23rd issue all pages for website

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP: DR SR. ARPANA, PRINCIPAL, MOUNT CARMEL COLLEGE (BENGALURU) Volume 1, Issue No. 23 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

February 1-15, 2016 / `50

CII’S MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015

Leading corporates debate on the potentials of ‘Make in India’

INTERVIEW

A Thiru, President, Corporate HR, JK Organisation R. Balasundaram, Vice President, TATA AIG General Insurance Dynamic Duo 23 PN Vasanti and Premchand Palety

Rejoicing in research

cover inner

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Commendable Commitment

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ate Russi Mody, who joined as an office assistant in 1939, rose to become the Chairman and Managing Director of Tata Steel by the time he resigned 53 years later in 1993. His career graph was admirable. He was promoted to the position of Director of Personnel in 1953. He took up the position of Director of Raw Materials in 1965.

In 1970, he was appointed Director of Operations and became Joint Managing Director in 1972. Thereafter, he became the Chairman and Managing Director.

He was known for his gastronomic appetite, the trademark being the 16-egg omelette he enjoyed for a meal. An avid reader of biographies of statesmen, he was deeply influenced by Napoleon Bonaparte and hung a large portrait of this French Emperor in his study room, for inspiration. Perhaps it was the love for this warrior that made him call his workers, ‘troops’.

A tribute by Cyrus P Mistry, Chairman of Tata Sons, on Russi Mody’s demise aptly sums up the latter’s calibre as a stalwart corporate leader of India. Mistry has stated, in the press release, “Russi was a stalwart who steered Tata Steel to become India’s most trusted corporations. His vision was all encompassing, enduring commitment to society and focus on the dignity of the individual. On the one hand, Russi Mody steered a major modernisation programme for the company, and on the other, widened its development initiatives for local communities and to address larger needs. Entities like the Tata Steel Rural Development Society and the Tata Football Academy bear testimo-

Russi Mody (centre) flanked with Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian and his wife Mrs Thilagavathi Balasubramanian

He was known for his gastronomic appetite, the trademark being the 16-egg omelette he enjoyed, for a meal. An avid reader of biographies of statesmen, he was deeply influenced by Napoleon Bonaparte and hung a large portrait of this French Emperor in his study room, for inspiration. Perhaps it was the love for this warrior that made him call his workers, ‘troops’ February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 3

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The chair remains the same; people who occupy it keep changing. However, the impact and influence which they leave behind, lives for decades. For a small person like me, the lesson is that the world is good, the people are good, people want to be good and people ought to be good. What more do I want in life? I had the opportunity to invite and interact with two legendary people who defined India’s industrial growth, which they pursued with a fiery mission ny to this. He could indeed say the Company made many things and it also made steel. In all this, Russi Mody embodied the Tata principles of building trustworthy and socially oriented organisations.”

Chanakya Chaudhary, Group Director has stated, “Apart from being a far-sighted corporate leader, Mr Mody was a fervent sports enthusiast, loved music and was fond of good food. He played the piano and had the distinction of once having played with Albert Einstein on the violin. His love for food stretched from the morning tea and samosa at the Company’s workers’ canteen, lassi and paneer pakora at the roadside stall on Parliament Street, humungous omelettes made by the man himself, to the best of national and international cuisines. He was as comfortable holidaying in the jungles of India as he was in the French Riviera.”

He was a manager par excellence. Mody’s style of management at Tata Steel was a reflection of his ability to connect with people and to nurture talent. His biggest contribution to Tata Steel is the depth of management and talent he left behind.

He believed that if you took care of the workers, they would take care of the company.

But that did not mean he gave in to all their demands. He knew when and where to draw the line.’’

Mody wrote his biography, ‘The Man Who Also Made Steel’ which was published in 2008.

Mody’s death at the age of 96 on May 16, 2014, was the end of an institution at Tata Steel. Padma Bhushan Russi Mody’s association with Tata Steel lasted for more than 50 years. Thus, his

biography makes extremely interesting reading because of his phenomenal rise in that industrial house where he reigned as its uncrowned king for at least three decades, winning the love, affection and regard of all those he dealt with.

During his tenure as CMD, I was dreaming of inviting Mr Mody as the chief guest for our National HRD Meet, which we used to organise, in my capacity as Director, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS). It was not the era of mobiles then. I tried to reach him in his office at Jamshedpur, which was not possible as his personal secretary said that he was out of the country and reluctantly, after much insistence from my side, gave me his contact number.

When I called him, he seemed to be asleep. It was midnight in London. He answered my call and his first question was, “Why are you troubling me at this unearthly hour of midnight? I am in London. What is the urgency?”

I answered, with a bit of trepidation, “Sorry Sir, I am calling from India. I am from a management institute.’’

He roared, “What the hell are you doing now? What connection do I have with your B-school?’’

I got a bit bolder and said, “Sir, you have every connection with it as you are the end user of our product.”

“Okay, I am very sleepy now. Tell me in one minute, what you want to say.”

I quickly said, “We are organising a National HR Meet and I want you to be the chief guest.”

“What date and time?’’ he asked me brusquely.

I told him.

4 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

He promptly replied, “Okay, I will come.”

I was very excited that he would see all my students in the formal uniform as per the dress code of the corporate world. I was the pioneer in introducing uniforms in management institutes in the country. It so happened that I had gone for a visit to TELCO, now Tata Motors, where I saw all employees following a dress code.

Inspired by this sight, which gave status and dignity to the work environment, I introduced it at SIMS. It has now become a fashion trend for management colleges across the country, to have uniforms for their students.

Although Mr Mody had confirmed, we could not communicate further, as he was to fly from London to Mumbai and then straightaway drive to our campus in Pune. All the students were set to welcome him. We were all on tenterhooks as to whether he would keep up his word or not, but were delighted and overawed by his commitment when he arrived, dot on time, to the college. However, to my utter surprise, he landed in an informal, colourful floral-print

Mr Ratan Tata with Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian during his visit to SIMS. Also seen (extreme right) General Ved Prakash Malik

shirt and bermudas (three-fourth-length casual pants). I had imagined he would be in formal attire – totally suited-booted. However, the reason became clear when he asked me, “What time is the function?’’

I told him, “9 am.”

“Oh, it is already 9 am so there is no time to change.” And thus, he was in those casual, flamboyant clothes and showed all of us how important punctuality was, over anything else.

Of course, I did not show my astonishment and escorted him to the seminar hall, where he gave a very good speech. He shared the story of his work and life. His lecture was punctuated with lighter moments and his interaction with the students was intense and warm. He complimented me for reaching out to him and said that he was very impressed with the students and the institute.

After the event, I escorted him to Hotel Blue Diamond where he had been put up. He changed into his formal attire and had a discussion with me and my wife for over an hour. As

usual, I spoke to him about campus placements to which he responded positively. Sure enough, after returning to Jamshedpur, he promptly sent his Director to the campus for an on-the-spotassessment.

His jovial disposition and humble demeanour had a deep impact on my mind and behaviour. We exchanged greetings for several years, even after he left TISCO. I continue to be indebted to him for keeping up his commitment despite his hectic schedule and despite not having met me ever before.

Reaching out to top corporate leaders has always been a challenge, but we have always succeeded and felt overwhelmed when stalwarts like Mr. Mody kept their promise and inspired the young generation, which is waiting in the wings to jump into the corporate world.

The case of getting in touch with Mr Ratan Tata was equally delightful. We tried our luck and managed to get his personal mobile phone number. Mr Tata politely enquired, listened to the request of my students and instantly re-

gretted his inability to grace the function. My students though were not ready to accept this answer. They persisted by calling him again.

A frustrated Ratan Tata told them, “Arre baba, at the moment, I am sitting on the beach side, abroad. Don’t trouble me. But you can reach out to me when I come to India.”

The moment they came to know that Mr Tata was back at his Tata House office in Mumbai, three of my commando students reached Mumbai and began sending faxes to him, every hour. The message stated, “We are so and so, we have arrived and whenever you have two minutes time, please reach out to this number.’’

The faxes were going straight to his personal secretary’s office.

Finally, he called. “Where are you people?” he asked.

“We are waiting for you in front of your gate at Tata House,” they replied.

“Where is the fax machine there?” he asked curiously.

“We arranged it Sir,” said the students.

Mr Tata called the three students to his office. He flung his engagement diary at them and said, “I don’t go to these colleges as I am so busy.

See for yourself if there is any free day.”

The students browsed through it and one of them spotted a blank day. “Here Sir,” he said, pointing to a date when he had no other appointments. Impressed by their passion and enterprise, we had the privilege of having Mr Ratan Tata over at our management institute.

Men may come and men may go. The chair remains the same; people who occupy it keep changing. However, the impact and influence which they leave behind, lives for decades. For a small person like me, the lesson is that the world is good, the people are good, people want to be good and people ought to be good.

What more do I want in life? I had the opportunity to invite and interact with two legendary people who defined India’s industrial growth, which they pursued with a fiery mission. I saw them at close quarters, making my lifetime’s mission complete.

DR (COL.) A. BALASUBRAMANIAN editor-in-chief February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Contents 36

COVER STORY Dynamic Duo 23

Rejoicing in research An in-depth interview with Premchand Palety, Chief Executive of the Centre for Forecasting & Research (C fore) and PN Vasanti, Director General of the Centre for Media Studies, also the Director of Marketing & Development Research Associates, on what makes their marriage work

9

COLLYWOOD

Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World

13

MANAGE MONEY

Dr Anil Lamba on Trading on Equity: How to use Fixed-Cost Assets/Funds to Magnify Returns

14

WAX ELOQUENT

Who said what and why

16

INTERVIEW

An in-depth interview with A Thiru, President, Corporate HR at JK Organisation

22

TÊTE-À-TÊTE

A candid converstaion with R Balasundaram, Vice President, TATA AIG General Insurance 6 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Volume 1 Issue No. 23 February 1-15, 2016 www.corporatecitizen.in

22 24

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015

Leading corporates debate on the potentials of ‘Make in India’

30

9

16

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP

An exclusive with Dr Sr. Arpana, Principal, Mount Carmel College (Bengaluru)

42

PROFILE

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A candid converation with Anuradha Vinod Gupta, founder and CEO of Vows for Eternity, one such site that has brought an elite twist to matchmaking, especially for the US-based Indians and top corporates of the country

48

44

THE TAX MAN COMETH-8

Plan your taxes, grow your wealth

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

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42

STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT

Aditi Priydarshani on her first break into the corporate world

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48

SURVEY

An in-depth and insightful survey on Delhi’s Odd-Even conundrum

44

52

PEARLS OF WISDOM

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I am responsible for myself by Osho

54

BOLLYWOOD BIZ

A look at TVF and the rise of the Web Series in India

56

HEALTH

Workout at work

54

52 February 1-15, 5 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 7

58

Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh Assistant Editor Joe Williams Senior Business Writers Mahalakshmi Hariharan Rajesh Rao

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56

TRAVEL

Dr Om Manchanda, whole-time Director and CEO at Dr Lal PathLabs Ltd talks about his favourite holiday destinations

Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur / Sharmila Chand

60

Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

MOBILE APPS

Best apps for tennis lovers

61

CLAPS & SLAPS

Our bouquets and brickbats for the fortnight!

Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty

Pune Bureau Dinesh Kulkarni / Suchismita Pai / Kalyani Sardesai

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

62

INNOVATION

Store water in the sky

63

Circulation Officer Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560

FEATHERLITE

Tweets from the Corporate World!

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THE LAST WORD

The forgotten art of articulation

by Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman & CEO at Zensar Technologies

CORRIGENDUM In our interview of Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce, in the Corporate Citizen issue (January 16-31), titled ‘God of Green’, his designation was inadvertently mentioned as Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

Mr Godrej is the past President of CII and is now the Chairman of the Manufacturing Summit that is organised by CII Western Region every year. The error is deeply regretted.

- Editor 8 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Creative Direction Kiyan Gupta, The Purple Stroke Graphic Designer Anil Walunj On Cover Page PN Vasanti and Premchand Palety Photographers Yusuf Khan, Shantanu Relekar Website / Online Subscription www.corporatecitizen.in For Advertising, Marketing & Subscription queries Email: circulations@corporatecitizen.in (Corporate Citizen does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage) Tel. (020) 69000677 / 69000672

COLLYWOOD

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Chandiok in Grant Thornton Intl Board of Governors list Grant Thornton India CEO and National Managing Partner Vishesh C Chandiok has been appointed to the Board of Governors of Grant Thornton International Ltd’s (GTIL). He is the youngest person to have been appointed to GTILs BoG, said the assurance, tax and advisory firm.

The BoG consists of the Global CEO, representatives from 12 countries and three independent Board members.

“We hope to leverage some

of his experience as we think about our growth plans in other high-growth markets,” said Scott Barnes, Non-Executive Chair of

the BoG, GTIL. BoG is the principal decision making authority within GTIL. Its responsibilities include approving strategic direction and policies of the firm.

“Grant Thornton in India remains a significant member firm of Grant Thornton’s global network and Vishesh’s appointment only reaffirms our confidence in India and its potential to be one of our largest markets,” said Ed Nusbaum, Global CEO, Grant Thornton.

Anil Ambani to invest ₹5k crore in naval facility Expanding his defence sector play, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani announced the setting up of a new naval shipbuilding facility with an initial investment of ₹5,000 crore. The facility, to be set up at Rambilli along the East Coast near Vizag, would also lead to the creation of a multi-tier array of defence ancillaries with further investments of ₹5,00010,000 crore and thousands of skilled jobs. After his group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh government for the facility, Ambani said it would complement Reliance Group’s existing facility at Pipavav in Gujarat and will have a clear focus on building strategic assets for the Indian Navy. “It is estimated that

the Indian Navyy will spend over ₹ three lakh croree or nearly ₹20,000 crore a year on acquisitions and fleet modernisation ation of submarines and aircraft carriers riers over the next 15 years, creating ng a huge pipeline of opportunity for the proposed world-class naval val facility,” he added. “At an initial nitial investment outlay of ₹5,0000 crore, it will represent the single-largest ngle-largest investment at one ne location anywhere in Andhra ndhra Pradesh,” Ambani said. He further said Reliance Group p has had a strong business engagement with Andhra Pradesh radesh and it has already invested ested ₹15,000 crore and created ed thousands of jobs in the state ate across a range of sectors, ors, from telecom to power. wer.

Adar Poonawalla takes initiative to clean city Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute started India’s first Public Private Participation (PPP) initiative to tackle the problem of disposal of wet garbage in Pune stemming from his desire to get rid of the ‘stigma attached to the city due to its rotting garbage heap.’

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched the Adar Poonawalla Clean City Movement (APCC), a technology-based initiative launched in partnership with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

Poonawalla has invested ₹100 crore in the initiative for trucks, bins and setting up of the processing plant at Talegaon. Poonawalla said the plans could well change the face of Pune.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 9

COLLYWOOD The clock stops for HMT ‘He not busy being born, is busy dying’, so goes the lyric of a well-known Bob Dylan song.

This may well be the story of one of the country’s oldest brands, Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT).

A few years short of its 50th year, the brand that was once called the timekeeper to the nation, is being laid to rest. As the shutters come down, HMT has been overwhelmed by an outpouring of support on social media, a surge in demand for the few remaining pieces in stock and elevation to a cult status among a select group, but the brand was dead long before the final call. “Anyone who is around 50 years of age will remember HMT to be the first wrist watch he got. It is indeed sad to see the brand vanish,” said M G ‘Ambi’ Parameswaran, advisor, FCB Ulka Advertising. With a cash assistance of ₹427.48 crore, the government

Bhaskar Bhat, named Vistara chairman said that it is shutting down the three loss-making subsidiaries of HMT Ltd. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has also approved a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for about 1,000 employees of HMT Watches Ltd, HMT Chinar Watches Ltd and HMT Bearings. The accumulated loss for HMT is ₹2,579.61 crore.

HMT has been a brand in decline for a while now. It reported its first losses in 1994 (₹ 90 crore), the same year that Titan, that had recently set up shop, posted a profit.

Malavika Harita, whose first job as

a young management graduate was with HMT, is nostalgic about the brand, the first company to launch quartz watches in India. HMT came out with the first set of quartz watches in 1981. The Swiss watch industry was still grappling with the new technology. HMT took the lead, but backtracked within a very short time when the product failed to find enough customers.

Mismanagement, high prices, poor positioning led to the product failing, but instead of tackling these problems, HMT decided to give up the product altogether.

Kandula to head Capgemini in India Srinivas Kandula has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its India operations of the French IT services firm Capgemini. Kandula played a key role in the acquisition of Patni by IGATE in 2011, and of IGATE by Capgemini in 2015.

He has also spearheaded both integration processes. Capgemini had bought IGATE in a $4 billion cash deal. He replaces Aruna Jayanthi, who has moved to a global role in the Group. Kandula has also joined the Capgemini Group Executive Committee, according to a statement issued by the company. “Since the acquisition of IGATE, India has become even more strategic to our global business roadmap. Srini’s rich and diverse experience across key business functions, notably at IGATE, will help Capgemini in India to play an 10 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

enhanced role in the Group’s future growth plans,” Capgemini Group Chairman and CEO Paul Hermelin said. Kandula joined IGATE in 2007 where he was formerly EVP, Member of the Executive Council and Chief People Officer, responsible for driving IGATE’s Business Strategy, HR, Quality Management and Marketing portfolios globally. “Capgemini in India currently has over 87,000 employees, which is nearly 50 percent of the Group, and caters to over 800 customers globally,” Kandula said. Moving forward, the agenda is to leverage the strong people capabilities for sustained growth and add to client- centric innovation practices, he added. Capgemini has 1.8 lakh employees in over 40 countries. The Group reported revenues of 10.573 billion euros in 2014 globally.

Bhaskar Bhat took over as the new chairman of Tata-SIA joint venture Vistara, according to the official release. Bhat, who was serving as the Managing Director of Titan Company Limited since 2002, replaced Prasad Menon, who retired from the airline, recently. Bhat has joined the Board of the company, the release added. “I am honoured to succeed Menon, and deeply appreciate how Vistara has established its firm presence in India,” Bhat said on his appointment to the top job in the private carrier. Vistara, the third full service carrier after Air India and Jet Airways, had launched its operations on January 9, last year and now operates 307 weekly flights to 12 destinations with a fleet of nine Airbus A320s. “My focus will be on ensuring that Vistara continues to deliver the legendary service excellence and hospitality that the Tata Group and SIA are known for,” Bhat added. The Delhi-based carrier is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines and has just completed one year of operations.

“Vistara will immensely benefit from Bhat’s experience as he brings an ideal blend of business building, marketing and sales expertise, as well as deep insight of Vistara’s core values,” Menon, the former chairman, said.

Top-level changes at Flipkart E-commerce major Flipkart has announced that Sachin Bansal, CEO and Co-founder of Flipkart, will now be the Executive Chairman of the company and Binny Bansal, COO and Co-founder of Flipkart, will be its Chief Executive Officer. “In his role as Executive Chairman of Flipkart, Sachin will provide strategic direction for Flipkart, mentor the senior leadership of the company and look for new investment opportunities. He will play an active role in championing the Indian e-commerce sector and building the internet ecosystem, and represent the company on external forums. Sachin will continue to be the Chairman of the Board,” a blog post said. “In this next phase of

the journey, it will be our endeavour to fulfil this responsibility and prove that India can produce a world class internet company that can outshine any global behemoth. We also want to continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the internet and the commerce ecosystem of India,” said Sachin Bansal. CEO Binny Bansal will now be responsible for operationally driving the company and will be accountable for Flipkart’s overall performance. All the business areas, Commerce, Ekart and Myntra will now report to Binny. All Corporate functions including Human Resources, Finance, Legal, Corporate Communications and Corporate Development will also report to Binny.

Bhanumurthy, a new COO of Wipro Following the elevation of its chief operating officer Abidali Neemuchwala as CEO, Wipro has appointed a new COO, and the model now replicates the one that Infosys has, where the CEO is based in the US, the IT industry’s biggest market, and the COO in India. Bhanumurthy BM, president and chief executive of the business application services (BAS) business, is the new COO. He pipped three other presidents in Wipro for the post. The segment that Bhanumurthy heads is by far the largest service line for Wipro, contributing 47 percent of revenue. In his new role, all the services lines, BAS, global

infrastructure services, product engineering services, analytics, application management services and business process services, will report to him. “Bhanu can drive the painful integration Wipro urgently needs across apps, BPO, cloud and infrastructure.

The firm has been too siloed and putting a person like Bhanu under Abid is the right move to drive integration,” said Phil Fersht, CEO of US-based HfS Research. G K Prasanna, president and chief executive of global infrastructure services, which has an annual revenue run rate of nearly $2 billion, has been made president of a newly-

created unit called marketing, innovations and technology (MIT). MIT will comprise of the CTO & CIO offices, marketing, strategic engagements (advisor relations and sales enablement function), and the integrated solutions group. This new team will focus on non-linear growth engines, products and platformbased services, integrated solutions, research, and new technologies. Both Bhanumurthy and Prasanna will continue to report to Neemuchwala.

AB Khare appointed CMD of Madras Fertilizers The Centre has appointed AB Khare as the Chairman and Managing Director of the state-run Madras Fertilizers for a five-year term. In August last year, the government headhunter Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) had recommended the name of Khare for the post of CMD at Madras Fertilizers Ltd (MFL). Khare will succeed I Vijay Kumar. His name was finalised after interviewing seven shortlisted candidates.

Khare was previously working with state owned fertiliser firm Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers as Chief General Manager (Commercial). MFL was incorporated in 1966 as a joint venture between the Government of India and Amoco India, a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of the USA. It is under the administrative control of the Fertiliser Ministry.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 11

COLLYWOOD Punita Sinha, independent director of Infosys Raghuram Rajan, ‘Central Banker of the Year’ Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has been awarded the Central Banker of the Year Award (Global and Asia Pacific) for 2016 by The Banker, according to an official statement. In a statement, the RBI said The Banker, a monthly banking publication of the Financial Times Group, has conferred on Rajan the award, instituted to felicitate officials who have best managed to stimulate growth and stabilise their economy.

