TOP POSITION Shahul Karim, Vice President-Human Resources, Firstsource Volume 4, Issue No. 13 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
September 16-30, 2018 / `50
SURVEY
India N Gen St ext udy 2018
Interview
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Tanushree Shelly, senior managerHR, Mahindra Lifespace
Dynamic Duo: 77
Glorious Golden Moments
Priscilla and Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo (retd.) on their 52 years of shared bond and his story of monumental courage and rare fauji spirit
Loved & Married Too
Rujuta Phadke and Ojas Pashankar— wings to aspire for greater heights STARTUP STORY
Dhiren Makhija, cofounder and business development head, Cashkumar Session
Debate — will India reinvent itself till 2022?
2 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Editor-in-Chief’s Choice
Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian
God in Army Uniform In yet another colossal mission of saving the lives of people stranded dangerously on account of rising water levels during disaster of ravaging floods that befell Kerala, men in Uniform come as Saviours!
O The Army even set up camps for motivation and to cheer up kids who had to miss going to school! The moment the TV cameras arrived the Army disappeared and the publicity hungry politicians took over”
n the Kerala front, all my relatives affected say “We all were petrified looking at the rising water, till the Army guys came smiling. Their actions were so reassuring, that we forgot all our fears and calmed down. The Army even set up camps for motivation and to cheer up kids who had to miss going to school! The moment the TV cameras arrived, the Army disappeared and the publicity hungry politicians took over”... My uncle asked a Colonel as to why did they move away from the lime light? To which he smiled and said “our light is with you— when you are at peace our lives light up and will be lit up till eternity; camera lights are temporary!’’ How true. My uncle who narrated this said his and many other people’s eyes were moist, with tears held back, when they heard this. Thought of sharing this... we are proud of your tribe. (This is a Forward on WhatsApp, sent during the recent Kerala floods.)
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 3
feedback East or west, Mom & Dad are the best Truly inspiring
The article is really good. I have now come to know everything about both of them and about the Foundation. I am really inspired by the article as it is very encouraging and needs to be appreciated a lot. GREAT WORK! — Anju Mary Thomas, LG 2014 & PA 2016
So much to take back
Having read the article, I would like to say that their journey has been woven into a colourful fabric and I loved the way Dad described Mom’s transformation. Dad has always acknowledged feminine energy. The article has elegantly carved a unique Poonawalla couple, who have grown together, shared their business ideas with each other, shared a journey so far, maintaining equilibrium with the Foundation in spite of a very busy schedule. We have so much to learn from them. We have so much to take back as to how to passionately focus on our dreams, work with honesty of purpose, and the value of raising funds is so important when we have to start a new business. The article ended with a very thought provoking idea. The Foundation has reached many milestones since its inception, fulfilling every girl’s dream. The joy of giving has nourished all of us family members. — Aishwarya Deshmukh, LG 2014 & PA 2016
Something new every time
A truly amazing article about one of the bestloved couples in Pune! Every new article unfolds something hitherto unknown about them both and their inspirational marriage, making us even more proud of being a part of their illustrious lives. Thanks for sharing! — Jyoti Otageri, LF 1998 & PA 2009
How she transformed…
First of all I would like to thank you for sharing such a beautiful article with us. The article was an amazing insight into the love story of Mom and Dad. It shows how Mom evolved into this strong personality she is today 4 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
It touches the heart
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story, in Corporate Citizen, Issue 6, dated 1 June, 2018. I could visualise all the moments both quoted, right from Mom riding a bicycle, to making tea for Dad and Dad reading the newspaper, to accompanying Mom for meetings. This article really gives insights about our beloved Mom and Dad, how they grew up and why they are at the topmost position. The values, the vision both followed, helped the community at every single step and inspired us girls not only professionally but also in our personal lives. The stories shared about girls who dared to marry people of their choice are really nice. They are an ideal example of husband-wife, mother-father and now grandparents. The last paragraph touches the heart and it’s my promise that until I am alive, I will try my best to inculcate the moral values/culture which I have received as a heritage by being a family member of the LPF and spread it to others until my last breath. I will give my best for the sustainability of our beloved LPF. They have not only funded my education but also my life with many more things. I am trying to build myself enough to fulfil my promise of being a Lila Fellow and a peace ambassador. Thank you once again for sharing this article which is motivating to each and every individual in his/ her personal, professional and married life. —Gayatri Kshirsagar, LF-2012 & PA-2016
due to the support and encouragement from Dad. No doubt every girl will love to have a husband like our Dad. Hope to get many such articles more often. — Rashmi Sure, LF 2016 & PA 2018
Many small lessons
I read the cover story and it’s wonderfully written. I got to know more about the Foundation and them that I was unaware of. There are beautiful small lessons of life which we can learn and inculcate in our lives. I felt very happy to read it, and I am feeling proud to be a daughter and part of the Lila Poonawalla Foundation. — Tehniyat Shaikh, LF 2015 & PA 2017
TOP POSITION KuNwer Sachdev, FOuNder aNd Md, Su-KaM POwer SySTeMS Volume 4, Issue No. 06 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
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A love thus empowered Padma Shri Lila Poonawalla, and Firoz Poonawalla, on their philanthropic work and successful marriage
CII Manufacturing Excellence Conclave 2018
Enabling ZED Manufacturing
June 1-15, 2018 / `50
Survey
‘Leade rs in the Ag hip AI’ surv e of ey
Making our lives better
BOLLYWOOD BIZ
India’s most accomplished women directors
Loved & Married Too
Entrepreneur couple, Ruta Talwalkar and Gireesh Narasimhan, on their enduring relationship
A huge Giving Tree
The article about my beloved Mom and Dad is indeed a blessing. They have been together always, caring, sharing and standing behind each one of us. I being a Lila Girl-2012, Lila Fellow-2015 and Peace Ambassador 2017, have been associated with their love for the past six years, but will be their daughter for life. This article shares every single moment of how Mom and Dad have been together and also about the early phase of their lives. From a lady mechanical engineer to a Padmashree recipient, is truly an admirable journey. On parallel lines, the support of Dad to Mom and their wider vision for the betterment of society has resulted in a huge Giving Tree in the name of Lila Poonawalla Foundation. This Foundation helps girls like us achieve higher goals and gives us the positivity to keep dreaming. — Kashmira Deval, LG 2012, LF 2015 & PA 2017
Nothing is impossible
I read this beautiful article. it’s really very encouraging and uplifting, gives me more confidence. After reading it I understood that nothing is impossible if we work with our heart and with hard work. We can fulfil our aims and goals. Mom and Dad motivate me as a person to move ahead in my life. — Christeena Antony, LG 2015 & PA 2018
Aspiration and support
The article is really very interesting and informative about all the hardships they faced in their early life. It serves as a source of information for everyone and inspires us to achieve more and more. It also gives many examples of how they helped girls to overcome social prejudices. Also it is about Mom’s journey of aspiring to be the first CEO and about the constant support from Dad. I liked the article very much
as it covers all the aspects of their lives and the questions asked by the interviewer were very brief and appropriate. — Nipa Mistry, LG 2015 & PA 2018
Hold your head high and be bold
I read this wonderful article. It’s really inspiring and shows us how to be strong and confident in our life, no matter how hard it is. And as girls we should always keep our head held high and be bold enough to follow our hearts. — Mary Wanboklin Dkhar, LG 2015 & PA 2018
Tips and lessons
The article is really very nice and the small incidents shared by Mom and Dad are amazing and are huge lessons of life. The article also gives us tips for a happy and successful life. It also shows their love towards all of us. The story of their life together is really inspirational. — Ruchika Andhalkar, LG 2015 & PA 2018
8000 proud daughters
the Lila Poonawalla Foundation and India there. Dad-Mom being my constant inspiration, have taught me not to quit and give my 100% whatever may come! We all, me and my 8000 sisters are their proud daughters! — Gauri Ramchandra Khopade, LG 2015 & PA 2018
I will always use “A love thus empowered” for my Mom and Dad. Yes, I’m a proud daughter! Blessed daughter of parents who find joy in giving. I’ve a Mom who never takes rest and works constantly for her daughters and Dad who does his best to make us independent and responsible individuals. I used to be a shy, confused girl but after joining the Foundation and attending all the training programmes I found myself! Now I’m the “Peace Ambassador 2018” and I am going to attend the Wholesome Development Program to be held at Asha Centre in the UK and I will proudly represent
I am really proud to be a Lila Girl! This article was particularly nice because it let us know about the bonding, the relationship and the understanding between Mom and Dad. I have always been inspired by the way they started the Foundation and took us under their wings. My engineering education was possible only because of their initiative and support. I’m always in awe of the efforts they take to make our lives better, to teach us new things, to hone us. After reading this article, all I can say is that my respect and love for my dear Mom and Dad has increased manifold. —Samruddha Kulkarni, LG-2015 & PA-2018
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September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 5
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Dynamic Duo: 77
Glorious Golden Moments Priscilla and Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo (retd.) on their 52 years of shared bond and his story of monumental courage and rare fauji spirit 9 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 14 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why 16 EXPERT VIEW Science and technology comes as boon or bane? 26 SESSION A critical debate—will India reinvent itself as it races towards the 75th anniversary of independence in 2022? 6 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Volume 4 Issue No. 13 September 16-30, 2018 www.corporatecitizen.in
32 TOP POSITION Shahul Karim, Vice PresidentHuman Resources, Firstsource, on his inspiring journey, his eye for talent and why having clarity of your life goals is essential to success 36 STARTUP STORY Dhiren Makhija, co-founder and business development head, Cashkumar, on the growth story of their P2P lending fintech company dedicated to the common man
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39 UNSUNG HEROES V Kathiresan, was a school dropout, but today at the age of 47 has a PhD, has written two books, and is a college lecturer 40 YOUNG CORPORATES Tanushree Shelly, senior managerHR, Mahindra Lifespace, on her nine years career journey in the corporate world
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42 FIRST PERSON Lessons that the Indian Military Academy taught me about entrepreneurship 44 LOVED AND MARRIED Entrepreneur Rujuta Phadke and her significant other, IT professional Ojas Pashankar, on what gives them the wings to aspire for greater heights
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46 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Riya Sanmukhani, on her campus placement experience and how learning and hard work has given her an edge in her career pursuit 48 TRAVEL Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC—an ode to journalism
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contents
Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinita.corporatecitizen@gmail.com
54 52 HEALTH Wellness coach, Lopamudra Banerjee, shares her health travails and tips to fitness
Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur mathurpradeep1@gmail.com/ Sharmila Chand chand.sharmila@gmail.com
54 SURVEY India Next Gen Study 2018, to understand the views of the next gen business leaders 58 BOLLYWOOD BIZ A look at Bollywood actresses who married foreigners
Assistant Editor & Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com
Kolkata Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com
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Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra
60 MOBILE APPS Best free apps for stock trading
Advertising and Marketing Manager Delhi: Mohamed Rizwan riz.mohamed@hotmail.com
61 PEARLS OF WISDOM Discovering the secret of happiness 66 LAST WORD Educating youth about opportunities emerging across all sectors
Chennai: Anil Kumar Menon anil.menon@corporatecitizen.in
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Be A Corporate Citizen
How do you like this issue of Corporate Citizen - The Cool Side of Business? Send in your views, news, suggestions and contributions to corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! 8 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
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People in the news
Apple’s CEO sweetest of lot
Apple, is undoubtedly the best company making profits and there is no doubt that the company’s CEO will get the best pay packet compared to other companies around the globe. This has been brought to the notice by Equilar, the firm which provides executive compensation benchmarking has come out with the total amount of money Tim Cook earned since he took up the position of CEO at Apple. The firm calculated the amount earned by Cook since 2011. And the total sum of salary is $701 million (roughly `4,970 crores). The firm said that Cook, collected over $65,038,2235 (roughly `4,610 crores) in stock awards ever since he became Apple CEO, according to Business Insider. Although that’s a huge sum for the majority of us, Cook however is still behind the social media giant, Facebook’s CEO—Mark Zuckerberg. As per the report, the only other CEO who has realised more value in the same time period is Mark Zuckerberg, who exercised 1.2 million options over two years, according to Alex Knowlton, senior research analyst, as per the report. It has been said that Zuckerberg had a strike price of $0.06 and has made options at the same time period worth $5.8 billion (roughly `41,124 crores).
CHRO, Apollo Hospitals Group, quits T. Karunakar, CHRO Apollo Hospital, is all set to move base to the UAE now as he is to join Abu Dhabi-based healthcare chain, VPS Healthcare as the group CHRO. It’s a decade-old company with 24 hospitals across the UAE, besides four in India. His was a story of growing with the organisation. He spent 16 years at Apollo Hospitals and climbed up from the position of HR manager to that of group CHRO. VPS now plans to expand to the UK market and also start a chain of physiotherapy clinics. The healthcare chain has witnessed rapid growth in the last 10 years and for Karunakar, the job in hand will be to restructure the HR process. He will have to create an organisational structure, align HR goals with the business strategy, and align business objectives with employee goals. Karunakar will also look at putting a balanced scorecard in place, and using a radical thought process to get the backend organised, including the payroll management system.
Ola appoints Ben Legg for UK Ola, India’s largest cab-hailing service, named Ben Legg as Managing Director of its planned UK operations. Legg was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at New York based company AdParlor. He also worked at digital advertising firm Adknowledge, Google Europe, Coca-Cola and McKinsey & Co. “We’re delighted to have a talented leader like Ben at the helm as we start our operations in the UK,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola. Legg will build the senior leadership team and drive operations to establish overall presence in the UK by the end of 2018, the company said in a statement. Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has obtained licenses to operate in South Wales and Manchester, Mint reported recently. The company is set to launch operations in South Wales within the next month, the report said. The move signals Ola’s aggressive expansion to fight Uber in the overseas market and set up base for a large international business, expected to generate revenues alongside its Indian operations.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 9
collywood HDFC Bank deputy MD resigns Private sector HDFC Bank’s second-in-command and long-standing lieutenant Deputy Managing Director, Paresh Sukthankar, has put in his papers amid speculation that he may be joining as the chief of another lender. Sukthankar was widely perceived as a potential successor to HDFC Bank’s CEO and Managing Director Aditya Puri, who is likely to retire by October 2020. The lender plans to finalise a replacement for him by October next year so that he can work alongside him for a year. According to industry experts, Sukthankar’s sudden resignation indicates that he may be joining as the head of another private sector lender. Private sector Axis Bank is also in the midst of appointing a successor to its CEO and Managing Director, Shikha Sharma. The bank had sent a list of three candidates to the Reserve Bank of India for approval last month. Sukthankar, who is in his early 50s, has been associated with HDFC Bank since its inception in 1994. He was appointed as the lender’s Deputy Managing Director in December 2013. In March 2017, the bank’s board had approved his re-appointment as Deputy MD for a three-year period till June 2020.
Emrana Sheikh joins J&J, Indrajeet Sengupta moves to Coca-Cola
Emrana Sheikh has joined Johnson & Johnson (J&J) as enterprise HR-Head for India and South Asia. She has moved from Asian Paints, where she was Head-HR for the last three and a half years. Sheikh has over 25 years of experience in both the manufacturing and service industries, ranging from FMCG and automotive to farm equipment and express transportation. Sheikh has spent almost half of her career with Fedex, where she was head of HR-L&D, MEIA region. From Fedex she moved to Mahindra, where she joined as senior General Manager-HR and headed HR for the auto division and international operations. Later, she was elevated as VPHR and went on to lead HR for the automotive division comprising seven plants and 18 sales offices across India. Additionally, she was also Head-HR for international operations of the auto and farm businesses of Mahindra & Mahindra. Sheikh said, “Johnson & Johnson has a 130-year-old history of helping people live healthier and happier lives. With this new role, I hope to contribute to the company’s ongoing focus on innovation and building a diverse workforce, to address the healthcare needs of people today and in the future.” Meanwhile, Indrajeet Sengupta who was CHRO, J&J, has moved to Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages (Coke India) as CHRO. Sengupta had led HR at J&J for eight years, guiding the transformation of the HR function to a progressive business
partner. His role included delivering directly to 6000+ employees and associates and enhanced employee experience. He also provided thought leadership with a focus on reputation, external outreach, innovation, talent, diversity, inclusion, employer branding, governance and business conduct. At Coke India, the position of CHRO was lying vacant since Seema Nair’s sudden exit in less than a year. Prior to J&J, Sengupta worked with the food and beverages company, Mars, which owns brands such as M&M, Pedigree, Snickers and Orbit. Sengupta, who passed out of XISS Ranchi in 1995, has spent a large part of his career with GE India. As HR manager at GE, he worked across brands and functions, covering GE Plastics, GE Lighting and GE Medical Systems. He learnt about union relations, manufacturing, learning and development initiatives, 360-degree appraisal system, Six Sigma and human resource information systems implementation. During his 13-year long stint at GE, Sengupta got elevated at regular intervals, with his last designation being head of C&B, Asia Pacific. Sengupta’s immediate mandate at Hindustan Coca Cola is to focus on transforming the HR and facilities management functions, and partnering with the business to evolve HCCB into a company of significant scale and size. Christina Ruggiero, CEO, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages says, “HCCB is in the middle of a very interesting phase in its journey as it evolves into a company of significant scale and size. We aim to leverage his vast experience and expertise of many markets and multiple industries, in building the people capabilities at HCCB.”
Pune is India’s most liveable city, Rampur in UP the least Maharashtra’s main urban clusters aced the government’s first-ever attempt to rank India’s leading cities based on their ease of living. While Pune topped the ranking, Navi Mumbai and Mumbai rounded out the top three. Rampur in Uttar Pradesh was adjudged the least liveable city. However, Pune scored
10 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
only 58 out of a possible 100 points. India’s 111 leading cities, which took part in the exercise, scored a cumulative average of 35.6, a failing grade in the exercise in which all the 100 municipal bodies nominated as smart cities and state capitals participated. Mumbai may have done well despite getting a bad
rap from most citizens. However, officials in the Urban Affairs ministry warned that the ranking is as much a reflection of the quality of data cities managed to furnish as the status of the physical infrastructure itself. Since the beginning of this year, cities had been asked by the Urban Affairs ministry to present verifiable data on a slew of parameters. These included the quality of power and water supply, the state of health and education infrastructure, prevalence
Vinod Bidwaik joins Alfa Laval as CHRO Vinod Bidwaik has joined the Swedish heavy-industry company, Alfa Laval, as VP-HR and CHRO for India. He will be based out of Pune. Bidwaik has moved from DSM India—his longest stint— where he was Director-HR. He had joined the pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturer as country HR manager and then rose up the ranks to become Head-HR and later, Director-HR. In the nine years that he spent with DSM, he also handled a shortterm assignment as HRBP-sales & marketing, Asia Pacific, during which he was based out of Shanghai. Bidwaik has over 18 years of experience, and has worked across sectors, be it manufacturing, media, automotive, life sciences, specialty chemicals and materials science. Bidwaik is a seasoned IR (Industrial Relations) professional and has expertise in dealing with union office bearers. He started his career with Indian Steel and Allied Industries as a management trainee in 1997, and was later elevated to personnel officer. In 2001, he joined the
of crime, levels of pollution, and access to housing, among others. The final rankings are based on a mix of the furnished data, a third-party survey and direct feedback from citizens (about 60,000). “This is the first such attempt to empirically capture the position of India’s cities through an index,” said Urban Affairs minister Hardeep S. Puri, before launching the index. “It’s time to acknowledge that the responsibility of the state is not only to deliver
chemical company, Sempertrans Nirlon, as Deputy Manager-HR and IR, from where he moved to Mahindra. After a short stint of 11 months with the automobile company, he moved to the media sector as chief manager-corporate HR, at Sakaal Media Group. Having completed his training in strategic human resource management from IIM, Ahmedabad and strategic intervention from the Strategy Academy, Kolkata, Bidwaik has also authored two books—Holistic Approach to Employee Engagement and Password to Enriched Life. He also holds a master’s degree in personnel management from Pune University.
goods and services to citizens, but also to ensure the ease of living of citizens,” he said. The assessment standards evolved by the ministry are closely linked to the sustainable development goals. The ministry also launched a new assessment framework for the 2019 round of its annual sanitation survey, Swachh Survekshan, which will now move towards estimating outcome and sustainability of the process, instead of just visible cleanliness.
