards becoming a good leader.

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on there. The media is open today and every bit is publicized unlike in the 90s, so the issue is getting different viewpoints from the masses everywhere. Central teams, civil groups and activists now realise the harm done to the larger community that has nothing to do with militants or the military. All they need is the system to deliver basic amenities, infrastructure, may be more schools, professional colleges, industries, and more connectivity, more employment, health, and disaster management. In a nutshell, more work on the ground rather than mere promises.

Best places in Kashmir

Bilal: The best places in Kashmir are in its villages. That beauty is still unseen and unknown to many. All that the world sees is a small glimpse, but the real beauty thrives silently in its interiors.

Rehmat: I love the lakes on the higher altitudes that often change their complexion. Sometimes they melt and sometimes freeze. All the places manifest the best geological formation of the era.

The philosophy you live by?

Bilal: Life is simple, let's not complicate it. Destiny is destined, but hard work should be the only visible reality and everything else will follow.

Rehmat: I strongly feel all power bends and nature conspires to give you what is destined, provided we work relentlessly to build ourselves.

Holidays? Any leisurely activities?

Bilal: There are no holidays for us. But yes, I guess we spend a week or two in Pune. I have been travelling so much that home is my favourite place now. I play badminton, cricket, volley ball and tennis.

Rehmat: When you stay in Kashmir, each day is a holiday. My favourite places are Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Doodhpatri , Badam wari and many more. But I like metros too for their malls and cuisines. I play chess, read and walk . vinitapune@gmail.com

CC

tadka

Indians faith in Modi led NDA govt-highest in the world The Modi led NDA coalition government has the confidence of 73 per cent Indians, which the highest in the world according to OECD’s recent ‘Government at a Glance’ report. The United States government led by President Donald Trump secured only 30 per cent of the peoples’ confidence. Greece is at the bottom of the table with a mere 13 per cent of the people’s confidence.

Corporate Trend ponents coming to a sticky end! The foundry had made a record profit. My poster pictured Jhaveri as Mogambo saying ‘Jhaveri Khush Hua!” The initials SB was the symbol for Antimony and that was why he was unwilling to sanction funds!

I am an ardent admirer and advocate of JapaCapt (Retd.) N S Monhanram nese TQC but love to lampoon it in TVS. Three men, a Frenchman, Japanese and American were caught smuggling drugs and sentenced to be beheaded by the guillotine. They were asked to give their last wishes before being executed.

The Frenchman wanted be the first to go with the “French national anthem in the background.

The request was granted. The Japanese wanted to deliver a detailed lecture on Japanese management and TQC. The American, who had heard enough about Japanese TQC for life, requested that he should go before the Japanese and be spared the lecture!

A cartoon on corporate ethics appeared in the Colliers magazine some years ago. The CEO proudly announces to the board, “Gentlemen, a gratifying feature of last year’s operations was that our inflow on kickbacks, was more than our outflow on graft, generating a net surplus!” After attending a short mid-career course on investing, a mid-level manager was loudly holding forth on bears and bulls in a crowded bar. A quiet gentleman sitting close by suddenly passed out. The barman explained, “That is Mr. Warren Buffett.

He is allergic to bullshit.’

Consultants are often the bane of practicing managers. A consultant was engaged by a sick organisation and tried to find out what people were up to. The first man he met said “I am doing nothing.” The second man confessed that In Naval Dockyard Bombay, I compiled a sense of humour and the ability he was fooling around. He got similar answers book of cartoons 'Dockyard as Mario would to see the droll side of any situfrom the third, the fourth and from others. He see it', lampooning how different departments ation is an asset to a manager. wrote a report that there function in the dockyard.

It manifests lateral thinking. At was urgent need for reorA cartoon showed the Lotense moments, a touch of huWhile working in ganisation. There was ducal Purchase Department, mour greatly relieves stress. I have consciously responsible for emergency tried to liven the mood wherever I have worked.

Naval Headquarters plication, with everybody doing the same thing! purchases. Three reputed

(NHQ), I wrote a Working in modern corsuppliers were shown; GenFrom Dilbert skit on how aliens porations is a serious affair. eral Electric, a roadside elecWhile working in Naval Headquarters (NHQ), I trician working under a tree. wrote a skit on how aliens dig up a ‘minutes of a dig up a ‘minutes of A touch of humour lightens the mood. This is an area General Motors, a roadside meeting’ held in the NHQ centuries later. They a meeting’ held in where Indian companies mechanic, with a dirty pail of decoded the obsolete language ‘anguish’ with the NHQ centuries have to make a conscious oil and a tire hanging from a computers. Their computer was somewhat attempt to change. The few tree and General dynamics, foxed by the abbreviations for departments and later who try to enliven the projust a man sleeping on the made educated guesses from the context, with ceedings are frowned upon. pavement. The manager of hilarious results. NHQ became Novel HindWe need to let our hair down once in a way and the department claims that they buy all their stuff quarters. The Chief of Materiel (COM) became learn to laugh. I guess it must be great fun workfrom world-class corporations! the Chief of the Madhouse! The Director of ing with Richard Branson.

In Mukand, I made a presentation on the Naval Construction (DNC) became Director of (Recipient of ‘Vishisht Seva’ medal for his design foundry’s showing, during the annual review Non Co-operation. Electrical Engineers became distinction of INS Godavari (F20), Capt (Retd) conference to the CMD, Viren Shah. I portrayed Expanding Electricians and Marine Engineers N S Monhanram set sail on his corporate sojourn S B Jhaveri, our financial controller, as ‘Mogambecame Minimal Engineers. Fleet maintenance after his retirement from the Indian Navy. Often bo’ the colourful villain from the popular movie became File Movers while Frigate Project bedubbed as corporate ‘turnaround strategist, he ‘Mr. India’. Mogambo portrayed by Amrish Puri came File Pushers. The seven-page skit circulathas been associated with Mukand Foundry Ltd would chuckle and say “Mogambo Khush Hua” ed underground for months and became wildly and TVS Motors Ltd.) whenever he heard good news, usually of his oppopular. Many guessed that I was the author.

Humour

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CII Conference - Future of Jobs

India’s Job Ecosystem

The Implementation Challenges The creation of more and better jobs and livelihood is today an imperative for policymakers everywhere. To look into the employment conundrum in India and discuss the way forward, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), held a conference on future of jobs, recently at Vivanta by Taj President Hotel in Mumbai.

The theme for the conference was “Future of jobs in India: Enterprises and Livelihoods”. Corporate Citizen brings you the session where leaders discussed, what are the critically important 'what to dos' for policy from an analysis of India’s job ecosystem and what are the equally important ‘how to dos’ to accelerate the generation of more jobs and enterprises. The panellists for the session were Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and EVP, Teamlease Services; MS Unnikrishnan, MD & CEO, Thermax Group; Virjesh Upadhyay, All India General Secretary, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS); Ajay Shankar, former Industry Secretary and former Chairman, NMCC, Government of India; and Arun Maira, former member, Planning Commission of India, as session moderator

By Rajesh Rao

38 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

Pics: Shantanu Relekar

W

L-R: Rituparna Chakraborty, MS Unnikrishnan, Virjesh Upadhyay, Ajay Shankar, and Arun Maira

We understand that jobs will be created by growing globally competitive enterprises, when they are provided with a supportive ecosystem, when they learn to do new things and then learn to do them better than enterprises elsewhere. The Government has an essential role to play as policies positively shape drivers of enterprise formation and growth. But more important, the government of developing countries must create conditions for enterprises to sustainably learn and grow faster than their competitors from other countries.

The Essence of Industrial Policy

Arun Maira: The industrial policy until the late 1980s and early 1990s, was considered as a good thing, among all policy makers around the world except the USA. But a country needed an industrial policy. Then came the Washington Consensus and it said industrial policy is like the State ruling something, you have to leave it to the market and future, and industry will emerge. If you are talking about the need to add more industry in this country, you want the pol-

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 39

CII Conference - Future of Jobs "Time is running out, you have to get results much faster. For faster reforms and policies, we need to have agreements among each other much faster. To have agreements among us much faster, we need to listen to each other much better"

Arun Maira

icy to do that, but another view is, no you can’t have an industrial policy, because that will be like going back.

But the belief that industrial policy requires you to specify particular industries and put government support only behind those industries-it’s a matter of priority and choice.

But then nicer learning emerged for us when we asked the people who are really looking at how Japan or South Korea did and that’s when the thesis came up that industrial policy is a system of learning—societies learn to do something that they could not do before.

They develop capabilities that they did not have before and as they developed those capabilities, they get more value, get more wages and there is growth in the economy also. So it’s a process of collective learning and acquisition of capabilities—that is the essence of industrial policy.

China has grown very well in industry, as we know it has become factory of the world and so there is a temptation. Deng Xiaoping's view on how industrialisation happened was, “We will cross the river by feeling the stones”. There is a great message in the metaphor that we are going to be doing something we have never done before, don’t even know the exact path to it, but we are together going to cross it. The feet underneath the water are the industries and enterprises; they are actually building the movement. We the policy makers and thse at the top, better take the signals when we can and instruct the weight of the body to move leftright, make sure we don’t slip and move faster as we go across. In China the ability of those at the top to coordinate all the parts, was very strong. We don’t have the central wing as that,

with the power to control. So lateral coordination is another perspective of industrial policy.

Why does the country want an industrial policy? Not for the sake of having industry, it’s for the sake of creating livelihoods, jobs and welfare for citizens. Well now we don’t mind saying we need industrial policy, because we need jobs. If that is so, then the people who are going to work in the industry, how they will get the skills, how they will be treated and considered, is an essential part of the industrial policy.

So, labour policy is one policy which cannot be separated from industrial policy, if your objective is to create employment and livelihood.

case of smart industrial policy. So, government on date did two things—it cost government practically nothing. Firstly, government liberated our IT sector from prevailing environment of our telecom connectivity and in software parts put public money to create telecom towers, which gave the IT industry real time and instantaneous connectivity with its markets.

The second thing government did was, treated IT industry as recognised services and export industry, and for the IT parts they gave full benefit of duty free imports, for both goods and services.