According to The Banker, the award is in recognition of RBI’s contribution towards India weathering the capital outflow and currency storms in the emerging markets, the rupee remaining stable, a clear financial market liberalisation path in attracting foreign investment and making the country’s financial markets more sophisticated.

Infosys, appointed Punita Kumar Sinha, wife of Union Minister Jayant Sinha, as an Independent Director on its Board. In a regulatory filing, India’s second-largest software service exporter said it has appointed Punita Kumar Sinha as an Independent Director.

The appointment was effective from January 14, this year. Punita is the Founder and Managing Partner, Pacific Paradigm Advisors, an independent investment advisory and management firm focused on Asia. She is also a senior advisor and serves as an

independent director for several companies. Sinha, 53, has worked with many leading firms in the US and has over 25 years of experience in fund management

in international and emerging markets. She also serves on the boards of some big companies like SKS Microfinance and Sobha Limited.

Amitabh Kant to take over as NITI Aayog CEO The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed Amitabh Kant as the chief executive officer of NITI Aayog. The appointment will take effect after Kant retires from service in March this year. A 1980 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, Kant is currently serving as the Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Earlier, the Cabinet’s Appointments Committee had given Kant additional charge as the NITI Aayog CEO from January 1, with the extended tenure of the previous CEO Sindhushree Khullar coming to an end on December 31. In a fresh order issued, the Ministry of Personnel said that the competent authority had approved the

12 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

appointment of Kant as CEO, NITI Aayog, after his superannuation. “The terms and conditions of his appointment as CEO, NITI Aayog, will be conveyed in due course,” the ministry said. Kant, who was earlier the CEO of India’s largest industrial infrastructure project, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, has been the

Industry Secretary since March 2014.

He has been steering the government’s two major campaigns to attract investments and create jobs - ‘Make In India,’ which was launched in September 2014, and StartUp India that was unveiled by PM Modi recently. Kant was said to be in the reckoning for a couple of other post-retirement roles, including the chairperson of the Competition Commission of India, whose current chief, Ashok Chawla retired, and a possible role in the proposed National Industrial Corridor Development Authority.

Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com

MANAGE MONEY DR ANIL LAMBA

Trading on Equity:

How to use Fixed-Cost Assets/ Funds to Magnify Returns In the previous article we had considered five different cases, (see chart) showing the break-up of costs between Variable and Fixed and I had a question for you.

When do organisations make more profits? Is it when the fixed costs are lesser or greater? Do higher fixed costs mean higher profits or do lower fixed costs lead to higher profits?

Chances are that you will pick the second option.

However the figures in the illustration show that when the fixed cost was zero, the profit increased from 20 in year 1 to only 40 in year 2.

Then, when the fixed costs were 20, the profit increased to 60.

When the fixed costs were 40, the profit went up to 80.

And when the fixed costs were the highest, the impact on profit was the most.

Impact on Profit as the ratio between VC and FC changes Yr1

Yr 2 Case1

Sales

100

Cost

80

200

Case2

Case3

200

Case4

200

Case5

200

200

V80 160 V60 120 V40

80

V20

40

F--

40

F60

60 F80 80

--

F20 20

F40

V--

--

T Cost

80

160

140

120

100

80

Profit

20

40

60

80

100

120

When did profit increase the most?

In the situation where the fixed costs were the highest.

In Year 1, all five companies had a sales turnover of 100, costs of 80, and profits of 20.

The only difference between each one is the composition of their fixed and variable costs.

A had only variable and no fixed costs.

B had a fixed-cost component of 20.

C’s fixed cost was 40, D’s was 60 and E’s was 80.

The following year, all five worked equally hard and managed to double their sales turnover from 100 to 200.

When A’s turnover doubled, profit doubled.

When B’s turnover doubled, profit trebled.

In C’s case, profit quadrupled.

D’s profit quintupled.

In the case of E, profit increased six-fold.

Who had the highest fixed cost? E. Whose profit increased the most? E’s.

Moral of the story: Higher the Fixed Costs, Higher the Profits.

Then why do I say, “Don’t phone your banker and insist that a higher interest be charged on all your loans so that you can increase your Fixed Costs”?

Take a closer look.

It is true that between A, B, C, D and E, with an identical increase in turnover, E’s profit increased the most.

It is also true that E had the highest fixed costs.

However, do you notice that the total cost of all five in the first year was 80?

E did not incur higher costs than the others.

The only difference between the five is the composition of total costs.

Within the same overall cost of 80, A had the lowest fixed cost and E the highest.

If you increase salaries or rent or interest arbitrarily, costs will increase, and consequently profit will reduce.

Why does Profit increase disproportionately when the Fixed Cost component is higher?

Let me first give you the logic of why there is a disproportionate change in profit when the proportion of fixed costs is higher.

Profit will increase in the same proportion as the change in sales only when all costs are variable by nature.

In such cases, if sales double, costs will double and profit will merely double.

But when costs include an element of fixed cost, when sales double, all costs will not double. The variable cost will increase, but fixed cost will remain fixed. This means that the total cost will lessthan-double, and the profit will more-than-double.

This phenomenon, where a one hundred percent increase in sales can lead to a two hundred or three hundred or four hundred percent increase in profit, is called the leverage effect.

Leverage, in this context, is a name given to a disproportionate change in the bottom line of an organisation due to a certain change in the top line.

And the leverage effect is caused by the presence of fixed costs in the costing structure.

So the challenge, therefore, is to increase fixed costs without increasing overall costs.

The only way this can be done is by swapping some variable costs with fixed costs. ..to be continued

Dr Anil Lamba is a corporate trainer of international repute on finance management. His clients comprise several hundred large and medium sized corporations across different countries of the world. He is the author of the bestselling book Romancing the Balance Sheet. He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 13

WAX ELOQUENT

CREATING UNIMAGINABLE Solve Indian problems in an Indian way

“I believe solutions cannot be just adapted from other countries. We have to understand the problems in India and how it is different from other countries.

We need to solve Indian problems in an Indian way for India with the benefit of interacting with faculty members who have the knowledge and the experience of working on such problems.”

Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Trust said during the UCLA Global Forum in New Delhi Courtesy: Business Standard

India success, not a matter of chance

Bollywood films, lifeline to Pakistan’s film industry

“It’s very simple: we are cousins. We share the same language. We share the same songs.

Bollywood is still giving CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] to our industry.”

Jamshed Mahmood Raza, leading Pakistani filmmaker Courtesy: http://www.thenational.ae/

“India is a bright exception. And this bright exception is not a matter of chance but is all the hard work and difficult decisions taken here by both the government and, of course all the stakeholders, including the corporates.”

Ajay Kanwal, Regional CEO, ASEAN & South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank Courtesy: Economic Times

Start-ups, biggest game changer “In 10 years time we will have 100,000 startups with value creation of $500 billion and generating employment for 3.5 million people. It is going to be the biggest game changer.”

Bridge the digital divide for the underprivileged

“As white revolution came upon the strength of women cooperatives, Digital India will strengthen and explode upon the strength of call centres in small towns of India, rural post offices and common services centres.

Digital divide is to be bridged more for the underprivileged.“ Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communications and IT Courtesy: Indian Express

14 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

TV Mohandas Pai, chairman, Manipal Global Education Courtesy: Financial Express

Opportunities in India begin with the Internet economy “India has billion problems. This is good because it means there are a billion opportunities for entrepreneurs to step in and solve. There are opportunities in every town and village. The opportunities begin with the Internet economy.”

Vivek Wadhwa, academic and technological entrepreneur Courtesy: Times of India

India has a strong case Over time, we should position ourselves as a standalone investment destination rather than as 8.6% of the emerging market allocation. We have a serious shot at this if we can get our reforms back on track. The world is lacking long-term growth markets to invest significant fresh funds and India has a strong case.

Samir Arora, founder and fund manager of Helios Capital Management Pte Ltd Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com/

India cannot be decoupled from global market

“The world is a relative place. I keep telling this to lot of people who think that it is inappropriate for India to deliver negative returns. India is not a frontier market. It is the eighth largest stock market in the world and so cannot be disconnected with the markets around it. India cannot be decoupled forever.”

Ridham Desai, managing director, Morgan Stanley India Courtesy: BusinessLine

POSSIBILITIES Affluence for me is…

“Affluence to me is about being financially independent and having the ability to own your calendar.”

Santosh R. Shetty, cofounder, Neev Technologies Courtesy: www.livemint.com

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

Aadhaar - a huge achievement for the country “Aadhaar is not available in any other country of the world and it is something that can change financial inclusion totally because it is something that will enable us to ensure that subsidy goes to one person, goes directly into his hands, there is no middle person, there are no leakages in the system and therefore the efficiency of the usage of that subsidy is fully ensured.”

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson, SBI Courtesy: Financial Express

Let’s temper the impatience a little bit “Today we do talk about India as a stable economy. So, I think India has covered a lot of steps and is on the right track. I would just say that it is not a question of India underperforming. I would just say that let’s temper the impatience a little bit.”

Ravneet Gill, chief executive officer, Deutsche Bank India Courtesy: www.livemint.com

ICT forces rapidly reshaping value chains “Today’s business environment is driven by change. Three fundamental ICT forces— broadband, mobility and cloud—are rapidly reshaping value chains, digitising business models and creating possibilities that were previously unimaginable.”

Paolo Colella, Head of Region India, Ericsson Courtesy: Financial Express

Outreach of technology is expanding “No business model can be static and there will be changes with time. Technology is ever-evolving, and the exchange platform is also constantly upgrading to match people’s expectations. Smartphones are ushering in more and more people to the market. The outreach of technology is expanding and trading through mobile phone is doubling.”

Boundary between onlineoffline retail blurring

“We foresee that the boundary between online retail and offline retail will start blurring.

You see we have been selling motorcycles.

Now the booking is happening online and the fulfilment is happening offline. The market is huge and India as a market is still underpenetrated.”

Rohit Bansal, chief operating officer, Snapdeal Courtesy: Economic Times

Chitra Ramkrishna, MD & CEO, NSE Courtesy: http://www.indiainfoline.com/

Creativity of an entrepreneur Creativity of an entrepreneur, is not that he has to know technology, he has to know what problem to solve. And then he can team up with the right set of people, to make the idea come to fruition. But coming up with that idea and having the passion to work on that idea is far more important. You yourself need not sit down to write the code.

Vinod Dham, Executive Managing Director, IndoUS Venture Partners

Make money bringing in positive impact

“Success has to be measured in the number of people you are impacting rather than the revenue you are generating year after year. Despite the many serious problems the country faces, educated Indians prefer building billion dollar consumer companies rather than aiming for social impact.”

Kartik Naralasetty, Founder, Socialblood

Growth in India is faster than in other markets

“We need to grow in India, growth will be much faster here than in other markets.

Purchasing power in India is getting stronger.”

Lars Danielson, senior vice-president, Volvo Courtesy: Economic Times

Courtesy: Times of India

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

TOP POSITION

By Vinita Deshmukh

H

e thinks fast and is ever-energetic.

He has profound thoughts and can express them with lightning speed, sometimes tinged with humour when it gets too heavy.

Meet A THIRUNAVUKKARASU, popularly known as A THIRU, currently President, Corporate HR , JK Organisation (EZ) based at New Delhi. Prior to joining JKO in June 2015, Thiru served Vedanta Resources, (a $US 13 billion global diversified natural resources major with interests in zinc, lead, silver, copper, aluminium, power, iron ore, oil and gas with world class assets and operations in geographies spanning India, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Liberia, Ireland and Sri Lanka) for a little over a decade in various capacities, commencing with his journey as GM-HR in April, 2004 in the erstwhile Sterlite Copper in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu and subsequently moving to Mumbai in September 2007 to assume responsibility as the Group’s Global HR Head. Thiru also had a prestigious stint as President-Corporate Development in the Chairman’s Office handling key assignments like hiring global CEOs and NEDs (non-executive directors) to the Board.

Prior to Vedanta, Thiru worked in various companies including TVS Electronics, Hindustan Lever Limited (currently HUL), Wimco and English Electric. Wherever he was associated, Thiru made an impact with his spirit of innovation, commitment and determination, coupled with sensitivity to the prevailing organisational culture. This enabled him to align the HR processes in tandem with organisational needs, besides shaping its culture to adapt progressive practices.

Corporate Citizen: What were your childhood dreams and influences?

A Thiru: My father, the late Shri A Aiyasaamy used to work for the Southern Railways. He is no more now, but the values inherited from him, especially uprightness and pragmatism still holds good, besides of course, brand consciousness (he bought me trouser material from Raymond’s, for my first set of full pants while transitioning into early adulthood). We – a family of five (including two sisters) - lived in the railway colony in Mint area in Chennai during my school / college days. I studied in an ordinary Tamil-medium school but was always amongst the toppers in academics. I had lot of extracurricular activities to my credit as well. I used to win state level oratory and essay competitions. Despite being a lean person in my school days and therefore ridiculed for my desire to join NCC with the ambition of becoming the Cadet Sergeant Major (CSM), I could make a mark, becoming the CSM, in addition to being awarded the prestigious medal of Best Cadet. I also got to attend the most admired All India Leadership Program at Ranchi, learning to swim within a week, a pre-condition I came to know only 10 days prior to my departure. I was also awarded the Best Pupil Award for academic and all-round excellence in the final year at school.

In the southern part of India, children are generally studious and encouraged to become either engineers or doctors. So I tried engineering and architecture initially, but was quick to change track to build on what I was good at and decided to pursue a degree in literature at Loyola College, Chennai. Since I followed my passion, I naturally did well and got gold medals for three consecutive years. In addition, I took up journalism and mass communication as extra-credit courses and was getting noticed and appreciated by external examiners / media personalities for my poems and articles.

Thereafter, I pursued my PG degree in Personal Management and Organisational Behaviour at Loyola College, Chennai. When I applied for it, the college initially showed some reluctance,

A MAN of METTLE

A Thirunavukkarasu, or A Thiru as he is popularly called, now Corporate HR, JK Organisation, is one of the ‘been-there-done-that’ kind of personalities, peppered as his career has been with signature initiatives and variegated responsibilities, in his role at the HR helm of leading corporate conglomerates like Vedanta Resources and Hindustan Lever, besides others.

Wherever he went, he made an impact. Slices of his experiences in this interview with Corporate Citizen

16 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

My father is no more now, but the values inherited from him, especially uprightness and pragmatism still hold good

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 17

TOP POSITION since they never took any Arts graduate for this programme, only B. Com graduates until then.

I argued my candidature not only because I was a gold medallist from the same institution, but also to eliminate arbitrariness and to pave the way for any graduate to apply and be treated on par. I was the first Literature student to break the glass ceiling and step into the programme (1982-84 batch) and came out not only with flying colours, but also with an appointment letter as an Asst.

Professor in the same department, on completing the course. Loyola College followed a 360 degree selection process three decades ago, my selection involving both faculty members and students of the next batch, besides the Head of the Department and the Principal of the college - which is unheard of even in today’s context.

THIRU’S TOP TEN TIPS FOR SUCCESS n TRUST FIRST: Trust begets trust; trust first, unless proved wrong, once but not twice.

o BE PRAGMATIC: Every unresolved problem has a solution and is a potential opportunity to prove your mettle for creating a win-win situation.

p BE EMPATHETIC: No one expects sympathy from anyone. Be an empathetic listener and catalyst.

Help people to help themselves.

From teaching, when did you get into the corporate world?

I yearned to pursue my career in the industry, because that was the primary reason for me to pursue my PG in Personnel Management and Organisational Behaviour. I got two offers at that point – one was from JK Synthetics, part of the JK Group. I came all the way to Kota, Rajasthan to undergo a two-day selection process of the prestigious All India Management Trainee Scheme and got selected soon thereafter. I also got an offer from The English Electric Company of India Limited at Chennai. Since my father was about to retire, I chose English Electric and avoided moving to a city, far away.

q ENVISION: Never get constrained by current realities. Always envision a better future without any selfish motive. At the right time the universe will open the right doors, not just windows.

r ENDURE: Endurance will pay off.

Be honest, Be a torch bearer to your profession even during testing times.

A diamond, after all, is just a piece of charcoal that handled its stress exceptionally well.

How was your experience at English Electric Company?

It was fantastic, I would consider it as an ‘electrifying start’ to my professional life. Being the first ever Management Trainee in P&A, I was quickly groomed to handle key multidisciplinary roles ranging from recruitment, training, industrial relations to labour disputes pending before various courts. English Electric witnessed the winning of a few labour disputes - unheard in its history during my tenure (1984-1989) through my sheer determination and my working closely with the reputed counsels, providing the right information at the right time.

Tell us about your experience with companies before your decade-long careers with HLL and Vedanta.

One thing that appealed to me, when I was in Wimco (Swedish multinational manufacturing matches) during 1989-1990 at their Thiruvottiyur unit near Chennai was the existence of a cooperative society which provided livelihood opportunity to the deceased workmen’s spouses --refilling match sticks on the shop floor.

I joined a Chinese MNC in the Madras Export Processing Zone, Well-knit Apparels Limited in 1992, after briefly working for a Korean export

s Compromise: Compromise on managerial egos and not on the principles of the organisation.

oriented unit near Sriperumbudur in 1990-1991.

Well-knit, headquartered in Honk Kong, produced knitted garments and was the fifth largest exporter in the world. At our Chennai facility, we had nearly 2,000 workers, mostly women. There was a resident manager of Chinese origin who never allowed us to increase the basic or dearness allowance beyond the minimum wages and tried to offer production incentive arbitrarily, based on shipment schedule dates. After constant persuasion I could impress upon the local and HO and introduced a simple incentive format. The format showed the workers how much incentive they could earn, based on the number of pieces knitted per shift on a standard style with additional quantum for complex designs. This clicked well and inspired them to work hard and earn more.

More importantly, they were able to experience the correlation between effort and reward. The key lesson learnt here was, “you can always create a win-win situation without compromising on principles, if you have the will.”

18 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

t EXTRA MILE: Walk the extra mile.

Hard work and smart work are fine.

But the real crux is that ‘extra bit’ you bring to the table as a differentiator.

u JUST BE: Do not get bogged down too much by a few percent less increment or promotion delayed by a year. Just be and be remembered for good. Good deeds will always pay off significantly.

v NEVER TEST GOOD PEOPLE: Do not test good people who have worked for you, lived for you.

They are like mercury. You cannot break them. They will simply move away from your life and will not be available to you when you need them most.

w NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR BEING CORRECT: This quote of M K Gandhi has inspired me a lot. “Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.”

Fair & Lively: My tenure at Hindustan Lever Ltd (1993-2002) can well be coined as ‘Fair and Lively’. I became a natural choice for Hindustan Lever Limited (currently HUL) when it was looking out for an HR Head in 1993 for their greenfield tannery as part of their exports division near Neyveli in Tamil Nadu. I worked closely with their technical collaborators - expats from Sawyer of Napa, California - and facilitated a dream rampup of the project, achieving global productivity and quality standards in record time, with focus on ‘think global, act local’ through hiring and meticulous training of locally (Gandhigram, Dindugul) trained tannery operators. I then became the obvious choice when HLL was establishing its greenfield detergents, personal products and beverages factories in Punducherry, to head HR functions for these new units and provide support to the existing foot wear and chemical units besides units acquired through Pond's merger. From 1995 - 2002, I was actively involved in establishing these new units, achieved record productivity

JIPM, besides the exemplary welfare orientation of the TVS culture. Above all, I cherish my stint at upholding the dignity of labour, as I proudly recall my cleaning of workers’ toilets on May Day.

Tell us about your journey to Vedanta Pearl of wisdom : During 2004, when Sterlite Industries India Limited advertised for the position of GM-HR for their copper smelter at Tuticorin (Pearl City), my inner voice directed me to apply for the same. After a brief meeting with the consultant at Chennai, I was advised to meet the top brass of Sterlite at Mumbai. The high-powered panel met me for an hour or so and I was astonished at the size and scale of projects and investments in the pipeline. I joined the group and there was no looking back. During 2004 2007, I served Sterlite Copper at Tuticorin, started initially as GM-HR and had risen to VP / Sr VP within a short span of time, providing leadership to HR, TQM, PR and CSR functions. During my tenure Sterlite Copper figured as one of the Top Ten companies in BT survey on HR metrics and won several accolades in TQM and CSR at national and international levels. Besides, the local communities including women and youth experienced a 'new Sterlite' impacting their life more positively. The competency based assessment and the global leadership programme piloted in the copper business became the model across group companies.

Hidden gem, unearthed : I still remember how our chairman Shri Anil Agarwal motivated me in his unique manner, “HR professionals have a Midas touch; if you touch copper, it becomes gold.” This was when I moved to Mumbai post my selection as Head Corporate HR in September 2007 for the Vedanta Group, through an internal job posting selection process. I was also inductlevels, introduced Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), signed productivity linked settlements, and effectively managed the external pressures upholding the ethical principles of HLL. I followed a straight-forward, firm, fair but equally lively approach in handling people-related issues, even during testing times. When workmen wanted to gherao me, I never called in security personnel. On the contrary, I stepped out of my a/c cabin and walked towards a tree, sat under it and asked them to continue their gherao under the shade and not in the hot sun. I used humour as an effective tool to respond to external pressures whenever there was demand for bribery. I used to tell them, “We at HLL are constrained and hence can’t help, but please use our Lux to wash your hands after receiving bribes from others who have no such constraints,” and thus could cut the ice and pave the way forward.

The integration of erstwhile TOMCO and Modern Foods Units of the South were some of the experiences which further sharpened my

The key lesson learnt was, “if you are wrong or even perceived to be wrong, you should accept the fact first, move forward with an open mind and talk about your real intentions to find a meaningful solution" skill-sets. Needless to say, I was awarded prestigious Chairman's awards on a few occasions besides achieving a stupendous career growth.