Mattel’s Rajesh Hurkat gets addition role
Rajesh Hurkat admits to exciting times ahead as he takes on a new role to HeadHR for Mattel South-East Asia. “The responsibility gets a lot more exciting as we are talking multiple markets now. South-East Asia consists of multiple countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia that are critical markets for Mattel. I see this as a great opportunity as we look to replicate our HR best practices to a broader audience with the combined markets,” Hurkat said. Having joined Mattel India only a year back in May 2017 as Head-HR, Hurkat has already been a part of a journey that has seen Mattel evolve as a workplace and has also won a few awards.“The employer branding journey at Mattel India is being appreciated widely within Mattel. It has been a great learning experience as we achieved these milestones through tremendous partnership amongst the larger team,” he said. One of the key objectives before him when he joined the organisation was to showcase Mattel India and
its Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to the world at large.“In the past year, we have been able to showcase the ‘WONDER’ culture at Mattel India, which has helped us to engage better with candidates as we onboard them for the growth journey ahead,” said Hurkat. The company has been able to leverage employer branding to attract the right talent in India, and this is an ideal opportunity for Hurkat and his team to apply these practices to advantage in South-East Asia. According to him, what has helped in his Mattel India journey is his ability to understand the organisational growth journey and building the culture and ecosystem that inspire employees; something that he has learnt working in other MNCs across sectors in the last 14 years. Hurkat began his career in 2004 and has worked with companies such as Vodafone India, LafargeHolcim, Aditya Birla and Mondelez International. He recalled fondly how he led the design and creation of a high-performance work culture for what is claimed to be the biggest chocolate factory in the world and largest in Asia Pacific, for Mondelez at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh.“People are at the heart of any organisation. With HR, one gets an opportunity to be the enabler to help the organisation win in the market.” he says.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 11
collywood Usha Ananthasubramanian dismissed as Allahabad Bank MD & CEO The Centre dismissed Usha Ananthasubramanian as MD and CEO of Allahabad Bank, saying it was needed to secure the interest of this public sector bank that she had led from May 2017. She was to retire soon, but was dismissed ahead of that. Three months ago, Ananthasubramanian was divested of all her powers as MD of Allahabad Bank, after being named in a CBI chargesheet in the ₹13,500-crore PNB fraud case but had continued to be an employee of the bank. She had been MD and CEO of PNB between August 2015 and May 2017, before moving to Allahabad Bank. Meanwhile, media reports said the Centre has also given permission to the CBI to prosecute Ananthasubramanian and former PNB Executive Director, Sanjiv Sharan. In taking this decision for her removal, the Department of Financial Services had consulted the Board of Allahabad Bank, said a formal notification issued by the Centre. This removal action comes in the wake of
her having failed to exercise proper control over the functioning of Punjab National Bank while serving as its MD & CEO, which had enabled the much talked about SWIFT-related Nirav Modi-perpetrated fraud at PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai go undetected for several years, snowballing to a large amount. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, PNB said,“With a view to further improve corporate governance and excellence, PNB is taking all required steps to check any kind of gap, loopholes and deviations in systems and procedures. Norms are being strengthened and standard operating procedures are being revisited. The move in this direction has been appreciated by all stakeholders.” The bank has a strong foundation and is committed to implement ethical standards besides tightening the norms wherever required despite demonstration carried out by Officers’ Associations/Unions at some centres, the statement added.
Zee gets Animesh Kumar from Future Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has appointed Animesh Kumar as Chief People Officer. Kumar has moved from the Future Group, where he was chief people & transformation officer for a very short stint of five months. Prior to that he spent long years at IDFC Bank. Kumar, who was heading the Bank’s human resources division since 2009, moved out of IDFC after NS Rajan joined as the CHRO and CMO. For a few months, he was on a sabbatical. At Zee, he will report to Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL. The mandate for Kumar is to transform Zee into a dynamic workplace that can attract the best talent, enable innovative people practices, and support the growing workforce needs.” Human capital is the most important source of competitive advantage in media and entertainment and I am delighted to lead the HR function of this pioneering brand, which 25 years ago sparked not just a company, but an entire industry in itself,” says Animesh Kumar. For Kumar, this will be his first stint with a media company. An XLRI pass out, Kumar has over 25 years of experience of which a large part
was spent with leading banks of the country. Kumar completed his PGDPM & IR from XLRI in 1993 and holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Shri Ram College of Commerce. After passing out of XLRI in 1993, Kumar started his career with Marico. He worked with the FMCG company as HR Manager for more than five years. His next destination was Thomas Cook, where he spent two years as HR manager. In 2001, Kumar moved to the banking industry. He joined Standard Chartered Bank as head of performance & rewards and was with the bank for around three and a half years. In May 2004, he moved to Yes Bank as Country Head-HR, for a short stint of nine months. In April 2005, he had joined ABN Amro Bank as Vice President-HR. In 2009, Kumar joined IDFC Bank as Group Head-HR. There, he rose above the ranks to become head of HR and brand. He was also the CEO of IDFC Foundation. Future Group was Kumar’s first non-banking stint after 17 years. Here, he was to lead transformations, future of work, future of retailing and design of a tech augmented workplace.
12 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Nalin Garg, CHRO, HT Media quits Nalin Garg, who was spearheading the human resources function in HT Media. In his quest to venture into a different market and experience a new culture altogether, Garg has shifted base to Dubai as he joined a realty firm, DAMAC Group, as the senior Vice President, people and performance. DAMAC Properties is one of the key players in the luxury real estate market in the Middle East. It offers residential, commercial and leisure properties across the region, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon and the UK. The Group owns and operates the only Trumpbranded golf club in the Middle East. In the first half of 2018, the Company delivered 1,490 units compared to 1,071 units in the same period last year. The Company plans to deliver over 4,000 units in 2018. Garg is excited to work in a multicultural setup with the Group, which has operations in different verticals. Garg will now be part of the Group’s ambitious expansion plans as it increases its presence in new geographies, such as China and London. Garg, a dual master’s in personnel management and Industrial Relations from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and political science from the University of Mumbai, has been exposed to multicultural environments in his past roles. Those experiences will help him build a talent pool from different backgrounds to drive the agenda of the organisation. Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com
wax eloquent
Running on the right path
Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in the business world
Elephant that’s starting to run Reduce friction to Indian entrepreneurs
“The Prime Minister’s emphasis on Make in India is very good. But, we have to reduce friction to Indian entrepreneurs, and to foreign companies to start new manufacturing entities in India as manufacturing has considerable scope for even semi-illiterates and in some cases, illiterates too.”
“Our economy is being termed as an elephant that’s starting to run, I believe that we are running on the right path. Our reforms are evident and ongoing in all areas. You may think of reforms as a one-time, big bang. For my government, however, the reform process is a continuum.” Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India Courtesy: https://www.livemint.com
N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder, Infosys
Courtesy: https://indianexpress.com
In order to achieve success “On a relative basis, yes, I’ve had it all. I’m very fortunate to have a wonderful husband, two great kids, a very tightknit family, an awesome job with a great team. But to get here and to stay here, lots of tradeoffs, lots of sacrifices under the water, a lot of collateral damage.” Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo Courtesy: https://www.forbes.com
I have always been an outstanding student
Only the paranoid survive
“Everything worries me. There is a great quote: Only the paranoid survive. So I think we all collectively stay in a state of worry, but we are also trying to take a step back, study this, understand what’s happening.” Caesar Sengupta,
vice president, Next Billion Users and Payments, Google Courtesy: www.economic times.com
14 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
“I have always been an outstanding student…to mean “standing outside the class.” I always stood out of the class, not inside the class. I was always punished for breaking the rules. I went to MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] by the way, for an entrepreneurship programme called the “Birthing of Giants.” They handpicked like 60 people globally, 60 mad guys like me. The qualification for you to be there is you should have done something crazy.”
Sriram Bharatam, social entrepreneur and founder, Iridium Interactive Courtesy: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com
Growth tends to go up in election years “When people talk about the election year effect, I think they make too much of a big deal on the fiscal side. The real effect is that political parties start spending money that they have stashed away, and that usually provides a massive boost to the economy. Usually what happens is that your growth tends to go up in election years.” Pronab Sen, former chief statistician of India
Courtesy: https://www.thehindu.com
Evolution of me as an investor
“When you do it the first time, you go through intense pressure. When you do it the second time, you go through even the same kind, but as you keep doing it and as you have successes, you will find that it’s part of your daily routine. Of course, taking pain is not easy but that has to be part of a contrarian style. And you get used to it.” Sankaran Naren,
chief investment officer, ICICI Prudential Mutual
Courtesy: https://www.moneycontrol.com
Fitness is a lifestyle
“Fitness is a lifestyle. I’m not invested in it. It’s like eating. Everybody does that. Sleeping, everybody does it...It doesn’t take up so much time that I can’t do anything else. I mean I am part of six companies...Fitness never takes away from anything. It only enhances your ability to do things well.” Milind Soman,
model, actor, film producer, fitness promoter
What makes a standout candidate?
Talented people are also critical people “India is a country with a lot of talent. That talent must be used. Of course, we know that talented people are also critical people. So it needs a certain amount of confidence in government to bring such people in. They would come up and say this is wrong and this is right, and you have to give that space.” Kaushik Basu, former chief economist, World Bank Courtesy: https://www.thehindu.com
“Being humble and down-to-earth, and still showing clear motivation and drive to make a difference and an impact. For me honesty and openness are very important. We have all made mistakes so daring to describe mistakes builds a positive picture for me.” Anna Caria Månsson,
Courtesy: https://www.dnaindia.com
country HR manager, IKEA
Indian banking resilient to crisis
Courtesy: https://yourstory.com
“Certain cases of banking irregularities cannot be generalised to paint an image of the Indian banking sector as a whole. Credit is a crucial instrument for the growth of businesses. Firms seeking credit will naturally pose risk from both external and internal factors. But, this risk also has its concomitant reward. The lending norms in the Indian banking sector have been prudent. It is evident from the fact that while the global economy in 2007-08 faced a banking crisis of an unprecedented magnitude, the Indian banking sector remained quite resilient.” Amitabh Kant, CEO, National Institution for Transforming India Courtesy: https://sputniknews.com
Hard work coupled with luck
“Randomness, chance, and luck influence our lives and our work more than we realise. Hard work must be there but it might not suffice. Mild success can be explainable by skills and hard work, but wild success is usually attributable to hard work coupled with luck. Chance favours preparedness, but it is not caused by preparedness.”
Not making change for the sake of it “A lot of people expect that a new CMD will come and the group will undergo a change. In today’s context, consistency, focus, and persistence are more important than wanting to make a change for the sake of it.” Nikhil Nanda, CMD, Escorts Courtesy: Business standard
It takes a winning team to build a winning brand
Ashish Bhatia,
“We’re trying to leapfrog rivals with a clean sheet of paper, where bigger OEMs are struggling because they have a corporate culture and challenges to overcome. We don’t have any legacy, we don’t have any scandals…we’re starting from scratch, but with a brand image that isn’t an unknown. Yes, we’re putting big names into the game, but it takes a winning team to build a winning brand.”
Courtesy: http://bwpeople.businessworld.in
Courtesy: https://www.autocarindia.com
co-founder, India Accelerator
Michael Perschke, CEO, Automobili Pininfarina
Business of fashion
“Ultimately fashion is a business and to sustain we need to come up with something which the world has not seen before and in India we have too much to offer in terms of craftsmanship.” Priyanka Modi, fashion designer
Courtesy: https://www.businessstandard.com
Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 15
Expert View
The boon & bane of Science & Technology by S K Jha
(IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)
S
The objective of science and technology was to provide us with ease and comfort but unintentionally they have also become destructive agents. This could have been prevented had we used them wisely and not forgotten its nature while enjoying the benefits of science
cience and technology have been great assets for mankind. They have made our lives comfortable. They have proved to be the main tools in our development. This led to our late President to say, but with a caveat, “Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not distort it.” The caveat of not distorting science put up by the noted scientist has been lost sight of by people the world over as they have kept themselves busy enjoying its fruits. The great scientist Einstein expressed his view on the issue by saying, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything, save our modes of thinking and we thus drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.” Einstein revolutionised science by giving one of the greatest equations linking mass with energy when he said ‘E=mc2’ (E being energy, m, mass, and c, velocity of light). This equation has resulted in the gift of atomic power to us but it also led to the creation of the dreadful atom and hydrogen bombs by scientists later. Science and technology if used positively take us to greater heights in our development but if used negatively can also completely ruin us. Let us look at the most commonly used instrument like the mobile phone, created by technology. There is no doubt about its usefulness. Added to it is the feature of the new way of messaging provided by WhatsApp. In a short time, WhatsApp has emerged as the biggest social media platform. India has the largest number of subscribers with WhatsApp. The popularity of WhatsApp is based on its liking by the people. It has changed the habits of subscribers. But there is a negative side to the use of mobile phones and WhatsApp platform, and the same cannot be ignored as they affect us socially, mentally and physically. Life was more simple when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits, and not smart phones.
movement, the physical health of people gets affected. There is a rise in obesity and lifestyle diseases like diabetes and blood pressure. People become lazy as WhatsApp and smart phones serve their purpose. People become addicted to mobile phones at the cost of their mental health and good sleep. The new technology also causes lack of privacy, as these social media companies know about your friends, your movements and your personality traits. Subscriber data is used for commercial advertisement and also sometimes for the political needs of political parties. It is sad
Social misfits?
Earlier social interaction used to be based more on personal meetings. The new technology has put people in isolation. Messaging on WhatsApp has replaced physical interaction. This has resulted in a lack of social skills among new age people and this is affecting the social side of their personality. Due to the lack of physical 16 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
to see small children getting hooked to it which spoils their concentration and affects their studies. In recent times it was observed that social media platform WhatsApp was used to spread rumours which resulted in anti-social activities. Incidents of lynching have been linked to these rumours on WhatsApp. These negatives cannot be ignored while enjoying the usefulness of the new technology.
Nip the negative
Industries have proved to be a great boon to
the society. They produce products for our use and for development. But there are also some negatives which must be curbed while running industries to enjoy their unabated benefits. One prominent side-effect of the industrial process is the rise of pollution. This can be minimised if the manufacturing facilities use the simultaneous process of pollution control. We all know that pollution directly affects the health of the people and causes several diseases. Large scale pollution can cause global warming, green house effect and climate change. We regularly see droughts and floods in areas which were not affected in earlier times and this is all due to climate change of which pollution is the most important trigger. While industrialisation has created a developed world, there is an added problem to it. The problem is required to be nipped in the bud, otherwise it will turn into a crisis.
Lost skills
For livelihood, people want jobs. Scientific innovations and technology have created new areas where people can be employed and thus they serve the most important purpose of the people.
However, simultaneously people started forgetture while enjoying the benefits of science, and in ting their own creativity in carving livelihood for the process, adopting a bad life style. themselves. They started becoming dependent Einstein said, “Only two things are infinite, the on the new activities started by industrialisation. universe and human stupidity, and I am not sure In pre-independent India, we had world class arabout the former.” We are today on the growing tisans. We produced the best quality textiles by peaks of scientific frontiers and for this we must hand operated equipment, like for example, musappreciate ourselves, but we must also acknowllin of Dhaka. We knitted world edge that our stupidity has class carpets. Our artisans probeen eroding the good things duced high class handicrafts. of science. Our scientific quest “The entire In short, people were self-emhas conquered space but at the knowledge of ployed very gainfully, based time space is also becoming the world is at on their personal skills. The the battle-ground with deadly British killed our self-created missiles. There is a lot of good our finger tips economic initiatives by installin science but the same is subdue to internet ing industrial houses and tojugated by the evils, which are connectivity, day our people are dependent also creations of science. We on these industrial houses for but at the same have created an intelligent jobs. It would have been best if cyber-space for our benefit. time we have the self-created activities of arThe entire knowledge of the rising cases of tisans survived together with world is at our finger tips due the technology based industo internet connectivity, but at cyber-crime tries. This way, we would have the same time we have rising developed by more avenues for jobs and for cases of cyber-crime develearning livelihoods. oped by a scientific mind and a scientific technological inputs. Recently Further, things are turning mind. Recently a bank in Pune was robbed by from bad to worse as the latest a bank in Pune cyber crime when `96 crore technology supports automawas withdrawn by clone debtion and artificial intelligence was robbed off and not labour intensive indusit cards operated from many `96 crore clone countries. We are happy with tries and this is reducing jobs. debit cards our software network and There is bound to be growing computers but our precious frustration and more unemoperated from is stolen by hacking which ployment for the labour force many countries” data is also a technical process. which is dependent on industries. The objective of new techThere is nothing wrong with science and technology. nology may be good, but it may They are the creation of intelligent minds. They also hurt people. can be seen as knowledge. The problem lies within ourselves. We can use scientific knowledge for The gadget wedge the good of the people. But the same knowledge Today, we are a more developed world and for is being used for bad things with an evil intention this credit solely goes to science and technology. and resultantly the outcome has been bad for the We have gadgets for every use. We have motorsociety. There is nothing like good and bad side cars and aeroplanes for a speedier and more comof science, it is all due to good and bad thinking fortable travel. We are scientifically much more of the human mind. evolved people sending space missions to other planets and now even in the vicinity of the sun. But the fact remains that the happiness quotient of people has reduced when the contrary was CC expected in the victorious march of science and technology. There are a growing number of cases of psychological problems and even in the number of suicides. There can be many other causes for such unfortunate happenings but we cannot Bogibeel, India’s longest rail-cum-road deny that we have gone far away from nature and bridge, is likely to be inaugurated in October this may be one of the many causes for our unthis year. Bogibeel bridge in the North-East happiness. We have to blame ourselves for this but part of India has been a major engineering the fact also remains that scientific gadgets have challenge for Indian Railways. Built over the Brahmaputra river, Bogibeel bridge brought a wedge between us and nature. The obconnects the North and South banks of river jective of technology was to provide us comfort Brahmaputra and is situated in the eastern but unintentionally it has harmed us. This could region of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. have been prevented had we not forgotten its na-
tadka
India’s longest rail/road bridge
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 17
Cover Story
77 Dynamic Duo:
M AJ . G e n . I a n C a r d o z o :
Cardo Ian zo n.
.) etd (r
Maj. Ge
Priscilla & Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo (retd.)
Where themind is
without fear
There are soldiers and there are soldiers—and then there is Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo (retd)—a fauji born every once in a blue moon. A man of monumental courage and rare spirit-in these jaded times, he stands tall as an undisputed hero for generations to come. That he cut off his own injured leg with a khukri is military legend; that he became the first war-disabled officer to command a battalion and then a brigade is common knowledge too. But only a few know that post retirement he served as the Chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India from 2005 to 2011, and is a keen marathon runner, making sure to regularly take part in the Mumbai Marathon on his prosthetic limbs. Born in 1937 in Bombay Presidency, British India, he studied at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai before joining the National Defence Academy. Subsequently, he was trained in the Indian Military Academy, from where he was commissioned into the 5th Gorkha Rifles. In the course of the Indo-Pak War of 1971, his battalion was deployed in the eastern theatre of operations. The battalion's second-in-command was killed in action and Cardozo was ordered to replace him. He arrived at his battalion in time to accompany them on the Indian Army's first heli-borne operation during the Battle of Sylhet. After the fall of Dhaka, he happened to step on a landmine, leading to severe injury on his leg. Due to non-availability of morphine and the absence of a doctor, he used his own khukri to amputate his own leg. In spite of his wooden leg, he maintained his physical fitness levels and beat a number of able-bodied officers in physical fitness tests. He then put his case to the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen.Tapishwar Narain Raina, who then asked Cardozo to accompany him to Ladakh. After observing that Cardozo could still walk in the mountains through snow and ice, Gen. Raina allowed him to command a battalion. A similar situation occurred when he was to take command of a brigade. Married to the gracious Priscilla, he now lives in Delhi. An author of no mean repute, he has written several books on war heroes and the achievements of the Indian Army. Here he speaks in-depth to Corporate Citizen, on Army life and what the corporate world can learn from it
By Vinita Deshmukh and Kalyani Sardesai 18 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Pics: Yusuf Khan
I am inspired by the book, ‘Reach for the Sky’ that tells the story of Douglas Bader, a World War II air warrior who had shot down 23 German planes before being shot down himself. With reserved legs, he escaped from hospital. They took away his legs, but again, he escaped and crawled in the snow. So I understood that there is great potential in people who have lost a limb and that potential needs to be exploited —Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 19
Cover Story Corporate Citizen: Reams of newsprint have been devoted to the episode, but please do tell us just one more time as to how you managed to cut your own leg off with a khukri. If ever one had to cite an instance of bravery, this would be a marvellous example.
Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo: I don’t think it’s a question of really being brave because I have seen so much and can therefore put it in perspective (smiles). People have suffered much more than I. Particularly in the ‘65 war, I saw a lot of action. My company was literally wiped out; my platoon commander was killed; my best NCOs were killed—I have seen a great deal of loss. So when this happened to me I wasn’t overly perturbed in the sense that I am lucky I only lost my leg. I do think people give me more credit than I deserve.
Of accolades and togetherness
What about the physical pain?
The physical pain was of course there. The problem was a little acute, in the sense that during the Battle of Sylhet my battalion undertook the first heli-borne operation right inside Pakistan. We went about a hundred kilometres behind the enemy defences and captured an airfield. We were told that we would be linked up within 48 hours, but we were not linked up for nine days. So we were without food or water. We had carried more ammunition than food and blankets, so we had a bit of a tough time. The enemy artillery destroyed the MI Room and all the medicines with it. The MI Room is a place where casualties are kept. Thus when I got wounded there were no antibiotics, no pain killers and there was nothing to amputate the leg. So when the doctor took his time finding a suitable instrument, I decided to do something. I belong to the Gurkhas. We carry a knife called the Khukri. It’s a 14-inch blade which is curved. Basically it is used to chop off the enemy’s head, and we did quite a lot of damage with that in the first two attacks. I first asked my Jawan to cut my leg off but he was hesitant. So I said: "give it to me" and I cut off my own leg.
How old were you then? Were you married ? I was 34, and married with three children.
Priscilla Cardozo: We had been married for five years when this happened. Actually, we had got engaged a little before the 1965 war. He fought that war, and then we got married in 1966. By 1971 we had three boys... Arun, Sunith and Vikram. When I told the oldest one what had happened, he said all my friends are going to laugh at my dad, saying he has one leg. But that didn’t stop him from joining the Army, when he grew up.
What was your reaction, Ma’am, when you heard of his injury?
We started the war with 18 officers; only seven remained in the fortnight after that. I said not to worry; I lost a leg but I am alive and kicking with one leg —Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo
In those days, the only way you got to know anything was through a telegram from the Army Headquarters that would ominously begin with...“We regret to inform you that...” That itself was enough to make you expect the worst. I was with my parents in Mhow when that happened. The telegram merely said he was wounded. Maj. Gen. Cardozo: We were doing the staff college course when the war broke out. So the army terminated the course and told us: “Go and drop your families home and join your unit.” I was posted on the staff but because there were heavy casualties in my unit they
20 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
said you better go back, they require a second in command. So I went back to my unit, the 5th Gurkha Rifles, now in Pune. We started the war with 18 officers; only seven remained in the fortnight after that. I don’t know if she remembers or whether she received a letter at all: I said not to worry; I lost a leg but I am alive and kicking with one leg.