The thing is that unless we are able to get into this focused discussion, which is pragmatic, sober and serious about different segments, we will be at the micro level mantras. So, we need to get the debate beyond ideology, into where we can succeed, how we can succeed and will do what it takes to succeed. And then, I would suggest we need only two things—we will not violate our treaty obligations, and other than that we would do justice, on anything. We worship the success of China, but the fact is in 1989-90 we were ahead of China technologically in most cases— it’s only 27 years. So why can’t we invest in that and when we want to do that, we need to get back to very hard-headed micro level performance.

My education on this came in the year 1986, when I visited the headquarters of South Korea, they had the presentation of where they were in 1986, where they would be in 1991, where they would be in 2001 and where they would be in

India’s challenges in creating Industrial Policy

Ajay Shankar: Because we were colonised, we have still not become fully free, I mean independent in our own thought process. So, we tend to pick up global patterns and subscribe to them very strongly. If we look at our economic history, we embraced centralised planning, micromanagement in the economy, and public sector commanding hikes when it was fashion across portfolios. But, by the 1960s it was quite clear that industry is important. Then came the Washington Consensus that the State should be dropped—we embraced that and we still embrace it. Coming to the debate on industrial policy, we are not yet able to have a serious conversation.

The methodology has been that IT has prospered in spite of government. The fact of the matter is it is exactly opposite and NASSCOM publically acknowledged it, when they celebrated their 25th year. Now it is a classic

40 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

"Industry and workers both have to find a way—without workers there is no industry and without industry there are no workers.

Unfortunately, in the present frame we are being forced, pulled, pushed—putting us in the existing frame is not possible" Virjesh Upadhyay

2011. There whole psychology was about reversing the colonisation by Japan. So, somewhere around 2011, Samsung wanted to overtake Sony.

An industrial policy has to be smart, it has to realise the reality of topological changes and capitalisation and look at instruments where it will work and work well.

Consensus on Labour Reforms

Virjesh Upadhyay: If it is government and industries only who can provide jobs, again we are making the same mistake. Even today many people in India are self-employed. If we really intend to create more jobs, we have to think that in Indian context, like how we can develop and promote the self-employment sector. If you go with our traditional economy, to our villages and see how it was designed in a given economic situation—you will see in every village with over 100-200 population, there were hardly one-two carpenters, goldsmith or blacksmith. And each one of these self-employed people were growing and living happily. Then we changed it, wherein these traditional structure has all become dependent upon employment—here is the distinction between job and employment. All these villagers now want jobs and they are all migrating to the cities. In this race we have destroyed our traditional economic climate and brought big global companies at our doorsteps. So, industrialisation and industrial policy has some fundamental mistakes and number of ill-effects are before us. We

"Unless we are able to get into this focused discussion, which is pragmatic, sober and serious about different segments, we will be at the micro level mantras.

So, we need to get the debate beyond ideology, into where we can succeed"

Ajay Shankar

are continuously facing the huge crises of unemployment and poverty.

In my school days, I would hear slogan like “Harr hath ko kam milega (Every hand will get work)” and today when my age is 55, I still see the same unemployment and poverty issue. I would say it is because of the basic fundamental defects in the policy designs, we are not reaching the target or the goal we are always talking and expecting. Analysing today’s situation, there is no political will to answer all these and everybody knows that. The political ideologies have ruined the country. At centre or at the state level, there is no will to change the policy or the implementation part to address poverty or unemployment.

Talking about labour law reforms, we are also demanding that it must come. In my view, there is no meaning of having law or having no law, as most of the laws are not enforceable, either there is an issue or lacunae. We trade unions are very open to discuss with industries and with the Government. We also want employment guarantee, social security—over 90 per cent of workers have no social security. We are ready to discuss on these issues. But, unfortunately there is no seriousness at any quarter. We as the stakeholders in the industry are part of the family and every person should share the concern of the other, in the family. I am unable to understand what is going on with the ministry and policy makers, nothing is being delivered. Industry and workers both have to find a way—without workers there is no industry and without industry there are no workers.

Unfortunately, in the present frame we are being forced, pulled, pushed—putting us in the existing frame is not possible. Therefore, rules

need to be changed and in this aspect BMS is demanding complete paradigm change, whether it is the Industrial Policy or Labour Policy.

New Paradigm and Reframing

Rituparna Chakraborty: When you are talking on the subject of ‘Future of jobs’, future of jobs lies in acknowledging the fact that we need to move away from the narrative of jobs and talk more about creating an ecosystem where individuals and youth can create work for themselves and that’s a huge part. May be that’s probably little more longish into the future, a decade or so, but yes there are challenges right now.

There are youth already who are unemployed and what does their future entail.

CC

tadka

Electric-only vehicles get a boost

France plans to ban the sale of any car that uses petrol or diesel fuel by 2040 as a part of its commitment to the Paris climate deal. Ecology Minister and environmental campaigner Nicolas Hulot announced the ban recently. Car manufacturer Volvo has also announced that all of its new models would be at least partly electric from 2019.

While traditional fossil fuel vehicles account for about 95 per cent of the European market, Norway and Netherlands plan to move to electric-only vehicles by 2025. Germany and India have set similar target for 2030.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 41

CII Conference - Future of Jobs

A question was asked to us that you people are so actively advocating labour reforms and if labour reform happens how would you people be relevant, then maybe you are not required.

Some data I would like to share with you—in India 29 per cent of the overall workforce are engaged in some kind of outsourced mode of employment. Globally that figure is somewhere between 5 to 15 per cent. Incidentally, the difference between rest of the world and us is that 100 per cent of that 5-15 per cent is formal work even if it is outsourced and only a meager 1.03 percent of the Indian outsourced stands in formal or organised in that perspective. Here is a simple business argument on this as a response—if India removes the regulatory cholesterol and brings about pragmatic changes around labour reform, 29 per cent of outsourced work will definitely go down. I think it will come down if not drastically, to the 20-15 per cent level. But, even on a flip side the 1.03 per cent formal work even if it goes up to about let’s say 10 per cent, it shall have a huge impact in terms of the dignity of work that we are all expecting for the people who are engaged in the workforce.

The point I want to illuminate is employment benefit. In India today 45 per cent, of a person whose wage is less than `21,000, gets confiscated in the name of some form of mandatory reduction or the other. Which essentially means that there is a 45 per cent difference between chithiwali tankha and hathwali tankha. And if you look deeply into it, I think the answer of 94 per cent of the workforce being informal in this country, lies in this aspect.

I think yes we do need to have a social security structure but there needs to be a lighter structure. Some elements of the social security should be made optional for the employees and not for the employers, so that they can exercise it based on their needs.

And also it will ensure that you are not hostages, to Provident Fund and Employees' State Insurance Scheme (ESIC), for which workers are actually treated as customers. The fact remains today that India is still a hostile habitat for entrepreneurs-for access to capital, access to power, basic infrastructure of communication and transportation of goods and plus labour reforms. Until and unless policy makers focus on these elements, I don’t think we can create an ecosystem where jobs thrive and finally it is about urbanisation.

There is a compelling need-somewhere we sense-that all jobs have to be based in the city and cities are bursting at the seams. India has

about six lakh villages and about two lakh villages have less than 200 people. At this point of time as there is less opportunity closer to home, they have no other option but to move and come to the cities. Practically as a practitioner, we have tried to utilise that balance, we tried to get electricians moving from Orissa and Bihar—these are places where genetically this skills have been transferred—to try and move to states like Gujarat and Maharashtra. We actually packed them in trains, made sure they are boarded and they came and joined as well, but in less than a month, they disappeared. Of course, lodging is an issue, food and social-cultural aspects are there, they would like to go to their hometown, there are compelling reasons of land and how they need to protect the land.

So, it is becoming increasingly difficult to bring about labour mobility, if pay is not substantial for them to survive. I think we should start having debate on our permanent versus temporary—focus on whoever it is in whichever form of employment, do they have work of dignity.

"Future of jobs lies in acknowledging the fact that we need to move away from the narrative of jobs and talk more about creating an ecosystem where individuals and youth can create work for themselves and that’s a huge part"

Rituparna Chakraborty

42 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

The person who has been chauffeuring me around for last two days, just out of curiosity I asked if he owns the car he was driving me around. He said he used to be an Uber driver when Uber came into India and he said he would make 96 thousand rupees a month.

After that, Uber has been changing the commissioning, and he doesn’t find it a viable option anymore. His earning has come down to 40 thousand rupees a month, because of Uber rejigging the rates and commission. Now he has decided that he will associate himself with a rental company, which gives him a wage of around 35-38 thousand a month, but he gets work-life balance. It was fascinating to her that he has the choice to decide the kind of work he wants to choose for himself. He decides to choose whether he wants to earn 96 thousand or 38 thousand rupees a month. So I think, as a country we need to invest in such a system and that will not happen until and unless we increase education. Lot of us are talking about the economy, but we need to make a beginning by making education and education system important. For education, life-long learning is probably the only way that can create work forever and that can happen when people have the ability to pick up skills on the go and adapt according to what’s in demand. Everyone today has a mobile phone, whether it’s in village or city. Unless we build the system where people can learn on the go and pick up and choose the work that they want, I don’t see we moving in the right direction.

Shaping a Better Narrative

"Everything works in a factory based on the trust between the workmen and the supervisor, and not with the general manager, or the vice president or the president, who is sitting in the corner room. So, that trust factor got deleted and somewhere broken"

MS Unnikrishnan: Predominant part of industry believed that workmen are owned by them and they do not need an external intervention. In fact, in late 70s there were company unions and had no umbrella of the political party. I entered the industry in 1982; it was almost at the stage when it was really lifting up. We believed that workmen should be promoted to supervisor, then supervisor can go ahead and become a plant superintendent and some of them also become managers. That’s the culture we started off and we did not look at the qualification because whatever said and done, they were just out of the school and he was brought in and lot of time was invested in training them. I do know that when we had a union, we use to depute a union leader to the moral institute set up by Rajmohan Gandhi, at Panchagani.

Where we wanted to train them how to deal with managers and how to negotiate—unless we train them in how to deal with managers, they may get exploited. So, that’s the kind of level of ownership we had in Pune.

Everything works in a factory based on the trust between the workmen and the supervisor, and not with the general manager, or the vice president or the president, who is sitting in the corner room. So, that trust factor got deleted and somewhere broken when unions started exploiting the collective backing power they had. They would bring factories to standstill, may be in late 90s we are aware of some of the major skirmishes which happened in Pune. Every company had paternal relationship going on between the management and the workmen—then the trust was broken. Once the trust is broken, it is anybody’s gain, so a reverse exploitation started.

