Volume3 issue 11 corporate citizen by Corporate Citizen

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Olympic Bronze winner Gagan Narangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shooting Academy Volume 3, Issue No. 11 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

NHRDN Career Fest 2017 Careers in media and entertainment

Women Power The WoW Kitty Bengaluru Chapter

Loved and Married Corporate professionals Arti and Pankaj Gadgil

Dynamic Duo: 56 Mrs. Ranjana and General Ved Prakash Malik

Decorated Duo

August 16-31, 2017 / `50

Top Position

Interview with Varadarajan Srinivasan, formerHead of Corporate Affairs, TATA SIA Airlines

2 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

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Guest Talk / S K Jha Editor-In-Chief’s Choice

Dr (Col)A Balasubramanian

China’s Diabolic Design Both our western and eastern borders have got turbulent, thanks to Pakistan’s persistent trouble on the one hand and China’s expansionist aspirations on the other. It is imperative that we use all our weapons wisely-be they diplomacy, military or economic

ur Western Front has been turbulent for quite some time now, due to increased infiltration and the sound of mortars and guns. The LOC has been violated almost on a daily basis by Pakistan, a country whose only objective for its existence is to give us a thousand cuts. We are replying in equal measure but we cannot stoop as low as our neighbour. The new problem at our North-Eastern border has been created by China, which has been Pakistan’s mentor for commercial and strategic reasons. The exact spot of the problem is the tri-junction area of India, Bhutan and China touching Doklam plateau. The tri-junction is near Siliguri and the narrow area connecting the two is called Chicken’s Neck. If an enemy nation controls the Tri-junction, it will be a serious security threat to us, as our all north-eastern states can get disconnected just by taking over the narrow lane leading to Siliguri.

 Strategic point

The Chinese army has reached the strategic point with road building machinery as they want to link this point with mainland China, so as to enable them to reach their

battle tanks and war equipment quickly if the situation so demands. Our army has promptly responded by stopping the Chinese intrusion. The armies of the two countries are standing at the tri-junction with eyeball to eyeball contact. The situation does not stop here as it has been vitiated by threats of war. The official Chinese media has alleged that India is the intruder in their territory and that they will be constrained to wage war unless the Indian army withdraws. In technical terms, the Doklam plateau belongs to Bhutan and since 1890, the status-quo at the border between China and Bhutan has been maintained, though China has claimed it to be disputed territory. Bhutan has a defence agreement with India to safeguard its territory. There is also a three-party agreement between India, China and Bhutan to maintain the status-quo at the tri-junction. Bhutan has also voiced its concern along with India at the movement of troops by China to the tri-junction area of Doklam for constructing a road. China has kept quiet on the opposition raised by Bhutan so as not to be seen as bullying a small country and thus protecting its image in the international community. With India, China has kept the issue at a high pitch by threats of war and reminding us of 1962 when we lost the August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 3

Guest Editorial

India has shown maturity and avoided getting into any verbal duel with China. The government has made a statement in the Parliament that India is on correct ground and that the international community is with us. The government has also assured that we are competent to protect our strategic interests

war against them. On the contrary, India has shown maturity and avoided getting into any verbal duel with China. The government has made a statement in the Parliament that India is on correct ground and that the international community is with us. The government has also assured that we are competent to protect our strategic interests and our border, if such a need arises and that it is 2017 and not 1962. The official newspaper in China, in its editorial, has said that Indo-Sino relationship is getting spoiled due to the rise of Hindu nationalism in India after 2014, when a new government was elected. China is playing the Pakistani card by putting a wedge in our society.

 Sino-India over the years

Our relationship with China was excellent in ancient times. Buddhism travelled to China from our country, as there was an exchange of scholars. There was also active trade between us through the trade route called the ‘Silk Route’. During the British reign in India, ‘pushed trade’ of opium from India to China led to the infamous Opium Wars. During the Second World War, our Indian soldiers were deputed to fight alongside China against the Japanese intrusion in China. China became independent on October 1, 1948 and India was amongst the first few countries to recognise the Peoples Republic of China (now mainland China) after dissociating itself from the Republic of China (Taiwan). India and China entered into a friendship Treaty of Panchsheel and coined the slogan, ‘India-China Bhai-Bhai’. The situation deteriorated when China invaded Tibet in 1959 with the sole objective of annexing it, and thus removing a buffer state of peaceful and religious people between us. Respecting the friendship Treaty of Panchsheel, India chose not to interfere when Tibet was getting annexed, but on a humanitarian ground the Dalai Lama was given asylum in India. China did not like it and our relationship started getting sour and the same resulted in war in 1962. Pakistan tried to fish in the troubled waters and a part of

4 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

our territory illegally occupied in Gilgit-Baltistan by it was handed over to China to ink a permanent friendship with China against a common foe that was India. Border disputes with China continued to remain, but there were no fireworks except for some minor skirmishes. Our bilateral trade meanwhile, developed and as on today, China is our biggest trading partner. However, the trade with us is lopsided to the full advantage of China. Out of an approximate bilateral trade of `4.5 lakh crores, the export by China to us is of `4 lakh crores and our export to China is a small- `50 thousand crores, resulting in a trade deficit against us of `4 lakh crores. We mainly export raw materials, while China exports finished goods.

 Chini-Paki bhai-bhai

China’s friendship with Pakistan has kept on growing. Recently, there has been a $46 billion agreement between China and Pakistan for developing CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) from our illegally acquired territory in Gilgit-Baltistan to Gwadar Port in Balochistan. This work is going on in full swing and the same is the case with the flagship component of OBOR (One Belt One Road) which has been much advertised by China. Many countries and heads of states attended the launching ceremony of OBOR in Beijing which India decided to abstain as OBOR violated the sovereignty of India since CPEC was in our illegally occupied area. China criticised India on our stand on OBOR but it also realised that without the support from India OBOR will lose its shine. The Doklam problem has now happened in quick succession of our stand on CPEC and OBOR. China is a big country with sizeable economic power but it follows an expansionist policy. The kings of ancient China believed that their country was ordained by heaven to dominate the world. The mindset of the old times dominates China even today in the modern world. China is the fourth largest country in the world in area and the largest in terms of population. However, it has an unsuppressed appetite

to have more parts of the world under its control. Smaller countries near its border are its automatic targets. Tibet has already been annexed and the next target may be Bhutan, Nepal or even Vietnam. Pakistan may also be under its radar after 20 years when the CPEC becomes fully functional with a defence base at Gwadar Port.

ď&#x201A;&#x2013; Expansionist policy

The expansionist policy of China is fully visible in the South China Sea where it is artificially creating islands, making use of reefs and atolls. Army and air force bases have been created on such newly built islands. The objective behind such an exercise is to have control over the economic zones of other neighbouring countries as the South China Sea is believed to have untapped mineral wealth and vast fishing potential. By controlling the South China Sea, it wants to control the commercial navigation through this corridor. Once the sea is conquered, there may be an attempt to conquer adjoining land of other countries. The international community is concerned over these happenings.

China follows the policy of economic subjugation where physical control is not possible. This policy has two limbs. The first is to give loans to weaker countries but keeping control over investment in the borrowing countries. China tries to see that investment is implemented in the borrowing countries through its material and manpower to have a market for its material and employment for its citizens at the cost of the host country, as the host country has to pay interest to China. This becomes a win-win situation for China, while the loan taking country gets economically subjugated, as servicing the loan becomes difficult. The example of this is the construction of the deep sea Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka by China. The port will add to the economic burden of Sri Lanka though initially the project might have looked rosy. Similar is the situation of Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investment in Africa where big money is being pumped in, but Africans are gradually understanding that it is meant for looting the natural resources of Africa. It is a form of neo-colonialism. Similar funds have been given to Nepal and Bangladesh. Pakistan is a similar case but it is unique in the sense that it is fast moving towards becoming a colony of China as per media reports in Pakistan, which say that CPEC is good for China and not for Pakistan.

The second limb of the China economic policy is to have huge trade deficits against countries importing from China. In this, the biggest victim is USA. The US trade deficit with China in 2016 was $347 billion. The import from China by US is $463 billion, while exports by it to China is only $116 billion. To help its export, China keeps its currency undervalued. China is in a position to blackmail US, as it holds the debit security of US in a big way. Our country is also a victim of a severe trade deficit with China.

ď&#x201A;&#x2013; Sino-Pak game plan

The present action of China at Doklam and its partnership with Pakistan for creating problems for us is in accordance with a well scripted game plan. China knows that India is the fastest growing major economy, which cannot be controlled by its gimmicks and hence both its western and eastern borders have to be kept boiling. For smaller countries in its neighbourhood, India is one alternative power and the smaller countries will quickly accept the hegemony of China if India is weak or made weak. India knows that and hence it has come in open support of Bhutan while making it very clear that India is both militarily and diplomatically well equipped to support itself and its friends. India made a mistake in 1959 when it did not come out in support of Tibet and it does not want to commit the same mistake again. The government of India has taken a correct stand by declaring its intention in Parliament. It is an admitted fact that war is never a good thing to happen as it harms all. India does not want war but it will ably defend it borders, if war is thrust upon us. India will try its best diplomatically to get the Doklam problem eased out. China has more to fear as it may lose its big market in India while also sullying its name as a trouble creator. It is said that any challenge is an opportunity. This is the opportunity for India. We have to introspect and examine our weakness. We have to repair our military weaknesses by acquiring modern war equipment while at the same time improving our image in the international community. We have to nurture our economic health and create more resources for the country. China is acting the way it is since it has acquired more wealth than us. We can also do that. Both, India and China became independent almost at the same time, and both were equally populous and poor. China initiated economic reforms much earlier than us and it has become the second biggest economic power. We are late but we are moving quite fast. Today, the odds are in our favour because of demography, democracy and development. The only drawback with us is that we, the people, are not united. We keep on fighting on smaller issues amongst us. I am sure and so is the country that in the face of enemies both on the eastern and western borders, our countrymen will unite and speak in one voice. Be it China, be its partner Pakistan, we will give a suitable reply in response to any misadventure on their part. (The author is a retired IRS Officer and has served as former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)

The government of India has taken a correct stand by declaring its intention in Parliament. It is an admitted fact that war is never a good thing to happen as it harms all. India does not want war but it will ably defend it borders, if war is thrust upon us

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Contents 16

Cover story

Dynamic Duo 56

Decorated Duo In a detailed interview with Corporate Citizen, former Chief of Army Staff, General (Retd.) V P Malik and his wife Ranjana, a retired Army doctor, speak about their journey together; of how the armed forces transforms the entire family, and their experiences in the Kargil War

09 9 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 13 MANAGE MONEY How George Soros and Stan Druckenmiller broke the Bank of England, made a profit of a billion dollars for themselves and their investors in a day 6 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Volume 3 Issue No. 11 August 16-31, 2017 www.corporatecitizen.in

14 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why 22 CAREER FEST 2017 Vivek Kulkarni, Senior Vice President-HR, Entertainment Network India Limited (Radio Mirchi) on careers in the media and entertainment 26 TOP POSITION In-depth interview with Varadarajan Srinivasan, former CHRO and Head of Corporate Affairs, TATA SIA Airlines

32 WOMEN POWER The exuberance of Bengaluru Chapter of a socially sensitive cluster of women-WoW (Women orbiting Women) Kitty 36 CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Olympic Bronze winner Gagan Narang on his `Guns for Gloryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Sports Academy 42 TRAVEL Nisha Ilyas, faculty member at a prestigious university, relives her stay in the island city-state of Singapore

44 INTERVIEW Costa Rican Ambassador H. E. Mariela Cruz is on a mission to spread the messages of Yoga and peace

46 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Aditya Shinde shares his campus placement experience

48 LOVED AND MARRIED TOO Corporate professionals Arti and Pankaj Gadgil on their journey together 50 SURVEY CFO survey 2017 by professional consultant firm Deloitte

48 August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 7

contents

54 Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinitapune@gmail.com Assistant Editor Prasannakumar Keskar prasanna.keskar@gmail.com Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

54 PEARLS OF WISDOM Swami Krishnananda on selfadjustment

Sub-Editor Vineet Kapshikar vineetkapshikar@gmail.com

56 BOLLYWOOD BIZ Bollywood stars, who endorse government campaigns 58 CORPORATE COLUMN The 40% GST on â&#x20AC;&#x153;sugarsweetened aerated and flavoured waterâ&#x20AC;? has a big impact on public health-By Sunita Narain 59 HEALTH Kabaddi player Deepak Hooda shares secret of his fitness

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

61 MOBILE APPS The best anti-theft Apps 66 LAST WORD Strong values should help us attain global destiny-by Ganesh Natarajan

Be A Corporate Citizen

How do you like this issue of Corporate Citizen - The Cool Side of Business? Send in your views, news, suggestions and contributions to corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! 8 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072, circulations@corporatecitizen.in West : Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389 Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar On Cover Page Dr Ranjana and General (Retd.) V P Malik Cover Page Pic Yusuf Khan Photographer Yusuf Khan Website / Online Subscription www.corporatecitizen.in For Advertising, Marketing & Subscription queries Email: circulations@corporatecitizen.in (Corporate Citizen does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage) Tel. (020) 69000677 / 69000672

collywood

People in the news

Vinod Shetty joins Sanofi as Director

Our diversity is the core that makes us so unique: Kovind “The key to India’s success is its diversity. Our diversity is the core that makes us so unique. In this land, we find a mix of states and regions, religions, languages, cultures, lifestyles and much more. We are so different and yet so similar and united,” said President Ram Nath Kovind, as he was sworn in as the 14th President of India. The President added, “We have achieved a lot as a nation, but the effort to do more, to do better and to do faster is relentless.” Asserting that nations are not built by governments alone, he said, “Each citizen of India is a nation builder. The armed forces that protect our borders and keep us safe are nation builders. Police and paramilitary forces that fight terrorism and crime are nation builders. Women who despite responsibilities at home,work and raise children to be ideal citizens are nation builders.”

“We have completed 70 years of our Independence. We are also well into the second decade of the 21st century, a century that so many of us intuitively believe will be an Indian century, guided and shaped by India and its accomplishments. We need to build an India that is an economic leader as well as a moral exemplar. For us, those two touchstones can never be separate. They are and must forever be linked,” he stated. Recalling his early days, the President said, I grew up in a mud house, in a small village. My journey has been a long one, and yet this journey is hardly mine alone. It is so telling of our nation and our society also. For all its problems, it follows that basic mantra given to us in the Preamble to the Constitutionof ensuring Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity and I will always continue to follow this basic mantra.”

Vinod Shetty, who was the Vice President, HR and Global Sales Training (India, Middle East & Africa) at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, has joined Sanofi as the Director-Business HR. In his new role, Shetty will be heading the HR function for the pharma and consumer healthcare business. He has been with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals for four years, spearheading the HR and sales training function for India, the Middle East and North Africa. Shetty has done some path-breaking work in capability development, including setting up of a learning academy, GCAT, which is a two-year long continuous learning platform. A management graduate in HR with a Law degree in criminal and labour law from the University of Mumbai, he also holds a PG diploma in training and development from the Indian Society for Training & Development (ISTD), Delhi. Shetty started his career in HR with Tata Donnelley in 1997, and then moved on to Pfizer India in 2004, as the group lead-HR. He joined Glenmark Pharmaceuticals in 2013, after having spent over eight years at Pfizer.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 9

collywood V Raja of Philips quits

V Raja, Philips India MD, who had taken charge in the year 2015, has put in his papers, citing personal reasons. The company saw the exit of several senior executives recently, this being the most recent one. Some of the other exits at senior level have been of Amit Tiwari, Director-Marketing, Chetan Joshi, Director-Consumer Care and Supply Quality, Ajay Bagga, Director-Finance, Ajit Kumar, Head-HR and Jayanti Singh of the air purifier business. Daniel Mazon, who is from Latin America, will now take charge of the India operations. As head of the healthcare business in Latin America, Mazon turned around the business there. Mazon’s appointment is a sharp departure from the usual practice of placing Indians in top positions. There has been speculation that the move comes after Philips India’s growth declined in the past two years. Daniel Mazon comes to India as part of a global talent management process. It is important to note that more Indian executives have moved into global roles than expats moving to India.

Adyar, Soni on Piramal HR team Aditya Adyar and Parneet Soni have been named as Head-HR for Piramal Group’s realty arm, and General Manager-Total Rewards for the group, respectively. Talking about the move, Vikram Bector, group Chief Human Resources Officer, Piramal Enterprises said, “Soni and Adyar will boost the team at a time when our businesses are experiencing growth. We have always believed in providing leadership opportunities to young talent. It is a great time to join the team.” Adyar, who did his MBA in Human Resource Management from Symbiosis Institute of Management (SIBM) in Pune, has moved in from the food delivery company Fasoos, where he was the Chief People Officer. Prior to Fasoos, Adyar worked as Senior Manager-HR with ICICI Bank, where he was also HR generalist and learning and development specialist.

“I am looking forward to setting up progressive HR practices and building a world-class team that will help realise the vision of the organisation. A team that would help Piramal Realty stay ahead of the curve and usher the organisation to the next level,” said Adyar. Meanwhile, Soni has moved in from Bharti Axa Life Insurance, where she was head of compensation benefits, also from the HR operations. Incidentally both are alumni of Symbiosis, Pune. Soni started her career with IBM as HR partner for eight years before she moved to Jardine Lloyd Thompson. “Piramal Group is on a very interesting journey of transformation and I am constantly amazed by the quality of talent and the passion of the team,” said Soni.

Cheryl, Caterpillar’s new CHRO Cheryl H Johnson, who has two decades of experience in HR, has been appointed Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) of Caterpillar Inc. She will also be part of the company’s executive office. Cheryl has served in various leadership positions. With Textron, she worked for two decades rising to the position of executive Vice President-HR. She was responsible for Textron’s corporate communications, corporate real estate, community affairs and aviation department. She has worked in a range of functions including HR, marketing and sales in companies such as IBM,

10 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Rockford and Sundstrand Corporation. She has an MBA from Northern Illinois University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in operations management. “In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, we have to attract and retain the best talent in order to better serve our customers. Cheryl is a proven executive leader, with a strong track record. She is joining Caterpillar as a member of our executive office. I’m confident that Cheryl’s contributions will be significant as we work to profitably grow our company,” said Caterpillar CEO, Jim Umpleby.

Todd, now IMEA New Hotels Director

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the world’s leading hotel companies, has appointed David Todd as its new Senior Director, New Hotels-IMEA. David previously worked for IHG both at the corporate office and at the company’s hotels in the Middle East. Prior to rejoining IHG, he served as Vice President, Operations-MEA at Millennium Hotels & Resorts. Based in Dubai, David will streamline and accelerate IHG’s new hotel opening process, acting as a centre of excellence for the IMEA region. He will collaborate with various functions across corporate offices in Dubai and Delhi as well as build on existing and new relationships with owners and business partners to achieve successful hotel openings across the region. “David, in his new role at IHG, brings an array of managerial and commercial skillsets, as well as a nuanced understanding of our business, both at a corporate and operational level. As we are accelerating our growth in IMEA and increasing the number of hotels we open each year, it is important for us to build a New Hotels team and structure that facilitates immediate ramp up of our newly opened hotels

and drive quick yet sustainable results for our owners. David is a valuable addition to the IHG family, and will provide expert leadership in driving our ambitious new hotels strategy in the region,” said Pascal Gauvin, COO, IMEA, of IHG. Commenting on the hiring, Shantha De Silva, Head of South West Asia, IHG, said, “We are very excited to welcome David to the team. India is a priority growth market for IHG, with over 30 hotels in our pipeline due to open in the next three to five years.” David will serve as a senior member of IHG’s New Hotels leadership team, which aims to build and embed an end-to-end Best in Class sustainable framework in AMEA. The New Hotels team is designed to allow IHG to maintain solid relationships with owners through the design and construction phase while concurrently setting up the property for operational excellence and commercial success with IHG’s tools and processes. IHG currently operates 30 hotels across four brands in South West Asia: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, with over 30 in the development pipeline and due to open over the next three to five years.