That’s some spirit...then?
Priscilla: He called me and we spoke. By then he was in Pune in the hospital. This happened on the 16th of December. But then I got to meet him only in mid-January when I came down to Pune.
So you were admitted to the Artificial Limb Centre?
Yes, the Artificial Limb Centre did all the treatment, which included the operation and the fitting of the leg. So we were housed at the Command Hospital. There I found company in a number of young officers on wheelchairs, crutches and so on. But nobody had a long face; everyone was in great spirits; that was and is the best thing about the Army till date. The fauji spirit rarely complains, but people take us for granted, which is wrong.
What do you think of the Army being the first to be called even in case of
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It took me seven years to fight this system. I did my battle field efficiency test, climbed mountains, swam rivers and then I accompanied the vice chief and the chief to mountainous areas like Ladakh and Siachen. And they said yes, he can command a unit —Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo
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civil disasters? What of the respector disrespect that comes your way from the civilians?
This is a very relevant question pertaining to the morale and maintenance of the Army. The ancient Indian scholar Kautilya, in his book, the Artha Shastra,has mentioned that if you destroy the morale of the Army you are destroying it. Today, there is a big standoff between the Armed Forces and the bureaucracy and the latter is doing its best to put us down. For example, the Defence Minister recently mandated that since the Himalayas are littered due to tourists, let the army clean it up—like we have nothing else to do! And her latest order is to open up the Cantonment roads. She needs to understand that the soldier fights because he knows that his family is secure. But thanks to the order, this is no longer the case. They are denuding the morale of the Indian Army and that will happen at a price.
To come back to your story, how did you heal?
It took nine months for me to be able to walk again. I was told that since I had lost a leg, my promotion would be limited; that I would not be able to go beyond the rank of a brigadier. Now that was upsetting, because I felt the loss of a limb wasn’t a big issue; that I could be as good as I was before or better than people with
1. Standing by each other for 52 years. 2. Holidays are a part of their leisurely times. 3. Love that was steady but surely. 4. Fabulous family: Maj. Gen. Cardozo, Priscillia with sons— (from left) Arun, Vikram and Sunith
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two legs but it took me a while. I was posted to army headquarters by General Sam Maneckshaw. Sam was from my regiment and he posted me to Delhi despite me asking for Mumbai. So when I asked why have you posted me to Delhi he said the chief wanted someone to work out a policy for battle casualties. So he had that much vision; he cared deeply for his men and there is no other chief who has that kind of standing with everyone. In Delhi, I tried to work out a policy but I was only a Major and the other members of the board were Colonels and Brigadiers and did not accept my recommendations that we should be allowed to serve in the units, command units and that there should no restrictions on our promotions. But in the hospital I happened to read a book called ‘Reach for the Sky’ that told the story of Douglas Bader, a World War II air warrior who had shot down 23 German planes before being shot down himself. He was caught and hospitalised; so when his reserved legs were given to him, he escaped from hospital. They took away his legs, but again, he escaped and crawled in the snow. So I understood that there is great potential in people who have lost a limb and that potential needs to be exploited. It took me seven years to fight this system. I did my battle field efficiency test, climbed mountains, swam rivers and then I accompanied the
vice chief and the chief to mountainous areas like Ladakh and Siachen. And they said yes, he is alright. He can walk, he can run, he’s done all the tests, there’s no reason why he should not be promoted in command of a unit but it should only be applicable to those who are not using their wounds as a shield. Subsequent to that, all promotion bars were removed and I am proud to say that I changed the policy of army headquarters. As many as three officers became Army Commanders and one became the Vice Chief. So today the Army respects battle casualties and I’d like you to know that the chief has stated that this year 2018 is the year of the battle casualties.
What’s the role played by the Artificial limb Centre?
The Artificial Limb Centre is the premier institution in this country with regard to fitting of
CC
tadka
India OKs drone flights Close to four years after banning the use of drones, and two years after ordering the arrests of individuals for utilising drones in activities such as shooting film sequences. The Indian government, in a radical about-turn, green lit the use of commercial drones after Dec. 1 of this year. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the biggest importer of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the world was India. The country accounted for 1,574 UAVs being shipped in over the past three decades, constituting 22.5 per cent of the world’s imports.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 21
Cover Story artificial limbs, which means not only legs but also hands. They make a lot of appliances and if you have other problems they sort them out. They even have super specialists today. My first leg was a wooden leg but I did great things with it. I marched 40 kms in the desert; then 150km from Kanyakumari to Trivandrum. But over the years, there has been a quantum improvement in the quality of legs provided by the Artificial Limb Centre.
Please tell us more about the spirit that made you achieve what most can’t even imagine.
The iconic army officer Brigadier Desmond Hayde once said: “Battles are won or lost in the mind before they are won or lost on the grounds”, which means that it is mind over matter. When we went to NDA Khadakwasla we were trained to do things we couldn’t have dreamt of; there is a lot of potential in a human being which is not understood and it depends on instructors to bring it out.
Any tips on how to conquer the mind?
You cannot have a blanket rule for everybody, as each one has different disabilities; I have lost a leg below the knee, so I am better off than a person who’s lost a leg above the knee. Obviously, there are degrees of difficulty but there are also degrees of mental strength to accept the situation. I had an advantage in the sense that I had seen a lot in life even before I lost my leg. On the other hand, there are people who have never had experience of war or crisis in their life, and when an accident happens, they are traumatised. I personally felt that I had gotten off lightly, so it didn’t really bother me. But whatever the situation, if you believe that there is an Almighty then you are never alone. Spiritual strength boosts both mental and physical strength.
What role has your wife, Priscilla played in your life and outstanding career?
Priscilla and all the other Army wives are the backbone of the Army. We do what we do only because they are there to motivate us. They are very positive because they understand the role the Army has to play as far as the country is concerned, but unfortunately their role is never really recognised. My wife has been my support all through. When I told her about my leg she said, it’s all okay as long as you are alive. Then there are ladies who lose their husbands in war but they get their strength together for their children. Of course, the Army does make an effort to look after the wives, so the Army is a family. It will remain like that as long as
the seniors in the military and political hierarchy understand that the soldier fights because he knows his family will be looked after. But if they start troubling us like they are doing now they are going to have a problem.
How would you compare the working environment in the Armed forces to that of the Corporate World?
We learn in NDA and IMA that the security, honour and welfare of your country come first always and every time; the honour and welfare of the Command comes next; your own ease and comfort comes last always and every time. Therefore we put country first, our soldiers next and we come last. But outside the Army everybody says: me first. Everyone is bothered only about themselves. There is corruption everywhere, so when we get out of the Armed forces, we tend to be hugely disappointed. There is no accountability in civil governance, whereas in the Army, if you fail you are punished straightaway. Look at the terrorist Kasab. He was hung after six years despite killing so many. Why is the system of justice so slow? Look at the Nirbhaya case—the culprits are still not punished. So there is a great difference between the Armed Forces and the outside world. Discipline means if you do something wrong then you face punishment and you face it immediately. Outside it is very, very slow, so this talk about democratic processes, I am sorry doesn’t really work because democracy doesn’t say that you delay punishment.
Absolutely right. So how would you describe the corporate world?
The Corporate World can learn a lot from the Army. We have principles of war that are applicable both in war as well as in business and I intend to write a book about that. In fact, I want to do it with my son who is in the corporate sector. So he will write about the corporate sector side and I will write about the Army side and how they can match. Everybody should get some amount of military training but they don’t and how many ministers or bureaucrats have
22 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
got their children in the Armed Forces? This indifference is worrisome but who is listening?
You did mention about some Army principles which should be applied to the corporate world...
First and most important is the selection and maintenance of your aim. If you want to do anything you should know what you want to do and by when you want to do it, how you want to do it and within a certain time frame. By selection of aim I mean that supposing you want to get married you should be very clear that you want to get married but then the questions arises: who do you want to get married to? At times selection and maintenance of aim entail flexibility. The other great principle worth emulating from the Armed Forces is that of mutual
happy team can only happen if you know your subordinates, look after them and you make sure that productivity is linked with their happiness. The next big requirement is discipline. You have to come on time and go on time and produce what you are supposed to produce in the stipulated time. Then there is quality. Are your products the best? The best in the world? What I’m saying not only should we be very, very functional and very competent, we should also be happy because happiness contributes to productivity.
In the Army the team is given the credit whereas in the corporate world, one man usually the CEO gets the spotlight? What do you think about that? Participating in Marathons is their passion
In the Army, everything works because we work as a happy team. Similarly, in the corporate sector, you need to have a happy team and that can only happen if you know your subordinates, look after them and make sure that productivity is linked with their happiness —Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo
co-operation between the Army, the Navy, the Air Force. We were lucky at that time to have a great chief, a great Prime Minister, as well as a great bureaucracy. With our combined strengths, we won a war within 14 days, took 93,000 prisoners and liberated the country. Why did it happen? Because we cooperated. We did it because the Army believes in unity in diversity. We are the only institution to have had a Parsi chief; a Sikh Army Commander; and a Jew chief of staff. Of the eight divisional commanders four were Christians. So there was no differentiation between anyone as far as religion is concerned. In the cantonments, we have what is called as Dharamstan where the Gurudwara, the Mandir and the Masjid are all together. So we respect each other’s religions because when we go to battle, our lives are in each other’s hands.
I was very impressed by Sri Balaji Society and its founder Col. Balasubramanian. I was taken around by Brig. Manu (Manohar) Bhambhani, who is the Advisor of this educational society and he adheres to the maintenance of momentum which is a key principle of war. So if you start strong you have to end strong but you can only end strong if you keep on at it and I was so impressed with Brig. Bhambhani because his life is focused on this institution and he is always coming up with good ideas as to how to improve the environment. While profit is not a bad word it should be linked to the legitimate needs of the workers. I am not advocating communism, I’m just saying that you have to run a happy team. In the Army, everything works because we work as a happy team. Similarly, in the corporate sector, you need to have a happy team and that
That’s correct! Actually, in the Armed Forces we are not used to blowing our own trumpet but we have come to realise now that the public needs to know what the Army is all about. The reason that they can sleep in peace and carry on with their legitimate functioning is because someone is watching out for them. Sure we have been vocal about our achievements lately, but still there’s a lot that is not known or appreciated. Nobody, for instance, has an idea what is it like at Siachen. There, at -52 degree Celsius, there is no oxygen to breathe people don’t eat because if you take an apple there it’s as hard as a stone. Soldiers deputed for just six months lose 15-18 kilos; some die due to lack of oxygen. Today a bureaucrat living in Shillong which is a class B city gets an allowance of `56,000 whereas an officer serving in Siachen gets less than half that amount. Why?
CC
tadka
India’s ‘biggest’ pet rescue operation
Social media is awash with dramatic rescue videos of animals during the Kerala floods a rescuer removing his life jacket and putting it on a Labrador to help it swim to higher ground; drenched dogs being taken out of flooded homes and kennels; and country boats and inflatable rafts carrying dogs, goats and cats to safety. Rescuers have waded through water, and travelled on boats and rafts to treat, feed and rescue hundreds of animals—dogs, cats, goats, cows, cattle, ducks, and even snakes—as the waters have begun receding. Trucks with animal feed and medicines are reaching affected districts.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 23
Cover Story
Glorious Golden Moments
Dynamic and charismatic Priscilla is a patient wife and a stubborn mother. With their prime married years mostly spent apart, with her stationed in Delhi for their sons’ education and Maj. Gen. Cardozo on field postings, it has been a case of absence making the heart grow fonder…
By Vinita Deshmukh and Kalyani Sardesai Married for over half a century, the couple’s interaction is laced with all the informality and humour that come from years and years of shared bonhomie. Naturally then, when you ask Priscilla as to what made her marry him in the first place, she will respond with a laconic, “I don’t remember.” To which he will quip: “She won’t say it in front of anyone or in front of me for that matter.” In a similar vein if you were to ask her what she admires most about him, she will once again tell you, “I don’t remember.” “You are asking a very difficult question because she has never said anything good about me ever since we got married 52 years ago,” he laughs.
This is the girl for me…
But the fact remains that this is a love marriage from an era when love marriages were rare, to say the least. So how and when did they meet? He reminisces. “I met her at a place now called the military headquarters of war. It was the Infantry School. She studied in the Law College next door. I met her at a party there and I felt that this is the girl for me, but let her come around.” Priscilla remembers how another officer introduced them. “That officer said: ‘I must introduce you to a Goan officer.’ I said I don’t want to meet any Goan officers, but still we were introduced.” “She didn’t have much time for me; that made me want to meet her more, but that was in 1962. The next time I met her was in 1964 when I had come on another course. She was in college by then, and a little more approachable. So we fell in love and got married two years later,” he says.
Sports the binder
held the underwater record at Khadakwasla. I’m a hockey blue, played football, athletics, boxing, so I think our spirits match,” he says. “Yes, that is probably it,” she says at long last. Married life in the Army was hard and rewarding by turns, what with his injury and Priscilla having to bring up their three boys Suneet, Arun and Vikram largely on her own. It helped that she was teaching in the same school as they were studying and unlike most fauji families, had chosen to stay put in Delhi where the children had an excellent alma mater in St. Columbus. “We used to go to school and come back together. But fortunately, being a teacher, there were plenty of holidays. The Army permitted us to spend four months each year in the forward areas. So we used to go to spend time with him.” Single mom or not, she was unerringly tough with the children. “I was quite strict with the boys
despite other children getting a more liberal upbringing,” she says. “I’d take them swimming at the army club where I’d sit in the library and wait for them. But there was no staying for movies. We didn’t have a TV set till 1986. Our servant used to have one in her quarters—a black and white one. Soon the colour TV entered the market, and she told me, you buy my black and white, I’ll buy a coloured TV. But then the kids never got addicted to the TV. However, I have played every game with them, including basketball. They also used to call me Hard Rock mom because I knew their music. They were into Heavy Metal and I could croon along.”
Strict upbringing
Still, she was pretty particular about some things. She was never one of those parents going around looking for the kids in the evening. “In fact, my instructions were simple enough; they had to be home before I switched on the evening lights. All in all, they were good boys (laughs) though now my elder son tells me that when he was in Std. X, he used to get out of the house from the back door and join his friends for parathas in some place unknown to me.” The Cardozos are parents who believed the children must earn their privileges. “The eldest one, I remember, wanted a scooter because all his friends used to have their fathers’ scooters and his was lying there. But I said nothing doing, you earn and buy your own. So eventually he did buy his own motorcycle. We are not saying whatever we did was the right thing, but we tried to do our best with a sound education and good food,” she says. She proudly adds, “And it all worked out well. Today, our eldest son, Sunith, is a Colonel in the Indian Army, our son, Arun, is a Surgeon in the Manchester, the UK. The youngest, Vikram, is working for General Electric (GE), and is based in Singapore presently”.
Maj. Gen.’s Determined path
I was quite strict with the boys despite other children getting a more liberal upbringing... However, I have played every game with them, including basketball. They also used to call me Hard Rock mom because I knew their music, which was Heavy Metal and I could croon along —Priscilla Cardozo
What probably worked in their favour is that they are both outdoorsy folks. “She used to swim and play basketball for Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, I 24 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
After being in office the whole day he would go on a scooter to Delhi University. Here, he pursued his studies with gusto and earned a diploma in personnel management, B.Com, then MBA, also MSC. It wasn’t easy managing work and study, but he was determined to make a go of it. “Besides, the other students would call him uncle as he was so much older than they were”, she laughs. Still, he persevered. “When I was told that there were no promotion prospects for no fault of my mine, I decided to take my life in hand. I didn’t lose my leg playing marbles, I lost it for the country, so if I had to leave, I needed an education,” he says. Still he managed to get that promotion, changing the course of history in the process. “I continued to prove to the Army that I was as good as anybody with two legs. I was the first battle candidate to get command of a brigade and later I be-
problem with his leg and was at the Limb Centre in Pune. “I was four months in hospital and changed legs but the problem has not been resolved; but I did all this because I wanted to participate in the marathon. I said, irrespective of whether it works out, I’m going to take part, and I did,” he says, evincing the spirit that makes him the legend he is today. So how often do they come to Pune where they have an apartment? “Every two-three years for the check-up of my leg at the Artificial Limb Centre,” he says. No it isn’t completely fine, but he can walk short distances without a problem; it’s only on long distances that it hurts. “I actually had a fall in Chandigarh about three years ago, so I think that’s how it all started,” he says.
Constant support
came a divisional commander, then a general. So that opened the doors for many people,” he says. Post retirement, the Cardozos continue to live a full life, travelling, swimming staying in touch with their battalion, interacting with their grandchildren, and participating in the famous Mumbai marathon too. “A marathon is actually 42 km, so half Mara-
thon is 21 km; what we do is called the Dream Run which is about 8 km,” explains Maj. Gen. Cardozo. “By ‘we’, I mean the battle casualties of which there are 15 to 20. I am Vice President of the War Wounded Foundation. These boys are very happy to take part because Mumbai is a very supportive city and they cheer us on.” Still, the last year was not easy, given that he had a
Amidst all this, Priscilla is a constant presence— supporting his athletic endeavours with enthusiasm—even as she makes it a point to wakeup at 4 am for her own much loved morning walks. “I go to the JNU campus. It’s pretty safe there and quite a few of the locals recognise me,” she smiles. Over the years, she has emerged as quite the matriarch of the battalion he served in. “Fifty-two years ago, ever since we got married, I told her that you need to visit the battalion for Dussehra. She’s not missed a single Dussehra since and is considered the mother figure in the regiment. She knows the names of officers, their wives, their children, the JCO’s and they are so, so appreciative of her efforts. I think she’s more regimental than I am,” he says with pride. “I think they ring me more often because they’re pretty scared of him,” she smiles. Like any grandparents they are busy enjoying the Gen-Next. What adds to the joy is that after years of wishing for a girl they finally have grand-daughters. “Neither of us had sisters or a daughter. So the wait has been a long one. We finally have two grand-daughters and it’s so different having girls,” says Priscilla. “Anita is 16 and a half; she’s taller than I am and her brother is just 13. My son who’s with GE has got one girl, she’s ten,” shares the fond grandma. So after all these years what do they believe keeps a marriage? “Stand by each other in whatever you want to do. Accept your partner as he or she is, and by our own personal example, we can change attitudes, but never let a disagreement escalate beyond a point,” she says. Both have a distinct philosophy of life that has served them well. “Live one day at a time,” she says. As for Maj. Gen. Cardozo, he believes that battles are won or lost in the mind before they are won or lost in the grounds. “So everything depends upon the mind and you need to have support. So yes, it is also crucial to marry the right woman.” (Smiles) Sound advice that. vinitapune@gmail.com, kalyani.sardesai@gmail.com
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 25
75
MindMine Summit
Will India Reinvent itself @
Will Modi’s structural reforms and aggressive push for Digital India finally connect the dots? A critical debate‌ By Pradeep Mathur
26 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Over the last seven decades, India has gone through several transformational events such as the green revolution, economic reforms, demonetisation and the GST, to name a few. These have slowly led India to become an emerging global power with its rich demographic dividend and economic resilience. However, as we race towards the 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022, searching questions are being raised as to what will be the look of this New India? Will it still have the largest share of the world’s poor, with over 270 million living below poverty line? Will it have sustained and inclusive economic growth with employment for all? Will its healthcare sector continue to be plagued with lack of doctors and infrastructural problems in rural India? What will be the state of its highways, railways, ports and air connectivity to tier-II and III cities? What’s going to happen to its fast-growing entrepreneurship ecosystem? Will PM Modi’s favourite schemes like MUDRA Yojna, Swachch Bharat, Make in India, Stand-Up India and Startup India, etc bring the desired results? Will Digital India boost job creation? Will the relationship between the Judiciary and the Government improve? To address some of these critical questions, the Chairman of Hero Enterprise, Sunil Kant Munjal, recently invited the Union Minister for Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India, Ravi Shankar Prasad, at the inaugural session of his MindMine Summit in Delhi.
Sunil Kant Munjal: Is this the New India, Mr Minister?
This MindMine Summit comes at an interesting time. Though it doesn’t follow the dozen before it but pushes the boundaries a bit. In 2006, when we started, India was a less than a trillion dollar economy. Now at $2.6 trillion according to IMF and after displacing France, India is today the world’s sixth largest economy. The five ahead us are only the US, China, Japan, Germany and the UK. So, India’s standing has obviously gone up, but now, Mr Prasad, you’ve a very tough job as a minister and leader in politics who interacts with the people because we’re an interesting country with interesting people.
We want the best
In India, most commentators want the social policy of Sweden, the economic policy of Cuba, the defence policy of Fiji, the sexual policy of France, the education policy of Finland, non-alignment of Switzerland, the refugee policy of Germany, and the economic growth of China and India, put together. I think, as Indians, we’ve every right to demand the best. For too long, we have talked about India’s potential and so we’re
delighted that today many believe, it’s here and now. In many ways, we’re blessed to be born and have seen this time where India is claiming its rightful place in the comity of nations. Increasingly, the impression of India of being a strong, high-growth and responsible nation is growing. The very idea of India which used to be questioned even within India in some senses has become a moot point now. September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 27
MindMine Summit India changing fast
As we’re moving forward rapidly, the pace of change is phenomenal. There’s just so much happening right now—whether it’s building more roads, airports and highways or building digital highways and connecting the rural parts to the rest of India. We’ve already connected 280 million people to our economy who were earlier not connected. That’s more than the population of most countries in the world! We’ve a billion phone connections; a billion bank accounts; a billion people with a digital identity and that’s absolutely unique. It has never happened anywhere else in the world. What we’re doing in many ways is truly an absolutely amazing experiment. There’s no blue book written for a billion people democracy trying to turn itself into market economy. Actually there is no example of any democracy giving full civil liberties first and then turning it into a market economy. There’s not one—not the US, not Japan, not Germany—such example, except India. The only one which comes closer to us is Poland. Who would’ve imagined this—because even in countries like the UK and the US, women didn’t get the right to vote—till recently.
