Volume4 issue 11 corporate citizen by Corporate Citizen

tête-à-tête PS Kumar, Founder, 360° Transformation Volume 4, Issue No. 11 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

Interview

J Sivakumar

Head HR and Admin, J K Fenner SURVEY

Emerging Consumer Survey INDIA TOMORROW - 1 Manu S Pillai:

From International Relations to Indian History Manu S Pillai, historian, author and the winner of 2017 Yuva Sahitya Akademi Award reveals his eventful life journey

Loved And Married

Samantha Rodricks and Arthur Ignatius on what binds them together

August 16-31, 2018 / `50

NHRDN IR Summit

Aligning business strategies and IR imperatives Our Tax expert on:

Mind games of tax evaders

2 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

feedback A sabbatical from seriousness

I find the “Cool side of business” approach a blessing for a publication as fine as yours—it is completely in character and a big step up from what we are accustomed to. Your July issue 8, with Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao on cover page and the story devoted to his relentless efforts in water conservation through his NGO Paani Foundation, was like the heave of waves on a rough sea—a worthwhile effort concerning India’s humongous drought problem. My summery words would be, your magazine covers such profound matters and is very informative—a sabbatical from seriousness. However, you need to loosen up and have some more fun, go in new direction, covering industries like fashion, entertainment, music, lifestyle and so on -they are also businesses running on revenue model. — Rohan Kulkarni, IAS aspirant

CC captures the attention of students

I am a retired college professor, and it was through a student that I first came across Corporate Citizen. I immediately took a liking to the magazine. I cannot say how many times I had tried to get students to read business magazines, but invariably they would get bored by them and I never managed to make the habit stick. However, Corporate Citizen is different. It has both hard business stories and soft feature stories, which manages to do the one thing that hardcore business magazines have tried to and failed - capture the attention of students. I believe CC has tremendous potential amongst a younger crowd and I would advise the team to market the magazine at colleges so that they can reach a wider base. Professors like me would surely appreciate it. — Chetan Bisht, retired professor

Smriti Irani, a woman of substance

Flipping through the latest issue of Corporate Citizen, dated 16-31 July, 2018, I got hooked to the intellectually-stimulating dialogue between Hero Enterprise Chairman, Sunil Kant Munjal and Union Textile Minister, Ms Smriti Irani and Designer, Rajeev Sethi. Usually business magazines don’t talk about arts and crafts but I was pleasantly surprised to see your coverage of MindMine Summit’s session, where these stalwarts touched upon a vast number of concerns related to sustenance issues of India’s seven million artisans. The way Irani handled Munjal’s highly uncomfortable questions proved that she is a woman of substance, having a mind of her own. I’m sure, if PM Narendra Modi again asks her to contest Lok Sabha polls from UP’s Amethi in 2019’s general elections, she’ll perhaps pose the biggest challenge to Congress President, Rahul Gandhi. For, her oratorical skills and magical presence, she can surely make the prince of 10 Janpath nervous in his own backyard. Looking at the variety of personalities and topics you cover, I must say, Corporate Citizen is truly a worth for its readers.

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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: corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 3

Editor-in-Chief’s Choice / Khushwant Singh

Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian

More than longevity, it’s how you cope with old age “Rookhi Sookhy Khai kay ......Khushwant Singh @ 98

oming on to 98 and still earning more than I did in my younger days, people ask me how I manage to do it. They regard me as an expert on longevity. I have pronounced on the subject before; I will repeat it with suitable amendments based on my experience in the past two years. Earlier I had written that longevity is in one’s genes: children of long-living parents are likely to live longer than those born to short-lived parents.

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This did not happen in my own family. My parents who died at 90 and 94 had five children, four sons and a daughter. The first to go was the youngest of the siblings. Next went my sister who was the fourth. My elder brother who was three years older than me went a couple of years ago. Two of us remain; I, who will soon be 98, and my younger brother, a retired Brigadier three years younger than me and in much better health. He looks after our ancestral property. Nevertheless, I still believe gene is the most important factor in determining one’s life-span. More import-

ant than analysing longevity is to cope with old age and make terms with it. As we grow older, we are less able to exercise our limbs. We have to devise ways to keep them active. Right into my mid-eighties, I played tennis every morning, did rounds of Lodhi gardens in winter and swam for an hour in summer. I am unable to do this anymore. The best way to overcome this handicap is regular massages. I have tried different kinds and was disappointed with the oil drip and smearing of oil on the body. A good massage needs powerful hands going all over one’s body from the skull to the toes. I have this done at least once a day or at times twice a day. I am convinced that this has kept me going for so long. Equally important is the need to cut down drastically one’s intake of food and drink. I start my mornings with guava juice. It is tastier and more health-giving than orange or any other fruit juice. My breakfast is one scrambled egg on toast. My lunch is usually patli kichri with dahi or a vegetable. I skip afternoon tea. In the evening, I take a peg of single malt whisky. It gives me a false appetite.

Before I eat supper, I say to myself “Do not eat too much.” I also believe that a meal should have just one kind of vegetable or meat followed by a pinch of chooran. It is best to eat alone and in silence. Talking while eating does not do justice to the food and you swallow a lot of it. For me no more Punjabi or Mughlai food. I find South India idli, sambhar and grated coconut easier to digest and healthier. Never allow yourself to be constipated. The stomach is a storehouse of all kinds of ailments. Our sedentary life tends to make us constipated. Keep your bowels clean however you can: by laxatives, enemas, glycerin suppositories, whatever. Bapu Gandhi fully understood the need to keep bowels clean. Impose strict discipline on your daily routine. If necessary, use a stop-watch. I have breakfast exactly at 6.30 am, lunch at noon, drink at 7 pm, supper at 8 pm. Try to develop peace of mind. For this you must have a healthy bank account. Shortage of money can be very demoralising. It does not have to be in crores, but enough for your future needs and possibility of falling ill. Never lose your temper, it takes a heavy toll and jangles one’s nerves. Never tell a lie. Always keep your national motto in mind: Satyamev Jayate - only truth triumphs. Give generously. Remember you can’t take it with you. You may give to your children, servants or charity. You will feel better. There is joy in giving. Drive out envy of those who have done better than you in life. A Punjabi verse sums up: Rookhi Sookhy Khai kay Thanda Paani Pee Na Veykh paraayee chonparian na Tarssain jee (Eat dry bread and drink cold water pay no heed or envy those who smear their chapattis with ghee) Do not conform to the tradition of old people spending time in prayer and long hours in places of worship. That amounts to conceding defeat. Instead take up a hobby like gardening, growing bonsai, helping children of your neighbourhood with their homework. A practice which I have found very effective is to fix my gaze on the flame of a candle, empty my mind of everything, but in my mind repeat Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti. It does work. I am at peace with the world. We can’t all be Fauja Singh who at the age of 100 ran a marathon race but we can equal him in longevity and creativity. I wish all my readers long, healthy lives, full of happiness. (This piece is written by Late Khushwant Singh - a legendary author, journalist, diplomat and poet)

A practice which I have found very effective is to fix my gaze on the flame of a candle, empty my mind of everything, but in my mind repeat Aum Shanti... It does work. I am at peace with the world. We can’t all be Fauja Singh who at the age of 100 ran a marathon race but we can equal him in longevity and creativity wish all my readers long, healthy lives, full of happiness”

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Contents 18 INDIA TOMORROW - 1

MANU S PILLAI:

From International Relations to Indian History Manu S Pillai, young historian, author and the winner of 2017 Yuva Sahitya Akademi Award reveals his eventful journey down Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historical memory lanes

9 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 14 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why 16 TAXMAN COMETH What is the psychology of a tax evader? What leads them to evade tax? 26 SESSION NHRDN IR Summit - Aligning business strategies and IR imperatives 6 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

Volume 4 Issue No. 11 August 16-31, 2018 www.corporatecitizen.in

32 tête-à-tête PS Kumar, Founder, 360° Transformation, talks on his diverse work experience and the requirements of Indian industry 36 ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Ambika Saxena credits her alma mater for making a significant contribution to her success story

38 INTERVIEW J Sivakumar, Head HR and Admin of J K Fenner, shares his experience of over 13 years in managing the transformation of personnel management to HR management 42 MY FIRST BOSS Vidya Neelakantan, Manager Digital Marketing, EVOMA Business Centre and Business Hotel, Bengaluru remembers her first boss at her first job 44 LOVED AND MARRIED Entrepreneur Samantha Rodricks and banker husband Arthur Ignatius, talk on similarities that help them bind together

46 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Harshita Nigam on her campus placement experience and her belief that nothing is impossible in life

48 HEALTH ‘Mrs. Queen of the World International 2018’, Jasmine Bhupendra Jadhav’s journey of endurance and weight loss 50 UNSUNG HEROES Meet Sourabh Potdar, who has given up his urban life to create a better India 52 PEARLS OF WISDOM Learn how to cope with stress

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contents

Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinita.corporatecitizen@gmail.com Assistant Editor & Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur mathurpradeep1@gmail.com/ Sharmila Chand chand.sharmila@gmail.com

53 BOOK REVIEW Story-teller, Aparna Sharma and her book, “Between U & Me — Ordinary People — Extraordinary Lessons” 54 SURVEY Emerging Consumer Survey understand what goes on in the mind of the global consumer

Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

58 BOLLYWOOD BIZ Bollywood celebs who fought cancer and won

Marketing Manager Delhi: Mohamed Rizwan riz.mohamed@hotmail.com Manager-Circulation circulations@corporatecitizen.in West : Jaywant Patil, +91 9923202560 North : Hemant Gupta, +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G, +91 9941555389

60 MOBILE APPS Apps to edit videos that you shoot 66 LAST WORD Corporate success stories flaunting exceptional community results

Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra

Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com

Be A Corporate Citizen

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Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar On Cover Page Manu S Pillai Cover Page Pic 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) 67117601/9

collywood

People in the news

The World Bank Index’s 2017 update shows that India is the world’s sixth-biggest economy, edging out France into seventh place. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) amounted to $2.597 trillion at the end of last year, against $2.582 trillion for France. The economy rebounded strongly from July 2017, after several quarters of slowdown blamed on the economic policies pursued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. India, with around 1.34 billion inhabitants, is poised to become the world’s most populous nation, whereas the French population stands at 67 million. This means that the country’s per capita GDP continues to amount to just a fraction of that of France which is still roughly 20 times higher, according to World Bank figures. Manufacturing and consumer spending were the main drivers of the Indian economy last year, after a slowdown blamed on the demonetisation of large banknotes that Modi imposed at the end of 2016, as well as a chaotic implementation of a new

Pic courtesy: cfo-india.in

India, world’s 6th biggest economy

harmonised VAT regime. India has doubled its GDP within a decade and is expected to power ahead as a key economic engine in Asia, even as China slows down. According to the International Monetary Fund, India is projected to generate a growth of 7.4 percent this year and 7.8 percent in 2019, boosted by household spending and a tax reform. The US is the world’s top economy, followed by China, Japan and Germany.

Uber HR calls it a day In a matter concerning racial discrimination, a senior executive at Uber, Liane Hornsey, has called it quits from the company. It has just been 18 months since Hornsey joined the company, after quitting Google, and was HR head of the cab-sharing service. Her resignation comes on the heels of the controversy around the firm’s founder, Travis Kalanick, who had to quit following reports of gender discrimination and harassment. The move has further dented the image of the company. Hornsey had quite a reputation as a former Googler and was considered one of the well-regarded names in tech industry HR. Uber started investigating the allegations after anonymous whistle-blowers at the company claimed Hornsey systematically dismissed internal complaints of racial discrimination. They revealed that complaints to the firm’s internal anonymous tip line never received any attention, especially cases related to issues of race. In a separate e-mail to the employees, Hornsey said she realised her exit “comes a little out of the blue for some of you, but I have been thinking about this for a while.”

Manley named Jeep boss Mike Manley will take over from Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne of the Fiat Chrysler (FCHA.MI) as Jeep division boss. The latter is seriously ill after suffering major complications following surgery. The carmaker said British-born Manley, who also takes responsibility for the North America region, will push ahead with the mid-term strategy outlined last month by Marchionne, who was due to step down next year (April). Marchionne, 66, was credited with rescuing Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy after helming the Italian carmaker’s wheel in 2004. He was also replaced as chairman and CEO of Ferrari (RACE.MI) and chairman of tractor maker CNH Industrial (CNHI.MI) - both spun off from FCA in recent years. FCA disclosed earlier this month that Marchionne, a renowned dealmaker and workaholic, was recovering from a shoulder operation. But his condition deteriorated sharply in recent days when he suffered massive complications that were not divulged. Ferrari named FCA Chairman and Agnelli family scion John Elkann as new chairman, while board member Louis Camilleri becomes chief executive. CNH appointed Suzanna Heywood to replace Marchionne as chairman. All three companies remain controlled by the Agnellis.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 9

collywood Valsecchi, MD of Adecco India The change in the helm has come for Adecco Group as Marco Valsecchi takes over from Priyanshu Singh. The group brings in Marco Valsecchi as the Country Manager & MD for India, as he will oversee general staffing, professional staffing, spring professional and Lee Hecht Harrison businesses in India. Having joined the company in June 2017 as the chief financial officer, Valsecchi will continue to oversee the role in the interim. He will be based in the company’s head office in Bangalore. In his previous role, Valsecchi served as the managing director, Punkt, in Lugano, Switzerland. “His proven expertise in finance and operations has made him an invaluable asset to our company. Marco is a proven leader with a deep understanding of our business operations and a clear vision for the future. All of us at Adecco are confident of his ability to oversee and manage country operations as we continue to move forward and grow,” said Ian Lee, regional head, Asia Pacific, The Adecco Group. With an MBA degree from Babson College (Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business), Valsecchi joined Randstad in 2007 as senior M&A business controller and worked across geographies including Netherlands, India and Italy in various capacities. In his nine-year stint at Randstad, Valsecchi worked in India for three years as the country chief financial officer. In the initial years, he worked with Nextra Investment Management and Morgan Stanley.

Bezos richest, Mukesh tops in Asia With a net worth over $150-billion, the Amazon.com Inc. founder, Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, at about $55 billion more than Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, the world’s second-richest person. Bezos, 54, has now topped Gates in inflation-adjusted terms. The $100-billion mark that Gates hit briefly in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom would be worth about $149 billion. That makes the Amazon chief executive richer than anyone else on earth since at least 1982, when Forbes published its inaugural wealth ranking. Bezos crossed the threshold just as Amazon prepared to kick off its 36-hour summer sales event, Prime Day. But the Prime Day sale got off to a rocky start as glitches struck Amazon’s website and mobile app. Shares of the company, which had climbed to a record $1,841.95 earlier, pared gains on the news, clos-

ing up 0.5 percent at $1,822.49. Bezos’ stay above $150 billion may be short-lived. Amazon shares slipped below $1,800 in extended trading after Netflix Inc. posted disappointing results, rattling tech investors. Bezos’ net worth has soared by $52 billion this year, which is more than the entire fortune of Mukesh Ambani, the newly crowned richest person in Asia. It also puts Bezos’ personal fortune within spitting distance of the Walton family’s $151.5 billion. The Waltons are the world’s richest dynasty. Behind Bezos on the Bloomberg index is Gates, with a $95.5-billion fortune, followed by Warren Buffett with $83 billion.

Airtel picks Anand as CPO

Gautam Anand has been elevated as the Chief People Officer (CPO) for India and South Asia at Airtel. Anand, a graduate from SRCC, Delhi, and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, US, has been part of the Airtel family for over nine years. He was head HR for India and South Asia consumer business. He managed the digital

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TV business, which accounts for 12,000 employees. He managed a team of 72 HR professionals to cultivate a high performance, engaged and values-based culture across 17 offices in three countries. Anand joined Airtel as global head, Total Rewards with the responsibility of handling the compensation philosophy design and its implementation across 21 countries. In May 2012, he was elevated to the position of vice-president, chief of staff for CEO, India & South Asia, where he was closely associated with the CEO in all aspects of business management, including performance reviews,

strategic updates for the board of directors, and internal and external stakeholder management. Anand worked in the US for 10 years before joining Airtel in India. He started his career with PwC and worked as a senior associate for five years. He was part of PwC’s International Assignment Services practice providing consulting advice to Fortune 500 clients. In the US, he also worked with Heinz and Citi Cards. At Heinz, he was responsible for managing the international mobility program, US domestic relocation program and ensuring consistent application of compensation practices across all geographies outside the US.

Mahadik joins Lupin

Dhoni tops IT books in Jharkhand Mahinder Singh Dhoni has kept cricket statisticians busy all through his playing era, but this time he calls the attention of the Income Tax department in a different manner. MS as he is better known emerged as the top most tax payer, paying income tax to the tune of ₹ 12.17 crore in Jharkhand, for the assessment year 2017-18 and has also declared advance tax of ₹ three crore for the next financial year. According to chief income tax commissioner V Mahalingam, Dhoni had paid income tax of ₹ 10.93 crore in the 2016-17 financial year. Things have not been good for MS in the ongoing England tour, and there were even speculations that he might call it a day from this shorter version of the game, when he took the ball from the umpire

after the third ODI. However, the team manager, Ravi Shastri put those discussions and rumours to rest while saying, “MS wanted to show the ball to Bharat Arun, about the wear and tear the ball had endured, to get a general idea of what the conditions were like.” Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar also suggested that it would be best for Dhoni to decide when he’s done playing cricket for the country, after having quit the longer version of the game (the Test) in 2014. And for records, MS became the only cricketer to enter the 10,000 ODI runs club with a batting average of over 50.

Just five months after quitting Sun Pharma, Yashwant Mahadik has joined pharma company Lupin as presidentglobal HR. Commenting on the post, Mahadik said, “This will be an exciting journey. There are certain practices at Lupin which are really good and we will continue following them. However, we will also need to move the needle from good to great and look at the future. The idea is to make the organisation fit for purpose and future ready.” A graduate trainee with Crompton Greaves in 1988, Mahadik dabbled through various businesses – consumer electronics, telecom, motors, switch gear – and assumed positions of increasing responsibility in human resources management. After his eight-year stint with Crompton Greaves, he moved to Colgate Palmolive as manager employee relations and development where he rose up the level and became the head of HR for the supply chain. He had his first taste of the pharma sector when Mahadik joined Astrazeneca in India as VP HR. After spending two years at Astrazeneca, he moved to another pharma company, Johnson & Johnson (J&J). He joined J&J’s medical devices and diagnostics arm as head of HR of the Indian business.