Some of us who represent the industry, we do believe that we are equally culpable, as an industry we are equally responsible for what has happened, we can’t say it is only the workmen—some of us not everybody. Lot of industries in this country, do not pay the minimum wages even today. They do not provide harnesses for safety in the factory. There is a differentiation where, the permanent workers have uniforms and others may not even have a uniform. There is no access for canteen facility for some of the temporary workmen. So, you are a good practitioner, good India is limited

MS Unnikrishnan

and bad India is more. We need to be volunteering to ensure that listed company of this country do exactly as the law of the land and there will be difficulties.

Ajay Shankar: We need a more vibrant public debate to shape a national consensus on a few basics. One basic thing is that you cannot be successful in creating jobs or employment, or achieving your full economic potential, unless we move very quickly with our social security.

The second is you cannot have a distinction between management and the workers, because no enterprise can have strength, if the workers are not strong. Again, Germany is a great example to prove that nation building can happen, only if everybody works. So, this antagonistic paradigm that we have, this has to go.

And third, which is very important, where labour reforms become important and reforming the laws. Because we need to look at reforming the laws in two ways—one is the fundamental nature or rights of workers is one part of the story and the other is the regulatory body. The regulatory burden is highest on startups and till we get rid of that, we will not create the ecosystem for job creation in the private sector and through entrepreneurship, in any segment of the economy where there are factories and workers. IT and banking sector have created the maximum number of jobs in the last two decades, why because the employee there is not a worker. So, can we find a consensus that we replicate that in reducing the regulatory burden on startups.

Jobs are moving out of China because of high wages, but the fact is they are not coming to India. We must get them in India, as long as they don’t go anywhere. If they disappear, it is fine, but if they are moving out they must come to

India. And this whole business of freeing entrepreneurship and the employment ability of people to create jobs, without having to being intimidated by the regulatory burden of the state—I think if we get big things right, gradually the smaller things will also get right. Time is running out for India, we need to move very fast, otherwise we face grave dangers in terms of social stability and law and order. You get glimpses of eruption here and there, but it can become much more.

Arun Maria: Time is running out, you have to get results much faster, for which we need reforms, policies and processes much faster. For faster reforms and policies, we need to have agreements among each other much faster.

To have agreements among us much faster, we need to listen to each other much better. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

CC

tadka

Indian Businesses Rapidly Embracing IaaS Indian businesses are rapidly embracing cloud infrastructure (IaaS) to boost performance and innovation levels, said a new research from Oracle - “You & IaaS: The new generation”. The study found that over 79 per cent of businesses in India that are already using IaaS to some extent, say it makes it easier to innovate. Most agree IaaS will have a role to play in their business within 3 years, with 51 % saying they will run most – or all of their business IT infrastructure using IaaS.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 43

Education Stalwart

for

innovation

At the plenary session of the IBAB Startup Bio 2017 held in Bengaluru, Dr Govind Rao, Professor of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering and Director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, spoke on “Disruptive Innovations to transcend health care challenges,” offering the big picture to young start ups and entrepreneurs on what it takes, commitment to innovation, the pitfalls to avoid and the lessons he learnt on his journey

By Geetha Rao

Huge focus on innovation

There’s huge focus on disruptive innovation in my lab at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Our core competence is developing innovation sensor technology. What really drives us is disruptive innovation. We believe in game-changing approaches that can cause paradigm shifts. We are really focused on reducing healthcare costs. We use a highly interdisciplinary approach. Ultimately, what drives us is coming up with technology that has a broad humanitarian impact. I will talk you through some case studies and also some lessons learnt, especially for the young entrepreneurs out there.

Lessons learnt

All the non-invasive sensor technology used in bioreactors came out of my lab. And this was licensed exclusively to Sartorius. That was the mistake. I will never license anything exclusively again as it discourages innovation. It builds walls and prevents others from adopting technology. If you want innovation to flower, you need a generous cross licensing strategy. Take a leaf from an auto industry page book or from the computer industry page book, where many patents are instantly cross licensed. Because what happened with this patent is that it’s reaching all the way to the Federal Court of Appeals because when you license something exclusively, you inevitably get infringers or people who challenge the patent.

(Source - http://research.umbc.edu/otd-news-and-features/)

Thinking out of the box

One day, General Electric’s Chief Engineer Steve Falk visited my lab. He runs GE’s maternal infant care division. Steve kept staring at a poster, which depicted the molecule which changes its brightness as a function of temperature. Excited, he said, “My God, you have the perfect solution for a big problem.” More pre-term babies are being born as women defer childbirth and take fertility treatments. 10% of the babies born are pre-term. A pre-term baby is very delicate. Only way to help it survive is to put it into an incubator. You need to put the temperature sensor on the body to monitor the baby’s temperature. Every day, when you take off the sensor, it’s painful as the baby’s skin is thin. So Steve said, “If you can make that molecule of yours a non-contact temperature sensor, boy, do we have a winning

44 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

From left to right: Robert Caret, Michael Gill, Dan Kostov, Govind Rao at the time of VakSea signing an Express License Agreement with UMBC

product.” The project got funded. Word went up GE’s management chain, and Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE visited the lab. He said you guys have really refined cost reduction to an art form. On the spot, he funded us to find out what the opportunities at the base of the pyramid are.

As a target, we looked at the neo-natal energy triangle, which actually is the energy triangle for any human being. If you get a person’s temperature, his or her glucose level, CO2 and Oxygen profile, you pretty much know his/her metabolic status. So we embarked on an ambitious development programme-this was the glucose binding protein that our lab had been studying for a number of years. What’s unique is that it’s an ABC transporter protein and so it is exquisitely sensitive to glucose. Notice the binding affinities are on the micromolar levels and in blood and

All the non-invasive sensor technology used in bioreactors came out of my lab. And this was licensed exclusively to Sartorius. That was the mistake. I will never license anything exclusively again as it discourages innovation. It builds walls and prevents others from adopting technology

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 45

Education Stalwart you have millimolar levels of glucose, so it’s a thousand fold more. That compared to glucose oxidase makes it even more sensitive. Currently, getting a baby’s glucose is like sticking the heel of an adult with a 2-inch blade. The nurse squeezes the baby’s foot like a lemon, and gets a drop of blood while the baby’s screaming. We said if the baby’s skin is so thin, maybe if we put some buffer on the skin, we should be able to extract enough glucose and make a measurement without a blood draw. That’s the key innovation.

We’ve now started automating the device. Our preliminary papers show the babies are seeing a lot more glucose flux. It’s hard to get permission for trials on babies. Even with adults, we are seeing enough glucose and we built instruments in the lab to measure the glucose, all compact, all low cost, and we have done some validation studies. The data we have is given from volunteers.

Game changers

Work on to develop wearable system to track asthma triggers in pediatric patients

Abdul Kalam’s 20-20 talks of India is one. Unfortunately, diabetes is also one of them. Even 10 Biocons cannot meet the demand of a 100 million diabetics. Clearly, disease management, disease prevention’s a sweet spot. If we can have an automated glucose sensor that regularly charts the population to see when diabetes is coming in, early detection can help manage it through diet and exercise. Similarly, for ventilating a baby.

When a baby is in an incubator, they put oxygen in but the levels are not monitored. So you can have extremely serious consequences due to too much oxygen or too little oxygen.

Earlier, for a blood draw, the existing sensor required heating the skin to 42 degrees. So, taking the measurements meant burnt skin. We and came with a new way of taking the measurement.

We exploited Fick’s law, the fact that oxygen and CO2 must be readily diffusing across the skin. This is the key innovation-a hollow sampler like stethoscope is put against the skin, you flush it with nitrogen. That gives you a zero background. You flip a valve and circulate the gas diffusing across the skin past an oxygen and CO2 sensor. In a few seconds, you can measure the slope of the curve. That tells you the rate of diffusion of oxygen and CO2. This gives arterial blood gas concentration.

We developed a low cost instrument, trained the nurses in the neonatal care unit. The sampler is held against the baby’s skin, and right off the bat, you can see how beautifully this non-invasive measurement correlates with an actual blood gas measurement. This will be game changing.

We have also started expanding this for adults.

For a marathon runner, you can easily monitor the status of your muscles, how good they are

(Source - http://news.umbc.edu/helping-kids-with-asthma-breathe-easier/)

performing with your CO2 measurements. Our students are coming up with a compact device. It also works for diets. It’s very sensitive to the food you eat. If it’s a glucose shot, then your CO2 through your skin goes up. With a high protein, you have a more modulated response. This can potentially help manage your diabetes and respiratory diseases. Since asthma is an enormous problem in the world, especially in the poorer sections, we are coming up with a network sensor of measuring the CO2 by low cost sensors.

I visited Nandan Nilekani to see how he can ride the digital India wave to incorporate all smart sensors and add value to preventive healthcare. Aadhaar’s just a starting point. Imag-

ability to make biologics and from molecules at the point of care in under 24 hours. Geoff said he was tired of the pharma business model, the whole cold chain and then charging highly, when you know it’s not that expensive. He wanted to disrupt that. We were one of the three teams that put together the proposal. The goal was to replace a conventional pharmaceutical plant and replace that 1 acre footprint and several hundred million dollars by a compact device the size of a suitcase.

I thought it was ridiculous. It takes 24 hours to grow a cell culture. But, this is DARPA. Because of them, GPS exists, the Internet exists. Our partner Thermo Scientific commercialised the CHO cell free extract. You take your cells and strip off the nucleus from the cell, everything else stays in the extract. So this mixture can synthesise protein as soon as you add DNA. What’s more amazing was the ability to take this extract and freezedry it. The cold chain is gone. You can make your biologic if you want and you don’t have any issues of having the cold chain. This extract is remarkably stable. It’s like milk powder. Just add water, add buffer and away you go. Students were so excited, they just added a GFP gene to it with a buffer. And you can see right after that the vial glows green while the one in which there was no DNA still stays clear.

Then, the students said, what if we don’t control the temperature? What if it’s a soldier who uses his or her body heat to produce the DNA and that also works? Imagine, you have a vial that you can reconstitute and get protein expression under 8 hours.

That will be a paradigm shift.