Joshi climbs to Urban Ladder from Croma

Ajit Joshi has been hired by Urban Ladder as its President and COO. The former Chief Executive and Managing Director of Croma, Joshi is the second senior executive to be appointed by the online furniture store Urban Ladder Home Decor Solutions Pvt. Ltd., in the past two months. Earlier this year the company appointed Jaipal Singal, who had earlier worked with Arvind Fashion Brands Ltd and Mahindra Retail Ltd, as Chief Financial Officer. Ashish Goel, co-founder and Chief Executive at Urban Ladder in a release stated, “As we prepare for the next phase of growth, it is important to strengthen the leadership team with rich experience and subject expertise. Ajit’s addition to the team is a crucial step in scaling up our retail and growth strategy and win on offline distribution. Ajit’s vast retail experience will be an invaluable asset to us and will help us build a distinctive buying experience across channels.” In recent times, there has been an exodus of sorts as the company has seen several senior-level exits, including Rushabh Sanghavi, Vice President of Category and Sourcing, and Nikhil Ramprakash, Vice President of Sales and Online Marketing calling it quits. Urban Ladder has made an incredible foray into retail with the first flagship experience centre in Bengaluru. In the past five years, they have carved a niche in the furniture space with innovative design and exceptional customer experience. August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 11

collywood Bata to open more stores

Natarajan named MD of Adobe India Shanmugh Natarajan has been appointed as the Managing Director (MD) for Adobe Systems in India. Natarajan, who was formerly the Executive Director, will continue to lead Adobe operations in India, in addition to his ongoing responsibility as Vice President (Engineering and Digital Media) at Adobe. Commenting on the move, Donna Morris, Executive Vice President, Customer and Employee Experience stated, “Natarajan provides leadership across our teams in India, which contribute to the strength of our employment brand and advancing Adobe’s position as a sought-after place to work. With an employee base that represents virtually

every Adobe function, India continues to be a vital component of our growth.” Natarajan will continue to lead R&D and operations for Adobe India while Kulmeet Bawa, MD, South Asia will continue to lead Adobe’s field operations. Natarajan joined Adobe in 2008 and has been instrumental in leading the product development of award-winning products like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash and Lightroom. A graduate in Electronics and Communications from College of Engineering, Guindy in Tamil Nadu, Natarajan holds a Masters in Computer Engineering from the University of Texas in the US.

Three Cipla top brass quit Three top brass of Cipla’s HR leadership team have called it quits with the company. Ashwani Dahiya, Global Chief Talent Officer and Head of HR (Corporate), Poonam Munshi, Head of Talent Acquisition COE and Employer Branding and Neetu Wadhawan, Head HR-International Business. For Dahiya, it is less than a year since he joined the company. He was heading HR for all corporate functions and centres of excellence for talent acquisition, talent management, performance and reward, leadership, learning and development, organisation effectiveness and employee engagement after his two-year stint with Reliance Industries as the Senior Vice President and Group Head. He has also worked 12 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

with American Express and General Mills in the past. Dahiya is a management graduate from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Munshi has been with the company for the past four years. She was HR Leader-West India and National Head-Talent Acquisition and Planning. A management graduate from Symbiosis, Pune, Munshi started her career with Citibank NA. She was also associated with Korn Ferry International, Absolute Research and Training Solutions, and Facets Executive Search & African Advisory. Wadhawan, a graduate from Lady Sri Ram College for Women, had worked with Cadila Pharmaceuticals for about four years before joining Cadila Healthcare as Vice President HR. She joined Cipla in 2014.

Shoe manufacturer Bata will open additional 100 stores to make its presence felt across the country and promote the brand. These stores will be in malls and high-street locations this year and each will be spread over 2,5004,000 square feet. It is also going to expand into smaller markets with around 30 franchisee-owned outlets. This will cost the company’s coffers over `2-2.5 crores, including the stock. Besides, there are plans to renovate the existing stores. Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, Managing Director, Bata India said the company has started 30 franchise store operations last year which proved to be successful, whereby it has already been expanded to 50 outlets. There are currently 1,300 company-owned stores. The company is also planning to open online shopping kiosks in its major retail stores, with tie-ups with some payments banks and also increase the presence of its product offerings through partner websites. Bata sold around 6.3 lakh pairs of shoes online last year across India. This includes its own brand site and partner websites such as Amazon, Myntra, Jabong and Flipkart. Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com

manage money Dr Anil Lamba

George Soros−the man who made a billion dollars in a day

The story of how George Soros and Stan Druckenmiller broke the Bank of England, made a profit of a billion dollars for themselves and their investors to became legends in the world of finance

eorge Soros is a moron”, screamed the headlines of the newspaper I was reading over breakfast sitting in Kuala Lumpur somewhere in mid-1997. This is the first time I had heard his name. The statement was made by the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mohamad Mahathir. That got my curiosity. A Prime Minister’s words and reactions must be controlled and measured. Who was this person who could make a Prime Minister blurt out something like this? I started to do a little research on this phenomenon called George Soros. A Hungarian-born American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, George Soros is a currency trader and the chairman of Soros Fund Management. He gained notoriety in 1992, when he fought a battle with the Bank of England, and won it. Let me start from the beginning. Before the formation of the European Union, the European Economic Community had made many attempts at bringing about some kind of monetary stability in Europe. Towards this end was the introduction in March 1979 of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) as part of the European Monetary System (EMS), which was based on the concept of fixed currency exchange rate margins, but with exchange rates variable within those margins. This was also known as a semipegged system. The United Kingdom chose not to join the ERM in 1979 due to concerns that it would benefit the German economy more. But finally, in October 1990, in one of Margaret Thatcher’s final acts as Prime Minister, Britain joined the exchange rate mechanism under which it was committed to keeping the value of a Pound Sterling at 2.95 Deutschmarks, plus or minus 6 per cent. By 1992, amid inflation and weak growth in the UK, George Soros was confident that the underlying value of the pound was below that and that the British government was no longer going to be able to hold its currency at the level. He was betting that the currency would inevitably fall to levels that more closely matched its fundamentals, and that the government couldn’t afford to keep its

George Soros

To reverse the effects of the sell-off, Prime Minister John Major’s government hiked interest rates twice in quick succession, once by two per cent and again by three per cent value artificially high by entering the market to buy sterling. On Wednesday, September 16, 1992, George Soros instructed his Chief Portfolio Manager, Stan Druckenmiller to start selling Sterling. To counter the selling pressure, and to prop up their currency, the traders at the Bank of England began buying pounds at a furious pace. By 8.40 that morning, they had bought a billion pounds. But the prices on the screen refused to budge. What they did not know was that George Soros had given a remarkable order to Stan Druckenmiller “Sell Sterling as much as you can. And don’t stop.” They decided to sell Sterling “short” -that is, to sell ‘borrowed pounds’, which they would have to buy back later after the pound dropped, as

they hoped it would. This move could, of course, have been suicidal in case the pound had gone up instead. But such was Soros’ confidence that the British government will not be able to do so, that on Tuesday night he told Druckenmiller to 'Go for the jugular'. Soon, others started selling Sterling too. To reverse the effects of the sell-off, Prime Minister John Major’s government hiked interest rates twice in quick succession, once by two per cent and again by three per cent on Thursday. But Soros and the global investors did not relent, and continued selling. At 7.40 pm on Thursday September 17, the British Government decided to suspend membership of ERM. The pound plummeted. George Soros and Stan Druckenmiller had broken the Bank of England, made a profit of a billion dollars for themselves and their investors and became legends in the world of finance. (to be continued) Dr Anil Lamba is a practising chartered accountant, financial literacy activist and an international corporate trainer. He is the author of the bestselling book ‘Romancing the Balance Sheet’. He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 13

wax eloquent

The World is Moving East

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

Creating a leadership that is aspirational

Start respecting businessmen and entrepreneurs in India

“Abusing businessmen should be banned in Indian parliament. You want their taxes, you want their money to fund your political parties. Stop cursing them. Every businessman is not a thief.” Baba Ramdev, yoga guru and founder, Patanjali Ayurved

“You won’t solve the jobs problem by creating more jobs... but by creating a leadership that is aspirational. This leadership will create businesses that will then create more jobs. Not only will we achieve success, but we’ll take the country ahead in the next decades. This will create a momentum to make India a place where others will come to work, to do business.” N Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons Courtesy:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Courtesy: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Phygital Business model - leveraging physical infrastructure with digital channels “Since the customers are diverse with different purchasing preferences, having a ‘phygital business’ model remain more effective rather than just a digital model. My first proposition is to look at the physical world and see how the digital and analytical infrastructure can actually reintegrate with the physical infrastructure. Physical infrastructure is very critical and we should be able make it more vibrant by using digital.” Vivek Vishnu, CDO, Intex Technologies

Courtesy: http://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com

India is a powerhouse

“India is a very important market for us. The world is moving east and India is a powerhouse. Our success in India will depend on how successful we are with our partnerships here. We are interested in reach and audiences, not in revenue.” Francesca Unsworth, director, BBC World Service Courtesy: Mint

14 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

India’s rise in affinity towards football “If you can find meaning in your work, it becomes passion. Football, for me, has truly been that journey. It’s satisfying for me to see after a long haul, the world is beginning to talk about India and its football.” Nita Ambani, chairperson, Football Sports Development Ltd Courtesy: Times of India

My secret sauce to success “I am often asked, what is my secret sauce to success? And I say ‘luck’. It plays a tremendous role in this game and one must think hard before taking the plunge. Only an entrepreneur knows how hard it is to get so many things right. Success is an ‘and’ condition.”

Satya Prabhakar, entrepreneur, engineer, writer and the founder CEO of Sulekha.com Courtesy: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

I want people to know we mean business

“I’m sure I will reach a position in my life where people will understand it’s not about being Mrs Shah Rukh Khan, but about the work I do. It may take a few years but I’m ready to wait. I want people to know we mean business.” Gauri Khan, film producer and interior designer

Courtesy: http://www.hindustantimes.com

Building companies that go beyond strong founders

Digital, the central element driving change

“Over the past year, we saw further evidence of a drastic change in expectations and experiences of consumers and business models. Digital is the central element driving this change. We believe that IT services companies are key to delivering digital to enterprises.” Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro Courtesy: Economic Times

India has the right strategic direction

“India has the right strategic direction. Now, it’s crucial to get business investment in research and development (R&D). There are great research and education institutions in India, but the amount invested by the private sector in R&D is rather low. Getting that commitment from the private sector is key.” Francis Gurry, director general, United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation

“There have been companies in history that have been able to go beyond really strong founders. I don’t pretend to understand India by any stretch. But in India, there is a lot of tremendous growth of a powerful entrepreneurial class who are building companies. That is great. But the challenge is, how do you build a company that is great beyond that leader?” Jim Collins, management thinker

Courtesy: https://www.outlookbusiness.com

Courtesy: http://www.forbesindia.com/article/leaderboard/india-inc-needs-to-up-rd-investment-francis-gurry/47441/1

What I learnt, looking at Gandhiji “Looking at Gandhiji, it came to me: our entire history would have been different if Gandhi, too, had gone back on what he had resolved to do. There I was thinking small; worried about losing a few crores, while there was this big opportunity to establish an Indian brand abroad and making the country proud. What I learnt, looking at Gandhiji, was about hope and inspiration.” Neelkanta Rao Jagdale,

chairman and managing director, Amrut Distilleries Ltd Courtesy: http://www.firstpost.com

Indian woman is comfortable with herself

Our research and insight reveals that the modern Indian woman is comfortable with her choices, her emotions, her femininity, and with challenging gender roles —in essence, ‘comfortable in her own style and shoes’.” Thomas Archer Bata, global chief marketing officer, Bata Shoe Co. Courtesy: Mint

Taking the risk, that is where it starts “As long as people are trying and the youth are aggressively investing in the ideas, I am okay. I would encourage India to make it easier for people to invest, not just invest dollars but to invest time and energy in trying new things. Taking the risk, that is where it starts.” D.J. Patil, former U.S. chief data scientist Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com

Advice to young entrepreneurs “Laying your own path and knowing what not to do is important. It’s also equally important to be bold and to do things that have not been done before. Startups should not be constrained by the existing business models and must do things that haven’t been done before.” Falguni Nayar, CEO, Nykaa Courtesy: Economic Times

It’s important to keep growing and evolving

“You always see growth in yourself as an actor, as a human being, which according to me, is equally important, if not more. It’s important to keep growing and evolving into someone better as that reflects in your craft.” Anushka Sharma, actor

Courtesy: Pune Mirror

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 15

Cover Story Dynamic Duo: 56

/ / / / D r. R a nj a n a a n d G e n e r a l ( R e t d . ) Ve d P r a k a s h Ma l i k / / / /

Decorated Duo They are as decorated a couple as can be. He has been the 19th Chief of Army Staff of the prestigious Indian Army, the second largest army in the world. She is a doctor, a Captain (Retd.) of the Indian Army and a former President of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA). He led the Indian army in the Kargil War and spearheaded Operation Vijay, which led to Pakistan’s defeat, while she helped keeping the morale of the soldiers and their families up during the war. Meet Dr. Ranjana and General (Retd.) Ved Prakash Malik, a couple who is an inspiration for every Indian. Corporate Citizen chats with India’s Decorated Duo about the life in the army, secret of their marriage, and how the armed forces transforms not just the individuals, but also the entire families By Neeraj Varty

On their Career Choice

General Malik: There were many reasons. Primarily, it was because of my

family. A large number of people from my family have been in the armed forces, and I wanted to follow the suit. The other reason is that in 1955, when I joined the NDA, the Armed forces was a very respected organisation, and at a time when India was newly independent and we didn’t have a lot of job opportunities. The options for me were either to become an engineer or join the Army as an officer. Fortunately, I got through the NDA entry examinations, and soon after I finished my matriculation, I joined the Army, and I haven’t regretted it since.

Ranjana Malik: I grew up in Dehradun, where the Indian Military Acade-

my (IMA) is located. Growing up, I would see cadets all around the city, and I became inspired by their values and discipline. At that time, I completed my medical degree from Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi, and then joined the Armed Forces, where I was commissioned as a Captain. I served the Army for five years, after which I joined the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) as a doctor, and was with the institution for 20 years. I took premature retirement when Malik was a Corps Commander, to support him and play a supportive role in the Army.

Jab We Met

Rajana: We met before I joined the Army. We saw each other at a party

when he was a Major and I hadn’t yet joined the Army as yet. We remained in touch after that. We communicated entirely by letters, and we got to know each other better. I feel when you aren’t emotionally involved when you are getting to know someone, you are much more objective and you see the person for what he/she is. Through letters, we got to know everything 16 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

about each other. Eventually, we decided we were right for each other and decided to get married. I like to say that the romance with the uniform blossomed into romance with the man-in-uniform. We got married in 1968. It will be 49 years this September since we got married.

What they love about each other

Gen. Malik: I loved her outlook towards life. She was well mannered and

extremely well read. She could express herself very articulately, and during our conversations, I realised that she had so many values that we shared, and that we were perfect for each other. Ranjana: I was impressed with the way he was and of course I saw that he had leadership potential, but there was no way I could have predicted he would lead the Army one day.

On REACTION from their respective families

Ranjana: Fortunately, there was no opposition. We told our families, and they were very supportive. We were adults and both of us were in the Army, which was considered very respectable, so it went quite smoothly for us.

On the secret of their successful marriage

Ranjana: You have to give each other respect. You have to value each oth-

er’s opinions. You shouldn’t impose your beliefs on your partner. In the Army, we spent several years living wihout each other. He was in field areas most of the time. I was home alone. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Because we met after stretches of time, we made the most of the time we had. We couldn’t afford to fight, as the time we had together was short at that time. Gen. Malik: I believe it’s the commonality of values, which is the key to a

Pics: Yusuf Khan

August August16-31, 16-31,2017 2017/ /Corporate CorporateCitizen Citizen/ /1717

Cover Story successful marriage. Values including commitment, trust and understanding create the longevity in the companionship.

On the children’s upbringing

Gen. Malik: We have a son and a daughter. Our son, Sachin, serves in the

Army. He followed my footsteps and is in the same regiment as me, the Sikh Light Infantry. He is also married to an Army Doctor. Our daughter Namita is an engineer, and has done her MBA in the US. She works in corporate finance. She is senior VP at Diageo.

Ranjana: I am quite disciplined myself, even though I wasn’t from an Army

background. I feel, for working parents, there has to be time management and a certain schedule. Therefore, discipline is anyway necessary for the upbringing of children. While growing up, we did worry whether we were being too strict, but when our son grew up and said he wanted to marry an Army doctor, we figured we must have done something right (laughs). Gen. Malik: Children, who grow up in an Army environment are subject-

‘When you marry a soldier, you don’t marry the individual alone, you marry a way of life. This way of life is different from any other career out there. You learn to belong, you learn to listen to your seniors, and you learn to take care of the people under you’ — Ranjana

ed to discipline, especially when it comes to manners and the way they conduct themselves, but they also get many opportunities growing up, whether it is sports, the opportunity to travel and meeting people from different backgrounds. They grow up much more open minded than children who aren’t exposed to this environment. They become more adaptable and social. Our children changed seven to eight schools all over the country and they have become more enriched as a result of that. Ranjana: The more exposure children get at a younger age, the better they do in life, whichever field they may choose.

On keeping up the morale of the soldiers during the Kargil war

Gen. Malik: You must keep motivating the soldiers. You must visit them

on the ground, and ask them if they are facing any problems whatsoever, and you keep rekindling the patriotism inside them. Our soldiers are very simple. They have few wants. They are extremely patriotic, and they deliver as long as they know that they have good leaders, who will guide and support them. Ranjana: They are so charged that even when they are injured and lying in the hospitals, they say that they want to be healed soon so that they can go back to their posts and serve the country. Gen. Malik: This happened with me once. I had gone to the Srinagar hospital with the then Prime Minister. We saw a soldier who was badly wounded. We went to him and the PM asked, “Main aap ke liye kya kar sakta hoon?” and the soldier replied “Sir, jaise hi main theek hota hoon, mujhe wapas bhej deejiye ladne ke liye”. This is the kind of spirit our soldiers have.

On whether hierarchy in the Army affects creativity

Gen. Malik: At the lower level, to some extent, it does affect creativity. The kind of discipline that the Army exercises in order to maintain uniformity and standard operating procedures can be rigid, but the upside is that un-

Awesome Foursome: Gen Malik, Dr. Ranjana and their children Namita and Sachin

18 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

like any other profession, we start training our people for leadership from a very early stage. As soldiers rise above in the ranks, the scope for creative thinking also increases.

On the role played by Ranjana in supporting the General

Gen. Malik: When you join the Army, you are joining an organisation,

which not just looks after you, but your whole family. Spouses of the Army also become part of the Army, and play a big role. The Army is such a close knit unit because there is a bonding not just amongst the soldiers, but also amongst the fami-lies of the soldiers. If I went into the field, then my wife, as head of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), took care of the families of the other soldiers at the family centre. Ranjana: When you marry a soldier, you don’t marry the individual alone, you marry a way of life. This way of life is different from any other career out there. You learn to belong, you learn to listen to your seniors, and you learn to take care of the people under you. In those days, there wwere very few telephones and no phones at all in border areas. I didn’t want Mr Malik to miss out on our children growing up, so I ensured that I wrote to him every single day, and also made the children write whatever they want in the letters. It took around three weeks for the letters to reach him and another three weeks to receive a reply, which was a huge gap. Therefore, I wrote every day without failing so that he wouldn’t feel left out on the daily lives of his family.

On the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA)

Ranjana: The role of AWWA is enor-

mous. We looked after the officers’ and Jawans’ families, when they were at the border. We took care of the martyrs’ families. It was our responsibility to look after the injured soldiers. We have welfare centres, which we run. We also look into domestic problems or marital problems of the soldiers if they come to us with them. AWWA representatives were there when the bodies of martyrs were received Petite and strong-willed, Dr by grieving family members to comfort Ranjana Malik as Army doctor them. We provided vocational training to the wives of the soldiers. We trained them in multiple skills so that they can find livelihoods for themselves. We are there as a backbone to provide any help soldiers and their families require. Even today, all the martyrs’ families know me personally because I have visited every one of them. Gen. Malik: Unfortunately, not many people know about AWWA. It is a unique organisation in the world. People from the US and UK Army too have shown admiration about AWWA. They have said that they are impressed with the role that Army wives play in the Indian Army.

‘Information Technology has a flipside. The kind of intimacy and trust that existed earlier cannot be replicated through social media and gadgetry. They can never be a substitute for actual human contact and face to face interaction’ — Gen. Malik ago and what it would be in the next 20 years, we never know.

On their idea of relaxation

Gen. Malik: We love to go out, wheth-

er it is vacations, trekking or even long walks. We played sports together. Our children are voracious readers. They picked that quality from us (laughs). Life in the Army, it is indeed mighty fine

On the flipside of social media and technology

Ranjana: This is not a welcome change. They have lost the command over language, they have forgotten how to write a grammatically correct sentence or articulate themselves properly. Gen. Malik: Information Technology has brought about many positive changes. However, there is a flipside. Especially in social activities. The kind of intimacy and trust that existed earlier cannot be replicated through social media and gadgetry. I tell youngsters to not spend too much time on these devices. They can never be a substitute for actual human contact and face to face interaction. If during the war, instead of visiting ground zero, I only sent them a WhatsApp message, will it motivate the troops? Absolutely not.