Then in November 2007, he was promoted as regional VP HR for India, Pakistan and ASEAN countries, which is the South Asia Region of J&J Medical Asia Pacific. For nine months, between April 2008 and December 2008, he had the additional responsibility of managing HR function for Japan – his first international stint. In October, 2010 Mahadik joined Philips as vice president and head of human resources for the Indian sub-continent. In July 2012, he assumed additional charge and role of global lead for learning strategy with Philips University Program. In April, 2013, he was promoted to senior vice president. Besides his responsibilities as the Head of HR for the Indian subcontinent, he also took on the role of the global chief learning officer, responsible for leading the company’s learning transformation program and building of the Philips University. Though he was based in New Delhi India he was travelling extensively all over the world. In a joint comment, CEO, Vinita Gupta and the managing director, Nilesh Gupta said, “Mahadik will establish best practices, enhance people processes, and most importantly develop and build capabilities that will meet the company’s value and aspirations.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 11

collywood Sharma is CCO in Bajaj Auto rejig Bajaj Auto Ltd. has been number one in many ways, this time the company makes headway as it brings in Rakesh Sharma as its first chief commercial officer (CCO) to complement the offices of the ED and the CTO. The job of the CCO would have many roles to play, and the Pune-based company has found Sharma as the perfect man. The CCO would be responsible for product harmonisation leading to ‘one world, one product’ marketing synergies, creating ‘one brand, one position,’ customer focus resulting in ‘one company, one quality’ and corporate alignment facilitating ‘one stakeholder, one message,’ said a release of the firm. Sharma takes charge of the job, while Eric Vas will continue to lead the motorcycle business unit (MBU) reporting to the CCO. On the other hand, Ramesh Maheshwari will continue to lead the Intra-city Business Unit (IBU), K S Grihapathy will now lead the Export Business Unit (EBU), and

Skillsoft, SumTotal get Dutta as MD Skillsoft who are into corporate learning and SumTotal who provide a learning, talent, and workforce-management integrated system, in their attempt to boost their revenue, have roped in Kamal Dutta as managing director. In this newly created post, Dutta will be responsible for accelerating revenue growth and forging strategic relationships for both brands in the country. A former HP managing director, Dutta was in charge of software, Asia growth countries. Based out of Singapore, Dutta was responsible for delivering business outcomes for Asia growth countries comprising India, SEA, Taiwan, HK and Korea. An IT veteran, Dutta has spent 18 years at HP in various capacities, having joined as country manager-business critical servers, India, in 2001. He has been with Hewlett-Packard for long years climbing up the rungs steadily, in his career span of 25 years. He was promoted to director and country general manager-HP software and solutions, India in 2007, where he was instrumental in achieving more than four times the market growth for the business along with significant customer acquisitions. In 2010, Dutta was 12 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

Subash Rao will continue to lead the Auto Finance Business of Bajaj Finance (BFL-AF), all reporting to Sharma, the CCO. Amit Nandi will continue to lead the Probiking Business Unit (PBU), in addition to managing India for the KTM & Husqvarna brands, also be responsible for all overseas KTM & Husqvarna markets that have been assigned to Bajaj Auto. Commenting on the reshuffle in the company, Rajiv Bajaj, MD of the firm said, “I feel very confident that each of our Business Heads shall lead us to ever greater heights in the area of their responsibility and that they shall collectively, led by Rakesh, ensure that the outstanding work that we do in design, development, engineering, purchase, and production continues to earn us and our country a worthy name and sincere goodwill worldwide.” He went on to add, “Simultaneously, I believe that this re-organisation will permit the ED to accord greater focus to our internal operations.”

appointed vice-president and head- IT management business units, Asia Pacific and Japan. He moved to Singapore and was responsible for market development, sales management and revenue growth of license. A bachelor’s degree holder in computer engineering with specialisation in artificial intelligence (AI), he also worked with IBM and Wipro. “Dutta’s experience leading high-performing teams in highly competitive environments at HP, IBM and Wipro makes him a perfect fit for this senior-most and new sales leadership role in India,” said Chad Gaydos, chief operating officer, Skillsoft. Commenting on the move Dutta said, “We’re witnessing rapid technology shifts and wider adoption of big data, blockchain, robotics and AI, all of which will have a significant impact on organisations and society. Skillsoft and SumTotal are uniquely positioned to be strategic partners in the delivery of engaging learning experiences, training content and talent management solutions that support employee success in our rapidly-changing digital world”.

AMT gets new CEO, VP Praveen Kumar and Paul Dueman join the family of Amura Marketing Technologies (AMT), as the CEO and Senior VP, Business, respectively, of this digital marketing agency from Pune. “The collective knowledge, expertise, and experience that both Praveen and Paul bring along will help the firm transition into the space of Marketing Technology and evolve from a digital marketing service provider to a technology-driven 360-degree marketing solutions front-runner,” said Vikram Kotnis, MD, Amura Marketing Technologies. Joining the MD’s comments, Ram Gopalan, member of Advisory Board & Ex-Country Manager of Sapient Nitro, said, “These new talents on our board will enhance our strategic approach towards business growth and help us to transform the landscape in the field of technology and marketing automation.” Paul comes with a substantial experience of 20 years nuanced across diverse digital marketing and technology development domains. In his previous role, he was associated with Indigo Consulting, heading the business and strategy services unit for India. He has also held a senior leadership position at Lowe Lintas. Praveen is an industry expert, backed with experience in leading marketing and strategy teams across Finance, Real Estate, and Sports industries. Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com

wax eloquent

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

Need more of democratising productivity Largest vaccine producer in the world

“We have now embarked on addressing and producing all the vaccines that Africa, South America, India, Asia require, and most importantly that are affordable. And what happened as a result of this—of taking this strategy forward—is that most of the other vaccine producers in the West walked out of the business of making these vaccines, which are for less than $1.”

“My belief is that what India is trying to do and needs to do more of is democratising productivity. India is all about creating jobs and quality of life. Whether you are a politician or a government employee, private sector person, mother, rich businessman, if you create jobs and you give quality of life that’s all India is speaking about now.” Ajay Banga, president and CEO, Mastercard Courtesy: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Adar Poonawalla,

CEO, Serum Institute of India

Courtesy: https://www.moneycontrol.com

‘Access to Justice’ must become a reality “It can be said without an iota of doubt that it is the imperative constitutional duty of the government of the day to provide to its citizens suitable judicial infrastructure so that the expression ‘Access to Justice’ does not remain a euphemism, and rather becomes a reality in the real sense of the term and the government must reflect its earnestness towards this end, through concrete efforts and measures.” Dipak Misra, Chief Justice of India Courtesy: http://www.livelaw.in

I have to look at the consumer’s interest Taking on the bigger and MNC brands

“Well, it is the million dollar question. Isn’t it? The Indian consumer, has historically been a value seeker and continue to be so. This is something that the bigger MNCs tend to miss out on.”

“If there are one billion consumers, I have to look at the consumer’s interest. The rest is for the market to decide. From a public policy view, we are primarily interested in ensuring that there is affordable connectivity and we are very happy that India today has the lowest telecom and data tariffs in the world.” Aruna Sundararajan, Union Telecom Secretary Courtesy: http://www.dnaindia.com

Mobile is the first exposure to the Internet

George Angelo,

“In mobile streaming, we are at par with and, in many areas, ahead of, Europe and North America. Here we just leapfrogged from having no access to a phone to having access to a mobile phone. The mobile is the first exposure to the Internet for a lot of Indians.”

Courtesy: http://www.mydigitalfc.com

Courtesy: Mint

CEO, Anchor Health & Beauty Care

14 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar

In a battle for market share

“Are we not obliged at all times to compete as hard as we can, limited only by our imagination and resources? I’m ignorant of the existence of any golden middle path between being competitive and complacent.” Rajiv Bajaj,

MD, Bajaj Auto

Courtesy: www.economictimes.com

It is important Internet remains non-discriminatory and innovative

“It is particularly important from a developing country’s perspective that the Internet remains non-discriminatory and innovative. Therefore, the gatekeeper should not be allowed to control that platform or in a way that creates walled gardens. But at the same time you have to be very pragmatic.” R.S. Sharma,

outgoing chairman, TRAI

I am a hungry artist

In India anything is possible “Culturally, the thing that jumps out at me about India is how community-oriented the culture is. From eating together on the streets at food stations, to families living together and big weddings, everything is focused around being together. The second thing that stands out is the “hustle” that is built into daily life. There is this energy in the air that makes one feel like anything is possible, and that the future of India is limitless.”

“I am a hungry artist. I crave the satisfaction that an actor gets after doing 10 wrong takes and getting the 11th right. That feeling of cracking a scene is something else. Yes, there are expectations but I am going about it by looking for characters I haven’t played before.” Manisha Koirala, actor

Courtesy: https://www.huffingtonpost.in

Ryan Bennett, chief officer, India, WeWork Courtesy: Mint

Courtesy: https://www.thehindu.com

Not willing to jump onto a moving bus “I have not invested in the Indian markets. I should have, everybody should have, but I have missed it. I don’t like to buy anything at all-time highs. So, I am doing nothing. I am watching. I am not going to jump onto a moving bus, because if you do so, you only get hurt. There is a lot of easy money in the world, especially in India, and it is going into the market. That is always worrisome, because when the rest of the world starts having problems, India will have a problem, too.” Jim Rogers, veteran investor Courtesy: https://www.livemint.com

The scale of TV in India is huge

“The scale of TV in India is huge. Having 850 channels is unbelievable, it is almost 10 times that of Germany. But you cannot compare the size of Indian TV industry with that of Germany, you need to compare it to Europe. In India, the industry is also very fragmented, which opens a lot of opportunities.”

Making a career in the development space “I believe that making a career in the development space cannot be an exercise in portfolio-building. I always advise aspiring professionals to never lose sight of the issues they came into this career to address. If you are clear about the problems you want to solve, the path to those solutions will present themselves in the form of very interesting and challenging job opportunities.” Akanksha Sharma, CSR and sustainability expert Courtesy: https://yourstory.com

Need for more regulatory stability in India

Bindu Balakrishnan,

“India will benefit most from being a platform to bring in the best from the world and engaging in the global market. So, the extent to which you have a regulatory framework that creates a level-playing field...will (determine the likelihood of investment).”

Courtesy: http://www.adageindia.in

Courtesy: https://www.thehindu.com

country head,DCMN India

Nisha Biswal, president, U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC)

Breaking down the distinction between subject and object

“My art performances are about the body/ my body. The visuality of my body still evokes my past. I didn’t really leave the objectified body behind; I merely took control over my body. As a third world/ coloured woman artist, and a retired fashion model, I am interested in using the body as an enactment of the self.” Tinu Verghis, model

Courtesy: https://www.broadwayworld.com

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 15

Tax Man Cometh

by S K Jha

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

Mind games of tax evaders

Recent tax fraud exposures make us wonder as to why there is so much tax evasion. What is the psychology of a tax evader? What leads us to evade tax?

here was a news item recently that a sports club in Bengaluru had to report a surprising discovery to the tax department and the police. The club had to force open three lockers allotted to a member for non-payment of monthly rent. The lockers meant for keeping sportswear and related items contained a big treasure. Property papers for about ₹800 crore, foreign currency worth ₹3.9 crore, cash in Indian currency to the tune of ₹1.8 crore, diamonds worth eight crores and gold biscuits worth ₹20 lakhs were found in these lockers. The concerned person could not explain the discovery. On the contrary, he was found bargaining with the management of the club to hand over the property documents in lieu of cash recovered from the lockers. There was another incident recently in Chennai when an Income Tax raid against a government road contactor exposed a cash seizure of ₹178 crore and 100 kgs of gold. This cash seizure was the biggest in the history of tax raids from a single assessee. The cash seizure was recovered from many cars and from the premises of loyal employees of the searched person. These two incidents relate to cases of tax-evading on a large magnitude and such incidents are rapidly increasing. The question arises, why is there so much tax evasion? What is the psychology of a tax evader? A preliminary effort to peep into the mind of a tax evader reveals that there are many factors involved.

Too much wealth

The first that comes to notice is the level of wealth. Too much wealth enhances the probabili-

ty of tax evasion. They have more and more flexible sources of income, allowing for manipulation and avoiding the notice of the tax department. Think of an Ultra High Net Worth Individual (UHNWI), who can off-shore his financial assets and the accruing gains, as against a teacher or a small business man. The super rich indulge in hawala transactions for transferring their tax evaded money to tax havens and bring it back as per their convenience through round-tripping. They can choose the illegal action of over-invoicing and under-invoicing as per the need of movement of black money. There is a cost involved in these illegal activities which only a rich person can pay. Big wealth creates a craving for more wealth and this leads to the process of playing a money game with a target score. The targeted score gets higher if the earlier targeted score is achieved. Playing this game of money, one sometimes deviates from the clean path and treads the dirty path of tax evasion.

Higher the tax, higher the evasion

Nobody likes paying tax. Nobody likes a higher tax rate, as it adds to the tax burden. A direct nexus has been found between higher rate of tax and tax evasion. Firstly, a tax payer goes for tax planning through a legal way of tax avoidance to reduce the tax burden, but for some this is not enough. This second kind of potential tax payers choose a way to evade tax where both the earned income and financial assets are taken out of the very system of taxation. The genesis of black money in India was in the high tax rate prevalent earlier. Prior to the 90s, our highest tax rate slab was 97 per cent with the added burden of wealth tax, gift tax and estate

Faith in the laws and government institutions deter a person from indulging in tax evasion. A patriot may think twice before becoming a tax evader. Tax evasion to a patriot will mean stealing the income of the country. Strict penal laws and honest income tax searches serve as deterrent for tax evasion 16 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

duty. A person earning income in the highest slab bracket was virtually paying more to the government than what he was actually earning. This became the trigger to earn black money and save tax by evasion. Today, tax rates in our country are moderate, but the cultivated habit of tax evasion and earning black money continues.

How afraid are you?

The third attribute which comes to notice is the probability of getting caught in the audit or tax scrutiny. A tax evader or a potential tax evader weighs the pros and cons of his proposed action of tax evasion and the chances of getting caught before he actually indulges in it. He goes for tax evasion if he feels that the chances of getting caught is not much. He goes by his self-reasoning and by the advice of his consultants. The chance that a fearful person will become a tax evader is less. Repeat offenders become bold and mature into big tax evaders. The fear of system is the deciding factor, but as fear is a personal trait, a person decides whether to become a tax evader or be an honest tax payer, depending on the extent of his fear of the system.

No loss of face

Fourth, personal morality as well as the prevailing perception about tax evasion in the society plays a major role. A person who is honest will remain honest despite the increasing tax burden which he may have to bear. A person who is corrupt will remain so, despite all advice to pay proper tax. But the majority of the people are fence sitters and for them morality matters a lot. In our country, tax evasion is not seen as a big crime. On the contrary, it is seen as a part and parcel of doing business. Rich and wealthy people get respect in the society and tax frauds done by them are not condemned. People also see that rich people do not go to jail despite getting caught in tax frauds and they get protected by the power of money and costly advocates. In such a scenario, fence sitters too choose to become tax evaders as they save money and also get respect in the society. There is no loss to face for a tax evader and hence more people jump on to the band wagon of tax evasion.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Prior to the 90s, our highest tax rate slab was 97 per cent with the added burden of wealth tax, gift tax and estate duty. A person earning income in the highest slab bracket was virtually paying more to the government than what he was actually earning. This became the trigger to earn black money and save tax by evasionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Are officers strict and honest?

Fifth, it is the government system, tax laws and conditions in the tax department which play a major role in the psychology of a tax evader. Faith in the laws and government institutions deter a person from indulging in tax evasion. A patriot may think twice before becoming a tax evader. Tax evasion to a patriot will mean stealing the income of the country. Tax laws and the functioning of the tax department are other things which a potential tax evader keeps in mind. Strict penal laws and honest income tax searches serve as deterrent for tax evasion; tax evaders feel easy if tax department officers are not honest and they can compromise with them for their benefit. Strict and honest officers and a firm tax department which pursues a tax fraud case to the logical end serve, as a brake to tax evasion. Laws against benami property, black money kept abroad and money laundering, recently passed by the government may also serve as a dampener to tax evaders as this may affect their psyche. Recently, it has been seen that money kept by Indians in Swiss Banks have considerably gone down due to strict enforcement of black money laws against unaccounted money kept abroad. A potential tax evader monitors the laws related to tax fraud before indulging in it. The psychology of a tax evader is a complex

web to fathom and it may differ from person to person. To him the ultimate objective is self-interest, of saving money by all means. For a tax evader the end of saving money by not paying tax justifies his illegal means. This is the reason why we have big tax evaders and scamsters like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

Efficient, sure system

Both the government and we as members of the society have to jointly tackle this. The government has to ensure that the tax department, particularly the enforcement wing, has honest and passionate officers who can take the case of tax scrutiny to the logical end without compromising. The word must go round that once a case is started by the tax department there will be no escape and there will be necessary prosecution of the tax offenders. The government should create an efficient task force consisting of senior people, to monitor our tax laws and also related laws so as to detect the loopholes and the same should be plugged immediately by amendments to the concerned laws. This is important as tax consultants keep locating these loopholes for the benefit of their clients. The government should ensure that tax fraud cases end in prosecution and that there should be a reasonable time limit for that. In cases of scams, there should be fast-track

courts so as to send scamsters to jail without much delay. Big people going to jail for tax fraud will deter potential tax evaders. In addition, our laws should be simple so that there is not much scope for litigation and escaping tax liability. As for us, we should ensure that tax fraudsters should be named and shamed. They should not get respect. The collective work by the government and we as citizens will definitely have some effect against tax evasion.

tadka

India records highest number of IPOs

Globally, Indian exchanges recorded the highest IPO activity as the country saw 90 IPO launches that raised US $ 3.9 billion in the first half of this year, according to EY India IPO Readiness Survey Report. Indian exchanges recorded the highest IPO activity in terms of number of deals accounting for 16 per cent of the total issues in the first half of 2018 (January-June). In terms of proceeds, Indian exchanges accounted for five per cent of global proceeds in the Jan-June period.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 17

INDIA TOMORROW - 1 Pics: Yusuf Khan

18 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

MANU S PILLAI:

From International Relations to

Indian History Manu S Pillai, the winner of 2017 Yuva Sahitya Akademi Award for his maiden non-fiction book `The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore’, is already being talked about as a formidable young historian, who is scripting unconventional history books through meticulous research and understanding of that relevant era. This is quite an unusual career trajectory, considering that he graduated in Economics with a post-graduate degree in International Relations. In a candid interview with Corporate Citizen, Pillai reveals his eventful journey down India’s historical memory lanes.

By Vinita Deshmukh

Manu S. Pillai, who is in his mid-twenties, was born in Kerala, educated at Fergusson College, Pune and at King's College London. Formerly chief of staff to Dr Shashi Tharoor in Delhi, he has also worked at the House of Lords with Lord Bilimoria, a crossbench peer, and with the BBC on their ‘Incarnations’ Indian history series, which tells the story of India through 50 great lives. He writes a weekly column for Mint Lounge, and his essays have also appeared in The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Open Magazine, Times of India, and so on. Written over six years and researched in three continents, his award-winning first book, The Ivory Throne, has now been followed to much acclaim by Rebel Sultans. Read on…

Corporate Citizen: Congratulations on winning the Yuva Sahitya Akademi Award for your debut non-fiction `The

Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore.’ How did it feel when you received it?

Manu Pillai: I was getting into a taxi to go watch a movie (I think it was Wonder Woman) when my mother called and demanded to know why I hadn't "told her". I had no clue what she was talking about. She then informed me that somewhere on television, when the awards were announced, my name had appeared. I carried on to watch the film and the call from the Sahitya Akademi came the following day. I was of course happy not only for the recognition, but also to join a list featuring some extremely bright Indian writers, across languages and regions.

What is your award-winning book about?

The book is a history of Kerala, told through the life of August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 19

INDIA TOMORROW - 1

‘The book is also a biography of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. She was a remarkable woman who was made as queen at the age of five, started to rule in her late 20s, was pushed out of power in her late 30s, lost the kingdom completely upon Independence in her 50s, and in her 60s she left the palace and that whole world behind, and moved to Bangalore where she died as a complete nobody’

the last female Maharajah of Travancore, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. The historical side of the book deals with a variety of themes—colonialism, the rise of a Hindu dynasty within that context, the matrilineal system of inheritance where women dominated, and the collapse of this order at the dawn of communism in Kerala. But the book is also a biography of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. She was a remarkable woman who was made as queen at the age of five, started to rule in her late 20s, was pushed out of power in her late 30s, lost the kingdom completely upon Independence, in her 50s, and in her 60s she left the palace and that whole world behind, and moved to Bangalore where she died as a complete ‘nobody’ in the 1980s. There was drama, politics, intrigue, power-struggle, and much more in her life, and all this made for a riveting story to resurrect in public imagination.

So what made you pick on the reign of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi which conventional historians have not cared too much about…

When I first began to ask about her, it seemed she survived 20 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

only in hushed voices and whispers—as if they did not want to tell her story. Although her name kept popping up, it was always in this footnoted way. She was never given the prominence she deserved, despite her exemplary work. So then I started doing some research on her but people kept telling me not to get into that story because lots of skeletons in the closet would stumble out, and so on. As an interested teenager, I was even more determined now to unearth her tale. I got in touch with her granddaughter who sent me a copy of all her private correspondence, diary entries and so on. We exchanged notes for nearly two years while I was reading her private papers. Then I went to London and collected some material from the British Archives. Subsequently, I located more material from the Delhi and Kerala state archives. Then again I was back in London, sourced some material from America. After six years of writing, finally in 2015 the book was done. But the book itself happened more or less by accident not by design. It was the story behind it that really propelled me for years.