We were two years ahead of schedule. We did our first field demonstration for Geoff Ling. He

I visited Nandan Nilekani to see how he can ride the digital India wave to incorporate all smart sensors and add value to preventive healthcare. Aadhaar’s just a starting point. Imagine if you could get digital health integrated into and its game changing ability ine if you could get digital health integrated into and its game changing ability.

Paradigm shifts in health care

I met army doctor Colonel Geoffrey Ling, Retd., one of the world’s leading experts on traumatic brain injury. Geoff served five times in Afghanistan and Iraq; he’s also the brain behind DARPA’s (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) prosthetic arm-an amazing mind controlled prosthetic, an arm controlled by a computer that translates brain impulses into motion. When in Afghanistan, he observed long lines of villagers seeking medical treatment everywhere, and wanted to do something about it. He wanted the

46 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

ruptions in this. He says, “Healthcare is the only space where I see people spend more and more and get less and less. I am going to change that.”

Developing tech to impact the poor

Another thing that drives us, and me personally, is that all of us can afford much of the day to day basis medicines. But if you look at a map of the world normalized to people who live on less than a dollar a day, that’s about a billion people.

Extend that to 10 dollars a day, the map won’t change much. That’s 5 billion people. The only way we can reach them is by what I call micro-retail healthcare. Take a page from the Hindustan Lever selling single use shampoo, and deliver things really cheaply, really efficiently. That’s what we are trying to do, develop technologies.

Another thing I learnt was the horrific notion of infant mortality. Every 10 seconds, a baby dies.

That’s tragic, more so because it is preventable.

They die because of hypothermia or sepsis, two leading causes. So, one of my class projects was to create a low cost incubator. I assigned the students to design, and we built the first generation.

I took them on a fact finding mission, paid by Jeff, to go survey the rural healthcare landscape.

brought an army medic, Dr. Robert Mabry. Now it is almost ready to make injectable therapeutics. Our video shows that in 20 minutes, you are purifying the protein that’s potentially ready to inject into the population.

You can see it binding to the column packing and then eluting. It’s almost like cooking a meal. It’s beyond Star Wars. At this stage, the FDA emerging tech team is giving us feedback. Obviously, everything’s going to be a single use system. It’s going to be a highly controlled system. It’s like a Prof. Govind Rao with Maryland Secretary of Commerce Mike Gill and Brady Walker VHS cassette. Put it in the (Source: http://news.umbc.edu/campus-visit-by-md-sec-of-commerce-mike-gill-focusVHS cassette recorder es-on-growth-of-umbc-research/) and eight hours later, your protein’s ready to inject into patients.

This is a valuable lesson for you young startup Those of you interested in rare diseases - the guys out there: “Go see for yourself.” sad truth is no one makes stuff for them as there’s Another thing I learned-don’t talk to the exno economic incentive. What we have done is to perts. Engage someone who can directly talk to completely change the paradigm. Anyone who the consumers. I learned that women communiwants to produce any protein can do so at the cate very differently with other women. We had same cost. Cost is no longer an issue. That will a translator. She established a rapport with other be a game changer. Because as a small biotech or women. The kind of information they gave: they start-up, if you want to make a clinical trial, you said it’s not the doctor you must convince, it’s the can find a CMO or someone help you to make mother-in-law, she decides things. No marketing the stuff or you can make your own. Or get a phytext will ever tell you that; so, get the last mile insician who can run a 20-patient clinical trial and formation yourself. They also said they had highyou can get much greater velocity. It’s going to do end incubators, but no service for them - they to medicine what Aadhaar is doing to banking. were lying in disrepair. So our incubators can be When Zika became the panic of the day, we easily serviced and they need something cheap got the gene synthesized. The conventional proenough to send the mom and baby home in. The cess would have taken a couple of weeks - we typical rural women having babies are daily lacould make the Zika antibody in under 8 hours. bourers. If they don’t work, they don’t eat. Send Geoff brought John Sculley, former CEO of the baby home with them, its chance of survival’s Pepsi and Apple to the lab. He’s interested in disbetter because they can’t stay in the hospital for

two months. So, we came up with a cardboard incubator that will cost less than `300. And have a fixed unit servo controller for about `20,000.

We are now allying with Indian hospitals for clinical trials. Many want to buy this. But I won’t sell until the safety trails are done. We are partnered with Phoenix Medical Systems. I’m trying to contact the Karnataka state government because my students keep developing sensors. They are under-graduates, so I have a low cost innovation model - my outstanding engineers work for free. Nobody can compete with that. My students are build next generation sensors. The idea is to transmit the image and the weight of the baby to a centralized facility so you can check the baby’s weight gain. This could be a game changer if piggybacked on India’s IT infrastructure. Even with a shortage of physicians you can come up with an app like a Tinder for a more noble purpose.

Ingredients for startup success

People always ask me for words of wisdom. Here are some: Get the right people. Without them you can’t do anything.

Make sure they share the same core values Keep it highly interdisciplinary Make sure you have a flat management structure.

Make sure you never tell anyone “this is not how we do things around here.”

Make sure you avoid the pride of expertise Question authority. The nurses and midwives on the frontlines taught me that experts told them keeping the baby in the hospital is the only possible solution. But they said no, send the baby home.

Integrity. Never compromise on that Leave your comfort zone. Stretch yourself.

Come up with new contact points. That’s the only way you will grow Recruit policy makers. It was fantastic that you had the Secretary present here this morning.

As people in the technical side, we are dismissive of politicians and policy makers. Big mistake. They are the ones who can help you when you need. I have a steady stream of visitors - the Commerce Secretary from Maryland loved the incubator. Two of his grandchildren were premature babies. Other visitor was Norm Augustine, CEO of Lockheed Martin, who’d come by to see what we were doing in innovation tech transfer and how universities can do so more effectively.

The Head of the National Institute for Drug Abuse also visited us, worried that 50,000 Americans die every year due to prescription drug overdose. These are not drug abusers, but people who use prescribed painkillers; basically, the heart stops beating. Our sensors could give an early warning when someone stops breathing because their CO2 level will spike. geetrao@gmail.com

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 47

Loved & Married too

It is not often these days that a college romance fructifies into wedlock. Corporate Citizen unlocks the story of love that has culminated into marriage, for we believe in the stability of a relationship and family unit. We bring to you real-life romances that got sealed in marriage

The artbeat of a

marriage

F

Both commercial artists and advertising professionals, they are united by a singular love of art, design, photography and visual communication. Rugwed Deshpande, Director, Setu Advertising, and his better half Shilpa on the journey of their marriage

By Kalyani Sardesai

ifteen years is a long enough time for a relationship to transit from frothy young romance to comfortable camaraderie. The early years of discovery, adjustment and struggle gradually give way to a familiar yet rewarding routine.

Rugwed and Shilpa Deshpande (both 39) would know all of this and more as they've spent most of their adult lives together.

With Shilpa all set to branch out as an entrepreneur with "Vismaya", her new line of hand-crafted bags, independent of the family's advertising firm, it is a proud milestone for a relationship rooted a shared affinity for design and art. "This is one factor that remains constant despite the march of time," says Rugwed.

Back to the beginning

This love story was scripted on the backdrop of Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya, one of Pune's most reputed fine arts and design college. Though Rugwed and Shilpa were two years apart and studied in different branches of the college, he spotted her on the grounds of the Tilak Road branch that served as a common exam centre for the students of different years. "My first impression: it would be nice to talk to her," reminisces Rugwed. But that wasn't to be until sometime later, as the pace of studies was quite hectic. "I remember asking a friend common to both our groups as to anyone else would be interested in taking up photography as an elective subject. No one did at that point," he says.

So that was that-until the next year, when Rugwed secured admission to IIT Mumbai, for his Masters in Industrial Design course. "The friend got back and told that his friend Shilpa Kulkarni was interested in photography. She was two batches junior-would I help her ?"

Rugwed made the connection instantly-establishing that here at last was a chance to speak to the girl he had liked last year. So despite being in Mumbai, he would make the weekend trip to Pune and the duo would explore the fascinating aspects of photography. "In those days, I was involved with a project that sought to engage volunteers to help the children in orphanages as

these kids deal with several developmental issues due to limited exposure to social situations. She assisted me on it, and we became friends. Gradually, though, the conversation moved on from photography to other things," he says What attracted him most about her was her sheer honesty and straightforward demeanour.

"She is always very clear about what's on her

48 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

mind. I found that quality both endearing and cute. As time went on, and I entered the world of advertising through Setu-thereby being exposed to the world of glamour and strategic packaging-I came to respect this trait of hers even more.

It's such a pure and innocent aspect of her and I wouldn't ever want that to change," he says.

On her part, Shilpa points to his "aura" and

his ability to attract people. "I wasn't a very career-oriented girl, initially. But as I got closer to him, I realised how important it is to utilize one's potential to the optimum. He is knowledgeable, intelligent and creative."

Though their personalities are opposite, they are complementary of each other. "I am the more outgoing one, whereas she is more patient. She likes to go with the flow, whereas I am pretty analytical. I guess it works well this way," he says.

Despite so much going for them-including their Maharashtrian roots-it wasn't smooth sailing for their nuptials. "Our horoscopes did not match and our families were worried. They

The Pillars of a Marriage • Having common interests and shared passions helps • Encourage your spouse to follow his/ her dream • Allow those spontaneous moments to happen • Over and beyond horoscopes, it's the effort and honesty you put into your relationship that really makes all the difference

asked us to reconsider. Nevertheless, Shilpa and I decided to go ahead-informed and conscious of the fact that we had to make our relationship work, come what may" he says.

Of home and hearth and balancing work

Initially, Shilpa joined him in the art department

Rugwed and Shilpa

Rugwed, Shilpa, Abeer and Aseem

'One thing we both believe in is exposing the children to a variety of stimuli without limiting them to a particular structure. We want their creativity to grow organically and naturally' — Shilpa at Setu. But two boys-Abeer (11) and Aseem (5) followed soon enough-and she decided to reassess her priorities for a few years at least.

"Advertising is a demanding, competitive field.

As a director in the company, Rugwed's responsibilities require him to keep a killer of a schedule. Client meets, conferences, creative strategies-there's so much to pack in a day. In such a scenario, I thought it's best for one parent at least to be constantly with the children," she says.

Even though she's clearly the more hands on parent, Rugwed chips in whenever he can. "One thing we believe in is exposing the children to a variety of stimuli without limiting them to a particular structure. We want their creativity to grow organically and naturally-through exposure to poetry, theatre and art. Luckily Pune is great for all of this. We watch some great movies together as they are a wonderful source of infotainment. The more experiences they gather, the more enriched their personalities will be," he says.