On the philosophy of their marriage

Gen. Malik: It is a great companionship we have and we hope it continues

and builds. Ranjana: I believe in living life to the fullest. That is my philosophy towards marriage as well as life. I believe in making the best of each day as a couple, and being thankful. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

On the role of women in the Army

Ranjana: I have written a lot about this. The major question is whether

women should be sent into combat as of now and I feel it isn’t time for that yet. We have Army women in medicine (I am one of them, and I had joined 50 years ago), judicial services and engineering now, but I don’t think we are ready to put them in combat as yet. Gen. Malik: Every country follows its own social norms, in any organisation. The Indian armed forces too have to follow these norms. As for women in combat, it is more or less similar around the world. There are women in combat in some armies, but they have a limited role as of now. If there is a change in the social environment, we will certainly consider that in the future. Today’s Army is a lot different from what it was 20 years

tadka

India’s future leap India has leapfrogged three years of digitisation in just seven months, as per a State Bank of India report, Ecoflash. Due to demonetisation and the Centre’s initiative to promote use of debit and credit cards at point-of-sale (PoS) terminals, the transaction volume has reached `70,000 crore in seven months, says the report.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 19

Cover Story

Leading from the Front The Indian Army is one of the most respected institutions in India, and one of the proudest moments in Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history came when the Indian Army won the Kargil war, defeating Pakistan. The man behind this spectacular victory is General (Retd.) V P Malik, who served as the Chief of Army Staff during the Kargil War. At a recent event at a management college, General Malik communicated his formula for leadership, and drew parallels between the functioning of the Army with that of a corporate organisation. Corporate Citizen brings you the riveting speech as the General imparted life changing advice while reminiscing about his experiences in the Kargil War By Neeraj Varty General V P Malik has led a very inspiring life. He was born on 1st November 1939 in Dera Ismail Khan, North West Frontier Province, British India (now in Pakistan). An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Gen. Malik was commissioned into 3 SIKH LI on 7th June 1959. He commanded an Infantry Brigade in Jammu and Kashmir where he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM). In December 1989, he was appointed GOC of a Mountain Division and in August 1992, he assumed command of a Corps in Punjab, where he oversaw anti-militancy operations in the state. In Jul 1995, he was appointed GOC-in-C of Southern Command before moving to the Army Headquarters as Vice Chief of Army Staff in August 1996. He was decorated with the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) in 1996. He assumed the charge of the Indian Army as the 19th Chief of Army Staff on 1st October 1997. Concurrently with the appointment, he 20 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

took over as Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee of India with effect from 1st Jan 1999. He coordinated and oversaw the planning and execution of Operation Vijay to successfully defeat Pakistan's attempted intrusion in the Kargil sector during May to July 1999. He was felicitated with the ‘Excellence in Leadership’ award by the Atur Foundation, Pune and also the ‘Distinguished Fellowship’ of the Institute of Directors, New Delhi in 1999. The Doon Citizens' Council gave him the 'Pride of the Nation' award in July 2000. He was Colonel of the Sikh Light Infantry from 1990 to 1998, and continues to be Honorary Colonel of the Regiment for life. Excerpts from his speech: India, today, is a land of opportunities. We have strong economic fundamentals, and I can vouch for it because I am on the board of six companies. We are the third largest economy in the world. Our children are making their mark around the world. We have the biggest demographic dividend unlike countries like Japan, Portugal, Italy and Spain, which have a large number of senior population. India is a young country and it requires young leaders, whether it is in the army, politics, or the corporate world. The principles of leadership are universal, whether you lead the army or a company. So how do you become a good leader? I believe there are some necessary qualities to be a good leader, which I will elaborate in detail.

The 5 essential qualities of leadership 1) Whether you are leading five people or five million people, the basics of leadership do not change

I learnt as a young officer how to lead, and those principles have applied to me all my life. You must be a leader not just to your immediate subordinates, but to everyone under you. You must listen to everyone. As an Army Chief, the chain of command is so far high that many people can't talk to you directly. If they have to reach you, there is a hierarchy. During the Kargil war, there was a Lieutenant-Colonel, who wrote a letter to me saying that his battalion, which was to be transferred to another place, had been stopped and instructed to fight the war, and was told to attack, but they did not have enough weapons to fight. I was perturbed by the letter. The next morning I flew to Srinagar, and had a long conversation with teams on the ground and got an idea of the actual shortage of equipment. As a chief, I was able to procure equipment from Kolkata, Chennai and other areas, to the extent it was possible. Before leaving, I gave instructions that the person who wrote me the letter should not be reprimanded for breaking hierarchy, as he had done a very good job in informing me, and his actions may have saved lives. Later on, the officer became a Brigadier, and I was very happy with his progress.

2) Leadership is 20% knowledge and 80% attitude

You need to earn the trust of your people. This trust is not part of your theoretical knowledge. It comes from the way you conduct yourself. You must be a part of a team. Success is sweeter when everyone is involved, not just you. A leader will make every member of his team feel valued. In any organisation, there are people doing different tasks. You have to synchronize their activities in a manner that makes the organisation function like a welloiled machine. This applies to the army as well as corporate life. Team work is an orchestra which requires team effort and harmony with each other. Communication is also an area you must focus on. Communication doesn’t just mean speaking a language. It involves your body language, the way you carry yourself, the way you relate to the person you are speaking with, etc. There is a quote from the 'Art of War', which goes like this-

“ If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame."

3) The most important leadership trait is character

Character is the sum total of the good and bad in you. If there are more good qualities in you than bad, then your character is good. If it is vice versa, then you are unfit to be a leader. A leader should also lead by example. When I became the Army Chief, I felt that I should not be taking a gift from anyone, as it would be unethical. I remember that once during Diwali, somebody brought a crate with liquor and dry fruits to me, even though I had explicitly said that I would not be accepting gifts. I returned the crate to the same officer, with a letter saying "Don't try this again". I put the letter on display so that everyone could see it and get the message. They understood then that I meant business, and this sort of behaviour would not be tolerated. A leader should also have priorities. Mine were as follows. The safety, honour and welfare of the country come first, the honour, welfare and comfort of the men I commanded come next, and my own ease, comfort and safety come last.

4) Leaders always stand for hope, change and success

Leaders will never avoid challenges. There is a symbiotic relationship between leadership and challenges. Leaders must be action oriented. Even the Bhagwat Gita says that all action, without exception, culminates in knowl-

‘Leaders do not automatically become leaders because they are born to become leaders. If they do not have leadership qualities they will not be accepted. Leaders are forged from their own life experiences. They are 100% self-made’ edge. When the Kargil war started, everyone was apprehensive. But at the end of it we were all smiling. The end of a policy is more important than the beginning.

5) Leaders are not born. They are self-made

Leaders do not automatically become leaders because they are born to become leaders. If they do not have leadership qualities they will not be accepted. Leaders are forged from their own life experiences. They are 100% self-made. Leadership cannot be handed over on a silver platter. As a leader, you cannot be seen as someone who isn’t sure of himself. In the beginning of the Kargil war, we weren’t sure if it was the enemy or militants who instigated it. I said that before we proceed on a plan of action, I wanted to be sure who the attackers were, (as protocol for engaging with the enemy is quite different from engaging with militants from your own country). I ensured that we know we were dealing with the Pakistani army before I went to the government with a plan of action. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 21

NHRDN Career Fest 2017

The Future of Jobs

Careers in Media and Entertainment

22 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Economic transformation and employability is a key factor towards making India’s young workforce, a significant competitive advantage. In this context, the National HRD Network (NHRDN) Mumbai Chapter, recently organised a Career Fest at Nehru Centre in Mumbai. The aim was to help students make informed career choices. As part of the ongoing career series, Corporate Citizen, brings the next expert talk on career opportunities in media and entertainment (M&E) industry. Vivek Kulkarni, Senior Vice President-HR, Entertainment Network India Limited (Radio Mirchi), throws light on the media and entertainment business in India, with focused information on career opportunities for those who aspire to get into the industry

By Rajesh Rao

The right ingredients for a career in M&E field

If you are glued to TV or your mobiles for most of the waking hours of the day, listen to radio or you are a big movie fan, then you just have the right ingredients to have a great career in media and entertainment field. All those parental lambasting—don’t watch TV, don’t be a mobile bug—all of that goes for a toss. If you have all of those bad habits, you are inclined to make a great career in media and entertainment field.

The Big 4s of the M&E industry

TV: The biggest chunk of the M&E industry is TV and print media, followed by radio and digital—they are the top four. In India out of every 100 people, 67 of them watch TV and on an average, they end up watching TV for at least three-four hours a day. By far it is the biggest component in the M&E space. You have huge number of channels—there are regional channels, Hindi general entertainment channels, sports, news, and many of the niche channels. Print Media: The newspapers and magazine publications— both combined form the print industry. Print is the grand-daddy, it has been there in existence for more than hundred years and over a period of time it has expanded to many niche areas and publications. In India, we have separate regional languages and English language print media. There are specific genres, specific niche publications catering to a specific industry. Print is no longer just about news related to civic issues, politics, economics, sports and so on. While we spend on an average two-three hours watching TV, print occupies barely 20-25 minutes—that’s the average time a person today spends reading a newspaper. Of course now the shift is happening with most people using apps, wherein lot of news is reaching people through social media. Radio: It is no longer what it used to be twenty years back. We August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 23

NHRDN Career Fest 2017 now have FM (frequency modulation) radio and lot of radio now is consumed by people while commuting in the city. The mobile phone has a radio app and you just have to plug-in and activate the app. Or we have online radio channels, wherein you stream the music. Unlike news or digital media, radio is very specific to city— therefore there are some advantages around this medium also. Because our commute time has increased, especially in a city like Mumbai, on an average a person spends one-two hours daily, listening to radio. This industry is growing around 13 per cent per annum. Digital Media: Any form of online news or entertainment that can be accessed through internet, comes under digital media, such as YouTube, Netflix, and Hotstar. The digital medium is where the entertainment content can be demanded as per your convenience and is right now the fastest growing medium. With rising penetration of smartphones and cheap data charges, everybody is accessing internet in big way. Digital media continues to grow at a very fast pace and there is whole lot of possibilities in terms of making your career in this digital field.

Ad industry - The connecting factor

The advertising industry is what connects all the 4s of M&E industry. In very simple terms, advertisers are people who make sure that you got to see those boring or interesting ads. They are the people who make sure that the print, TV, radio, and digital channels survive. You people pay a negligible amount of money to buy a newspaper or for your cable TV, but the bulk of revenue these media companies make comes from

Pics: Yusuf Khan

advertisements. So, advertisement agencies are the ones who make sure the companies and the brands are connected to the consumer. Their job is to transmit the message that the company or a brand wants to give to their consumers in a very interesting way. Lot of careers are made in advertising industry. The advertisers primarily come in as a consumer interface and decide where the ad will play - in TV, radio or print. They will decide how much they will buy the medium for—should they play for ten seconds or more, should we

advertise in the morning, afternoon or evening, should we advertise when India-Australia cricket match is happening, should we advertise on a public transport bus shelter, or distribute in the form of pamphlets. What made R Balki, or Rakeysh Mehra, or Prakesh Mehra famous? They started their careers as advertisement filmmakers, because they were good at selling 30 seconds or one minute stories and then they gravitated towards selling stories on bigger screens. That’s how a lot of advertising professionals have moved towards making careers in

dedicated to travel. So you will then have to gravitate towards magazine publication which is into travel or you may go towards travel channels on TV. If you want to start with a career in journalism, your need for specialisation in a certain beat will come after some time, you will have to start-off with general beats.

people is make a career by using it as a platform. It allows you to start your own channel and upload videos directly and if your video has good content, lot of people will view it and start following your channel. If your video goes viral, then you may start making some money. However, YouTube has become a platform for showcasing lot of unique talent. It is a platform for disseminating content and communicating to people, about your talent.

Q&A How does one get to do one specific beat in journalism?

If you take conventional print media like newspaper, you will typically have 20 pages to fill up, out of which ten pages will be filled up by advertisement and then one will have to work on content for remaining ten pages. So, you will devote pages for national and state news, business and economics, sports, local news and so on. What typically captures people’s attention are breaking news, which forms the front page. Now each of these pages need content to fill up. Most often people start their career in journalism with beat reporting under a senior guidance. Generally based on your interest and demand for that kind of beat news, you are given the work of beat reporting by a senior. Conventional newspapers will not give travel as a beat, as there is no page 24 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

What it means to work behind the screen? The work is not time bound and it is not as rosy as you think it is. If you work with a television channel, everybody does not appear on the screen. At the back end you will have to go through lot of day-to-day work—the high is you are in touch with the celebrities and glamour world. If you enjoy being around the glamour world, yes you can have a fulfilling career, but it has hectic work schedules.

Can one make a career with YouTube?

YouTube is a platform, and Google is its parent organisation. But, what YouTube has allowed

How do you make a career around travel shows on TV?

What you are talking about is anchoring a show, which you can do with TV shows on travel, food, sports, music and so on. The skill you need to have is the ability to connect with people and make the show interesting to viewers. When you say you want to make your career around travel show, you have to be sure if you want to produce a travel show, or work with a company which makes travel shows, or you want to be an anchor.

What made R Balki, or Rakeysh Mehra, or Prakesh Mehra famous? These are the people who started their careers as advertisement filmmakers, because they were good at selling 30 seconds or one minute stories and then they gravitated towards selling stories on bigger screens filmmaking. Advertising itself is an arm for people who want to switch to silver screen.

Emerging trends in M&E

A lot of consumption is done on mobile phones—having news aps or following your celebrity on Twitter or Facebook. Lot of information and entertainment comes to you from the digital medium, the mobile phones. Due to increase in usage of mobile phones and dropping of data charges, this particular stream will occupy a lot of your time. The traditional media like newspapers will not disappear but change their medium—instead of appearing on sheet of papers, it will be accessed on mobile phones. The social media is being used by multiple set of people, they are forming social media groups and communities. It is becoming an information allotting system. There are many ways the social media is defining the emerging trend.

Three pillars of career opportunities in M&E industry

Talent: This is the person who is seen on the screen or you are hearing on the radio—bring-

What is the impact of digital on the radio industry? What will be the future of radio as a medium of entertainment?

The digital medium is having a big impact on radio and television industry. The consumption of media content is getting shifted from conventional media to digital media. Lot of M&E companies are now moving out to the digital platform. We in the radio industry are also grappling with this problem, but we have now started going digital starting online channels. What digital has done is, it has allowed us to create many genres. A radio company may have only one broadcast channel, but it can give multiple channels online, catering to different genres. Listeners can access the online channels as per their liking. Big issue is how to make money online—it’s a challenge we are facing. What we are doing now is looking at non-music entertainment also, such as audio dramas.

They are the ones who stay with listeners, they can either irritate you with their talks or keep you engaged. These are the people who make sure that you are listening through his talking. Behind the RJs, there are creative people who decide what the RJs will talk and how they will talk, which topic will be talked about, which music will be played-this is the creative side, these are the copywriters, the producer, music director etc.

Skills required for career in M&E field

ing you the content live. This person interfaces and engages with the audience. Lot of time talent decides how many people get hooked onto the channel and does the job of attracting people to consume the content. Those of who have a good personality, have acting skills, and aspire to become actors, can make their careers in the talent field. On the TV news broadcast side we have reporters, they also make sure that the story is presented and go on the field to do the stories. There are institutes, which help you in acquiring these skills. Creative: These are people who are not in front of the camera. They are not the face of the programme, but they are the brains of the programme. They are the ones who decide how the programmes will look. They are behind the camera, who decide what kind of actors are need to be put up, what kind of storyline need to be talked, what should be the storytelling, and what should be the cast. It is important that they have creative sensitivity, therefore a lot of talent also gravitates to this side. There is a good amount of mixing between the talent and creative side, so you will not be surprised if an actor decides to become a creative director, or a news reporter decided to switch to back end desk job. The talent and creative people create the product—how it has to be created, presented, the time length— this is the team which decides. Admin: It is the admin’s job to run the operations for daily business, ensure that money keeps coming in, and ensure that all the compliances are there. These are the boring people, they represent the back end office and support the business operations. These are the people in sales, marketing, finance, administration and so on. People like producer, director, writer, are the people who decide the creativity part of the content. The admin people make sure that content is sold, content is marketed well, make sure that compliances are in place, the laws of the land are adhered to and internally provide whatever is required, for people to work.

The Radio Business

Radio is an audio medium and there is only one star in the radio business, the radio jockey (RJ).

In the media business you have to have the nose for showbiz. If you like being in the entertainment business, you got to have talent. You need talent to make sure that you keep people entertained and engaged. These people develop their skills through regular practice and many of them are born with such talent. They hone their talent by practicing or taking inspiration from their idols. Many of them may not be well educated but are magic when you put them in front of the screen. On the creative side, these are people who have a very strong sense of what people want. They understand what will work, the latest trend, and what people want to see. They are the people who have a very strong sense of aesthetics and they go on to define the story, tell the story, and make the story. On business and support side, most of them will either be involved in raising money or in supporting the star cast. They will be making sure that the day-to-day operations are run. About the education requirements for the media entertainment field—not so much on the talent side but certainly on the creative side, it is better if you have some kind of a grounding in fine arts, visual arts or some sensibility. For the business and support side you got to have a related core education background, to get started when you start working. There are no set boundaries within which media offices operate—the urge for creativity here is so strong that these people don’t want very straight-jacketed workplaces. There are no set dress codes. The stress is not so much on what you wear, what time you come or leave office—if you are able to create magic you are in the M&E world. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

tadka

Walmart is the world’s largest employer Walmart Stores is the world’s largest publicly traded employer, with approximately 22 lakh employees across the globe, followed by McDonald’s, which is the world’s second largest employer with 20 lakh employees.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 25

HR top position

has the role of Sutradhari

I would call HR the Sutradhari—the role Lord Krishna played in Mahabharata, says Varadarajan Srinivasan, former CHRO and Head of Corporate Affairs, TATA SIA Airlines. A senior HR leader with over three decades of exposure to multiple HR Management dimensions, says the HR’s role in today’s business scenario is of an integrator, someone who holds it ethically and helps organisations move on with the flow. A global HR leader, he believes that HR professionals at the start of their career need to be like a clay, willing to be moulded into any shape so as to adapt to any environment. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Varadarajan talks about his 30 years career journey and his role as the critical channel between an organisation’s HR operations challenges and its vision of growth, excellence and inclusive progress By Rajesh Rao What are the big changes you have seen in HR profession and practice?

When I started, it was Personnel and Administration, which in my opinion was a pure administrative role. The responsibilities included managing the time office, leave management, letters issuance for joining, confirmation, negotiations, managing disciplinary enquiries and proceedings and such allied routine matters. But over a period of time organisations started realising that there is more to people and there is a need to develop them, retain them, motivate them to perform to their potential—that is when human resource development formally came into focus. While you still have to do the routine matters, which are repetitive and administrative in nature (Hygiene) it is necessary to look beyond, towards capability development of their employees to ensure that organisations meet what they have aimed to achieve. Thus moving from a routine administrative function to a strategic function, helping the organisation achieve its goals, is the change I have seen in HR over these years.

Did your base in manufacturing Industrial Relations (IR) and HR, help you in the later stage of your career?

I believe that every HR person needs to have a manufacturing stint. Unless you operate in a manufacturing setup and work with blue collar workforce, your basic understanding on how to manage people will not be there. I was able to manage a large BPO with over 15000 people in employee relations, at a later stage, only because of my base in manufacturing IR and HR. It is necessary for people in HR to have IR stint, preferably in the beginning of the career rather than later. It helps you in understanding people, managing issues, bringing out what is the best and optimum solution to issues, both from the employee and the organisation point of view.

Did you face any challenges moving from one type of company to other?

For me the transition from one type of company to other was not a problem at all. I was fortunate to start my career with setting up a HR department in a running company and a stint

26 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

in manufacturing, learning the nuances of employee relations. Later on, I went to specialise in compensation across the region. Combined with this was my consulting and startup experience, which made me resilient and well-rounded to take on any role in any industry. What it meant to me was that you need to listen more and you need to continuously learn in order to adapt and be successful. You cannot act high and arrogant because you are in a position but, you need to go down to the people and learn from them. Understanding business is of paramount importance and that’s what I have learnt in consulting as well.

Is technology changing the role of HR? Technology is enabling HR. HR can never die, it will change, but if you don’t adapt you will die. Technology is helping us, for example, social media—it keeps us on your toes by wondering on, who is going to be reporting on what is happening in the organisation to the public. However, rather than being reactive, we can be proactive and utilise this to our advantage by being able to communicate to our employees in

I would like to call HR the Sutradhariâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; the role Lord Krishna played in Mahabharata, who never looked like directly involving Himself in anything but ensured success in whatever the team wanted to achieve without taking any credit for Himself

Pics: Shantanu Relekar

August August16-31, 16-31,2017 2017/ /Corporate CorporateCitizen Citizen/ /27 27

top position the form that they are used to and familiar with, for sharing our thoughts, practices, processes, philosophy, values. All this put together helps your people understand the organisation better and increases bonding, which is so necessary for engaging employees. These channels also help in obtaining instant feedback from employees and quickly act on them to help the organisation gain credibility in their approach to employees. Since technology is such an important enabler, it is mandatory that every HR person keeps up with it and ensure that we are up to date in our understanding so that we can utilise it optimally for organisational success.

Has HR become a bigger role as a partner-enabler in an organisation?