Tell us about your childhood and whether you were always interested in reading…

I grew up in Pune. Kerala was our summer home where we went for our holidays to meet our grandparents. I graduated from Fergusson College in Economics and also obtained a Liberal Arts Diploma from Symbiosis and then went off to London. My second book especially is a tribute to the Deccan including Pune. While the first book was a tribute to my Malayali roots, ‘Rebel Sultans’ is a tribute to the place where I was nourished. I was not much of a reader; my sister was the one who thrust a book into my hands one day and said, ok now sit down quietly and read it. Because otherwise, I was fairly restless. Somehow I got interested in that book and my interest in reading grew. Another reason why I turned to books was because we had no television to distract us. One morning, when my father caught me watching Cartoon Network at 7:30 in the morning, he simply chopped off the cable wire. That was sometime in 1997-98. After that, we were allowed to watch one BBC film a week. My parents would go to the British Council Library and bring a mini-series or film adaptations of books of legendary authors like Charles Dickens and Jane Austin. We would watch the film and then go up and read the original book. That cultivated the habit of reading. And then I picked up interest in non-fiction, which eventually led me to Sethu Lakshmi Bayi.

Starting to write such a book with a historical perspective at the tender age of 19 is daunting. Did you have someone to guide you or did you just take off yourself? Left and below: As chief of staff to MP Shashi Tharoor, Manu Pillai was involved in work pertaining to the Parliamentary Committee for External Affairs

The advantage I had was that I was doing my masters in London when I was 20 years old. There they train you in a manner that the research methods become very clear and that corresponded with the time that I was also researching my book. So the academic guidance I got from my university for my thesis, I could apply to my own private research which I did on the side. In terms of writing it, obviously, six years meant it involved a lot. If I look at my first draft now, I would have thrown it out of the window because it was embarrassingly bad. But as time passed I realised there was no magic key where you sit up one morning, say you are gifted and become a writer instantly. That's not how it works - writing is something that comes from excessive reading; the more you read, the better you can write. It’s not merely an art; it’s also a craft. The more you read, the more you understand the craft. The art and ideas come from your head, but how you put it on paper comes from the craft. So as I advanced into my mid 20's I kept reading and reading and that kept developing my own style of writing. I did not run into writing for newspapers or magazines like a lot of my friends did. I was more or less focused on this long project. So the irony is, for example, my master’s thesis was 15,000 words, whereas for the book each chapter was about 20,000 words. In other words, each of the 13 chapters was essentially one master’s thesis! The book is voluminous – 704 pages altogether.

You come from a land which has thrown up many a luminary author. You are quite clearly the star of your generation. Have you got entrenched now in the literary world?

I often speak at various literature festivals where you end August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 21

INDIA TOMORROW - 1

up running into the most remarkable people. Recently in Jaipur I met Indira Vishwanathan Peterson from the USA who is a scholar on the Thanjavur Marathas. Her work is fascinating. There was this Raja in Thanjavur called Serfoji in the early 19th century. We think of Indian kings as traditionalists and orthodox but this man was interested in western science and he was importing western technology. He was setting up schools, translating western textbooks into local languages. He tried to teach scientific principles to the Indian masses. He taught geography through songs and plays and so on. Then of course I have met the master of narrative history, William Dalrymple. He has written a few lines of praise on the back cover of my second book, Rebel Sultans. It’s an interesting world out there. There are a number of remarkable women writers, but I often feel that they don’t get enough attention. There are very eminent female writers - not only an Arundhati Roy who is the exception in terms of a book at that level, but very many more, regular writers as well.

Did your first book raise eyebrows in Kerala?

It did, because there is a lot of reverence even now for the royal family. For example, the book discusses the status of women in great detail and when you discuss things honestly, it is bound to rustle a few feathers. But, I think even though it raised eyebrows, nobody could say any22 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

thing directly. Everything I have used is archival material. I have not pulled anything out of the air; nothing is merely anecdotal, nothing is speculation - it’s all in the archives, in intelligence reports, in their diaries and in their letters. So I have got it out of their own signed documents. No one can question you when your research is solid.

But you also mentioned women’s empowerment…

Yes, that’s because it was a matrilineal society, in which the husband didn't matter. What matters is the woman, so for example, simplistically putting it—the family is not man, wife and children; its woman, brother and woman's children. So the king of Travancore does not inherit the crown from his father, he gets it because he is the son of the Maharani; his father, the Maharani's husband is only called Consort - he is not even called a husband. He cannot sit in the presence of his wife, he cannot call his wife by name - he has to call his wife your highness. During the banquets in the palace, the Maharaja and the Maharani, that is, the brother and sister would eat four desserts, whereas the Maharani's husband would get two desserts. So in every respect, the husband's status was lower. At a more general level also this had repercussions—in the inheritance of property, in how easy divorce was to obtain, the absence of concepts like widowhood, and so on.

‘It was a matrilineal society, in which the husband didn’t matter. What matters is the woman—the family is not man, wife and children; its woman, brother and woman’s children. So the king of Travancore does not inherit the crown from his father, he gets it because he is the son of the Maharani; his father, the Maharani’s husband is only called Consort - he is not even called a husband. He cannot sit in the presence of his wife, he cannot call his wife by name - he has to call his wife your highness’

What do you think of the history that is being taught in colleges and schools?

Very limited, in the way it is taught. But I don’t entirely blame the government either, because a government’s job is to create a history textbook. We are looking at a country that is so large, that has dozens of official languages and so many diverse cultures and religions. In a country with such diversity, so many stories, how do you encapsulate all of this in a 50-page textbook? So then they reduce it to its bare bones, boring dates and events, simply because I suppose it is convenient to teach history that way. In the process, though, we are actually losing the richness of our own past, because it's such a layered, rich, complex and beautiful, magnificent past. It deserves far more attention.

You belong to the young generation that is used to snappy reading. Your voluminous book could be too heavy for them to go through. Do you have any plans in the near future or a dream about how you could percolate this wonderful knowledge to the next generation readers, in a very savvy, smart and snappy way?

Yes, I have realised that there is great research coming out. There is a lot of good history being done by scholars, but the problem is that it gets limited to academic circles or seminar circuits and it does not leave that scholarly realm unless you are actually genuinely interested in looking for that story. It is very difficult to find it. What you need is people to bridge rigorous academic research with an accessible narrative style, so when the narration is in an accessible, attractive way, and if the reader can melt into the story rather than read it like a dry textbook, then people do take an interest in it. My first book was written when I was 25 years old, I was an unheard-of name, I had never written before. People normally hesitate to pick up big books, so there were some people in the publishing house in Harper Collins, who wondered whether it was wise publishing this book, but the editor had faith and she insisted on it. They published and it went on to become a best seller. It’s gone through some 12-13 prints, I think, in these two and a half years. It’s won the Sahitya Akademi award; it is critically acclaimed and it convinced me that if you make the effort there is an audience; the audience will pick it up.

So you made it into a narrative…

I made it into an attractive story. My fourth draft, which was my final draft, I wrote from the perspective of the reader. Where the reader would not get bored, she should feel that urge to turn the page, so once you get that in, you are not writing for yourself and your satisfaction, you are writing to satisfy the reader.

Your second book, Rebel Sultans captures the mighty Deccan from the 13th to the 18th century. Why did you choose this region’s history?

To know India, we must know the Deccan. We begin with the age of the Sultans of Delhi, one of whom, Alauddin by name, marched to the South at the end of the 13th century demolishing what lay accumulated from generations before. From the Alauddin Khilji era to the ascent of Shivaji, the

book covers the dramatic rise and fall of the Vijayanagar Empire, the Bahmani kings and the rebel Sultans who overthrew them, Queen Chand Bibi, a valorous queen who was stabbed to death, Ibrahim II of Bijapur, Krishna Deva Raya of the Vijayanagar kingdom, among others.

You have confined Chhatrapati Shivaji to just the last chapter…

He was an immensely important figure, in the sense that he came at a certain moment, he came with a new vision and started something new. Imagine, it was entirely his personal ambition that initially drove him, but what he unleashed took Maratha rule from this one small region all the way to Punjab, all the way to Bengal. Even in Tamil Nadu, there is a Maratha ruling family that was established, Shivaji’s half-brother was ruling there. So he set out and created something that really changed the history of the country itself. But there are a hundred books on Shivaji. For me the point was that I didn’t want to tackle the same subject again, because people have done that,

tadka

Highway construction hits 10,000 km in FY18 Construction of national highways in India hit a record 10,000 km in the year ending March 31, 2018. On average, 27.5 km of highways were constructed every day in FY18, while contracts were awarded for an average 46 km per day, a top road transport and highways ministry official said. The construction of 10,000 km of national highways last year compares with 8,231 km in FY17 and 4,260 km (11 km per day) in FY14, the last year of the UPA government.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 23

INDIA TOMORROW - 1

better people have done that, older, much more experienced historians have done that. My point was, why did Shivaji emerge at that particular point, what led him in that era to the idea to do what he wanted to do? I looked at the previous four centuries and I realised that here we have a fascinating period that’s actually neglected. These pre-Shivaji Sultanates are very interesting. You think globalisation is a very new phenomenon while it is not, and the Deccan Sultanates are proof of it—there were Persians, Arabs, Africans, and the Deccan was a world full of diverse cultural influences.

Before you started writing, you began your career at Shashi Tharoor’s office. How was it?

It was very rewarding. I met him as a 21-year-old in 2011. It was a great opportunity for me; it was the first job I ever had and he essentially gave me complete charge of his Delhi office. On hindsight I wonder why he reposed so much faith in a 21-year-old kid - I worked hard, that much I'll give myself. It was good to be on that journey, to be part of an election campaign. I was dealing with diplomats, NGO's, people on the ground with terrible tales of misery. You actually receive calls like that and we wonder how we help this person. I used to be in the office from 9 am until 10 pm, but to be frank I thoroughly enjoyed such workaholism. I also wrote the weekly newspaper column for Mint Lounge -- I did that on the side while I was Tharoor’s chief of staff till last August. But I realised that while I could keep doing my regular columns, to write a book you need more mind-space so I decided to take a break. Instead of taking a break and just disappearing and saying I am writing a book, I thought why not do a PhD; because that way I get a degree out of it, I also get the space to do my research, and the thesis can turn out to be my next book at some point.

Our politicians hardly have a vision or interest in our history…

It's not a priority, it’s not something that gives you votes, it’s not something that the public cares very much about, so why should you bother. Part of it is also poverty. When you are a poor country, people are not so interested in culture. When you are worried about your next meal why would you be interested in preserving a monument? I don’t fully blame politicians because they are responding to the public. The future is in the role of private citizens. There is some movement in that direction; for example in Bengaluru, they are setting up the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP). The city’s great billionaires have invested money to preserve art for which they are creating the space. So I think public private partnerships are the way to go, because the private sector has money, it even has the expertise. There is one group called Ekaa Resources which does archival work and conservation and sets up museums. For example, XYZ Maharaja, who’s got this old palace that is crumbling will commission them and give them a budget saying in this budget you must set up a museum, find the staff, train the staff and get it running, and they do the whole thing. They are the ones who are also involved in the Indira Gandhi exhibition, the centenary exhibition that is travelling around the country. So there are private players who are interested; it’s a question 24 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

of where the money will come from, and the money has to come from the private sector. For example if you are living in Pune, pool together your resources, adopt one or two monuments and make it a world class attraction. It will be a contribution for now as well as for future generations.

Are you working on the next book?

I have started writing, but won’t talk about till it’s done, I am a little superstitious. I feel you shouldn’t count your chickens before hand. The good thing is—and this is in continuation of my earlier point on private investment in the sphere of heritage—I have the backing of the Sandeep and Gitanjali Maini Foundation in Bengaluru, and this allows me to really focus on my work and invest in my research, at a much better scale than I was able to do earlier.

In your generation, you are probably the only one who is doing this kind of historical research...

People keep saying, youngest historian, and all of that, but you know these titles don’t really matter. There are other young historians also coming up, in different fields. There is Vikram Sampath who did this fabulous biography of vocalist Gauhar Jaan who is actually a striking figure - she was one of the earliest people who sang for the gramophone.

What do you think of the narration of history in India’s literary and academic world?

Seventy years of independence is not a long time if you look at the large scheme of things, so we are still a country that is figuring out who we are, what our principles and values are. The two main political parties can’t agree on the core values of this country, which means that that’s very much up for debate even today. People have not figured out who we are as Indians, that is still something we are negotiating. So the emphasis is often on modern history, the nationalist struggle, Indira Gandhi - there is a profound interest among let’s say the intellectual classes also in this here-and-now history, whereas what I am interested is in something earlier. Because I am more interested in reminding people... for example when there is Hindu-Muslim polarisation, a character like this Ibrahim Adil Shah who brought together the best of both is someone who reminds us that we don’t always have to go to the worst, we can also emulate the best that existed. I am not saying that there weren’t cruel rulers in the past, I am not saying there was no violence in the past, but I am saying just as there was that, there were also people who were trying to do the opposite, so why are we emphasizing on the negative when we can learn from the positives?

You are British by mind and action. The Indian approach is not as organised as the British who are so systematic…

In fact, the irony is that some of our best records are sitting in their archives, because here they are rotting away, but they preserve their copies. The archive itself is a spectacular sort of space because you can’t enter with your bag; you have to enter only with a clear plastic bag, you cannot take a pen inside because a pen can damage things; you can take a pencil, as they can at least erase it. When you leave, they check this plastic bag, but if you have a laptop, you need to open the laptop and show that you are not stealing anything. All the

documents are kept in temperature-controlled rooms and they come to you in these leather folders and if they are very delicate they come to you in microfilm, obviously. So you don’t actually touch the original and the way it’s preserved the way its brought to you, the systematic way in which it is run is so impressive. And I have seen archives here where you give an order and four hours later they come to you saying 'Haan catalogue mein to hain magar its missing'. I am like, 'achha —but how can it be missing, who is responsible? But there’s no accountability. The government is trying to make it more streamlined through digitisation, so these are welcome changes for a country with so much history.

So you are in the right place for you to do research.

Yes, it gives me a good working environment; it gives me access to the best books. The British Library where I normally

‘Seventy years of independence is not a long time, if you look at the large scheme of things, so we are still a country that is figuring out who we are, what our principles and values are. The two main political parties can’t agree on the core values of this country, which means that, that’s very much up for debate even today. People have not figured out who we are as Indians -- that is still something we are negotiating’

sit every day is called a legal deposit library; which means, by law, one copy of any book published in the UK has to go there - which means that for the past God knows how many hundreds of years, anything published in the UK is available there. I have found obscure books by Indian authors who you wouldn’t come across in an Indian book store. Books that have gone out of print in the 50's and 60’s are available here. Besides, of course, the unbelievable collection of records and documents including Sanskrit manuscripts. When I was doing my research on Kerala’s history, one of the earliest enclaves the British had was a place called Anjengo which was granted by the Queen of Travancore to the British. The original Malayalam record from 1694-95 has gone missing in India, but the English side of that record is still available in London.

How many hours do you spend at the British Library?

I normally sit down there at around 10 am until 7.45 p m, as the library shuts down at 8 pm. I am not an introvert, so sometimes it’s very frustrating because there are days when I have not uttered a word to anybody, because you are sitting with your books in a library and you can’t talk. Sometimes I run into colleagues and friends but everyone is in their own PhD mood. Socialising often happens only on the weekends, not on weekdays.

Is the library free to the public?

Yes, it’s a public library. As I said, they value research, so technically any member of the public, so long as they say what they are interested in, are immediately given a pass. So it’s quite magnificent.

What is the philosophy of life that you live by?

Work hard, don’t complain too much, because even to have the freedom to complain is a luxury in this country. There are people who deal with such unbelievable depths of misery that this attitude of complaining is not a very wise one. I have learnt to look at the bigger picture. Which means that here and now even if I don’t like something, in the bigger picture, it may pan out better, so I don’t immediately get outraged or go ballistic about it. I have realised there is something called the long perspective, and focussing on the long term and just thinking with common sense normally guides me into the right place. I normally think out and plan out my goals for each year. vinitapune@gmail.com

tadka

Bollywood’s record sales in 2018 This year is turning out to be one of the best years for Bollywood as almost 70 per cent of the films have worked phenomenally well at the box office. Rs 1680 crore! You heard it right. Bollywood has done that humongous business in its first six months at the ticket windows.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 25

NHRDN IR Summit 2018

Aligning Business strategies with IR Imperatives

Business Strategies are often perceived to be at odds with industrial relations. IR has evolved in India from a nascent phase to a wellestablished science. IR Competency is all about understanding how IR issues can be closely aligned with business strategies. At the NHRDN IR summit held in Mumbai, R Krishnamurthy, Head, S R Mohan Das and Associates, Pramod Mahatme, VP-Employee Relations, Wipro, and Vivek Patwardhan, Independent Director, MSL Driveline Systems Ltd, talk about how Industrial relations can be viewed from a broader perspective in alignment with corporate goals. Corporate Citizen brings you the riveting session By Neeraj Varty and Ekta kATTI Pramod Mahatme: Being the moderator I can only post two thoughts here. Firstly, employees all across the globe behave in a similar fashion if put in a similar situation. Things are different, because the situations are different. Employees at all levels of salary are entitled for protection under law opt for collective bargaining when their job security gets threatened and when they realise their individual bargaining strength has been reduced due to the adverse demand supply situation. No lions and tigers will ever want to form a union. They don't go in herds. Therefore, the formation of the union is the exhibition of weakness and insecurity. It is not an exhibition of courage. We often react to it as courage of revolt and create a riot. The second

thought is that only a strong union with an ability to say yes and to convince the people, and a strong management which has the ability to say no can bring about sustainable industrial relations.

What the Law says Krishnamurthy: I had a seminar on disruptive judgements which covered the entire span of HR that we look at. Starting with the Industrial Disputes Act, Standing Order Act, contract of employment, notice, notice of pay, breach of contract, or various other laws like PF, gratuity, bonus, contract, labour: these were all things which we talked about.

26 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

What is disruption? It is something that changes our thought process. It is something that we come up with that leads to the confrontation of our belief systems. There have been so many such judgements. Landmark judgements. Like striking off the name on the muster amounting to retrenchment. This was not what we understood of retrenchment, which is termination of surplus labour. But read the definition: ‘Fixed term contracts. Termination for any reason amounts to retrenchment, other than what was excluded such as in the case of misconduct, voluntary retirement...’ For the organisation, this is very important. In HR we really don't update ourselves on this —

Pics: Yusuf Khan

knowledge of the law and understanding what it means. Then there is something called case law. It relates to the finer nuances. Like, for example, what is ‘continuous service’. Laws like the PF act, EF act, Factories Act make the directors of the company liable for criminal prosecution. And jail terms in case of breach. This is something that is very draconian, when you treat a businessman like a criminal. That's prevalent only in India. You make him scared of the law. So, we need to find someone to manage the law. This is a completely wrong perspective, which is partly rectified in some places. In Maharashtra, we have the Shops Act that focuses complete-

ly on something different: Very high penalties. The businessman understands his money. He'd much rather be a complier than pay the fine. We need to have that kind of perspective. Change in thinking is coming, and that is very good. Who’s a workman? So, who's a workman under the law? Irrespective of the nature of the work, a person in a managerial or supervisor position is not a workman. But if you see case laws, pilots are considered to be workmen. The management of Air India argued, so that they would come under the purview of the law. The pilots did not contest it. They went on strike. A strike becomes prohibited and illegal.