Apart from this, he is also big on simplifying complex concepts on life and art beyond textbook definitions. "This is essential for the children's growth," he says.

Meanwhile, Shilpa, being the only female in a male-dominated set-up is firm about the boys helping out with house-hold chores. "To that extent, I insist on each one washing their own utensils post meals," she says.

So how do the couples spend quality time given the demands of their schedules?

"Honestly, I would say that quality time is a pretty over-rated concept. These days, we are way too conscious and burdened by it. Any time spent in each other's company, happily and spontaneously, is meaningful and valuable," expresses Rugwed. So be it a pillow fight with the boys-or an impromptu lunch date with Shlipa, he believes that little things add up to the big picture. "When

you invest in these small moments, everything falls into place," he says.

Similarly, Sundays are about coming up with something interesting for lunch and spending time together as a family-without the mobile!

Apart from this, one ritual he does follow is helping her choose bags and jewellery with his keen understanding of design and visual aesthetics. "I quite enjoy shopping for her," he smiles. "It is an activity we both look forward to, and bond over."

Given the pressures of work and two young kids, how do they manage to resolve fights when they happen? "Honestly, we have been together so long that there are hardly any fights," shares Shilpa. "Both of us have our own way of managing the conflict.

While I have always been a great believer in talking things out, over time, I have come to realise that his way of not talking about subjects we don't agree on also has its own set of merits, "she smiles.

With her younger son all of five, Shilpa believes the time is ripe to head back to work-but in a direction slightly different from her previous stints at work. "With some planning and research I have come up with my own line of stylish and well-designed bags. They will be put on online for cataloguing and sale soon enough," she says.

Excited as she is about this new venture, she gives full credit to Rugwed for supporting her all the way. "He is very encouraging of my talent. We both believe that every lady should have something meaningful of her own, beyond home and children, and with Aseem slightly older, I can devote enough time to this new venture," she says.

So, what according to them, are the building blocks of a marriage? While Shilpa would root for trust, Rugwed says respect is the most crucial factor. "When you respect your spouse for who they are, you lay the best possible foundation for a marriage," he says. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 49

Frau Survey

a serious concern in VUCA Today’s businesses are operating in an uncertain economic environment. Popular discontent with globalisation, political instability and slower growth in emerging markets is placing pressure on companies as they seek alternative ways to meet ambitious revenue targets. In an environment like this, how can companies and government identify and curb fraud?

Multinational professional services firm EY has conducted a fraud assessment survey, which looks at countries around the world as they take steps to weed out corruption and corporate fraud. Corporate Citizen presents the results Compiled By Neeraj Varty

50 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

ud Times

Restoring confidence through enforcement Bribery and corruption remains a challenge and business conduct is under greater scrutiny from both regulators and the public than ever before. The majority of the respondents support the strong stance taken by regulators, particularly respondents in emerging markets.

77%

of respondents are supportive of new initiatives to hold individual executives to account for misconduct

63% 52% Africa

India

of respondents believe that regulation has a positive impact on ethical behaviour

Business in an uncertain world

50%

63%

Developed Countries

Emerging Markets

A period of significant and sometimes unexpected political change is spreading economic uncertainty, presenting businesses with new challenges and opportunities in an increasingly disrupted world.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 51

Survey Are you experiencing slower economic growth than expected in your country?

The 2016 US Presidential election and the UK Brexit vote have been widely interpreted as a sign of discontent with the status quo and concern with the impact of globalisation. With further pivotal elections planned for 2017, including Germany, France and Kenya, the outlook remains uncertain. These political changes have been associated with a period of market instability and fears of rising protectionism, applying additional shocks to a global economy already challenged by volatile commodity prices and slowing growth in emerging markets. In our survey, 63% of respondents from emerging markets told us they are experiencing economic growth which is slower than expected in their country, rising as high as 90% in Oman, 85% in Ukraine and 84% in Nigeria. Against this backdrop, the challenges facing businesses continue to mount-these include the incredible pace of technological change, shifts in consumer demands and values, the changing makeup and structure of the workforce and the constant pressure of ambitious revenue targets. Given these significant political and economic changes, it’s not surprising that while overall perceptions of bribery and corruption remain relatively stable, we are starting to see a shift in these perceptions at a country level.

Are you experiencing slower economic growth than expected in your country?

61% of the respondents surveyed from India felt that the country is experiencing slower growth than expected. This percentage is lower than all the other countries surveyed.

79% 78% 61%

Restoring confidence through enforcement

77% of respondents think that prosecuting individuals will help deter executives from committing fraud, bribery and corruption

There has been a significant regulatory enforcement activity over the last 18 months the world over. While countries such as France, India, Russia and Spain have recently introduced tougher bribery and corruption legislation, lawmakers are considering additional legislation in areas connected with security such as anti-money laundering, terrorist financing and cyber incident response, as well as beneficial ownership and tax evasion. The level of support for regulatory activity remains much more guarded among respondents from Western Europe, where the burden of regulation has been greater. In contrast, support for regulation is much more apparent in Africa and India, regions that have experienced recent high profile anticorruption activities, such as the demonetisation of high value currency notes (INR1000 and INR500) in India and the election of leaders on anti-corruption mandates in Africa.

Is regulation having a positive impact?

Eastern Europe

22%

Western Europe

16% 2015

19% 11% 2015

MENA

48% 35%

India

52% 47% 2015

2015

Africa

63% 48% 2015

Africa l Yes

MENA

India

l No

52 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

52% of Indians feel that regulations have had a positive impact in the country.

Africans are the most optimistic with 63% feeling positive, while Europeans are more cynical with only 19% expressing confidence in regulations.

Are employees making ethical choices?

Faced with greater scrutiny from regulators than ever before, organisations need to ask themselves how they can ensure that high ethical standards are maintained by a workforce that may be more motivated by personal gain than by loyalty to the company.

Are senior managers effective in communicating messages about ethical standards?

The survey reveals a noticeable difference in perceptions between senior management and other employees about the effectiveness of communication around ethical standards. Almost half of all board directors and senior managers have heard such messages frequently as compared to only 32% of their more junior colleagues. If messages around ethical conduct are not being heard across the business, how confident can organisations be that their employees are making the right choices?

45%

32%

Is unethical behaviour becoming more acceptable?

1 in 5

respondents would be prepared to act unethically to improve their own career progression

1 in 5

respondents believe their colleagues would be prepared unethically to improve their own career progression

25%

of Generation Y would offer cash payments to win or retain business, against 14% of all other employees

20%

of Generation Y would extend the monthly reporting period to meet financial targets, against 12% of all other employees

Board directors and senior managers l Yes

All other employees

l No

Q. In the last two years, how often have you heard senior management communicate about the importance of maintaining high ethical standards and behaviour when conducting business?

“There is also this tendency of treating corruption as an acceptable norm. We need to fight this perception. Besides use of technology, we need to spread awareness.�-Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, November 2016 The results of our survey indicate that relaxed attitudes toward unethical behaviour and high levels of mistrust among colleagues are common characteristics of today’s workforce, particularly among younger generations.

Respondents from Generation Y (25-34 year olds) are more likely than any other age group to justify unethical behaviour to help a business survive, to meet financial targets and for their own career progression. Seventy-three per cent of respondents from Generation Y feel unethical action can be justified to help a business survive, while 1 in 4 could justify offering cash payments to win or retain business, compared to 1 in 10 aged over 45. Respondents from Generation Y are also less likely to trust their co-workers. While 2 in 5 survey respondents believe their colleagues would be prepared to act unethically to improve their own career progression, this rises to 49% among Generation Y respondents. Strikingly, 68% of Generation Y respondents also believe their management would engage in unethical behaviours to help a business survive.

This generation is the future of our businesses. If companies do not take action now to combat unethical conduct at all levels of their organisations, such behaviours may increase in the future. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 53

Pearls of Wisdom

By Sri Sri Ravishankar

No Wisdom, No Happiness

Everyone is seeking happiness-a happiness which doesn’t turn into a misery, a love which doesn’t turn into hatred. The perfect action that doesn’t turn into anger and frustration. And that which brings the stability within us, which makes our happiness strong, that I call wisdom. Wisdom for life. No wisdom. No happiness

D

o you want to listen to a story?

When Buddha got enlightened, he became silent and angels asked him to talk.

He said, “People who are happy they don’t need to listen to anything. They are happy. They are happy with everything around; they don’t need to listen to anything.

And people who are unhappy they don’t listen to anything. If you try to put some sense into people who are unhappy, they are not there.

They are so embroiled in their own misery. They have closed their ears. Those who are miserable don’t listen to me anyway and those who are happy don’t need me.” So the angels requested him that there are some people who are on the border line. That’s when Buddha started talking.

Those who are happy you can feel the vibrations. You don’t need words to express yourselves. They are so sensitive. They can catch you.

Kids exuberate happiness. They radiate joy. If you ask me, I will tell you that there are those who are happy and they want to share happiness. Nature of happiness is to share. Nobody can say I am so happy, leave me alone. When you are happy you want to share happiness. It’s simple, if you see a nice movie you pick up the phone and call your friend. Nature of happiness is to share. Those who are happy, they share.

This is the first category. There is another category of people seeking happiness. So they seek it in changing jobs, places, cars and gadgets, trying to find happiness. There is a third category who have no hopes of happiness. For them happiness does not even exist. And if they see someone happy, they feel more irritated. Have

you seen such people around? If one of them is happier, the other is irritated.

Happiness is not something, which has left anyone untouched. We all know what happiness is. So there’s no need to define happiness.

It’s really a blunder to define the basics of life.

Because you can’t define it in words. You can’t water it down in definitions. They are much vaster, much bigger and much greater.

You know feelings can never be captured in words. Haven’t you felt that there’s so much you want to express but the words are not sufficient enough? It’s the same with happiness. Happiness cannot be conveyed in words or in gestures. Our being is much larger than our expressions.

Happiness is something that everyone has experienced. But it is very fragile. Now you are happy. Just one nasty phone call, are you still able to keep your happiness? One nasty phone call and your happiness is gone. Your happiness is fragile.

What is it that can make our happiness stronger? I call that Wisdom. Wisdom brings a different context to our life. It expands our context.