Thus my tenure in HLL made me transform from a young Personnel professional to an all rounder in the sphere of HRM. Dignity of labour: I moved to Chennai to join TVS Electronics as its Head - Employee Relations in 2002 and worked for two years till 2004. The key learning during this stint included Six Sigma and Change Acceleration Process (CAP) from GE, Total Quality Management (TQM) from

ed into the prestigious Executive Committee of Vedanta Resources Plc soon thereafter, post my elevation as President-Group HR, driving strategic HR initiatives such as leadership hiring, revitalising performance pay schemes, implementing HR score-cards across the group, covering young talent in Vedanta's Long Term Incentive Plans, senior management compensation and brand building at campuses. I also passionately improved diversity at Vedanta and formulated policies to prefer women professionals, hire young talent from remote locations and minority

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 19

TOP POSITION institutions. One of the group companies, HZL emerged as one among the top three companies in Hewitt's best employer survey too.

As a global HR head for Vedanta till June 2014, I provided support to HR counterparts at KCM Zambia and Zinc International facilities in South Africa, Ireland and Namibia, besides Sterlite's copper mine in Australia. Post-merger integration excited me always at Vedanta, but I did it quietly, influencing only the vital few and leaving the rest to the operating companies whether it was KCM at Zambia or Sesa Goa in India, Anglo Zinc Assets in South Africa, Ireland and Namibia or the latest high-profile entrant to the Vedanta family, namely the oil and gas vertical, Cairn India Limited. Prior to leaving Vedanta in May 2015 I had worked for the Chairman’s Office as President–Corporate Development for a year, contributing significantly in helping the group acquire a few high profile global talents / CEOs, iconic Indian business leaders as NEDs (non-executive directors), besides winning over exemplary ex-bureaucrats for social initiatives.

What one thing you would consider the most significant contribution that you have made in Vedanta?

Improving gender diversity. I could improve gender diversity across group companies from 7 to 12 percent in a period of five years since assuming charge as its Global HR Head. This is across level not just professional population or entry level.

Not just at head office/s, but including manufac-

turing locations. Not just in support functions like Finance, IT, HR, Admin etc. but including core technical stream – mining, metallurgy, exploration besides mechanical, electrical and others.

This could not have been possible without our Chairman Shri Anil Agarwal’s constant follow-up with HR team/s and inspiring women professionals to take up higher responsibilities during his highly interactive internal workshops and during our campus visits in India and abroad. We could demonstrate in a greenfield - manufacturing - remote location in the interior of Odisha as high as 30 percent women employees including B Sc graduates working on the shop floor. We thus could create a women friendly environment across our group companies, which I am really proud of, having played a significant but humble role.

How did you manage to change your role in the different companies, dealing with different kind of products?

Alignment is vital - alignment with the vision, connecting with business realities and of course always keeping the larger purpose in mind, a customer-first approach, pragmatic outlook, benchmarking with the best and consistency in people-practices were some of the values which helped me to navigate.

And now your stint with JK Company… how did it happen?

When I decided to open the next chapter of my

Our Chairman Shri. Anil Agarwal motivated me in his unique manner: “HR professionals have a Midas touch; if you touch copper, it becomes gold”

20 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

professional journey and move on from Vedanta, I looked at only a select few options – reputed conglomerates with high degree of professionalism. What triggered my joining JKO was the following quote which I saw during my stay at their guest house when I landed in New Delhi for the final discussions with the directors-in-charge of the group.

“We seek a society which is proud of its past, conscious of the present and full of hope for the future - a society where every citizen would be equally conscious of its rights and responsibilities.” - Lala Lakshmipat Singhania.

Living the Legacy : I joined JKO in June, 2015 and my current role as President–Corporate HR at JKO, encompasses providing strategic HR inputs to CEOs of group entities (JK Tyre, JK Lakshmi Cement, JK Paper, JK Fenner, JK Seeds, Umang Dairies and others including JK Lakshmipat University) on strategic hiring initiatives including CXOs, leadership development for top talent and succession planning, greater linkages to performance and rewards, employer brand building, revisiting competency framework and other HR processes keeping a ‘business first’ approach, up-skilling the organization through the induction of high-potential talent from premium business schools as change champions, improving diversity and enhancing our competitive edge through innovation and agility, leveraging initiatives such as Udaan and Reimagining HR: Leading Change for making JKO a future ready organisation.

All our businesses uphold the right priorities, practising a ‘Customer First and Employee Next’ policy with excellent processes ensuring safety, safe environment, quality and productivity besides being energy efficient.

Care and concern for the people is synonymous with JKO which is amply evident from various employee engagement initiatives, customer – vendor interactions, besides CSR initiatives. Yet another key differentiator is that a considerable slice of top management time is spent at JKO in talent management, more importantly, mentoring young professionals.

As part of my visit to various manufacturing locations of JKO, I had the opportunity to visit a home for mentally challenged children supported by us through an NGO. These children are in that situation for no fault of theirs. Spending time with them was a very satisfying experience. Another commendable initiative undertaken by us is to support old age homes to ensure that elderly people live with dignity. We not only extend financial and infrastructure support, but encourage our employees to spend quality time with them.

Yet another initiative was facilitating adult literacy in prisons. I had the opportunity to interact with those inmates - both men and women -- and was pleasantly surprised at the speed with which they were progressing. I was also astonished with their

make India a better place than any other country.

Our education system is good, the only thing is we are not focused on vocational training like in Germany. A little bit of tweaking here and there can really help.

STANDS OUT

Companies are more interested in recruiting people below 40 years of age.

Why so?

Thiru is also an empanelled member of the Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia as an Industry Expert and also serves as a governing council member for select few management institutes in India. Thiru also delivered the convocation address at BIMM, Pune. He has also been conferred with several accolades / awards like Super Achiever, Super Boss of the Year, Most Powerful HR Professionals of India, 30 Most Talented Global HR Leaders in Asia, Thought Leaders Award and the latest honour, “100 Most Influential Global HR Professionals”

hidden talents in arts and crafts.

I also visited JK’s Rayagada Paper Unit, in Odisha. There are about 24 farmer clubs and around 55 self-help groups engaged in plantation. We planted eight crore tree saplings last year.

Other initiatives are in the sphere of education, general and vocational, healthcare, tie up with government ITIs for upgrading and upskilling, mother and child care, HIV-AIDS prevention, environmental conservation, road safety awareness and disaster relief. For example, Naya Savera – an integrated family welfare programme initiated by JK Lakshmi Cements has substantially reduced the maternal and infant mortality rate to almost zero. Other initiatives like rain water harvesting, creating better drinking water resources, eco-friendly chullahs, installing RO and building toilets in government schools have made a positive impact on their lives, in addition to providing e-learning facilities at schools and mobile jhola library and creating plastic free zones.

HR means recruiting and managing people, what has been your observa-

Now people are thinking about bringing back this wisdom and expertise. When I used to recruit people in the US or UK, you could not even ask them their age in the application form, so you could only assume. We should also follow the same pattern. We should be open about looking for talent without any discrimination, including age or gender. But equally so, companies must retire people on attaining the age of superannuation, or at least move them away from line / lead roles and provide the Gen Next the opportunity to prove their mettle. Otherwise complacency can set in. Conventional wisdom, if blindly followed like a ritual, will not awaken any giant or divine within.

How many hours you spend at work every day?

tion about young corporate managers?

Today’s young talent doesn’t want control; they want more empowerment. They don’t want instructions; they want inspiration. Some reverse mentoring also happening. If I have to send very critical mails to any key stakeholders, I put it in a draft mode and sleep over it for a day. The next day I call one or two of my young talents, ask them to read and ask them to suggest. This I have been practising for many years, to get to know what these young people think. Similarly, while in Vedanta when we wanted to implement the stock option, we spoke to young employees and they decided that they wanted the option. Today’s young people are honest. Their integrity standards are very high and they will thrive in a self-governing structure and not in a controlled atmosphere.

They want faster decisions, so we have to be in a position to take faster decisions. The best way is that you empower them.

I see a lot of young people aspiring to make a difference in the core sector, not all are keen on IT/ITeS and e-commerce. The kind of push being given by initiatives like ‘Make in India’ will

I start my day at least 30-45 minutes ahead and end in time. I am always punctual to meetings for which I am invited and start and end my meetings in time as I genuinely respect other people’s time.

I do not believe in long hours of meetings, where one reviews minutes and wastes hours. Every Monday morning I have a 15-20 minutes’ standing meeting with my team to share views and prioritise the work. I do not believe in being busy or appearing to be busy, but being decisive matters a lot to me. However, I never hesitate to burn the midnight oil when situations warrant, even risking one’s life. When the tsunami alert was made, when I was working in the coastal town, I stayed inside the factory premises along with the night shift in-charge. The Electrical Engineering Head advised families to spend the night in the first floor of the residence, or terrace or even move away to Madurai like many did. But my family too stayed back and supported me as always, in any testing time.

Tell us about your family.

My wife, M Poonkuzhali worked for English Electric and that’s where we met. Her name is a typical Tamil name, quoted in ancient Tamil literature.

Since I was a literature student, this name attracted me first and then obviously led me to propose to her. She is an electronics and instrumentation engineer. After marriage she quit her job. We have a son, A T Kaarthik who did his MBA from NMIMS Mumbai and is currently working for a globally renowned management consulting firm in Bengaluru. vinita.deshmukh@corporatecitizen.in

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 21

TĂŠTE-Ă€-TĂŠTE

A balanced approach in management of risk is essential R. Balasundaram, Vice President, TATA AIG General Insurance, spoke about liabilities as the dynamics of business, stressing on the need for a balanced approach in identifying and managing risk, which is an important aspect of business.

He also spoke of his professional life, challenges faced, while also touching upon his personal world

By Mukul Potdar Tell us about your career journey I am a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary, and fellow member of the Insurance Institute of India. I worked in the insurance sector at the United India Insurance in Mumbai, went south and came back to Mumbai. I switched over to the private sector and joined Reliance, later moved on to join TATA AIG in 2003 in the marine division. In 2006, I moved to head the marine division. Recently, I moved to a new and larger position as the vice president of broker relations at TATA AIG General Insurance. When I joined the industry, I was 22 years, old. Being in the public sector was tough, especially when you have to make people work but it was a very good learning ground.

What were the challenges you faced?

Today there are two main challenges. Profitability is coming down and loss ratio has increased because many competitors are coming in. The second is that the investment is also quite low. The biggest challenge is lack of adequate talent that is coming in because there is no glamour associated with this sector. Again, managing talent is quite a serious problem. In the insurance sector, it is important to keep learning on a regular basis.

Are private players dominating the market?

Private players tend to be choosy. People are now beginning to trust private companies for insurance. If you see, private players are quick in delivery. Yes, in some places, people still 22 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

trust public sector companies for insurance. Every player today has his own customer pockets.

training them for the job. The private sector as an industry has a market.

How does it operate in rural areas?

According to the norms of IRDA, insurance companies should do about seven percent business in rural areas.

However, you cannot expect huge profits there. It has own its own challenges.

What can be done to avoid cyber damage?

Hacking can take place even when you have firewalls and other measures. People can go to any extent do such things.

But at the same time you can’t avoid cyber use. Otherwise you may be out of business. In today’s cyber world, the world has come closer. But the liability has also increased.

There is huge data that is online and any harmful activity like hacking or manipulation may create problems, as the data can be compromised. Such incidents can take a company out of business. Therefore, companies have to look at the liability. Once you have identified potential liability areas, then you can go further.

How different is risk management from insurance?

People tend to confuse risk management with insurance.

In fact, management of risk is not all about insurance.

Insurance is just one of the components of risk management.

You also have to manage the portion of the risk you have, to take safety measures. There are different parameters of business in a Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) world. The risk will remain and the management of this risk is the key in such an environment; which can be done with understanding.

Risk management is a balanced approach. We need to identify the risk, evaluate the risk.

“Managing talent is quite a serious problem. Private companies are picking fresh graduates and training them for the job.”

What kind of risks can a company have?

There can be incidents like explosions, accidents, theft, damage of property, and so on. Here insurance can reduce the liability. What is the liability for a company? It could be the condition in which work is done. For any corporate, the liability may arise from anywhere or any person or user or regulator.

So how does one tackle this in developing countries?

The penetration in developing countries is low compared with the GDP. In developed countries like the US or UK, it is being done through a broker and it is a totally different thing. India is an evolving market and we have a long way to go.

Is FDI needed to push the sector?

Well, you need to push your technology, talent, government policy and funds; all should go hand in hand. There is need for ease of doing business. Today, FDI in the insurance sector has been increased up to 49 percent in India, as per the commitment at an international level.

Should small and mid-cap companies also take liabilities seriously?

Yes, they should take it seriously as any such incident can take them out of business. Insurance liability covers can be taken for products of the company. In every business there are risks.

Tell us about your family background My wife is a post-graduate in commerce. I have two daughters. My elder daughter has a passion for teaching. She works with an international school and is married. My second daughter has done her BBA, and is keen on further studies.

How do you relax?

I do a lot of writing, play Sudoku and I’m also active on the social media platform. I also like to play sports and teaching. I also enjoy travelling.

What is your message to tomorrow’s managers?

They should first manage themselves before managing organizations. There are two ways to go ahead -- one is by switching jobs and other one is working for the same company. But in both the cases, one should work hard. mukul.potdar777@gmail.com

CC

tadka

How do you see liability as a concept?

You can’t wish it away and people are more and more aware about their rights. For example, if someone bought a car and there was a defect and he filed a complaint against the director, the company comes to the negotiating table. There is a question of accountability.

How do you see today’s youth and what should be done to enhance opportunities in the industry?

There are many opportunities. There are management programmes with insurance as a subject. Today, private sector companies are picking up fresh graduates and

Taking your medicine!

India has emerged as the world’s largest consumer of antibiotics in the world since 2014, with a 62 percent increase in popping habits over the last decade.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 23

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015

Realising the potentials of ‘Make in India’

The Indian manufacturing is on the path to recovery, after a hiatus, following the high-profile launch of and thrust towards the PM’s ‘Make-In-India’ campaign. Making in our country to target the local consumer is now more important than ever. Is Indian manufacturing, bridging the gap between aspiration and reality?

At the 14th Manufacturing Summit 2015, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Western Region, recently held at Trident in Mumbai, various sessions discussed the future of Indian manufacturing. The focus was on the past trajectory of Indian manufacturing, structural advantages and challenges, what the government has tried to do in the past few months, and what still needs to be done by government and the private sector to fully realize the potential.

Corporate Citizen brings the views of industry stalwarts on the Make in India challenges and opportunities for local market and what is the government and private sector role.

The panellists for the CEO session were, Jamshyd N Godrej, Summit Chairman & Past President, CII and Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd., R Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals Ltd., M S Unnikrishnan, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Thermax Limited, Rishi Kumar Bagla, Chairman & Managing Director, Aurangabad Electricals Ltd., Rajan Wadhera, President & Chief Executive - Truck and Power Train Division, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. and the session was moderated by Dr Arindam Bhattacharya, Senior Partner and Managing Director, BCG India

BY RAJESH RAO Bhattacharya kicked off the CEO session, inviting R Mukundan for his opening thoughts on what’s happening in their engineering industry.

Mukundan: The fundamental facts of being competitive, whether you make for India or make for the world, are absolutely the same. And one of the things which we do find, I am going to split it into two types of chemicals which we make, one is bulk chemicals and the other one is I would say specialty, which is not big in volume. When it comes to bulk chemicals, the big issue we find is, the delivered cost to consumers, matters a lot. At the end of the day, that’s very critical and where we lose out is not in our process design, or our cost of construction of the plant, or the efficiency with which we can run the plant. I think you come to India, you see the best efficiency is being achieved

by our operators, and I can tell you sector after sector within chemicals where we have not only designed an Indian plant but also delivered an operation, which, right up to the factory gate, it’s very efficient.

A lot has changed in the last few years but a lot needs to happen. And the reason it stuck me so clearly is that I spent last one day in Dubai; coming out of the airport for the first time, it suddenly dawned on me that they have created an infrastructure which is absolutely top of the world—the airport and the road, they don’t have any rail there, I think it is something we really need to focus on.

The second issue I would certainly say that if you look at the future, the manufacturing itself is changing. As far as we are concerned, I think embracing change in manufacturing in terms

24 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

of letting consumers know about product traceability and the visibility of the entire product and making sure there’s a huge amount of innovation which is available. So embracing new technologies and upskilling your workforce is another area we should focus on. While we have mastered the process and manufacturing skills, I think getting it delivered to consumers is still a challenge, and the manufacturing itself is changing and how do we manage the change in the emerging digital world is an issue we need to worry about.

How do you (Rajan Wadhera) think about the local auto market, and how do you manage to make sure that your market share and position in this market as a leader in both segments, auto and tractors, you are able

PICS: YUSUF KHAN

Panellists for the CEO Session at CII Manufacturing Summit - L-R- Arindam Bhattacharya, Rishi Kumar Bagla, R Mukundan, Jamshyd Godrej, MS Unnikrishnan, Rajan Wadhera

to maintain?

Wadhera: While the efforts on the part of the government is all very positive and is going to help further the manufacturing for us in product development, etc., the very important thing for us is about product development. Because as what has been said is the services are not outside, if you have to have competitiveness. And product development ecosystem is where we lack in this country. So far, we have been going offshore, setting up technical centres in Detroit, acquiring engineering companies outside India where we have the talent. And bringing back those drawings, those components, those intellectual property and trying to manufacture here.

When it comes to manufacturing, we have state-of-the-art, best manufacturing plants, so there is no lack of advantage that we have. Because

our plants are world-class, our systems are worldclass, now next level is our supplier community.

As regards our suppliers, the situation is such, they are not able to invest, they do not have that kind of a skill, and they have not put enough money in development, in engineering, in technology.

Where we can give tough competition to the other multinationals who are bringing their products in India, is in the area of being very frugal. We have an internal definition by which frugal means we can knock off, say 50% of the cost of the black box that is put in a car in Europe and about 20% functionality. Because of the 80:20 rule, the 20% of functionality costs you 80%, so we are going to do that and put that into our vehicles. However, what is happening is, the new trends in the cars which are emission, safety requirements, sustainability requirements—all these things are putting

When it comes to manufacturing, we have the state-of-the-art, best manufacturing plants, so there is no lack of advantage that we have.

Because our plants are world-class, our systems are world-class, now next level is our supplier community - Rajan Wadhera

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 25

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015 tremendous pressure on us because for meeting all these requirements, we don’t have the scale, we don’t have the technology.

You cannot set up plants for making airbags, for making light composites in India, so it is going to go against Make in India. The recent pressures of emission, ACR technologies, DPF, etc., so that is a very big dichotomy that we are going to face of sorts. Considering that, how can we have the advantage of make in India? Even the OEMs are going to get out of parts, they will never ever be able to make it. Another further problem that we are going to face in India is that the Koreans, the Japanese and the European OEMs, they have their preferred suppliers, so again you will not get the economy of scale. The Japanese would want to buy from their own ancillaries, the Koreans are going to buy from their own ancillaries and you would never ever get the scale. And the Indian supplier has to then scale up, maybe that is the saving grace, if they are able to take that opportunity and somehow plunge. So that’s the scenario emerging for us.

Foster innovation and efficiency across industries

T

he report that recently came out that ranks states, there are two aspects to the report that are quite striking. First, the opportunity that exists in internal benchmarking. As a country, we rank at present around 140 in ease-ofdoing-business according to the World Bank study last year. Simply by matching the best of each states, we can move up very rapidly. Our own calculation in CII is that we can move from 140 to 80, so we can move up 60 positions, if every state in the country match the best in the country. That means, no change in law is required, as each state follows the same law. Changes that are required are changes in notification and implementation, of how the same laws are implemented in different states. If we can do that type of internal benchmarking, we can get more than half way to our goal, of being in the top 50 states, in ease-ofdoing-business.

It is easy to focus on—Gujarat came first and Andhra Pradesh came second, and so on. But I think it is instructive that there was no state in the country that were in top core tile, even the best state in the country did not fit into the top core tile. The best state in the country was in the second core tile. This, to me, says, how much we need to do and work on in the ease-of-doing-business, to really make a substantial impact on the overall environment in which we operate.

What it is going to take, it seems to

How do we address these dichotomies that Rajan has just spoken about, can Bagla, as a component supplier, have some responses to what Rajan said?

Bagla: We were a start-up company in 1986 with a capital of just five lakh rupees. Over a period of time we have evolved, changing continuously. We started with a product which was electrical-electronic; today we strongly work in aluminium die-casting. What have we done to address the issues that Mr Wadhera mentioned, is that we have initiated the process of joining hands with global players. And we are making investments along with them to achieve the technological expertise that is required for top-class global vehicle manufacturers as far as our vehicle business is concerned. I think India, as a component business, and we also export globally to all the top companies in the world, whether it is GM, Chrysler, or Ford, everybody. Now the question here is that whether the Indian automotive industry is able to scale up to the expectations of the Indian auto component industry?

Certainly here we have a challenge, but I am sure that in the process that we have adapted by bringing in foreign partners, now they have the technology and we have the Indian manufacturing expertise. Together, we create a product which is high-quality with globally competitive price —and that is our mantra.

We have five technology joint ventures— making fasteners, aluminium die-casting, electronics, designing and developing engines, and evaporators for frost-free refrigerators. All these products, otherwise, would have been imported into India—this is our contributionto ‘Make in India’ in India.

How do you (MS Unnikrishnan) maximise the benefit out of Make for India? What are some of the things that you are doing right now?

Unnikrishnan: We are one company that has got benefitted between 2003 and 2010, from ₹500 crore to ₹5,000 crore, maybe in eight years, is really something that we need to appreciate the Indian market that has helped us. At that point of time we had just about 10% international operations, that is, exporting out of India. And we recognised towards the end of the decade, say 2008-1010, that things may not happen so properly well-formed within the country and in any case seeing the Indian market growing, a lot more international companies were coming and setting up their shops in India. Then from factories, we

26 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

DR NAUSHAD FORBES President Designate, CII and Director, Forbes Marshall Ltd 14th Manufacturing Summit 2015Inaugural talk me, is 10 percent law and 90 percent implementation. Ninety percent in what happens at state level, ninety percent in what happens at inter-ministerial level, because that’s where there is lack of clarity and ambiguity, causing obstacles and delays in how various routine matters get implemented. The kind of work that’s required now is day-to-day routine detailed work, at the state level, ministerial level, inter-ministerial level, to

had to move into efficiency and technology.