Because you get covered under the definition of workmen, no strike in the public sector is legal. A lockout is allowed. But your strike is prohibited. There's another important question: is a software professional a workman? You have a company like TCS employing more than 3.5 lakh people. Accenture, Cognizant, Infosys. All employing over lakhs. Are they workmen? This issue came to the fore when HCL Technologies terminated an employee who had gone through a Performance Improvement Plan (Pip). The person did not work as per the requirement for three months, and he was terminated. The labour court asked the question, was it for a misconduct? If so, have you conducted an inquiry? If the inquiry

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 27

NHRDN IR Summit 2018 is not conducted it’s an illegal termination. They said it’s for non-performance. The court said, where is it in the contract? There is procedure for the exit of a person. So, this issue of whether a person is a workman or not is still pending in the high court. Changing perspectives Let’s look at the law and practice. Employees in the Bombay Stock Exchange are unionised to the level of AGM. Whereas, at the National Stock Exchange there are no workmen. Both are engaged in identical type of business. Look at the banks —ICICI, Kotak, HDFC, Yes Bank — they have no workmen employees, no unions. But in public sector banks, even officers are unionised. Pilots in Air India are unionised, but executive pilots are supposed to be out of the union. Yet they were on strike last year. Are pilots really workmen? The Air India understanding was reversed by the Delhi High Court in the case of Sahara and Jet Airlines. Look at the definition provided by the Supreme Court for workmen. Development officers of the LIC were held to be workmen earlier. But it was changed. Refer the SK Verma and Adyanthaya judgements. With Chouriya Tripathi in LIC it was ruled that development officers are not workmen according to the job description.

The Adyanthaya judgement was path breaking. It really shook up the pharma industry. They had to amend the law and had to bring the SP Act to bring coverage to medical representatives, treating them as workmen. Because salesman were not considered workmen, that’s what the judgment did. It changed the perception. The Bombay High Court again had a very good judgement. In Ramesh Vs Commissioner Revenue. Just look at the thinking. It is popularly believed that in order to dub the work as supervisory, the person must have control over the subordinate and must have the power to sanction leave, give promotions, which is one of the facets of supervisory work. If supervision is required to be made in some other different way like the quality of the work and over aspects such as to examine whether the work is complete or not in a satisfactory manner in keeping with the work specification, that also becomes supervisory work. A very interesting judgement was passed by the Supreme Court in a case at Siemens. The issue was regarding people who have been promoted on their own choosing to go into the management ranks, with an application to undergo a two-year long process of officer training.

28 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

The case of the respondent was that though the designation of junior executive officer belongs to the management cadre, it was merely a nomenclature with negligible managerial work. It was argued that the job description was that of a workman with little additional duty. This is what the union had challenged. Similarly, in the pharma industry, can they claim that they are workmen? They have. And then we have argued this matter saying no, if he signs a document by which the entire batch can be rejected, that's a discretion he uses. And it amounts to sanction. You can't take a batch which has been rejected. You are exercising a functional managerial capacity. So we need to have this job description. At the time when the person is appointed, he is willing to agree. Only when he is terminated, even a GM will say he's a workman. Then there are laws governing employment relations of master and servant. This is an important issue. The contract of personal service cannot be specifically enforced. You cannot go to court and say, ask him to employ me. You cannot. The court can only award damages for breach of contract. Mostly in IT, industrial relation problems are not in terms of any collective aspect. It’s about breach of contract.

"Today companies are saying we don't want unions. So that is taking employee engagement to the next level. Making unions irrelevant. Are you in a position to compete and walk with people so that unions will go out of business? Now there are strong managements coming in, which have threatened the unions. Will people continue to be members if the management does all this? That is also happening" KrishnaMurthy Who gets protection? So, protection is given according to the class of employees. There are three types of employees that get protection. When a public servant is sought to be removed from service, he has the provision of Article 311 of the Constitution to protect him. When a worker is sought to be reinstated, he comes under industrial law. Whereas statutory bodies act in breach or violation.... For others there's no law. They will only be able to claim damages by contesting the order of illegal termination. This is costly and time consuming. This class of employees are called the hire and fire class. They don't get the protection of the law. What colour are you? Then you have different colours. We had a situation where they talked about the profile of a post changing. I said the colour of the collars are changing. Blue collar and white collar are giving way to different colours. One, the gold collar. They are the privileged ones who are in demand. Take the case of three employers chasing one gold collar employee. A lady was offered a job with a great hike and Rs 5 lakh as she had to pay off a bond. The lady went to her old company and gave the bond fees. Her boss started weeping, saying if you resign I'll lose my job. Hence, she went ahead and returned the cheque to her new company. The new company understood her issue and agreed to take on her boss too. So a gold collar gets jobs for their bosses too! So, you don't have to do an industrial relations course on how to handle these employees. Only blue collars will never leave. Then there are pink collar employees. If boss fires you, you fire the boss. There was a case when I was on the panel of ICC. A lady filed a case of sexual harassment against a male colleague as he was staring at her. He said to me, she was beauti-

ful, if I don't stare at her it would be an insult, and if i stare, she files a case. What kind of justice is this? I told him, for this I could dismiss you. And this wasn't acceptable to him. He apologised, and the lady asked for a written apology. The green collars are the trainees. They have replaced many people who are workmen. Companies manage them as they give better performance. Black collars are the ones on the payroll but you never see them. They are contract labour. They never figure in your list. One automobile company had got 10 times its strength: 300 was the number of people it had on the payroll. 3700 was the number of contract labourers.engaged on the shop floor directly. This is where your skills are used. You need to manage this workforce better. Black collar is a problem. Today companies are saying we don't want unions. So that is taking employee engagement to the next level. Making unions irrelevant. Are you in a position to compete and walk with people so that unions will go out of business? Now there are strong managements coming in, which have threatened the unions. Will people continue to be members if the management does all this? That is also happening. The relationship profile is changing a lot in companies. Conflicting rulings: SC judgements are sometimes contradictory. We had this situation in Mulchand Industry. An assault outside the premises amounted to misconduct and indiscipline on the premises. And hence the person could be terminated. There is also one where the person assaulted was outside the premises hence was reinstated with full wages. I think this was a shocker of a judgement. So you can have judgements which are contradictory. There's an interesting Bombay High Court judgement on employment contract. There is a

case where an employee was kept on probation for six months. The probation period under the Standing Orders is three months for workmen. Many companies routinely keep a probation period of six months. After the expiry of probation, services were extended for the period of four months. Then services were terminated on the grounds of unsatisfactory performance. The Labour court held the termination contrary to the Standing Order and therefore reinstated the employee with full wages. This was confirmed by the Bombay HC. See how there are implications of not doing your job properly. And also how it impacts discipline in performance. Now see the attitude of the lady when she comes back. Many companies terminate employees who routinely don't come for work. SC said no, abandonment cannot be inferred. That can happen after a domestic inquiry is held. A key issue in the contract labour act: It applies to 20 or more persons. In Andhra, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, it is 50. In Gujarat it is 10. In Maharashtra, we get deemed permission, where the application is made online and permission is deemed to be given. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got more than 50

tadka

Siliguri tea firm beats all, in global contest Siliguri tea firm, Lochan Tea's Giddapahar Spring Wonder, bagged an award for its â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rich tea pickingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in the first edition of the "Teas of the World" International Contest in Paris, becoming the only Indian company among winners in various tea categories.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 29

NHRDN IR Summit 2018

" All businesses are experiencing competition in a somewhat unpredictable economic scenario. Capital is not so much of a concern, and many businesses are working to automate their processes. Even in the manufacturing sector the use of robots is increasing. The president of Raymond’s said that in the next three years robots employed in their organisation will make 10,000 jobs redundant" Vivek Patwardhan you have to register and need to have licenses for the contractor. There are three aspects of work that we normally look out for, in law. One is called intermittent work. Less than 120 days of work is called intermittent work. No need for engaging any license or application. I may engage a thousand people also, but the work has to be of intermittent nature. Second is perennial work or permanent. Nothing is permanent. But the law says permanent is someone who has completed more than 240 days of work. There will be problems if you cross the Laxman Rekha. Courts are concerned about sham contracts. If the contract is a sham, the industrial tribunal can

intervene. The courts need to see if it’s a genuine contract. Let me sum up. In contract labour, the issue is that there is no employer-employee relationship if the contractor is a licensed contractor. Today contracts are B2B contracts. If you have such a contract then the Contract Labour act is not applicable.

IR in a broader perspective Vivek Patwardhan: The subject of this last session is aligning business strategies and IR imperatives. The subject of my talk is viewing industrial relations in the broader business perspective. The goal of business strategies, stated very simply, is that business must grow and prosper at all times. Good industrial relations must ensure high productivity for the organisation and high living standard for the employees. Given the current scenario in which both organisations and employees are facing stress, there is need for viewing industrial relations in a broader perspective. Reflection on this subject was long overdue. We are living in an era marked by intolerance, impertinence and impatience. Unfortunately, all political leaders exhibit such behaviour. Everyday newspapers carry stories of politicians who use the language of violence. We see laws being disregarded at every step. It is very common for our leaders to show disregard for law in every form. We are living in a society where law makers don't follow the law. Leaders exhort people to break the law. And their misuse of power goes unchecked. All this is happening on a mind-boggling scale. I am mentioning this to highlight the fact that what happens within the organisation is often a reflection of what’s happening in the society. We can't

30 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

ignore what's happening in the society. No wonder industrialists are absconding and hiding in foreign lands after robbing the banks. What kind of businesses do you expect to develop and what kind of industrial relations do you expect to evolve? Recent threats A recent development is the entry of Walmart. The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch says that this will further eliminate the entry of small and medium businesses which create opportunities for more jobs. Most small entrepreneurs are battling for existence. The entry of Walmart will further create problems for them. The co-convenor of SJM, Ashwini Mahajan also alleged that there were a series of violations of law in allowing the deal to happen. All businesses are experiencing competition in a somewhat unpredictable economic scenario. Capital is not so much of a concern, and many businesses are working to automate their processes. Even in the manufacturing sector the use of robots is increasing. The president of Raymond’s said that in the next three years robots employed in their organisation will make 10,000 jobs redundant. AI is posing to be a threat. Labour laws are completely outdated. But different interest groups are at loggerheads so labour law reforms are now on nobody’s agenda. Let’s understand what's happening to the frontline soldier namely the worker.

national level, they are unable to do anything at the organisational level. The government on their part is not addressing the problem directly but helping employers by reducing the limit under chapter 5B to 100 and by allowing industries that recruit under NEEM (National Employability Enhancement Mission).

ITUC publishes a report every year called the Global Rights Index. It lists countries as per the respect their workers get on a scale of 1-5. And 5+, being the worst rating. Where does India stand? We stand at 5. And we've been there for the past five years. It denotes no guarantee of rights. ITUC also publishes the 10 worst countries to work for, for workers. In 2016, India was present in the list. The happy news is that India does not feature in the latest list because the rating starts at five. After my retirement I got the opportunity to have a closer look at organisations. I've met many HR heads and many union leaders. Based on my experience the rating of five seems appropriate. Let us examine this further. Let us quickly catch up on what's happening on the IR arena and then come to central issues. New tricks in the trade What’s happening in new establishments? Establishments are getting set up in the service industry or what we may broadly categorise as non-manufacturing industry. So we have IT, ITES, hotels, hospitals, banks setting up new establishments. It is no secret that these companies will accept unionisation. So some well-known tricks are employed. They engage retainers and consultants who are actually employees in disguise. In a recent development you may be aware that PF au-

thorities declared an amnesty scheme and several organisations converted retainers to employees and paid PF. There is a connivance between employers and individual employees here. Retainers don't want to be employees because they want more take-home pay. They don't pay any PF and tax deduction is only 10%. How many of them pay their full tax liability is a question. Some automobile companies are started with just a bunch of managers and all employees on contract. Recently a union conducted a survey around Pune and found that some new units have given contracts to Sarpanchs of the village, so they can employ the men and also control them fully. So any claims of permanency are effectively managed right there. We respond to words which carry images. We talk about permanent workers and jobs. We are quite aware that there's nothing permanent in the world. Forget permanent jobs, even organisations aren't permanent. They vanish in many ways, and this is the reality. Lawmakers, unions and others don't want to accept this reality. An exit route has to be provided to employers. If it is not done they will circumvent the law. We find that contract labour is often engaged indiscriminately. It is common to find 10 contract employees for one permanent employee. In some cases, all employees are on contract. And while unions are resisting any change of law on contract labour and closure of establishment at the

Exploitation under NEEM A shockingly high per cent of employees work on 12-hour shifts. While working to increase productivity, no organisation is focused on the working hours, much less the nature of the job. The NEEM scheme is giving a passport to exploitation. And the opportunity is not being wasted by employers. Shramik Ekta Mahasang which is a federation of over 100 unions and which is affiliated to global unions has already filed a PIL in the Bombay HC. The objective of NEEM is laudable, but what is actually getting implemented is deep exploitation. I have often written about it and recorded videos of workers. The earn and learn aspect is one of the biggest frauds we have seen. The videos were referring to recent agitation by railway apprentices. We have to appreciate that we are sitting on a time bomb and looking only at our limited organisations—we seem to be missing a very important facet of industrial relations. NEEM is creating a new proletariat. It is actually a large group of workers who undertake extensive unremunerated activities that are essential if they are to retain access to jobs. It’s happening at a gross level. We have four classes of employees working in the industry excluding permanent employees. They are retainers, contract workers, trainees under NEEM and temporary workers. Now the government is adding fixed term employees. This is happening with the connivance of the unions. Variable pay is becoming a common feature for settlements. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com, ektaakatti@gmail.com CC

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India’s tallest escalator is part of Delhi’s metro network A new corridor of the Magenta Line on Delhi Metro running through Gurugram to Noida via Delhi is slated to house India’s tallest escalator. The stipulated 50 minutes run is fascinating enough but will become an attraction with the 15.6 metre long escalator at the Janakpuri West Metro station.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 31

tête-à-tête

Change is the only constant in life, and no one can vouch for this better than PS Kumar. He is an engineer by education, a salesman by profession, and a transformation coach by vocation. He is the founder of 360° Transformation, a renowned high impact skills development programme. Corporate Citizen chats with Kumar about his diverse work experience, the requirements of Indian industry and the need to ignite people to achieve their dreams

Career transformation Tell us how an Engineer became a salesman

I did my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Annamalai University, and I followed it up with Masters in Engineering from the same institute. After that, I travelled for work from Vishakhapatnam to Hyderabad to Kolkata. I like to be self-driven like an engine and not a follower like a bogie In my career, I got a lot of technical job offers during this period, from operations to site engineering, but somehow I was always fascinated by the sales profession.

Sales is an unconventional choice for an engineer.

That's very true. I was working at the Vizag steel plant as its engineering contractor’s employee in the post of a site engineer. One day our sales engineer was not in a position to give technical answers during a negotiation. He was my friend too. During a chat, he asked for my help vis-avis technical expertise in the negotiation. I went along and spent the better part of the day convincing the client. At the end, he agreed and the order was finally released. The company threw a party to celebrate. At that celebration, all the praises went to the sales engineer. That same night, he had a talk with me. He explained to me 32 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

that I had an inherent ability to convince people on technical matters, and that I should try my hand at sales. I was an introvert who liked keeping to himself, and I felt the qualities of a sales person were missing in me. He explained to me that technical sales are an entirely different beast and due to my domain knowledge, I would be ideal for it. I requested my company to move me to sales, but they weren't willing as they wanted only experts in sales. Then I decided to leave the company and move to Hyderabad. I was selected in ABC consultants after a round of interviews.

So how was your first sales job?

At that time, they selected me to sell high voltage electrical cables. I had never studied cables before. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do that. But they put me through training in Kolkata. When I came back, I was rearing to go. Our company got an order from TNEB and it was India’s first order of 110 KV— EVH cables. The branch manager at that time was trying to groom his own son for a promotion. He was afraid that I may get promoted above him. He therefore tried to isolate me and deny me any opportunities. I was frustrated and joined with their competitor. I learnt lot of marketing aspects in three years. We also got India’s first 132 KV EHV cables order from TNEB. One day, I met a

Pics: Ahmed Sheikh

By Neeraj Varty

gentleman in a flight, and we started chatting. He was impressed by my knowledge and he offered me a job at Larsen and Toubro. L&T is a large organisation. I told him that I did not want to be a small fish in a big pond, but rather a big fish in a small pond, so that I could learn more. He said that L&T was planning to start a new division, and he would like me to join it. All this happened on a Chennai to Delhi flight. I was convinced. I gave the interview and was selected to market Plastics Machineries - IMMs and high end machines. Just like cables, I knew nothing of plastics. I love to accept challenges. I learnt everything there is to know about the subject. I thrived in L&T for over two decades, starting from a sales executive to a senior deputy general manager. I was amongst the first in that division; we started it and made it grow. I discovered that I am good at value selling. I like to convey the value of the product rather than just match the price. I am a very ethical person, I don't believe in misrepresenting to the customer. I believe in presenting the whole truth to the customer. Being in a sales job, it is very difficult to not embellish facts and yet be successful, but this is something I would never compromise on.

So how did you walk that fine line?

I am a very ethical person, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe in misrepresenting to the customer. I believe in presenting the whole truth to the customer. Being in a sales job, it is very difficult to not embellish facts and yet be successful, but this is something I would never compromise on

At L&T, our products were far superior than our competitors, but our prices were around 40% costlier than them. I focused on telling the customer the benefits of the products rather than haggling over the price. If our products can deliver 30% efficiency to the customer, I promised 22%, so that when the customer got more than promised, he came out delighted. Initially, the managers from the customer side feared that increased efficiency due to products would make them appear inefficient. But I managed to convince them that it is not me or my product, but they who are responsible for improved productivity. It is this people's touch that endeared us to the employees of the client. Through product superiority and great client servicing, we managed to become the market leader in the segment. Then I moved to Mumbai, where I was assigned multiple roles during my tenure. I was their zonal manager responsible for South. I handled marketing services and training. Later, I became head of communications and branding in that joint venture company. After a while, L&T decided to sell off that division to Fiat. Fiat is an excellent company, but for some reason, I have always preferred to work with an Indian company rather than a foreign one. I guess I am patriotic (laughs).

You arrived at a fork in the road.

You could say that. I moved back to Chennai and started working with a kitchen appliances company called Butterfly Appliances. I learnt a lot there. I was in charge of international sourcAugust 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 33

tête-à-tête ing, and I traveled to China quite often for work. It was during these travels that I noticed a huge difference between China and India.

In what way?

China is extremely efficient in operations. The entire world is a market for China. Unfortunately, I feel we are 30 years behind China when it comes to manufacturing efficiency. The infrastructure and government support there is immense. We have a wrong perception that China made goods are inferior. In fact, companies like Apple manufacture in China itself. There, you get what you pay for.

What did you take from this observation?

After seeing the disparity between China and India, I began to introspect. I asked myself why our country is not growing. I felt that change has to come from the mind of the people, but the question was how to achieve that. Education was the answer. However, I am from a middle class family and don't have the resources to start a college. So what could I do? The answer stared at me. I could be a trainer. The idea which germinated as a seed slowly took control of my entire thought process until I eventually decided to take the plunge. That is the story of how I quit my job and started 360° Transformation.

Tell us about 360° Transformation.

My passion is to transform people. Whatever knowledge we have, we cannot carry it to our deathbed. We must eventually pass it along to future generations. My success is not because of me alone, it is because of my team. I am very good in building teams and getting things done. I ignite people to perform. I don't yell, reprimand or coerce people, I just motivate them. I firmly believe everyone has the capability. You just need to convey the message in a way the person understands. Once the person is motivated, there is no need to monitor him. He will perform. If you force someone to perform like you, their originality is lost and they will never be able to act like someone else. I am very firm and clear. All my engineers have been told that in three years, they should surpass me. Today, several of my engineers are Presidents and VPs of leading companies. I owe everything to my great leaders like M/s KRL Narasimhan, ES Kumar, Vijay Sankar NS Sivaraman, V Ganesh, P Kailas and my team.

When did you start 360° Transformation.

I established it in 2016. When I started, I realised I am very good at subjects, but I wasn’t very good at communicating it to youngsters. When I was working at L&T and Butterfly, the youngsters under me were engineers. I could easily communicate in technical terms. I had difficul-

ty conveying my message to the layman. This requires a different skill. I decided to upskill myself. I attended many training programmes. Interestingly, I was 50 years old then. I spent approximately Rs 10 lakhs and gave nine months to attend international training programmes. There I learnt how to talk to people, how to present myself to people, and how to convey my thoughts and influence other people. When I finally learnt all that, I decided to take the leap and start my training academy.