I would call it more than a partner; it is the integrator. HR has moved beyond the business partner role. I would say that HR needs to be an integrator—needs to understand business, find out what capabilities need to be built in order to succeed in the business and integrate them all together. HR should play different roles to different people. I would like to call HR the Sutradhari— the role Lord Krishna played in Mahabharata, who never looked like directly involving Himself in anything but ensured success in whatever the team wanted to achieve without taking any credit for Himself. Similarly, HR needs to be the Sutradhari by ensuring that the aim is to ensure that the organisation succeeds through its people practices and processes and putting organisational interests over our own. I believe HR needs to be thinking as a line function, not as a staff function—leading from the front rather than act as staff function and wait for the CEO or the business head to say what to do.

for a particular sector. What they have to instil in student is primarily on the in-depth subject knowledge that they are specialising on, be it HR, Marketing, Finance or any other specialisation. In my opinion, the B-Schools have to ensure that learning is not theoretical alone but more application oriented, wherein they get their hands dirty with project work and do a lot of secondary and primary research in order to complete the project assigned. I don’t think B-Schools prepared me for any sector. They prepared me for learning and making me be inquisitive on the right things when I get into any sector. Second thing the B-School teaches me is how to be focused and dedicated in whatever I do. Students need to learn to start at any level, learn and then grow. They need to learn how to adapt to environments and for that an open mind to learning plays a very big role.

thrown at you, volunteer for anything and everything, and absorb everything that comes your way like a sponge. The learning from this is tremendous and is what will help you in becoming a successful professional. Second thing is you have to ensure that you widen your horizon. HR is not about HR alone, you need to understand finance, marketing, and everything about business. The third thing is Relationships and Networking—you will realise that whatever said and done, relationships are what is going to take you places and your success will depend upon how you are able to build trust and sustain your relationships and network. Last but not the least is the amount of sharing of your experiences and knowledge which will help you to grow as an individual and dispel the insecurities in you.

Tips you can give to those who are aspiring to be in the HR field...

After two-and-half years with Vistara, I wanted to take a break and evaluate what I wanted to do next which was more meaningful to me given where I was in my journey. I took the break to refresh and rejuvenate myself. This was a bold decision because I had not taken any break during the 34 years of my work life, not even when I was changing jobs.

What I find very disturbing in the present batch of MBAs is that they think they have arrived even before they have joined the organisation and they think that they know everything. You need to be like a sponge in the initial years—do anything which is given to you, work on anything which is

Are the HRs in India in sync with the global practices?

I would say India is way ahead of global practices, in terms of the way we understand HR. The outspokenness of the western environment is different from what is here. There it’s black or white—in India you live in grey through your life. So, how do you manage to create a professional atmosphere with the greyness, which is part of the environment? It is necessary to inculcate the right values, were HR plays the role of creating the values, finding out avenues and tools to ensure that these values are institutionalised and practiced. Hence being a conscience keeper of the organisation and ensuring governance becomes a key role for HR.

Is it possible for B-Schools to offer the entire skill sets expected from the industry? One does not know which industry the student will go to, in that case what is the role of B-School?

No B-School, even Harvard, can prepare a student 28 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

You have now taken a break, what are your future plans?

During this break, I managed to catch up with my father who is 102 years old now and spend some time with him. I also went to US to spend some time with my sons, one of whom was graduating. I also upgraded myself by getting into certification programmes in Hogan Assessment and in Life and Leadership Coaching. I also attained an Independent Direction Certification through Hunt Partners and Board Evaluation, UK. I have already started on my coaching journey, coach a few CEOs and CxOs and continue to meet with students who are the managers of tomorrow to share my experiences and prepare them to face the realities in the work place.

Education and Career Journey Early days

I come from a middle class family. My father was Assistant Station Superintendent in Southern Railways, in Chennai and my mother a renowned educationist and a National Award winner for teaching, working as a headmistress in a large school. Was born and brought up in an environment where I was always told that I have to study well, put in honest hard efforts, and results will automatically come to you. Those are the values instilled in me right from my childhood and have held me in good stead through my career.

helps me till today in getting into the nuances of compensation design. My salary was a princely `1500 a month and I was one of the highest paid in my batch. I understand that the performance appraisal system, which I developed in 1985 at McDowell and UB group is still in existence with some modifications and that makes me proud.

Sundaram Clayton - A true learning ground for me

After completing my BCom, from Vivekananda College in Chennai, I went for my MBA. For my MBA, I had appeared for the entrance exams and got shortlisted for interviews at IIM-Ahmedabad and XLRI Jamshedpur. I did well in both the interviews but was waitlisted for IIM-A, and admitted into the HR stream in XLRI. I joined XLRI. I pursued education to upskill myself till almost 1991 even after I started working. All of that was through long distance learning programmes and I pursued and completed courses in Law and Training and Development, as it would strengthen my core HR area and MCom due to sheer love for accounting.

After almost five years I moved to my second role, this time in the manufacturing sector at a factory in Chennai-Sundaram Clayton in the TVS Group. This company was in the auto ancillaries sector in the manufacture of Air Actuated Brake systems for LCVs. This was my first brush with HR at a factory level on a full time basis and was a great learning experience. It was here I learnt the importance of HR and its linkage to the successful growth of an organisation. It was also here that we fine-tuned our HR and Quality processes to ensure that we were able to face competition that had arisen for the first time in our business. One of the things I learnt from Venu Srinivasan, our MD, was the importance of continuously upgrading your knowledge through consistent learning. He inculcated the learning habit in me. Be it the Q7 tools, Quality Circles, M7 tools Kaizen, Canon Production system, Total Preventive Maintenance, and almost everything to do with TQM, I learnt in Sundaram Clayton. It was in Sundaram Clayton that I successfully designed and delivered my first Supervisory Development programme along with my guide, mentor and guru, Father E.H. McGrath who was a great source of inspiration and guidance to me. It was in 1985 that the National HRD Network (NHRDN) was formed and I have been a life member since inception thanks to my guide and friend Dr PVR Murthy who was a part of the founding team of NHRDN.

My first job

Wanted to become a consultant

“I don’t think B-Schools prepared me for any sector. They prepared me for learning and making me be inquisitive on the right things when I get into any sector. Second thing the B-School teaches me is how to be focused and dedicated in whatever I do” Higher studies

After completing my post-graduation from XLRI in 1983, I joined McDowell’s, a flagship company in the UB group in Chennai as Personnel Officer, within three weeks of my last day in the campus. The company, which was in the manufacture and sale of Indian made foreign liquor, did not have a Personnel function before I joined, so in a way it was a startup experience right from my first role. Little did I realise that this type of experience would continue to be a major part of my professional journey. It was a great learning experience especially on what was required in a corporate world. My first boss Gen. Surjit Singh was a great inspiration and I learnt discipline, compassion and customer focus working with him. I also dirtied my hands in learning the ropes in compensation administration and this experience

After almost eight years of working, I wanted to become a HR Consultant and I moved out of Sundaram Clayton and joined Price Waterhouse (PW) in 1990, and was responsible for HR consulting for the Southern region. I rejuvenated the recruitment practice in Chennai and undertook a lot of HR projects many in association with the World Bank in quasi government agencies. I was also a certified trainer by the PW World Firm to train and certify management consultants in the Firm. As you may be aware, the salary levels in the 90s in India were very low and with a view to earn more, I decided to move to the Middle East where the salary at that point of time was lucrative and tax-free as well. I got an opportunity in Muscat in 1992, with KPMG Peat Marwick, a consulting firm, as a HR consultant in the Centre of

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 29

top position Excellence for HR and I took it up for the saving potential as well as for international exposure. It was a very enriching experience, because you are dealing with international clients and multiple nationalities, which gave me a multicultural exposure as well as additional tax free income.

My Amex experience and learnings

I enjoyed the stint at KPMG but over a period of time I decided to get back to India, because HR at that point in the Middle East, was more of a personal admin role. This was also the time when India was opening up to liberalisation under the leadership of Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh, and P Chidambaram. I came back to India and joined American Express, in Delhi, in 1994, as Head of Employee Relations for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. One of the first things I was able to accomplish in my role here within five months of my joining that gained tremendous visibility and credibility for me in the system was the signing of a five year settlement with the banking union that was pending for over nine months. It was a tough settlement and we managed to make it a win-win for the management and the union Sometime, in 1995 there was a reorganisation of HR within Amex across the globe where it was decided to create three centres of excellences in HR, for Compensation, Training and Development and for Relationship Management, in order to synergise focus and enhance effectiveness of the deliverables. I successfully moved into the role of Compensation Specialist, for the ASEAN and South Asia region and had the distinction of being the first person to get a HR regional role from India in American Express, covering India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, managing the design and delivery of compensation. The biggest challenge I had was due to the fact that each country had a compensation person, who lost his/her job because of the reorganisation. I had to first gain the confidence of each of the Country Heads, to assure them that I understand the country better than the person who was working previously and will add value to their operations. It was a tremendous experience and challenge for me, where I would spend 25 days in a month, outside India. Only five days I would be in India—that was the time I had my second son and when I came back home after one of my long trips, he looked at me and walked the other way. I was very perturbed and said to myself that, before he asks his mom, “who this uncle was who comes every week”, I need to make amends. I decided to quit Amex, to bring balance in my work and family life.

joint venture with Bell Canada, for setting up a cellular company in Hyderabad and whether I will be interested to join the startup team. I joined Tata Group, in June 1996, to start Tata Cellular (which later became Idea Cellular), as a head of HR. Tata Cellular was the first company to launch cellular services outside of the metros. That time only Chennai, Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai had cellular service in the country—Hyderabad was the fifth city, so we called it the fifth metro and we setup cellular services there. We did extremely well and in one-and-a-half year we built the company from scratch, put structures in place, put policies in place, had a fantastic performance appraisal system, had employment engagement programmes, and had high employee satisfaction scores. Then Tatas told me to take another role—they were starting the basic landline services, Tata Teleservices in Hyderabad in collaboration with

Tata Group−understanding the nuts and bolts of the business

I decided to come back to Chennai from Delhi, on a break of one month, when I met a director from Tata Group. He said that Tata was getting into a

30 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Bell Canada and asked if I can manage HR of that company also and I accepted. So, I became the first employee of Tata Teleservices in 199798. There were about 35 Canadians in the initial stages and I went to Canada and spent almost a month in Canada, to understand the business. At that point, I understood the business as good as or even better than the business person. That is another learning which I carry even today—to be successful as a HR person you need to understand the nuts and bolts of the business you are in so that you can add value to the business and earn your place in the table. In 1999, I was given an opportunity to consider getting into managing telecom operations or remain in HR. I chose to remain in HR and got selected to be a part of Group HR which was being formed for the first time in the Tata Group. At this point of time I was saddling three roles

as Head of HR of Tata Cellular, Tata Teleservices and the Group HR responsibility. As member of the Group Executive Office for Human Resources I was directly responsible for overseeing and facilitating the Group HR initiatives in the IT and Telecom businesses covering over 25,000 employees and 11 Tata Group companies (TCS, Tata InfoTech (formerly Tata Unisys), Tata Technologies, Tata Elxsi, Tata Interactive, Tata Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Tata Telecom, ISP India, Tata International and Tata Projects).

Spectramind - the best thing I have done as an HR professional

Late in the year 1999, I met Raman Roy with whom I had worked in American Express, when he was the Director of Operations and Finance and with whom I had worked very closely. Raman asked me if I would be interested in joining him in a startup, a BPO. I had faith in Raman, and decided to take his offer to be part of a startup compared to the large Group level role I had. There were few things which made me decide on this—here was an opportunity to create an organisation from scratch with close to idealistic policies and processes possible. This company was going to create jobs for multiple graduates in this country, because during that time the IT companies and public sector banks and companies had stopped hiring and the graduates in the country had no place to go. They were all wondering what to do next. The private banking had just started, but not so much of intake. We were among the first to start a third party outsourcing in India. I had worked for 17 years by then and I said to myself on what could be the worst thing that would happen—if I fail, I will go back and join at same level in some other company. I moved to Delhi in 2000 and joined the startup company Spectramind. I would say that the five years journey with Spectramind, was the best thing which I accomplished as a HR professional. Because, we had to actually sell the concept to the people, as no one understood what outsourcing was, be it the customer or people who are to join us. So, it was selling them a dream and selling them what it is to be in outsourcing. We created world-class facilities so that people don’t complain. People were apprehensive and BPO was not a very well known industry at that point of time. I have had parents of prospective employees interview me at length before allowing their wards to join us. It took us a lot of effort and energy, and we accomplished a lot of pioneering initiatives in Spectramind. For example, we created earn-while-you-learn scheme, we tied-up with institutes and engineering colleges to have parttime education while they were working and we funded them so that they could pay us back on later date. We also created high standards in employee engagement and Spectramind was in the top ten best employers in the country, of many

“The five years journey with Spectramind, was the best thing I accomplished as a HR professional. Because, we had to actually sell the concept to the people, as no one understood what outsourcing was, be it the customer or people who are to join us” engagement study. Nowhere in the world, has a BPO company been in the top ten for any engagement study year on year, as they were meant to be sweat shops but we made it a great place to work. It was in 2002 that Wipro was very keen on setting up a BPO of their own to extend their service offerings. After a lot of deliberation and due diligence, they decided to acquire Spectramind since they saw a lot of synergy in terms of the organisation values and the future of the organisation. We remained with Spectramind for the initial four years and which later became Wipro Spectramind. In 2005, the same startup team of Spectramind decided to move and set up a new organisation Quatrro Global Services, which was predominantly in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) area. We grew through acquisitions in India, US and UK and it was a great honour not only to create jobs in India but also overseas. I learnt that M & As would be successful only with a clear integration of best practices of both the organisations rather than the acquiring company playing the big brother in the acquisition.

Best transformation exercise

After six years in Quatrro, I decided to move for bigger challenges. The CEO of Tata Teleservices called me, (he and I had worked together in 1997-2000 in setting up Tata Teleservices) Tata Teleservices was not performing well at that time and they were looking to turnaround the organisation. Since the CEO wanted someone who he could trust and would be able to help him in the transformation, he wanted me to join hands with him to help in the turnaround. So, it was a sort of homecoming for me when I joined Tata Teleservices in 2011. We were able to, within nine months of my joining, plan and implement the reorganisation of the company and over a 18 months period we actually reduced the strength of the organisation by almost 3000 people by managing the redundancy in the system. I would call this one of the best transformation exercise that I have been part of across all my roles. What I learnt here is, if you are able to communicate, what you and your organisation was going through, the support will come from the employees themselves, rather than you trying to do anything. We kept on communicating

about what we are doing, where we are, the losses we are making, how we have to turnaround, and how only the ideal fit will stay. We gave a fair and equal opportunity to every employee who was affected by this reorganisation by taking them through at least two sets of interviews to assess they are fit and also utilised their performance history over the last couple of years to ensure that the best fit was selected for the revised role in the organisation. As a result of these as well as changes in business processes, we were able to turnaround and become EBITDA positive in about two years since we kicked off the reorganisation.

Tata Vistara airlines

In 2012-13, the government relaxed the FDI policy for airlines and a joint venture (JV) was formed between Tatas and Singapore Airlines for operating a domestic airline in India. Tata Group were looking for a person from within the Group to lead HR in the startup joint-venture. They zeroed in on me since I had been a part of two startups within the Group and were confident in the successful setting up of the JV. Yet again, I was employee number one in TATA SIA Airlines (Vistara). We, in a record nine months launched the airline—again it was totally different industry and I had to learn things from scratch. And my strong belief and how it is absolutely necessary to learn the business nuances and then adapt HR processes and practices to ensure success helped me. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com CC

tadka

Indians 5th largest investors in US real estate

Indians are the 5th largest buyers of residential property in the US, purchasing property worth $7.8 billion in 2016-17 for primary residence or for use by a child studying in the US, as per the report released by National Association of Realtors (NAR). The Chinese nationals were the biggest buyers purchasing property worth $31.7 billion, followed by Canada (19 billion), UK (9.5 billion), Mexico (9.3 billion).

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 31

Women Power

WoW ‘kitty party’ with a cause Think ‘kitty parties’ and more often than not we slip into images of women adding glamour to mindless gossip. But replace the same by smart, qualified and fun loving ‘womenpreneurs’ in their own right, tuning their chatter to infuse life into social causes! Imagine this, together with the usual flavour of any kitty partyfood and fiesta and the common rule of each member contributing a certain sum of money each month. But that’s where the similarities end; instead of handing over the collected fund to a chosen member, the same is invested and re-invested into social causes. Corporate Citizen experienced the exuberance of one of the Bengaluru Chapters of such a socially sensitive cluster of women–the WoW (Women orbiting Women) Kitty By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

“B

eing part of a ‘kitty’ like WoW shreds all misnomers on ‘women who hang around’. It turns into an opportunity for “doing good”, said Antra Bhargava, founder of the WoW Kitty model. “All our members are ‘women of substance’ who have incredible professional achievements, strong personal journeys of growth and are creative, passionate individuals and leaders in their own way. It is a privilege to have had such powerful voices come together in the WoW model”. WoW members have redefined a part of their kitty culture into a social-giving platform, without shedding much of the fun and frills that accompany such ladies meets. ‘Eight’ was definitely a good number to start with. With qualified chartered accountants, management professionals, civil services representatives, corporate leaders, successful business women and sports enthusiasts, the diverse line-up of WoW women co-founders and members have only just begun their journey to empower and touch more underprivileged lives and support women-led enterprises. Starting out in 2015, the informal group of women continues to celebrate their circles of empowerment that they have been creating via WoW Kitty, empowering rural female entrepreneurs in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal... And the count goes on. The WoW-Core Antra Bhargava, the founder of the WoW Kitty model, also heads Hyderabad-based SuVitas - India's first transition care inpatient facility. Antra was the first and youngest female black belt in Taekwondo, and the first and the youngest female referee for the sport in the Indian National Games, in 1998. A Chartered Accountant, she has worked globally across senior finance and strategic roles for over 15 32 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Pics: Sanjay MD

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 33

Women Power years. With such a diverse repertoire, it is not surprising that she is able to steer the enthusiastic band of WoW members to garner enough ‘kicks’ for social good. Antra threads in the power of WoW’s equally accomplished band of eight co-founders who have had the mettle to collectively re-invest around `31 lakh (as repayment component) from the rural enterprises that they have supported in the last two years since its inception. They have touched a milestone-150 loans disbursed at zero per cent interest to rural female entrepreneurs in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Anuradha Sarin has had over two decades of banking experience in the U.S. and in India, specialising in lending, mortgages and financial advisory for high net worth individuals. Shoma Bakre, who co-founded EmPower Research before it got acquired by an MNC has since voluntarily retired from corporate life to pursue her passion for social development. She believes in social investment that makes a difference to underprivileged lives through positive social change. Reshma Shrinivas has had an extensive IT career spanning over 15 years, and is experienced in incubating and operating successful businesses around the globe. Her passion to support working mothers and create a safe-nurturing and learning environment for young children resulted in the birth of her first WeCare centre in 2008. Mridula Gettu, who belongs to the famous Tamil Nadu cricket pioneering family of Buchi Babu Naidu, is a tennis enthusiast who played national level tennis up until 1983 before she dabbled with running her own little restaurant as well as garden store. The illustrious line up of the founding members gets even better with the first woman IPS officer in Karnataka and South India, Dr Jija M Harisingh, IPS (Retd.), who has over 35 years of exemplary service in the police force and corporate public sector. Jija, recipient of the Indira Priyadarshini National Award for Contribution to Arts, has held

“The WoW Kitty is still an informal pooling of funds by a group of women. All ‘Chapters’ include like-minded women, who have come together under the umbrella of the WoW model or been inspired by the structure of the group. However, every Chapter follows its own unique working pattern for the projects it chooses to fund” solo exhibitions in Washington is USA, Wollongong in Australia and New Delhi. Prerna Tandon is a management professional with an Economics Honours and an MBA, and over 20 years of experience in the corporate sector in India with organisations such as Price Waterhouse, USAID, GE Capital, Infosys and ANZ IT, Operations and Shared Services. She maintains diverse interests in sports and theatre, and believes, “Life is much about what you get from it as it is about what one gives back to life and society.” Poornima Janakiram is an interior designer with over 10 years of experience and firmly believes in conducting business with a social cause. The empowerment of poor rural artisans, especially women, is a subject is close to her heart. Kavitha Muthappa coordinates the WoW funds through MicroGraam-a peer-to-peer lending platform that empowers rural entrepreneurs to access loans from social investors. She has been working with MicroGraam for the last three years and has spearheaded funding and disbursements for WoW. Antra spoke to Corporate Citizen on the inception, goals and journey on behalf of the WoW Kitty club.

Antra: The idea of WoW Kitty first hit me at the 5th Anniversary Celebrations of MicroGraam as I focused on a speech by Ramji Raghavan, the guest of honour and Founder-Chairman of Agastya International Foundation (an education trust and NGO for economically underprivileged children). That idea was the seed, which I shared immediately, at the function itself, with friends Anuradha Sarin and Mridula Gettu (sisters). We had a chance meeting with Shoma Bakre who was already an investor with MicroGraam, at the event. Shoma spoke eloquently and passionately about the impact of social investment in microfinance. She was so inspiring that we approached her and mentioned the idea that she had just seeded-fully prepared for any rejection. But, Shoma was very enthusiastic-although Shoma had later admitted that she did not expect any follow up as she was used to hearing people with great ideas but nothing normally would come of it! The very next day I sent an outline of the charter for The WoW Kitty group to all three ladies. Before long, they had roped in their friends and family and 15 women met at my home for the first ever WoW Kitty meeting.