Idea of India
So, what it is that holds us together? That’s a question we should ask ourselves every now and then. Why is this idea of India important? And, I do believe in its importance, which is why we’re able to drive what we’re doing right now. We’ve had our challenges and they’re not few and have made the government’s job interesting. That’s why I say, Mr Prasad, your job is not easy. You’re in the midst of an area where the most exciting changes are taking place. The digital era that we face right now is driving a lot of decision-making around the world. On one hand, there is excitement of using technology to make life better, on the other, there’s fear that I will have no privacy left. Also, I might even lose my job. If there’s a machine that can do my job better than me, what am I going to do? So, it’ll be interesting to hear from you what you believe is the role technology and communications are playing? Why for us, in India, this is more a plus than a minus because we’ll have both—that is the very nature of the beast.
Backlog of cases
Your other area of Law and Justice is something which, for a long time, is crying for reforms. So, it would be interesting to hear from you what you think is happening? How is the relationship between Judiciary and Government? What can we expect in terms of change of pace of how litigation and cases get handled in India? Can we expect ever the millions of backlog cleared? Can technology, that also you’re heading in many senses, help fast track that big change?
India@75
In four years, this country will be 75-years. Both the world and we ourselves are carefully looking at where will this land us in the 75th year? That’s because when we’re 60, people said, this’s not okay—we’ve been independent for 60 years and we’re still not able to meet the needs of all the people of this country. There is still hunger. We’ve 200 million people still living in abject poverty. What is it that we’re doing? What is it that we need to do to have rapid growth to take care of this scourge of poverty? This is the single biggest challenge that we face as a nation. Therefore, the issue of jobs which comes up again and again and the idea of creating more and more economic opportunities have become critical. How do you think we can trigger more of those by what you’re doing as a government and what we’re doing as industry, and what collectively India can do to help itself?
Nation of startups
It’s also clear that we’ll never be able to create just enough jobs for the 28 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
number of young people coming of age, which is why it’s absolutely imperative that we trigger more new enterprise. So, startups have become extremely important. We’ve already become the third largest startup nation in the world and headed to become the second in not too distant future. It’s critical that we as a nation support this initiative in every way possible. This is not just our saviour but also help us use technology, and not get used by technology. It will also allow us to drive technology to find solutions to our needs for education, healthcare, social services, public services, government services, and for the most sophisticated industries to become the best in class and to compete with the best in the world. Why should we expect anything less than the best as citizens from the government? Why should our relationship with government not be only a digital one? Why should there be even a need for a physical relationship with government either for industries or for citizens?
Ravi Shankar Prasad: Digital Revolution will transform India by 2022 India’s growing clout
The main issue is the size and weight of India. Looking back, a question arises: Was the size of India matching the clout of India? Was the size of
We’ve a billion phone connections; a billion bank accounts; a billion people with a digital identity and that’s absolutely unique. It has never happened anywhere else in the world. Actually there is no example of any democracy giving full civil liberties first and then turning it into a market economy. The only one which comes closer to us is Poland -Sunil Kant Munjal
India matching the respect and global authority of India? It’s a crucial question to be asked. Recently, the Prime Minister was in Sweden, and there was a public reception in Stockholm, where the Swedish PM, Stefan Lofven, made a very telling observation—“Today India is a global power and Mr Narendra Modi is a global voice. And this voice is required to settle a lot of global issues.” Before that, the British PM, Theresa May, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and even the American President, Donald Trump, had also talked in the same way. Today whenever I go globally as a minister, I myself experience the kind of authority that India is being accorded, obviously because our PM is a global leader. But I’ll give you just two instances. Mr Narendra Modi has been given the equivalent of Bharat Ratna by Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, the UAE and also by the Philippines—all without asking. What do you make out of it? This ability to eloquently convey India’s global status also marks India’s striking outreach not only to Saudi Arabia but also to Iran for the sake of energy security and for Chabahar Port for strategic security. The Palestine President, Mahmoud Abbas, also says that India’s clout can be used to settle issues with Israel. Is it not a surprise that it took 70 years for an Indian PM to go to Israel, a country of great innovation, and the PM never bucked into pressures? Today, India is setting the agenda also on sustainable development which is a very dear topic to Sunil. This whole issue of climate justice and solar alliance as a parallel process to energy security for sustainable development is also India’s contribution to the global energy challenges. Similarly, India’s ‘no compromise’ attitude on the issues of terrorism, flash money and black money has forced the G-20 countries to speak the language of India. No wonder, today, India’s size is increasingly matching India’s clout. India’s weight is increasingly felt and appreciated globally. These are but a few instances that show India’s growing global appeal which needs to be appreciated. I also want to talk about India’s economy. The latest IMF report states that India’s growth rate is 7.4 per cent this year and 7.8 next year—the highest in the world! But it has come because of hard work and policy clarity. Last year our FDI was 60 billion dollars; this year, till December, it was 39 billion—again we’ve not just the highest foreign exchange reserves but we also have very comfortable inflation and both the fiscal
and the current account deficits. It has all happened because of policy initiatives taken by the government and the capacity to say ‘No,’ if something is wrong.
String of big reforms
GST, as you all know, was very important for the sake of creating a single Indian market but the difference in the previous and present dispensation was to take the State governments on board. In India, Sunil rightly pointed out, every State government and every individual has a point of view. Yet today one crore people have come on board on the digital platform of GST and over one crore new tax-returns have been filed on the digital platform.
Setting the BPO revolution
India is changing and I’ll share few examples that make me very proud. After becoming the IT minister in 2014, I’d gone to Bengaluru to meet the IT giants. After a two-hour’s meeting, when I came out, hundreds of boys—working in various IT projects—from Bihar, UP, MP, Assam, Rajasthan were waiting outside. They met me and one of them said “Sir kuchh aisa kariye ki hum apne gaaon ki taraf vaapas laut saken. Bengaluru is very costly.” During the flight back home, while thinking about it, I came up with the idea of starting BPOs in small towns of India. We picked up 48,000 seats in 2015, fiscal subsidy of 1 lakh per seat if you go to tier II, III, IV cities based on census population; UP got 8000, Bihar got 4000, northeast got 5000 seats. I excluded the digitally-rich cities of India like Gurgaon, Delhi, Noida, Pune and Hyderabad. I can honestly tell you, my bureaucrats were dead opposed “Sir, aap ye kya kar rahe hain, kuch nahi hoga”. I told them, “Hoga, Karo, Karna hai”. Today, 82 BPOs in 27 states of India have become operational. BPOs have come up in Kohima, Imphal, Guwahati, Patna, Siliguri, Muzaffarpur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Bhiwandi, Aurangabad, Vellore and Anantnag. The next slot, which we’ve just finalised, is coming up in Gazipur, Deoria, Gaya and Jahanabad. At least 15 of them are getting orders from Australia, America and England. They have 50% girls and 50% boys. This is the quest for empowerment and change of India which we encourage.
Village service centres
The second is this great movement for Common Service Centres (CSCs). They are digital kiosks that give digital delivery of services. Earlier we had about 80,000 of them but very shabbily maintained. I’ve scaled them up to 2.91 lakh; out of which 1.51 lakh are in the gram panchayats of India. They make Aadhar Card, PAN Card, provide banking & insurance services, act as vendors for hundreds of courses of the IGNOU and also drive the PM’s digital literacy movement.
India’s global mobile revolution
The third thing I want to talk about is our mobile phone penetration. If you could recall, not long ago, even a landline phone was considered a luxury and there used to be a waiting list in millions. Today, thanks to our liberal policies, situation has changed beyond recognition. We’ve 121-crore mobile phones, 120-crore Aadhar and 50-crore smartphones in India! One day Modi ji asked me, “Ravi, tum itna kehte ho, par ye batao hindustan me mobile banta kitna hai?” When our government had come to power there were only two factories; Nokia had been closed. Today, we’ve over 120 mobile manufacturing factories in India. They’re spread all over the country but Noida and Greater Noida have become big centres for 54 mobile factories including Samsung’s biggest mobile factory in the world. Many of these 120 factories are making mobiles, chargers, batteries, accessories including circuit printers which I’ve cleared for many of them. About five lakh employments have been given. India is becoming a big centre of consumer electronics which I’m pushing as minister. But what’s important is to see the nature of change possible. The September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 29
MindMine Summit revenue roll-over was 19,000 crore, then 54,000 crore then it reached to 90,000 crore and by this March end, it crossed 1,25,000 crore. We’re going to satisfy the needs of the Indian consumers in the coming two years by scaling-up production from present 22-crore to 50-crore mobile phones every year. All the best global brands are there except the iPhone with which were negotiating. So, change is possible.
Story of Digital India
Now, let me talk about the digital part of this change-over. Narendra Modi in his 2014 campaign said, if my government comes to power, the theme of its governance will be: ‘IT + IT’ = ‘IT’, that is, ‘IT’ (India’s Talent) + ‘IT’ (Information Technology) = ‘IT’ (India of Tomorrow). I remember when I took charge of the IT Ministry, reporters asked me what will be the theme of your governance. I said, “If Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government was known for National Highways, Mr Narendra Modi’s government will be known for Information Highways.” And, that’s exactly how we’re doing it. By digital India, we aim to reduce the divide between the digital-haves and have-nots. Digital India is more for the poor and underprivileged. We want to empower ordinary citizens with the power of technology. We want to bring in digital-inclusion based on technology which is domestic, home-grown and development-oriented. The basic theme of Digital India is creation of digital infrastructure, digital delivery of services and digital empowerment of Indians. A lot has been done on infrastructure side. We’re going to link-up 2.5-lakh gram panchayats of India by optical fibre network. This programme was called National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) during the Manmohan Singh government. Now we’ve redefined it as Bharat Net. Just one statistics will give you the results: in three-years of his government from 2011; 350 km of optical fibre was laid but in 3.5 years of Narendra Modi government, over 2.5-lakh kms of optical fibre was laid. That’s how we’ve worked. About 1.5 lakh panchayats have been linked and you can use that facility also for your own work. The system is in place by the Communications Department. The second part involving Wi-Fi through Common Service Centres and more empowerment through digital technology is what we’re doing, the details I wish to avoid here due to time-constraints.
Direct cash transfer
The next is: digital delivery of services. I remember the subsidy part. You must have heard about the JAM trinity–Jandhan, Aadhar, Mobile. Regardless of nationalisation of banks, there wasn’t access of poor people to the banks. But we opened 30-crore bank accounts of the poor in a mission mode. We linked them up with Aadhar and mobile, and started sending different subsidies—cash subsidy, ration subsidy, MNREGA payment, etc., through their bank accounts, known as Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme. Thereby we’ve saved over 83,000 crores in the last 3.5 years, which used to be pocketed by middlemen and fictitious claimants. When we came to power, we found many states were having MNREGA workers but all the farmers were affluent and there wasn’t a single actual worker. They’re all on registers only. You must have heard the famous story of how beti paida hui nahi, vo badi ho gayi, uski shaadi ho gayi aur phir vo vidhwa bhi ho gayi aur vidhwa pension leti rahi. All these stories have now become things of the past. Digital governance is good governance; digital delivery is faster delivery; digital monitoring is the effective monitoring. This is the mantra of our government!
Aadhar’s privacy controversies
Now, let me talk a little about Aadhar since a lot is being said about it. I hope I’ve brought my Aadhar Card with me. How does the 120-crore Aadhar data become vulnerable? My Aadhar card contains my photograph, my name, my father’s name and my permanent Patna address. It doesn’t contain my re30 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
ligion, my community, my caste or my medical or income records by which I can be profiled. But what it does contain in the system is my biometrics and my iris. Do you know there are 3.5-crore authentications done everyday free of cost? Aadhar costs $1 by a low-cost technology. Suppose a bank asks Ravi Shankar Prasad has come. This is his Aadhar number. The system in Bengaluru and Manesar will verify it and say in just three seconds, yes, this number is that of Ravi Shankar Prasad. The system doesn’t know what for this information was sought because it’s federated. The difference between UPA Aadhaar and NDA Aadhar is: UPA Aadhar didn’t have any legislative basis. But Narendra Modi’s Aadhar is properly backed by a parliamentary law with due regard to privacy. Even if I, as the Law Minister of India, disclose my bio-metrics for unauthorised use, I can suffer prosecution for three-years, and for companies, it’s seven-years including huge penalty. The only reason your Aadhar information can be revealed is when, for compelling national security, a committee of the joint secretary of the Home Ministry, affirmed by the Cabinet Secretary, Law Secretary and IT Secretary of India, confirm it for three months. Only then it can be disclosed! We have a good privacy architecture. Since the matter is being discussed in the Supreme Court, I can’t say much but I proudly say it today that the Aadhar of India stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Googles and the Facebooks of the world as a great innovation that is being appreciated globally by the World Bank and others. That’s how we’ve done it.
Digital delivery of services
Crores of Indians are today using digital lockers, e-sign, cloud—all our
low-cost, home-grown technologies. Of course, we’ve have given openings to private sector also but upon defined terms and conditions only. I insisted on the open source. There was a lot of debate on this, but I said, nothing doing, it has to be open because India is emerging as a big digital economy. People from Bihar and other places used to come to Delhi for medical check-ups at AIIMS and wait for months to get an appointment. Today, 270 Indian hospitals are e-hospitals. Just at the click of a button, you can get an appointment there.
The IT-growth in India has had three phases. The first was when Indian IT companies went to 200 cities of 80 countries and gave billions of dollars as tax. The second was when IT companies from developed countries started coming to India. The third phase is now: When India is looking towards the world through the Startup Movement -Ravi Shankar Prasad
BPO movement and this trillion-dollar digital economy has the potential to add 50-75 lakh jobs in the coming 5-7 years in the digital space only in terms of employment. The NASCOM report on future of jobs in 2022 is already there and we’re in touch with the IT-giants. About 1.1 lakh people have been appointed for-
mally in the IT sector just recently. Yes, technology has an apprehension of displacing jobs but, by hindsight, that becomes wrong. Remember when computers were being introduced by Rajiv Gandhi, there was a lot of opposition that computers will take away jobs; But today computer is the biggest job-giver. New technologies from Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis, Machine Learning, Robotics to Digital Gaming and others maybe requiring new skilling but they’ll be creating hundreds and thousands of new jobs. Our PM is very keen that Indians become skilled in using new technologies from Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis, Machine Learning, Robotics to Digital Gaming and others maybe requiring new skilling, but they’ll be creating hundreds and thousands of new jobs.
Judicial data grid
Earlier elderly in India had to certify—in person that they’re alive, in November every year. They may be in abroad in Australia or England with their grand-children but had to come back just for this verification so that they can get their pensions, etc. Jeevan Pramaan is a digital profile through which you can certify digitally that you’re alive, and continue getting your pension. For digital empowerment, we’re going to make 6-crore poor people digitally literate in the rural areas and that’s how about 1-crore have been certified and undertaken. Many of you from the corporate world can get involved in these processes as part of your CSR activities. But I leave that judgement on you.
For any democracy to succeed, legal reforms are important because access to justice is part of good governance. We’ve deleted only 1400 laws that were out-dated and creating problems. We’ve set-up a Judicial Data Grid which contains details of 6-crore data of old, pending cases and interim orders. I’m culling them out and writing to all chief justices to please expedite disposal of cases that are ten-years old. Alternative dispute mechanism is also working quite well. We’ve disposed-off about 2.5-crore plus cases. It’s a challenging job because we also have to deal with hundreds of PILs filed every day by my lawyer friends. The second is the larger issue of judicial infrastructure where we’ve invested heavily. Today 14,000 courts of India are digitised. But we also have our limitations and I want to conclude by sharing it because you must have an idea of the mind of the government. Judicial appointments have been an area of intense debate. Since Collegium system needed improvement, we came up with the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) in August 2014 itself and despite political discord, the entire parliament passed it in one voice and 50% of state legislatures also passed it unanimously but the Supreme Court struck it down. We’ve respected the judgement and we’re following it.
India’s digital-growth story
Disturbing SC ruling
E-scholarships and soil-health
Today, 1.5 crore Indians are getting e-scholarships and the system is transparent. Similarly, 12 crore farmers are using soil-health cards that digitally helps in explaining the health of their soil.
Jeevan Pramaan
The IT-growth in India has had three phases. The first was when Indian IT companies went to 200 cities of 80 countries and kept the tricolour flying high. They gave billions of dollars as tax to the US and other countries and were respected for their work. The second was when the IT companies from the developed countries started coming to India due to the sheer promise of our digital markets. Facebook has the biggest footprint in India. Then whole lot of Amazons, Twitters, LinkedIns, WhatsApp and others started coming to India to have a big presence here. The third phase is now, when India is looking towards the world through the Startup Movement which Sunil also talked about. Remember, after China, India is today the biggest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world. These companies, from Amazon to WhatsApp—have the biggest footprints in India. We’ve the third biggest startup eco-system in the world and the biggest certificate for this was given to me by the giant of a big tech company, who said, “Mr Minister, earlier when I used to go to the IIITs to pick up toppers for my company they used to rush; now when I go there, they say, sorry, I want my own startup. I want to become a job-giver and not a job- seeker.” That’s the face of this emerging New India, which we’re encouraging in a big way.
Future job scenario
One thing on employment too because Sunil raised his concerns about that: Today in the IT sector, about 40 lakh people work directly and 1.3 crore work indirectly. This is the conventional IT-sector. I just talked about the mobile sector where about five lakh are working directly/indirectly. I also talked about the
But we’ve reservations on the reasoning of this judgement which is disturbing. The SC reasons that in the collegium system, proposed in the NJAC, the chief justice is number one, second judge number two, third judge number three and the law minister is also one of the members. And, if a judge is appointed from that process, then if he’s hearing a case against the government, the litigant may have an apprehension about the fairness of the judge. That is the sum and substance of the ruling.
India—a hub for global arbitration
While dealing with India, one can have two views—one, ‘Hindustan mein kuchh nahi ho sakta’ which has been going on for years. The other view is, ‘Yes, there are challenges, take them head on, create an atmosphere of enablement, inspire the people and the people of India will rise and deliver’. This is our attitude and how India is changing, I’ll give you just two examples of this—the PM asked Indians who can afford to leave their gas subsidy, 1.24 crore Indians left their cooking gas subsidy on their own. That is the India which is emerging. Senior citizens are entitled to get subsidy in train travel. The PM asked those who can forego—would they give up their right to the subsidy and 40 lakh Indians have voluntarily said we’ll not use subsidy, even though we are senior citizens. That’s how when you create an atmosphere of enablement, India changes. Jai Hind. mathurpradeep1@gmail.com September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 31
Top Position
Grow Ste bu
32 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Pics: Ahmed Sheikh
“I must admit that I am an optimist and a big advocate about the value that HR brings to the organisation. The HR profession is at the crossroads and HR is rapidly and definitely changing“
eadily, ut surely The strongest leaders are those who start at the bottom and work their way to the top through sheer grit and perseverance. Shahul Karim is one such leader, who has achieved tremendous success in his corporate life through talent and tenacity. As Vice President—Human Resources, Firstsource, a leading BPO, he is a person who understands people, and knows what it takes to motivate them. Shahul Karim speaks to Corporate Citizen on his inspiring journey, his eye for talent and why having clarity of your life goals essential to success By Neeraj Varty
Tell us about your education and career.
I graduated in 1999 as a Bachelor of Commerce. I started working alongside my studies because I thought working was “cool”. I worked in the manufacturing industry for the first three years selling reciprocating pumps to coffee plantations across India. I subsequently joined Firstsource Solutions Limited (FSL) BPO in 2001. This was my first corporate job and have thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of my journey with FSL. I joined the Operations Team and was a part of this team for seven years. I then had a stint in Project Management team looking at Solution Design and Transition. As part of this team I had the opportunity to set up Centres in India and the Philippines. I then moved into HR in 2009. I have been here ever since. I started by taking customer calls at the entry level and I then grew through the ranks. In my current role I look after HR for the Asia Pacific region for FSL.
What are the changes you see happening in HR?
I must admit that I am an optimist and a big advocate about the value that HR brings to the organisation. The HR profession is at the crossroads and HR is rapidly and definitely changing. Here is a list of things on top of my mind Value Creation- Businesses do not create value, people do! CEOs have started focusing on the company’s human resources to achieve success. Human capital has become as important as financial capital. HR’s job has accordingly changed. HR is an architect and an anthropologist of human
capital. HR is responsible to recruit develop, motivate, engage, facilitate, coach and manage a high performing vibrant workforce . HR is the custodian of the culture of the organisation. HR’s job is also to deliver innovative solutions to business problems and act as a change agent. The HR strategy is now aligned completely to the vision and the strategic imperatives of the organisation. Digital HR- Over the last few years digital and internet technologies have radically changed the way we work, requiring a tremendous change in HR procedures and tools used therefore has had a paradigm shift 1. Digitisation is helping to engage employees through gamification. It is also helping to build a strong global culture in a world of never-ending work. 2. HR chatbots are already in place, primarily for customer service and support roles. 3. AI’s full potential is being explored in HR. Artificial intelligence is being seen as the best approach to engage and retain employees by using a combination of AI powered tools along with the human element. 4. Robotics in payroll processing and other HR operational processes
Do you think there is a gap between the output of the educational institutes in India and what the industry requires?