How did the name come about?

If someone wants to transform, it can’t be piecemeal. If a person wants to be healthy, they cannot just exercise their biceps. If they do, only the biceps will be strong but the entire body will be weak. This is not growth. Growth needs to be holistic, like a cocoon changing into a butterfly. Transformation must come full circle—360° . This is how I coined the name. When you transform, a radical change happens. Transformation is not based on past or present. It is only concerned about your future. Transformation is strategy driven and external influences are less. Like mobile phones moved from keypads to touch screens—That was a

34 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

radical change which transformed the entire telecom industry. For such a transformation to occur, you must change your mindset. Let me give you an example, if you want to quit smoking and your heart is not in it, you won’t be able to quit. But if you have promised your loved one that you will quit smoking, then even if anyone offers you a cigarette, you won’t smoke because you have made a commitment. This change happens internally. Transformation is a process just like carving out a statue. You need to take a stone and chisel. But if the hammer fears that the rock will feel pain if I chip at it, the beautiful statue will never be created. You have to undergo pain to transform into the best version of yourself.

How do you plan to transform the youth?

Youngsters today are primarily concerned with making quick money. The rule of any transformation is—no pain, no gain. If you are not going to suffer at an earlier stage, you will suffer much more at a later stage. It’s better to suffer in the beginning and have a fruitful life later. I think no one in India is using the methodology we are using. We take interested people and work with

fact something people can master with practice. The key is to know how to do it. In one year, a person can transform into an excellent performer of his domain.

Expand your horizon. When I was in school, my competition was someone in my city or at the most my state. Today, your competition might be someone sitting in Shanghai, Madrid, Tokyo or New York. Compare yourself with global standards, not with your friends

What’s your idea of relaxation?

I keep on learning new things. I meditate a lot. Lately, I am practicing Silambham, which is a Tamil martial art. At the age of 52, I am now learning to fight (laughs). I go for classes at 5 am every day. I practice for an hour. Relaxation for me is learning something new rather than wasting time of Facebook and WhatsApp. Social media is addictive but it is not relaxing. On the contrary, it is stressful.

Do you feel the output of the current educational system in India leaves something to be desired?

them. 85% of people who became successful in life achieved it not just because of their education. It is a mix of education and personal factors. Take Dhirubhai Ambani for example. He had no experience about petrochemicals. He was passionate about coming up in life and he learnt about the subject. I made interested people identify their area of improvement. Others call it area of weakness, I don’t. We work on the area of improvement and make people perform. If someone is not good in finance, we educate them on the financial parameters we negotiate in contracts. Similarly, to those who aren’t good at technical aspects, we explain those aspects in detail. Some people are good at knowledge but not at people relations. We train them on that topic. Receptionists may sound pleasant on the first few calls of the day, but as the day drags on, they sound tired and irritated. But if they make politeness a habit, it won’t seem as such a task to them. I transform people to make them appealing to their customers. We aren’t profit-oriented,we are customer-focused—the profit automatically follows. I teach three main qualities—Personal qualities, smart working, and personal skills. Many times people believe that qualities and skills can’t be learnt. The good news is that it is in-

I believe so. Today, the biggest problem facing youngsters is employability. Most youngsters in India are unemployable. This is because students' exposure is very limited. The educational system in India, compared to China, Germany and the US, is much less industry oriented. There is real time change in syllabus to incorporate needs of different industries. Unfortunately in India the syllabus is very static. For example, the Internet of things (IoT) is everywhere. Students should have in-depth knowledge about things like artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning. When you start working, you should know about robotics and industry 4.0. But unless you equip students at the classroom level, it’s very difficult for them to pick up these things later on.

Engineering colleges are shutting down by the hundreds in India. Why is that?

The problem is not the number of colleges; it is the quality of education. People go to colleges to learn and find employment, but if people coming out of these colleges are unemployable, who will enroll there? The focus is on rote learning and not on understanding where it should be. Students should be encouraged to learn and not forced to memorise. Colleges usually call guest lectures in the final year, just a month or two before graduation. How will students implement advice from these experts if they are at the end of their course? Guest lecturers should be invited in the induction phase so that young minds have the opportunity to act on the advice of domain leaders.

Do you believe in a work-life balance?

personal life. I never carried my work home. In India we don't have proper time management. I believe in delegating work and giving people, especially youngsters, the autonomy to carry out the work without asking me for inputs all the time. This allows the young people to gain more confidence about themselves and I too can spend more time with my family. One should never neglect their family life for work, whichever stage of their career they may be at.

I absolutely believe in separating work life and

What is the philosophy you live by?

I believe my motto is to be customer focussed. I believe in being truthful and never cheating anyone.

Any advice to youngsters about to start their career?

I would advise youngsters to identify their areas of improvement and transform themselves. Determine at a young age what you want to do with your life and diligently work towards it. Do not give into prejudices of other people. If someone tells you aren't good at something, don't let them bring you down. Improve on that point till you master it. For those students wanting to get into management, I would say that management should be studied as a science and applied as an art. One final thing I would like to tell them is to expand their horizon. When I was in school, my competition was someone in my city or at the most my state. Today the world is globalised. Your competition might be someone sitting in Shanghai, Madrid, Tokyo or New York. Compare yourself with global standards, not with your friends. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

tadka

Floods in India, a death knell

India accounts for one-fifth of global deaths due to floods, as per a new World Bank study that says climate change will lower the standards of living of nearly half of the country’s population by 2050.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 35

Alumni Spotlight-6 Ambika Saxena, Alumnus, IIM Lucknow

r e w o P alma the

of mater

Thousands of aspirants hope to join the prestigious IIM league, but only a few are lucky enough to make the cut. After all, it takes plenty of motivation, hard work, sincerity and passion to get through the IIMs. Ambika Saxena is among the fortunate few who graduated from IIM Lucknow in year 2010. She credits her alma mater for making a significant contribution to her success story as the CEO of a leading PR firm in India, Integrated Centre For Consultancy Pvt. Ltd(ICCPL). Here’s her success story, that she says has largely been carved out by the highly renowned institute of learning By Ambika Saxena

ne has to be a visionary, bestowed with an extraordinary focus to prepare for one of the most difficult entrance exams in the country, but also the most coveted one-while working at the same time. “After working for two years, I realised how important it is to have an edge in a highly competitive job environment”. A sense of competitiveness thus motivated Ambika to take the challenge head on. She cracked IIM in year 2010 and that further helped her to stay motivated and plan her career ahead, “A degree from a prestigious institute gives you that desired push”, she makes a point worthy of consideration.

Well begun is half done

Getting into an IIM is one thing and dealing with 36 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

her capabilities, which earned her an enviable position at a very young age, “I was part of the senior management at the mere age of 27!” Ambika exclaims.

The Biggest Takeaways from the Alma Mater

A celebrated name in the PR world today, Ambika reminisces how her alma mater taught her things that she wouldn’t have imagined doing otherwise and surprises us with her revelation, “I still remember that we were shown the movie Chak De India during our IIM days. And then, we were even asked to do a case study on it” The case study was one of the many ways to make the budding professionals understand the importance of working together as a team, a principle she still applies at her current organisation, “Boss says “I” but a team leader says “WE” and that’s the real secret of success.” While she stresses on the importance of an academic institution in instilling the right qualities and values in an individual looking to grow, she says transcending the limitations of the classroom is equally important as is gaining confidence from classroom teaching, “Don’t restrict learning to classroom and books! Never question the power of confidence. It doesn’t matter which language you know or how much knowledge you have. If you have the right confidence, you can sail through any situation,” she gives out a piece of advice.

“Since I was already working and had to continue working with the same company, my newly acquired skills helped me grow steadily in the same organisation” the stress that comes as a part and parcel of it is another. For someone as driven as Ambika, however, this was no big deal. She shares how she brought her A-game to the table inspite of the thorough professionals who were her classmates, who could intimidate a young student, “All the batch-mates came from diverse states and were armed with work experience along with great knowledge and skills. The only way to be at the top was to keep on researching and increasing my knowledge.” With this goal in mind, Ambika would show up in class with the weapon of confidence that helped her charge ahead, contribute to classroom discussion while also amassing vast knowledge, “I made it a point to come prepared for the next day’s classes so that I could participate more and hence learn more. Needless to say, her keenness to learn and participate in the class earned her recognition in class several times. She recalls two of them, which are especially close to her heart, “IIM is all about team building and learning to work together. In one such group project that included brand building and presentation,

our team was judged as the best. Besides, being one of the youngest students in the class, I got appreciated many a time during class discussions and presentations.”

Young and Raring to go

A degree from IIM is testimony to a professional’s dedication and speaks volumes about his or her abilities. Graduating from the institute paid off on the work front, where Ambika enjoyed putting her skills into practice and the results were beginning to show at her workplace, “Since I was already working and had to continue working with the same company, my newly acquired skills helped me grow steadily in the same organisation,” she says. Just like any ambitious professional would, Ambika decided to make a career move that would help her grow from strength to strength, “After a year and a half, I decided to switch to another organisation.” Given her impressive resume and industry knowhow the new organisation recognised

Alma mater Matters!

A poignant Ambika generously thanks IIM Lucknow for making her the eminent professional that she is today in the PR portals, “I totally owe it to my alma mater, the professors and batchmates for my success.” The eager learner in her concludes, “A right platform creates a ground for bigger victories and everything that you experience or everyone you meet teaches you something or the other in life.” Well said, Ambika (As told to Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar)

tadka

Star India leads in cricket broadcasting

Star India beats Jio to bag BCCI’s media rights for ` 6,138.10 crore. Star India offered to spend ` 6,138 crore to effectively monopolise cricket coverage in India, outbidding two deep-pocketed rivals in the high-stakes race to beam live the matches hosted by the sport’s richest administrator at its home. With the offer of ` 60.18 crore per match over the next five years, makes Star India the undisputed leader in cricket broadcasting.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 37

Pics: Yusuf Khan

To grow in the private industry, there is only one thing you have to do and that is continuous performance. Companies need results from you and if you perform well then you will grow. In private industry there is no quota system, no reservationâ&#x20AC;?

38 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

Interview

performance is the key to success He started his journey with Indian Air Force. After 15 years of successful service he opted for Voluntary Retirement Service (VRS) and joined the private sector in a challenging HR management role. J Sivakumar, Head HR and Admin, J K Fenner, Madurai is very impressed with the Japanese work culture, discipline and their countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industrial development and economic growth after the Second World War. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Sivakumar elaborates his views on human resource management and shares his experience of over 13 years in managing the transformation from personnel management to human resource management and of effectively handling the growing business needs for improving productivity through effective people management skills By Shantanu Relekar Take us through your education and career journey

Sivakumar: I come from a middle class family and my parents were school teachers. After completing my graduation in B.Sc. (Chemistry), I joined the IAF, and after completing fifteen years of service, I left the IAF and started my second innings with the private sector as an HR Manager. I am with the manufacturing industries for the past thirteen years. After my graduation I did my MBA with specialisation in HR, followed with various diploma programmes in Personnel Management, Industrial Relations, Foreign Trade, Material Management and also Hospital Management. My brother, who is a renowned doctor, runs a hospital in our home town Madurai and I am extending some administrative support to manage the hospital. Though I am an HR person, I am passionate in learning new skills and processes, especially, the Japanese management techniques and concepts of production, which we are very much practicing here in India. I have had opportunities to work with Japanese people and I am very impressed by the way they lead their life, their way of thinking, their professionalism, and dedication to work and especially their can do attitude. Their concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

which is widely used in industries, a system of maintaining and improving the integrity of production and quality systems through the maximum utilisation of machines, equipment, processes, and employees to add business value. Another popular Japanese concept is 5S, a system for organising the workplace so that work can be performed efficiently, effectively, and safely. Being associated with Japanese people, I have inculcated these techniques in my day to day life both in my work place and home for which I have been nominated as the Champion for Total Employee Involvement initiatives in order to improve the productivity and profitability my company.

In your 13 years of experience in managing people, what are the new techniques you introduced to improve productivity and employee satisfaction?

Way back in the 80s, very conventional methods of working were practised in the industries. Employees would come to work, do their job as per the instruction of supervisors and leave for the day. There would be no personal involvement or innovation. If we had continued that way in our industries we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have flourished. So, we did the change, over the years and involved employees in each and every August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 39

Interview transformation of the industry. They got to know what is the turnover of the industry, what is profit and loss of industry, what are the expectations of the customers or end users. Today, if you ask any of my front line to lowest level worker, he knows about his customer and the expectations of the Customer and how to deliver the best at workplace to delight the customer. They do believe in “First Time Right” don’t believe in rework again and again. I have also played vital role in establishing Self Directed Work Team (SDWT) in the industry. In conventional industry there used to be a supervisor to supervise and in general the Indian attitude is that you need someone to supervise then only you work and you are habituated to that. I brought cultural change by removing supervision and empowering workers to make decisions about planning, executing and evaluating their daily work. The teams not only do their routine work but also, take on management functions formerly performed by supervisors and engineers. This facilitates the supervisors and engineers to focus on improvement projects, teaching, coaching and facilitating rather than controlling I also nurtured them in many problem solving techniques in the organisation and have facilitated to show case

their creativity at State level and National level competitions, felicitated them with awards and recognitions for their outstanding performances. This motivates them and they start getting involved in the growth of the industry.

What work culture differences you see between India and Japan and how can we make India industrious?

“Today, if you ask any of my front line to lowest level worker, he knows about his customer and the expectations of the customer and how to deliver the best at workplace to delight the customer. They do believe in “First Time Right” don’t believe in rework again and again”

There is a big difference—Indian mentality regarding work needs a drastic change, if India has to grow from the developing country to a developed country in the world. In Japan, citizens help each other, respect each other and one of the best quality that I have seen in Japanese people is patriotism, for them country comes first. Whatever they do, first they will think “what I am doing is good for my country or not”, even if they are building a house they will think about their country. But in India, it is reverse—my house is first, then my street, then village, then town. Japanese people have a greatest level of patriotism, self-discipline and punctuality. In India very few bother being punctual. Once, a Japanese, who came to meet me came early and was waiting outside the factory, opposite side of the road. I thought he will come in. He came in at sharp 8:55am as per the appointment given. I asked him, as you have come early why you didn’t come inside. He replied that if he would had come in early, the office staff would be doing some preparatory work and they would get disturbed by his stepping in early. This is the way they respect others time. Even if somebody offers them chocolate, their first reaction would be to search for a dustbin to throw the chocolate wrapper. If they don’t find any dustbin the will keep the chocolate wrapper in their pocket and on the way if they find any dustbin they will throw the wrapper. After the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, during the final stage of World War II, the country has grown to become one of the economic superpowers of the world. The per capita income in Japan is the highest in the world and their economic growth is phenomenal. Everyone in the world today trust and prefer Japanese products because it’s long lasting, durable, and maintenance free. I would say the development of India started because of Japanese intervention, between 1985-1987 and we started adapting Japanese technology, with respect to automobile, electronics and productivity technique.

What are your views on the prevalent education system in India and about the industryacademia gap?

Our education system needs a drastic change because, what we practise in the industry and what we teach in university curriculum is diagonally opposite, rather it has to be parallel. The syllabus has to be changed every two or three years and they have to update the same according to the developments happening in the industry. There are lots of innovations happening and yesterday’s innovation becomes obsolete the very next day. Something introduced a month ago, becomes obsolete in the next three or four months. Technology is growing rapidly in the country and to keep pace with technology we have to change the syllabus accordingly. The engineering syllabus, which are being taught, were formed sometime during 1980s which are almost obsolete by now. 40 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

recognised and advanced in proportion to one’s abilities and accomplishments?

I would suggest that we should start thinking with the future in mind. We should visualise, how the world would be in the next ten years. We have to prepare the students to face that challenges from now itself because there are lot of new technologies coming up like Internet of things and there are many emerging technologies which are yet to come. Now-a-days nothing is impossible, to cope up with the technologies we have to prepare the students from now itself otherwise it is of no use.

What are the qualities you see in candidate while recruiting?

Whether he/she has got the required domain knowledge about where he/she is going to work. Then we look for reactiveness, agility, risk taking ability. There has to be pro-activeness because I find it is very much lacking in us. Normally we react and we don’t show pro-activeness. Other qualities required are long term thinking, learnability and willingness to work as a team. We prefer someone who is a continuous learner and willing to take additional responsibilities.

Do you believe that the opportunity should be

“I come across many students who score very less—I don’t believe in stats, gold medal etc.—there may be many reasons the student must have scored low marks. There are highly competent and innovative personalities and they may have scored good marks. I have come across such people in my career and it takes time to understand their competency”

I come across many students who score very less—I don’t believe in stats, gold medal etc.—There may be many reasons that the student must have scored low marks. There are highly competent and innovative personalities and they may have scored good marks. I have come across such people in my career and it takes time to understand their competency. We normally conduct interview for half an hour or so and within that time one cannot understand the potential of the candidate fully. We may get to know only about 5–10 per cent of his/her personality by his/her behaviour, body language and through his/her academic records. It takes at least two or three months for the reporting boss to understand a candidates full potential and that’s why we have a system of appointing a person as probationer in the beginning. I have seen many employees who have not even completed matriculation, but they bring lots of innovative ideas to the table which would fetch good amount of cost saving to the industry. A simple suggestion they give would yield savings up to crore at times. This is a great learning being a HR person that we cannot judge someone by his/her qualification alone.

Generally people are differentiated according to their qualification and skill. Is meritocracy and competency the right barometer?

To grow in private industry there is only one thing you have to do and that is continuous performance. Companies need results from you and if you perform well then you will grow. In private industry there is no quota system, no reservation. They take people on merit and they promote and reward them for their performance. If you give the result you will be rewarded.

What advice will you give to the fresher’s who are aspiring to come in the corporate world?

They should be ready for the future requirements, what would be the focus of the corporates in another ten years’ time. They also should have good communication and presentation skills. These only would help them to sell themselves. They should have assertiveness, should value and approach others views empathetically. Apart from all these they should possess strong interpersonal skills, most importantly listening skills. One should be a good listener and should perform why-why analysis. They should be curious and ready to continuously learn and update themselves.

What is the philosophy of your life?

I’m not a big man to frame some philosophy of my own. I live a very simple life. My only philosophy is do good and be good, because what you do today will come back to you one day. Good or bad you will reap the consequences for your deeds right away. I believe in updating myself every day to meet the growing demands of the corporate world. In todays’ world, knowledge is power. At the same time we must be aware that the world is moving from measuring a person with “Intelligent Quotient” to “Emotional Quotient”. So learning the soft skills becomes vital to be successful. shantanu.relekar94@gmail.com August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 41

My First Boss

We saw ourselves grow from students to engineers By Vidya Neelakantan, Manager Digital Marketing, EVOMA Business Centre and Business Hotel, Bengaluru

spiring words that we should be learning from the vendors we were working with, rather than command them with our bookish knowledge. That was the big learning experience for us. It was a real eye opener and we realised that we had to start from zero. Having a B.Tech degree and studying four years in college is nothing compared to what we can learn on site. Personally, he inbuilt the thought in me that for a woman, it is important to be independent and that being a qualified engineer, and a woman with life’s ups and down; quitting jobs in their quest for work-family balance, is not an option and was advised to take a sabbatical and get back to work during one such phase in my career. It was a special thing for me. (As told to Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar)

y first job was that of a trainee engineer with Gopalan Enterprises in 1993 in Bengaluru under senior manager, Mr Sampath Kumar, for a year. He was basically a very warm person and understood that we were straight out of college with very little internship experience. The way he encouraged all six of us in our trainee batch was amazing. In the initial years, we engineering students come with a lot of bookish knowledge and not much hands-on-experience. I, being a civil engineer wanted to work on construction sites and gain real experience. Mr Sampath was aware that our knowledge was more bookish and related more to standards and prescribed units in our field. He explained to us on how work on site is actually done and he handheld us to make us un-

“I still remember Mr Sampath’s inspiring words that we should be learning from the vendors we were working with, rather than command them with our bookish knowledge” derstand ground realities; especially, certain US standards which are not necessarily applicable in Indian environment. All the learnings was passed on by Mr. Sampath, without embarrassing us or putting us down in front of workers at the sites. When we tried to talk to the contractor there; we learnt the matured manner in which he handled the person and that gave an insight into how a manager should be. Under his supervision we saw ourselves graduate from our student levels to engineers on site. We learnt to look at things in the right perspective and how one should treat the mason, the contractor and other vendors. Thus, we too gradually understood that these vendors are more knowledgeable, more experienced and wiser than we are. He handled them so well that there were no ego clashes between any of the stakeholders. I still remember Mr Sampath’s in-

42 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

tadka

India world’s fastestgrowing apps market India has become the world’s fastestgrowing market for mobile applications on both the Apple iOS and Google’s Android Play Store, with a sharp spike in revenue in the first quarter of 2018. The country also leads in the most number of mobile app downloads across both platforms according to app market data and insights company App Annie.