One thing that we adapted to was that we kept a target for us—what should be our international business by 2020, and of which we took a cut that, by 2015 we would reach to 30% from 10%. And I am very happy to say we have reached there.

We set up our manufacturing in China because we knew that they are the best in the world for efficiency for the items we were making and they were the cheapest. So one of the products we are competing against them is absorption chiller, where we are competing against the Chinese across the globe. We competed and finally we set up our own factory, and in the beginning, we had costs up a bit. And I am very happy to say that it is reversed today in favour of my Pune manufacturing, which is a plus-six percent for India. Chi-

actually remove bureaucratic discretion.

If we need to have one objective on the ease-of-doing-business, our aim should be not to have better government, but to have less. By actually having less discretion we can make things much more efficient, transparent and we can speed up the entire process.

In the rise of United States as a manufacturing power, the key element that played a part was their rise as a manufacturing nation. It was the combination of having user industry and capital goods-producing industry, both in the same country and as capital goods started spreading through various industry sectors, it spread efficiency through those same industry sectors.

People who have looked at this have argued that singular combination of capital goods with using industry, is a very productive combination. Because it is the way in which you have a dynamic ecosystem, where one feeds the other, one fosters innovation in the other and one leads to greater efficiency in the other. So, how can we learn from that same experience today in India? We have firms that worry about energy conservation. It is a classic example of a capital goods technology and a capital goods approach that can foster efficiency across industry sectors. We have a strong engineering base which again can foster innovation and efficiency across industries. The greatest opportunity rests with software, which can best be seen as a capital good, best be seen as an efficiency enabler in industry. And one of the longest unpicked fruits in the country, is to bring our world-leading software industry with our manufacturing

nese costs have gone up, so we track from what’s happening in China and we are able to transpond that into India.

Same thing for technology when we bought two companies, one in Denmark and the other in Germany, we realised that transfer of technology will give you the equations, designs and drawings.

Unless you own a deficit in the developed market, to run it for yourself, your DNA correction won’t happen as an organisation, which has also happened to Thermax. A factor that has helped us to become what we are, and what is going to help us to become a billion- to trillion-dollar organisation, is fundamentally our efficiency to compete with everybody in the world, and secondly, the technology at par or maybe ahead of—not in every portfolio—we will be able to manage. These

tiveness, to be able to compete with the global players who are all wanting to come to India?

industry. The software industry continuous to remain oriented largely to the external environment, to the external customers, or now increasingly to coming up with new innovative service solutions within the country. But, it tends not to be connected in a substantial way with local manufacturing industry. And this remains a consistent opportunity that we can take advantage of, because the same kind of productive interplay can work with software and with manufacturing industry as with capital goods more broadly. If software can make one firm more efficient, that same solution can be applied across industry and across bunch of firms, to make each of them more efficient.

Other area of investment is in talent.

We need to develop talent not only through academic programmes and through training programmes, we need to develop talent simply by recruiting groups of people and having them focus in work in particular areas. We have many independent firms that are extremely successful manufacturers. But our firms tend to be independent players and largely vertically integrated throughout the manufacturing process. Where we tend to have a much lower presence is in playing a particular distinctive part of a global supply chain. We do it in few areas like auto components and pharmaceuticals, to some extent. At the end of the day our goal of getting to 25% GDP coming from manufacturing, is a very worthy goal. The line between manufacturing and services is blurring all the time. One of fruitful gains we can have in this country is through the combination of manufacturing and services industry, which can take us much further.

Godrej: One thing that one has to remember in any manufacturing company is that you have to concentrate on the basics. We have not done enough over the years to concentrate on the basics. If you look at the frameworks which are available today for anybody in manufacturing, the systems that are available, such as Kaizen, business excellence ideas, green manufacturing, I mean there are so many subsystems around and we need to deeply engage in all of those in a way that it will help the businesses. The investment in innovation and design, the investment in people, working on productivity issues, Kaizen issues, safety and those sorts are very basic. I have been trying to concentrate on getting those basics in place. We got to make sure that everyone in the factory can do three-four different skills; that they are not just multi-skilling, but they can do different types of jobs. We got used to the idea that one person does one type of thing, whereas we really have to get used to the idea that one person has to do a whole variety of things in order to improve quality and productivity. So, concentrating on those basic processes is what will help in really building capability and capacity.

are the strides that we have taken.

I am very confident that India is going to build India, which nobody is talking about. The real investment of India is not for consumption of India, it is for the size of our economy, population of India. To build this country, infrastructure is going to be the largest investment and opportunity for all of us. Then maintaining that infrastructure built will be the service industry. I would wish that modelling India on Germany or China is not going to be a success. Creating an India, which is independent in itself and standing out; learning from everybody, adapting and creating something for India is a necessity for India.

How are you (Jamshyd Godrej) going to keep on improving your competi-

By bringing in foreign partners, now they have the technology and we have the Indian manufacturing expertise.

Together, we create a product which is highquality with globally competitive price—and that is our mantra - Rishi Kumar Bagla

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 27

CII’S 14TH MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2015 There is still some way to go in terms of innovation and multi-skilling of people. What are your plans around how to build on the softer side of competitiveness?

Mukundan: If you look at the kind of stuff that is happening in some of the hi-tech part of our business which is in biotechnology. It starts from genetic modification to hybrid seeds and high-quality seeds, which are needed in farms because that’s what will increase the farm productivity in our country. The big challenge that we are facing today is the regulatory framework itself. It is not that the quality of the scientists coming out of India is inferior. We have given them the best of labs. In fact our foreign partners have come from companies which are the best in the world and they have seen our labs and equipment and these are like benchmark labs in the world. They don’t find anything wrong with the scientists coming out of our universities and CSIR’s labs. I think the issue is the framework around innovation. Sometimes we do tie ourselves in knots, especially, with respect to trials and plant trials and getting hybrid seed approval, it almost takes about 12 to 18 months to do what in another countries takes about six months.

So one is fixing the framework and making our process faster. The second issue I would say in the regulatory framework is that because the landscape is changing, we have not built capacity in government. While we have lot of inspectors to check boilers, we have not built enough capacity for people to approve IPR. So I think on that side also building capacity in government is equally critical. I think that’s on the government side.

As far as for the industry side, I would certainly say that we must constantly expose our people to the best in the world and investing in people, by exposing them, sending them, tying up in partnerships. Today, India is a great story. MNC which wants to have contract research or contract manufacturing done, I think the first stop they would look at is India because of the success we have had in pharmaceutical and software. They do believe high-quality work can be done here, as far as knowledge work is concerned.

I think we need to tighten our grip on the Intellectual Property Protection. They come to reputed firms because they know that these firms will not cheat on certain IP or Intellectual Property so we are certainly getting a great traction on those elements. I think the issue for us is, I would say, the kind of inspector raj and regulatory issues which we face from time to time.

Secondly, we should be open enough to say our scientists can go to the best part of the world and I would say despite the salary arbitrage they can get, they still want to work in India. There is a huge enthusiasm amongst our scientists to work in India and work in this space because they can get to create products which are really frugal and

low-cost and for a market which is so big, I think that’s the driving force.

How do you upgrade researchers and scientists in innovative technologies that you have in a business or the skills of the people?

Unnikrishnan: When we started on a new journey in research and technology, first thing we had to admit that we are fooling ourselves by telling that we are an R&D company for twenty-five years.

We never did any research, nor did we tie up with any government institutions. We were buying technologies and indigenising it; or else whatever was an existing product, we were improving that.

28 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

“I am very confident that India is going to build India, which nobody is talking about. The real investment of India is not for consumption of India, it is for the size of our economy, population of India” - MS Unnikrishnan

That’s actually an innovation, not research at all.

So we realised, we need to be creating a roadmap for the research and technology function within the company and we needed money—we didn’t have the kind of money to start with. Normally, an R&D head is not anywhere in the decision making spectrum of the company. We recruited a person who worked for the government of India, a nuclear scientist, who happened to work also for NTPC as an R&D director. We invited him to join our company in the executive management board—that was an induction point for him.

Then from fifteen engineers today we have 130 people in our TICs of technology. It is created on the base of centres of excellence and what we need for a company in mass transfer—solar technology, separation technology. To attract these guys to the company, you need to have a lab. It’s like for a child there has to be toys—the scientists have to be given a laboratory, which we didn’t’ have earlier. So we created that also. We had to learn and somebody like me has to undergo training as to how do I do a review of a technology or development function. We started interacting with all the IITs, A-category institutes; outside the country, the universities in the US and Germany. We saw solar as an opportunity maybe before it evolved in the country. We started creating products for it; but we failed, because we went in for thermal.

In the Horizon 3, we are working on a product

“We really have to get used to the idea that one person has to do a whole variety of things in order to improve quality and productivity. So, concentrating on those basic processes is what will help in really building capability and capacity” Jamshyd Godrej

for the past ten years. We have never counted the quantum of money we have spent on that. But when we got to the prototyping, after six years of doing the research, today we are at 3X and our intention is that maybe two to three years down the line, it will come to be a 2X, where a niche customer who in any case is buying an MF Husain painting at Rs five crore and putting it at reception, can afford to buy my product. At least ours maybe a green efficiency-oriented product and one day it may become commercial. So that’s the way we approach. I am not trying to say that we have reached anywhere. We lack in the country in terms of money available for research; brains are available, but brain without money will not be able to create technology of the kind that we are in the need for in India.

What are your (Rajan Wadhera) plans and how are you trying to address those plans not only to keep to the technological edge but also to keep the cost that is affordable to you?

Wadhera: For last five to seven years we are partnering with many government departments, academic institutions, universities in Australia, Canada, etc. If we try to get technology from the suppliers directly, that technology will help us to gain business here, but no profitability. For profitability, we have to have our own technology and it is very essential.

We don’t have an ecosystem in the country where my father, my great-grandfather or anybody sitting in this room can say, my father de-

signed this car; he engineered this car; he made a lock for this car and so on. But in Detroit, people can say that. There are ninety years of product development that has happened in that country. So we decided, it is better we set up an offshore development centre, an engineering centre in Detroit.

We have about 100 people right now there and we have posted 100 people from here. We purchased eight flats close by so that our people could live there. Now this 100+100 people keep rotating and we are building up those capabilities of our engineers to do product development. We have also recruited close to fifty expats in the last five years in our research valley. When it comes to investments in R&D, it is almost similar to investing in a new plant. We have invested almost close to Rs 1,000 crore there for those capability-building, etc. We have done a lot—all the OEMs have done, CIMs have done, excellent mode of working in the last 20 years in various clusters—but I think, the horizon, the flag post keeps shifting. So that’s the need.

How are you (Rajan Wadhera) absorbing and then building your own types so that you don’t have to depend all the time on foreign partnerships?

Wadhera: The whole idea of these partnerships is to bring the technology to India. Secondly, it is to indigenise the manufacturing process to make it globally as well as locally competitive. With the emission norms getting better, you need much higher technology products. And when you need much higher technology products, you need to

continuously innovate. Now there are only two ways to do it—either you innovate, or you bring in innovation that is already there. The amount of time I would spend on getting the technology would probably be in number of years and by the time I get into the technology, the technology would change and the requirements would change and entire investment would go useless.

Technology is only useful as long as it is used.

Hence keeping that in mind, what we decided was that we will not reinvent the wheel; we will bring in the technology; we will indigenise the manufacturing process to make it locally competitive, and if I am locally competitive, I will become globally competitive automatically. This is the simple mantra for us in our growth. If we need to achieve very high-quality components, we need to achieve them at a locally competitive price. And this what we are doing day in and day out. We are looking inwards all the time, it is very important to do Kaizen and so on and continuously make improvements. What is really important for us as an organisation, is to be professional.

My definition of professional is that you have to deliver what you have promised. This is a very simple theory of professionalism for me. Keeping that in mind, in our organisation, we have a very simple formula: we do not believe in the top line, we only believe in bottom line.

Are you bullish, how are you looking at investments in India?

Mukundan: Certainly we are looking at investments in India, such as knowledge products, speciality products and so on. Certainly investments in India makes an exceedingly high level of sense because it doesn’t have the constraints you have in terms of logistics. When it comes to bulk commodities, I can tell you that we are still on the drawing board; we are not ready to invest.

The fundamental reason for that is it is cheaper for me to reach the products out of USA into the southern market of India than to move them from Gujarat to South. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 29

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Mount Carmel College Dr Sr. Arpana, Principal, Mount Carmel College (Bengaluru)

Educate to empower

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With a mere 50 stud students on its rolls in 1948 in 2015, Mount Carmel to a count of 5,500 5, (MCC), Bengaluru traces its roots to College (MCC Ben era and to the India in the post-independence p post-ind women’s empowerment spirit off addressing addr w of Carmelite Sisters of St. by the Congregation ong Teresa (CSST). The Vasanth Nagar campus at Bengaluru resonates with a spirit of diversity and inclusiveness amongst students and faculty in modern times with a sombre reminder of the Roman Catholic religious order dating back to the 12th century, founded by ‘The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel’ or Carmelites.

MCC was a conscious attempt to bridge gaps in women’s education by the Carmelite Sisters and began its journey in Trichur in 1944 as Carmel College, Kerala. The college was initially affiliated to the then Madras University and finally transferred to Bengaluru on July 7, 1948. During the time, the minority run institution was affiliated to the Mysore University and it was only in 1964 that MCC came under the mantle of its present parent body – the Bangalore University. Although, started as an institution for educating Catholic students, it has shaped up as an autonomous institute since 2005, acknowledging the presence of young bright women students and

30 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

PICS: SANJAY MD

faculty from diverse castes and creeds on its campus that rings with the spirit of freedom and camaraderie.

Since 1999, MCC has been awarded the highest ‘A’ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Besides, the college is ranked amongst the top 20 colleges in all three streams - humanities, science and commerce, as per the all India college survey undertaken by India Today and The Week magazines. MCC was re-accredited with an A+ by the NAAC in 2006. It was one of the colleges selected by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under the scheme, ‘College with Potential for Excellence (CPE)’ in 2006.

To this day, students past and present take pride in their ‘Carmelite’ consciousness which was anointed by its founding principal Sr. M Antoinette (1948 to 1968), with the spirit being kept alive by Dr Sr. Arpana who took over as the eighth serving Principal of MCC on February 1, 2014. A member of CSST, Sr. Arpana has been serving Mount Carmel College for over two decades. An alumnus of MCC, she joined the college as a student in 1985 and progressed as faculty in 1991.

Corporate Citizen spoke to Sr. Arpana, Principal and Suma Singh, HOD, Department of Economics and Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) Coordinator, on MCC’s journey – the trials and challenges that make MCC not just an institution marking women as the core point of society but which has had men knocking at its doors wishing to partake in the quality education that is imparted by the institution. With approvals in place, this might be another ‘history in the making’, for MCC

By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

“The unique thing about the college is that we have never advertised. We are one of the few colleges which have never advertised, as the management strongly believes that we need not advertise,” said Suma Singh.

But, does MCC need any further introduction? It speaks volumes through its strong lineup of empowered women alumni - the likes of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Indian entrepreneur and CMD, Biocon Limited, Maya Sharma Senior Journalist, NDTV, Nisha Millet and Ashwini Nachappa, the international athletesand Pragna Patel - renowned human geneticist. The legacy has been further heralded by other prominent Carmelites - Vasundhara Das - singer and actress, Renuka Chowdhury - politician, Gita Aravamudan – Bengaluru’s very first lady reporter, Ms. Margaret Alva - Governor of Uttarakhand, and current Bollywood heartthrobs Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma, to name just a few. Here’s an excerpt from the interview.

CC: What according to you are the success points that continue to make MCC such a sought after institute in Bengaluru?

Sr. Arpana: Since its inception in 1948, MCC has worked towards its mission of ‘Empowering Women through Education’. Over the decades, we have evolved in terms of the programmes we offer and our rapidly increasing student strength. Our strong commitment is to provide quality education and for this, we have kept four parameters in mind – recruitment of the best faculty available, evolving of our existing programmes according to changing market demands, strengthening our core curriculum within set guidelines but to national standards, and constant enhancement of infrastructural facilities. MCC’s ability to revamp and innovate has largely contributed to our success.

What are the prime changes the college has undergone since its inception in 1948?

Sr. Arpana: Our values have not changed with time as we are guided and committed to our vision and mission of providing quality education to all sections of the society and use education as a catalyst of change. Being a women’s college, we do realise the multiplier role that we have to discharge. Our education moulds the young women to become confident, empowered women who can go on to become the transformation agents in their family, society and nation. We have also focused on imparting legal and financial literacy to the young women.

Embracing technology has been a slow process.

But I do realise that in future classrooms, the mode of teaching will be technology-driven.

So, I have taken some initiatives to break the resistance to technology among the staff and I am confident we will successfully make the

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 31

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP transition to a technology, driven teaching and learning process.

What has been your one big contribution since you assumed office as principal, MCC in 2014?

Sr. Arpana: The introduction of the CBCS system or the Choice Based Credit System. Under this criterion, students have the choice to opt for a subject from another stream of their choice. For instance, commerce students can take up or opt for a subject in the science programme or from the curriculum in Humanities. Likewise, Humanities students can take up something in other streams. This is again based on UGC guidelines. We have made this transition last year for our PG courses and this year for our UG courses.

the ‘60s and ‘80s, MCC was seen as an an elitist institution. We were, to a certain extent, drawing students from a certain strata of society, the upper income lot. But today if you see the profile, it is very heterogeneous and diverse. We are getting students from all walks of life and all income groups and that is what inclusivity is all about. So, the elitist tag no longer holds good, which also gives us an opportunity as an institution in empowering them through education. 30 to 35 percent of our students are from non-Karnataka regions. We get a lot of kids from North and the North Eastern states.

One reason could be that MCC is an all-girls

o

BRAND MCC

Is MCC, as a brand, still perceived as a missionary institute and an elitist college?

Sr. Arpana: We are not an elitist college and students from all backgrounds and states study here and we value this diversity. In general, the quality of students for regular undergraduate programmes has been not very satisfying in recent years. This is a reflection of the weakness in our schooling system and also that the best students are gravitating to professional programmes like law and engineering.

Suma Singh: Some 30 to 40 years ago - during 1. From elicitism to a college for all 2. Away from preceived Missionary insitute status 3. Carmelites encouraging a spirit of diversity

college which they find comforting. The fact that MCC is run by the nuns also makes a difference for parents since they know it is run in a very traditional manner and there is a certain discipline.

CHALLENGES OF BEING MCC

What are the challenges in running a heritage institution like MCC? Sr. Arpana: With the sharp rise in student intake of say 2,000 students in the late 80s to its current strength of 5,500 students, the tenacre campus is now small for us. With a 10 to 20 percent increase in intake every year, the burden on retention of staff at competitive pay scales is a challenge. Last year’s student strength of 4,800 has jjumped to 5500 in the current academic year. The growing number of new programmes and curricula has also added to other administrative challenges. Staff retention is an additional burden due to the disparity in salary between government aided and non-government aided staff. So, attracting the best of teaching faculty and retaining them, given the shrinking salary grant by the state government is proving to be a big challenge.

The salary burden is completely falling on the management. The falling demand for traditional arts and science programmes is also a cause for concern.

But, since you are a deemed autonomous body since 2005, how does the government’s salary aid impact MCC?

n

p

Sr. Arpana: The autonomy given to us has bestowed academic freedom but we still have to go to the parent Bangalore University (BU) for final approvals on course directives, as the final degree awarded is under BU’s authorisation. We are dependent on part-funding by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for in-

Our strong commitment is to provide quality education, and for this, we have kept four parameters in mind – recruitment of the best faculty available, evolving of our existing programmes according to changing market demands, strengthening our core curriculum within set guidelines but to national standards, and constant enhancement of infrastructural facilities 32 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

frastructure development and other physical facilities and on the Karnataka government for salary grants for our aided staff. Currently, of the 324 staff on board, only 40 teaching staff receive salary grants from the government, the remaining staff depend on the MCC management for their pay cheques - which adds to the management’s financial liabilities. Where do we get the money from? We cannot increase the fees as MCC is still a missionary institution.

Suma Singh: From 1993 onwards, the Karnataka government has stopped giving post approvals. Previously, we managed to get post approvals because of MCC’s status as a minority institution. It meant that if you had a full teaching workload – 16 hours for humanities and commerce, 20 hours for science – you got approval for the post, and the college could fill it up, being a minority institution. You had the freedom to fill it up. With state approval for the post, the salary came from the government. In the past years, such approvals have stopped and it has become the management’s task to bear the salary burden for all these vacancies too.

Could you elaborate on the government aided salary structure and how it will impact MCC management, now that this salary grant is completely withdrawn?

Sr. Arpana: By 2020, a majority of our government paid staff would be retiring, so only a handful, may be five or six teaching staff will continue under government aided salary. So we are heading into a situation where the management will not only have to bear the entire salary burden, but filling up these vacancies with new staff will also become a challenge.

Suma Singh: Karnataka is one of the few states in India which no longer approve posts in educational institutions. Post 2020, while UGC gives grants for infrastructure, library, labs, books, etc., the absence of salary grant from the Karnataka government will affect our finances.

With the recent Pay Commission hike, which supposedly was much higher than in previous years, the state government is not in a position now to pass on such grants. Some teachers under the aided criteria also do not get their salaries on time. There is a perception that the higher education teaching community is being paid too high. It is a pretty bad scenario in Karnataka; I don’t know what the scenario is in the other states .Though the government here has withdrawn salary grants, it does not mean that the Karnataka government is not setting up colleges. They are setting up a lot of government colleges, recruiting people and paying UGC salaries in government colleges, but in privately aided colleges like ours, that is not happening.

So what kind of disparity in pay structure do you have for teaching staff under the

Sr. Arpana, principal in her office

Students have the choice to opt for a subject from another stream of their choice. For instance, Commerce students can take up or opt for a subject in the science programme or from the curriculum in humanities. Likewise, humanities students can take up something in other streams management and those under aided posts?

Sr. Arpana: Our strength is our staff. They are very cooperative and willing to work for the institution and we are able to achieve our mission because even in my absence I have the confidence that the institution will be run with conviction. Despite pay disparities, we have seen everyone overcoming those difficulties and working for the common goal. Though the disparity exists, when it comes to work, everybody contributes and nobody says “I am paid low so will not work”.