The right to education is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen. It provides freedom and empowerment, and yields important benefits. Edu-
cation is a powerful tool by which economically and socially marginalised adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and participate fully as citizens. Going to an educational instituition is therefore a must and highly recommended. Coming to the question on the gap between the output of the educational institutes and what the industry requires—my answer is simple. It does vary. Every institution does not train their students in the same way. Some get it right, most get it wrong. Let us look at what is wrong and fix it as this helps narrow that gap. Here is a list according to me on what is creating the gap Rote learning still plagues our system, students study only to score marks in exams, and sometimes to crack exams like IIT JEE, AIIMS or CLAT. This has to change. Memorising is no learning. The biggest flaw in our education system is perhaps that it incentivizes memorising above originality. Our education system is geared towards teaching and testing knowledge at every level as opposed to teaching skills. “Give a man a fish and you feed him one day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I believe that if you teach a man a skill, you enable him for a lifetime. For way too long teaching has the sanctuary of the incompetent. Teaching jobs are until today widely regarded as safe, well-paying, risk-free and low-pressure jobs. We need to get smarter people to teach. Lack of technology infrastructure for education is another challenge. India needs to embrace internet and technology if it has to teach
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 33
Top Position
Can you deliver that something more? Many people nurture an individual to help him achieve his goals, says Shahul Karim in a tete-a-tete with Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian, Editor-in-Chief, Corporate Citizen Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian: My observation is that student managers will first want to know what the CTC that they are being offered…
I agree and it is good that they are asking those questions because it gives us an opportunity for us to talk about how important money is. Because at the end of the day, I keep asking people “would you be working if you had an unlimited bank balance?” Nine out of ten people answer that they would not be working. Everybody has a vision— mine could be `1 lakh, whereas somebody else’s could be `4 lakh. The reason people ask about CTC is because they want to know whether this will help them meet their vision and their personal goal or not? Questions pertaining to compensation in my mind are therefore perfectly fine.
Don’t you think they should also see if they deserve it?
Yes, true. The more important point however is whether we believe that they should get it. Job profiles no longer decide the compensation. It really is the skill and competency that increases the value of an individual. If an individual has the X factor then they have every right to expect and we should be very willingly paying for it. We need to look at compensation differently because the workforce today are millennials and Gen Z. Inflation rates have an upward trend, high income tax deductions and newer taxes introduced is making take home salaries less. It therefore is OK for someone to assess and ask what the CTC looks like. Education is important and that is the great first step. Students can constantly keep learning after they leave the institute but they have to now apply their mind when they are on job. Application of mind all of its huge population, the majority of which is located in remote villages. Our education system rarely rewards what deserves highest academic accolades. Deviance is discouraged. Risk taking is mocked. Our testing and marking systems need to be built to recognise original contributions, in form of creativity, problem solving, valuable original research and innovation. If we could do this successfully Indian education system would have changed overnight. In ancient times, India had the Gurukula system of education in which anyone who wished to study went to a teacher’s (Guru) house and re-
comes only when you are passionate about what you do. The most passionate goal is your personal one but it is professional goals that help you meet your personal goals. Hence the importance of having professional goals. I have observed that people who are expecting money are also willing to work hard. I appreciate somebody asking me CTC and money upfront rather than be disappointed about it later. What you earn between 22 and 40 years of your life will likely double between 41 to 50 years of age. At 40 you’ve reached a certain level where you are going to make a lot of money. The question is are you really willing to work for it? Talent is God’s gift. Some people are born with it but that greatness will be short lived if you don’t sharpen your skills. If somebody is actually willing to learn, he or she will be successful and their expectations will be met.
Willingness to work according to the needs of the company is what they call job description. Today the youths’ major problem is that they are dreamers and they want good money and a high status. The question is are they fit for it? Now that is where the recruiters challenge comes… We are looking at people who can exercise discretionary power and superior skills. Your job description is going to be extremely clear so you know what needs to be done. There is absolute clarity on the role but that’s not what differentiates the wheat from the chaff. Now if you want to be that outstanding person you need to deliver something more than what you are expected to deliver. This is not defined by the company. What you deliver quested to be taught. If accepted as a student by the guru, he would then stay at the guru’s place and help in all activities at home. This not only created a strong tie between the teacher and the student, but also taught the student everything about running a house. The guru taught everything the child wanted to learn, from Sanskrit to the holy scriptures and from Mathematics to Metaphysics. The student stayed as long as she or he wished or until the guru felt that he had taught everything he could teach. All learning was closely linked to nature and to life, and not confined to memorising some information. The modern
34 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
gets defined by you so your ability to actually get results makes you a successful person.
What has been the happiest moment of your life?
I think my first salary, when I actually gave it back to my mom because she’s the one who nurtured me and brought me up well.
Could you elaborate?
Yes. I lost my dad when I was a year old, so it’s been my mother who has raised me and given me all the education I need. I have always got the best education, best clothes, enough pocket money to spend in college and a bike when I was in Std X. Thereafter, I had a car too. She gave me everything that I could think of. It was a small gesture from my end giving back that first salary.
How much was your salary when you first joined Firstsource and how did you hang on to your first job for so long?
I think my salary at that time was around ` 8000 per month. You have to be very clear on what you want in life and then you are able to assess whether that organisation is the right place for you or not. My personal goal is very clear that I need to take care of my loved ones, which is pretty much my school system was brought to India, including the English language, originally by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in the 1830s. The curriculum was confined to “modern” subjects such as science and mathematics, and subjects like metaphysics and philosophy were considered unnecessary. Teaching was confined to classrooms and the link with nature was broken, as also the close relationship between the teacher and the student.
Do you think automation will take a lot of jobs in the future going forward?
Automation will displace many jobs over the
family. I need to provide for them. That’s my ultimate goal. Nothing is greater than that.
So why do millennials hop then from one job to another?
Why do people really leave me? We hire really talented and easily marketable workforce so the first reason I lose people is because competition can always take people from me. The challenge for me is to keep my great people constantly engaged and on a good career path so that they don’t want to leave.My entry level attrition is 5% per month and 60% per annum. And that’s a modest number considering that the industry’s norm is 120%. I think the oldest management trainee we have in our organisation is a 2005 MBA graduate. She is now based in the US at vice president level. That’s a great example of success and hard work. We have never had a problem and a lot of credit goes to the organisation because hiring from management schools is just one aspect of it. It’s important how you engage them, train them and develop them. Folks coming out of management schools are not wizards with wands in their hands. They are not going to solve your company’s problem on day one. You are investing in future leaders. You build future leaders. It’s like a Chinese bamboo, which grows underground for five years you keep watering and you don’t even see if it’s growing but after the fifth year, in five weeks it grows 90 feet after surfacing. The point that I am trying to make is that you have to invest and nurture. When the person was a kid, the parents nurtured him. When the person was in school the teachers nurtured him. When the person was in management training courses the teachers did it so when it comes to organisations why should it change? If mentoring happens right then stability of an employee is never an issue. Everybody needs nurturing. As I grow older, somebody is going to nurture me again. So I am taking care of the organisation now and later I will be taken care of from somebody outside the organisation. That’s the circle of life. next 10 to 15 years, but many others will be created and even more will change. Jobs of the future will use different skills and may have higher educational requirements. It is also forecasted that in spite of displacement and automation the demand for human labour will only go up. Here’s why, automation itself requires a large workforce. The need to deploy AI , robotics and digitisation requires humans. Rising income is resulting in the consumer class going up. The rate of automation will never exceed the rate of compensating job creation.
Do you believe in a work-life balance?
Work-life balance is not better time management, but better boundary management. Balance means making choices and enjoying each of those choices. I chose to work and do lots of things outside work. I enjoy all my choices including work. At Firstsource, everyone, including the CEO, believes that health and wellness is important. HR advocates this as well within FSL. As HR, I must first practice what I preach. So yes, I absolutely advocate work-life balance. Everything is achievable as long as you have a plan. You can achieve your professional goals and personal goals. Its possible. The body really doesn’t need 9-10 hours of sleep; you can tune your body to sleep for 6-7 hours a day for four days and another 5-6 hours for three days and you’re still going to be fine. There is this theory that all successful leaders have woken up at 4 am and 5 am and pursued their personal goals and dreams,
“The body really doesn’t need 9-10 hours of sleep; you can tune your body to sleep for 6-7 hours a day for four days and another 5-6 hours for three days and you’re still going to be fine. There is this theory that all successful leaders have woken up at 4 am and 5 am and pursued their personal goals and dreams” whether it is in athletics or sports or politics, etc. People wake up and forgo two hours of their sleep to achieve their personal goals.
What’s your idea of relaxation?
Sometimes the most productive thing to do is to relax! One way to relax your body is to have a quiet mind. Give it a break! Doing things that make you happy in itself ensures that you are relaxed through the day. Choose how you want to spend your days and choose it wisely. I like travelling, I love the beaches, I enjoy good food and I like listening to music.
What is the philosophy you live by?
It’s possible! Live by your dreams and don’t settle for anything less. If you have a certain goal then make that your destiny and have a larger vision and make sure you go after that. Having a vision is one part of it and working hard to get to that is the other part. If you’re doing this then success is almost guaranteed. Most people operate out of their personal history, out of their memory, things they’ve done, things they’ve experienced, things they’ve seen, things that they have observed. What I’m suggesting is that you operate out of a
larger vision of yourself, I want you to see yourself doing what you want to do, experiencing what you want to experience, having what you want to have, doing what it is that gives your life some meaning and value, operate out of your imagination not your memory neeraj.varty07@gmail.com
CC
tadka
World’s smallest computer
According to a team of University of Michigan electrical and computer engineering professors, the new device they created is dwarfed by a grain of rice. It could even be described as the size of a speck of dust. The team has created a device nearly 10 times smaller than a computer introduced as the world’s smallest by IBM in March. While IBM’s 1-by-1 millimetre computer was being revealed, the Michigan Micro Mote. Measuring in at a mere 0.3 millimetres on each side.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 35
Startup Story
Lending Dreams
An alumnus of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and a graduate in electronics and communication engineering, Dhiren Makhija is the co-founder and business development head of Cashkumar, a leading P2P lending fintech company dedicated to the common man. In an interview with Corporate Citizen, he shares his entrepreneurial journey and future business plans By Namrata Gulati Sapra How did the idea of Cashkumar come about? Cashkumar was conceived after a lot of thought on our part about a viable business opportunity where the market was under- serviced and ripe for innovation. To give context, the three of us co-founders seemed destined to meet and start something. Yogesh Joshi and Kannan Kandappan (co-founders) were working together with a startup at that time after graduating from IIIT-B, where they were batch mates. But, they wanted to branch out and I happened to meet them as part of a series of meetings necessitated by my previous job. We got talking and soon decided to take the plunge together after I quit my job. I remember we used to sit in parks around Bengaluru sipping tea and discussing various opportunities. We talked about doing something in the convenience space and openings in the food service business. For all our talk, we would get stuck at the revenue model, potential market and unit economics. One day we were discussing about how we would finance our business and it struck us then and there that why not we do something in the finance space. After a thorough market research, we realised this market was vastly under-serviced. That set us on track and we started a reverse bidding platform in the forex space. Soon we were selected for the Google Launchpad programme and for Start-Up Chile where we refined the idea and decided to pivot into the lending space. What is the success story behind Cashkumar? As a company, we are growing and presently service around 200 loans per month. It helps a lot of people in eight cities across India get access to short term loans for their needs. There are lenders registered on the platform who
The founders of Cashkumar (L-R) Dhiren Makhija, Yogesh Joshi and Kannan Kandappan
“Apart from the monetary and reputational aspects, which are most definitely important, our purpose, is to make lives better. We happen to be in the space of finance where a lot of people have been under-serviced. While this is a business opportunity it is also a chance to help people� invest in loans and earn good returns. We are clocking a growth of nearly 30% month-onmonth and recently raised a Pre-Series, a round of investment. We have disbursed over 1500 loans till date amounting to a book size of over six crores. All this, with a lean team and zero marketing investment makes it that much more commendable. We are also one of a select few companies which have been awarded an NBFCP2P license by the Reserve Bank of India.
36 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Team Cashkumar
How did you manage to breakthrough receiveing the NBFC-P2P license from RBI and how will you gain from it? The NBFC-P2P license is given to new and existing companies which currently offer or wish to offer P2P lending services across the country. The RBI released guidelines on P2P lending in October 2017. We quickly read and understood the guidelines and set about implementing all the recommendations of the RBI.
To comply with RBI guidelines, we introduced more security and confidentiality features on our platform and physical infrastructure. With guidance from our advisors we brought in the required changes and submitted our application to the RBI. It was then a matter of answering all the queries posed by the honourable bank on our operations, company status, investments etc. which we responded to with complete transparency. We guess the RBI
considered our business operations, infrastructure as well as the promptness and accuracy of our responses and decided to give us the license. What do your expansion plans look like? Our target is to disburse about 80 loans a day in the next six months besides expanding operations from the current eight to 20 cities by the next year.
The revenue is being clocked in the range of `5-10 lakhs a month which is expected to breach the `50 lakh mark in the next six months. Besides, we are looking to expand the size of our team from the current 30 to 50 with a strong emphasis on the customer support What are your expectations of and vision for the P2P lending industry? It is difficult to estimate the exact size for the
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 37
Startup Story market as we intend to service the financially excluded. Currently the market size for personal loans in India is close to $30 billion. This includes a very small part of the population with a potential 3x market of financially excluded. P2P loans as a category is expected to touch the $4 billion mark by the year 2022 which is 160 times the current size. For comparison the P2P lending market in China has a transactional value of $458 billion. I hope to see Cashkumar at the very pinnacle of the fintech sector in the next five years and leading the company to fulfil its mission of financial inclusion. Apart from the monetary and reputational aspects, which are most definitely important, our purpose, is to make lives better. We happen to be in the space of finance where a lot of people have been under-serviced. While this is a business opportunity it is also a chance to help people. The idea would be to reduce the disproportion in the next five years while building a great company. What factors would you attribute Cashkumar’s success? I must emphasise on perseverance, as this principle has been the key to any success we have had. We were initially bootstrapped with minimum resource and also had many setbacks, but every such reverse has only made us persevere more. Not quitting is an ingrained trait and I look for people in whom I can see a reflection of this. I also firmly believe that Cashkumar would be naught if not backed by a great team. A company is only as good as the people who work for it and believe me our team is the best. It gives me a great deal of pride and immense satisfaction to work alongside my team every day. It has been the greatest accomplishment that our team treats Cashkumar as their second home bringing in their best. Cashkumar is a rather interesting name. How did it originate? Cashkumar is a company for the common man who we set out to help and include in the financial system. We wanted a name which should be simple, easy to remember and convey our motto clearly. It is interesting how that translated into Cashkumar as there is a small anecdote behind it. As we were in the process of choosing a name, me and my other two co-founders had visited a small eatery and there we came up with the name Kumar in between our conversations as Kumar was one of the most common name across the country. As we spoke, we realised that when we want to cater to the common man, why not take a name which was common. The Cash was added to denote the service. So
Dhiren with his family
“Not being from the financial sector made the road much harder and it has been a journey about learning every small thing from scratch. Getting things wrong was not an option and things could have fallen apart without tons of patience” Cashkumar literally means we provide cash to the common people of India. How do you tackle competition? P2P lending is still in a nascent stage in the country and every player has the opportunity for immense growth. It’s more about co-operating with each other and helping the concept take seed. All players could work with each other and help the entire market expand and raise more awareness about the space. We need more and more common people to invest and lend money through P2P platforms. Similarly, there is a huge market which is not served right now by the formal financial system which can be tapped. I am sure there is enough potential for most companies in this space to be successful without eating into each other’s share. From another perspective, we have and want to keep learning from competitors as again that is the way in a new space. It is good to see and adopt good practices which work well and help customers as that is the ultimate aim. We keep track of and learn from competition if we can and also hope we can contribute something to them. I personally am on good terms with most of the founders of these firms and keep in regular touch with them.
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You mentioned that Cashkumar is customer focused. How is that? We are a customer-centric company and are determined to make borrowing and lending a simple, yet secure task using technology. We are open to suggestions and feedback from customers and prioritize their requirements above all. In fact, many features that we have introduced on our platform are the direct result of feedback from customers. I personally read all reviews about Cashkumar published on various platforms like Google, social media and review sites. All of our lenders have my number and can directly get in touch with me. We regularly organise training sessions for our customer support team to educate them on how to handle difficult situations and find a resolution for the customer. How has your education background propelled you in the entrepreneurial direction? The entrepreneurial streak is in my DNA and I have been determined to build something lasting. Being from an IIM, it opens doors to many opportunities. Despite getting a pre-placement offer at IIM-Ahmedabad, I decided to build a startup in the online food ordering space. This was back in 2009 and the original idea could have been one of the biggies in the foodtech space if we had persisted. We had to wind down the operation as other partners decided to move on. Not being from the financial sector made the road much harder and it has been a journey about learning every small thing from scratch. Getting things wrong was not an option and things could have fallen apart without tons of patience. Learning about the business, customer, market and people (a philosophy learnt at my alma mater) has paid off in this success we have had. namratagulati8@gmail.com
Unsung Heroes - 10
School dropout gets a PhD V Kathiresan, was a school drop out, but today at the age of 47 is a PhD holder, has written two books, and is a college lecturer
“An age is called dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.” —James Michener
V
Kathiresan had to drop out of school to support his family. Years later, working as a driver for Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, he was encouraged to restart his education. Today at the age of 47 he has a PhD, has written two books, and has been appointed Lecturer at the Arignar Anna Government Arts College in Vadachennimalai, Tamil Nadu. V Kathiresan’s story proves that nothing is impossible. “I can never forget the role played by Kalam Ayya (sahib). I worked as a driver with him for five-and-a-half years and during those long drives, I used to talk to him about my aspirations and dreams. “One day while driving, Ayya suggested that I should resume my studies. He told me that the best way to go about it was through the ‘distance’ mode of education. Ayya used to lecture several students about the importance of education. I used to listen to him speak and that inspired me.” It wasn’t easy for Dr Kathiresan who, after working at a 10 to 6 job, would come home and study to catch up on all those lost years. His struggle against the odds has become an example for his students. One of his students Santhosh Mani, says his teacher’s story is like a fairy tale. “We complain so much about work load and the other burdens of life,” says Mani. “Today I look up to him and tell myself that anything is possible. It is just a matter of dedication and effort.” Dr Kathiresan lost his father very early in life and had no choice but to work in order to support his family. Though he was always fond of studying, financial problems compelled him to drop out of school. “It was one of the most painful decisions of my life, but I accepted it as a way of life. He trained as an electrician and joined the Indian Army in 1979. His first posting was in Bhopal, then Sikkim followed by Hyderabad. He first met Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory in the 1980s. Kalam was DRDO director at the time and Kathiresan was deputed as his driver. “I must thank the Almighty that I was given such an opportunity,” says Dr Kathiresan.
Dr Kathiresan lost his father very early in life and had no choice but to work in order to support his family. Though he was always fond of studying “Were it not for Kalam Ayya’s inspirational words, I would never have gone back to study. Even after Ayya left DRDO, I continued to ponder over what he had said about the importance of education.” He started working towards completing his school education. He appeared for the Standard X and then Standard XII examinations privately and obtained a BA from Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu through distance education. He then went on to obtain an MA in Political Science. “I noticed that as the days passed, the urge to pursue higher studies started creeping into my system. I did my B.Ed followed by an M.Ed from Madras University and then an M.Phil from Kamaraj University. I then did Law, finally obtaining a PhD from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University”, Tamil Nadu. In 2001, he passed the teachers’ recruitment exam, and was selected on merit. His first assignment as a teacher was at Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu where he worked for eight years. Apart from this he has written four books on history and a travel guide for the Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. “After completing my PhD, I called Ayya and told him that I had got a job. His kind words and appreciation are what I hold as more precious than anything else in the world. He had faith in me and
I did not let him down.” Dr Kathiresan cannot forget the role his wife Kasthuri played in his entire struggle. A teacher herself, she was a rock through his difficult times. The couple has decided to ensure that their son Raghavan, who is in Standard XII, gets sound academic grooming. Grateful that he had Kalam as a mentor, Kathiresan now wants to help other students who have not had a chance to complete their education. “I would be only too glad if I could pass this on to several students who have the urge to learn and strive to be the best.” The above story is featured in “Unsung Heroes-Real stories to inspire you” ISBN 97881-7108-902-4 by Maj (Retd) Pradeep Khare (pradeepkhare2011@gmail.com). It is published by Better Yourself books, Mumbai.
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tadka
IAF makes its longest non-stop flight The Indian Air Force has set a new time record of its own by flying its longest nonstop flight. The feat was accomplished in August 16 when an IAF heavy lift transport plane, flew at least 8100 km at a stretch, from Chennai to Australia. The Boeing C-17 Globemaster of the IAF took off from Chennai just before sunrise and landed on the runway of Townsville on the eastern coast of Australia 11 hours later.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 39
& Corporate World Young Corporates
The Hot
Happening
Young corporate manager Tanushree Shelly talks about her nine years in the corporate world which are filled with excitement and new challenge every day. An insight... By Vinita Deshmukh Tanushree Shelly is Senior Manager, HR, in Mahindra Lifespace since the last four years. She completed graduation in BMS, that’s Bachelor in Management Studies and went on to do post-graduation in HR. She speaks to Corporate Citizen on her role in the company and values in her professional and personal life.
What role do you play in Mahindra Lifespaces?
I am an HR Business Partner in Mahindra Lifespace, which is the Real Estate vertical of Mahindra. I take care of the western region, which is Mumbai, Pune, Alibaug and Nagpur. As an HR Business Partner, I take end-to-end care of talent acquisition, talent management, engagement, CSR and administration.
What do you love about the corporate world?
I think most people my age would give you the same answer; it is very exciting to be a part of the corporate world. The challenges that come to you every day, the situations that you need to deal with, keep you on your toes. So they keep your life hot and happening and that’s what I like about the corporate world—it’s not the same day every day.