Expert Opinion Sunita Narain

Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and the Editor of Down To Earth magazine. She is an environmentalist who pushes for changes in policies, practices and mind-set

Shadow of storms The fact is that storms of 2018 hold a mirror to our future

ifty storms in 16 states of India have killed over 500 people and destroyed acres of crops in two months—April and May 2018. This is not normal. Or is this the new normal? The fact is that these storms are the warning signals of what is going wrong in our world. First, the storms are the result of our mismanagement—of water and of land—that ensures that there is more desertification and more dust to be raised and swept with the furious winds. It is also about our sheer inability to get our weather forecasting system geared up and operational for the new normal—the normal where natural weather variability will combine with global changes in weather because of climate change. In this case, let’s be clear, the storms could not be stopped. But people did not have to die. There was a Doppler radar close by—capable of detecting dust levels at the surface and horizontal wind velocities—that could have forewarned the most deadly storm of May 2, 2018. But the radar, located in Jaipur, is not functioning. It is out of order. This clearly is what we cannot afford anymore. The fact is that storms of 2018 hold a mirror to our future. But first, let’s decode the dust. Why is this happening? And what is different? My colleagues at Down To Earth have put

ing their seasonality and movement. But this is not all. The fact is temperatures are rising in the Bay of Bengal—an increase of 1-2°C has been recorded over normal averages. This means there is more moisture to transport and more cyclonic activity. This cyclonic system is now colliding with the drier, colder but late-coming WDs—leading to intense and widespread storms. Making things worse is more heat and dust everywhere. This year temperatures have spiked across northern sub-continent. In Rajasthan temperature shot up over 46°C in end April and Pakistan reported over 50°C—at times 4-5°C above the average. In parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plains temperatures 8°C over normal have been recorded. So, this is not normal. But it makes for the new normal as this high temperature means less moisture on ground, more dust and more desertification. It creates the conditions for a dust-bowl, where wind speeds—which have a threshold of 90-100 km/hour for storms—go over 130 km/ hour resulting in a much more destructive force. All this has led to a deadly season of convective storms—with much higher frequency, intensity and death toll. Just consider, between 1980 and 2003, India saw nine deadly convective storms, which killed some 640 people. In the next 14 years—2003 to 2017—22 storms were recorded, which left some 700 dead. But in 2018, we have already seen 50 such storms and 500 deaths. So this new normal is a combination of human made factors—playing at local to global levels. From soil mismanagement and desertification to global emissions of carbon dioxide, which is warming up the Earth’s surface and making all sorts of things so wrong and weird. It’s time we understood this change. This is not small and nor will it go away tomorrow. This change is here to stay and it will become more deadly as temperatures continue to spiral, getting out of hand. It is also clear that today the poor in the world are the victims of this “human made” disaster. The rich do not die in sandstorms. The rich do not lose their livelihoods when the next cyclonic system hits. But the fact is that this weird weather is a portend of what awaits us. The change is not linear, and it is not predictable. It will come as a shock and we will not be prepared for it. Climate change at the end will be an equaliser—it will impact the rich and the poor. This much is clear. The question is what will we do to fix it. That is not clear. Not at all. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/shadow-ofstorms-60857

This weird weather is a portend of what awaits us. The change is not linear, and it is not predictable. It will come as a shock

together the pieces of information to reveal a zig saw of changing weather science. Firstly, there is the changing character of Western Disturbances (WDs). These are winds that originate in the Mediterranean, travel across West Asia and enter India, where they are blocked by the Himalayas. This leads to rains and snow. And has done so forever. But what is different now is that instead of two-three WDs, now we are seeing 10 and more. Even more differently, WDs are coming later and later into the season. The normal is that WDs would come in winter months—bring snow. But now they are coming in April and even May. In fact, even as I write this in the first week of June, there is WD looming over the sub-continent. This is new. This is not normal. So, why is it happening? The science on this is still nascent, but increasingly it is clear that WDs are changing because of the warming of the Arctic. Why, you will ask? Because with a warmer Arctic the difference in temperature between that cold region and the Equator has reduced. This in turn is making the jet stream—winds from Arctic to Equator—to weaken and meander rather than take straight course, which in turn is affect-

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 43

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

Love’s like that If opposites attract, similarities help you bind together. Entrepreneur Samantha Rodricks and banker husband Arthur Ignatius understand this only too well-given that even after seven years of marriage, the conversation continues to flow seamlessly. Their five-year-old son Jared completes the happy picture By Kalyani SardesAi

hat stands out about the Samantha-Arthur equation is its sheer comfort and effortlessness. Sure, they’re both social people-but they are just as happy all by themselves-simply talking with a little drink in hand at the end of a hectic day that entails balancing home, work pressures along with the upbringing of their little boy. “I think it is precisely this shared sense of bonhomie that continues to define us even after seven years of marriage,” says Samantha. Simply put, romance is an exciting aspect of any relationship, but at the end of the day, what matters is how easily you can speak to each other.

Back to the beginning

This love story began in 2008 with a weekend Karaoke session in one of Pune’s happening restaurants where Arthur happened to be singing. “My friends and I were hanging out at the joint and were completely floored by his voice,” reminisces Samantha. “We got talking, after all, we had several friends in common, but still it would be a year before we would seriously get to know each other. He was working in Mumbai at that point of time, and I did not know that he was a Pune person just like me,” she says. Besides, they were both busy with their respective careers. He with his banking and she with her boutique for fash-

The pillars of a relationship •Trust •Understanding •Enjoying life's little moments together •Appreciating your spouse's individuality •Communication and conversation

44 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

ion apparel. “We finally bumped into each other in church and that’s when we really hit it off,” she says. It helped that despite the seemingly opposite demeanour both had lots in common. “We are both

social, and enjoy meeting up with new people,” says Arthur. Besides, he sang beautifully and danced gracefully apart from being a keen sportsman. “This went down really well with my dad-considering that neither my brother nor I are into sports,” grins Samantha.

In fact, both Samantha’s dad and Arthur hit it off from the word go. “I had invited him for the first time to my home for my dad’s birthday, in 2009s. Normally dad wasn’t the one to be very nice to any of my male friends, but this was not the case with Arthur luckily-who in his typical, informal way came home with a bottle of beer. Dad took to him instantly. They laughed and chatted together, played cards and generally liked each other,” she shared. That’s when they both got to know that both families went back a long way: from shared Goan roots to the fathers knowing each other to even her cousins being well acquainted with Arthur given his sporting achievements. “Somewhere along the way it emerged that he was 3 years younger to me. But honestly, it wasn’t a big deal at all,” says Samantha. They finally got married in a traditional church ceremony in 2011.

Balancing work and home

“Though I have a degree in hotel management, from the very outset, my heart lay in my family owned business,” she says. “I found the designing of outfits—especially bridal wear, for which we were best known, hugely rewarding and creative,” she says—which explains why despite having worked as a real estate agent, she chose to finally take up customisation and supplying of garments to various designers and stores as her vocation. “Entrepreneurship is a mixed bag,” she says, “you have ups and downs and yet you are in it because it is so much fun. Luckily for me, Arthur has been hugely supportive, despite the pressures of his banking job.” An MBA in imports-exports and marketing, he is currently working with Yes Bank as Assistant Vice President and Zonal Head for Pune. As of now, life is hectic but happy even as their little world revolves around their fiveyear-old son Jared. “We are a nuclear set up but I have support from friends and family. Besides, having my own business affords me a flexibility that a full-time job never would. I work when he’s away but make it a point to be there for my son when he’s home,” says Samantha.

Bringing up the baby

“I am the easy-going parent, while Samantha’s the strict one,” smiles Arthur. After his long hours at work, when at home, he would prefer to indulge Jared—within limits of course. “Over and above all else, what is important for us is that he enjoy what he is doing, with all his heart,” he says. So be it Jared’s love of Lego (he has always been great at solving puzzles way above his age group) or his inherent understanding of colour and aesthetics (thanks to Samantha), the supportive parents let him follow his heart.

5 year old Jared is their bundle of joy

“You need a mix of both understanding and space, in a marriage. Sure, each one deserves their space but the camaraderie between your partner and you decides the course of everything else” - Samantha Rodricks Nevertheless, mom is particular about grades and his overall discipline. “It is good for children to respect some things in life for their own good,” says Samantha. Besides this, Arthur encourages Jared to play whatever sport where and when possible. “He may not be naturally inclined towards them, but that’s not the point of participation. Sports teach you character, sportsmanship and the importance of team work. Great life lessons all,” he says.

The building blocks of a marriage

Arthur points out that while trust is the foundation of all else, it is important to have due confidence in each other’s decisions, as per the demands of the situation. “For instance, the financial decisions of the home rest with me because that’s my forte, but when it comes to fashion or real estate matters, it’s Samantha who knows best,” he says. Treating one’s partner equally and with due consideration is non-negotiable too, he adds. “It is also a good idea not to tie ourselves up in watertight compartments with regard to gender defined roles,” believes Arthur. “One must be flexible enough to change with the times.” On her part, Samantha would go with a balance between understanding and space. “You need a mix of both in a marriage. Sure, each one deserves their space but the camaraderie between your partner and you decides the course of everything else. I am so blessed that Arthur is this rock-solid anchor for me,” she says. Romance and its fripperies notwithstanding,

The happy family at an event

both believe the ability to make each other smile is a precious gift-not to be taken lightly. “Arthur has always had this great sense of humor and he can make me laugh no matter what the situation. Oh, and we can talk all night long-without running out of things to say to each other,” she rounds off. kalyani.sardesai@gmail.com

tadka

Indian tea industry production and export leaps

Indian tea industry has recorded the highest ever production as well as exports in FY18. The total tea production was 1325.05 million kgs, an increase of 74.56 million kgs as compared to 2016-17. In percentage terms the increase is around six percent. In Rupee terms, the total value of the exports was pegged at ₹ 5064.88 crore during 2017-18. The value realisation increased by ₹ 432.38 crore (9.33 per cent).

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 45

Campus Placement

yourself! Stay true to For Harshita Nigam, a promising youngster carving her way into the challenging corporate world, nothing is impossible in life. Her name says it all-Harshita (in Sanskrit)-meaning joyful, one who brings happiness. Never deterred by failure, she is all set to scale new heights By Joe Williams

he eldest of three siblings from a family based out of Pune, Harshita is a very homely person. She has made Pune her home town for over two decades, and has fallen in love with the city. “I love the city and the way it has grown in these years and I am excited to see what it holds for the future,” she says about the city. She has always been at the forefront in taking decisions in life. Be it choosing subjects or friends, she has made astute decisions. She also shared a good relation with her teachers and friends. She made sure that each of them felt special and loved, with her own handcrafted gifts. A St. Helena’s High School alumnus, Harshita has been a math aficionado right from class 3. Her maths teacher, Mrs Penumaka made maths fun. “I shall always be indebted to her. She was my ‘Mr. Miyagi’. She enthused me with the basics of Algebra and Geometry through simple and practical applications.” The solar system always fascinated Harshita and she would dream of walking in space. On being taught the concept in Class 3, she questioned her teacher if she could get there. A special mention for Prof. Balaji Reddy, who taught her Production and Operations Management (POM) in Balaji Institute of Mod-

ern Management (BIMM) and made the subject “so interesting and relatable,” recalls Harshita about her academic days. Harshita has gone through the placement grind not once but twice. She was at Tata Communications Ltd (TCL) as an Executive Engineer after her Electronics and Telecommunications engineering

‘I couldn’t crack the first two interviews, but I didn’t lose heart as I was confident of what I had made of myself in the two years at BIMM. Being rejected twice wasn’t a setback. I didn’t fear the outcome as I thought to myself that may be the organisation didn’t suit me’ 46 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

from DY Patil in Pune. “I have worked with two organisations, my previous engagement before MBA was with TCL as an Executive Engineer post Electronics and Telecommunications engineering from DY Patil, Pune. TCL was my first brush with professional life, while living away from home for the first time and working in Chennai,” she said. “I learnt quite a bit and realised I could grow further with management education. Now I am placed with Infosys as an Associate Consultant,” Harshita explains. Her dedication and commitment in her job has seen her showered with awards. “Over the last ten months, I have received rewards and recognition twice. I was recently recognised as an outstanding debutant among a team of 13,000. It has bolstered my

confidence and given me the sense that I belong,” she said. Though placed twice in her career, placement after MBA holds a special place in her life. Each institution has been a stepping stone for Harshita. With a pinch of extra-curricular activities, a dash of academics and a spoonful of vivacity it has been a holistic experience throughout. A couple of years at MBA college (BIMM) has groomed her into a perfect professional. She thanks her parents who rightly placed her in top notch institutions that taught her to be punctual, responsible and judicious. Consequently, her tenure with BIMM has helped her put these into practice. She failed to crack the first two interviews, but that did not deter her as she always thought she was capable and her positive approach made a difference. “I couldn’t crack the first two interviews, but I didn’t lose heart as I was confident of what I had made of myself in the two years at BIMM. MBA placements do hold a special place. Honestly, it was fun for me. Being rejected twice wasn’t a setback. I didn’t fear the outcome as I thought to myself that may be the organization didn’t suit me. I always believed, it is not always

‘Life is like a doughnut. Not everything about the doughnut is perfect. But I love its imperfections as much, as just the sight of it brings a smile on a person’s face’ that you have to suit the role, but the role too should suit you,” says the gold medal winner at BIMM. A recipient of the ‘Panache’ award at the BAM Presentations and various other rewards at Infosys, she feels accomplished and yet has the humility to know that there is a long way to go. “I credit my parents who believed in me. The journey of life is magical and I have my own bag of tricks,” she signs off.

Some of the props, up her sleeve:

• Planning – I always plan in advance. • Law of Attraction – attract what you’d like to be around and it shall be with you. “Thoughts can change the world directly”– Rhonda Byrne. • Cordial but firm – Be polite but be decisive. Stay true to your strategy. • Liking – Don’t care if someone doesn’t like you. You need not be everyone’s friend. • Patience – Major decisions don’t work with immediate effect. Sow the seeds and stay tuned to watch the flowers bloom. • Be yourself – Be truthful to yourself. Life is like a doughnut. Not everything about the doughnut is perfect. But I love its imperfections as much, as just the sight of it brings a smile on a person’s face. joe78662@gmail.com

(Above) Harshita, with friends (below) and her family members make a happy picture

tadka

World’s tallest girder railway line The daunting task of building the world’s tallest girder railway bridge in the Himalayan ranges, in the North-East is in the offing. The tallest girder rail bridge is part of the upcoming 111-kilometres long JiribamTupul-Imphal railway link and is expected to be complete by 2020. It will also boast of one of the longest railway tunnels on the Indian Railways network. Alongside, the tallest girder railway bridge will also be ready by June 2019. Bridge No.164 is being built across the valley of river Ljai near Noney and has been designed to take a maximum train speed of 120 kmph.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 47

Health

From 100kgs to a petite 53kgs body weight

The year 2015 saw the beginning of an arduous journey of endurance and transformation for Jasmine Bhupendra Jadhav, an interior designer and creative artist, to metamorphose into ‘Mrs. Queen of the World International 2018’ in Myanmar recently. Despite, motherhood often seen as a hurdle to strenuous pursuits such as beauty pageants or modeling, Jasmine managed to turn the table through sheer ‘willpower’ and changed her luck, body image and self-confidence by winning the runner-up title at the ‘Mrs. Maharashtra’ pageant in 2017. She shares her weight loss ‘mantra’ from being 100 kg post-pregnancy to losing 48 kg, and on her pursuits into health and fitness By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

ental preparation is foremost. Everything else gradually falls in place”, said Jasmine Jadhav, Pune-based interior designer and partner at Vivid Interiors who holds the current beauty title - ‘Mrs. Queen of the World International 2018’. Not mere words, she converted her belief into a dream that did come true for her.

The Highs and Lows

Like any conscious twenty something young professional; Jasmine was clued on balanced food cycles, home-cooked food, outdoor activities and trekking. In fact, with a good enough metabolic rate and energy levels; she did not indulge in any excessive workouts then. But, pregnancy added a bit of turmoil to her daily activities for this 25-year-old new mother. At her height of 5ft and 3.5 inches, Jasmine felt that her post-marriage weight of 49-50 kgs actually looked good on her frame. However, “I was bedridden from the second month of my pregnancy; eating and sleeping and having conceived twins; consumed twice the food intake and thereby gained a lot of weight,” she said. “After six months since the birth of my twin girls, I started feeling bad. I was all of 100kgs and when I looked into the mirror, I said to myself that I had to change myself.” 48 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

This was the tee-off to an uphill task of losing weight gradually from 100 kgs and today at 53 kgs, Jasmine, a model and beauty pageant winner in the Mrs. or married women standard category (between the ages of 23-35), is a bundle of positivity-setting an example for other women who are gutted down by the ‘can’t do syndrome’. As brand ambassador for ‘Mrs. Queen of the World’ and Abs Gym, she has taken upon herself to reach out to women to empower themselves and other mothers in their quest for life and living fit.

The ‘Mrs’ Title Challenge

Jasmine gave herself a shot at a beauty contest—the ‘Mrs. Maharashtra’ pageant in October 2017, on sheer grit despite lack of previous experience or training on modelling or professional grooming. Unlike the Miss-titled contests, weight and height criteria are not as important as in the Mrs-titles. “However, you have to go through all the other rounds such as the swimsuit rounds as in regular pageants, the Q&A and most importantly the mental strength round in the close-door interview format. The pressures are the same as other beauty pageant categories,” she said. ‘Mrs’-titled pageants are tougher than the ‘Miss’ titles as you have to also consider societal norms and pressures. Being a mother, the well-being of kids is important so as

“...Look good but, feel even better the key is in developing basic mind and body confidence through overall personality building”

Health Tips

to reflect positively on our kids. Especially, as a model and as mothers, many things around you also impact your decisions in this profession as in the others, your societal image matters a lot.” she said. Jasmine lives in a joint family with her husband, twin daughters and her in-laws, and acknowledges their support for her rise to fame and in her business pursuits. She added that the responsibility of a married beauty contestant is more; especially if you are a working mother and wife. “If you wish to resume as a model again, managing family with a career in modelling is definitely a big deal, but support from my family paved the way for me.”