Suma Singh: The disparity in salary is huge between those that come under UGC aid and the ones who are solely paid by the management. For instance, at the entry level at MCC right now, with just a degree and a PJA and NET (eligibility test for lecturers) - the basic qualification as per UGC norms - the management is paying a sum of ₹27,000 per month.

The same person through a government appointment will draw ₹50,000.It is a huge difference and over the years it just widens. In comparison, engineering colleges do not have such a problem, because they come under AICTE and managements are compelled to pay AICTE directed salaries - those colleges do not

have a choice. But, for institutions like ours, it is up to the management . The other problem is upgrading the staff. To be very honest, we are not always able to draw the best of faculty as our salaries are not on par with our competitors (other institutions). Although we are better than other colleges in terms of management driven salaries, there are also institutions that are paying much more than us. So, we are not able to draw the best of faculty talent.

PROGRAMMING NEW LEARNING

Has there been a change in the programmes offered by MCC over the years?

Sr. Arpana: MCC presently offers 36 UG and 16 PG programmes. So, from a purely undergraduate college we have evolved to offer PG programmes and hope to start doctoral programs too. The traditional programmes in all the streams - Arts, Commerce and Science continue to exist. Since the 1990s and more so after obtaining autonomy in 2005, we have made a head start in introducing new programmes like Fashion and Apparel Design, Interior Design Management, Nutrition, Travel and Tourism, Communication Studies, Jour-

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 33

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP nalism and so on. We have innovated a lot in our most sought after programme in the commerce stream. Apart from the regular UG program in B.Com, we also offer the B.Com, Industry Integrated curriculum with an emphasis on practical exposure. The B.Com Professional programme is for those pursuing professional courses. This year, we have collaborated with TCS and have launched the B.Com- Business Process Systems programme.

Do you think the curriculum needs any alteration or is there any change expected?

Sr. Arpana: Our curriculum is one of the best.

But there is always scope for improvement.

Hence I have insisted that all departments conduct a curriculum evaluation and Enhancement Workshop with all stakeholders participating in it that includes academicians, alumni, industry, students and parents so that there is a 360 degree feedback. I also believe that faculty must update their knowledge as in today’s world the teacher needs to think ahead of Google.

ALUMNI CONNECT

Could you elaborate on your placement criteria and alumni contribution to the working of the institute?

Sr. Arpana: We have a well established Placement Cell. Over 40 companies visit us annually.

Most of the openings are for our Commerce stream, so I hope to work on strengthening placement opportunities for other streams too.

Our alumni is well placed and well connected.

We have alumni representatives in our Board of Studies, which is the body which frames the curriculum. They have instituted scholarships and awards for meritorious students.

Suma Singh: It becomes very difficult for women students to come back to their alma mater and do something as it is a very different life women lead, unlike in the case of boys. We are in the process of building our Alumni Club and we took the initiative recently when we invited Kiran Mazumdar Shaw as a speaker for our Foundation Day celebrations. Hopefully in the process, we will be able to build a better

The diversity you see on campus might not be the same in the wider world as it is a Carmelite institute yet.

Our value education classes prepare the girls to have a secular outlook to combat the wider world

relationship, convince them to get back to the institution. Now, we might start such connect with alumni more regularly.

GENTLEMEN KNOCK ON MCC’S DOORS

What led to the thought of boys being allowed to gain education at MCC? Sr. Arpana: Why discriminate and deprive boys access to quality education? We have the necessary infrastructure and best of labs, so to maximise its usage we thought we must allow boys.

We have got approval from the Bangalore University to admit boys but have yet to decide on the year of its commencement or take a concrete decision on this. We will be enrolling boys mainly in PG programmes in science, electronics and nanotechnology. We have high end lab equipment here in the college and there has been a low opting of these subjects by girls.

So, the management had to take a decision to open the doors to boys too for better use of the facilities on campus.

Will there be a change in perception about MCC from being an all-girls institute, if you allow boys?

Sr. Arpana: This has been a much debated issue among our staff and students. Many among the staff have spoken about the need to retain

Entrance to one of the blocks in the college campus, Fatima Block

34 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Students setting the stage for the festival Ugadi

our USP of being a women’s college. The perception about MCC is bound to change once we allow boys on campus.

Do you have refresher courses for staff ?

Suma Singh: The government used to run courses for staff through the Academy Staff Colleges for the aided staff in the college. For management paid staff, there are no such refresher courses. Under UGC guidelines, you have to do refresher courses for staff promotion to the next level. So, if I am a government aided staff, I will do it and have to do it to claim my promotion. But, as a non-government aided staff, there is no motivation for me to undertake such a course. So, it finally depends on what policy the management draws. The UGC are now trying to tell us to do some course and present and publish papers. They are trying to bring those rules in place, but then the staff tend to compare themselves with the UGC staff and feel that the aided staff get rewarded at every stage for their effort but they do not, so, why should they go out of their way to do the course. Well, some of the staff do go out of their way to take up such refresher courses but for the majority of the younger teaching lot, the salary component matters a lot.

Why discriminate and deprive boys access to quality education? We have the necessary infrastructure and best of labs, so to maximise its usage we thought we must allow boys. We will be enrolling boys mainly in PG programmes in science, electronics and nanotechnology.

We have high end lab equipment here in the college and there has been a low opting of these subjects by girls COMMUNITY CONNECT

Do you have a scholarship policy for underprivileged students to pursue education and other career choices?

Sr. Arpana: We are a socially sensitive institution wedded to the cause of taking education to the marginalised and deprived. The management offers fee concession to over 200 students and also provides mid-day meal facilities to needy students. We have a programme called Industry Integrated for our B.Com and M.Com students where they have to intern with the industry at the end of each semester. Similar programmes are run for our students in biotechnology and communications streams too.

It is compulsory to go through these internship criteria. Our Community Development

Project (CDP) enables PG students to score marks or credit, so that there is an element of compulsion. The type of projects undertaken is dependent on the streams and their respective departments. Under the CDP programme commerce students have adopted a village.

Likewise, different departments have undertaken similar social initiatives on their own.

Whether for credits or to uplift the Carmelite consciousness, the diversity on campus remains it strength and as Sr. Arpana said, “The diversity you see on campus might not be the same in the wider world as it is a Carmelite institute yet. Our value education classes prepare the girls to have a secular outlook to combat the wider world.� sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 35

COVER STORY Dynamic Duo 23

PN Vasanti and Premchand Palety

Rejoicing in

research

PN Vasanti who helps shape policy through media studies and marketing and development research, and Premchand Palety, best known for education institute rankings, political strategies, election surveys and polls, are an intellectual pair. Both carry out pioneering work in their own social domains. Though imbued with very different traits, they’ve found ways to maintain a happy marriage and a very fine work-life balance.

Both are known for their respective expertise and frequently feature in media debates. Vasanti is the Director General of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a highly respected, multidisciplinary development research and facilitative think tank. She is also the Director of Marketing & Development Research Associates (MDRA), a premier marketing research and consulting organisation with focus on quantitative and qualitative research. Premchand is a political pundit and Chief Executive of the Centre for Forecasting & Research (C fore), a well-known research organisation which specialises in election surveys, market consumer research, opinion polls and performance appraisal of educational institutions.

Vasanti is a behavioural psychologist and researcher, a specialist on media habits, policy issues in broadcasting and media consumption patterns. Her expertise includes the electronic media and its influence on women, children and development. She also writes a fortnightly column on media titled ‘Fine Print’ in Mint, the HT Media Group business daily.

Premchand is a specialist in the education sector and has a vast experience in conducting election surveys with amazing accuracy. Having pioneered school rankings in India, he has been among the first to start business school rankings in India with Outlook magazine for eight years. A prolific writer and thinker on management education, he has been a regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Mint and also writes for Business Today, Business World, Hindustan Times and Economic Times, to name a few.

The findings of their research-based think tanks on critical issues have regularly been covered by the media. Corporate Citizen speaks to this super duo whose passion for work, their excellence on the job and the number of lives they touch through their efforts to make systems better, make them inspiring

By Pradeep Mathur

36 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

My driving force was to bring about a change in society but slowly I realised that only politics will not help. The root cause is something else. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I must do something in the education field

PICS: VIVEK ARORA

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 37

COVER STORY It is often said, ‘Behind every successful man, there is a woman.’ But in some cases, the reverse can also be true. At least, this seems to be the case with Vasanti and Premchand, both extremely intelligent professionals Jab We Met… Though their life story doesn’t have that ‘boy meets girl and they fall in love’ kind of stuff, it is interesting how they met. “Ours was an arranged marriage. I was 27 and she was 24. I was in Gurgaon, she was in Delhi. My father and her father had a common friend. It was through them that we met each other. We saw each other and then we also liked each other. In a few months, we got married,” narrates Premchand. At that point of time, he was a civil engineer from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, and had a small engineering firm. She had just joined the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) run by her dad, Dr. N Bhaskar Rao, widely regarded as a pioneer in social research in India.

Punjabi tadka…

Talking about his Punjab connection, he adds, “Though we both are originally from Andhra Pradesh, I grew up in Punjab because my father worked there as an engineer on the Bhakra Dam, so my entire schooling took place in Nangal, a border town between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. No wonder, I can read and write Gurumukhi but I can’t write Telugu. Then I did my engineering from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) in Chandigarh. So I’m

more a Punjabi than a Telugu. Post-marriage, I did my MBA from the FORE school of Management in Delhi.”

Says Vasanti, “I’m a pucca Dilliwali. Though my parents are from Andhra and I was born in Vijaywada, my entire schooling and college education was done in Delhi. I went to Kamla Nehru College. I did Psychology honours and then did my master in Social Psychology from Jamia Millia University.

Then I went to Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) and did my MBA from there. Presently, I’m doing my PhD from JNU. So, I’ve not spared any major university in Delhi,” she concludes, joking.

Never went for a job…

On a serious note, she adds, “I was interested in media and behaviour. How does an individual consume media? What attracts him and how does media influence his behaviour? These were my areas of concern when I started working with my father at CMS in 1989 when I had just finished school and, in 1991, when we got it registered. This year we completed 25 years. It has been an amazing journey. My father remains the founder-chairman of both CMS and MDRA.” Chips in Premchand, “But she is the one who looks after everything in the two organisations today. Actually, her father is the doyen of opinion researchers in India. Earlier, he had built the Operations Research Group (ORG) as its CEO. He started the culture of conducting pre-poll surveys, exit polls, social surveys and the National Redressal Survey. He was the pioneer in this field.”

But did the thought of taking up a job elsewhere ever occur to her? Says

We used social research to influence policy and programmes since we felt that there was a disconnect between policy makers and what was happening on the ground. Our concern was how best to use the media to connect the two and that’s why we named it Centre for Media Studies

38 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Vasanti, “Never. My father was my inspiration. I always felt that if we have to bring about any change in society, it is only possible through influencing human behaviour. So while my father would talk from a sociological point of view, I would give a behavioural perspective. We used social research to influence policy and programmes since we felt that there was a disconnect between policy-makers and what was happening on the ground. Our concern was how best to use the media to connect the two and that’s why we named it Centre for Media Studies.”

Intervenes Premchand, “By the way, the thought of joining elsewhere comes when you don’t have work, or not enough revenue, or the organisation is dying - but CMS was always growing and it is growing even now.”

So, where did the money come from? “We survived by doing professional work,” Vasanti says, adding, “Whatever money we make, we put it back into the organisation for further studies. CMS is unique also because it’s a not-for-profit organisation. We don’t take any grant from the government or any international think tank. We’re completely independent.” Continues she, “Our work speaks for us. Be it the India Corruption Study which was recently picked up by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a big way or the annual Vatavaran film festival on environment and wildlife, or how the media discusses issues related to children, or the media ownership debates and the study on Delhi’s traffic woes—we’ve made an impact on each such issue. In fact, for the last 15 years, we’ve been insisting that the authorities talk on road safety, urban planning and the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system for Delhi. Thanks to Mr Kejriwal, it’s only now that these things are getting implemented with the odd-even policy for cars and road rationing concepts,” Vasanti adds.

My driving force was to bring about a change in society, but slowly I realised that only politics will not help. The root cause is something else. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I must do something in the education field because lots of things were fundamentally wrong there

Becoming an entrepreneur…

For Premchand, even though he was a civil engineer, getting an engineering job was not that easy because “1991 was a bad year for placements.” Even for small jobs, there used to be a ‘long queue’. There was recession all around.

Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came on the scene, it was “quite late”. Taking up a job, therefore, was the last thing he ever thought he’d get into. “I thought let me start something on my own. But our society doesn’t respect entrepreneurs and the same is true for teachers. We look down upon persons who start their own business. Yet, I went ahead and started the Centre for Forecasting & Research (C fore),” he says.

But how did this happen? What about finances? “Yes, initially, it was very difficult. I struggled. Many a time I failed also because running a business in India has never been easy. But I was always encouraged by Vasanti. She also influenced my thinking. Though our areas of interest differed, she helped me realise that my heart was in the education sector,” he points out.

“To tell you frankly, when I was doing engineering, I was a member of the Communist Party. I used to lead all the strikes at PEC. So, my driving force was to bring about a change in society but slowly I realised that only politics will not help. The root cause is something else. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I must do something in the education field because lots of things were fundamentally wrong there. So, I decided to work in the education sector.”

How was the initial experience? “I had thought that private sector was good and I would have no difficulty. But I soon realised there was a lot of corruption and payments were never in time. Getting anything done through the government and its bureaucracy too was not easy. Go to any small office and unless you pay the babus something, they won’t do anything.

It was very humiliating, so there was a lot of anger against the system in me,” he says.

Pioneering school rankings…

“I began with doing surveys for educational institutions. I was among the first to start the ranking of India’s best business schools. I did it with Outlook magazine for eight consecutive years. I also pioneered school rankings in India for Hindustan Times. We do it in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Chandigarh

and then for the entire country through the Education World magazine,” he points out.

But aren’t most of these so-called rankings paid for? “I know all that but we never compromise on ethics. We evaluate them on 14 parameters of educational excellence. It’s all very objectively and transparently done. We also do a perceptual survey to confirm our findings,” he points out, and adds, smiling, “Now even Vasanti has started doing the rankings.”

“Though we’re also doing it, we just can’t match his authority and involvement in the rankings. In fact, no research house can beat him. For example, he even knows who all work in a particular organisation and what their history is. He knows all that. It’s not just his bread and butter but more than that. It’s his cheese. He loves it,” points out Vasanti.

Incidentally, in the course of doing these annual rankings, Premchand also came out with some disturbing truths. Says he, “When Mint was launched, for two years, I wrote a column in it titled ‘Business Case’ on management education where I exposed how rampant corruption in the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was killing our institutions February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 39

We just can’t match his authority and involvement in the rankings.

In fact, no research house can beat him. For example, he even knows who all work in a particular organisation and what their history is. He knows all that. It’s not just his bread and butter but more than that.

It’s his cheese of higher learning. How could they give accreditation to thirdrate institutes? I wrote that they take bribe – which is something everybody knows - and because of that many sub-standard MBA colleges had mushroomed. Interestingly, even though I was writing so critically about them, the ministry people called me and said, OK, if what you say is correct, let’s revamp the system. They nominated me to the National Board for Accreditation. So, for two years, I was with the AICTE trying to revamp the accreditation methodology of higher education institutions. They were only talking of processes. So, based on whatever money you pay, they would go, evaluate and conclude that the process was fine.

But they were not measuring the output at all. I said, let output also be measured. So now, they have brought in some changes. Incidentally, I was also the contributing editor for the Wall Street Journal and a columnist there for almost 16 years. In fact, I’ve penned the cover story of the latest Business World magazine and I’ve exposed this whole game of accreditation in management colleges.”

But has this really helped in any way? Replies he, “The problem in our higher education is human resources. We’re not thinking creatively and creativity is the pre-condition for the creation of new knowledge. We’re very bad at it. But the problem actually starts from play schools. That’s what I’ve been working on. I’ve designed the parameters of assessment to promote healthy competition among schools to create creative human resources. Based on my rankings, some schools and even some B-schools have changed themselves. A strong reformist movement has begun and an improvement current is flowing throughout the country.”

Breaking some IIM myths…

Has anybody questioned his own objectivity? Explains he, “Any competitor can come to my office any time and see their data and our data. We have total transparency here. If I promote an institute in the overall rankings, I make sure that I have full justification in doing so.”

What is your opinion about IITs? Instead of leading the industry, they’re just being led by the industry.

A good university like Stanford in America created the Silicon Valley in their vicinity which truly changed the course of human history. All the top companies--Sun Microsystems, Yahoo, Google, Hewlett Packard, Kodak, General Electric, Lockheed-- you name it and it’s there. They all began like student projects. The faculty encouraged students to start their own companies because there were no industries nearby. The California Bay Area was just orchard and agricultural land. Students had to go to the East Coast for jobs. None of our IITs or IIMs have created any Silicon Valley in their vicinity. They have just produced jobseekers and that’s all.”

But that’s not all. “All these IITians and toppers go to IIMs only for money. Many of them are picked up by American financial giants like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and such others.

Don’t forget these were involved in the international fraud which caused 40 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

the 2008 American mortgage disaster, all because of their greed for more and more profits. They pick up brilliant minds from our IIMs and IITs and teach them how to fool and fudge figures. I shouldn’t say it but I feel sorry because these toppers could have produced some very useful, path-breaking research or created wealth or industries like the Stanford graduates did. But it’s not their fault either, because the entrepreneur culture is just not there in most of our IIMs. Many don’t have an incubation centre even now. We have 4,500 B-schools in the country and only 20 have active incubators promoting entrepreneurship. Their success rate is also pretty disappointing—less than 20 per cent or just two to three people at the most-nothing like America’s Babson College or Stanford University,” he says regretfully.

Incidentally, while Vasanti has over 100 employees at CMS, Premchand has a team of just about 20 permanent staffers at C fore. “We have field force everywhere. We recruit for various projects. Like, for example, we’re doing a big survey now for an election-related project in Karnataka for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Earlier I worked for him for two years and helped him decide on sensitive issues, like whom to give tickets to and how to do the whole election planning. So, I’ve a small office in Bengaluru too.”

How does he choose a project? “Do I like it? Do I like the client? What does he expect from me? These are the main considerations for me. Then, I have a policy never to have commercial dealings with educational institutions because I rate them. So, I reject all such offers from business schools.

Similarly, I’m sometimes approached by school owners who want me to do some research work for their new schools. My answer remains the same. I tell them, don’t talk business with me because I rate you. That’s a policy I’ve maintained over the years. But my main business comes from my political clients. I have projects in different states where I do regular work. But I’m not eager to get into new businesses. We’re not about money. Neither of us,” says Premchand.

What motivates at work…

Agrees Vasanti, “Money doesn’t drive us. For me, what matters is, how can I make an impact on society and contribute positively towards changing human behaviour or lifestyles.”

Since his major business comes from political parties, what kind of

work does he do for them? “We do election surveys, opinion polls and plan strategies for them. Fortunately, we have a good track record. We never compromise on ethics and never manipulate results to please any political party or TV channel. I put everything on my website. Our accuracy rate on exit polls is 95 per cent! It’s true that we charge a good amount but then we also give good results. So far so good. They are happy with our work. Our political clients and TV channels (Suvarna News and Asianet in Kerala) have come back to us again and again because we’re on the dot in the exit polls. In the 2008 Karnataka assembly elections, we predicted BJP will win and get 104-114 seats and they got 110 seats. Similarly, in 2013, we said, Congress will get 120 seats and they got 121. So, we’re on the dot. Similarly, in Kerala, we predicted UDF victory but only with one per cent, and that’s exactly what happened.”

But how could he do so well in Kerala? “Yes,, we don’t have permanent staff there but the field staff is outsourced. rced. We have tie-ups with some agencies and some B-schools. I train students dents to go and do the field work. It’s a learning for them and we pay them m decent salaries.”

Best school practices…

Incidentally, Premchand has a 70-slide de presentation on best practices for or schoolteachers. “The idea is to motiivate teachers to learn these practices es and thereby improve the system. I do it free of cost for all teachers. I tell them, m, take it home. I’ve been doing it forr schools all over the country. I providee free consultancy on best practices. I’vee also been doing it for people like Nitaa Ambani. She’s doing a great job. Shee runs a very good school in Mumbai.i.

Since I don’t take any gifts, she invitess me to have lunch with her,” he reveals. s.

On a global ranking, he says Finland d has the best schools in the world. Theyy focus on making a “good human beingg and not just a creative learner and also lot o export a lo ot of innovative technology to the Silicon Valley every year. ear.”

With so much going around them, how do they manage their work-life balance? Says Vasanti, “I’m very blessed because even after getting married and having ving a child, I’ve been able to do things the way I wanted d to.

I had the full support of my parents whether it was getting married without dowry or being a working woman man or having a child when I wanted. And even now, when my son is in class 9, my parents are always there to back me. They live nearby and that’s a great blessing. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any problems. We’ve had our issues, problems of adjustment and all those things. But we’ve learnt to manage,” she sums up, smiling.

Says Premchand, “We’ve evolved. But now I don’t take very heavy projects. We’re not there for the money. I want to do selective but very effective work.”

Outside interests…

What are their hobbies? Says Vasanti, “I love travelling. Last time, we went to China. Wherever I go, I take out time to meet the local people and know their culture. I’m very fond of TV serials.” Premchand is not. “I don’t watch TV and don’t like serials. She is a TV addict and she’s also in the Advertising Standards Council of India and being the Asia representative on the board of a fund-giving body of the Netherlands which helps NGOs worldwide; she keeps visiting Geneva and such other places. But I like reading books

in my spare time. Currently I’m reading books on the neuroscience brain, neurology, but it’s all connected to education.

After 21 years, what is the secret of their successful marriage? Says Vasanti, “We won’t say we’re very successful but, yes, our child is someone who binds us together.” Adds Premchand, “There is no hierarchy between us. We respect each other’s space which is the core. Say, if tomorrow, she wants to go to the US for some project, I’ll never say no.”