Anyone who is not happy, you make them see life from a different context and you can bring a smile back to their face. As the context of life expands, the problems and issues appear smaller and insignificant. So to make your feeling of togetherness, feeling of worthiness become stronger the first thing is expand the context of life. If someone doesn’t get this take them to the planetarium. When they see the light and how insignificant the little earth is in the context of bigger universe, the multiverse, something happens.

54 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15 , 2017

Second is commitment. If you are committed to do something, you don’t care. Whatever obstacles come on the way, you don’t care. Unpleasant remarks may come from people, but nothing detracts you. That is commitment. So strengthening commitment is the second thing.

The third thing is compassion. We are more disturbed by others behaviour towards us. That is why we feel our happiness depends on many other factors.

Someone who is stressed – is unhappy, spreads unhappiness. Why do you have to succumb to it? Instead of getting succumbed to someone else spreading unhappiness say to yourself “I can be in control of myself. I can spread happiness. I can be the source of happiness when I have compassion for others.”

What do you say? Does it make sense? Let me review.

First is expand your context, broaden your vision and then have purpose in life. Focusing your energy on something which you find useful, find your purpose. To me the most meaningful thing is bringing happiness in the lives of people, Instead of running after happiness. You know it runs further away from you. If you stay put, happiness chases you.

Most of the people who are running after happiness, I would say, stay where you are. Just be.

You will find that happiness surrounds you. It must come to you. If you follow joy, misery follows you. If you follow wisdom, joy follows you.

Second is commitment to the greater goals in life.

Then you will be really happy. And the third is compassion. It’s compassion which keeps us in a state of unconditional love, unconditional happiness. Everyone is seeking happiness – A happiness which doesn’t turn into misery, a love which doesn’t turn into hatred. The perfect action that doesn’t turn into anger and frustration. And that which brings the stability within us, which makes our happiness strong, that I call wisdom. Wisdom for life. No wisdom. No happiness.

(This article has been sourced from http://www. wisdom.srisriravishankar.org)

CC

tadka

Most of the people who are running after happiness, I would say, stay where you are. Just be. You will find that happiness surrounds you.

It must comes to you. If you follow joy, misery follows you. If you follow wisdom, joy follows you

Indians among the world’s laziest

Indians are among the world’s laziest ranking at 39th position, among 46 countries around the world, as per a study by Stanford University researchers using stepcounters. India is ranked 39, with people averaging just 4,297 steps a day. The most active are Chinese in Hong Kong, averaging 6,880 steps and worst nation was Indonesia, averaging 3,513 steps a day.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 55

Bollywood biz

d o o w Bolly b e W n i Stars Series The internet is the next big thing, and web based shows are taking the world by storm. Bollywood stars, who were earlier skeptical about acting in television, are much more open to acting in web series, as they know that these shows are watched by the millennials, and it can only boost their movie careers by appealing to a younger audience. This edition, we look at Bollywood Stars who have starred in web based shows

By Neeraj Varty

Priyanka Chopra Priyanka Chopra will be turning producer and possibly starring in a web series based on Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit’s life. New York-based writer Sri Rao has penned the comedy series about a Bollywood star who settles down in the suburbs of America with her bi-cultural family. This show will be made for American audiences but with an Indian appeal.

The idea seems promising, and only time will tell how it will pan out.

56 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

Saif Ali Khan Saif Ali Khan has been roped in by US-based on-demand streaming website Netflix in its upcoming original series Sacred Games. The series, based on the critically acclaimed Indian author Vikram Chandra’s novel of the same name, is set in Mumbai, and delves into the city’s intricate web of organised crime, corruption, politics and espionage that lies beneath India’s economic renaissance. It is an epic masterwork of exceptional richness and power that interweaves the lives of the privileged, the famous, the wretched and the bloodthirsty. Saif will star as Sartaj Singh, the protagonist of the show. Netflix is not just planning to release the series in India, but it is planning a global premiere with subtitles, much like it’s hit show Narcos, which is popular the world over, despite being in Spanish.

Parineeti Chopra Man’s world

Imagine the scenario where a miracle happens, and there's an exchange of gender roles —men get into the shoes of women and vice-versa...interesting, right? Featuring Bollywood celeb Parineeti Chopra, Man's World is a story of a male chauvinist—Kiran, who feels the world is unfair to men, and voila!

One day, he wakes up finding his father's handling household chores, girls are eve-teasing boys on streets and he has to face gender discrimination at work. The series is a satire and an interesting way to highlight misogyny in society.

Vivek Oberai Inside Edge

Within just a few days of its launch in July, Amazon’s web series Inside Edge, focusing on the dark nexus between bookies and cricketers, became the most watched web series in India and even began trending worldwide on social media. The entire star cast received applause, but the one singled out the most was Vivek Oberoi, for his turn as the villainous businessman, Vikrant Dhawan. In fact, Vivek Oberoi has received more popularity from the web series than he has from his recent forgettable films like Bank Chor and Great Grand Masti. The success of Inside Edge proves that India is now ready for mature content beyond saas-bahu shows, and that big stars are not shying from dipping their toes in web only series These shows can be watched on Youtube, Amazon Prime video and Netflix neeraj.varty07@gmail.com September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 57

Health All Things Fitness

Angad reflects on the reason he took to gymming, “I remember my first day in the gym.

At the time, I started working out because I wanted to improve my physical appearance.

My reasons are different as now why I continue to do it. I am glad that at one point in my life that was my motivation to do it in order to look better.” As years passed by, sweating it out at the gym for hours sculpted his body. But not just his fitness game, his definition of fitness began to change too, “Over the years, I realised that it's much more than just looking good, it has become a spiritual thing too. The definition of the term ‘physical’ has also shifted.” He agrees that being a fitter version of himself has turned around his life for the better, “I've learned the art of self discipline. I have applied this discipline in different areas of my life including in my software engineering career. Once I commit to a goal, I make sure I crush it. I am a very calm and patient person now because I have seen that results don't happen overnight and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. All you need to do is trust the process. I have gained a lot of confidence and have inspired others to live a healthy and fit life.”

Fitness is a combination of nutrition and training The fitness enthusiast has some valuable tips to offer, “Training and prepping meals take around 3-4 hours every day. Fitness is a pure combination of nutrition and training, so I make sure I have my meals packed with me even when I am going to work or travel for work.” As for his fitness regimen, it is extremely inspiring, “I usually spend around one and a half to two hours in the gym, which includes weight lifting and high intensity interval training for my cardio vascular workout and agility.”

He also stresses on the importance of nutrition when it comes to sculpting your physique.

He reveals, “A good physique is a result of nutrition and training, so I spend an hour or two daily in the kitchen prepping my meals. I am a software engineer, so my working hours are a bit crazy, but I have set my priorities- get up early in the morning, make breakfast, pack my meals and

You can easily spot Angad Manchanda in a crowd, for his striking muscular physique sets him apart from others. The entrepreneur from the USA has earned his envious brawn after years of dedication at the gym. He shares his journey in fitness...

By Namrata Gulati Sapra

snacks that I prepare a night before, which keeps me going throughout the day.” Angad’s nutrition is more planned than you think it is.

Nutrition At Its Best

To begin with, Angad calls his nutrition game ‘pretty simple, calculative and strong.’ The fitness freak takes his nutrition rather seriously and even

58 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

has a diet chart in place, “I actually call it a nutrition chart,” he corrects and goes on to point out the difference, “To me, the word ‘diet’ sounds more like a crash course and not planned for long term. Going on a diet is more like if you have a short term goal and just want to look good for a particular event or occasion.”

On the contrary, the muscle man eats 5 to 6 meals in a day, “I make sure I fill in my macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and protein) and micro-nutrients (vitamins, iron, potassium, minerals, zinc, magnesium, etc).”

His three-meal schedule is worth emulating. “For breakfast, I like to have oatmeal with whey protein, mixed with berries/ bananas and almonds followed by 7-8 egg whites a couple hours after the breakfast. For lunch, I grab a salad (lettuce, spinach / kale, nuts, carrots, cucumbers, beans, broccoli) with avocado, sweet potatoes, brown rice and a protein source (grilled chicken breast / ground turkey / salmon). I eat an apple with low fat Greek yogurt for my evening snack.

Dinner, I go with steamed vegetables and a protein source. Before I go to bed, I drink a cup of hot almond milk (recipe shared at the end of the

“Inspiration comes from different places, but I have realised that my most ‘inspirational inspiration’ is myself. I encourage you all to get inspired from different people and ideas, but at the end of the day you are all what you have” comes the second mantra that most fitness gurus swear by, “Stay hydrated! Drink lots of water! Drink at least one gallon of water every day.

Drinking water boosts up your immune system, flushes out toxins, clears up skin and has tons of other benefits.” Lastly, but by no means any less important, Angad cautions against taking shortcuts, “The journey of fitness is not that easy and it requires a lot of patience and commitment. Don't take any kind of drugs or steroids because that defeats the purpose of having a fit body!”

Recipe for Hot Almond Milk

interview) that is high in magnesium and super important for improving sleep quality.”

Learning Through Erring

“I had been training for about 3-4 years now but the first year I didn't have any knowledge of nutrition.

I was pushing myself hard in the gym but wasn't seeing results. The biggest mistake was not following a nutrition plan that would go with a training program.” Angad continues to enumerate other fitness mistakes that he made during the time, which deterred the results, “The second mistake I believe was training without knowledge and not adding compound movements such as squats and deadlifts in my workouts. The compound movements increases your overall strength and muscle building.

The third mistake was just weight lifting and not performing any cardio vascular workouts like HIIT (high intensity interval training), MIIT(medium intensity interval training) to improve speed and agility but use a treadmill for cardio.” Whoever said that mistakes make you wiser was certainly right!

Infinite Inspiration

“I started to realise that fitness is a lifestyle and

not a quick fix. Fitness and healthy lifestyle have poured over into every area of my life. The biggest reason of keeping this on has been the inspiration I’ve been to my family and friends. I feel more motivated now than ever knowing that my lifestyle makes a big difference to other people’s life and knowing that I can help others inspire,” shares Angad, who often uploads pictures or videos of his gym sessions on social media. Needless to say, they win a large number of comments!

“Inspiration comes from different places, but I have realised that my most ‘inspirational inspiration’ is myself. I encourage you all to get inspired from different people and ideas, but at the end of the day you are all what you have,” he provides some food for thought.