CC: What triggered the formation of the WoW group?

Is WoW a registered NGO? The WoW Kitty is still an informal pooling of funds by a group of women. All ‘Chapters’ include like-minded women, who have come together under the umbrella of the WoW model or been inspired by the structure of the group. However, every Chapter follows its own unique working pattern for the projects it chooses to fund. There is no compulsion for anyone who wishes to set up such groups to name themselves as WoW Kitty (it could be any other name). The other Chapters need not even adopt our model of microfinance for investing in their social goals. They are free to adopt any methodology of funding or naming their individual Chapters. The only thing you need is to be prepared to come together and ‘do good’. What is the funding model for initiating and supporting social causes? Each member pools in `1,000 a month. Some members submit the entire year’s funds in one go.

34 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

The monies collected each month at the meeting are disbursed the very next day to the selected beneficiary by the kitty party host. On average, therefore, a group of 15 women would invest `15,000 a month. As repayments come in, the fund re-invests the same into new enterprises or re-fuel existing ones as the case may be; thereby making it a perpetual model. Our loans get repaid by the borrowers via MicroGraam who take a certain percentage for their services. We then re-invest back the repayments along with fresh funds for new or existing social causes. Will it be possible to consolidate and sustain your stakes as an informal group? Yes, today, we feel the need for some formalisation and efforts are underway to set up a Trustbased structure to ensure the monies collected are protected and that there is sustainability in the model. As all investments are currently routed via the microfinance platform MicroGraam, at 0% interest, there is no profit in the system and hence no tax implications at the moment. How do you divide the workings/operations of the WoW group? Most of our women have full lives with their own ventures or social projects, plus raising their families, etc. So, we needed a model that allowed them to ‘do good’ with the least administrative burden on them. This is why the original WoW Kitty chose to partner with an online microfinance platform that works with grassroots level NGOs and does all the due diligence on the borrowers, while also supporting them on how to use the funds and attain livelihoods. By choice, the original eight member WoW Kitty chose to

ground and what they intend to do with the money. We tend to select women primarily from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal at the moment. How do you mobilise the ‘kitty’ idea into the WoW model? We meet up every month and have one of the members host the meeting. It is left to the host to select her chosen beneficiary for that particular month from the due diligence list provided via MicroGraam’s online portal. How many such entrepreneurships have you supported till date? As of March 2017, we have impacted over 150 families with loans from the pooled funds from all the Chapters. This is a huge achievement from

“We never thought of challenges or apprehensionswe just believed that women are a force of good and can work together and just kicked into gear without worrying too much about ‘what next?’ That’s the beauty of our model that we also get to bust all the myths around women’s kitty parties” primarily support rural female entrepreneurs through business loans. However, any new Chapter is free to device its own. How do you screen your potential benefactors? The original WoW group partners with the online portal MicroGraam, that allows us to screen profiles of borrowers and select our potential beneficiaries online. We get details such as age, location of the beneficiary, a brief history on the family and back-

a loosely formed group of like -minded women. It just shows that when you act, rather than just talk, you have the potential to do unimaginable good! We all have the ability to be the change. What were the initial challenges and apprehensions? We had no idea that things would go so far two years on! A lot has to do with a few of the core team driving it to this level. Each person has played a unique role in making this come together.

We never thought of challenges or apprehensions – we just believed that women are a force of good and can work together and just kicked into gear without worrying too much about ‘what next?’ That’s the beauty of our model that we also get to bust all the myths around women’s kitty parties as being all about frivolous socialising and gossiping and back biting and money wasting, etc. We make our money and we invest it in social work. We are powerful, intelligent change makers and learn from each other. Do you keep a tab on the projects that you fund? No audit is conducted in detail. We rely on MicroGraam’s lending processes and are fortunate that two of our members work with them so we have the inside scoop that everything is fine. More recently, a group of five of our members travelled to meet some of our beneficiaries in rural Karnataka to get a firsthand view on the difference that we have made to the lives of our beneficiaries. We aim to do an annual trip to meet some of the beneficiaries of the group. Does WoW take any profits generated by the entrepreneurship that it helps set-up? Absolutely not; other than philanthropic reward, we do not aim to profit from our beneficiaries and this is pure charity for each of our members and our collective group. What is the process for inducting WoW members? No, we do not have any set criteria at all-most women are introduced by existing members, although the Kolkata one came up purely from media recognition. Yes, we have chosen to always be a ladies’ group. However, we have seen interest from several men and expect at least one male/ mixed members group to be launched in 2017. sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 35

The Gun For Glory Shooting Academy in Balewadi sports complex has been the youth to play this sport, compete and rise in the international arena and 36 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31 , 2017

Cradle of Leadership Gagan Narang

Gun for Glory Sports Academy

Shooting for stars

The Gun for Glory Sports Academy is the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first privately managed shooting facility with world-class infrastructure, training, coaches and staff that is made accessible to talented shooters via scholarships and fee subsidies and has produced many international medal winners. A tete-a-tete with Gagan Narang, the brain, and heart and soul behind the academy...

By Joe Williams

set up with the motive to encourage increase the medal tally of India

he Gun For Glory Shooting Academy at the Balewadi sports complex in Pune has been set up with the motive to encourage the youth to play this sport, compete and rise in the international arena and increase the medal tally of India. The journey started in 2011 and has produced over 100 international medal winners within a short span of six years. Established by the Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation, this academy is a not-for-profit enterprise operating out of the Shooting Range at the Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Stadium, Balewadi, Pune. Incidentally, this is the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first privately managed shooting facility with world class infrastructure, training, coaches, and staff, made accessible to talented shooters via scholarships and fee subsidies. A baby of Gagan Narang, the Indian air rifle shooter, the academy is supported by the Olympic Gold Quest. He was the first Indian to qualify for the London Olympics. He won the Bronze Medal in the Men's 10 m August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 37

Cradle of Leadership the award by then president Pratibha Patil in the year 2011. After winning the Olympic Bronze in 2012, he was the recipient of a number of awards, including: ₹10 million (US$160,000) cash prize by the State Government of Haryana. ₹5 million (US$78,000) cash prize by the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. ₹5 million (US$78,000) cash prize by the State Government of Rajasthan. ₹2 million (US$31,000) cash prize by the Steel Ministry of India. Two kg gold by Sahara India Pariwar. Gagan who was in Slovenia, training for the World Cup in Gabala Azerbaijan spoke to Corporate Citizen about his academy, besides a number of other issues:

Air Rifle Event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a final score of 701.1. Son of a retired chief manager of Air India, Bhimsen Narang, Gagan’s family hails from the Simla Gujran village of Haryana's Panipat district. Gagan did his schooling from Gitanjali Senior School and attained his Bachelor of Computer Application degree from Hyderabad's Osmania University. He took to shooting when his father presented him an air pistol in 1997, and perfected his shooting skills in the backyard of his home in Begumpet, Hyderabad. Gagan showed early sparks of his shooting ability when, at the age of two, he shot a balloon with a toy pistol. Narang had publicly expressed his displeasure after being ignored for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award thrice and he threatened to skip the 2010 Commonwealth Games due to lack of motivation. However, after intense pressure from his family and fans, he decided to participate. In recognition of his achievements, Narang was conferred the Padma Shree Award in 2011. In 2010, he was selected for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. This is the highest sports award in the country. He was conferred

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Corporate Citizen: Unlike many Olympic medal winners, you did not become a brand ambassador in the corporate world, but took up teaching. Why?

Gagan Narang: I always wanted to give back to the system of which I am a product. With that in mind, we started Gun For Glory (GFG). It was a humble beginning in the summer of 2011, a year before my Olympic games. To be an active shooter, and plan and execute a project like this was not easy, but I had very able support. That is why GFG became possible a year before my London Bronze came. Incidentally, there were people, who had faith in my ability to guide their children. Some of them were our first students in the academy. Today, we have expanded it to 15 different places in the country, but Pune remains the mother ship. Since I still am an active shooter, I have very little time, but I oversee the processes that are executed by competent professionals.

Did you ever feel the need for turning into a politician like Rajyavardhan Rathore, who is today a Union Minister of State? No, I have not felt such a need. Not yet.

Your younger days saw much struggle. Can you recall those days? It could inspire young and upcoming athletes...

My journey as a shooter began at the age of ten. I, like most kids, was fond of playing sports but not physical rigour. So while I played cricket and football and hockey and badminton, shooting stuck with me. It helped me focus and at the same time stay engrossed. Then it was the support of my parents and teachers that helped me build a career in sports. I would like to see myself and one of my students on the Olympic podium. That is my dream now. I want to see GFG scale greater heights.

Tell us about your gut feeling after you won the Olympics medal.

My gut feeling was that I would win another one before I retire and I am going to give my best shot in Japan in 2020.

What was the role of your family members?

My parents and my friends have been a pillar of support. They have supported me in building GFG as much as they have supported my shooting career.

6. A moment of laughter with ace actor and National level shooter Nana Patekar 7. Gagan Narang with Olympic Indian boxer Mary Kom and Actress Deepika Padukone 8. Gagan Narang felicitated with a trophy by Amitabh Bachchan during a dinner function organised by Olympic Gold Quest

➏ 38 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31 , 2017

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The Champions 2016 ISSF World Cup (Rifle/pistol), Changwon Korea Apurvi Chandela (Bronze) ➌

2015 ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol, USA Gagan Narang (Bronze) 2014 7th Asian Championship 10M Rifle/Pistol Kuwait Pooja Ghatkar (Gold)

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CWG, Glasgow Rahi Sarnobat (Gold) Apurvi Chandela (Gold)

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1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciating the Olympic Bronze that Gagan brought home 2. Former President Pratibha Patil presenting the Padma Shri Award to Gagan Narang at an Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi 3. Gagan Narang with Ace Batsmen Sachin Tendulkar 4. Gagan Narang with Viren Rasquinha CEO at Olympic Gold Quest 5. Gagan Narang with former Captain of Indian Hockey Team and Slovakian coach Anton Belak

Please take us through the history of your academy, and what makes it so special.

GFG was established in January 2011 by the Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation as the Gun For Glory Shooting Academy. Gun for Glory is a not-for-profit enterprise operating out of the Shooting Range at the Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Stadium, Balewadi, Pune. It is India’s first privately managed shooting facility with world class infrastructure, training, coaches, staff, accessible to talented shooters who come on scholarships and fee subsidies.

What makes it unique?

Our curriculum offers theory combined with practical lesson plans. We follow the magna aude (dare for greatness) motto and values of integrity, courage, community, and mastery. We always want our students to absorb and learn to the maximum of their capacity and we aim to produce youngsters, who are ready to contribute to the society. Our coaches work tirelessly to pursue high expectations for learning, doing whatever it takes for students to master the sport. The positive and friendly atmosphere helps our students develop self-confidence, social skills and character that can contribute so much to their success.

How are the players from your academy different from other such academies?

That is a difficult question to answer. A person, who has researched academies across India, across the world, will be able to provide an answer.

Your take on the academy, which has

catered to many athletes from different castes, creed, rich and poor, and made them champions. What is the mantra?

Sports sees no criterion of caste or creed. It has only one mantra: ‘To be a champion’. That is the ultimate recognition for a sports person. People who come to GFG come with the dream to stand on the Olympic podium. We help them in their journey, but they know that they have to walk the path-rough or smooth-to reach their desired destination.

What kind of faculty does your academy provide?

The Academy has more than 30 coaches under its wing as of now. As mentioned earlier, we follow a unique curriculum-based coaching programme and each coach is trained to coach different levels of the curriculum. All our coaches are of the level of National Shooters and above. We also have a team of expert coaches with more than 15-20 years of experience and also a team of international consulting coaches. Among all the participants, the successful top 50 candidates will get selected for the First Shot programme. Out of them, the top 20 candidates will get selected for the Reload programme and then, the eight best candidates will be shortlisted for the Level 3 programme, the top six of these for level 4, and the top five out of these for level 5.

What about counsellors and psychologists? Do they have a role in making a good player?

Counsellors and psychologists are required to

2013 ISSF world Cup Rifle/Pistol Changwon Rahi Sarnobat (Gold) 6th Asian championship, Tehran Annuraj Singh (Silver) 2012 12th Asian Shooting, Doha Gold Ajitesh Kaushal Navdeep Singh Rathore Ajitesh Kaushal Bronze Annuraj Singh Vikrant Ghaisas Vikrant Ghaisas Gagan Narang Team (gold) Navdeep Singh Rathore, Gagan Narang, Ajitesh Kaushal, Annuraj Singh, Heena Sidhu, Shweta Choudhary, Ajitesh Kaushal, Vikrant Ghaisas, Vikrant Ghaisas

Team (silver) Gagan Narang Mampi Das Shriyanka Sadangi Tejaswini Muley Akshay Jain Ajitesh Kaushal Team (Bronze) Akshay Jain Surabhi Pathak Navdeep Singh Rathore Navdeep Singh Rathore Tejaswini Muley 6th Honnover International Championship Shreya Gawande (Gold) Shreya Gawande (Silver) 2011 ISSF WORLD CUP, May 2011 Annuraj Singh (Silver) Rahi Sarnobat (Bronze) 4th Asian Championship (Kuwait) 10m air rifle women youth team Mampi Das (Gold) Sumedh Kumar (Gold) Akshay Jain (Silver) Team Gold Mampi Das Apurvi Chandela Shriyanka Sadangi Team Silver Akshay Jain Navdeep Singh Rakesh Manpat International Shooting Tournament Tehran Grand Prix Amit Pilaniya (Silver) Amit Pilaniya (Silver)

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 39

Cradle of Leadership

Your take on Time is money… Think ahead of time

help a player find his/her feet when the going is not good. The rest of the time it should be kept uncomplicated. The best way is to motivate yourself. The reason one takes up an unconventional profession like shooting is for the love of it. And it is this love that should keep one going.

What is the motivating factor when it comes to your coaches? How do you encourage research?

Your passion leads to profit… Best marriage... Stop trying to serve two kinds of people… By serving yourself you serve others Mentors are better than one-off advisors… Depends what works for an individual Don’t listen to the naysayers… They put you in a pit Attitude is everything… If one knows how to use the tool

Modern day shooting requires a more holistic approach towards coaching and training. Towards this, we deploy the best and the latest of technology available along with special focus on the mental and physical development of the athlete ing the ‘Pat on the Back’ award, quarterly. We inspire employees to perform their best by encouraging their best work. We create an environment that allows for challenge, recognition and appreciation.

Be gracious… It makes Self-motivation is the key to susyou a better human being tained performance and longterm success. We believe in ‘MoStop hiding behind fake tivation Through Purpose’. We traction… Because develop a strong sense of purTell us about the facilities at what’s false won’t be pose for promoting long-term your academy. true unless you are motivation. Creating a sense of GFG has a state-of-the-art facilJoseph Goebbels purpose and/or meaning is about ity. It is an initiative to promote Stop lying to yourself changing the way coaches think the shooting sport by building when things are not about their roles, their reasons young talent at the right time in right… Take it on your for coming to GFG, their influorder to produce newer stars in chin and move on ence on students, etc. We lead by the shooting firmament. There example. Coaches need to see the is a 50m shooting range at the commitment and passion coming from the top. academy at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports complex, We praise an employee’s effort by implementBalewadi, Pune. The complex provides world 40 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31 , 2017

class infrastructure that is required to prepare a shooter to meet modern day challenges. The academy prides itself in providing all the tools to build a champion. The courses in GFG offer shooters gun testing facility (testing each barrel and selecting the best pellet for a particular barrel and maintain availability for one year’s training), peak performance management, a link up with an educational institution and residential tie up.

Your comments on what makes a good sports person, and your take on athletes-does it make a difference if they are from economically backward or well-to-do backgrounds?

It does not matter which economic background a player comes from. It depends on what stage he or she gets spotted and gets the opportunity to hone his/her talent. Of course, if one has started

out shooting at the age of seven or eight and is from an economically better background than a similar child of similar age, he/she gets a headstart. But if they get the same opportunity, the same kind of coaching in their teens too, they can match each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talent, skill and stamina.

What about the fee structure? Do you have concession for players?

The fee structure is highly subsidised. An entry level course would typically cost around 75 Euros per week, all inclusive. The academy provides all the equipment, weapons, ammunition, targets etc., for the student. The student does not have to buy/ purchase anything for his training at the academy. We also conduct Talent Hunts every six months. The training for shortlisted candidates out of this is completely sponsored by the academy.

Gagan Narang observing the shooters selected under the Project Leap in action

Gagan Narang observing the techniques of the shooters selected under the Project Leap

In the last few years, athletesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ranking has gone up. What are the factors you would attribute?

The quality of players has become better. That is why the scores are better, hence the rankings. They are fitter and are able to last out longer now. Indians have always been good with their skill sets.

What is the number of player-intake? Who are selected? Are they learners or players with basic knowledge of the game?

We enrol around 100 to 150 students at the entry level every month across all branches. We also recruit seasoned shooters with a prior assessment and then they follow a customised programme under the relevant coaches.

Tell us about the various sections who contribute to the success of your academy.

We have support from the Olympic Gold Quest which is a sports NGO, gun manufacturers Walther, Sancheti hospitals, Eley, ammunition manufacturer, Capapie, for shooting equipment, and Lakshya.

What has been your biggest contribution in your academy?

Ideation has been my biggest contribution to Gun For Glory.

Are you planning to launch a combined move along with Rajyavardhan Rathore, who is also an icon in shooting? For a layman, Rathore and Gagan are like Paes and Bhupathi of Tennis. What is your take on this?

Rajyavardhan Rathore is the Minister of State of Information and Broadcasting and is an active member of the BJP. He was also the first shooter to win an Olympic medal and show us the path. He is a great inspiration to the nation and supportive on any positive initiatives.

Tell us about the scientific and modern approach you have at the academy.

Modern day shooting requires a more holistic approach towards coaching and training. Towards this, we deploy the best and the latest of technology available along with special focus on the mental and physical development of the athlete. Apart from that, our expert coaches provide weapon customisation support, pellet testing facility wherein each barrel is tested for the best pellets suitable and then the shooter is provided with those pellets for the best results. SCATT simulators are used right from the basic levels of training so that the shooter does not have to rely upon the trial and error mode to correct their techniques.

What do you do in your leisure time? How do you to take out time for yourself amid such a busy schedule?

I spend my leisure in Gun For Glory since I am also an active shooter. There is very little time I have beyond practising and travelling for my competitions. I also like to watch Netflix and take breaks to get away and do wildlife photography in my leisure time. Joe78662@gmail.com

tadka

How effectively does your academy groom players to become good players? Do you have your own innovation methods?

GFG has brought together a bevy of foreign coaches, a foreign Grip Maker, Sports Injury Management Team, Physiotherapist, Yoga Guru, Dietician, Masseur, Gun testing facility, utilisation of SCATT, video analyzers, Equipment Control, Psychologist, among others. The customised training plans are designed by our eminent foreign coaches on the basis of SWOT analysis.

What about parents? Do they also play a role?

pursue it full-time. Parents are as much involved in making a shooter as they are with any other unconventional profession.

Of course, they play a big role. The biggest is their decision to put their wards into shooting sports. The next decision comes when the child wants to

Number of IIM-A female students jumps up The 2017-19 batch of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has the highest ratio yet of females for both the postgraduate programme in management (PGP) and the PGP-FABM, the agribusiness management. 28 per cent of the PGP batch of 395 are females, up from 21 per cent. The FABM has seen a jump from 46 per cent earlier to 50 per cent. The PGP batch also has the highest ratio in 15 years of non-engineers, at 32 per cent.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 41

Travel

e r o p a g n i S

The song of Little inkling did Nisha Ilyas, a faculty member at a prestigious university, have that she would visit Singapore for work and return to India with a bagful of memories and learning experiences. Though brief, her stay in the island citystate of Southeast Asia has left an indelible mark on her mind By Namrata Gulati Sapra A lucrative work profile

“I have worked in Singapore as Manager Academics for a world renowned B-school,” says Nisha Ilyas, who goes on to elaborate on the stipulation for working overseas, “For this role, the requirement was basically to be a management graduate with a minimum five years of experience in the same or equivalent position. The profile expected the candidate to be well versed with the quality procedures with respect to academic operations and course design and delivery.” Her work profile was most interesting-to say the least, “The key areas of work were to design a course curriculum for Indian students studying in Singapore as part of their international assignment. It also required monitoring of the course delivery and students’ exposure to the Singapore work environment through guided industry tours at major industry segments.” No wonder that she seized the opportunity since she met all the qualifications for the role.