What about the stretched hours?
Well, that’s up to you really. It depends on how efficient you are, if you can manage the same amount of work in two hours, which another person takes four hours—so it’s up to you entirely. These days the corporate firms are so flexible, they let you go home to do your work there; whenever necessary, take ‘flexi’ hours. These days the belief is that as long as you are delivering your goals, you can work anywhere and how you want to. So that’s the best part about this world.
What advice would you give a student manager who is in an MBA institute and will soon enter the corporate world?
I think the best advice to give to somebody who is entering the corporate world is to leave behind the books that they have read—they are good in theory, yes, but when it comes to application, they need to have an open mind and they need to learn on the job. They should be open enough, adjustable and adaptable enough to learn from the job. Never say no to any work, no matter how small it is, because that is what is going to teach them the nuances of working in the corporate world. 40 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
What do you think about the trend of youngsters hopping jobs?
These days youngsters are not looking for salaries; they are looking for challenges and something that excites them. So if you give them a job that is very monotonous, they will not be happy. So yes, salary is important but maybe it is not the primary objective—it is a secondary objective. They should be excited about getting up in the morning and going to the office.
There is this trend of sexual harassment in the corporate world. Your views…
You know on the prevention of sexual harassment; POSH as we call it, I believe that it should just not be for the women it should be for everybody. There are cases of women being sexually harassed in many different forms, but there are also times when men are harassed by women. So I don’t think women are the only victims—there are victims in general of sexual harassment and you need to cover all bases. Many a time, women hold powerful positions and because of their power, they could be harassing men in various ways.
Have you always felt safe?
I have been very fortunate to work with good organisations, where the culture is extremely strong and I have never felt insecure. That’s where my confidence also comes from, because growing up in the corporate world has been with a strong set of people, both men and women who have protected me when I was young and had just entered the corporate world and continue to do so till now. And I have now started taking on the role where I am very protective about the young ones who are coming in and make sure that the culture and the systems are strong enough never to let such kind of things happen in my office
What are your educational qualifications?
I completed graduation in BMS, that’s Bachelor in Management Studies and went on to do post-graduation in HR.
Are you married?
Yes, I’m married and my husband’s name is Arjun Dhir. He works with Ernst & Young (EY) as a consultant. Mine was a very ‘Shaadi.com pe match mila type of marriage’ so it was arranged.
What does it take to keep a marriage besides just romance? I think just to take a little sub-set of romance, it is very im-
Pics: Shantanu Relekar
portant when two people come together, the boy should never stop dating the girl, and the girl should never stop flirting with the boy. But more than that it is the coming together of equals, it is very necessary that both of them are equals not just in their professional life or monetary terms but even in thoughts. It is so stressful these days because not just the work, the kind of travelling that you do for work is also stressful and if both of them are working, then both will have different schedules. At the end of the day they need to come together. When they come together, at home, they just need to be with each other and that is it.
You are dealing with real estate, so what do you see; as in the profile of people buying homes, what has been your observation in the last four years?
I see a lot of young people buying homes, probably because
“India in the next 10 years is going to be a place full of technologies, gadgets and automation and slowly reduction in personal and physical interactions. Very soon even workplaces are going to be where you can just sit at home and work” it is usually a double income home. When it is a single income home, it will take them some time to buy a house; whereas in a double income home by the time they are in their mid-30’s or early forties they are able to take that much loan and buy a home. I have a home, which I have been able to buy because we both are earning and we both have the capacity to take loans. Nobody has the capacity to buy it outright, we have to take loans and buy a beautiful home for ourselves.
What is the philosophy of life that you live by?
I just have one sentence for that—follow your heart. Sometimes people will come and tell you to follow your head, that is follow logic, but I always believe in following my heart. I trust my heart, I trust that gut... that feeling that I get from inside.
How do you see India in the next 10 years?
India in the next 10 years is going to be a place full of technology, gadgets and automation and slowly, slowly reduction in personal and physical interactions. Very soon even workplaces are going to be where you can just sit at home and work. Because the technology will become so strong that organisations will be able to monitor your productivity even though you are sitting at home.
What about India in the nature of its cultural, social fabric, how do you see that?
It’s going to continue till the time education does not spread across nooks and corner and till the time we don’t do something to educate people to get over the reservations and the quota system. Everyone must believe in educating their children and doing well for India. vinitapune@gmail.com September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 41
First Person
Lessons that the Indian Military
Academy taught me about entrepreneurship By Kris Nair
I spent years waiting for the day I graduate from school so I could join the Indian Army. I spent seven years preparing—spending weekends learning martial arts, shooting, trekking, training, and excelling at the National Cadet Corps. I never gave up. Fast forward four years—after a graduate degree in applied physics, and a six-day-long interview process in Allahabad—I finally got a call letter to join the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun. Captain of the house of Khetarpal said over
100,000 people applied that year. One hundred and eighty seven were chosen to serve—to serve the country, to serve in war and to serve in peace. I had never had a more memorable and proud moment in my life. I spent months there, strengthening my strengths and diminishing my weaknesses. But then disaster struck. I broke my leg and lost the opportunity to serve 2nd Para—the commandos regiment—one of the toughest to get into. I left and created companies. I failed at many, and also excelled at creating value for the mar-
42 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
ket I focused in, along with 900 team members. Then I managed funds with a mix of failed and successful returns. But the gentleman and the officer never left my soul. I lived like an army officer, out of uniform. I think startups are much like the army. You fight for what you believe in and you need an army of believers to achieve it. Your passion is always a war within you. The army and startups have a lot common things that are important to both; leading 180 soldiers in war and peace or
creating a startup team that will challenge the status quo.
1. Fieldcraft
One of the things I loved learning in the academy (and trying my best in startups) is fieldcraft. It’s a basic requirement to be a good soldier and a good entrepreneur. So , what is fieldcraft? Fieldcraft is the basic military skill to operate stealthily and the methods used to do so, which can differ during day or night and due to weather or terrain.
detecting enemy-fire directionality and range, survival, evasion, and escape techniques. Good fieldcraft is especially important for the effectiveness and survival of infantry soldiers, snipers, special forces, reconnaissance and sabotage teams. Efficient fieldcraft is only possible by spending time, effort, and attention to memorise battlefield details, infiltration and escape routes, construction and employment of hiding positions, enemy force doctrines and equipment. Much like bootstrapping, eh!
2. Obey first
I think this is the first thing my trainers taught me. Your second names and schools don’t matter. You better obey before you command. It is an important part of the process. If you are not mentally ready to start a startup, work with one. You’ll notice the difference. It’s easier to lead and be respected by a bigger audience once you put your feet in their shoes.
3. Titles don’t matter
One of the many things I learned in the army, and while working in and with startups, is that job titles don’t matter. You are going to war with a soldier (who is not an officer) who has spent 30 years in the army, which means he has 30 years of knowledge on tactics and strategy. You, however, are just a young 21-year-old officer, with some magna cum laude in military strategy and a masters degree in advanced leadership. Working with a knowledgeable team is a blessing in a startup. Listen to them, allow freedom to speak, understand the context—you are ready to scale.
These skills include camouflage, land and water navigation, understanding the difference between concealment from view and cover from small arms’ fire, using the terrain and its features to mask ground movement, obstacle crossing, selecting good firing positions, lying up positions, camping positions, effective observation, camouflage penetration, counter-surveillance,
I spent years waiting for the day I graduate from school so I could join the Indian Army. I spent seven years preparing—spending weekends learning martial arts, shooting, trekking, training, and excelling at the National Cadet Corps
4. First, your country, your startup, the people you command
The IMA manifesto: The safety, honour and welfare of your country comes first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of men you command comes next. Your ease, comfort and safety comes last, always and every time. This is the wisdom I follow, it sits proud on a wall in my home. It is from the first passing-out commencement speech made by Field Marshal Philip Chetwode, the founder of the Indian Military Academy.
5. Honest and brutal feedback
One of the things the army and
its establishments are famous/infamous for is training. Some people say it’s brutal, a no-mercy-kind-of-place. I think it is imperative. To train future leaders, honest and brutally honest feedback while you learn is extremely important. In war, there aren’t too many opportunities to make a wrong decision and get away with it. I think one thing I apply to life whether in the army or a startup is rigour. Ship fast, or die.
6. Focus, discipline
As a startup, you are always listening to the market and customer—sometimes it is tough to keep the focus. You add more features, you cut some. You are a fan of one of the most abused words called “pivot” and do things because you like the word “pivot.” Stop. Focus.
7. Be a ‘T’ individual, specialisations are for insects
One thing you learn at the IMA is that specialisation is for insects. You need to master at least five or six verticals like we all do in our own startups. As founders, we even do goddamn accounting. Be a ‘T’ individual—be vertically knowledgeable at one skill—and excel at it. Be good at a bunch of other skills, too, even if it is an inch deep.
8. Speak less, do more That.
9. Listen to everyone, but trust your own judgment above all
Because you know your business, more than your investors and the press.
10. Gentleman. Officer. Entrepreneur.
Like the army, entrepreneurship is not a career. It is a way of life. (A version of this post first appeared on Medium. Corporate Citizen has used the version published by Quartz India. www.qz.com)
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tadka India’s largest business ecosystem ‘The Circle’
Venture capital firm Hunch Ventures has recently launched a collaborative and creative hub for innovation, ‘The Circle’ at India’s busiest metro station, HUDA City Centre, Gurgaon. Spread across 200,000 square feet, the facility provides an environment of flexible working zones, meeting areas with state of the art technology, network infrastructure and spaces for creative energies to flow unimpeded. ‘The Circle’ is a collective of business and entrepreneurial minds, to forge collaborative connections across diverse capabilities.
September 16-30, 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
Besties yesterday, today and forever
Entrepreneur Rujuta Phadke and her significant other, IT professional Ojas Pashankar are the quintessential millennial couple: ambitious, driven and focused. What gives each of them the wings to aspire for greater heights is a relationship grounded in long years of friendship. Married for 5 years, and known each other for 11, this is their story and this is how they tell it By Kalyani Sardesai
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hen media professional Rujuta Phadke decided to start “FlairCraft Brandcom” her own branding and marketing agency in the June of 2017, she did not waste much time mulling over the risks inherent to entrepreneurship. She did not have to. Cheering her on was her husband, Ojas Pashankar, an IT profession-
al by career but a self-confessed wannabe entrepreneur at the core. “Starting a business may not be easy,” he says. “But all the money and effort you put in are an investment unto your future.” Not only does the agency put Rujuta's vast and varied experience in media to good use—whether it be as copywriter, researcher or brand strategist -it also ropes in Ojas' knowhow with computers. While she holds a post graduate degree in journalism from Pune's Symbiosis Institute of
44 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Media & Communication, he is a Master's in Computer Science from Savitribai Phule Pune University and is currently employed as project manager with Benchmark IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. It's a hectic time, with Rujuta's agency completing just over a year, but also a happy and rewarding one. “At times, I just can't figure out where the day went,” she grins. “We work through weekends, and all hours of the day. All nighters are common enough too.” Nopes, Ojas isn't complaining. “He's so supportive and un-
derstanding, I honestly couldn't have asked for more,” she says. Perhaps there is indeed some merit to the Bollywood-propagated truism that friendship is actually love with another spelling.
Back to the beginning
This love story dates back to 2007-when both Rujuta and Ojas were playing the dhol for Pune's dhol pathak, Shiv Garjana. There was plenty of opportunity to hang out together and they did just that-considering they got on so famously. “In some ways we are very alike, and in others, the differences are a perfect foil to each other's personality,” she says. He's patient and quiet, the proverbial man of few words, whereas she's lively, easy going and capable of striking up a conversation with just about anyone. “I really admire her spontaneous, free spirit,” says Ojas. “It has helped me grow as a person tooin the sense that I find myself communicating a lot better than I used to.” On her part, Rujuta nominates him her Mr. Rock Solid. “What I love most about him is that when he takes up the responsibility of something or someone, he will never let them down. He's reliable to the core, my go-to guy for any occasion and that is an amazing quality in any human being.” Four years into the friendship, Rujuta broached the topic of taking it to another level. “We got on very well and wanted similar things out of life: • Trust so I asked him why not?” Nevertheless, there was a mo- • Space ment of worry over what could happen if things didn't quite work out • Being supthe way they wanted them to; they'd portive of each both end up losing their besties in other's dreams the bargain. Turns out, it was a risk they were • Respect for the willing to take and then it was just a unique qualities matter of meeting each other's fam- that each individilies. “Our parents were fine with it. ual brings to the (Both are Maharashtrians with sim- table ilar cultural moorings and value system). So we were duly wed in 2013 in • Being good a traditional but fun-filled ceremo- friends ny,” she shares.
The mantras of a marriage
The building blocks of a marriage
“It is always an advantage to have known your life partner as a buddy first and foremost,” says Ojas. “You know each other from so many different angles-and share a camaraderie that takes an arranged marriage way more time. Sure, living together as husband and wife is different from meeting someone for a couple of hours a day-but the bottom line is that when you have spent a certain amount of time with your spouse
Vacationing in Bhutan
Happy moments at the wedding
before marriage, it is a valuable thing to build on.” It helps for sure that both Rujuta and Ojas are firm believers in equality-in every sense of the word. As a career woman, Rujuta feels empowered by his stance, because “it is one thing to profess to believe in gender equality, another thing to practise it in matters great and small,” she says. “He is one of the most progressive and evolved men I know.” When conflicts arise, the couple simply talk things out. “But truly speaking, I don't quite remember a massive row in the last five years we've been married,” she says. He's patient as opposed to her and that goes a distance in calming things down. “What is crucial in a marriage is to have your partners' unquestioning support,” she muses. “It simplifies matters when you don't have to explain every little thing you did. Basically it all adds up to space and trust.” Compromise is a fine thing, she says, “To the extent that it does not make either partner feel suffocated. Giving in is nice too but it should not feel like you are constantly suppressing your own wishes. It is important to respect that at the end of the day, the other person is an individual in their own right and is bound to have their own take on life.”
“What is crucial in a marriage is to have your partners' unquestioning support. It uncomplicates matters when you don't have to explain every little thing you did. Basically it all adds up to space and trust” - Rujuta Phadke Five years into their marriage, quality time for both consists of trying out different restaurants in town and binge watching movies as well as web series. “It's not important to have an agenda, we simply like hanging out together,” he says. In a departure from norm, neither have had ‘The Talk’ yet. Nor do they intend to for the fundamental reason that a family isn't on the agenda. “Sure, kids are a wonderful addition to many couple's lives. But as far as we are concerned, we are happy with our careers and with each other. What's more, we are completely united on the score, irrespective of advice to the contrary,” she laughs. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com
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tadka
CCI installs 820.8 KWp solar panels Tata Power Solar wholly owned subsidiary Tata Power has commissioned 820.8 kilowatt peak rooftop solar unit at Cricket Club of India (CCI), Mumbai. This is the world's largest rooftop installation atop a cricket stadium, the company stated in its announcement. The project was executed by Tata Power Solar to provide solar rooftop solution for the stadium located at Mumbai and was completed in 100 days.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 45
Campus Placement
Riya at the convocation ceremony with her grandparents
By Joe Williams
L
earning at every step in life and climbing up the ladder of success is the mantra of this budding youngster, Riya Sanmukhani from Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh. According to her, bothering about monetary benefits in the beginning of one’s career is just a waste of time. As she puts it in a nut shell, “It is learning and hard work that will give an edge over your peers in one’s career. One always has to give something to get something back, and the doors to reap rich harvests (perks) will always be wide open.” A pass-out from St. Mary’s convent back home, Riya is always eager to learn. After her MBA from a well-known college in Pune, she dreams of a Ph.D in business studies and marketing. As a first step, she was picked up by the campus placement cell as Deputy Manager, Elite Trade Relations Group (ETRG), ICICI Bank.
Doing the extra mile
Learn at every step in life Never look at perks when you get a call for your first job; take it as a learning experience and monetary benefits will fall in place as you walk along the path with commitment and dedication, says Riya Sanmukhani
46 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Riya did her XIIth from St. Mary’s convent Ujjain and went on to do her graduation in business management. It was during this period that she saw a major transition in her life. A book worm, reading books on whatever subject she can lay her hands on, she wants to do a doctorate in business management. Studious and always at the forefront for helping people has made her a darling of everyone. She always kept herself busy even during leisure, taking part in cultural activities. All these qualities have paved the way for a simple and balanced lifestyle. She believes that life is nothing but the amalgamation of experiences and new beginnings; especially the one towards growth is something she is looking forward to. She has always been a person who never wanted to miss out on relationships as well as her goals. Thus she has gone an extra mile and burnt the midnight oil, and that is how she learned and outgrow her own limitations. Although an average student in school, it was at her degree college where she blossomed and her gold medal
It is learning and hard work that will give an edge over your peers in one’s career. One always has to give something to get something back, and the doors to reap rich harvests (perks) will always be wide open
Riya with her friends
was a fitting reward for her hard work. She says “Every phase is a golden phase, be it childhood or schooling or college. I believe we should live every moment to the fullest,” she says.
Placement learnings
The college and her stint at the placement cell have given her a perfect insight into the placement process. As she says, “To be honest, the placement process wasn’t that tough a deal to crack, as we Balajians are groomed in such a way that the final placement is just a cake walk.” She is placed with ICICI Bank as deputy manager, in the ETRG department. She was first posted at Panjim in Goa, and her commitment to the job saw her getting transferred to a place close to her home town. As a fresher she did not bother about perks but looked at it as a learning phase and made the most of it. As she says, “Hard work will never go waste; on the contrary, it is a stepping stone to success. Hard work and determination are something one has to deliver in order to reap the perks.” For her, placement has not been testing, as she was involved with it during the early stage as an MBA student. It was not just the placement but admission and presentation which helped widen her vision. “I closely related to management as I was accountable for getting jobs for my college mates.”
have been many others who played their role in shaping her life. “The constant support of my friends, professors, and special thanks Bala sir and Biju sir who have sown the seeds of success,” she says. As she recalls, “I met Bala Sir for the first time during my group discussion at the time of admissions and he said : “You are chota packet bada dhamaka” and the institution has given me ample opportunities to bring out the best in me.”
The credit to her success
Happiest moment in life
Undoubtedly, the first people to be given credit to for her success are her parents. But there Riya and her grandparents at her convocation ceremony
Caption Riya at her convocation
Coming from a joint family has helped her in many ways. Despite being the only child of her parents she has not missed out on any count, as grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins were always around her. Her happiest moment was when her dadaji (grandfather) received her post-graduation medal instead of her. She was very lucky to have both her grandparents at the function.
What is life all about
Being positive, honest and sincere towards anything and everything will give you a happy life and when you want something the whole
universe will conspire to help you achieve it, says Riya.
Tricks to success
• Be regular in college, don’t bunk classes, academics do matter (I am a 100% attendance award holder twice). • Be true to yourself (you can fool professors or family but not yourself). • Be sincere and have a goal. joe78662@gmail.com
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tadka World’s smallest pacemaker UNM Hospital is now offering the world’s smallest pacemaker for patients. It’s about the size of a vitamin capsule. The pacemaker known as the Micra from Medtronic. It is implanted in the heart to control irregular heartbeats the procedure at UNMH is said to be less invasive than prior methods. The Micra goes through a vein into the leg and is fed up into the heart. there’s no incision. The recovery time is significantly less and the risk of infection goes down significantly as well.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 47
travel
newspaper museum
Competing with the 17-museum Smithsonian complex for visitor mind and time-space, stands Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, recording and celebrating the path of free press through the years. With its 2,50,000 square feet of space laid out painstakingly, engagingly, and enticingly over seven floors, it is an ode to journalism, through its achievements and sometimes bloody travails, the people and events made immortal, and technologies that have shaped its transformation By Parimal Chaudhari
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he 45 words of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, or to petition for a governmental redress of grievances’ stand large and clear on the imposing 75-foot-tall
tablet of Tennessee pink marble, that enshrines the role of the free Press as being the cornerstone of Democracy. It sings odes to its heroes who laid down the tradition of American journalism and continue to do so even today. Appropriately named Newseum, and strategically placed on 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, between the U.S. Capitol and the White House, it seems to say, I am watching you!