Word of Advice

Angad, who can talk endlessly about fitness and how to achieve it, sums up the three most valuable pieces of advice that can prove to be life-changing for anyone, “One, train dirty and eat clean-always have a plan. Going to the gym and training for hours won't give you results if there is no nutrition plan that goes with it.” Here

Almond Milk has innumerable health benefits and is simple to make. Angad Manchanda tells how to whip it up for yourself: 1. Soak almonds overnight in water with 1/2 tsp sea salt. This is an important step as it breaks down the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors and cultures beneficial enzymes in the almonds. The longer the almonds soak, the creamier the milk.

2. Rinse almonds well. Mix almonds with pure water in a blender or Vitamix.

3. Blend until smooth and creamy. (Warning: mixture will expand some, so make sure your blender is not full before starting it) 4. Strain mixture into a large bowl through a sprout bag or kitchen towel.

5. Put mixture back into blender with stevia sweetener (organic) to make it taste a little sweet.

6. Pour into glass jar or pitcher and store in fridge. namratagulati8@gmail.com CC

tadka Laddu legacy

A famous Indian sweetmeat, the Tirumala laddu, has completed 302 years since its invention. The Tirupati Laddu has got a Geographical indication, which entitles only the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams to make and sell it. The practice of offering laddu to Venkateswara at Tirumala Venkateswara Temple started on 2 August 1715.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 59

Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps for MP Varun Gandhi, who pledged to use the fund allocated for his constituency for building a childcare facility at the Sultanpur district hospital in Uttar Pradesh (UP)

Corporate Citizen slaps the Gorakhpur tragedy in Uttar Pradesh (UP), which blurs all humanitarian lines between medical treatment and administrative woes in government run hospitals

Following the recent uproar on the tragic death of over 70 children at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) Hospital in Gorakhpur, Varun Gandhi, a Bhartiya Janata Party MP, has pledged `5 crore from his Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund. This is an amount legislators get for development work in their constituency. The 37-year-old MP has spoken to the Chief Medical Superintendent, the Chief Medical Officer and the District Magistrate of Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He said, “I have pledged an amount of `5 crore from my MPLAD fund, to build a Model Paediatric Wing with state-of-the-art infrastructure, in the district hospital. He also said in his statement, “The tragedy in Gorakhpur has left me jolted. ...While grieving the terrible loss of lives of all the children, the incident must “act as an impetus” to take actions that serve as a deterrent to recurrence of such an event.” He has promised to raise an additional `5 crore personally through donations and collections via corporate social responsibility funding. “With sufficient additional funds from external donors, this paediatric wing will be functioning in full swing in six months...

It is my hope that other MPs, who represent a rural constituency, also initiate something similar in their area to ensure our children’s care and protection,” he said. Varun Gandhi’s benevolent step comes amidst severe criticism against the BJP-led government; especially as they had allegedly ignored previous SOS calls on the dearth of oxygen supplies to BRD Hospital; one of the main hospitals responsible for treating scores of children with Japanese encephalitis in one of the most populous states in the country. Gandhi also reiterated that the Gorakhpur incident must be taken as a precursor to thwart lackadaisical behaviour within state machinery so that such an incident could be prevented in the future. His official statement said that the proposed paediatric wing will comprise of an in-house research centre that will work on issues related to child healthcare and prevention of water and airborne diseases. Proposed plans are also to provide free vaccination for children under the National Vaccine Programme and also provide a pharmacy within the hospital premises. This act should however rise above being a one-off populist agenda by a youthful, politically connected, celebrity Samaritan! Any more takers then from the ministry or otherwise on sprucing up our much jaded social healthcare platforms?

Now the National Human Rights Commission has sought a report from the UP government within the next four weeks on the steps taken for rehabilitation and relief of the affected families.

Nearly 70 children, including infants, have died at the at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College (BRD) Hospital in Gorakhpur since 7 August, 2017 due to various causes including Japanese Encephalitis.

Japanese Encephalitis has been a long-time bane in the state. However, there have been reports equating the deaths to termination of liquid oxygen supplies at the hospital by a private supplier firm over the delay in payment of `68 lakh though the state government has denied it.

UP, in fact, has the worst infant mortality rate in the country (78 per 1,000 live births), according to the National Family Health Survey- IV (2015-16). The national average is 41.

Child health specialists have pointed to the importance of strengthening emergency medical services. “So many patients cannot die of encephalitis in two days. When the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) came up with a report under National Japanese Encephalitis Control Programme in UP; especially in Gorakhpur, only 5 to 10% of cases were of Japanese Encephalitis. With high death rate of infants, it is apparent that intensive care units are poorly managed and they don’t have trained staff,” said Soumya Swaminathan, Secretary, Department of Health Research, Union Health Ministry, and Director General at ICMR. This is despite an interim report submitted by a 3-member panel comprising of Harish Chailani, HOD-Paediatrics at the Safdarjung Hospital, Sushma Nangia-HOD of neo-natal department at Lady Hardinge Hospital and M K Agarwal, deputy commissioner of National Immunisation Programme that says, “200 deaths were reported at the state-run hospital in July 2017 as compared to 292 deaths during the same period in 2016. But, such reports cannot overrule the negligence across state run health and social welfare facilities.”

While the mystery to the cause of the tragic incident is yet to be unravelled, the need now is to stop the “careless whispers” and act upon resurrecting the system and give solace to the likes of Bahadur Nishad and other parents in their moments of grief!

(Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar)

60 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

Mobile apps

Apps

and

Telegram

Controversies

Telegram, a communication app, is controversial for a completely different—and perhaps more serious— reason than the other apps on this list.

It’s been used by ISIS members to communicate securely. Telegram has been hotly debated because it can be easily encrypted, and ISIS has used the app to spread its propaganda and sell slaves.

Flappy Bird

Thousands of apps are uploaded on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store every month. A few of them go viral gathering millions of downloads quickly. While some of them are applauded by the reviewers, a few of them give rise to criticism and concerns over privacy, addictiveness, and cyber-bullying. Corporate Citizen takes a look at a few of these apps in the recent times By Nupur Chaube Sarahah

The word ‘Sarahah’ means ‘honesty’ in Arabic. Saudi developer Zain Alabdin Tawfiq created it for the workplace environment, citing that ‘there is a need to receive honest feedbacks from the colleagues’.

However, the app became a social media rage, getting a rank in the top apps of Apple Store in over 30 countries in July 2017. It has over 300 million users already.

Sarahah is an anonymous messaging app. The users

have to create an account, after which they get a link (xyz.sarahah.com) that they can post on any social media site such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. The senders can click on the link to write a message.

This app can also be abused to send hate texts to people. It can be a perfect app for cyber bullying as the identity of the sender is masked. Every user has a public profile that shows their profile picture, and the number of messages they have received. This feature has warranted concerns over privacy. Zain Alabdin Tawfiq has added a Report feature also.

60 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is a freemium gaming app developed by Niantic with the Pokémon Company. It is a GPS-location tracking app that uses augmented reality.

A user can use his phone’s GPS to find, catch, and fight virtual creatures called as the Pokémon. Pokémon Go quickly became a viral app, with 1 billion worldwide downloads.

While some reviewers gave it a positive review,

stating that the app has ‘unintentionally made people exercise more’ and ‘increased the footfall in market places’; it has faced several criticisms as well.

It has been observed that Pokémon Go has contributed to severe accidents at busy locations. It has also become a public nuisance at some places like religious sites. Several governments have established 'NoPokémon Go Zones'.

Pokémon Go has also become a major concern due to its addictiveness, with people gathering at various places to play it over a long period of time as Pokémon Fest.

Flappy Bird was an insanely addictive game developed by Vietnamese developer, Dong Nguyen.

Nguyen has been a fan of the ‘golden era of the retro pixelated games’ and found games like Angry Bird too complicated.

In Flappy Bird, a player controls the bird, and flies it between rows of green pipes without touching them. There is no evolution at different levels. It is repetitive as the distance between pipes, the sounds, and the reward points remains the same. Flappy Bird garnered criticism due to its ‘no-skill requirement, plagiarised graphics, and level of difficulty.’

Eventually, Flappy Bird was removed by its creator from both App Store and Google Play due to guilt over its addictive nature.

The game's popularity and sudden removal caused phones with it pre-installed to be put up for sale for high prices over the internet.

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 61

Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian

From The Mobile

Focus is the key A student went to the principal of the school and said, “Madam, I won't be coming to school anymore.” The principal asked, “Why?” The student said, “I saw a teacher speaking bad about another teacher. One Sir, who can't read well; students looking at their fellow students in a wrong way, among so many other things wrong in the school” The principal replied, “Okay. However, before you go, do me a favour, take a full glass of water and walk three times around the school without spilling a drop on the floor. Afterwards, leave the school if you desire.” The student thought it is too easy! In addition, he walked three times around as the principal had asked. When he finished he told the principal he was ready and the principal asked, “When you were walking around the school, did you see a teacher speaking bad about another teacher?” The student replied, “No.” “Did you see any student looking at other students in a wrong way?”

“No.” “You know why?”

“No.” “You were focused on the glass, to make sure you don't tip it and spill any water. It's the same with our life.

When our focus is on our priorities, we don't have time to see the mistakes of others.”

Moral of the story We should concentrate on our priorities and not on others mistakes. Be focused and sky's the limit.

62 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

Having Children to appreciate Scholar Zhao Jie’s wise words

“I admire those parents who are able to forge extremely strong and close bonds with their children when they were young and yet they know when to let go in a timely and appropriate manner, when the children have grown up. Taking care of and raising children and then letting go of them are parents' basic and mandatory duties. A parent-child relationship is not a type of relationship that is permanently with the parents being in control. It is a special and profound relationship brought about by fate; we must not let the child feel deprived or lacking when they were young and neither should we let them feel stifled when they have grown up. The role of parents is a journey of love and wisdom. Not only in one's role as parents, but also in life there are many moments that we need to understand

when to advance and retreat.

Very often people wonder, why do we have children? Is it to carry on the family's name or to raise children to take care of us in old age?

Finally, I found a very touching answer: the reason for having children is both to give and to appreciate.

We should not ask for perfection in our children, neither should we expect them to win credits to honour the family nor should we want them as an insurance for old age.

We should only ask them to be healthy and to let us have the chance to walk with them through this journey of life in this beautiful world.