Singapore vis-a-vis India

Nisha draws a quick comparison between India and Singapore to reveal that the latter is a delight to work in. She points out, “The Singaporean style is all about punctuality. So, as far as this aspect is concerned, it outshines India. The workload is also much lesser but competition is higher. One is free to choose what he or she wants to wear to work so there is ample freedom on this front. Also, in Singapore, the personnel are appreciated a lot more than in India and an open culture of showing it prevails.” She continues to differentiate the two cultures on various other counts, other than the work timings, which are more or less the same. “Can’t say much about the incentives and pay cheque given my short-lived experience in Singapore, but from whatever little 42 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

“It’s a nice place to work and 3-5 years is a good time to develop the desired expertise at an international market” of a holiday calendar, “Holidays for major festivals are available as per the employee mix.” If you must know, a diaspora of people flock to Singapore for work opportunities, making the city-state multi-ethnic in nature. As far as the freedom to work is concerned, Nisha quips, “The roles are well defined and there is no micro management.”

Why you should get on the plane to Singapore?

I observed, the incentives were great and the pay cheques timely.” Singapore, she says, is not given to the game of politics at work, making it a desirable place to work in. “Politics is certainly not a part of their work culture. Instead, it comprises of a friendly and homogenous group of people.” She pours out the details about career prospects-an important factor for those, aspiring to work in the land famous for the stunning Marina Bay and of course, Universal Studios. “The career prospects are quite high since Singapore is a hub of job opportunities for the experienced personnel. Add to it the fact that a professional has an open and participative relationship with his or her boss and you get an ideal work destination! ” “Work from home is a readily available option and weekends are treated strictly as weekends,” she says. Simply put, you do not have to take work back home or attend to professional chores when the week draws to a close. Ah! The mention of weekend brings to mind the idea

“ It’s a nice place to work and 3-5 years is a good time to develop the desired expertise at an international market,” Nisha tells. She quells the curiosity for the community of teachers who are keen on exploring a career in Singapore, “The work experience definitely adds to your professional graph in India since it only moves upward. The knowledge of their quality procedures, their work ethics and their course delivery methods made me aware of some of the best practices followed outside of India.” But she also favours the Indian way of teaching here, “When the same is implemented in India, it makes the teaching and learning approach more systematic and collaborative rather than only classroom based. This, in the longer run, improves the experience of students and strengthens the business as well.” She parts with a message on how to adapt to an alien work culture, “Be open to experiences and changes. Remember that the cultural sensitisation is the key for adjustment. More awareness to the new culture makes it easy to develop new friendships and work relationships.”

Do it the Singapore way!

These facts might come in handy in case you want to set up shop or work in Singapore... • Singapore adheres to British English for business purposes • Chinese make up the primary population of Singapore, so you can expect its influence on the work culture too

• The business culture is etiquette-driven. It is also highly formal. • Networking is an important part of business in Singapore. It is usually established by way of training events, luncheons, workshops et al • As mentioned before, Singapore is a melting pot of cultures and religions, but Buddhism is most widely followed. • Singapore is often believed to be influence by the east (Asia) and the west. So, you are less likely to be at the receiving end of a culture shock. • When in Singapore, avoid making eye contact with the elder personnel since it is considered rude. • The largest sector in Singapore is manufacturing and electronics makes up more than half the sector. • Good news: Singapore boasts of some of the most amazing haunts that will appease all varieties of people! You can be sure of having the most exciting weekends! namratagulati8@gmail.com

tadka

Gonda: ‘Dirtiest City’ in India The western UP town of Gonda with a population of more than two million is India’s dirtiest city, according to the Swachh Bharat (Survekshan) survey, 2017. From a total of 2,000 points, Hyderabad obtained 1605, while Mumbai got 1535 marks, Bengaluru 967 and Chennai 915. Navi Mumbai has been ranked as 8th cleanest city India, and is the only city from Maharashtra to make it to the top 10. Chandigarh is ranked as the cleanest city in North India.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 43

Interview

From Costa Rica to India with love

There is a serenity and warmth to her that goes beyond the correctness of a career diplomat. A woman of many parts, she has worn different hats with aplomb: as lawyer, environmentalist, mother of seven, grandmother to one and a Yoga teacher for over 15 years. Driven, committed and energetic, Costa Rican Ambassador H. E Mariela Cruz is a woman on a mission-to spread the messages of Yoga and peace, whilst reiterating human responsibility towards the environment

An Indophile and devoted Yogini to the core, she informs you that she has been coming to India to learn Yoga since 2003. And though most of her trips have been down South to perfect the art and science of Ashtang Yoga, off late she’s had the opportunity to visit Vrinadavan the childhood home of Shri Krishna, author of her favorite book-the Bhagawad Gita. “In order to succeed in life, you’ve got to be fearless,” she says. “And to be fearless you have to be connected to something much bigger than yourself.” The silver bindi on her forehead has its own story to tell-”This is for Radha (Krishna’s consort) from Vrindavan-while her pretty pink bangles (as Indian as they come) offset the pink Costa Rican jacket on her shoulders. Multi culturalism at its best! Which brings us to one of her core reasons for visiting Pune-building a relationship between India and Costa Rica, two diverse, tolerant and multi cultural societies with much to share and learn from each other.

By Kalyani Sardesai

Rica is like a jewel in the heart of Latin America, a heaven of peace. As soon as you reach Costa Rica, you are struck by the pristine beauty. Costa Rica is big on environmental causes and reiterating responsibility towards it. Apart from which, we haven’t had an army since 1948 and instead, devoted our money towards development. As a result, we have an educated population with good health prospects. We are a tiny country with a population of just 5 million, but we have big hearts.

You are a committed environmentalist too.

Yes, apart from holding a Masters’ in Ecology; I have a personal interest in it as a mother of seven and grandmother of one. We owe it to future generations to keep the environment in a safe custody for them. It is a gift much greater than leaving them money.

We know Costa Rica for its football, wildlife, tourism and beautiful contestants at the Miss Universe. Ambassador Cruz, do tell us more about your country.

H. E. Mariela Cruz: Costa 44 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Both India and Costa Rica are multi-cultural societies with much to share. What areas of collaboration and cooperation would you like to see in the days to come?

First and most important, is to build a relationship through music, culture, art,

literature and exchange programmes. That’s the first step to knowing each other. In my country, there’s not enough information about India-it is perceived to be far off, dangerous. I want to change that, by bringing more Costa Ricans here for the simple reason that this is one country with the deepest connect to human values; this is the ancient land of rishis, great teachers, yogis and spirituality. People are simple, yet strong and giving. You could go to the poorest home, and they will be so happy to share their chai and chappati with you. I want my people to know all this and more. There is a beautiful and positive vibration to this land that I have had the privilege of discovering in the course of my Yoga Studies in Mysore. As we speak, there are four Costa Rican girls in Pune as part of an exchange programme; and four women in Rajasthan learning all about solar panels. Education is an important arena of connect-particularly “Education for Peace” which is so integral to everyone’s well-being today.

What would you say are the key challenges before Costa Rica today, keeping its potential in mind?

Well, sometimes we tend to be very conservative in our thinking while being happy and complacent in our world. (laughs) Costa Rica is breathtaking, a slice of paradise so to speak with all that greenery and pure air. Having said that, it is important to go out and explore the world so that we can share who we are with the world. At the same time, the challenge is to hold onto our mentality for peace amidst the turbulence of

Do tell us more about Costa Rica’s potential for tourism.

I would like to highlight wellness tourism, which is slightly different. Wellness tourism is a big trend the world over, with yoga playing a major role. But then, that is commercialised. World over, stress and depression are taking over people. But popping pills is not the way to go. I would know, having been part of the rat race as a lawyer till the age of 33 when I came to India and learnt about meditation, yoga, and ayurveda. I want my people to know more about the real yoga which comes from the deep-seated parampara of India. I just returned from a beautiful ashram called the Art of Living in India. My President is interested in exploring a partnership with them to create a wellness centre in Costa Rica, rooted in authentic yoga and the science of ayurveda, which has so much to offer.

Latin America. In that sense, it is quite the yogi, given its vibrations and calming presence.

An ongoing challenge before India is to retain its unique cultural identity in a world of cultural imperialism. Flanked as Costa Rica is by the glamorous US of A, would you say this is a challenge before your country too ?

In an ever-changing world, this is an area of concern, yes. Even in Costa Rica, satellite TV, apps

“ I want my people to know more about the real yoga which comes from the deep-seated parampara of India. I just returned from a beautiful ashram called the Art of Living in India. My President is interested in exploring a partnership with them to create a wellness centre in Costa Rica “

and technology are changing lifestyles and cultures. It is for us to prioritise. As a parent, I am firm that my children go biking, hiking and swimming rather than devote their time to apps. It is same with India. What an amazing country with so much to teach the world. Look at your Prime Minister, for example. He is so tech-savvy and driven, and yet he’s the epitome of a Yogi with a generosity, outreach and presence that is making an impact everywhere.

You’ve done so much with your life. Being a woman of influence, what message would you have for other women?

I would say-don’t be afraid. Sure you have roles to play as women and mothers, but each of us also has another higher purpose, apart from our domestic roles. In order to find out what that purpose is, we have to let go of fear. But that can happen only if you are connected to something much deeper and bigger than yourself. Like the Bhagvad Gita-a book that has had a profound effect on my life says: Surrender the fruits of your actions and do your work. The first time I came to India in 2003 to learn Yoga, I had to cut short my trip because one of my children fell sick. I was angry, but then I had to do what I had to do. I thought: would I ever be able to return? But I did, many times at that. My current role is something that is a huge responsibility, something I have had to choose over my family, for the time being. But it is something I just could not say no to. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 45

Campus Placement

Hard work never goes waste! Traversing from a village in Satara District to Mumbai, becoming the first from his village to get enrolled at COEP in Pune and then landing with a plum assignment, Aditya Shinde has come a long way. He attributes his success to his positive approach and never-say-die attitude By Joe Williams

e wanted to serve the nation in the army like his father Rajendra Shinde, but that was not to be. He was a bright student and secured 90% in his SSC board exams. However, he could not keep up in academics and failed in the XI standard. It was then that his life took a turn. He left his hometown Satara and after six years of hard work, graduated from the department of Instrumentation and Control, College of Engineering (COEP), Pune and was picked up by Johnson Controls through campus recruitment. His father, Rajendra Shinde, took up a job as a security guard in a company after retirement from the army, which enabled him to help his son pursue his academics. His mother Anita is a housewife.

His campus placement…

“I am proud to say that hard work never goes waste, and that was evident in my life. The very first company that came to the campus picked me up for a job,” he says, proudly. It was tough to get into this company. Most students were pessimistic, but Aditya thought otherwise. “And that positive thinking made things easy for me and brought me the first taste of success.”

On his childhood…

Born in a small village, Koregaon in Satara District, Aditya is the only son in the family and was often called ‘one man army’ by his mother, Anita. He moved to Mumbai for his Diploma and came to Pune to do his engineering from the College of Engineering, Pune (COEP). “I hope the youngsters move out of Koregaon and explore the world outside,” says Aditya. “My vil46 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

“To get placed through campus was compulsory for me and I achieved it. I proved myself with a positive attitude towards life. I always believe that everything that happens, happens for a reason. As I wanted to get placement through campus, I started technical studies from the third year itself”

lage was underdeveloped, and had low literacy ratio. I am one of the few from there to get into the best college. Life in Mumbai was amazing. I enjoyed every moment. Coming from a village, Mumbai offered a different life altogether. It enriched my outlook. Then in COEP, I learnt many more things. I would go for treks, parties, bike rides and night outs with friends. My trip to Manali during my last year in college was a dream trip. I also learned many things being a placement coordinator. I also headed various events in COEP.”

Surmounting fears on placement…

“Frankly, during my last year of B Tech, there was a fear as to whether companies would be coming for placement or not. As the placement coordinator, my responsibility was to tackle it. I was confident that companies would visit. I wanted to prove myself at every opportunity. As I wanted a job to see my parents happy, to get placed through campus was a must for me and I achieved it. I proved myself with a positive attitude. I believe that whatever happens, happens for a reason. As I wanted to get placement through campus, I started technical studies from the third year itself. I would study in the Process and Instrumentation lab (virtual lab). I spent entire summer holidays in the lab. I participated in national level automation project competitions and worked hard with dedication. That paid off as I secured 5th rank all over India. This competition tested my mettle.”

On his journey…

“I always say, life isn’t about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself, and this is just the beginning. It is a good start towards achieving my goals. I started my journey with Measurement and Control with a Diploma and then took the degree at COEP. Currently everything is in control with the final jump to Johnson Controls.”

The credit goes to…

“Sanjay Limaye Sir has been my mentor. His approach has been the key to the success of many. He takes efforts to groom students for interviews and motivates them. My parents too have been behind my success. Then there were teachers like Shivaji Thube, S D Agashe, and my friends, Pratik, Deepanshu, Damini and Shubhada.”

Happiest moment in life

Getting into COEP has been the best moment for him, the moment that changed him from a village boy to a city professional. “Admission at COEP was the happiest moment in my life,” said Aditya. After scoring 90% in SSC he took up Science in the XI standard at the Yashwantrao Chavan Institute of Science, one of the top institutes in Maharashtra. However, he could not

Aditya being felicitated at COEP as Overall Events Head

Aditya with family

“Never live in the past and never worry about the future, always live in the present. Life is all about living with full satisfaction with whatever we have. Always keep smiling and become a reason for others to smile” keep up the same tempo in studies and failed in the XI standard. “I think I was distracted and my approach to studies took a beating. That was a big disappointment in my life. I could not face my parents and friends, but I took a vow to change my ways. My mother would often say, whatever happens, it happens for the good. I moved out of my village and shifted base to Mumbai to do my diploma course.” Although Aditya’s father was against the move, it was his mother who convinced his father. “I got into Government Polytechnic, forgot my past and took a new approach. As a result, I secured first class in Diploma and then I came to COEP in Pune. Then I decided to achieve something big in my life. I learnt a lesson, and the attitude of never giving up and my passion for everything in life helped me to become a different person. Hard work with dedication and consistency paid off.”

What is life all about…

For Aditya, life is all about creating yourself. “Enjoy every moment of life. Never live in the past and never worry about the future, always live in the present. Life is all about living with full satisfaction with whatever we have. Always keep smiling and become a reason for others to smile. Serve the people and get blessings from them. Appreciate the beauty of nature, believe in God, believe in yourself, and success in life will follow. I have always seen myself as a successful person irrespective of what I achieved and what I am today. A positive attitude towards life gave me a proper path to be here in this position. I consider myself successful in terms of a satisfied life, maintaining good relationships,

Aditya with colleagues

being a good person, and earning blessings and good wishes from others.

Six success tricks...

• Always have a positive attitude, believe that everything that happens, happens for a reason. Dedication, passion and love are the three mantras for success in life • Always be patient. Good things always take a while to come • Never give up! When you are at a point of giving up something, just take a deep breath close your eyes, and shout ‘I can do it!’ and start doing, one day success will touch your feet • Always be grateful, thankful to others. Always appreciate others • Believe in yourself. You are the only one who can create your life • Don’t get distracted by what others say about you, because words always hurt and force you to stop doing something. So take only positive things and ignore the negatives Joe78662@gmail.com

tadka

India most affected by spam calls India tops the list of countries most affected by spam calls, according to phone directory app Truecaller, report. India is ahead of countries like the US, Brazil, Chile and South Africa, with an average user receiving over 22 spam calls a month.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 47

Loved & Married too

The sweet music of togetherness A long-standing and harmonious partnership is based on continuous adjustment, adaptability and willingness to respond to the need of the situation. Married for 18 years, corporate couple Arti and Pankaj Gadgil tell us about their journey together. Currently based in Mumbai, he's Joint General Manager, ICICI Bank (BKC), Mumbai, while she has switched tracks from engineering to music! By Kalyani Sardesai

his love story was first scripted in 1992 on the campus of the Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, where both Arti Kulkarni and Pankaj Gadgil were both pursuing their engineering degrees. He was one batch senior, and was studying mechanical, while she was in E&TC, but a shared interest in music and theatre brought them together. From the outset there was much in common: a love of the performing arts, seriousness about academics, and their simple but solid Maharashtrian roots. Yes, they were different alright, as two individuals are bound to be, but they were the sort of pleasant differences that made them compatible. “He speaks little, is calm and composed, but nevertheless very straightforward,” says Arti. “On the other hand, I am talkative, happy go lucky and spontaneous.” Besides which, he was palpably different from the boys of Pune, given that he was born and brought up in New Delhi. “For my part, I was born and brought up in Pune. Common interests meant a common group, and there were many occasions for him to visit my home (he was living in the hostel) for practice and rehearsals. Similarly, whenever his mother came down to Pune she would invite us, his friends for meals,” Arti says. Gradually, but steadily, the relationship grew from strength to strength. “It wasn't only the fact that she was a sincere girl with a melodious voice that was attractive and engaging, but everything 48 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

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

about her: the discipline and simplicity of her background, her abiding belief in keeping relationships together that brought us closer.” On completion of engineering, he decided to pursue a management degree at PUMBA, whereas she was offered a job with KPIT as a software engineer. “This was a bit of a tough phase, as my parents were keen that I marry soon, whereas his parents were first keen on him settling down before marriage, as he was very young,” says Arti. Finally, after a bit of waiting, they were wed in 1999 at 24 and 25 respectively. “From the outset, we were conscious of the fact that we had married early and would have to struggle for a bit, but we were prepared for it,” says Pankaj.

The building blocks of a marriage

each chance he gets. “I always believe it is a big plus for couple to share hobbies,” he says. “And even if they can't, respect and support for each other's dreams and passions is important.” Despite their hectic schedule, Sundays are exclusively ear-marked as family time. “We like spending time together, it is more important to us than other social functions,” says Arti. Quality time together includes long vacations and a shared appetite for travel. “As a family we have been to so many different countries including China, Europe, Hong Kong and

“Differences are a part of married life, but how you deal with them makes all the difference. How you resolve a conflict is situational-sometimes you talk it out, sometimes you back offthe important thing is to move forward” − Pankaj

From the very beginning of their married life, Arti and Pankaj shared a home with his parents, something they believe brought them closer as a family. Nevertheless, Delhi was a far cry from Pune-and Arti took her time settling down. “I had Macau. Within the country quit my work initially, but too, there is hardly a destitook up work again with nation spot that we have not IGI Infotech. It was here visited. Travel is important, that I made a career switch it really opens up your avto corporate training as it enues,” says Arti. would give me the bandLike everyone else, the couple has their ups and width to manage home and downs, but both are parwork,” she says. Despite their long years ticular about not letting of courtship, marriage was negativities persist. “It helps a revelation and demanded that I am more composed as a different version of their opposed to her expressive, earlier selves. “I realised he forthcoming ways. Differwas a workaholic, extremely ences are a part of married focused and driven on maklife, but how you deal with them makes all the difing a mark in his career. In such a scenario, I was happy ference. How you resolve to take a bit of a backseata conflict is situationalespecially after our daughter sometimes you talk it out, Mallika (now 16) was born. sometimes you back offLuckily I had other hobbies the important thing is to to sustain me-especially my move forward. Each stage Shared hobbies and common love of music.” of life demands you to adapt interests keep a couple going. A trained Hindustani and take on different roles Find things to do together classical music singer, Arti and positions-that is how a Compromise is not a bad would make it a point to partnership works,” he says. word—especially when both sing everry chance she got: Both have much to aphave demanding careers at social clubs and gatherpreciate about the other. “He Appreciation for the little things is a great decision maker, ings, and eventually proyour spouse does for you and has a lot of clarity of fessionally. “From classical thought,” she says. Whereas to light, Bollywood music, Spending quality time together he attributes their happy I can sing a wide range of family life to her undersongs with ease and joy,” she says. It is something that sustained her through standing and care. “Despite being held up at work their frequent postings to different cities, and several times, she has never held it against me,” family demands. he says. And though Pankaj is busy-especially in his Parenting is an important arena of togethercurrent designation as Joint General Manager ICness. “Though I am more with my daughter, she is very attached to him. He helps her with studICI Bank (Bandra Kurla Complex)-he joins her

The pillars of a marriage

ies and attends her PTA meetings, no matter how busy he is,. And on Sundays, father and daughter are together doing their own thing,” says Arti. Both are firm about instilling certain basic values. “Doing well in studies is fine; but we want Mallika to grow up as a fine, responsible and well-grounded human being. I like to stress upon importance of punctuality, hard-work, sincerity and respect for others,” says Pankaj. Given the rough and tumble of the corporate world, as well as the pressures of city life, he would advocate having a heart to heart conversation with one's fiance about delegation, aspirations and priorities. “It helps to have this talk before hand, so that the picture is clear to both parties,” he says. At the end of the day, both believe that trust is the very bedrock of a marriage. “Trust is a big thing. It is many little things. Believe in your spouse, have faith in their abilities and trust them in matters big and small. When you have that, everything else falls into place,” rounds off Arti. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

tadka

Bollywood goes big The upcoming Rajikant Akshay Kumar starrer 2.0 is the most expensive Indian film to be made. The film is made on a budget of `450 crore. Months before release, the film’s Hindi theatrical rights have reportedly been sold for a whopping `80 crore, while its satellite rights have been sold at an exorbitant amount of `110 crore.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 49

CFO survey 2017

Indian CFOs optimistic about India has seen a rapid change in economic policies and reforms in the past year, whether it is demonetisation or the implementation of GST. In this scenario, Indian CFOs perceive challenges as well as opportunities. To better understand them, leading professional consultant firm Deloitte has prepared their Annual CFO Survey 2017. Corporate Citizen brings you the results Compiled by Neeraj Varty

50 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

the economy

the dust of demonitisation slowly settles, it is now widely believed that concerns related to demonetisation were transient. Simultaneously, a tangible long-term benefit of the process appears to be emerging: a gradual move towards a digital economy. Post demonetisation, there has been a sharp increase in usage of digital channels such as point of service (PoS) machines, m-wallets, and mobile banking. This could have positive implications on tax revenue generation as more transactions get digitally recorded. Currently, Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tax revenue generation is 16.6% of GDP and is much lower than the average of 21% among emerging economies. This may enable the government to step up capital expenditure, while consolidating fiscally. The government on its part has shown confidence in its existing approach and schemes. In the Union Budget, FY 201718 the government announced several measures that can help boost purchasing power of the lower and middle-income population that has been affected the most by demonetisation. Indian CFOs are therefore optimistic about the current business environment in India. Let us look at their views on Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic environment.