What’s their biggest achievement? Vasanti says, “I would say, our son.

He’s an absolutely delightful human being. Though very shy, he is somebody we are proud of. I’m also very proud of the work we’ve done at CMS which has played a big role in shaping a lot of major policies in our country. Though we’ve faced a lot of difficulties in the last 25 years, it has never happened that we’ve not paid salary to our employees on time.” Adds Premchand, “And, we’ve never borrowed money from anybody. I always buy cash dow down whatever is needed at C fore and giving salary on the first of every month is something that we’ve maintained to date.”

“I would like to think that I’m respected in higher educational

IIMs always top the rankings because their selection process is so rigorous. Only the very best can get in. So, the ‘brand IIM’ is only because of their intake, not because of their research or faculty or output institutions and schools and I’ve earned that respect because I don’t take anything from b anybody. anybody Respect keeps me going. The love and affection I get from eminent people in e society is what I consider my accomplishment an and that makes me humble.”

Since Sinc they both feel so proud of their son, how ho are they bringing him up? Says Vasanti, Vasanti “Oh, we conflict quite a bit on that because becaus we’re such different individuals.

I’m very social and he’s not. I’m a big foodie but he h loves ghar ka khana. So, I’m the pushy o one for my son.” Intervenes Premchand, “I sometimes tell Vasanti, you’re too pushy and that’s where the conflict pu begins. But, thankfully, our son has a lot of emth pathy for others. He feeds even the street dogs and is never rude to anybody.

We want him to be very happy and do whatever he wants. Though he’s too young to decide on his career, it looks like he wants to become a computer scientist. Our organisations are also there to look after, but it’s up to him to decide what he really would like to do.”

Resolving conflicts…

Who calls the shots at home when there is a problem? Smiles Premchand, “Oh, she’s the big boss. She handles everything.” What are their philosophies of life? “Mine is very simple. If God has sent me on earth, there is some purpose. Finding and fulfilling that is my responsibility and I’ve tried to do that to a great extent. But there is a lot to be done and a lot more lives to be touched before I leave this world and I’m very conscious of that,” says Vasanti. Agrees Premchand, “We all have to die one day but it is better to live life to the fullest before that. Happiness is very important. We have to pursue whatever area that gives us happiness,” he concludes with a twinkle in his eyes. mathurpradeep1@gmail.com February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 41

PROFILE

Vows That

WOW! Marriages are made in heaven and celebrated on earth. Today, an increasing number of them are made over internet sites. Anuradha Vinod Gupta, CEO and founder of one such site --Vows for Eternity – has brought an elite twist to matchmaking, especially for USbased Indians and top corporates of the country

BY PRADEEP MATHUR

M

any believe that if someone is successful, smart and rich, a truly loving life partner will magically appear by his/her side. But sadly, that is not true. Very few realise that even celebrities are unable to find a suitable marriage partner, says Anuradha Vinod Gupta, top Indian-American matchmaker from the United States.

Founder and CEO of a four-year-old matrimony site called, ‘Vows for Eternity,’ her impressive track record of bringing about over 400 marriages in such a short period has made her a matchmaking guru to India’s super rich, famous and lonely corporate leaders and Bollywood stars.

A globetrotting young entrepreneur, Anu, as she is fondly called, has become a global matchmaker-counsellor-relationship expert and a media personality. Her client list is not only restricted to high-flying corporate giants and glamorous celebrities from filmdom but also includes ordinary businessmen and white-collar professionals like doctors, engineers and IT professionals from higher middle-class families.

The expert matchmaker, who has helped many Indian-Americans find their perfect match was in New Delhi recently when Corporate Citizen caught up with her.

How did Vows for Eternity come about?

It actually came out of my own experience. I got married late, by Indian standards. Definitely

much later than when my parents wanted me to get married. But as it happens these days, after getting a good education, girls also want to follow their dream careers and parents encourage them to live their dreams. That happened with me. After studying psychology for five years and then following it with an MBA from the Melbourne Business School in Australia, I went to London and joined the legendary football club Arsenal.

But why?

Because I was really enjoying my work. I loved it. But every time I was with my parents, marriage was the only topic they were interested in.

For Indian parents, career and all those things are nice but unless they have got their daughter married, they feel their responsibility is not done. I was 32 years, old at that time. I thought, whenever I want to get married, I will just find somebody and marry him. But it doesn’t happen like that.

42 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Then how did it happen? Did someone introduce you to your husband?

Yes, somebody, who I did not know, introduced me to my husband. I was in London and my husband was in the United States. If I had tried to do it with my own contacts, I would never have found him. But by God’s grace, I was very fortunate. When we shifted to New York, I saw Indian American friends of mine going through tough times. I also saw the pain and anguish of their worrying parents at not being able to get their daughters married.

So what did you do?

One day, while I was talking to my husband, he said, “Look Anu, why don’t you do something?

Since you feel so strongly about these issues and have an immediate connect with them, why can’t you reach out to them? You’ve studied psychology. You are a people’s person with good parakh(judgment) of people. What better way than

by helping two people connect for eternity?” So, that’s how I got this idea.

But there are already so many matchmaking sites doing the same thing.

What is special about yours?

The whole idea of starting Vows for Eternity came out of my own experiences. The problems that I faced or saw my friends go through have been properly addressed. I’ve also taken care to design it for people who are extremely successful, well travelled, progressive and cosmopolitan in their outlook, belonging to extremely cultured families. However, they have not been able to find a like-minded life partner in their own social circles. Unlike other matchmaking sites, we do not offer any profiles or matching photographs or contact information concerning age, height, income, profession, location, phone numbers.

We’re a strictly personalised matrimonial search offering very secure and confidential services to its clients. People who come to us do not want their names, photographs and personal information to be shared or displayed for anybody to see.

What about general members?

For general members, who are more in numbers, I follow a different route: since it is not possible to travel and meet each one of them personally, I prefer doing a video call. I don’t do any matching till I have done at least one video call with them, if not two.

What are your criteria for membership, and what fees do you charge?

The criteria constitutes age, income, education and view point or outlook. Our general membership for six months costs ₹55,000 and ₹85,000 for 12 months. When you take membership for six months, we will send you profiles for six months and connect you to somebody in this period. We also have an unlimited time period membership for ₹ one lakh and a premium membership for ₹ two lakh with unlimited time!

What is the country-profile of your members?

About 45 percent of our members are based in the US. We work with Indians, NRIs and second generation Indian-Americans. Almost 40 percent of our members are in India. Outside the US, we have members based mostly in the UK, Singapore and Dubai. They are affluent global Indians who are mostly professionals and industrialists. Currently we have close to 1300 members.

But this figure keeps changing. We are a team of 15 people in India. We recently launched our services in Singapore. We have a small team in Singapore and the US. Isn’t your database very small?

But the people who come to me have already tried larger databases and it has not worked for them.

That’s why they have come to us. Even though you have a small group of people, say 1000 or 1500 who are of similar wavelengths, then that’s a lot of people. That’s one thing, but it generally takes one to two years to actually get the job done. The quickest somebody got married through us was four months, but that’s very rare. Generally, it ranges from four to eight months. The maximum would be one to two years. Our success rate is about 35 per cent.

‘Her impressive track record of bringing about over 400 marriages in such a short period has made her a matchmaking guru to India’s super rich, famous and lonely corporate leaders and Bollywood stars’

What about a personality fit?

Most girls today are highly educated professionals who do not want to marry early because they’re working, earning good salaries and have their own career dreams. By the time they make up their mind, they are quite set in their personalities and thought processes. At that stage, they may change for each other, but a little bit only. So, it’s very important to understand the personality of your client and his/her value system before you look for a suitable match.

How do you do that?

We have two types of memberships: general and premium. I personally meet each and every member of the premium category, face to face, wherever they are. Only when I meet somebody do I get a sense of his/her personality. In my conversations which last for about two to three hours, I learn everything about my client’s childhood, his/her growing up years, family, education, nature of job, likes and dislikes and interests and hobbies. But can I know a person 100 per cent in just one such meeting? No. So, I try to understand what kind of a person he is and what qualities he is looking for in his life partner. Simultaneously, I also try to figure out what kind of a person will be a good/ right fit for this individual from the pool of members within our exclusive club. I have two psychologists also in my team to confirm it independently. But I have to travel a lot because we have members all over the world and I have to meet them face to face.

Are your services dependent totally on a web-based model?

That’s right. We’ve never gone to anybody. I started it a little over four years ago. In India, we’ve been here two years. In the first year, when I started it in New York, we did all promotions on social media, all digital. But in the second year, we cut down on digital media because people who were contacting us were either through referrals or word of mouth. So we did not feel the need to go anywhere else.

But what were the results?

Not everybody got married. But even people who didn’t get married were happy because we introduced them to some quality people. Our biggest publicity has been word of mouth and referrals.

Now, in the last two years in India, we have grown a little over 300 percent every year. For a start up like ours, that’s great. In fact, last year, we closed our membership for some time because we were a little over subscribed. But now we are ready to take the next leap and grow.

What made you think you’ll be successful in doing this kind of a job?

I studied psychology for five years which helped a lot. By God’s grace, I had some very life-changing experiences. Life teaches you a lot which books can never teach. If you are interested in doing something and your focus is on quality and not on quantity, then success is all yours.

What happens to those who did not get a match within this period?

It depends. Sometimes they renew membership for a further period. Sometimes they get married through us, sometimes through others. I always tell people, just as when you apply for a job, you do not apply for only one job. Nobody does that. You apply to many places for better choice. The same is true here. Sometimes they don’t find their match through us. It doesn’t work for them. Sometimes while the membership is still going on, they may find their match from somewhere else. That’s fine, because that’s what life is all about! mathurpradeep1@gmail.com

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tadka

Spicy facts Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world, more expensive than even gold.

Iran accounts for 90 percent of the world’s saffron production, followed by Kashmir in India and Spain.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 43

THE TAX MAN COMETH-8

BY S K JHA (IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)

PLAN YOUR TAXES, GROW YOUR WEALTH

How does one create wealth, and how does one make it grow? One way to grow wealth can be judicious tax planning through right allocation and investment, and taking advantage of numerous provisions for tax saving under the Income Tax Act

Unlike the regular tax desk which is manned by a tax officer whose job is to levy tax on you, this desk is manned by a non-serving tax officer who wishes to share his experience of 35 years in the tax department, while discussing tax provisions. It is advantageous to know how the tax department thinks and acts when, as said by Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing is certain except death and taxes”

I

was talking to some young management college students. I asked them what their goal in life was. Almost all of them said they wanted to be successful in their career and create wealth. There is nothing wrong in wanting to be rich and famous. But how?

Is seeing dreams enough? Success does not happen by itself. It has to be planned for.

A goal without a plan is just a wish. When you are dying of thirst, it is too late to think about digging a well and hence our time starts now to start planning to become rich. As Confucius said, “A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” A good plan today is better that a perfect plan tomorrow.

How can you proceed with the planning?

There are three parameters—generation of income, preservation of income and saving taxes.

The three parameters can be illustrated by comparing them with catching fish, preserving the fish in the deep freezer and then cooking the fish to eat at less cost. The catching of fish can be compared with the generation of income; keeping the fish in the deep freezer can be compared with preservation of income and cooking the fish at less cost can be compared with saving of taxes. While starting planning of personal finance and taxes, all the three parameters have to be kept in mind. ‘Income-Tax’ has two words, ‘income’ and ‘tax’ and they move side-by-side.

Planning for tax and planning for income have to be done in a composite and organic manner.

The starting point of personal finance is generation of income. The great wealth creator Dhirubhai Ambani had said, “If you are born poor, it is not your fault, but if you die poor, it is your fault.” He had further said, “If you do not build up your dreams, someone else will hire you to help them theirs.” How to go about it? The answer is—thing big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly. For a student getting his first job, consider the first salary as a seed for

growing the tree of wealth. It is advisable to acquire the skill to turn one’s hobby into earning -like writing books, painting, photography, film making, cooking, etc. This can also become an additional source of income.

The core factor in the preservation of income is saving and for this to happen, one should develop some attributes like the ability to distinguish between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’, patience while spending and satisfaction with what one has. One should also be reflective and learn from

44 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

one’s mistakes. The procedure to be followed starts with an assessment of one’s assets and liabilities; assessment of one’s income and expenditure in the short term and long term; setting goals; setting retirement time and succession plans, etc. The bottom line is to draw one’s budget keeping a provision for unforeseen expenses.

The cardinal principle is to assess where all one’s money goes, how much one can keep and how to manage, so that money kept is always higher than what one spends. Once the income or a

portion of it is preserved, then the next issue will be the manner and mode of keeping the saved money. There has to be a considered design for wealth keeping, considering the age and risk taking appetite of the investor. Young investors can take some risk with an aim to multiply their income, while elderly investors should go for consolidating and safe-keeping of their money.

The basic principle to be followed is not to put all eggs in one basket and to avoid greed. One should study the market avenues for investment before making any investment.

The last of the three parameters is tax planning. There is no one-size-fits-all solution in tax planning. The reason being, different persons have different income-earning activity. There are five heads of income under the Income-Tax Act. These are from salary, income from house property, business or profession, capital gains and income from other sources. The head of ‘income under other sources’ is the residuary section which includes all sources of income not falling under the first four heads. The steps for tax planning for each head of income will be different. For my column today, I propose to take up some general steps which may apply to all heads of income.

Income tax is tax on the income of a person during the preceding financial year. There is no tax on income up to ₹2.5 lakh. This limit goes to ₹ three lakh for senior citizens and up to ₹ five

lakh for super senior citizens (persons aged 80 or above). The tax rate is 10 percent for income up to ₹five lakh, 20 percent for income up to ₹10 lakh and 30 percent for income above ₹10 lakh. If the affairs are adjusted in such a way that more than one person shares the same income then the tax liability can be brought down. The ‘person’ in the I.T. Act does not mean only individual but it includes HUF (Hindu Undivided Family), partnership firm, company, association of persons, body of individuals and artificial juridical person. The simplest way to add more persons against your income is to create an income-tax file in the name of your HUF. You can have your HUF together with your father’s HUF. A part of your wealth can be assigned to your HUF and by doing so income earned on that assigned wealth will be taxable under the HUF. The tax liability gets reduced as there is lesser income in your hand and in the hands of HUF. There will be no tax if income is less than ₹2.5 lakh or lower tax depending upon the income slab.

Business houses create a large number of assessees and files. It is advisable to help your parents by helping yourselves if your parents have no taxable income or less taxable income. You can transfer your money to your parents. This may help you reduce your taxable income, and at the same time your parents will earn some income on which there will be either no tax or less tax, depending on their income slab. Income earned on money gifted to your spouse or minor child is clubbed under your income while there is no such clubbing on money gifted to your parents.

There are provisions in the Income-Tax Act (Section 10) as per which certain income is exempt from tax. One such income is dividend income. Hence it is advisable that a proportion of one’s disposable income should be invested in equity either directly or through mutual fund on a regular basis. Select equities that have been giving good dividend and which have good future potential. A good investment decision will earn good income that is tax-free. If equities are kept for more than one year and there is price appreciation then the gain on sale will again be free from tax. It is advisable that my readers should develop interest in the capital market. The capital market, if intelligently handled, can give substantial income over a span of time without attracting tax.

Another way of building capital with intrinsic concession on tax is to buy a house. There is no taxation of any notional income if the house is self-occupied and on the contrary, interest up

to the tune of ₹ two lakh is allowed if money has been borrowed for the acquisition of the house.

This interest can be set off against ‘other income’ of the person, thus reducing the tax liability of the person. If the house has been acquired jointly with the spouse out of the borrowed capital, then each of the spouses can claim up to ₹ two lakh against their respective incomes. If the acquired property is let out, then the entire interest payment can be claimed against the income from the property. On property sold after three years of acquisition, as it will be considered long-term capital gain. My young readers should focus on property purchase as it is the surest way of creating wealth and at the same time paying less tax.

Chapter VIA of the Income-Tax Act specifies various deductions which should be used for tax planning as these deductions are set against the gross income of the person. The most commonly known deduction under this Chapter is deduction under Section 80C. There are several specified investments mentioned under this Section and deduction up to Rs 1.5 lakh can be availed, if investment as prescribed is made. There are several other deductions under this Chapter such as deduction against loan taken for education, deduction in respect of medical expenses and donation given to charitable institutions. While planning for personal finance and taxation, one should not lose sight of a retirement and succession plan. It is advisable to plan for them well in advance. This will give you a sizable corpus at lower annual investment for which tax concession is specified.

I close my column here with what Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

The catching of fish can be compared with the generation of income; keeping the fish in the deep freezer can be compared with preservation of income and cooking the fish at less cost can be compared with saving of taxes

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tadka

Media reach According to Indian Readership Survey data for the second quarter of 2015, the estimated audience of radio in India is 158 million. Of this, 106 million are FM radio listeners. The TV channels, on the other hand, have a viewership base of 563 million while the print media reaches 352 million.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 45

STAR CAMPUS PLACEMENT

A journey to success Meet ADITI PRIYDARSHANI, a young, dynamic student, who recently completed her post-graduation from a prestigious B-school and is today placed with one of the leading IT firms.

Aditi talks to Corporate Citizen on her first break into the corporate world

By Mahalakshmi Hariharan

A

fter finishing her B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering, Aditi decided to pursue her post-graduation by specialising in Systems, from a leading management college. Today, she is placed in the IT division, Functional Domain Consultant-Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) with Dell India Pvt Ltd.

CAMPUS PLACEMENT Talking about her placement process, Aditi says the entire interview process wasn’t too tough, but quite grilling. “The company first shortlist-

ed our CVs and chose a few of us. There was a group discussion round followed by two technical interviews and a HR round. They asked me quite a few questions from my graduation subjects, post-graduation and MBA projects. It all went smooth for me and I cracked it without much difficulty,” smiles Aditi.

“I did have a few expectations from my college where I did my PG and must say that I’m thoroughly satisfied. I really wanted to groom my overall personality, apart from just getting a good job and my college helped me achieve it. The overall exposure that I had got was immense in terms of meeting senior delegates

46 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

from the industry, learning from them, interacting with industry experts and participating in classroom discussions,” she adds.

Aditi, who was also the President, Student Council at her college, had too many things to handle, yet was efficient with her work. Aditi was always bright in studies, with strong academics. Right from managing her class to organising events to delegating work, while also participating in extracurricular activities, she did it all, pretty well. Her seniors and teachers always held her in high regard. “I am so grateful to my faculty, director, and my classmates who were always there to support me and correct

me. I was always treated as part of the family.

I am thankful to all my seniors who helped me achieve my goal and fulfil my dream,” she says.

“Today, I have learnt to trust people and also realised that it is important to delegate and distribute work and responsibilities. Other council members have made me believe that it is important to trust others work-wise, and sharing work is a must as each one of us should take equal responsibility and ensure we all do it well,” notes Aditi.

“I figured that it was easier for me to handle work since I already had a strong foundation, thanks to my institute. Most of our faculty members had good industry experience which helped me learn from them and gain knowledge”

GOOD OLD DAYS AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE Aditi hails from Kurukshetra in Haryana. Her father is a veterinary surgeon and mother, a homemaker. Her siblings, her younger sister is pursuing her MBBS and brother is studying in the XI standard. Aditi’s parents have been extremely supportive of her decisions and helped her achieve her dreams.

Aditi did her schooling from Kurukshetra.

She was an all-rounder during her school days, academically strong, and also participated in

c Aditi with her friends f Aditi with Kiran Bedi, social activist, retired police officer and noted politician

other school activities. “I was a good student at school and used to be my teacher’s favourite.

Apart from studies, I would also regularly participate in various other activities. I was quite popular at school,” reminisces Aditi.

Talking about her post-graduation days, Aditi says that though the schedule was extremely

tight, as compared with other institutes, it helped her groom her personality. “I must admit that the college schedule was quite hectic. We would have regular surprise tests, day-long lectures, no weekends in the first year and attendance was compulsory. However, it was all worth it. Today, I realise its importance. This programme has groomed me well and given me the confidence. It taught me how to be a professional,” recalls Aditi.

The institute had some of the best faculty members who helped in shaping the students’ career. “Most of our faculty members had good industry experience which helped us learn from them and gain knowledge. I would regularly stay in touch with my faculty and understand my subjects better.

There was equal weightage given to both theory and practical subjects. My basics got strong.

We would also regularly meet some of the top delegates from the corporate world, during the regular seminars held at college,” she adds.

Aditi did her internship with Tata Technologies during her second year of post-graduation. “I figured that it was easier for me to handle work since I already had a strong foundation, thanks to my institute. My basics were strong and I took my studies quite seriously,” she said.

“Every student at the institute was appreciated and rewarded for their hard work and sincerity. On the basis of our Learning Hour Record (LHR), some of us also got a chance to attend the Asia HRD Congress 2015 ceremony, at Dubai, where some of the renowned and senior delegates from the corporate world were present. Fortunately, I was one of them as I had a 100-per cent LHR. It was a memorable experience and a great learning opportunity. We got a chance to network with some of the top delegates from the industry,” she added.

Truly, hard work, dedication and willpower were some of the qualities that helped Aditi win.

ADVICE TO JUNIORS z Keep the focus. Be attentive in class z Keep yourself updated with current affairs z Stay fit. Exercise regularly Mahalakshmi.H@corporatecitizen.in

CC

tadka

‘Tab’ulate this!

There are 47 million Tablet PC users in India. This number is projected to go up to 54 million users by 2017.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 47

SURVEY

DELHI’S ODD (EVEN) CON

48 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

UNDRUM

Perhaps no other government experiment has raised as much controversy as Delhi’s odd – even rule for cars. Political parties, climate experts and even the international media have dissected the policy no end. But, what about the residents of Delhi? What do they feel about CM Kejriwal’s new rule? www.localcircles. com, one of India’s leading citizen engagement platforms, conducted a survey which was focused on reducing Delhi’s pollution and the implementation of the odd-even rule.

Corporate Citizen presents the results

D

elhi needs a drastic pollution solution.

There are no two ways about that.