This is such a beautiful verse that we have to remind ourselves to pick a way to love our children!

All we ask is for them to be healthy and happy.

How to stay fit?

A chat with famous heart specialist Dr Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bengaluru, was arranged by WIPRO for its employees. Excerpts from the chat are given below:

Q 1. What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?

1. Diet: Less of carbohydrate, more of protein and less oil 2. Exercise: Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week 3. Quit smoking 4. Control weight 5. Control Blood Pressure and Sugar levels

Q 2. Can we convert fat into muscles?

It is a dangerous myth. Fats and muscles are made of two different tissues. Fat is fat... Ugly and harmful...

Muscle is muscle. Fats can never be converted into muscles.

Q 3. It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in a proper perspective?

This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health check-ups.

Q 4. Are heart diseases hereditary?

Yes.

Q 5. What are the ways in which the

heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?

Q 12. Which is the best and worst food for the heart?

Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Fruits and vegetables are the best and oil is the worst.

Q 6. Is walking better than jogging?

Q 13. Which oil is better−groundnut, sunflower, olive?

Walking is better than jogging, since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints.

Q 7. You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?

Mother Theresa, who was my patient.

Q 8. Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?

Oils do no good for humans.

Q 14. What is the routine check-up one should go through? Is there any specific test?

Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Extremely rare.

Q 15. What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?

Q 9. Does cholesterol accumulate right from an early age (I'm currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of age?

Help the person into a sleeping position, place an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit, since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

Q 10. How do irregular eating habits affect the heart?

You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular. As a result, your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Q 11. How can I control cholesterol without using medicines?

Control diet, walk and eat walnut.

Q 16. What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.

Increased awareness has increased incidents. In addition, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Laugh it out An ant knocked on the door of a house. The house owner opened the door.

“I want a place to stay,” said the ant.

“I have a vacant room which you can occupy for free of cost,” said the owner.

The ant went inside and occupied the vacant room. After some days, the ant brought in another ant and requested the owner, “Can you please allow this ant to stay with me?”

“Oh sure, you can do so without paying any rent,” said the owner. After

some days, the ant brought a third ant and requested the owner to allow it to stay with them. The owner agreed to it without asking for any rent. This went on as the ant brought in more and more ants and the owner agreed to let them stay without any rent. One fine day, the ant brought in the 10th ant and requested the owner to allow it to stay with them all. The owner said, “OK, you can all stay here but now you all need to pay rent.”

Now the question is: Why did the owner ask for rent when the 10th ant came in.

Because they were now tenants!

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 63

astroturf You are still in the midst of your yearly career peak and need to keep at pushing your work. Home and family issues at the domestic front need to be kept on hold.

Aries

Mar 21 - April 20

Greatest days: 7, 8 Hectic days: 1, 14, 15 Honey days: 7, 8 Money days: 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13 Profession days: 1, 7, 8 Job changes were expected because of last month’s solar eclipse, which occurred on the 21st of August.

This is a very fortunate time for you, either the changes happen in the same organisation, or you may change companies. other.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 20

Greatest days: 1, 10 Hectic days: 3, 4 Honey days: 1, 7, 8, 10 Money days: 3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 13 Profession days: 3, 4, 8 Situations or problems that were revealed last month due to the eclipses will slowly and steadily get resolved. You will have the ability and energy to handle them.

Your health also remains good especially if you have been paying attention to it.

GEMINI

May 21 - June 21

Greatest days: 3, 4, 12, 13 Hectic days: 5, 6 Honey days: 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13 Money days: 1, 3, 4, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 Profession days: 5, 6, 14, 15 There is a major planetary shift happening for you this month. The planets shift from the East to the West in your chart. Your social life will be more dominant from the 5th onwards and by the 20th 80% of the planets including Moon will be in the western half of your chart.

CANCER

June 22 - July 23

Greatest days: 5, 6, 14, 15 Hectic days: 1, 7, 8 Honey days: 1, 7, 8 Money days: 1, 3, 4, 10, 12, 13 Profession days: 7, 8, 9, 10

(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

Career is more or less in abeyance now as the bottom half of your chart is more dominant and the planetary power is moving away from the 10th house of career towards the 4th house of home and family.

LEO

July 24 - Aug 23

Greatest days: 7, 8 Hectic days: 3, 4, 10 Honey days: 3, 4, 7, 8 Money days: 3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 13 Profession days: 7, 8, 10 The 26th of last month witnessed a powerful planetary shift from the top half of your chart to the bottom. This indicates a psychological shift in your sign and shows that you will look and feel successful.

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23

Greatest days: 1, 10 Hectic days: 5, 6, 12, 13 Honey days: 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15 Money days: 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13 Profession days: 8, 9, 12, 13 The eastern position is majorly occupied by the planets making it powerful. Hence, your personal power and independence comes into play. Your personal goals, happiness receive strong cosmic support.

64 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22

Greatest days: 3, 4, 12, 13 Hectic days: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15 Honey days: 7, 8, 9, 10 Money days: 7, 8, 9, 10 Profession days: 1, 10, 14, 15 Your personal power is completely rocking these days as the planetary power moves from the West towards the Eastern sector. You are independent to do as you please and create your own conditions and environment.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 22

Greatest days: 5, 6, 14, 15 Hectic days: 3, 4, 10 Honey days: 7, 8, 10 Money days: 3, 4, 12, 13 Profession days: 1, 10 The planetary shift on the 26th of last month from the social West to the personal East has a great impact on you. Personal independence and personal power will be increasing.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22

Greatest days: 7, 8 Hectic days: 5, 6, 12, 13 Honey days: 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 Money days: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13 Profession days: 8, 9

CAPRICORN

Dec 23 - Jan 20

Greatest days: 1, 10 Hectic days: 7, 8, 14, 15 Honey days: 1, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15 Money days: 3, 4, 8, 12, 13 Profession days: 7, 8 The planetary power for you is mostly in the West and Saturn your ruler planet receives stressful aspects.

Your health though is good yet self-esteem and confidence could be much better.

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19

Greatest days: 3, 4, 12, 13 Hectic days: 10 Honey days: 1, 7, 8, 10 Money days: 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15 Profession days: 1, 10 Your 7th house of love is strong but its power is winding down. No need to focus on personal life so much.

Venus in your 7th house is a classic romance indicator, it shows there would be more family and social gatherings to attend.

PISCES

Feb 20 - Mar 20

Greatest days: 5, 6, 14, 15 Hectic days: 12, 13 Honey days: 7, 8, 9 Money days: 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 Profession days: 3, 4, 12, 13 Love and social life remains as the headlines this month and the month ahead. The Western social sector of your chart is dominant and your 7th house of love is ultra-powerful. The month ahead is about other people in your life and less of yourself.

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

September 1-15, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 65

the last word

Ganesh Natarajan

Hawa Hawaii!!

Comprising of beaches, volcanoes and observatories, Hawaii is truly a place worth visiting at least once in every lifetime

T

he joy of global travel is that you always learn to expect the unexpected! I have walked across a frozen Volga river in Russia, discovered that some cities in Peru are at a higher elevation than Mount Machu Pichu and ran for life to the airport in Mombasa, Kenya where riots broke out just after we inaugurated an APTECH Computer Training Centre in the city in the late nineties. Even with this knowledge, the last thing we would have expected when we embarked on a week-long holiday to the sunny isles of Hawaii would be that two days after arrival we would be huddled in warm coats in below freezing temperature…. in Hawaii! A true treat for me on the eve of my birthday, which we were celebrating on Big Island Hawaii.

The mountaintop we visited for this unique experience is Mauna Kea, which has proved to be an ideal location for a large number of independent astronomical research facilities and large telescope observatories because of its dark skies, low humidity, near equatorial location and its position above most of the water vapour in the mountains. The facilities are located in an “astronomical precinct” on 11,000 acres of land protected by the Historical Preservation Act and are called the Mauna

Kea Observatories (MKO).

The history of the site is truly intriguing. On the "Big Island" of Hawaii, Mauna Kea is considered the highest island mountain in the world. Fans of Everest need not panic; the mountain starts in the Pacific Ocean and has only 14000 feet above the sea level, high enough and cold enough for the summit to be often covered with snow and the air extremely dry.

Some 50 years ago, a gentleman called Kuiper began looking

into the possibility of an observatory on Mauna Kea. After testing, he discovered the low humidity was perfect for infrared signals.

He persuaded Hawaii Governor John A. Burns to bulldoze a dirt road to the summit where he built a small telescope on Pu'u Poli'ahu, a cinder cone peak. Kuiper also convinced NASA to fund

66 / Corporate Citizen / September 1-15, 2017

larger facilities and also open up projects to competitive bids. After considerable testing, the best locations were determined to be near the summit at the top of the cinder cones. Testing also determined Mauna Kea to be superb for night-time viewing due to many factors, including the thin air, constant trade winds and being surrounded by sea. Jefferies built a 2.24-metre telescope with the State of Hawaii agreeing to build a reliable, all weather roadway to the summit. Building began in 1967 and first light was seen in 1970.

Other groups began requesting subleases on the newly accessible mountaintop. By 2012, the Mauna Kea Science Reserve had 13 observation facilities, each funded by as many as 11 countries. It is one of the world's premier observatories for optical, infrared, and submillimetre astronomy.

The altitude and isolation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean makes Mauna Kea one of the best locations on earth for ground-based astronomy. It is an ideal location for submillimetre, infrared and optical observations. An adjacent visitor information station is located at 9,200 feet (2,800 m). The summit of Mauna Kea is so high

By 2012, the Mauna Kea Science Reserve had 13 observation facilities, each funded by as many as 11 countries. It is one of the world's premier observatories for optical, infrared, and submillimetre astronomy that we were advised to stop at the visitor station for at least 30 minutes to acclimate to atmospheric conditions before continuing to the summit.

This is just one wonder that we experienced in Hawaii in our week spent on three islands visiting not just Mauna Kea but the Volcanoes National Park where an active volcano still spews smoke continuously and reflects the redness of the lava every evening, which flows down to the ocean. The last time the volcano erupted, the lava spewed 180 meters into the sky leaving lava fields for miles around the mountain.

The lovely beaches of Maui and the exotic resorts dotted all over the state make Hawaii truly a place worth visiting at least once in every lifetime and ideally many times more!

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect & Social Venture Partners, Pune.

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