Survey demographics

The Deloitte India CFO Survey 2017 highlights the stance of CFOs in India on various facets of Indian economy, investment climate, industry expectations and CFOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role and readiness. The report is based on responses from over 200 CFOs with revenues spanning from less than INR 500 crores to more than INR 2500 crores. The respondents include listed and unlisted companies, from both private sector and PSUs; Indian companies, MNCs headquartered in India as well as overseas. August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 51

CFO survey 2017

Macro economy Optimism with respect to India’s medium to longterm economic outlook has improved significantly among business leaders relative to last year’s survey. 30% and 56% of CFOs are now ‘very optimistic’ about economic prospects over the next 2-3 years and 4-5 years, respectively. An increase from 22% and 47% in 2016. The economy’s resilience in 2016 amid global challenges, the government’s adherence to the path of fiscal consolidation, prudent monetary policy, passage of the GST bill, and expectations regarding faster economic reforms after the existing government’s landslide win in Uttar Pradesh have contributed in shaping a positive outlook. While demonetisation may have impacted the economic activity in the short-run, medium-term implications with respect to digitalisation and the government’s willingness to fight against corruption have bolstered investors’ confidence.

Taking business risks The ‘heightened optimism’ over the medium to long term economic outlook is reflected in the risk appetite of Indian businesses. 59% of the CFOs are now willing to take greater business risks, as compared to 46% in 2016. This is a significant increase in business confidence and the increased willingness to take risks bodes well for capital investment.

Positive

Impact of demonitisation

Neutral

Negative

52 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

During demonetisation in November, businesses were grappling with managing their supply chains. In an economy where a significant proportion of transactions is conducted in cash, and over half of the population not having a bank account before the demonetisation move, it was expected that the government’s decision to demonetise over 85% of the currency in circulation overnight would create big ripples across sectors. On the contrary, over a half of the CFOs (54%) reported no significant impact of demonetisation to their industry, while 15% of them stated a positive impact. Less than one third of the CFOs reported a negative impact of the imminent liquidity crunch on their industry. The survey shows that the transportation, consumer business and manufacturing were more affected than the rest.

Timeline and effectiveness of government initiatives Over 70% of the CFOs expressed satisfaction on the timeline of government programmes (up from 60% in 2016) and 63% of CFOs found the initiatives effective (up from 58% in 2016). Programmes and schemes such as ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Smart cities mission’, ‘Startup India’ and ‘Skill India’, among others, were launched within the first year of the government coming into power. The intention was to improve the country’s manufacturing capabilities, promote innovation and entrepreneurship, create job opportunities, and improve infrastructure and skills. As these programmes mature, CFOs see their true benefits and are upbeat about expected outcomes.

Cost and availability of credit It appears tables might have turned with respect to credit availability over the past one year owing to easing monetary policy and increased willingness of banks to lend. The RBI policy cut rates twice since the CFOs responded to last year’s survey. Additionally, the reduction in minimum daily maintenance of the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) helped ease liquidity management by banks. Also, rising deposits post demonetisation increased liquidity in the banking system. Consequently, a majority of the CFOs (51%) said that there is a high credit availability at a cheaper cost. This is in contrast to last year’s response when a majority of CFOs reported high credit availability only at a higher cost (28%), while availability of credit was low at a lower cost (28%).

Key regulatory changes The top industry sector CFOs who are the most affected with the regulatory changes pertaining to GST implementation and tax laws management, as per the following industry specific data:

29%

24%

21%

17%

12%

13%

11%

14%

Among key regulatory changes, GST implementation may be a challenging task as reported by 31% of the CFOs in the survey. Although GST was much awaited and welcomed by all, there are lot of concerns around implementation and technology, which are taking up a significant portion of the time of the CFOs today. GST implementation would be a complex change management exercise for every organisation and building the consensus on the finer details would be a time consuming exercise. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 53

Pearls of Wisdom

By Swami Krishnananda

The Secret of Self-Adjustment

We are cogwheels of a cosmic machine; and as the machine works, the wheels move automatically. The Operator of the machine knows things better than we do, and it is not the business of the wheel to intrude or butt in as if it is an independent something. Its duty is merely to cooperate, not to assert. This, in my humble opinion, is the spirit of the karma yoga of the Bhagavad Gita—to be in tune with a universal Be-ness

We are unhappy not because we are not wise, but because we are unable to apply our wisdom to suit the conditions or circumstances in which we live. Wisdom in the wrong place and at the wrong time has led some philosophers to grief. One should not wish to be too wise, beyond the prescribed limits. To adjust and adapt oneself to circumstances, while giving that magical touch of utter faith in the omniscience and omnipotence of God to all that we humbly try to do here is, in my opinion, better than a lofty ambition to transform the earth into heaven.... If we want to be happy, we should not judge the present by a future ideal or a standard that ought to be, for the ‘ought’ is different from the ‘is’. Though the ideal should guide our present activity, we should not compare the two and feel despair. We seem to be displeased with the present set-up of things because we are comparing it with an ideal which is yet to be, which is in our minds. While the ideal is good and should be in our minds to keep our spirits elevated, we should not forget the causes of the present circumstance, which is differentiated from the future ideal. Our duty is to understand, and not judge. “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” Essentially, to see the good in things is real virtue, for the so-called ugliness is a phase of God’s mystery. Nimittamatram bhava: “Be merely an instrument in work.” An instrument has no right to judge or hold opinion, but to take things as they are, and when things go beyond one’s control, leave them to Him, and not lament over the matter. But we should do what is within our

capacity without involving our emotions or prejudices for certain things or even for ways of thinking. This is hard to appreciate and harder to practice, but there is no other go. Man has many passions within him. One of the passions is the ego, which wants its ideas to be displayed throughout the world. People should not wish that their ideas should always prevail over the ideas of others. Ideas are not for lording over other people or imposing on other people’s minds. Ideas should only be expressed, and suggestions sometimes given, and if they are not accepted we should not feel internal agony or annoyance. We should not expect that our thoughts be accepted by others, for appreciation cannot be thrust into people’s minds. We are cogwheels of a cosmic machine; and as the machine works, the wheels move automatically. The Operator of the machine knows things better than we do, and it is not the business of the wheel to intrude or butt in as if it is an independent something. Its duty is merely to cooperate, not to assert. This, in my humble opinion, is the spirit of the karma yoga of the Bhagavad Gita— to be in tune with a universal Be-ness. Wholly unselfish persons cannot be found in the world. Those who are unselfish are only conditionally so. They are good under certain circumstances. Flout their wishes, and they change. It is a pity that even those sworn bonds of love among human beings can become estranged overnight when people assume elevated positions in society. Then they sunder past relations as if they had never existed, and an entirely

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new life of mutual suspicion, distrust and dislike commences from the time of the appearance of Nature’s illusions called power and wealth. These twin monsters gain access into both public and private sectors. Therefore, no one who is susceptible to these subtle subterfuges of the devil can be said to have a mastery over themselves. Plus, there are two gross forms in which Nature’s impulses reveal themselves in one’s person—sex and self-esteem. The slightest interference with these weak spots throws one into a fit of ireful retaliation. Hence, it is no wonder that the malady of the world has a fourfold root of power, wealth, sex and self-esteem… This world, though full of so many bad things, is tolerated by God. Even in this condition, it is His. Therefore, let there be patience and under-

“This world, which is full of so many bad things, is tolerated by God. Even now, in this condition, it is His. Therefore, let there be patience and understanding of even the worst of things, so that we may be at peace within ourselves even when we are insulted with ungratefulness for the good that we try to do to people” standing of the worst of things, so that we may be at peace within ourselves even when we are insulted with ungratefulness for the good that we try to do to people. Pericles of Greece raised the status of his country to a golden age, to the height of its glory, but he was stoned to death. As the Lord’s ways are mysterious, we have to wait with the patience of a servant for the descent of the knowledge of this mystery. We should not be displeased at heart, because we have no business either to be pleased or displeased with anything, though we do our duties as if we are pleased with things. We have neither the requisite knowledge nor the power to do what we want. Then, what is the way out? Should we cry and lament? Definitely not! The way out is to lift ourselves with the faith that God is great always…

This superior art of adjusting oneself to circumstances should be distinguished from hypocrisy, which is an artificial attitude born of selfishness. Therefore, a life of real wisdom is so difficult to live; there are so many slight shades of difference even in the apparently same dharma. Our thoughts, feelings and actions should not defeat the highest purpose for which we are supposed to live. Otherwise, it will not be a correct adjustment. We should not shun the world, nor should we live in such a way that the world shuns us. This is the secret of self-adjustment. At same time, we should not forget our true Goal. Bravo! May God bless us! (This article is sourced from http://www. swami-krishnananda.org. To read the complete article go to: http://www.swami-krishnananda.) org/disc/disc_128.html)

tadka

India largest supplier of online labour India is the largest supplier of online labour, as per a report on Online Labour Index, published by Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford. India accounts for 24% of jobs, followed by Bangladesh (16%) and US (12%). The software development and technology category is dominated by workers from India.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 55

Bollywood Biz

Bollywood stars who endo Bollywood stars are extremely influential, and are highly in-demand by brands wanting them to endorse their products. Some stars, however, want to do their bit for society by endorsing government initiatives and campaigns and channelising their immense star power to make a change in society. This edition, we bring you Bollywood celebs who have endorsed government campaigns By Neeraj Varty Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is the most beautiful woman in the world, inside and out. The leading actress has inspired many to take the cause of social development. She is the brand ambassador for Polio Eradication and Eye Donation. Moreover, she has taken her eye donation campaign one notch high by pledging her eyes to the Eye Bank association of India.

Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan has endorsed quite a few government campaigns in his several decades long career. He was the face of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Gujarat Tourismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, and the state's Khushboo Gujarat Ki tourism campaign starring Bachchan has won the National Tourism Award 2011-12. The advertisement sees Bachchan explaining interesting facts about heritage and religious sites in Gujarat. The iconic star has also been associated with Tiger Conservation. He is also is the goodwill ambassador for Polio UNICEF campaign. He was appointed as the ambassador in 2005 and has since fronted their polio eradication programme successfully. Not many people know that Amitabh Bachchan suffered from Tuberculosis in the past. Which is why he is the perfect candidate to lead the India vs TB campaign launched in 2017. The campaign had to be powerful yet sensitive towards the patients suffering from it. Hence, the face of the campaign is no other than Big B who not only survived the deadly disease, but also is completely cured. Recently, there is a speculation that Mr Bachchan may soon be promoting the newly introduced GST for the government. 56 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

rse government campaigns Vidya Balan

Vidya Balan, in her capacity as the National Sanitation Brand Ambassador, has been working hard to make India open defecation free. Over the last five years, Vidya has been part of a nationwide television and radio campaign that aims at constructing more toilets. She’s became a household name when she featured in countless ad commercials that connected with the viewers in the most interesting manner.

Salman Khan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cleanliness initiative Swachh Bharat Abhiyan had made headlines, with several celebrities also supporting it. The mission has now received the support of Salman Khan, who became a face of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) drive against open defecation and litter. Salman's Being Human Foundation donated five mobile toilets to the BMC to be placed at Bandstand, and he has pledged to do whatever he can to help keep the city clean.

Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan has always been known for his stance on social issues, and his role as a crusader for justice has been unanimously praised. In 2012, Aamir was roped in by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, to be the face of the movement over the next one year. He was also the brand ambassador of the incredible India campaign for the Indian government, although that stint ended unceremoniously as he was removed as ambassador due to his insensitive remarks about tolerance in India. Through his TV show, Aamir Khan has promoted social causes like girl’s education and spoken out against malpractices like honour killings and medical malpractice, despite not being an official government spokesperson for these causes. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 57

Corporate Column Sunita Narain

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

Sin tax for redemption

The 40% “sin” tax in India would add `15.60 per litre of colas. This is much higher than the tax in Mexico and hence will hopefully count

he Goods and Services Tax of 40% “sugar-sweetened aerated and flavoured water” has a big bang impact on public health. At the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2017, the government launched what is billed as the “biggest tax reform” since India’s Independence. For public health, a big bang impact of GST is the tax on “sugar-sweetened aerated and flavoured water” which is now pegged at 40 per cent. These beverages, which include all the colas and such junk drinks, with high sugar and hardly any nutrients, will have an additional 12 per cent cess over the luxury tax slab of 28 per cent. This cess is reserved for what is called the “sin” category of goods. In 2014, Mexico became the first country to impose a tax on sugary drinks. A recent joint study by US and Mexican health academics found that this relatively small tax had decreased consumption by some 10 per cent by the end of the second year, most importantly, in the poorer sections of its society. This is

when the tax is small—just one peso per litre of the drink (roughly `3.5 per litre). A bigger impact has been noted in California, where the tax is US $0.33 cents (`21 per litre). This tax, finds a recent report from Euromonitor International, reduced cola consumption by 21 per cent and increased water consumption by 63 per cent. In contrast, there was an increase in cola consumption in the rest of the US. So, taxation counts. Now many other countries are looking at imposing “sin” tax on all varieties of junk food. For us this move to tax bad food is critical. In June 2017, British medical journal The Lancet published a review of the prevalence of diabetes in 15 states of India. This study by a group of medical practitioners, funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research, has worrying numbers. It finds that while some 7 per cent people in India (based on 15 states’ data) had diabetes, the prevalence of pre-diabetes (early signs, particularly elevated blood sugar levels) was a staggering 10-15 per cent, depending on

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the criterion used. This is no small health burden on a poor country. Their conclusion is we are undergoing an epidemiological transition. States with higher GDP—Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh—have higher prevalence of this disease as compared to Bihar or Jharkhand. Delhi and Goa, with high-income levels, are still awaiting sampling. Rural areas have lower diabetes rates than urban. But most worryingly, the study finds that the poor in urban well-off states have higher incidence of diabetes than the rich in the same cities. In other words, the rich in rich cities have started to learn good food habits. But the poor are now falling into the trap of bad food. The study also found that conversely, in rural areas it was the more socio-economically advanced that were falling prey to diabetes. “It is an epidemic that is in a state of transition,” it noted. With such large numbers of poor in urban areas and such large numbers of the getting-rich in rural areas, this can easily get out of hand. We are going from lack of food or malnutrition to over-nutrition because of bad food. This is a transition that can be avoided. That’s why this move under GST is important. The 40 per cent “sin” tax in India would add `15.60 on one litre of colas. This is much higher than the tax in Mexico and hence will hopefully count. GST also puts other high sugar foods, including chocolates, in the “luxury” category. The move to disincentivise junk food now needs to be supported with regulations on labelling that let us know how much added sugar, salt and fat we are eating. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is dragging its feet on this. That’s not all. GST also incentivises food that is not branded, packaged and processed. Today, our food safety system willy-nilly pushes us to believe that only when the food is branded or processed can it be safe. Across the world, this understanding of food safety has edged out small producers, who can’t compete with high quality and enforcement standards. Today, FSSAI’s rule on food establishments does not allow for the use of unbranded food. It is unsafe, according to them. The mandarins of the finance ministry have understood that safety is about promoting food that is nutritious and connects with livelihoods. Let’s hope the message hits home. Source- http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/ sin-tax-for-redemption-58278 (Sunita Narain is Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and the Editor of Down To Earth magazine. She is an environmentalist who pushes for changes in policies, practices and mindsets.)

Health

Continuity In Fitness

Any game needs a healthy mind and healthy body and adhering to my fitness regime helps me to concentrate on game more, says Kabaddi player Deepak Hooda By Sharmila Chand

Even when I am not working or when I don’t have a camp I make sure I eat healthy and stay healthy. If I don’t work out, I feel I am missing a major thing in my life. Fitness has become an integral part of my life now.

What keeps you fit and healthy?

Milk is an important factor for my fitness. I follow my fitness trainer’s advice, which helps me to stay fit. Any game needs a healthy mind and healthy body and adhering to my fitness regime helps me to concentrate on game more.

Your stress busters?

ne of the star players of Kabaddi currently in the country, Deepak Niwas Hooda aka ‘Raiding Machine’ has been the go to player for Puneri Paltan since season three. He is the only player Puneri Paltan has retained from the last season. In 2016, after remaining part of the Telugu Titans for the first two seasons, Hooda joined the Puneri Paltan for the third and fourth seasons. In the third-place play-off, Hooda top scored with nine raid points for the Puneri Paltan, helping them to make a podium finish in the third season. Hooda currently plays for Air India. He also represented India in the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. He was a part of the Indian Kabaddi team, which won gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games. Deepak made his national debut during the 2014 Senior Nationals Kabaddi Tournament representing Jharkhand team.

Your philosophy on fitness?

My fitness philosophy is to enjoy life, one needs a healthy heart and mind. And for a healthy heart and mind, one needs to be fit. So, health and fitness are closely related and are two sides of the same coin. If one has a peaceful and healthy mind, one can enjoy life to the fullest.

Your idea/mantra about keeping fit?

My fitness mantra is to maintain continuity in fitness.

My family is my stress buster. I love spending time with my family and sister, which frees me of pressure.

Your food philosophy?

Hooda currently plays for Air India. He also represented India in the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. He was a part of the Indian Kabaddi team, which won gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games

I always ensure that I have good healthy food since for a player, the most important part is to stick to their diet and have ample of rest.

Your exercise fundamentals?

I concentrate on running and sprinting since these are the essential fitness aspects of the game I play. I also concentrate on skipping (jumping rope).

Your diet fads?

I eat a lot of almonds and drink lots of milk. Apart from almond and milk, I love to have pineapple and orange juice.

Your yoga regime?

Yoga is good for health. It helps me stay calm, vitalizes my body and mind and rejuvenates me after every practice session. Even 10–15 mins of yoga every day is enough to rejuvenate mind and body.

Your healthy dose as parting shots?