India’s capital recently gained the dubious distinction of becoming the world’s most polluted city in the world, with pollution levels exceeding 10 times the maximum limit prescribed by the WHO. It even overtook Beijing, which for decades held the noncoveted mantle of the most polluted city in the world. Delhi is often known as a city of excess, where flaunting the latest cars is a symbol of status, and where most VIPs look down upon the public transportation system. Add to that the biting cold in the winter, and the desire for possessing cars only increases. But now even the most cynical of Delhites are coming around. They have begun to understand that the air around the city will soon resemble a gas chamber if nothing is done.

Local Circles surveyed around one lakh Delhi residents to understand their views on the odd-even scheme and their thoughts on how to reduce pollution. The results of the survey can be viewed as a litmus test of Arvind Kejriwal’s ambitious project, and a lesson for other cities around the world who are looking out for ways to battle pollution. Without any further ado, here are the results of the survey.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 49

SURVEY Do you believe the odd and even number cars programme can be effectively implemented in Delhi?

Do you support the ban on new diesel cars in Delhi?

No 26 %

Yes 31%

No 69 %

Yes 31 percent

No 69 percent

Total votes 10,447

Overwhelming 69 percent citizens don’t believe that the oddeven car rule can be effectively implemented in the current scenario and given all the exceptions.

Do you believe the odd and even cars program will result in increased sales of cars in Delhi?

Yes 74%

No 26 percent

Yes 74 percent

Total votes: 9,174

74 percent citizens support the ban on registration of new diesel cars in Delhi. This is one area where there is practically no resistance from the average resident, except for those involved in the transportation industry.

Do you believe the odd and even cars programme has increased sales of cars in Delhi?

No 22%

No 39% Yes 61% Yes 78%

No 39 percent

Yes 61 percent

Total votes: 9,769 No 22 percent

61 percent citizens believe the odd-even rule will result in increased car sales and in the long run, more cars on Delhi roads, as there is no shortage of money amongst the city’s elite, and a fleet of VIP’s who look at public transportation and carpooling as beneath them.

50 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Yes 78 percent

Total votes: 9,066

78 percent citizens support the ban on registration renewal of more than 10-year-old cars in Delhi. Old Diesel vehicles are notorious for their carbon emissions, and the ban is welcome in the city.

THESE ARE THE CHIEF INPUTS FROM OVER 100,000 RESIDENTS OF DELHI TO CURB ON POLLUTION IN THEIR CITY

1

Delhi is often known as a city of excess, where flaunting the latest cars is a symbol of status, and where most VIP’s look down upon the public transportation system. Add to that the biting cold in the winter, and the desire for possessing cars only increases. But now even the most cynical of Delhites are coming around. They have begun to understand that the air around the city will soon resemble a gas chamber if nothing is done Will it be better to try the odd-even plan in limited areas for limited time as a pilot project to begin with?

No 49%

All diesel commercial vehicles older than 10 years must be banned in Delhi. Plying of such vehicles from outside the state has to be managed by Delhi Traffic Police by setting up proper checkpoints into entry into Delhi. This has to be done wisely to avoid congestions.

2

Delhi Government should work with the Haryana Government to complete the under construction Kundli-Manesar-Palwal by pass on a priority basis. Most of the civil work on this bypass has been completed and it will divert a bulk of traffic whose final destination is not Delhi.

3

Delhi government should work actively with UP government for completing Kundli -Ghaziabad –Palwal expressway, the work has not even started fully. This is an important by pass and if it is not completed then the Supreme Court’s decision on commercial vehicle diversion also not be implemented fully.

Yes 51%

4

A practical suggestion is that petrol pumps should be instructed to check the PUC certificate before giving petrol/diesel.

This used to be the norm but is not followed by petrol pumps.

No 49 percent

Yes 51 percent

Total votes: 9,181

Citizens are split even on implementing this rule in a limited area of Delhi on pilot basis. Although it is a step in the right direction, public transportation still needs improvement in order to accommodate the swelling of commuters due to the scheme.

5

Delhi Police should impound vehicles having dangerous level of pollution.

6

Open burning of garbage, dry leaves,

rubber, synthetic clothes etc. should be made a criminal offence with a fine of ₹5000.

Anyone booked thrice for same punishable act to be liable to imprisonment for 30 days or a fine of ₹50,000 or both.

7

Cleaning of roads with brooms should be stopped and mechanized cleaning should be deployed to prevent the dust from spreading in the air.

8

Open trucks carrying construction material should be banned. They should be strictly asked to cover them so dust does not fly outside.

9

Construction sites should be ordered to cover themselves from all sides and heavy penalty should be imposed if not covered.

10

Permanent rain guns/sprinklers should be installed to keep top cover of all landfill sites within NCR of Delhi moist to prevent dust from flying around.

11

Mist nozzles/water sprinklers should be mandatorily fitted on top of commercial buildings to spray water for 15 to 30 minutes before sun rise to enable the particulate matter to become heavy and settle down.

12

Bursting of crackers/ fireworks in private functions should be banned.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 51

PEARLS OF WISDOM

By Osho

I am responsible for myself Excuses and excuses and excuses — excuses just to avoid one single insight that “I am responsible for myself. Nobody else is responsible for me; it is absolutely and utterly my responsibility.

Whatsoever I am, I am my own creation.”

T

he ordinary mind always throws the responsibility on somebody else. It is always the other who is making you suffer. Your wife is making you suffer, your husband is making you suffer, your parents are making you suffer, your children are making you suffer, or the financial system of the society, capitalism, communism, fascism, the prevalent political ideology, the social structure, or fate, karma, God… you name it.

People have millions of ways to shirk responsibility. But the moment you say somebody else — x, y, z — is making you suffer, then you cannot do anything to change it. What can you do? When the society changes and communism comes and there is a classless world, then everybody will be happy. Before it, it is not possible.

How can you be happy in a society which is poor? And how can you be happy in a society which is dominated by the capitalists? How can you be happy with a society which is bureaucratic? How can you be happy with a society which does not allow you freedom?

Excuses and excuses and excuses — excuses just to avoid one single insight that “I am responsible for myself. Nobody else is responsible for me; it is absolutely and utterly my responsibility. Whatsoever I am, I am my own creation.”

This is the meaning of the third sutra: Drive all blame into one.

And that one is you. Once this insight settles: “I am responsible for my life — for all my suffering, for my pain, for all that has happened to me and is happening to me — I have chosen it this way; these are the seeds that I sowed and now I am reaping the crop; I am responsible” — once this insight becomes a natural understanding in you, then everything else is simple. Then life starts taking a new turn, starts moving into a new dimension. That dimension is conversion,

52 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

revolution, mutation — because once I know I am responsible, I also know that I can drop it any moment I decide to. Nobody can prevent me from dropping it.

Can anybody prevent you from dropping your misery, from transforming your misery into bliss? Nobody. Even if you are in a jail, chained, imprisoned, nobody can imprison you; your soul still remains free.

Of course you have a very limited situation,

Can anybody prevent you from dropping your misery, from transforming your misery into bliss?

Nobody. Even if you are in a jail, chained, imprisoned, nobody can imprison you; your soul still remains free. Of course you have fr a limited limi situation; you can either eithe cry tears of helplessness or sing a song

but even in that limited situation you can sing a song. You can either cry tears of helplessness or you can sing a song. Even with chains on your feet you can dance; then even the sound of the chains will have a melody to it.

Just be responsible to yourself Do whatsoever you feel like doing. If it is wrong, the punishment will immediately follow.

If it is right, the reward will follow immediately, instantly; there is no other way. In this way you

will start finding what is wrong, what is right on your own. You will grow a new sensitivity Indians call it the third eye. You will start seeing a new vision, a new eye. Instantly you will know what is wrong, because in the past so many times you have done it and always suffered in consequence. You will know what is right, because whenever you did existence showered great blessings on you. Cause and effects are together, they are not separated by years and lives.

This is what I mean by “Being Responsible” to yourself. There is no God on whom you can dump your responsibility, but you are always searching to dump on somebody, even on a poor man like me, who is continuously telling you that I am not responsible for anything, for anybody, Still, somehow, deep down you go on carrying the illusion that I must be joking.

But you don’t understand. Dumping your responsibility on me, you will remain retarded, childhish. You will never grow. The only way to grow is to accept all the good, the bad, the joyful, the sorrowful. Everything that happens to you, you are responsible for. This gives you great freedom.

Religiousness is born in you only when you begin to feel total responsibility for yourself.

Philosophy is one thing: philosophy can continue its meaningless absurd theorizing. Religion is different: religion is a decision, it is to feel totally responsible for yourself. Whatever I am - a violent, angry, greedy, lust-filled mind, a bundle of desire - I am responsible.

The moment I feel that my ugliness is my responsibility that my sin-centred mind is my responsiblility, then the jump becomes possible.

Because I am responsible for my ugliness, no one else can be responsible for my beauty. If I am responsible for all the darkness that is within me, then all the light that comes to a Buddha can also come to me. By taking responsibility for the one, the other potential becomes open...

(Osho, the Book of Wisdom, Ch 5 and other)

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 53

BOLLYWOOD BIZ

TVF and the rise of THE WEB SERIES The youth in India has become distanced from local TV programming for a while now. There is a large disconnect between the television shows that are aired on Indian TV and their intended youth demographic.

Which is why a lot of youngsters have gravitated to American TV shows.

However, with the advent of the internet and the low cost of publishing online, a parallel industry is growing in India, heralded by the likes of The Viral Fever, which focuses on quality content, a talented cast of actors and an amazing storyline which resonates with the youth. Corporate Citizen brings you the inspiring story of TVF and the Web Series in India

U TVF founder Arunabh Sinha

nless you have been living under a rock, you must have heard of The Viral Fever, or TVF as they like to be called.

It has a fascinating story behind its inception. It started with Arunabh Sinha, an IIT Kharagpur graduate who had a fascination for filmmaking. He came to Mumbai after graduation and decided that the entertainment industry was the career for him. He worked as an assistant director for, Om Shanti Om and Delhi Belly, where he honed his craft, while at the same time pitching ideas to TV

54 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

channels for new shows. In 2009 Arunabh came up with a pilot for a show called Engineer’s Diary, and he approached MTV and other youth channels for it. Everyone liked the idea but the show was rejected. Arunabh said that whenever he went with a show concept to the decision makers, they used to say Indian audience is dumb, they won’t like it and they used to be really adamant in proving it and Arunabh was equally passionate in proving them wrong. However, without a big studio backing them and having no money of their own, there was not much talented storytellers like Arunabh could do.

The breakout show of the channel is Pitchers. Currently holding a 9.6/10 rating, Pitchers is the 23rd most highly rated show in the world according to IMDb. Brilliantly written, edited and directed, the show is poignant, funny, and actually understands the ethos of the urban Indian

By 2010, India had opened its arms to the internet. With the advent of YouTube and the rise of the social media, it became much easier for content creators like Arunabh to publish their content online and even easier for users to gain access to it. Thus TVF was born as a digital entertainment channel, that wanted to reach out to the generation of young, disillusioned viewers who were tired of the formulaic, out-of-sync TV shows which aired on national TV. Around that time Arunabh did not have any money to even pay the rent, so there was no question of promoting the channel. His em-

ployee and current partner Amit Golani re-edited the first video ‘Qtiyapa’ and they uploaded it on YouTube. Within a couple of days it got around 17K-18K likes and it became the second most viewed video in entertainment category that week. Somehow the term ‘Qtiyapa’ became famous in IITs and NITs, and thus they knew they were doing something right.

The second video Rowdies was put up in the mid of February 2012, it got a million views in less than 5 days. What started off as an experiment quickly became a rage amongst the younger generation, and TVF became viral. The breakout show of the channel is The Pitchers, which stands for a group of youngsters start-up entrepreneurs pitching their idea to business houses.

This series by TVF, is by far the best series we’ve seen so far. Brilliantly written, edited and directed, this show which even has a killer soundtrack has us floored with its brilliance. It’s poignant, funny and actually understands the ethos of the urban Indian.

The show centers around four friends trying to establish a start up on their own. Currently holding a 9.6/10 rating, Pitchers is the 23rd most highly rated show in the world according to IMDb.

Another show TVF is most known for is ‘Permanent Roommates.’ This is written well, directed and acted romantic comedy that is truly unique and pleases immensely on many fronts and with many layers. It excellently blends emotion and humour to give an intriguing and fun insight into today’s modern relationships. It definitely transcends the current Indian cinematic blunders in this genre. According to Wikipedia, The series is (at the time of writing) the second most-viewed long-form web series in the world.

With a 1.2 billion population and an estimated 400 million people with access to smartphones, Web series are no longer catering to a niche demographic. India has the world’s largest youth population at 365 million, and it is an audience that mainstream TV is fast losing touch with. In the next half decade, channels channels like MTV and V, and deservedly so.

Such is the growing popularity of You tube, that even Bollywood’s biggest studio Yashraj Films, have started a web only arm of their company called Y-Films, and has produced two shows- ‘Man’s World,’ and ‘Bang Baaja Baraat,’ the latter boasting of high production values and edgy content which has become a big hit amongst the youth.

With great web only channels such as TVF, AIB, ScoopWhoop and Hotstar, this is the best time to be a TV aficionado…all you need to change is the medium of watching, not lower your standards.

CC

tadka

World’s largest cotton producer India has beaten China to become the largest producer of cotton in the world in 2015. India produced 6.51 million tonnes of the fibre against 6.48 million tonnes registered by China in the year 2014-15.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 55

HEALTH

WORKOUT AT WORK IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE STAYING FIT, THESE OFFICE EXERCISES ARE A GREAT WAY TO KEEP YOUR BODY MOVING RIGHT WHILE YOU ARE AT YOUR DESK

STOP, GET UP AND MOVE z Getting up and walking around is the best exercise you can get to provide a break from sitting, concentrating and using the muscles of the arms and hands. About every 20 to 30 minutes is a guide to how often it is helpful to move around. 10 minutes away from the computer each hour is recommended. z Regularly change your posture and give muscles a chance to recover.

STOP, S-T-R-E-T-C-H AND CHECK! z Do a few of these exercises a few times every day. z Dots show the muscles that you are exercising. z Make sure you relax and perform them gently. z Hold the stretch or repeat as indicated. z Do not over-stretch. z Stop if you feel discomfort. z Remember to do each side.

SHOULDERS SHOULDER ROLLS: Circle shoulders forward several times, then backward. Repeat three to five times.

Check shoulder posture z Relax your shoulders and rest your hands on your lap.

Bend your elbows to no more than 90 degrees and check the height of your fingertips against your current work height. z If the work (keyboard or desk) is higher than your hands you may be hunching your shoulders unnecessarily.

If so, try and raise your chair height or lower your desk height and try and relax your shoulders while working.

NECK

HEAD ROLLS z Keeping your chin tucked in, gently lower ear to shoulder and hold for 10 seconds on either side. z Repeat several times and be careful not to extend your neck back too far.

HEAD TURNS: Turn head to look over left shoulder and hold for 10 seconds.

Turn head the other way and hold for 10 seconds.

Repeat several times.

56 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

CHIN TUCKS: Raise the head to straighten the neck. Tuck the chin in and upwards creating a double chin. This also results in a forward tilt of the head. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat several times.

Check neck posture z Position the top of your screen at eye level. z Use a document holder directly beside or below the screen – it saves you looking down.

WRISTS, HANDS AND ARMS

WRIST AND ELBOW STRETCH: Interlace fingers, palms outward, and straighten arms in front. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat several times.

WRIST STRETCH: Straighten your arm in front and bend your wrist forward, gently assist the stretch with your other hand. Hold for 10 seconds, then stretch your wrist back and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat with other arm.

Check hand and wrist posture z Keep your fingers suspended over the keyboard. z Keep elbows at keyboard level. This may mean adjusting the desk or chair height. z Don’t rest your wrists on the desk or keyboard. Keep hands suspended.

EYES

KEEP YOUR FINGERS SUSPENDED OVER THE KEYBOARD. KEEP ELBOWS AT KEYBOARD LEVEL. THIS MAY MEAN ADJUSTING THE DESK OR CHAIR HEIGHT. DON’T REST YOUR WRISTS ON THE DESK OR KEYBOARD UPPER AND LOWER BACK UPPER AND LOWER BACK STRETCH: Interlace fingers and turn palms upward above head; straighten arms then slowly lean slightly from side to side. Repeat movement several times PECTORAL STRETCH: Raise both arms to shoulder height and bend elbows. Pull both elbows back slowly to bring shoulder blades towards each other. Repeat several times.

BACK ARCHING: Stand up. Support lower back with hands and gently arch back. Gently arch back and hold for five to 10 seconds. Repeat as often as is needed.

Check back support z Sit well back in your chair - if your feet need support, use a foot rest. z Adjust the back rest on your chair to support your lower back.

EYE EXERCISE: Sit up straight, face forward and repeat this sequence several times without moving head. Look up, then down. Look left, then right.

VISUAL REST: Look up and away from screen Focus on a distant object (more than three metres). For example, look out of the window or at a picture on a far wall. Shift vision back to screen and refocus.

Check eye comfort z Is there enough light falling on your documents? z Do windows or light fittings cause glare or reflection on the screen? If so, try turning the screen or blocking the path of the light. z Use a screen with a light background when working with text.

Software with a light background for text is more comfortable for the eyes.

LEGS FOOT PUMP: Stand up, holding the chair for balance if necessary, and alternately raise heels and toes. Repeat 10 times.

Check leg comfort z If the seat of your chair is digging into the back of your thighs, check that it is not too high or whether it is tilted backwards. z If the seat is too high, lower the chair and desk or use a foot rest to support your feet. z Also check the tilt of the seat and if necessary adjust it to a horizontal position.

(Courtesy: http://www.deakin.edu.au) February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 57

TRAVEL

ALASKAN Retreat

Dr Om Manchanda, aged 50 years, is a whole-time Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dr Lal Path Labs Ltd. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad. He has about 25 years of experience in the field of marketing and general management. After graduating from the IIM in June 1990, he was selected as a management trainee for Lipton India Limited now amalgamated into Hindustan Unilever Limited, (HUL), under the management trainee scheme of Unilever Group of Companies in India. He worked with HUL for nearly 10 years. In November 1999, he joined Monsanto as National Marketing Manager. In January 2003 he joined Ranbaxy Laboratory Limited in their Global Consumer Healthcare Division and worked initially as General Manager Marketing, Consumer Healthcare (India) and then General Manager - International & Innovation before joining Dr Lal PathLabs Ltd in October 2005 Here he gives an insight into his favourite travel destinations...

By Sharmila Chand Which is your favourite holiday destination?

Being a vivid traveller and explorer by heart, I completely adore Alaska, New Zealand and the beautiful high-altitude Himalayan Range.

These three destinations have been my eternal favourites for long and I never think twice about going here after juggling my schedules and finding time between work and home.

Why? Well. I have an utter proclivity towards ‘Mother Nature’ and the above hotspots bring one really

close to nature. I am a strong believer that nature can inspire a soul in so many ways and whenever I step out for some quality time to places like these, I want to come back rejuvenated and high-spirited.

When did you visit last?

My ‘deal’ with Himalayas was fixed years ago and I make it a point to ‘date’ them at least once, every year (laughs). The Himalyan ranges are one timeless beauty that can always surprise you. Even if one treks the same roads, it is so different. I fall for them all the time!

58 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Meanwhile, I went to Alaska in 2011 and New Zealand was in 2009. I plan to explore some more destinations that can bring me a little more close to the nature’s lap.

What do you like about the place?

All these places have a few things in common - extremely scenic, away from mad rush and hustle and bustle of commercial cities, wildlife, quietitude, peace, serene and endless beauty.

Alaska has beautiful wildlife. I miss seeing lots of moose, which can be seen in the Anchorage city

limits and in South Central Alaska in general. In Juneau, there are lots of black bears, grizzlies, glacier bear, wolves, eagles, sea birds, ravens, harbor seals, stellar sea lions, otters, different kinds of whales and I could go on and on…

The laid-back people, quirky charm and wild scenery... New Zealand can be defined in so many ways. It is so varied you can see beaches, volcanoes, rainforest and even desert in one day. It’s a safe, easy place to travel with friendly, creative people and endless walks for nature lovers like me.

Not to forget is the cruise to

Manchanda with his wife on the Sea Princess Cruise, on his way to Alaska

“Southeast Alaska offers incredible scenery of glaciers, mountains and the ocean. The area is also inhabited by the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people.

Along the coastal passage, the Tongass National Forest includes islands, mountains, glaciers, ice fields, fjords, and waterfalls” Manchanda behind a steam engine at Alaska Rail Museum

Mokoia Island on Lake Rotorua where one gets an authentic insight into Maori culture as you hear the moving love story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai. One of the most happening experiences was to wander through the dense Kauri forest at night where moonlight guides you to the giant Tane Mahuta – Maori legend has it that this tree is the Lord of the Forest and father of all living forest creatures.

Tell us the highlights of the destination, what should not be missed, what do you rec-

ommend to see and do?

Well there are three favourite destinations here—Alaska, Himalayas and New Zealand.

I will talk about Alaska here: x Exploring the Alaskan wilds such as Denali and Kenai Fjords National Parks x Taking a close view at the glaciers with ‘glacier viewing’ at the Tracy Arm Fjord. One also gets to see the whales and seals that inhabits, these waters x Kenai Fjords National Park – This is one of the ‘Not to Miss’ things in Alaska. This national park offers some of the best sightseeing in Alaska and breathtaking panoramas with glaciers of the Harding Icefield and an uninhabited coastline. x The Alaska Highway

x The Alaskan Cruise at the South Island. Southeast Alaska offers incredible scenery of glaciers, mountains and the ocean.

The area is also inhabited by the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. Along the coastal passage, the Tongass National Forest includes islands, mountains, glaciers, ice fields, fjords, and waterfalls. Not to miss is the Prince of Wales Island, one of the largest islands in the US, in the forests. x The up-sides to Alaska’s long dark winters is the glowing North-

visit over there? Why? The top three eating places in Alaska would be - the Mexican Asian fusion restaurant – ‘V’s Cellar Door’, authentic Russian food at ‘The Samovars’ and the best Indian Cuisine at ‘Saffron’.

Which are the good hotels to stay there? Which is your favourite hotel to stay?