48 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Visiting museums in Washington DC can be an onerous task. And side-stepping the Smithsonian complex that holds 17 museums in its fold, and choosing Newseum as your first choice, makes one’s bias easily clear about what catches you. And, additionally inviting is its famous “window on the world"—57 ft by 78 ft in dimensions that lets the curious by-passers see inside at the visitors and its displays. It’s very likely that you may never enter the museum because the hard copies of selected front pages, including one from every U.S. state and Washington D.C, are displayed in galleries within the museum and outside the front entrance for anyone to read. However, having once entered its haloed precincts, a fresh and ruthless prioritisation is called for, to wade through its 2,50,000 square feet of space laid out painstakingly, engagingly, and enticingly over the seven floors. Although it is fitted with the largest and tallest hydraulic passenger elevators in the world, capable of carrying up to 72 passengers when fully loaded, to take you to any floor of your choice, you still need the help of a guide to point you the highlights of this space. The Pulitzer Photo gallery on the ground floor, earmarked and time-lined, and displaying
the best of the best, is an easy draw. It houses every picture that won a Pulitzer in photography since 1942, beginning from Joe Rosenthal for Iwo Jima picture celebrating the American victory in WWII or Nick Ut’s disturbing Napalm girl, to the very recent Ryan Kelly of The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia, who won in the Breaking News Photography category for his chilling photo of the moment when a car attack slammed into racially-charged protests in his town. You ought not to feel surprised, even a bit, if you feel visually and aurally saturated watching 300 video clips, listening to 400 audio clips and looking at 1000 prize photos! Each disturbing or uplifting in turns. Corporations like Comcast, Bloomberg, and media groups like NBC, Time Warner company, other founders and donors have liberally sponsored the 15 galleries and 15 theatres that make up the museum. The people enshrined at Newseum come in several colours but are all those who are killed in the line of duty serving their profession, etched on transparent glass, dazzled by light and bringing out the names so clearly. Other memorabilia lie in nooks and enclaves tracing the simplicity and enormous courage of those who served it. As an exhibit you can find the laptop belonging to Daniel Pearl, who was the Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, based in Mumbai, India, and, was kidnapped and later killed by Al-Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002. And you can also see the bloodstained notebook of Michael Weisskopf, the Time magazine correspondent, who had his right hand blown away in Iraq,
as he tried to throw an enemy grenade back out of the Humvee in which he was riding. Since the museum not only applauds or mourns the team of people who have safe-guarded the institution of free press to see it stay alive and kicking, it also traces the growth and technological inputs that have gone into lending it its present identity. On the cusp of transition from radio to television, from hard line reporting to soft infotainment, the rise of CBS broadcasts, we have an entire enclave dedicated to none other than Edward. R. Murrow, the celebrated American broadcast journalist and war correspondent, noted for his honesty and integrity in delivering the news and as a person who made the words “Good night and Good luck” a catch-phrase in the UK during World War II. One has just to slip on the earphone and be instantly transported to his days through his voice to London and be abreast of his best live radio broadcasts, made distinguished at the height of the Blitz in London in his programme - After Dark. His simple, emotive and vividly descriptive language takes you to the heart of the war, telling you what is going on around and below him as he whizzes past in aircrafts all over Europe to chase war news. Murrow, despite his pristine reputation and excellent work, was accused of subversion and treason without proper regard for evidence under the McCarthy era. Murrow’s defence for his work and life is fêted, and made for the content of George Clooney’s film, again, titled in Murrow’s phrase: “Good night and Good luck”. Well, if that was the past of journalism, the future is addressed by having the younger children interact with media through several interactive media stations devoted to being a reporter, or newsreader, a producer and other such jobs. This enclave is abuzz with kids playing their grown-up selves under adult supervision. Extensive collection of newspapers and magazines, aided with touch-screen computers, housing hundreds of digitised publications, allows for close-up viewing, for the old and the young. Interactive games and access to a database of journalists keep the youngsters even more actively engaged in the several hundred artefacts and memorabilia of remarkable news events that are housed in the gallery.
Large spaces are devoted to the memory of news events that left an indelible mark on the human mind and had media go frenzied when the events actually happened. The falling of the Berlin wall is one such event which told people how news and information helped topple a closed and oppressive society. Here, 12-foot-high concrete sections of the original wall, its German graffiti intact, are the largest display of unaltered portions of the wall outside of Germany. It comes fitted with a three-story East German guard tower that loomed near Checkpoint Charlie. The other edifice is that of the 9/11 bombing of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. While one comments on the falling of one world order, the other reminds us of the shock set by a brutal act. As you traverse from one floor to the other feeling awed by the architectural edifice jointly designed by Ralph Appelbaum, James Stewart Polshek, and Todd Schliemann and be inspired by the creative treasure trove the museum is, you finally and suddenly land in open space on the top of the building into the Hank Greenspun Terrace on Pennsylvania Avenue. From the closed confines of the gallery, you are abruptly beneath the open sky atop its overhanging terrace that offers breathtaking sights. All the important buildings in DC City stand stark and clear at an eye level! You do deeply regret you were not here to witness the teeming millions that flooded the street when President Obama swore in, or see the fireworks of 4th of July! chaudhari.parimal@gmail.com
‘The future in Newseum is addressed by having the younger children interact with media through several interactive media stations devoted to being a reporter, or newsreader, a producer and other such jobs. This enclave is abuzz with kids playing their grown-up selves under adult supervision’
CC
tadka
World’s smallest and cheapest AI Chip The smallest AI chip in the world called Mipy chip is here. The makers of the chip claim that Mipy is not only the smallest but also the lowest in cost available in the AI chip market. Developed by the collaboration of a team of Taiwanese researchers from the National Taiwan Normal University and an IC design house ‘AVSdsp,’ this chip has a production cost as low as $1—yep, you read it right!
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 49
Claps
Humble Saviours of Kerala
Corporate Citizen Claps for the amazing tales of bravado and laudable community support that continues to up ‘human faith’ in times of disasters. While the Kerala is inundated with flood relief measures, CC presents a snapshot of some of the citizens who played the role of Good Samaritans
KJ Jaydeep of Kuttanad- converted wedding marquee for flood relief
Rocky Rocks
The story of Mohanan P, his family and their pet pooch Rocky in Kerala’s Kanjikuzhy village in Idukki district once again reiterated faith in man’s best friend. Mohanan P and his family were fast asleep when around 3 am, they were awakened by their dog, Rocky’s barking. He ignored the barks initially, but as they grew louder into a distress howl, Mohanan said, “That’s when we realised something was wrong. I went out to see and we had to just rush out of the house,” said Mohanan. Had it not been for Rocky’s timely barks, the family would not have noticed the life-threatening landslide in time to vacate their home which soon collapsed under another landslide. Unsung heroes who rose silently above their own personal battles as the rising water levels dented their own livelihood were the ubiquitous 1400 odd fishermen from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam who with their 600 country vessels jumped in to save their brethren. These brave hearts voluntarily rescued thousands of people marooned across remotest areas. They proved a great support by facilitating the official NDRF’s rescue operations in areas where air lifting was not feasible or impossible. No surprise that it earned them an international congratulatory mention on Reuters display board in London’s Canary Wharf - “Local boatmen, the heroes of flood rescue in India’s Kerala”.
Khalsa Kindness
Not to forget the 22 volunteers of Khalsa Aid who apart from serving ‘Guru Ka Langar’ have also helped clean a church in Alleppey in time for Sunday prayers.
Generous Faizal
Would you give away an entire stock of
Fishermen rescuing victims
merchandise if asked for some cheap blankets? This is what Wayyanad cloth trader, P K Faizal did. The 26-year old showroom owner in Kalpetta town donated his entire stock to floodvictims! While it might look like a simple act of kindness, but for a small trader like Faizal, it needed a generous heart to donate his stock worth some `11 lakh. He had to abandon school due to a difficult childhood and needed many attempts before he could set up his readymade garment shop; he did not batter an eyelid when on August 18th, ‘Fight for Life’ volunteers turned up at Faizal’s shop, for an urgent requirement of low-cost blankets for relief camps. Faizal responded by asking them to take all the stock
50 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
from the showroom. Coincidentally, he did not hesitate to part with some of the fresh stock which was being unloaded for the upcoming Onam and Bakri Id season. Faisal said, “That there was no use piling up stock in his shop when people were suffering from rain and cold. Besides, it was only a matter of chance as I too might lose my shop in the next flood.”
Help from Marriage Pandal
While the floods pushed many places in Kerala to almost come to a standstill, there were others that went on with their regular pace of celebrating life’s moments, but with a twist. A few weddings like those of the
the moment was blessed. Our parents also blessed us and congratulated us for the effort. My father Aneesh Krishna owns a medical shop and he also contributed some of the medicines to be used in relief camps,” said Shradha. They handed over the collections on their D-day to the social media relief group – ‘Wake up Kerala’.
Marquee becomes Relief Camp
Sharath and Sharadha of Trivandrum converted wedding venue as a relief camp
Another kind gesture saw K J Jaydeep, a builder and a native of Neelamperoor in Kuttanad near Kottayam converting the marquee erected in front of his house for his prewedding ceremonies into a relief camp. The families of the bride and groom postponed the wedding post- flooding of the nearby towns of Ranni and Erumely. “By August 16, we realised that holding the marriage would be a near to impossible task as most of the areas around Kuttanad were inundated. “We decided to convert the (marquee) space into a relief camp for people who were displaced from areas around lower Kuttanad,” he said. His mother and a few other ladies from the neighborhood prepared food which was distributed among those who were stranded. “My family, friends and neighbours have been preparing and packing food or people who are returning to their homes after the flood water started receding. These are people who were taken to camps far away from their homes. Most of their homes have been battered in
Besides regular channels of relief operations, crowd funding platforms like Milaap and Ketto are also raising funds to procure relief material young Thiruvananthapuram couple, from the Vazhuthacaud area; decided to turn their wedding venue at the Trivandrum Club into a collection point for relief material. Sharath S Nair and Shradha Thampi tapped their WhatsApp group of family members and requested invitees to contribute money or materials at the wedding venue. Despite the short notice, they had prepared a list of essentials beneficial to the flood victims and shared it with all potential donors. “More than money, many people contributed bottled water, clothes, food grains, biscuits and medicines”, said Sharath. “Though we don’t want to highlight what we did as a big deal, we felt that
the floods and it’s an exhausting task to bring it back into shape” While all those who took shelter have since moved, the makeshift camp is temporarily housing abandoned cattle. In fact, the pandal owner too did not charge him for the marquee provided!”
Weddings Postponed
But, 29-year-old Renjith from Budhanoor in Chengannur skipped his wedding fixed for August 17 as he saved the lives of many stranded villagers on his D-day. While all his relatives had reached his home on August 15, flood waters started impacting his house too. They sent their relatives to the nearby wedding venue at the Thoppilchantha SNDP auditorium
P K Faizal of Kalpetta donated his `11 lakh showroom stock
on August 16 and the bride’s family too managed to move to a relative’s home close to the auditorium. With wedding meals being prepared, talks were firm on conducting the customary wedding rituals while celebrations stayed postponed. However, with the rise in water levels, Renjith decided against wedding vows for the moment as he accompanied the police and fire force to rescue the stranded in the remote areas of his village. Renjith’s would-be bride, Arya, too supported the cause and the food, prepared for their wedding was distributed amongst people in the relief camps in Budhanoor. Thirty-year-old Arun C Das, an assistant surgeon at a family health center in Kottayam’s Madapally, had been looking forward to his wedding day but postponed it to treat close to 100 patients at a relief camp in Changanasseery. His Facebook page had announced “save the date” pictures with his fiancé, for the proposed wedding on August 19, 2018. But, the turn of events prompted Arun to get over his personal excitement and set up a team of four doctors to assist flood victims instead. “If I am also away, that means only two of my colleagues will be on the ground taking care of so many people. That would have been difficult, so I decided to come in too,” said Arun. He said that there is a potential threat of an outbreak once the water recedes, and that it will become extremely important to have more doctors available for assistance. Besides regular channels of relief operations, crowdfunding platforms like Milaap and Ketto are also raising funds to procure relief material. Online platforms such as Amazon and Paytm too have mobilised methods to encourage their customers to donate via their channels. sangeetagd2010@gmail.com
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 51
Health
Personalised
f itness key is the
The year 2009 saw a high strung nine to five corporate executive toying with the idea of a different perspective to life, both personal and professional. But, what came by was a string of health related battles, perhaps a boon in disguise for Bengaluru-based Lopamudra Banerjee; that triggered the gradual transformation of a former Enterprise Accounts Manager, an Area Operations Manager and a team leader into the wellness coach that she is today. With celebrity clients, corporate executives, movie stars and politicians, she has a fitness regime designed for all. She is the founder and brand ambassador of World of WOW, her personalised fitness platform for lifestyle and weight management. The Gladrags Mrs India Finalist 2009, Lopamudra is also the recipient of the Excellence in Fitness award by the Karnataka Women Achiever’s Association, 2018 and shares her health travails and tips to fitness
It
By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar
“It all starts from your kitchen, so redesign your kitchen (cooking) concept to kickstart your family’s fitness goals”, said Bengaluru-based Lopamudra Banerjee, founder, World of WOW and a corporate wellness speaker. A certified fitness trainer, her words come from training hard and learning from her bitter years of suffering from an autoimmune disorder and rheumatic arthritis. The years 2009-2011, saw Lopamudra intermittently bearing the scary side-effects of her disorder manifesting into alopecia (loss of hair and bald patches) but, she braved on under the care of her doctors. From a stage when she was scared for dear life she also mustered enough courage to pave an alternate path wherein she could spend more time with her daughter, at the same time seek alternate professional goals. With a happy 70 kgs around her, she was always an active individual with a moderate fitness schedule but, balancing an extremely packed corporate-cum-home life. Her chance to reinvent herself came in the form of friends who plodded her to participate in the Mrs Gladrags 2008-2009 competition. Having cleared her second round of auditions, she embarked on a month long journey
nine to five job; but resumed office post the pageant and served her notice period. into the world of fashion and fitness in February-March 2009.
Facing Her Demons
Meeting with 21 other Mrs Gladrags contestants in Mumbai for their month-long grooming and competition sessions that included an old widow, a single parent, a lady who was a victim of abusive relationship and other such brave ‘Mrs Gladrags’ wannabes—inspired Lopamudra to review her own challenges. “Some of these women I met were extremely bold and going through hell in their own personal lives. I realised that relatively I am much better off and that everything was in my hands,” she said. She had by then made up her mind to quit her
52 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
A New Path
The years from 2011 to 2014 saw Lopamudra undergoing fitness courses to equip her learning into a new career that included the Reebok Instructor Alliance (RIA) certified courses, the RYS 200 Yoga Teachers Trainer from Aayana Yoga Studio and the eminent ACE (American Council on Exercise) certified PT amongst others. She then embarked upon individual consulting on fitness when she decided to set up her own business into weight management and grooming. “I had no idea on running a business and decided to work in a fitness oriented startup company.Gradually, I realised that my strengths were into my people skills ability, my expertise as a trainer and my capacity to hand hold individuals to achieve their fitness goals...I then embarked upon my own venture—World Of WOW”
”I don’t take a load the days I don’t exercise. I compensate by climbing stairs. A good way is to stand and do some work instead of sitting constantly” Currently, World of WOW has an organic and linear growth with a renewal rate of 35% annually. “We believe in assured weight loss without supplements. I handle 62-68 clients per month with my team of three nutritionists and two fitness trainers by giving my clients a good trainer versus customer ratio; to provide the right amount of consistency and accountability to all our clients.” “My clientele consists of 96 per cent women primarily in the age 25-45 years, who want to lose weight with the inner desire to look good. However, I often notice men above 40+ years approaching me when they face some medical alarms and are forced to fulfil some fitness goals.”
Staying Fit
At 37 years and a mother to a 12-year-old, Lopamudra believes that the onus of a good
lifestyle and fitness, especially for youngsters, are on the parents themselves. “If you don’t change your lifestyle then how can you protect yourselves and your kids from the dangers of modern day ailment like COPD, polycystic ovarian diseases and other side effects like hair loss etc? If my child has obesity, the message goes to the parent.You have already built the foundation of your food and lifestyle; keep the string pulled onto good eating habits but not too much or young adults might become victims of bulimia as emotional eaters and face other eating disorders.” “Have a disease free body and inculcate a positive body image irrespective of body types. Stay energetic enough to say, carry grocery till the 14th floor and energetic enough to play with your children. We are all humans and are entitled to having fun”, she said. “Follow the 80:20 Plan—80% - try to eat
healthy but avoid artificial goals and too strict a diet regime or develop over dependency on fad diets. There is no need to be on a cabbage diet all year round. Focus on any ailment and recheck diet accordingly. Most recently I adhered to a short-term Keto diet to lose weight.” She said that keeping oneself hydrated throughout the day can help keep excessive weight away. Her quick mantra for fairly medically healthy adults is hydration with at least five litres of water and an active life every day along with Indian home cooked food.
Do As Lopamudra Does
She’s focuses on six-day training with a day of rest for herself. Being a business person, she wakes up at 3:45 am starts with a run for 40 minutes, followed by strength and core body training for 30 minutes and other post-run drills for 20 minutes. She follows this regime three days a week. The remaining days, she focuses on full body strength training in the gym or does yoga. “But, remember, I don’t take a load the days I don’t exercise. I compensate by climbing stairs. A good way is to stand and do some work instead of sitting constantly.” sangeetagd2010@gmail.com
CC
tadka
Reliance becomes India’s largest taxpayer Reliance becomes India’s largest taxpayer in the private sector. Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that Reliance is India’s largest payer of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Excise and Customs Duty, and Income Tax in the private sector.
September 16-30 , 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 53
Survey
54 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Waiting in the Wings Family businesses are the backbone of the Indian economy, the role of family businesses in nation building, wealth creation, employment generation and contribution to the exchequer is both significant and commendable. As family businesses get ready to address the VUCA business environment and at the same time pass on the mantle to future generations, global professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted the India Next Gen Study 2018 to understand the views of the next gen of business leaders. Corporate Citizen brings you the results Compiled by Neeraj Varty
Key Findings
83% of the next gen think it’s important to continuously innovate products and services. 81% feel that it’s necessary to have a strategy fit for the digital age. 81% have clear ideas on taking the business forward. 50% expect to manage the family business one day.
Dealing with business issues
An overwhelming majority (97%) of India’s next gen leaders say that it is necessary to put in place a clear mid-term strategy for the success of a business.
India Global Having a clear mid-term strategy
47%
50%
97%
90%
Continually innovating products/services
47%
36%
83%
82%
Having a strategy fit for the digital age
53%
28%
81%
75%
Being prepared to take risks Bringing in external expertise to address current challenges Having a clear and documented long-term strategy Making a positive contribution to society Moving into new geographical markets Diversifying the business
Essential
33%
39%
72%
68%
25%
44%
69%
64%
36%
31%
67%
73%
36%
28%
64%
61%
50%
52%
39%
47%
22% 14%
28% 25%
Very important
Q: How important do you think the following issues are for your company? Base: All India respondents (n = 36), all global respondents (n = 102) While most family businesses may have envisaged a long-term strategy, 67% of the next gens in India (73% globally) feel that it’s important to have it clearly documented, perhaps to ensure that the organisation remains focused and goal oriented. Yet, only 44% of Indian and global next gen leaders feel that this business issue is being tackled well. September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 55
Survey Company performance on business issues than half of the next gens surveyed (53%) have stated that digital is one of the most essential issues which needs to be looked at by the business. However, only 11% of the next gen feel they are performing very well on this front, while 42% opine that they are performing fairly well.
A majority of Indian family business leaders (56%) feel that the need to continuously innovate is a key challenge over the next five years. The next gen realise this need even more, with 47% saying that it is an essential issue which needs to be tackled and another 36% saying it is very important. More High
Company performance on business issues 8%
47%
72%
66%
Continually innovating products/services
14%
47%
72
70%
Having a strategy fit for the digital age
11%
47%
53
48
Being prepared to take risks
14%
47%
56
49
8%
47%
50
60
Having a clear and documented long-term strategy
17%
47%
44
44
Making a positive contribution to society
25%
81
71
Moving into new geographical markets
19%
47%
52
52
6%
47%
45
55
Having a clear mid-term strategy
Issues ranked by importance
India Global
Bringing in external expertise to address current challenges
Diversifying the business Low
47%
Very well
Fairly well
Q: And how do you think your company is performing in terms of addressing these issues? Base: All India respondents (n=36), all global respondents (n=102).
Working in the family business Current role 30%
Board level
47% 37%
Senior management
44% 16%
Middle management
Junior role or level
Trainee/executive assistant
3% 1% 3% 2% 0% 6%
I don't work in the business but have an ownership role
3% Other
8% 0%
Global
56 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
India
Q: Which of the following best describes your current job level within the company? Base: All India respondents (n = 36), all global respondents (n = 102). The Indian family business house is still largely traditional and a majority (91%) of the next gen we profiled occupy senior/board-level positions; there are very few next gens. Working at junior or middle management levels. Globally, as the graph below shows, the percentage is lower (67%).
Transition, succession and professionalisation Future role 32%
I expect to manage the company one day and this has been agreed
19% 25%
I would hope to be managing the company one day but this has not yet been agreed
31% 14%
I expect to take on a senior role in the company in the future but don't expect to manage the company
8%
I am already in a senior role in the company but don't expect to manage it
8% 8% 12%
I expect to have an ownership role but not a management role
17% 6%
Other
Don't know/prefer not to say
Global
11% 3% 6%
India
Q: Which one of the following statements best describes your possible future role in the company? Base: All India respondents (n = 36), all global respondents (n = 102). With regard to future roles that the next gen expects to play within the family business, 50% say that they expect to be managing the business one day, though only 19% acknowledge that this has been agreed on. Globally, 57% expect that they will be running the company and for 32%,
this has been agreed upon. Another 16% (22% global) are in senior roles/expect to take on senior roles but do not expect to manage the business. Finally, 17% of the Indian next gen are looking at ownership only.