Pumping Adrenaline and Endurance

“As I was 100kgs and had to lose weight–it was a very hard task; also I didn’t want my skin to sag as a result of the drastic weight loss and so sought out a good gym and trainer. It is very hard to get inspired by yourself and it is not everyone’s cup of tea and so, initially you need someone to get you on track.” she said. However, in the initial stages while she lost some 5-6 kgs through workouts, controlled diet and prescribed supplements, the weight loss was not very consistent. It was then that her personal trainer, Amol Gaikwad, came to her rescue. “My trainer worked based on my BMI and changed my

• Prioritise yourself. Compulsorily, spare at least 30 minutes daily for some form of exercise or walks. • Trainer or not, watch good workout videos to motivate yourself. Be consistent. • Push yourself to get on track but, do not be harsh on yourself – We are not body builders! • Lose weight gradually – 2 to 3 kgs per month. Add weight or strength training to the routine. • Drink plenty of water for glowing skin and hair texture. • Don’t degrade yourself; whatever be your age.

exercise pattern. From doing 3:3 days of cardio and weight training, my regime changed to daily cardio and three days of weight training along with improvisation targets etc. Gradually, when you get a toned body structure, it becomes a part of you.” Like most mothers, her biggest challenge was to start any form of fitness regime and find time to pursue it. “With running my business, home and kids, it was very difficult but having a supportive family, I decided to give it a go. I prioritised myself and worked around all my other schedules. Initially, I started with 30 minutes workouts which gradually increased. Also, once I develop a passion and want something, I will do that and I followed the same with my fitness goals.” The training resulted in her confidence to enter the ‘Mrs. Maharashtra’ pageant in 2017. Her grooming sessions under Anjana Mascarenhas, her ‘Guru’, whom she herself sought out to help her in her new adventure into the unknown world of fashion and modelling. Hailed as a runner-up in that contest, there was no stopping her now.

The Myanmar Adventure

A call from her mentor, Anjana Mascarenhas, barely two weeks before the Myanmar pageant inspired her to take the giant leap for the ‘Mrs. Queen of the World International 2018’. “I didn’t even have a passport. On June19th, I went to the passport office, got it in 2 days, applied for my visa, and on the 23rd left for Myanmar”, said Jasmine. “I didn’t think of winning or losing. I just decided that I would give it my 100 percent and come back richer with experience. With that confidence and a positive outlook, I ventured into the pageant”. She scored on her self-presentation, by remaining strong and maintaining her mental agility under pressure as she faced a barrage of questions from seven judges at a go. She did not unbuckle under pressure in the closed-door interview and this, she acknowledges as her ‘winning streak’.

Self Drive

“Self realisation is very important and this can get you motivated to look after yourself. Look good but, feel even better— the key is in developing basic mind and body confidence through overall personality building,” said Jasmine. sangeetagd2010@gmail.com August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 49

Unsung Heroes-8

Helping villagers over How often do we meet someone who is ready to risk his well-settled urban life, an upcoming wedding and the luxuries of the city to settle in a village, helping villagers overcome poverty and purports to create a better India? Sourabh Potdar, is one such person who brought about a big twist in his life by walking the path less taken

n engineering graduate from Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum, Sourabh Potdar worked for two-and-a-half years as a senior engineer (R&D Services) in Mind tree Ltd, Bengaluru. Sourabh strongly believes in ‘Vision 2020’ which purports to create a better India by the year 2020. “That purported vision set me thinking that now I should do something for someone else. I don’t want to settle down like a regular person and give a little monetary help as charity. Rather, I wanted to make some real contribution at the grassroots level.” For quite some time, he had been seeking a channel through which he could contribute significantly before he heard of the SBI Youth for India programme. Without much thought, he enrolled for the programme, saying, “I believe that India can develop only if we have sustainable development of our villages. With the pros of the programme outweighing the non-existent cons, I decided to join the cause.” He now says that the programme has exceeded all his expectations. One year was a long time, especially when he was about to get married and start a family of his own. He somehow convinced his family and his fiancé about his plans. “It was a very difficult decision for me, I was expected to support the family and suddenly I decided that I want to move to a village where I wouldn’t be able to provide financial help. Luckily, my wife was very supportive of my decision and she also joined my project after six months,” he says. From a spat with the panchayat to lack of support from the villagers, there were many obstacles on Potdar’s journey. But he did not give up and went ahead with implementing a new project and got it sanctioned by SBI. There are people who finish assigned tasks perfectly, while there are others who put their heart and soul into everything they do. Potdar is one such hero who changed the lives of many people by his dedication and hard work.

Having a great interest in trekking, Potdar decided to take up the project of rural tourism with BAIF where he was expected to attract more people to the village as tourists. The project was sponsored by the Dorabji Tata Trust and his role involved marketing of the village to attract as many visitors as possible. He would go to various schools, colleges and seminars in the nearby cities to educate people about the lesser-known place called Jawhar near Thane District, Mumbai. “But I soon realised that I didn’t have a sound product to market. The village and infrastructure was not maintained well. Who would like to visit a place like that?” he asked himself. The villagers did not have any accounting procedures. They did not have any record of the money sanctioned for tourism. They did not know where they got the money from or how it was being spent. Potdar asked them to maintain a systematic record of all transactions to keep track

50 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

on the activities of village tourism. He then started working on making the village more interesting. He partnered with various organisations to study their pattern to draw tourists. He also came up with the idea of providing lodging facilities for visitors, along with tribal dance and singing performances to attract more people. But despite such innovations, “people started losing interest in the project. They wouldn’t bother much about the guests and wouldn’t care about anything that was decided with regard to changing the overall conditions of the village. But I was determined to bring about a positive change in the lives of the people,” says Potdar. When he saw that people were not supporting him much in the project, he went to a nearby locality with a friend where he came across a number of Warli painting artists living in abject poverty. He met Sadanand Nakra, a hearingand speech-impaired Warli artist who carved

rcome poverty

“

“I come from an urban background and had no idea about how a village functions. I have realised, that it is important to connect with people under you as well as those over you, because everyone will have something to teach you” and painted Ganesha idols for a sahukar in Jawhar, for which he got a meagre daily wage of ₹75 for 9-18 hours of hard work. He had a family of four to support and it was very difficult for him to earn his living. “It was really sad to see the condition of such a talented artist and that was when I decided to help him,” Potdar says. Determined to help the artist make a successful turnaround, Potdar did market research and found out that Mumbai had a good market for Warli paintings. He grabbed a couple of Sadanand’s paintings and went to Mumbai where he received a positive response. Potdar also connected Sadanand with various clients and managed to sell his paintings for around ₹1,50,000. He also managed to have one of the paintings sold in Germany. Gradually Sadanand’s business picked up and now he has clients all over the country. Earlier he had a small house with no facilities. Now he has purchased a television set, bed, cupboard and other basic necessities, the credit for which of course goes to Potdar.

“The expressions on the faces of his family members gave me immense satisfaction and I was really glad that I had achieved the most important objective of my fellowship efforts by making a difference, although a small one. It feels good to see a smile on someone’s face, but it feels even better when you know that you have been a reason for their smile,” Potdar says. Now, Potdar’s continuous efforts have managed to get the Warli painting project officially sanctioned by SBI fellowship and it is listed among other projects which fellows can choose to work with. “The biggest challenge was the decision whether to take up the fellowship as I had recently got married and thus already had responsibilities on my shoulders. But support from family gave me the desired push and I managed to make it in the end,” says Potdar. Another challenge was to deal with the panchayat. The officials were not ready to acknowledge the fact that an outsider was now handling all their transactions and demanding explanations for the money being used. They wanted the sanctioned money, which Potdar refused to give into their hands. This created a lot of trou-

ble for him and it took a lot of time to convince the villagers of the need to work in an organised manner. “They wouldn’t take meetings seriously. A meeting at Nine would never start at the scheduled time. I had to go to individual houses to collect people,” he says. “The fellowship has changed my life completely, both at a personal level and professionally. I come from an urban background and had no idea about how a village functions. Now I have realised that it is important to connect with people under you as well as those over you because everyone will have something to teach you,” Potdar says. Earlier, Potdar questioned the existence of NGOs and never really believed in their validity. But working with BAIF closely has given him a good insight into this segment of society. “Now I know that those sitting at high posts can’t control and handle the whole country. It is these NGOs which are actually bringing about change,” he says. Potdar has finally returned to mainstream life after completing his fellowship and leaving a profound impact on the lives of many people. He still calls the villagers and helps them in any way he can. The fellowship changed him as a person and he is glad that he got an opportunity to do what he did. When asked about his dreams for rural India, Potdar says that he wants “rural India to have a clean, healthy, green, and prosperous society. This will be possible only when the people in our villages are educated. I dream of India with a 100 per cent literacy rate. I hope to understand the problems affecting the people in the villages. I am sure that I will learn to expand my limits: physically, mentally, and intellectually. This will help me become a better person.” The above story is featured in ‘Unsung Heroes - Real stories to inspire you’, ISBN 978-81-7108902-4 by Maj. (retd.) Pradeep Khare (pradeepkhare2011@gmail.com). It is published by Better Yourself Books, Mumbai.

tadka

Companies review formal evaluation systems Around 67 per cent of companies say that they have reviewed and effected major changes in their performance evaluation systems over the last two to three years, according to a study by Aon Consulting India. Formal ratings are being considered helpful in measuring employee performance, as the bell curve remains debatable.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 51

Pearls of Wisdom

By Dada JP Vaswani

Stress Busters!

Have you seen the cartoon that says, “There are only two times I feel the stress — Day and Night”. Learn how to cope with it

can always be within our control and it can be a positive one. Following are the steps to cultivate a positive attitude: • Set aside time every day to replenish your mind with positively-charged thoughts. • Whenever you feel you are gripped by negativity, fall back on some dynamic and inspiring thought from any scripture that appeals to you.

Stress Buster No. 2:

Work in the consciousness of the present moment. When a challenge stares at us, we are so overwhelmed by its sheer impact that we analyse its past and predict its effects on the future. It is important that we deal with the problem in the present-moment consciousness. This helps to tackle the problem in a practical way. Most of our lives are wasted either feeling guilty about the past or worrying about the future. Trying to be in another time zone whilst physically being present in the now is a big stressor. Schedule your activities in ‘day-tight compartments’, which means to plan reasonably achievable goals within the framework of the day. Then completely focus only on those targets without thinking about jobs that are not planned for that day.

Stress Buster No. 3:

ruly, the world today is full of tension. Wherever I go, I find people are tense and nervous. Stress and tension are more common in their incidence than the common cold. Today hospitals are full of patients who suffer from diseases due to stress. Stress is the cause of a number of physical ailments. Stress keeps on accumulating in the minds of the people until, one day, it manifests itself in the form of one ailment or the other. What is this “stress” that we are talking about? It is a much-used, much misused term. Stress originates from a French word which means constriction or delimitation. It is true that stressful situations seem to squeeze us, limit our emotions and reactions. Stress therefore, is regarded as a potential killer. It saps one’s energy and undermines one’s well-being. Dr Hars Seyle, expert on stress management, tells us, “Stress is the wear and tear on your body caused by life’s events.” It is the sum total of the body’s physical, mental and chemical reactions to circumstances which cause fear, irritation, worry, anxiety and excitement. There are hundreds of experiences in our ev-

eryday life which cause stress. These stress-causing events are called stressors. These stressors can create good stress (positive stress) or distress (negative stress). Normally, our body and its systems are conditioned to cope with stressors. But there is an optimum level at which each one of us can cope with stress and still function well. When the limit is exceeded, we become victims of stress. Stress is purely subjective. What is a stressful situation for one person, may be child’s play for another. For instance, if a person is asked to say a few words to a large gathering, he may panic and lose his nerve completely. A fluent public speaker, on the other hand, would regard it as an opportunity, and end up speaking for a long time. Stress has been known to have a snowballing effect. It keeps accumulating unless tackled or treated effectively. Stress busters to eradicate stress from the human psyche:

Stress Buster No. 1:

Revamp your attitude to a positive one. The workplace becomes akin to a jungle when situations and people get out of hand but our attitude

52 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

Try praise and appreciation, for a change. • Use praise generously and sincerely. • Thank colleagues and subordinates for every little thing they do. There is no better motivator. • Maintain a gratitude journal. Each day allot time to write a list of all the blessings and bounties that you have been taking for granted. • Once you have developed a habit of being grateful, your focus will always be on the positive, thereby activating the law of attraction to fill your world with joy and plenty.

Stress Buster No. 4:

Streamline your life. Simplify and streamline everything from the workplace to the home front. At the workplace, delegate well, communicate efficiently and use time management! Unclutter your mind as well as the space around you. Organise your workload to make it simple. Organise chores and errands at home on a priority basis. All this, once done in a systematic way, will reduce stress. Dada J. P. Vaswani, an internationally acclaimed spiritual leader passed away on 12th July, 2018. The Sadhu Vaswani Mission stated in its pressnote, “our Beloved Revered Dada JP Vaswani passes on, from the seen to the unseen. Ever-loving, ever-giving, may he continue to bless us from the beyond.’’

book review

Extraordinary stories of the Ordinary Aparna Sharma, an HR stalwart herself, has gone a step ahead and donned the mantle of a story-teller through her book, ‘Between U & Me - Ordinary People – Extraordinary Lessons’. It covers inspirational tales of individuals across different generations but with relevance to the reader By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

implicity in presentation and language places this book beyond the sphere of HR by bringing together the lives and challenges and the resultant success stories of some extraordinary and many ordinary individuals. Following the success of her first book ‘Reality Bytes – The Role of HR in Today’s World’, in English and Hindi, the new title transcends beyond the realm of HR and can be seen as a quick reference to how individual spirits dare to dream on and go beyond despair, challenges and helplessness to achieve success, how these trails of self-belief and conviction work for their own betterment and in doing so, touch the lives of others around them too. The format and language have most lucidly brought together 14 individuals including Aparna’s own punch, positivity and persistence ‘mantra’ on a common platform, giving readers a chance to not just sift through the lives of these achievers but also help them pick a page to try and find their own inspirations from them. It is left to the reader how they interpret the tales of successes, as presented by Aparna. The print format maintains the ‘storytelling’ mode in each of the tales that introduces the reader to each individual but with a personal touch, which the author alone could do, reflecting upon her own personal interactions and experiences with each of her chosen characters. Each individual story is interspersed by inspiring quotes by the achievers themselves. These highlighted quotes are aimed at motivating the readers. Some tales end with ‘Words of Wisdom’ and ‘Life Lines’ that reflect on the learning of the protagonist which the readers are left to ponder over or harness in their own lives. Aparna sketches her 14 chosen celebrities in the first-person narrative which provides a dialogue between the protagonist and the reader, lending some genuine touch to the printed matter. What is enticing about the book is that while it showcases the lives and times of few stalwarts, Aparna also highlights the likes of maid Vandana Jadhav, whose battles to rise and shine through life are examples in itself. Readers get the privilege to gain firsthand accounts from experts like T.V. Rao and Dr Radhakrishna Pillai on their trials, tribulations and

Author

Aparna Sharma Title

Between U & Me - Ordinary People – Extraordinary Lessons Publisher

Vishwakarma Publications, Pune Pages

264

Price

`320

“Positive people are a gift from the Almighty. It is important to learn from them and ensure that we, in turn, infuse priority into the lives of those we know” —Aparna Sharma

success. The book is flagged off with the first story on Vimla Patil whose constant feed on the concept of ‘woman of substance’ as the editor of a popular women’s magazine she kept alive, paved a new outlook for most middle-class Indian women during that time. It’s quite a courageous attempt by Aparna Sharma to bring both Jadhav and Patil on the same platform. Besides, readers can also gain perspectives from other lesserknown individuals whose personal stories might not have found elaboration elsewhere. The challenges and upbeat profile of tress-stylist and hair consultant, Tanveer Shaikh, the insights on HR transformations and turnarounds as told by Ashwin Pasricha and the other ‘woman of substance’— educationist Dr Fuqua Sault Khan adds belief to the book profiles. The other luminaries include Sara Musavi, Raj Khilnani, Guru Mahamandleshwar Shaileshanand Girihat, Pheru Singh Ruhela, Prakhar Sharma, Arun Kaimal and Sarita Deouskar that form part of this humane book collaboration. The foreword by Dr Devi Prasad Shetty definitely sets the tone for a lucid word-flow to this ‘living book’ akin to the old world charm of the ‘bioscope’. A great read for all generations—the need is to preserve the longevity of the content Between U & Me and more! sangeetagd2010@gmail.com August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 53

Survey

The Indian Consum The Consumer is king, goes the old adage. It is therefore extremely important to understand what goes on in the mind of the global consumer, and how it affects their spending patterns. With this in mind, Swiss multinational financial services company, Credit Suisse, conducted their 8th annual Emerging Consumer Survey. Corporate Citizen brings you the results Compiled by Neeraj Varty 54 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

mer Reigns Supreme T he VIII edition of the Credit Suisse Research Institutes's Emerging Consumer Survey continues the exploration of growth opportunities across Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report shows ongoing improvement in consumer sentiment across the surveyed economies. While India and China continue to top the country scorecard, there are significant improvements in Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Turkey, where consumers are growing increasingly optimistic about their income prospects. The unifying theme is the role of the young and

increasingly wealthy consumer, particularly in China, whose consumption patterns steadily gravitate toward a healthier, mobile and active lifestyle. Emerging markets like India serve as the fastest source of wealth accumulation, with their share of global wealth set to reach 22 per cent in the next five years compared to just 11 per cent in 2000. Connected economies are broadening the spending patterns of consumers worldwide. In China, one fifth of retailing takes place online, with mobile payments reaching US$ 3 Trillion in 2016. In India, online payments are set to rise five-fold in the next five years. August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 55

Survey Net percentage of respondents replying “Yes” to “Is now a good time to make a major purchase? 2015 2016

2017

40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 -60

India

China

Indonesia

Russia

Mexico

S Africa

Turkey

Brazil

The balance of people believing that now is a good time to make a major purchase is at its highest since 2014. Indian consumers top the list in optimism shown towards making new purchases. If you move away from Asia, however, the optimism falls in countries like Russia, Mexico and Brazil.

Net percentage of respondents expecting an improvement in their personal finances in the next six months 2015

2016

2017

-10

India

China

Brazil

Mexico Indonesia S Africa Turkey

Russia

There has been a slight deterioration in inflation expectations since last year for most of the countries. However, Indian customers are more optimistic about inflation falling in 2018 than previous years.

56 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

Net percentage of respondents who have seen household income increase over the last 12 months 2015 2016

2017

40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40

India

Indonesia

China

Turkey

S Africa

Russia

Mexico

Brazil

Higher readings in Asian countries of China, India and Indonesia suggest that these three countries have the most robust end-consumer markets. India has recently recovered from the downturn of demonetization and household spending has as a result shown a healthy improvement.

Macro Momentum Scorecard Country

Consumer Real retail Confidence sales growth

Real wage growth

Real interest rates

Priv. sector Real house credit price growth growth

Average 2018

Average 2017

China

100%

70%

71%

61%

32%

78%

69%

64%

Turkey

18%

55%

34%

89%

86%

44%

54%

46%

India

65%

15%

87%

44%

67%

47%

42%

Indonesia

82%

24%

47%

40%

18%

35%

41%

49%

Brazil

58%

46%

39%

11%

15%

29%

South Africa

27%

56%

24%

23%

11%

30%

28%

27%

Russia

65%

34%

44%

11%

28%

11%

Mexico

31%

11%

27%

37%

19%

22%

44%

Direction

India rises two places to third position on the 2018 scorecard assisted by stronger real wage growth and looser real interest rates being further boosted by the wealth effect from rising real house price growth. However, flattening real retail sales growth accompanied by a further slide in credit extension precluded India from achieving a much better score

neeraj.varty07@gmail.com August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 57

Bollywood Biz

Bollywood Celebrities who fought

Cancer and Won

Cancer is a disease that sneaks up on you when you least expect it. Bollywood actors have had their fair share of cancer scares and more often than not, they have managed to beat the life threatening disease. This issue, we look at some Bollywood celebs who fought cancer By Neeraj Varty

Mumtaz

Mumtaz won many hearts with her beauty and charismatic performances in movies such as Do Raaste, Chor Machaye Shor, Aag, Khilona, Aadmi aur Insaan, Upaasna and so on. At the age of 54, the evergreen actress was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought the disease for 11 years and yet came out on top. She was also featured in the UniGlobe Entertainments documentary on cancer survival called ‘1 Minute’.