My favourite place to stay in Alaska would be on the highways under the sky but to keep one warm, it would be Hotel Alyeska.

Enjoying the backwaters at Mendenhall Glacier, South Alaska

ern Lights that appear on many nights from September to midApril. Some of the best aurora borealis viewing happens in the Fairbanks area. x The Magical Arctic Circle where the summer solstice brings 24 hours of daylight and the winter means 24 hours of darkness. x Finally, the Mendenhall Glacier.

Beautiful glaciers and icebergs.

One can indulge into rafting and kayaking to be with the bergs.

To sum up everything, the only advice or recommendation I have to the readers is - be it any place, just ‘Be You’. Forget the hardships, the tough days, the failures, success and for sometime give up the materialistic world and let your soul indulge, the way it is. This will give one utter satisfaction and something that I call as “Self Happiness”.

Which restaurants you like to

3 tips you can give to fellow travellers for that place?

Forget where you have come from, forget who you are and enjoy a new you.

How, according to you, can that destination be improved?

I love this place the way it is.

What can other destinations learn from that place?

Liveliness and respect for nature.

What kind of a traveler are you – planning well or more impulsive?

Well, both. So it depends… if I’m going with family, I make it a point to plan well otherwise impulsive.

Lastly, what tops your mind when you travel – `sightseeing, food, shopping or...

Mountains, lakes, wildlife. chand.sharmila@gmail.com

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 59

MOBILE APPS

THE BEST APPS FOR TENNIS FANS

As the Australian Open kicked off, and it’s time for tennis fans to rejoice. While there are a multitude of cricket apps for fans, tennis lovers can have a hard time finding the right tools to stay connected to their passion. With that in mind, Corporate Citizen ‘serves’ up the best apps for tennis followers

By Neeraj Varty

WATCH ALL LIVE ACTION ON ESPN

TENNIS LIVE SCORES & NEWS +

TENNIS TRAINING BY FITIVITY

ALL TENNIS WALLPAPERS

If you are a sports fan, WatchESPN has to be downloaded onto your Smartdevice.

The app lets you stream countless sports events live for free, no matter where you are, and Tennis is no exception. Watch the Australian Open and all other tennis events all though the year live on the app. Steaming is supported in standard definition, HD as well as Full HD, so you can now get your tennia fix in the highest quality possible.

This app focuses exclusively on the latest tennis news across the globe as well as gives real time scores of all the major tennis tournaments.

You can also check player rankings, which are updated by the minute. If you are travelling and you don’t find sufficient mobile network to live stream tennis events, then you can use this app to get real time scores as it consumes minimal data and gives you all the latest tennis related updates in a single app.

For those who don’t just love to watch tennis, but also like to play the sport, Tennis Training is a handy little app which will provide those looking to improve their tennis skills and techniques with hints, tips and additional features to help improve their game. The app can also be used to record you as you play and it analyses your posture and serve and suggests tutorials to correct them. If you are serious about, this app might just be the free tennis coach you need

On this page you can download any Tennis wallpaper for mobile phone free of charge. The catalog is regularly updated with new screensavers and pictures, you will always find something interesting for yourself. All images are sorted by category and keywords. The system allows you to download backgrounds directly to a cellphone (through wap.mob.org) or to a PC very easy. neeraj.varty@corporatecitizen.com

60 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

CLAPS & SLAPS

Corporate Citizen slaps the trend of selfies today which is leading to fatal mishaps Corporate Citizen applauds the move of the Lok Sabha Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, who approved a proposal to abolish subsidy on Parliament canteen food which would now function on a no profit, no loss basis We are glad that the MPs are finally listening to people’s voices and are revising the canteen prices. Days after the government announced a curb on the cooking gas subsidy, Sumitra Mahajan approved a proposal to abolish the subsidy on Parliament canteen food which would now function on a no profit, no loss basis. The decision comes after years of public criticism over parliamentarians being allowed to enjoy cheap food like a plate of chicken curry for ₹29 or dal for just ₹two. As per the new rates, which came into effect from January 1, 2016, the ₹18 veg thali will now be sold for ₹30 and non-veg thali will cost ₹60, instead of ₹33 earlier. The price of chicken curry has been revised from ₹29 to ₹40.

Prices of all items have been increased by 50-70 percent, according to Parliament food committee’s chairman Jithendra Reddy.

Earlier, the panel had submitted a proposal to hike prices of only a few items. But Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan turned it down as she wanted a wholesale revision. A query under the Right To Information (RTI) Act had recently revealed that in past five years, the canteen, run by the Northern Railways catering service, got a subsidy ₹60.7 crore. Apart from MPs, Parliament staff, visitors and many journalists also enjoy the canteen’s subsidised food. During a session, an average 4,500 people eat daily at Parliament canteen. The canteen rates had been revised ten years ago and despite a spiralling rise in the cost of food materials the canteen was run, piling up subsidies.

The government had announced that families with more than annual taxable income of ₹10 lakh, will not get any subsidy on cooking gas. The decision on Parliament canteen, albeit suggested by an independent multi-party panel, is seen in the same direction of reducing subsidies for the non-poor section.

A Lok Sabha press release said the food will also be prepared to ensure there is no wastage. The speaker, however, also decided to place tea and coffee vending machines.

It sounds like a joke, but it isn’t. It feels tragic to see the number of deaths increasing among travellers who are busy focusing on their phone screens, clicking their own pictures, famously known as ‘selfies’, instead of paying attention to their surroundings, eventually risking their own lives. Today, more and more tourists are making headlines because of their dangerous attempts at a memorable photo.

Youngsters should note that before clicking selfies, each one should think about the fact that racing after a high number of ‘likes’ on the social media platform, could lead him/her on a journey to death and his last extreme photo could turn out to be posthumous. Selfie-related accidents have killed more people worldwide this year than shark attacks have, and they’ve killed at least twice as many if you include only unprovoked, confirmed shark attacks.

Sadly, most of the people involved are between the age group of 18 and 22 years. In a recent incident, a teenager from Kanjurmarg, Mumbai, succumbed to the burn injuries he sustained due to electrocution, while trying to click a selfie, on the rooftop of a train, parked at the car shed near Nerul station. According to the Kurla GRP officials, Sahil Chandrakant Eshwarkar, aged 14, a IX standard student of St Xavier’s High School, Kanjurmarg, had gone there to play football with his friends. A senior officer from Kurla GRP said, “We are trying to locate his cell phone, as eyewitnesses claimed that the boy was clicking selfies.”

In another incident three girls, Tarannum Ansari, Anjum Khan and Mustareen Khan, aged 18, 17 and 18, respectively – all from Govandi’s Baiganwadi area had come to the sea facing promenade near Bandra fort for the first time after bunking college. While taking a selfie close to the sea, Tarannum and Anjum slipped into the water. Divers too, were unable to trace Tarannum Ansari and Ramesh Walunj, who lost his life trying to save the other two girls. After the selfie mishap, the Mumbai police, identified 16 dangerous selfie spots and have been marked as `No Selfie Zones’ across the Mumbai, which include Girgaum Chowpatty beach and Marine Drive. But ironically, despite warning signs and the security and police personnel now stationed in the area, people just won’t stop taking selfies.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 61

INNOVATION

Store water in the sky Three decades after ‘Ice Man’ Chewang Norphel first harvested water in the form of artificial glaciers in Ladakh, Sonam Wangchuk, a young mechanical engineer, has taken the innovation forward

I

n 2014, Sonam Wangchuk, who believes that science is beneficial only when it can be applied to everyday problems, decided to improve a water harvesting design created by ‘Ice Man’ Chewang Norphel so that more people could benefit from the innovation.

Norphel, a rural development engineer, had built the first artificial glacier in 1987 in Phuckche village with the help of people who had been facing a severe water shortage for a long time.

Wangchuk, one of the founders of the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, many say, is also the inspiration behind the character of Phunsuk Wangdu or Rancho in ‘Three Idiots’, a popular Bollywood film. To build a prototype, Wangchuk, along with a group of students from his school, built a giant cone of ice in Phyang, about 10 km from Leh city, and called it the Ice Stupa, as it resembles traditional Buddhist monuments. This was built at an altitude of about 3,200 metres and lasted for about four months.

“I once saw ice near my school at a height of 3,000 metres. That is when I first thought that a glacier can be made at a lower height,” he says.

After the success of this cone, a pilot project was implemented in the winter of 2014 with the help of local communities. To do this, Wangchuk raised an online crowdfunding of nearly USD120,000. It was later supported by the head of the Phyang Monastery. To construct these glaciers, river water is brought down the mountain slope in pipes buried 1.8 m underground. The lower end of the pipe is bent to form a nozzle, which juts out of the ground. Water sprinkles out of this nozzle

The artificial glaciers in Ladakh

and, since the temperatures in these regions hover around -30°C, it freezes and settles on a wooden frame, taking the shape of a cone. The length of these pipes is 50-60 metres. “Science says that the water coming out of the lower end of the pipe attains the height from which it was drawn upstream. Therefore, we were able to make the water at the lower end of that pipe rise many stories high, simply by ensuring that the other end from where we are drawing water is higher upstream,” explains the engineer.

The glaciers are then adorned with Buddhist prayer flags that helped in partial shading from the strong spring sun and as a windbreak against the warm spring winds. Thus, the structure is a synergy of science as well as tradition. The stupa managed to reach a height of 20 metres, storing about two million litres of water. During summer, it melted to shed 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water every day.

Water from this stupa was used by the villagers to plant 5,000 poplar and willow trees in 2015. These trees require about 10 litres of water a day, and their economic value stands at ₹8,000 per tree.

are a lifeline.

While the glaciers start melting in June, the region’s main crops—barley and green peas— need water during their sowing season, which begins in April. The situation is critical as no crop can be grown here during winter. Moreover, as the region has a very short summer period, if the crops are not sown in time, they cannot fully mature. So timely availability of water is critical.

Wangchuk, many say, is also the inspiration behind the character of Phunsuk Wangdu or Rancho in ‘Three Idiots’, a popular Bollywood film

Parched land The land, that once used to bear a bountiful harvest of wheat, barley and other crops, now remains parched. For a region that receives average annual rainfall as less as 50 mm, glaciers

62 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

Flow of wisdom

Wangchuk has taken the initiative forward. While Norphel’s design of constructing glaciers could be implemented only in areas facing north so that they get limited sunshine despite being in shade, Wangchuk’s version does not have this restriction, and can be installed even at lower altitudes. Moreover, Wangchuk’s design of building conical ice structures uses minimum surface area with maximum volume. This also prevents spring sun and wind from melting the ice. This gives Wangchuk’s design an edge over Norphel’s structures where water was collected in small flat pools, thus exposing more area to the sun, for a given volume of water. Wangchuk says his design is not a labour-intensive one and can be maintained by just one person. “It is almost like 3-D printing of an ice cone.”

(Courtesy: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/)

FEATHERLITE

CORPORATE TWITTERATI Bajirao Mastani won as many as nine awards the Guild Awards 2015 held in Mumbai recently. Ranveer Singh adjudged as the Best Actor for Bajirao, while Deepika Padukone won Best Actress award for Piku. Corporate Citizen brings the most informative tweets after the award ceremony

Firstpost Manoj Bajpayee deserves National Award for #Aligarh over Ranveer Singh for #BajiraoMastani Priyanka@priyankachopra So proud of team #BajiraoMastani supremely proud of being a part of this film! It’s all u #SLB @filmfare thank you for the acknowledgment Deepika Padukone FC Many congrats to team #BajiraoMastani for the several awards won tonight

LAUGH ALOUD For this edition of featherlite, we bring you some humorous stories with a poignant message which can teach you a lot about life! › The shoes story

You may have heard this very old story illustrating the difference between positive thinking and negative thinking: Many years ago, two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential. The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here - nobody wears shoes.” The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here - nobody wears shoes.” This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways - negatively or positively. We could explain this also in terms of seeing a situation’s problems and disadvantages, instead of its opportunities and benefits.

› The blind man and the advertising

Filmfare The man behind the grandeur, Sanjay Leela Bhansali wins Best Director for #BajiraoMastani. #BritanniaFilmfareAwards Anju Modi@anjumodi Ecstatic on winning best costume design @filmfare awards for #BajiraoMastani #BritanniaFilmfareAwards Pooja Bhatt@PoojaB1972 For me @priyankachopra was the heart & soul of #BajiraoMastani Appalled her performance didn’t garner a BEST ACTOR nomination for #Filmfare Ananth Rupanagudi@rananth Lunchtime humour - After the Success of #BajiraoMastani.. One Gujarati opened a roadside Pav Bhaji stall and named it “BhajiPav Rasta-ni” Alia’s Fever@Ishaww Guys i thnk we can’t blame to @filmfare b’coz many peoples cast their votes to #BhajiraoMastani..this is result of our Slipshod just i thnk Rafi Pir@RafiPir23 The only missing thing in Bhajirao Mastani movie is, Ranveer’s dialogue delivery.... Maza nahi aya

An old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: ‘Blind - Please help’.

No-one was giving him any money. A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money. The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way. Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup. After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said. “It says,” said the stranger, “ ‘It’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.’ This story illustrates in a timeless way how important choice of words and language is when we want to truly connect with and move other people.

› The philosophy student and the chair story This is a widely circulated story from the early 2000s. It appeared online and in emails in many different versions.

Please tell me if you know it to be earlier, and/or the origin. I’ve reconstructing the story as follows A philosophy professor gave an unusual test to his class.

He lifted his chair onto his desk and wrote on the board simply: “Prove that this chair does not exist.” The class set to work, composing long complex explanations - except one student, who took just thirty seconds to complete and hand in his paper, attracting surprised glances from his classmates and the professor. Some days later the class received their grades for the test. The student who took thirty seconds was judged the best. His answer was, “What chair?”

The story is one of several similar urban myths which make fun of supposedly high-minded theorizing and academia, in which an apparently very difficult or impossible question is defeated by a very simple quick ‘clever’ answer.

February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 63

ASTROTURF ARIES

CAPRICORN

Mar 21- April 20

You will keep making changes around you and they will be dramatic. You will redefining yourself, your image and personality. Personal freedom is what you will be seeking, You will learn to deal with major changes in your life, and find your own stability.

Changes in career both personal and in the profession are likely.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 20

You can expect your health to be better than before and remains good throughout the year.

Those wanting to start a family are in a very good fertile period.

Good period if you are planning to buy property. You will be doing things, which will benefit humanity at large.

GEMINI May 21 - June 21 Do not rely too much on friends as they will come and go as they please. Career will take on a more meaningful turn than just earning money or achieving fame.

You could be travelling to foreign countries and also a move to a larger comfortable abode. Emotional support is guaranteed from family members. Allow the situations be as they are and your hard work will yield the results.

CANCER

Jun 22 - July 23

Your career is taking a new meaning and shape to life. Keep your moods positive and constructive and avoid depression like a plague. You may move into a more luxurious home or renovate your abode and bring in comforts. Career will be more interesting to you than money. For your spiritual life it’s important for you to take intermittent breaks. Your job is to rediscover yourself.

Dec 23 - Jan 20

www.dollymangat.com

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BOLD AND THE LUCKY

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

LEO

July 24 - Aug 23

Learn to enjoy your work and make it pleasurable by using your creativity. Your love will remain good, many of you who may be seriously contemplating cementing their bonds, by all means should do so. Happily situations will be calmer now. Family members will be in full support of you and your plans. There is luck in speculations, and Leos are great speculators.

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23 Family relationships will remain bitter sweet, but you will know your priorities correctly. You will make quick profits in short term investments. Review your career make amends where necessary get mental clarity. There is a need for you to bridge gaps between those you have hurt and neglected in the past.

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22

Focus and concentrate on intellectual discipline is needed. Be sure to rest and relax and maintain high energy levels.. Earnings will increase financial opportunities.

64 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 22

This is a wonderful period for all those who are involved in education, marketing or travelling. You may find yourself out of harmony with the family. There is a need for much patience with people around you. Siblings, parents and parent figures could have a good time and socialising could easily happen. It takes time to get into that kind of meditative mode but then it’s worth the effort.

SAGITTARIUS

Nov 23 - Dec 22 The emotional life is more refined, as your emotional sensitivities become stronger. They may be more rebellious; you need to take an authoritarian approach with them.

You need to spend time with them in order to drill the whys of what you want. Thus you are in a banner year of career and will be on top.

You will be caught in the classical conundrum of trying to balance a successful home life with a successful career. Your focus on the career seems to put you at odds with the family and especially with a parent or parent figure. It will take a conscious effort to maintain harmony here. Be more careful while dealing with loved ones, make a conscious effort to save heartaches.

Your taste in reading will become more elevated. The emotional life tends to be unstable.

Those connected with educational field there is good fortune and success in these areas. You need to force yourself to pay attention even when you do not feel like it.

The needs of the family are good financial motivators. It also indicates that you will earn money from home office or home-based business. It shows that family and family connections are important. Construction or renovations could happen.

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19

You will love being involved in group activities but this year you would be more discriminating and choosy about which you meet up with. Very good aspect for those involved in education as this involves success. You will enjoy money that comes from unexpected places and ways. Generosity will be shown to you in more ways than one.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20 Romance is happening and you should enjoy every moment of this year. For those already in relationships the concentration should be on your career. Work hard and manoeuvre your way to success, as success is happening and will keep increasing by the day. Career remains challenging. You will be involved with influential people who can help you career wise. More important than financial gain or loss is the ability to meet situations with courage.

Address: 143, St Patrick’s Town, Gate# 3, Hadapsar IE, Pune-411 013.

Tel.: 020-26872677 / 020-32905748 Email: connect@dollymanghat.com/ info.dollymanghat@gmail.com

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January 1-15, 2016 / `50

CORPORATE CULTURE

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity

INTERVIEW

An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power

Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR

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February 1-15, 2016 / Corporate Citizen / 65

THE LAST WORD

THE FORGOTTEN ART OF ARTICULATION Ganesh Natarajan

If India has to take its rightful place as a leaders of the free and democratic world, it needs all of us to encourage our youth to unknot their tongues, free their minds and communicate often and well

I

n the next financial year, Zensar Technologies will have a new CEO who will have the privilege of leading a company which has broken all records in the past five years with an annual value growth of 44 percent compared to the BSE Sensex which reported a CAGR for the same period of 10 percent. In our exciting industry, leading a company which has been built and sustained on the triple bottom line and paid equal attention to the three Ps of Profit People and Planet will surely be a treat for my successor Sandeep Kishore and eight thousand plus Zensarians and many more shareholders will wish him well in his quest to take this company to the next level of global success.

In a conversation with Sandeep recently I was delighted to find that apart from his many virtues including spending 28 years in HCL, his interests like many of us in Zensar go beyond just revenue and profits and extends to literary pursuits. His book of Hindi poems has been published and he retains a keen interest in the finer aspects of life. The value of keeping this balance was also brought out in an interesting conversation at the World Book Fair in Delhi that Kiran Karnik, former President of NASSCOM had with Prameela and I, co-authors of the Sage Publication on Zensar titled ‘From Start-Up to Global Success’.

Commenting on the fact that the largest chapter of the book (thirty-eight pages) was focused on the company’s contributions to the social sector, our discussion touched on the need for companies to create local and national value for the community and the employees of a company beyond just shareholder value.

Prameela Kalive with Ganesh Natarajan

The young Indian has to be cajoled into asking questions whereas in most Western audiences, hands shoot up when the opportunity to make a comment or ask a question appears Indeed, as one celebrity Fortune Fifty CEO once said “The narrow pursuit of shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.” Most institution builders in the corporate sector truly believe that this is the mantra of success for most long term success stories, individuals as well as companies!

So where does the virtue of articulation figure in this need to enlarge the corporate agenda beyond the simple pursuit of profit? Quite simple because when one wants to get more out of life than just do one’s job and go home peacefully every day, there is an agenda that needs to be created and communicated to a vast cross-section of stakeholders. Whenever I move in one week from leading a meeting with a Zensar customer to speaking at a CII or NASSCOM National Council meeting to interact with the community school children in Johannesburg, Hyderabad to Pune, I say a silent vote of thanks to my

66 / Corporate Citizen / February 1-15, 2016

father the late Shri Ganpathy Iyer Natarajan, whose work with the Ramakrishna Mission and the Tamil Sangam was a constant inspiration of my childhood in Ranchi and to my school Vice Principal in Bishop Westcott Ranchi Algernon Fitzgerald who exhorted me to focus on English elocution and debates to master articulation.

Their encouragement truly set me off on a path which has seen me undertake multiple initiatives and enjoy each one of them.

A salute too to three great friends in Pune – Lavanya Jayaram CMO of Zensar, Shaonlee Bose start-up entrepreneur and Ruchi Mathur Head of Zensar Foundation and CEO of Pune City Connect who share my passion – for prose poetry and just the simple joys of the English turn of phrase. These three young women truly represent the confluence of excellence that so typifies the city of Pune. Shaonlee and Lavanya came to the city from

Kolkata and Hyderabad respectively to study mass communications and practise the art in corporate and entrepreneurial pursuits while Ruchi, an alumnus of India’s top business school, IIM Ahmedabad, has a mission, in her words to “facilitate change at a system level; cutting across conventional boundaries such as specific organisations.” Their ability to communicate, connect and motivate everybody whose life is touched by theirs, and their influence on their teams and the community is their ability to think clearly articulate well and follow through to ensure that the goals they set for themselves and their projects and programmes are achieved.

The young Indian has to be cajoled into asking questions whereas in most Western audiences, hands shoot up when the opportunity to make a comment or ask a question appears. Having wondered whether this is just not having anything to say or the diffidence that comes from a lack of confidence in articulating in English, my research and interactions with young people – in Zensar, the industry and academic institutions everywhere points to the latter. If India has to take its rightful place as a leader of the free and democratic world, it needs all of us to encourage our youth to unknot their tongues, free their minds and communicate often and well.

Maybe not everyone aspires to be or can be a Sandeep or Prameela or Lavanya or Shaonlee or Ruchi, but surely we owe it to them to give them the confidence to try!

Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Vice Chairman & CEO of Zensar Technologies and Chairman of NASSCOM Foundation and Pune City Connect.

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