Always eat healthy and nutritious food. Make sure you find time for practice or exercise every day. Any form of daily exercise or practice helps body to stay flexible and fit. Avoid drinking shakes and eating sweets as they do most damage to the body. chand.sharmila@gmail.com August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 59

Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps for Melba Pria, the Mexican Ambassador to India who has made auto-rickshaw, her official vehicle Unlike Indian politicians, who move around in convoys of luxury cars, the Mexican Ambassador to India has made an auto-rickshaw her official vehicle. Melba Pria travels in her chauffeur-driven auto CNG-run rickshaw. She has taken the meaning of ‘green transport’ to another level in combating Delhi’s alarming pollution levels. Her official rickshaw is also a far cry from the drab yellow and green hues. Melba Pria takes pride in Mexican street artist Sanko’s artistic colours on the outer facade of the official rickshaw that has transformed the ordinary three seater vehicle into an impressive white auto with colourful designs and motifs; that reflects Mexico and Melba Pria’s spirit! “The fun design is inspired by our tourism promotion campaign and the beautiful spectrum of colours you find in Mexico. I think some rickshaw-wallahs are confused initially, but they always find it amusing. Even my driver enjoys being a part of the experience,” Melba Pria said in an official statement. She said, “This is the way that I want to contribute to the city that today is also mine. I am also a Delhite.” Despite being the Ambassador, Melba Pria had her own battles to get her rickshaw. “It wasn’t easy to buy an auto. We had to get permission from the Ministry of External Affairs. It also took a bit of work to get the drivers on-board. When you are the driver of the ambassador, there is a certain status in it. So how do you go from being the driver of an ambassador to being an auto rickshaw driver? What I tried to tell them is, you are still the driver to an ambassador, but the ambassador chooses to have a different vehicle,” she said. Melba Pria’s auto-rickshaw has occasionally been barred from entering official buildings because it is mistaken for a rented vehicle. Recently, it was stopped at the Parliament House, where she was told that three-wheelers were not allowed. She understands that the diplomatic number plate on her auto rickshaw worries people about security. “But, the attention it has received has made it a fun and creative way to promote Mexico and its artistry. I understand that people are used to seeing auto rickshaws as transports for hire and not as a private vehicles but it has not been a real problem at all so far. I just hope that with time people will increasingly realise that there are some benefits about this type of vehicle as it is more compact and less polluting.” Jagadish Duggal, driver at the Mexican Embassy said, “If the Mexican Ambassador can travel in an auto rickshaw, why can’t India’s elite?” 60 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

Corporate Citizen slaps the alarming rate of suicides, both in urban as well as rural parts of the country Recently, newspapers carried reports about five suicide incidents prominently. Except for the former Tata Finance Managing Director Dilip Pendse (61), who hanged himself on a ceiling fan at his house at Dadar East in Mumbai, all other victims were youngsters. Gopalkrishna Gowda (25), a software engineer working with an IT company in Vimannagar area in Pune, ended life on July 12 worrying about his future in the IT sector in view of the ongoing layoffs. He hailed from Konduru Mandal in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh and had come to Pune following a transfer, two days before he ended life. He jumped off the fourth floor of the hotel he stayed in. On July 17, Assamese actress and singer Bidisha Bezbaruah (30) was found hanging in her sector 43, Gurugram, apartment in Delhi. Her last role was in the Hindi film Jagga Jasoos. Her family lodged a complaint with the police alleging that an unhappy marriage drove Bidisha to suicide. This prompted the police file a case of abetment to suicide against Bidisha’s husband Nisheet Jha, a resident of Mumbai. Manmath Mhaiskar, the college-going son of senior IAS officers couple died after jumping from the roof of his friend’s multi-storeyed apartment in Mumbai, on July 18. Though no suicide note was found, the police say preliminary investigations indicate the possibility of suicide. Alekh Jaiswal (20), a fifth-term naval cadet of the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his room on July 23. While a court of inquiry has been initiated, newspaper reports quoted an unnamed police officer saying, “The primary observations point to a suicide.” Jaiswal was pursuing his BSc in Computer Science. An alumni of the Sainik School, Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, he belonged to the Hunter Squadron. Rising incidents of suicides has always been a matter of concern. According to the latest data that is available in the report of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), titled ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India’, the number of suicides that were 1,31,666 in 2014 increased to 1,33,623. This means the year 2015 saw 15 suicides every one hour. Maximum number of suicides were in Maharashtra (16,970) followed by Tamil Nadu (15,777) and West Bengal (14,602), accounting for 12.7%, 11.8% and 10.9% of total suicides reported in the country respectively. (Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar and Prasanna Keskar)

Mobile apps

The Best Anti-theft Apps to recover your Stolen Smartphone

If your smartphone is missing or stolen, stay calm and take a breather, because you have a great chance of recovering your phone. This issue, we’ve got great anti-theft apps that can help you get your smartphone back or at the very least keep your sensitive data safe from identity theft By Neeraj Varty

nti-theft apps can be a lifesaver. Some of these apps have features that can help you track down your missing phone by triggering it to ring off the hook, send its GPS location to your email or when worse comes to worst, allow you to wipe your data from the missing smartphone remotely. Not enough? Snap a photo of the perpetrator or record their audio with your

Plan B

If you had not installed any tracking app before your device was stolen or misplaced, Plan B will be a lifesaver. Plan B is an app from Lookout Labs which locates your smartphone using cell towers and GPS, then sends the location of your smartphone to your Gmail Inbox. In some smartphones, Plan B can enable the GPS on the phone then update you with its location every 10 minutes. For phones with no such support, you can text ‘location’ from another phone, and details of the missing phone’s location will be sent to your email. In the absence of a data connection, the software will send its location via SMS instead.

Cerberus

phone’s microphone. Yes, these apps can do that and more. All these apps are free to install, though some may have premium versions which you can upgrade to if you feel the need. But remember that only some of them can be installed after the phone is lost. The rest of them are preventive measures, meaning you should already have them before something bad happens to your device. With that out of the way, let’s go get your phone back.

If protecting your sensitive data from thieves is a priority for you, Cerberus is the app you need. Cerberus has all the works, remote alarm trigger, tracking via GPS, remote wipe of the SD card as well as the internal storage in case you have sensitive data, remote lock of the phone, plus alerts of a SIM change. You can also record audio from the microphone. The free version lasts for a week, while the Pro version lets you use it for up to five devices under the same account.

Where’s My Droid

Where’s My Droid is a pure find my phone app to help you locate your android phone. When your smartphone goes missing, sending a code via text will make the phone ring (even when set in silent mode) while another text code sends you the GPS coordinates of the phone. Alternatively, you can remotely control your phone by connecting it to the Commander option, a web-based interface. Where’s My Droid also offers a Pro version which lets you take pictures with the camera (you might be able to take a snapshot of the perpetrator), remote lock the phone rendering it impenetrable or remote wipe the app to save your data from misuse.

Prey AntiTheft

To use Prey Anti-Theft you have to get it installed before the phone goes missing. To find your lost phone, you can activate Prey via SMS with the words “GO PREY” in all caps then log into the Control Panel via the Web to mark the device as ‘Missing’. You can then receive notices of where your phone is. The app is hidden and can only be uninstalled with a password. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

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Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian

From The Mobile

Sudha Murthy’s reply to snobs Here’s an excerpt from Sudha Murthy’s ‘Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives’ : Last year, I was at the Heathrow International Airport in London, about to board a flight. Usually, I wear a sari even when I am abroad, but I prefer wearing a salwar-kameez while travelling. So there I was—a senior citizen dressed in typical Indian apparel at the terminal gate. Since the boarding hadn’t started, I sat down and began to observe my surroundings. The flight was bound for Bengaluru and so I could hear people around me chatting in Kannada. I saw many old married couples of my age—they were most likely coming back from the US or UK after helping their children either through childbirth or a new home. I saw some British business executives talking to each other about India’s progress. Some teenagers were busy with the gadgets in their hands while the younger children were crying or running about the gate. After a few minutes, the boarding announcement was made and I joined the queue. The woman in front of me was a well-groomed lady in an Indo-Western silk outfit, a Gucci handbag and high heels. Every single strand of her hair was in place and a friend stood next to her in an expensive silk sari, pearl necklace, matching earrings and delicate diamond bangles. I looked at the vending machine nearby and wondered if I should leave the queue to get some water. Suddenly, the woman in front of me turned sideways and looked at me with what seemed like pity in her eyes. Extending her hand, she asked, ‘May I see your boarding pass, please?’ I was about to hand over my pass to her, but since she didn’t seem like an airline employee, I asked, ‘Why?’ ‘Well, this line is meant for business class travellers only,’ she said confidently and pointed her finger towards the economy class queue. ‘You should go and stand there,’ she said. I was about to tell her that I had a business class ticket but on second thoughts, held back. I wanted to know why she had thought that I wasn’t worthy of being in the business class. So I repeated, ‘Why should I stand there?’ She sighed. ‘Let me explain. There is a big difference in the price of an economy and a business class ticket. The latter costs almost two and a half times more than . . .’ I think it is three times more,’ her friend interrupted. ‘Exactly,’ said the woman. ‘So there are certain privileges that are associated with a business class ticket.’ ‘Really?’, I decided to be mischievous and pretended not to know. ‘What kind of privileges are you talking about?’ She seemed annoyed. ‘We are allowed to bring two bags but you can only take one. We can board the flight from another, less-crowded queue. We are given better meals and seats. We can extend the seats and lie down flat on them. We always have television screens and there are four washrooms for a small number of passengers.’ Her friend added, ‘A priority check-in facility is available for our bags, which means they will come first upon arrival and we get more frequent flyer miles for the same flight.’ ‘Now that you know the difference, you can go to the economy line,’ insisted the woman. ‘But I don’t want to go there.’ I was firm.

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The lady turned to her friend. ‘It is hard to argue with these cattle-class people. Let the staff come and instruct her where to go. She isn’t going to listen to us.’ I didn’t get angry. The word ‘cattle class’ was like a blast from the past and reminded me of another incident. One day, I had gone to an upscale dinner party in my home city of Bengaluru. Plenty of local celebrities and socialites attended it. I was speaking to some guests in Kannada, when a man came to me and said very slowly and clearly in English, ‘May I introduce myself? I am... ’ It was obvious that he thought that I might have a problem understanding the language. I smiled. ‘You can speak to me in English.’ ‘Oh,’ he said, slightly flabbergasted. ‘I’m sorry. I thought you weren’t comfortable with English because I heard you speaking in Kannada.’ ‘There’s nothing shameful in knowing one’s native language. It is, in fact, my right and my privilege. I only speak in English when somebody can’t understand Kannada,’ I said. The line in front of me at the airport began moving forward and I came out of my reverie. The two women ahead were whispering among themselves, ‘Now she will be sent to the other line. It is so long now! We tried to tell her but she refused to listen to us.’ When it was my turn to show my boarding pass to the attendant, I saw them stop and wait a short distance away, waiting to see what would happen. The attendant took my boarding pass and said brightly, ‘Welcome back! We met last week, didn’t we?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied. She smiled and moved on to the next traveller. I walked a few steps ahead of the women intending to let this go, but then I changed my mind and came back. ‘Please tell me—what made you think that I couldn’t afford a business class ticket? Even if I didn’t have one, was it really your prerogative to tell me where I should stand? Did I ask you for help?’ The women stared at me in silence. ‘You refer to the term “cattle class”. Class does not mean possession of a huge amount of money,’ I continued, unable to stop myself from giving them a piece of my mind. ‘There are plenty of wrong ways to earn money in this world. You may be rich enough to buy comfort and luxuries, but the same money doesn’t define class or give you the ability to purchase it. Mother Teresa was a classy woman, so is Manjul Bhargava, a great mathematician of Indian origin. The concept that you automatically gain class by acquiring money is an outdated thought process.’ I left without waiting for a reply.

Our journey together is short “A beautiful message for all of us… A young lady sat in a bus. At the next stop, a loud and grumpy old lady came and sat by her. She squeezed into the seat and bumped her with her numerous bags. The person sitting on the other side of the young lady got upset, asked her ‘why she did not speak up and say something’. The young lady responded with a smile, “It is not necessary to be rude or argue over something so insignificant; the journey together is so short. I get off at the next stop.” This response deserves to be written in golden letters: “It is not necessary to argue over something so insignificant, our journey

together is so short.” If each one of us realised that our time here is so short and to darken it with quarrels, futile arguments, not forgiving others, discontentment and a faultfinding attitude would be a waste of time and energy. Did someone break your heart? Be calm, the journey is so short. Did someone betray, bully, cheat or humiliate you? Be calm, forgive, the journey is so short. Whatever troubles anyone brings us, let us remember that our journey together is so short. No one knows the duration of this journey. No one knows when his or her stop will come. Our journey together is so short. Let us cherish friends and family. Let us be respectful, kind and forgiving to each other. Let us be filled with gratitude and gladness. If I have ever hurt you, I ask for your forgiveness. After all, Our Journey Together is so Short!

Short story with a big moral

The real sense of humour During the WW-II, a man was arrested in London for calling Winston Churchill a fool. The next day in the House of Commons, the opposition members were ready to roast the government for this. “Are we living in a police state”, they shouted, “where we cannot call the PM a fool”? Churchill’s reply was truly disarming, “The man was not arrested for calling the Prime Minister a fool”, he said, “but for letting out a state secret at a time of war”. That’s the real sense of humour.

A person asked a question to his Guru, “My workers are not true to me. My children, my wife and the entire world is very selfish. Nobody is correct.” Guru smiled and told a story... In one small village, there was a room with 1000 mirrors. One small girl used to go inside and play. Seeing thousands of children around her, she was joyful. She would clap her hands and all the 1000 children would clap back at her. She considered this place as the world's happiest and beautiful place and would visit often. A sad and a depressed person visited this same place. He saw around him thousands of angry men staring at him. He got scared and raised his hands to hit them and in return 1000 hands lifted to hit him back. He thought... this is the worst place in the world and left that place. This world is also a room with 1000 mirrors around you... What we let out of us is what the universe will give back to us. “This world is a heaven or hell... It's up to us what we make out of it...” said the Guru.

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 63

astroturf Profession days: 22, 23, 31 The Lunar eclipse occurs on the 7th in your 3rd house of communication. This will test your cooperation and communications as well as equipment so repair if needed.

Aries

Mar 21 April 20

Greatest days: 20, 21, 29, 30 Hectic days: : 18, 24, 25, 31 Honey days: 18, 19, 24, 25, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, 28, 29 Profession days: 20, 21, 29, 30, 31 The Lunar eclipse of the 7th is stronger for you. As it affects Mars the ruler of your horoscope, so take it easy during this period and avoid any kind of stressful situations. other.

TAURUS April 21 May 20

Greatest days: 22, 23, 31 Hectic days: 20, 21, 26, 27 Honey days: 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31 Money days: 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31 Profession days: 20, 21, 29, 30 There are two eclipses this month and both happen to affect you strongly. Marriage of close friends and family could be tested and you may be a witness to this. Cars and communication equipment gets tested overtime.

GEMINI May 21 June 21

Greatest days: 16, 24, 25 Hectic days: 22, 23, 29, 30 Honey days: 24, 25, 28, 29, 30 Money days: 16,18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 31 Profession days: 18, 26, 27 Those in education fields could experience changes regarding their educational plans. Siblings of appropriate age would be experiencing changes in their behaviour due to hormonal changes.

CANCER June 22 July 23

Greatest days: 18, 26, 27 Hectic days: 24, 25, 31 Honey days: 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29, 30, 31 Money days: 16, 20, 21, 24, 25, 31 Profession days: 20, 21, 29, 30 Prosperity is seen as you are still in your financial peak. Due to the

(www.dollymanghat.com)

Fortune favours the bold and the lucky

Your attitude is your altitude, says Dolly Manghat, our renowned Astrological expert and believes she helps people create their own prophecies rather than live predictions planetary power shift from the upper to the lower half of your chart. You need to reduce emphasis on career and focus more on the domestic front. Students will be forced to make changes in their educational planning.

LEO

July 24 Aug 23 Â

Greatest days: 20, 21, 29, 30 Hectic days: 26, 27 Honey days: 18, 19, 20, 28, 29, 30 Money days: 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31 Profession days: 18, 19, 28, 29 The Solar eclipse on the 21st affects you more strongly and intensely. It impacts the ruler of your first house, The Sun, and occurs in the 1st house close to cusp of the 2nd house. You will forced to redefine your personality, image and presentation to the world.

VIRGO

Aug 24 Sept 23

Greatest days: 22, 23, 31 Hectic days: 16, 29, 30 Honey days: 18, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, 28, 29 Profession days: 16, 22, 23, 31 On the 22nd the Sun moves into your sign and you enter into one of your yearly personal pleasure periods. Good time to redefine your appearance and personality. The issues in love need to be resolved.

64 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

LIBRA

Sept 24 Oct 22

Greatest days: 16, 24, 25 Hectic days: 18, 31 Honey days: 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29, 30 Money days: 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31 Profession days: 18, 20, 21, 31 Health may not be so good. Since, your yearly career peak is over, you will be successful this month too. Doors open up for you with opportunities which were unavilable.

SCORPIO Oct 23 Nov 22

Greatest days: 18, 26, 27 Hectic days: 20, 21 Honey days: 18, 19, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 24, 25, 29, 30 Profession days: 20, 21, 31 The eclipses which are happening on the 7th and 21st impact your health so keep a watch. If you feel restless get a thorough check up done. Health and energy improve dramatically after the 23rd.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 Dec 22

Greatest days: 20, 21, 29, 30 Hectic days: 22, 23 Honey days: 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 28, 29, 31 Money days: 16, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29, 30

CAPRICORN Dec 23 Jan 20

Greatest days: 22, 23, 31 Hectic days: 18, 24, 25 Honey days: 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29, 31 Money days: 16, 20, 24, 25, 29, 30 Profession days: 18,19, 24, 25, 28, 29 When the 8th house is strong we do away with old conditions and circumstances and emerge a whole new being. The cosmos urges us to get rid of the impediments to make progress.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 Feb19

Greatest days: 16, 24, 25 Hectic days: 20, 21, 26, 27 Honey days: 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29, 31 Money days: 16, 18, 24, 25, 26, 27 Profession days: 22, 23, 26, 27, 31 The two eclipses this month both of which affect you strongly will liven things up. You need to take a more relaxed schedule anyway until the 22nd especially around the eclipse period.

PISCES Feb 20 Mar 20

Greatest days: 18, 26, 27 Hectic days: 16, 20, 21, 29, 30 Honey days: 18, 19, 22, 23, 28, 29, 31 Money days: 16, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29, 30 Profession days: 16, 24, 25, 29, 30 Even though the world is slowing down, things will not be boring as you would witness two eclipses this month. The Lunar eclipse of the 7th occurs in your 12th house of spirituality. Address: 143, St Patrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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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CORPORATE CULTURE

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

INTERVIEW

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

Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR

UNFLINCHING SUPPORT

August 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 65

the last word

Ganesh Natarajan

Propagating good values We are still on track for our tryst with a global destiny and attain it we must! It is the strong values we espouse from our traditions and culture that should get us there!

year ago, sitting in my daughter’s house in Manhattan, USA, the topic inevitably veered towards where I would like to spend my 60th birthday in July 2017. I had brought in my 40s with a riotous evening on the rooftop of the building in Mumbai, where APTECH had its corporate office. I ushered in my 50s at home in Pune with close friends from all over the country, who had been assembled by my Zensar team to make the evening special. The logical sequence would probably have been to party with friends over decades of corporate existence in India and abroad! My daughter offered an option less predictable-to spend a week in a corner of the world where the likelihood of running into anybody I had met or worked with was remote-in the idyllic islands of Hawaii! Spending this week near the volcanic craters of Big Island and the beautiful beaches of the other islands with just the “family four”wife, daughter and son-in-law-all committed to make this a special week in spite of their extraordinarily busy lives has been a great opportunity to celebrate, to enjoy some down time in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. It also helped me reflect on my own journey as well as that of our country and the world in the last six decades. It would probably be a good idea to paint the big picture first.

No better way to reflect the dilemmas the world is facing than to quote from two outstanding articles in the New York Times, which I read on a long Jin Air flight from Seoul to Honolulu. Howard French, Columbia University Professor and a China expert quotes former President Chiang Kai-shek’s noting in his personal diary “Avenge Humiliation”, where he suggests that only when all the lands controlled by ancient dynasties were won back would the “descendants of the Yel-

In Hawaii: Dr Ganesh Natarajan with his wife Uma, daughter Dr. Karuna and son-in-law Hugh Skottowe

emulating a 19th century US policy of trying to control the Western Hemisphere by asserting its right to take exclusive control of security in the region, which was called the Monroe doctrine. With the frequent flip-flops made by President Trump on foreign affairs and the USA coming out a period of indecision on the role they wish to play in global affairs, it may be still a matter of speculation if Trump’s recent overtures to France is a sign that the US does have a vision beyond “America First”. As Gary Cohn Director of the National Economic Council and McMaster the National Security Advisor have stated in their op-ed piece, America First is rooted in the confidence that US values are worth defending and promoting. The US will reach out globally and attempt to bring allies and partners together and with a strong economy and a President who has a penchant for shrugging away potential scandals with nonchalance, it will be interesting to see who will blink first in any potential China-Russia-USA confrontation in future. India under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi clearly has its opportunity to find a place in the global sun and it can and will find this place if we are able to douse our home fires in spots like Kashmir and Darjeeling and get the country’s economic and secu-

India under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi clearly has its opportunity to find a place in the global sun and it can and will find this place if we are able to douse our home fires low Emperor” be freed from shame. French argues that while much of China’s territorial claims today may not have much historical basis, President Xi Jinping seems as much prisoner to the 20th century logic of his predecessor and perhaps even more so. Which is what makes China prowl the South China Sea and do sabre rattling with India and many others. Interestingly, the author points out that China may be actually just

66 / Corporate Citizen / August 16-31, 2017

rity agenda on a steady track. The world is watching and it would be good to be able to pick up an Economist or New York Times and read about solid achievements rather than paper tiger economic accusations and the worries about the rise of Hindu nationalism. We are still on track for our tryst with a global destiny and attain it we must! It is the strong values we espouse from our traditions and culture that should get us there! Finally, on a personal note, a dear friend asked me in Pune what I felt happiest about when I looked back on 60 years of building my career from early days in a Jharkhand village to NIIT in Delhi, APTECH in Mumbai, Zensar in Pune and now with global, national local and hyper-local entities in digital consulting, skills and social ventures. I mentioned to her a rather old-fashioned sense of satisfaction at having made thousands of good friends all over the world and not being able to think of a single person anywhere who would harbour any ill will! However, the greatest sense of satisfaction lies in the fact that I have been able to practice the values instilled in me from childhood-to do good, see the divine in everybody and enable every person whose life has touched mine to be the best they can be! A big shout out for all you friends out there who enabled me to achieve a modicum of success and make me feel this way! Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect & Social Venture Partners, Pune.

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