Next gen Leadership on Opportunities and Challenges ‘If you ask me what my ambition is, it would be to lead the business. Having said that, I am cognisant of the fact that I have to be capable of leading a nearly two billion USD plus growing business. If I am not, I am doing everybody a disservice by leading the business. It is a tremendous responsibility and I should be able to deliver on that responsibility.’ —Arjun Jain, Varroc Group, Second generation
when you are born. I have been going to office with my grandfather since as far back as I can remember. Third generation kindergarten or even elementary school, I would sit with a colouring book on his table, but I would hear his voice – he would be speaking to people about business and about issues, about doing whatever needs to be done and that has always stayed with me.’ —Arjun Jindal, Machino Polymers, Third generation
‘It is essential to build a culture that enables healthy debate within the promoter family and professionals. Even though the ultimate call rests with the promoter, unity of objective ensures better decision making.’ —Nihaal Mariwala, OmniActive Health Technologies, Fifth generation
‘A fresh MBA graduate would certainly not have been hired to take on the responsibility that I was given right after my MBA. In a family firm, you are given opportunities that can sometimes far exceed your immediate known abilities to handle them. It pushes you in a very different way to step up.’ —Zahabiya Khorakiwala, Wockhardt Hospitals, Second generation
‘In a family business, your preparation starts from
neeraj.varty07@gmail.com September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 57
Bollywood Biz
Bollywood actresses who
married foreigners
Love knows no nationalities, and this applies to Bollywood actresses as well. Some actresses have found their soulmate from remote corners of the globe, away from the constant spotlight of the paparazzi. Just as news of superstar Priyanka Chopra’s engagement to singer Nick Jonas comes out, we look at Bollywood actresses who married foreigners By Neeraj Varty
Preity Zinta And Gene Goodenough
Preity Zinta has won hearts in Bollywood with superhit movies like Soldier and Kal Ho Na Ho, and she left fans more than a little surprised when she tied the knot with American financial analyst Gene Goodenough in 2016. The couple had a quiet marriage in Los Angeles, post which she has taken a break from the film industry. Lisa Ray and Jason Dehni
Lisa Ray wears many hats. She has been a television host, Bollywood actress and social activist with style. She has appeared in films like Water and Kasoor. She was also in the news for being a cancer survivor, and her story is an inspiration to millions. Her wedding to Jason Dehni, a management consultant, in California, was a happy ending to a hard fought story. The couple tied the knot in the scenic Napa Valley which is a dream destination when it comes to weddings. 58 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Celina Jaitley And Peter Haag
Former Miss India Celina Jaitley has quite a few hits to her credit. She was part of successful ensemble comedies like Golmaal Returns and No Entry. In 2011, she had a low profile marriage to Peter Haag, a Dubai based hotelier and businessman. Today, the couple are proud parents to twins, and live in Dubai.
Shriya Saran and Andrei Koscheev Shriya Saran is quite famous down south, but she has acted in several Bollywood films like Mission Istanbul, Awarapan, and Drishyam. She married Russian tennis player Andrei Koscheev earlier this year. Apart from being a sportsman, Andrei has a chain of restaurants that serve organic food and he has also won the Best Young Entrepreneur Award in 2015. The couple alternate between Russia and India to spend time with each other’s families. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 59
Mobile apps
ET Markets
Best Apps for
Stock Trading Indian society tends to save rather than spend. When you have disposable income lying in the bank, investing in the stock market can be a good option that yields high results. While discretion is always advised when investing in stocks, if you do decide to take the plunge, we have the right tools for you. Here are some of the best free apps for stock trading on your smartphone By Neeraj Varty
IIFL Markets The IIFL was awarded the best mobile app for stock markets by Zee Business awards. Launched by India Infoline Ltd, one of India’s leading stock brokerage firms, this app enables instant trading to registered customers. You can view equity research reports from IIFL’s own team, receive price alerts and customise your watchlist. You can also request for support directly from the app.
NSE App An android app by NSE itself, the app has some basic features like search, listing all information about equities, graphs, charts. The unique feature of the app is that coming from NSE itself, you can trade using it directly.
60 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
ET markets is one of the more popular trading apps. ET Market packs some serious features to impress anyone with every thing you could ask in a stock market app. Once you open the app, you will land on live and real time Sensex and Nifty updates and scrolling down you will find the top gainers, top losers and top movers of the day. ET markets lets you track stock market indicators in several regional languages. It has a smart voice search functionality and one can customise news, analysis and data according to one’s preferences.
Stock Edge The Stock Edge app is focused on research and analytics. It provides extensive tools for fundamental, technical and derivatives research. The app allows you to conduct price scans and filter according to highs and lows achieved in a week, a month, a year, high volume stocks, high delivery stocks, etc. It also allows to check moving averages, candlestick patterns, aggressive longs, aggressive shorts, etc. One can also conduct sector research. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com
Pearls of Wisdom By Dada J P Vaswani
Therapy of Love and Compassion
All you need to do is simply make others happy, and the happiness that went out from her to others, came back to her manifold. Here’s how a lesson was learnt from feeding the cat
M
rs. Warren-Smith was a very wealthy socialite, who was, like many of her rich friends, ‘under therapy’. Every alternate day, she would wear her most expensive and fashionable suit to visit the plush office of her psychiatrist, lie on his couch and vent her grievances on the unkind cuts that life had dealt her. “Nobody loves me, nobody understands me,” was her constant refrain. Or else, she would say, “I have lost my appetite; I just don’t want to eat any more,” or at other times, “I just can’t get to sleep! I am suffering from severe insomnia.” Her psychiatrist, Cooper, M.D. allowed her to have her way for the first six weeks of therapy, and heard out her whole litany of complaints. On her next visit, he informed her that actual treatment would begin from then, and her session that day would be with a ‘happiness expert’. Mrs. Warren-Smith was very pleased. She was getting fed up with the good doctor’s unresponsive demeanour and silent note-taking. May be, the happiness expert would be more sympathetic. At any rate, it would be nice to recite all her old complaints to a new person. The doctor opened the door of the consulting room and called out, “Mrs. Jones, would you please come in now?” She was shocked to see the lady who entered with her broom and mop and bucket—why, she had seen this woman before. It was none other than the cleaning lady who was wiping or sweeping or dusting in the lobby of the posh building where Mr. Cooper and other doctors had their clinics. Mrs. Jones put away her cleaning materials and took her seat near the couch, as the doctor had indicated. She folded her hands and put them primly on her knees. Mrs. Warren-Smith noticed that her hands were rough and calloused;
her nails were not polished or painted; she wore absolutely no make-up, and her dress was plain and simple. But her eyes sparkled, and the loveliest smile played upon her lips. “Tell us Mrs. Jones,” the doctor began, “are you happy?” “Yes, thank you doctor,” smiled the lady. “I am very happy indeed.” “And how is your appetite these days?” the doctor continued. “Do you eat well?” “The good Lord blesses me with two square meals a day,” smiled Mrs. Jones, “and I am happy to say I do justice to what he sends me.” “And, do you sleep well at night?” “The moment my head hits the pillow, I nod off, and I only wake up when the sunlight creeps into my room.”
“Soon, the thought came to my mind, that if a little animal could be made so happy with my kindness, how much more happiness I could offer to my fellow human beings”
“Tell me Mrs. Jones, were you always this happy?” “My dear Sir, you know how miserable I was when I lost my husband and son in that railroad accident five years ago,” said Mrs. Jones, wiping away a tear. “You must remember, I even stopped coming to work.” “Please go on,” urged the doctor, “tell us what happened after that?” “Well, I sank into a mire of depression and misery,” said Mrs. Jones. “I could not eat, I could not sleep, and I hated meeting people or even talking to anyone. I shut myself up in my little flat, and became a recluse. “One evening, I heard a pathetic mewing and scratching noise at the door. It was a little kitten who had been separated from its mother and abandoned by the family. The little creature was so lost and so scared that my heart melted at the very sight of her. I took her inside and gave her some milk in a saucer. She lapped it all up in a jiffy and gave me a look that made me hug her. I decided to take her in and make her my pet and my companion. You won’t believe how she was transformed in a day’s time with all the love and care I gave her! And, as for me, I found a new purpose to my existence! Far from being an abandoned, sad woman, I found that I was in a position to help other creatures, who were worse off than me. “Soon, the thought came to my mind, that if a little animal could be made so happy with my kindness, how much more happiness I could offer to my fellow human beings. So, the next day, I baked some cookies and took them over to the old lady who lived upstairs. How delighted she was, and how delighted I was to see her so pleased! “And that was how my new life began. I did whatever I could to make people happy. I baked cakes and biscuits for old and young neighbours; I began to baby sit for my younger friends; I volunteered to care for the animals at the stray dog’s shelter. I returned to work because I needed more money to make more people happy. And since then, sir, I have not looked back!” “But my good woman,” Mrs. Warren-Smith protested, “you are not an expert! You cannot take on the cares and anxieties of people with complex problems!” “True, madam, I am not an expert at treating people,” confessed Mrs. Jones. “But I can smile! And I can offer a shoulder for people to cry on! And that doesn’t need expertise now, does it madam?” Mrs. Warren-Smith stared speechlessly at the cheerful, bright-eyed cleaning woman! She had indeed discovered the secret of happiness! She simply made others happy, and the happiness that went out from her to others, came back to her manifold.
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 61
Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian
From The Mobile
Positive psychology Did you know that at Harvard, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, the most popular and successful course teaches you how to learn to be happier. The Positive Psychology class taught by Ben Shahar attracts 1400 students per semester and 20% of Harvard graduates take this elective course. According to Ben Shahar, the class, which focuses on happiness, self-esteem and motivation gives students the tools to succeed and face life with more joy. This 45-year-old teacher, considered by some to be ‘the happiness guru’, highlights in his class - 14 key tips for improving the quality of our personal status and contributing to a positive life: 1. Thank God for everything you have: Write down 10 things you have in your life that give you happiness. Focus on the good things. 2. Practice physical activity: Experts say exercising helps improve mood. Thirty minutes of exercise is the best antidote against sadness and stress. 3. Breakfast: Some people miss breakfast due lack of time or to avoid getting fat. Studies show that breakfast gives you energy, helps you think and perform your activities successfully. 4. Assertive: Ask what you want and say what you think. Being assertive helps improve your self-esteem. Being left out and remaining silent creates sadness and hopelessness. 5. Spend your money on experiences: A study found that 75% of people felt happier when they invested their money in travel, courses
and classes; the rest said they felt happier when buying things. 6. Face your challenges: Studies show that the more you postpone something, the more anxiety and tension you generate. Write short weekly lists of tasks and complete them. 7. Put everywhere nice memories, phrases and photos of your loved ones: Fill your fridge, your computer, your desk, your room, YOUR LIFE with beautiful memories. 8. Always greet and be nice to other people: More than 100 inquiries state that just smiling changes the mood. 9. Wear comfortable shoes: If your feet hurt you, you become moody, says Dr. Keinth Wapner, President of the American Orthopedics Association. 10. Take care of your posture: Walk straight with your shoulders slightly backwards and the front view helps to maintain a good mood. 11. What you eat has an impact on your mood: Do not skip meals, eat lightly every three to four hours and keep glucose levels stable. Avoid excess white flour and sugar. Eat everything healthy - vary your food. 12. Take care of yourself and feel attractive: Seventy per cent of people say they feel happier when they think they look good. 13. Fervently believe in God: With him nothing is impossible! 14. Develop a sense of humour: Learn to laugh off matters, especially when things don’t go right for you. Happiness is like a remote control, we lose it every time we go crazy looking for it, and many times without knowing—we are sitting on top of it. Have an unconditionally happy life.
The F lo w i n g R i ve r Guruji was sitting by the riverside and I asked him, "What are you doing, Guruji?" Guruji replied: "I am waiting for the river to finish flowing so I can get across the river." To this, I replied "What are you saying Guruji, if you wait for the river to finish flowing, you will just keep waiting and will never end up crossing the river Guruji". Guruji said, "This is exactly what I have been trying to make you all understand—all those who always keep telling me that they will start their Seva (selfless service), Smaran, (meditation/remembrance), Satsang (sacred gathering) once their life's responsibilities are completed. Just as the river's flow will never stop and we have to cross the river amidst its flowing waters, likewise, our life itself may end but our life's responsibilities will never end. It is amidst our busy work and responsible lives that we have to find our path (or time for) for Seva, Smaran and Satsang. Jai Guru Dev!
62 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Carry on Doctor
Sarcasm at its best: Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own shopping bags because plastic bags were not good for the environment. The woman apologised and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing in our earlier days.” The cashier responded, “That’s our problem today; your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right—our generation didn’t have the green thing in our day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilised, and refilled, so they could use the same bottles again. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor. But, we didn’t have the green thing in our day. We walked up the stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every shop and office building. We walked to the grocery store and did not climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But, she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we did not have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an ‘energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts;’ wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in the days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brandnew clothing. But, that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.
We had one TV, or radio, in the house—not a TV in every room. And, the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of the county of Yorkshire. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we did not have electric machines to do everything. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we did not fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower. We exercised by working so we did not need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But, she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then. We drank water from a fountain or a tap when we were thirsty instead of demanding a plastic bottle flown in from another country. We accepted that a lot of food was seasonal and did not expect that to be bucked by flying it thousands of air miles around the world. We actually cooked food that did not come out of a packet, tin or plastic wrap and we could even wash our own vegetables and chop our own salad. But, we didn’t have the green thing back then. People took the tram or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. We did not need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But, isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?
A Sindhi Doctor can't find a job in any hospital in the US so he opens a clinic and puts a sign outside 'GET TREATMENT FOR $20 - IF NOT CURED GET BACK $100’ An American lawyer thinks this is a great opportunity to earn $100 and goes to the clinic... Lawyer: "IHave lost my sense of taste". Sindhi: "Nurse, bring medicine from box no. 22 and put three drops in patient's mouth". Lawyer: "Ugh...this is kerosene". Sindhi: "Congrats, your sense of taste is restored. Give me $20". The annoyed lawyer goes back after a few days to recover his money... Lawyer: "I have lost my memory. I cannot remember anything" Sindhi: "Nurse, bring medicine from box no. 22 and put 3 drops in his mouth". Lawyer (annoyed): "This is kerosene. You gave this to me last time for restoring my taste". Sindhi: "Congrats, You got your memory back. Give me $20" The fuming lawyer pays him, and then comes back a week later determined to get back $100. Lawyer: "My eyesight has become very weak I can't see at all". Sindhi: "Well, I don't have any medicine for that, so take this $100" Lawyer: (staring at the note): "But this is $20, not $100". Sindhi "Congrats, your eyesight is restored. Give me $20". You can't beat a Sindhi!
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 63
astroturf desires and inclinations with the career and the home.
Aries
March 21 - April 20
Money days: 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 29, 30 September is a strong social month. Romantic opportunities are abundant, singles will hear all kinds of ‘whoppers’ from prospective suitors. The ‘blarney’ will flow in rivers. Discern and discriminate. Everyone around can be all gas with less of substance. Altercations with juniors can escalate. Avoid speculations during this period.
CAPRICORN
Dec 23 - Jan 20
(www.dollymanghat.com)
Fortune favours the bold and the lucky
Your attitude is your altitude, says Dolly Manghat, our renowned Astrological expert and believes she helps people create their own prophecies rather than live predictions
other.
TAURUS
April 21 - May 20
Money days: 24, 25, 26, 27 The good happy period continues. Let go and allow good to come to you. No need for power struggles or self-will. Seek consensus in all that you do. No need to figure things out—you will not have the whole picture, and it would probably be inaccurate. Good things to you will happen in ways that you can’t yet conceive. Financially, it’s a brilliant period.
GEMINI
May 21 - June 21
Money days: 19, 20, 26, 27 Career focus will ease up this month. You are still in a period where emotional and domestic harmony are important. There will be more leisure activities and more interest in exploring the joy of life. The unusual stressful alignment is in effect until the 23rd. Later, things get much easier—but not so easy, hence do look after your health.
CANCER
June 22 - July 23
Money days: 22, 23, 26, 27 This is a time for getting your home and family relationships in right order, for cultivating positive inner states of mind and for getting your emotional life in harmony. Career opportunities no matter how lu-
crative, should be judged from the perspective of emotional harmony.
LEO
July 24 - Aug 23
Money days: 24, 25, 26, 27 You should work to build your life as you desire it to be. Your personal effort will make a huge difference. Seek to please those who matter or are in higher authority without offending or hurting others. Career opportunities and job changes (positive ones) could come, but you must always consider how these things will affect you emotionally.
VIRGO
Aug 24 - Sept 23
Money days: 19, 20, 22, 29, 30 Your challenge is to make enough time to be personally happy and yet satisfy the needs of bosses and family members (especially children). A sense of proportion will see you through. Balance your personal and professional life. You are still in a good position to have things your way and to create life as you desire it to be.
LIBRA
Sept 24 - Oct 22 Money days: 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 A very happy month, Libra.
64 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
Health will improve. Self-confidence, self-esteem, personal magnetism and charisma will be unusually strong. Though, you still need to research health regimes, diets and medications more carefully—you will remain in a very good shape. Always-good aesthetic sense gets even better. Career gets a boost from your spouse or lover.
SCORPIO
Oct 23 - Nov 22
Money days: 26, 27, 30 You will be starting a new social cycle. New friends will be coming into your life. You will be getting involved with groups and organisations and you would learn to be a part of a team. Money-making will require team work, group effort. The better you function as part of a team, the better your finances will be.
SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22
Money days: 19, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29 It’s as if the most benevolent powers in the universe are having a conference conspiring as to how best to advance your career that can bring you maximum success. Though career is still very important, there is still a need to balance your personal
Money days: 18, 26, 27 Communication with family members still needs watching. Be patient with finances this month. Regardless of fears or worries, right now you have enough for what you really need to do. And when another need comes, you will have enough for that. Love is status quo. Career focus could create shortterm stresses either in your social plans or in a relationship. But these things will pass.
AQUARIUS
Jan 21 - Feb19
Money days: 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 27, 28 Family members are now supportive of your career goals. Your success improves the social status of the family as a whole. Right now you are seeing the pay-off for months of building a stable home base. Love will get better every day. Singles find chances to find a partner in the normal places and also at religious or academic functions.
PISCES
Feb 20 - Mar 20
Money days: 19, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29 In past months you were striving to feel good and to build a stable home base, now you are focusing on the outer world and your career objectives. You can safely de-empathize home and family issues and focus on your career now. Your house of love is ultrapowerful. 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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PROF. SUDHIR K SOPORY, VICE CHANCELLOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU) Volume 1, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
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CORPORATE CULTURE
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity
INTERVIEW
An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power
Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR
UNFLINCHING SUPPORT
September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 65
the last word
Ganesh Natarajan
Opportunities to Exploit In virtually every sphere of human endeavour, from industry to agriculture to healthcare to education, opportunities abound not only for profit seeking entrepreneurs but also for social enterprises focused on productivity improvement and transformation in the capabilities of people entering and already engaged in these sectors It’s always heartening to read a response peppered with data from the leader of our country which seeks to demonstrate that while all may not be well in the country, many fears may be largely unfounded. One such is that of job creation and it was glad to read the assertion by PM Modi that over forty-five lakh new jobs have been created in six months in the formal sector and he expects that a larger number of informal jobs are being created at a rapid clip. Be that as it may, for all of us who are in the business as well as the social endeavour of skilling Indians for new jobs, the fact remains that to create 1.2 crore capable job seekers and entrepreneurs every year, a lot more has to be done in economic growth and skills than is currently visible on the ground. An exemplar in this area is our entity called Pune City Connect (PCC) which has demonstrated what successful Public Private Partnerships in the social sector can accomplish. The brainchild of leading CEOs in the city drawn from the Manufacturing, Foods, Energy and Software sectors and led by a 1995 batch IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus, Ruchi Mathur. Pune City Connect has set out to make two lakh underprivileged families in the slum communities of Pune Municipal Corporate feel part of the larger city family. It has done this through
better quality of education in the municipal Marathi and Urdu medium schools. It has also addressed, digital literacy for all and access to personal agency and aspiration development. This has led to better citizenship and jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for all who care to substantially transform their own lives as well as those of their families and communities. PCC today has the support of scores of other NGOs and Skilling partners, many top city corporates and a benevolent political and bureaucracy support group. They
tunes of crores of beneficiaries in the next few years. Another example of stellar social effort to build entrepreneurs and sustainable livelihoods in our country has been that of Social Venture Partners. SVP India has already set up seven chapters with over 200 engaged partners and has been able to sift through the massive candidate group of well-meaning social enterprises and identify forty plus NGOs and social enterprises with passionate founders that hold the potential to transform cities, states and the country at scale. Entities that have demonstrated visible local impact like Jagruti in Pune and Udayan Care in Delhi, aggregators like Youth4Jobs and PCC inspired NES and rural entrepreneurship models like Vrutti and SEWA are all seeing the benefit of engaged local part-
There are opportunities emerging across all sectors as the economy needle moves up. Lets educate our youth to find them and succeed have committed to match every rupee of operating expense with all the capital expenditure needed to make fifteen skills centres, seventy plus digital literacy centres and buses and dozens of municipal skills truly top class. Access to mentors and funds has made this entity a role model for social transformation for all cities in the country. And this country has the potential to make thousands of skills, digital literacy and education entrepreneurs scale and transform the mindsets and for-
66 / Corporate Citizen / September 16-30, 2018
ners working with them to accelerate and accentuate their impact. What is the opportunity we can exploit? In virtually every sphere of human endeavour, from industry to agriculture to healthcare to education, opportunities abound not only for profit seeking entrepreneurs but also for social enterprises focused on productivity improvement and transformation in the capabilities of people entering and already engaged in these sectors. And the opportunity is huge. In the month of August, I had the privilege to deliver the
Dewang Mehta Anniversary lecture in Ahmedabad to a group of five hundred plus students and administrators as well as faculty. It was an exhilarating experience and the aspirations and awareness levels of the students renewed my sense of optimism in the future of our country. Another extraordinary experience was the inauguration of a livelihood development centre at Umreth, the birthplace of Dewang Mehta. This centre funded jointly by the local corporation and the Dewang Mehta Foundation Trust and implemented by our family foundation the Natarajan Education Society seeks to replicate the Pune Skills Lighthouse model with more doses of technology to make hundreds of students from this little town employed or employment creators. The real success will be if many of these bright young folks become social entrepreneurs. When there are over three million enthusiastic non-profits in the country all struggling to scale while addressing real social issues of the day, surely, we as enlightened and well-meaning mentors and funders of scalable entrepreneurs in the country can find a lot more success and indeed returns on our time and money investment by focusing on these rather than just copycat ideas seeking to become unicorns in the over-crowded e-commerce space. There are opportunities emerging across all sectors as the economy needle moves up. Lets educate our youth to find them and succeed. Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect and Social Venture Partners, India.
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September 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 67
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