Sonali Bendre

Sonali Bendre Behl recently revealed she has been diagnosed with ‘high grade’ cancer and is currently undergoing treatment in New York. The news came as a shock, and fans and well-wishers have been praying for her to recover since. Judging by the updates she posts on social media sites, her treatment is showing good signs of progress. We wish her all the best. 58 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

Lisa Ray

Lisa Ray, the model-turned-actress who appeared in films like ‘Haste Khelte’, ‘Kasoor’, ‘Water’, ‘Bollywood Hollywood’ and the recently released ‘Veerappan’, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (a cancer of plasma cells) in 2009. Though she chose to keep mum about it initially, she bravely battled it out to tell her cancer story to others.

Anurag Basu

Another incredible Bollywood cancer story is that of writer-director Anurag Basu who was almost in a hopeless stage when doctors diagnosed him with cancer and gave him just two months to live. It was in 2004 when he was filming the Emraan Hashmi starrer, ‘Tumsa Nahin Dekha’, that he was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a type of blood cancer. The ‘Jagga Jasoos’ director didn’t give up and fought it out to come out as a winner.

Manisha Koirala

One of Bollywood’s most high profile cancer survivors is Manisha Koirala. Manisha’s cancer was diagnosed after she fell unconscious in 2012 and was admitted in hospital. After some tests, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She underwent surgery in the following month and battled the ailment with remarkable strength. She moved to New York to begin treatment and spent a couple of years fighting the disease, triumphantly coming out on top. Koirala was last seen essaying the role of Sanjay Dutt’s mother Nargis in Sanju. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 59

Mobile apps

Best Video editing apps for your Smartphone

Gone are the days when you needed your computer to do any heavy duty work. Today’s smartphones are armed with powerful chipsets and large amounts of RAM that can make processing intensive tasks like video editing a breeze. So the next time you want to edit a video shot on your smartphone or make a video presentation on the move, all you have to do is use these free apps By Neeraj Varty

Adobe Premiere Clip

Adobe Premiere Clip enables you to edit any video right from your Android device quickly. It is fast and fun to use. The best feature about Clip is the automatic video creation capability, i.e, the app can automatically create videos for you with any photos or clips that you choose. Moreover, you can also create your videos with its multiple video editing functions like cutting, trimming, adding transitions, music, filters, effects, etc. It is free to download and does not display any ads. It also has direct video sharing capabilities.

FilmoraGo

FilmoraGo is a handy video editing app which has received praise from users All the primary video editing functions like trimming, cutting, adding themes, music, etc. can be easily performed. You can also make square 1:1 videos for Instagram, 16:9 videos for Youtube, create reverse videos, add transitions, slow motion, text, etc. to beautify your video.

60 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

IMOVIE (For Apple devices only)

Considered a benchmark iOS release, and impressively similar to the Mac desktop version, iMovie should be on every iOS device. The app makes it ridiculously easy to splice together shot footage, but there’s a lot more to it than that. You can use it to add titles, music, voiceovers and photos to your work of art, and if you want to cheese it up, take your pick from a bunch of TV-style templates and movie trailer themes. With recent Apple hardware, it’ll even deftly deal with 4K.

VideoShow

VideoShow has received numerous awards and is undoubtedly one of the best video editing apps for Android available in the Play Store for free. With a user-friendly interface, VideoShow is reliable and easy to use. Apart from the essential functions, you can also beautify your video by adding text, effects, music and sound effects or perform live dubbing. There are over 50 different themes available, and you can also reduce the size of your video by compressing it. The videos do not lose any quality and have no video duration limits. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps for the unique initiative taken by Integral Coach Factory (ICF), India’s premier railway coach manufacturing unit and General Manager, Sudhanshu Mani, in converting shop floor scrap into artefacts Scraps usually have a predictable journey to either get auctioned off or thrown away. However, Mani’s ingenuity took an artistic turn when he decided to offer railway metal scrap waste to artists. They have transformed the rail museum in Chennai into a sculptor’s delight for modern art for themselves and for visitors to the Rail Museum on New Avadi Road, Chennai. The effort of the artists

has been duly justified by the support of the coach factory staff. The staff has been very diligent in assisting the artists in locating the right scrap materials from their work space; to enable them to create artworks from mundane daily found scrap material. The body of metal scrap artwork recently found prominence at the ICF initiated ‘Beauty and Bliss’ exhibition at Chennai Central. Created by seven Chennai-based artists, these sculptures find origins in factory-rejected parts - nuts and bolts, fan parts, locks, metal sheets and tools. Each work of art has been designed with a different metal and based on a particular theme. “All commissioned artists were given six days to complete their artwork, which involved welding metal, followed by colouring. But, first they had to go into the coach factory’s scrap yard to collect stuff,” said Thejomaye Menon, curator of the art exhibition. “If I see scrap anywhere now, I look at design. All of us have become like that. Our GM, Sudhanshu Mani has been a huge motivation. According to statistics, around 5,000 to 10,000 people travel by train in Chennai every day. We thought that if we could make something out of nothing, it would get the public associated with art. It is amazing, the things we can do with twisted, scrap metal,” he added. Artist Asma Menon’s presented her creation of Boscage’ and the ‘Tree of Life’. “Scrap is the medium of expression, reminding one and all that discards also have many a role to play on our planet,” she said. Other artworks showcased were ‘Travails of Travel’ by Shalini Biswajit, ‘Yazhini’ by D Nedunthelian (Chelian), ‘Migration’ by Jacob Jebaraj and ‘Visual Movement in Space’ by A V Ilango. “We want to trigger students’ minds and tell them that everything is recycled and anything is possible. “Like any other education, art education is very important,” said Jebaraj.

Corporate Citizen Slaps the AUDACITY of award winning Italian freelance photographer, Alessio Mamo, TO PORTRAY ‘poverty porn’ in India, via his series – ‘Dreaming Food’ In the series, the photographs show villagers covering their faces with their hands and standing in front of a table laden with plates of spaghetti Bolognese, fruit, and even a roasted chicken—all fake, and all dishes are unlikely to have ever been seen before by these simple villagers. Uploaded on the Instagram account of World Press Photo, the pictures were staged to illustrate the larger issue of hunger in India, but allegedly done in bad taste. Introducing the conceptual project on the Instagram feed, Mamo said, “Brought a table and some fake food and told people to dream about some food that they would like to find on their table”. Following Social Media outrage, the photograph has since been removed from his online portfolio. Former World Press Photo judge Olivier Laurent, a former editor with the British Journal of Photography and now with the Washington Post, said, “This was a very badly thought concept, one that follows the many ‘here’s all the food a kid eats in a week’ concept we see all the time. But this one turned exploitative. It rightly

should be criticised. The work should never have been produced.” In India, Hari Adivarekar, a photo journalist, wrote online, “Too many have come and done this kind of shameful work in India and their rewards just open the door for many others to think it’s OK. It isn’t. It’s just inexcusable.” Antonio Olmos, a World Press Photo winner, said, “The problem first is that the photos appeared on the World Press Photo Instagram – an organisation that is supposed to promote journalism. The set clearly states it’s a conceptual project and this shouldn’t be on it.” The second issue he said, “It shows plastic food set in front of what I am supposed to believe are hungry people. That is cruel and shallow and demeaning. Franco Pagetti, another veteran photo journalist based in Milan, said, “The base of photo journalism for me is respect. In this picture, I don’t see respect.” While Mamo did apologise for his mistake, it is high time to debate on the thin line that connects art to heart. (Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar) August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 61

Dr(Col.) (Col) A. A Balasubramanian Dr Balasubramanian

From From The The Mobile Mobile

Superstar President

here were many stars of the World Cup. For me, there was one Super Star. The Croatian President - H E Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic! What she did and how she showed up can give us the best lesson in leading with humility. I don’t know much of her political activities or opinions, but just following and watching what she did for her team in the World Cup is enough to teach us about Inspirational, Servant Leadership! Here is why: 1) She travelled by economy class to watch the semi-finals until she was recognised and moved to a VIP box. She is The President of Croatia! She could have pulled in her full office protocol, but no, she did what any normal citizen of her country did to travel to Russia to watch the match. Every newspaper, every magazine, every TV channel wrote and spoke about it. I read a number of articles talking about how in the world of today where ‘leadership by bullying’ seems to be the norm; this was a completely unprecedented behaviour by a Head of State. I am told by my Croatian friends that this is quite normal for her to do. Leadership Lesson - No matter what your position, when you get down to the level of your people, you become the stuff inspiration is made of! 2) After Croatia’s semi-final win, videos of her dancing with the team went viral. No reservations, no self-judgement, no getting stuck to her

62 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

position, no care about what people will say. She danced with gay abandon, enjoying the moment with her team. Celebrating them and cheering them. I cannot but imagine what it must have done to the spirit of her team. Leadership Lesson - Every word, every action of a leader matters to the team. When you cheer your team wholeheartedly, your team can do the impossible! 3) I have watched many Presidents and Prime Ministers watching sports events. They are in the stands, but they are not a mere spectator. They are their position. And that is ok. When I saw her, she was a President and a cheerleader. Her dance at the Croatian goals with the Russian President looking on was epic. Social media was flooded with how she is the mother of the team, etc. etc. Bottom line, she was invested in the game, she showed it and that is what matters. Leadership Lesson - You can set your standard, no matter what the norm. When you do it with your heart, a new benchmark is set! 4) Yesterday after the match, at the presentation ceremony, I saw her hugging every player of both teams, the coaches, the teams - consoling, congratulating and cheering. I have never seen this before. It was authentic, genuine and truly heartfelt. It was like she was embracing her team

Humour

ß Regular naps prevent old

age, especially if you take them while driving.

ß Having one child makes

you a parent; having two, you are a referee.

ß Marriage is a relationship

in which one person is always right and the other is the husband.

ß I believe we should all pay

our tax with a smile. I tried— but they wanted cash. ß A child's greatest period

of growth is the month after you've purchased new school uniforms. ß Don't marry the person

on behalf of the whole country; telling them, it is ok, you are winners for us. I think women bring this special aspect to their leadership expression. The mother in the lioness comes to the fore especially when her cubs are down and need the lift. Leadership Lesson - Be kind to the team, especially when they are down. Restore their confidence, cheer them. They will never forget it or you for doing it! 5) Finally, the defining moment for me was to watch her standing tall and strong, without a fuss, in line with the President of Russia and France as the rain came pelting down during the presentation ceremony! Within seconds, a large umbrella came to cover Mr Putin, the Russian President. She continued to stand without any fuss, any demands, and continued to hug and greet her team like there was no problem! I could see her beautifully coiffured hair slowly fall flat with the heavy downpour and her sleeves dripping raindrops—she could not care less! What all she could have done in her position and what she actually did! Salute. Leadership Lesson - It’s not who you are, but what you do that matters in leadership! Your Excellency, you are my hero, as I am sure the hero of the millions who watched you. Your team won our hearts with their game; you won our hearts just watching them play.

you want to live with, marry the one you cannot live without, but whatever you do, you'll regret it later.

ß You cannot buy love, but

you pay heavily for it.

ß Laziness is nothing more

than the habit of resting before you get tired.

ß Marriage is give and take.

You had better give it to her or she will take it anyway. ß My wife and I always com-

promise. I admit I am wrong and she agrees with me. ß A successful marriage

the same boss.

ß Real friends are the ones

who survive transitions between address books.

ß Saving is the best thing.

Especially when your parents have done it for you. ß Wise men talk because

they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something.

ß They call our language the

mother tongue because the father seldom gets to speak.

ß Man: Is there any way for

a long life? Dr: Get married. Man: Will it help? Dr: No, but then the thought of long life will never come.

ß Why do couples hold

hands during their wedding? It's a formality just like two boxers shaking hands before the fight begins! ß Wife: Darling today is our

anniversary, what should we do? Husband: Let us stand in silence for two minutes.

ß It's funny when people

discuss love marriage vs. arranged. It's like asking someone, if suicide is better than murder.

requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

ß There is only one perfect

ß It does not matter how

ß There is only one perfect

often a married man changes his job, he still ends up with

child in the world and every mother has it. wife in the world and every neighbour has it.

August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 63

astroturf environment. In many cases, career advancement is causing a move—this could be the cause for a lot of stress. Focus on your career, but don’t over-focus.

Aries

March 21 - April 20

This is a month for travelling, enhanced creativity, luck in speculations, boundless optimism, good fortune with children, love affairs and the fulfillment of sensual pleasure. And at least until the 23rd, of enjoying leisure activities.

(www.dollymanghat.com)

Fortune favours the bold and the lucky

other.

TAURUS

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

April 21 - May 20

Lucky Days: 1, 9, 10, 18, 19, 27 For two years you earned by ‘the sweat of the brow’, now things happen ‘by grace’—a completely different state of affairs. The thinking, planning, strategising, worrying drop away—no longer needed—and the appropriating and enjoying of life, begin. You are in the garden partaking of the fruits of the ‘Tree of Life’ freely. You are entering one of the happiest periods of your year (and perhaps your life).

GEMINI

May 21 - June 21

Lucky Days: 2, 3, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 30 Avoid power struggles (though this will be difficult), ‘agree with thine adversary quickly’, avoid unnecessary thinking or talking. Learn the art of relaxation—physical and mental. Go to sleep early and get up late (or whenever you feel you really want to be out of bed). Of course, if you work for others this will be difficult. If you work for yourself it is easier.

CANCER

June 22 - July 23

Lucky Days: 4, 5, 13, 14, 23, 24 Finances are unusually powerful until the 27th. By then, beneficial Jupiter should have done his work on you and you will be ready to focus on other things, developing your mind, reading, studying and travelling. Speculations are still favourable and unexpected wind-

falls could happen—especially around the 22nd and 23rd. This is a wonderful period for job-seekers as well.

LEO

July 24 - Aug 23

Lucky Days: 7, 15, 16, 17, 25, 26 Jupiter, the planet of wealth and abundance, makes an important move into your Money House on the 27th. The Sun will travel with Jupiter after the 22nd. These are all wealth messages—and happy wealth to boot. Speculations are favourable, creativity is strong and your financial judgement is sound (especially until the 28th).

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23

Lucky Days: 1, 2, 10, 18, 19, 28, 29 On the 7th Venus moves into your Money House where she is very powerful on your behalf. Women, friends and partners are supportive of your financial goals. You are taking a more personal interest here too—putting your attention on these things, this is a positive. Venus in your Sign brings glamour and style to your image. .

64 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22

Lucky Days: 2, 3, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 30 The planetary power is still very much above the horizon, so continue to push your career projects. This situation is soon to change, so don’t neglect opportunities. Both family and career activities are well aspected and seem happy.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 22

Lucky Days: 4, 5, 13, 14, 23, 24 Like last month, the planets involved with home and family are still retrograde. So, seize the career moment and push forward toward your goals. Big advancement is still happening. How far will you go? Much depends on the nature of your goals. If they are reasonable (within your sphere of availability), you will attain them. If they are very grand (and nothing wrong with that), you will see important progress towards them.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22

Lucky Days: 7, 15, 16, 17, 25, 26 Family life and emotional passions get stormy again and you have to cultivate equilibrium. Career success— pay rises, promotions, honours, etc.—could de-stabilise the home

CAPRICORN

Dec 23 - Jan 20

Lucky Days: 1, 9, 10, 18, 19, 27, 28 This is not a time for independence or going it alone. This is a time for teamwork and for winning others over to your position. And if persuasion fails, you must adapt and compromise. Personal effort is less important now, other people’s good will is more so. Like last month, the planets involved in finance are retrograde. So proceed slowly and cautiously in the financial realm.

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19

Lucky Days: 3, 4, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 30, 31 Many of you will receive pay rises or promotions. Others will have new career offers at better pay elsewhere. Seize the moment and push forward with your ambitions. You will earn all this glory come the 23rd— this is not a free ride—but hard work pays off.

PISCES

Feb 20 - Mar 20

Lucky Days: 4, 5, 13, 14, 23, 24 An important, significant ‘turning-point’ kind of month ahead, Pisces. There are challenges to be sure, but handling them properly can lead to the pinnacle of happiness and success. 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

August 1-15, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 65

the last word

Ganesh Natarajan

Leading with the heart! Inclusive leaders today, pride themselves on a focus toward the triple bottom line where people and planet are as important as profits, but how many corporate success stories flaunt exceptional community results as key success parameters besides revenue and profits?

ishop Westcott School in Ranchi in the seventies had many flaws, its science and mathematics teaching was not the best, the focus on hymns being sung every morning at the school assembly may seem excessive in these times and many of us who studied there remember the school more for our extra-curricular exploits than the education we received. However, one aspect of the school made it stand out, the strong focus on diversity in its student intake, and the fostering of national pride in the community of over five hundred Westcottians who passed through its portals in my time. The school motto in Latin read Non Nascor Mihi Solum – ‘Live not for self alone’ and the national pledge was repeated many times during the school year with the opening lines “India is my country; all Indians are my brothers and sisters” getting embedded deeper in the soul of every student with every recitation. All this and a family orientation towards social work lit an undying flame of gratitude in me towards the country and the community which has stayed bright through decades of corporate life and entrepreneurship. A heart that beats for social causes is something that sustains me and many CEOs in our country even as they serve the principal stakeholder community of shareholders and customers that makes them successful in conventional terms. Inclusive leaders today pride

Another milestone: New launch of SVP in Ahmedabad

tions that are making a huge difference to society and also providing opportunities for well-meaning senior leaders as well as young social sector enthusiasts to combine head and heart in their search for meaning and fulfilment. Pune City Connect has become a true exemplar in this area, enabling a rare public private partnership that is transforming Marathi and Urdu municipal schools, targeting hundred percent digital literacy in Pune by 2022 and setting up national awardwinning skills lighthouses in every municipal ward to ensure that Pune’s youth are able to dream and turn these dreams into reality in a truly “safe space”. City corporate leaders and entrepreneurs – Meher Pudumjee, Rati Forbes, Pradeep Bhargav, Ashwini Malhotra, A heart that beats for Rahul Kirloskar, Rajan social causes is something Navani and Sudhir Mehta on the Board that sustains me and and many more CEOs many CEOs in our country of Indian and global corporations give us the energy and funding to follow sar Technologies, the leadership our heart and do good in a highly teams’ commitment to a balanced professional manner. On a national triple bottom line approach led to scale, Social Venture Partners excellent community results and India has adopted and adapted superior employee retention and SVP International’s venture also huge rewards from customers philanthropy approach and and shareholders with the stock valstarted building a new generation ues jumping manifold in compariof focused philanthropists working son to industry peers. And having collaboratively for major social plunged with passion and renewed initiatives. One of the big hairy energy into the social sector after and audacious goals is to enhance finishing my third five-year term at or create sustainable livelihoods Zensar, it has been a pleasure and for a million Indians by 2022 and privilege to lead scaling organisathemselves on a focus towards the triple bottom line, where people and planet are as important as profits, but how many corporate success stories flaunt exceptional community results as key success parameters besides revenue and profits? It is a rare set of leaders who commit themselves to truly changing lives within and outside the organisation. And the rewards one can reap by having a heart that beats for these causes and leads career and life decisions are richer than any monetary measure and can lead to a richer dividend earned for oneself and for the community one seeks to serve. My own experiences with this approach have been truly rewarding. In two companies I led for over twenty-five years, Aptech and Zen-

66 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2018

the energy of the leaders engaged in this mission is admirable. Even at 5F World, which has evolved in its two-year existence to be not just a leader in digital transformation and Industry 4.0 consulting, but also a mentor and investor in high growth technology companies in India and the US, we have been able to judiciously choose areas that impact inclusion in the country. One of our investee companies, Skills Alpha is developing digital platform solutions for upskilling corporate employees, college students and even underprivileged youth to develop new and relevant areas of expertise, and another, the Center for AI and Advanced Analytics is enabling a new breed of professionals to be developed for the industry armed to be the managers of data that the country and the world so needs. Here is an exhortation to readers of this column who are looking for passion and purpose in their careers and lives. It is never too early in your career or life to let your heart lead your head and if there are opportunities where you can volunteer or lead initiatives that lead to more love and inclusion in this country, jump for it. That decision can change the course of your life and put you on a path that is full of better rewards than just the chase for filthy lucre! Go for it. Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect and Social Venture Partners, India.

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August 16-31, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 67

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