Volume3 issue 17 corporate citizen

CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP

DR Gulshan Gidwani, Principal, St. Mira’s College, Pune Volume 3, Issue No. 17 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

Conversation with Editor-in-Chief

November 16-30, 2017 / `50

“Every corporate leader is a pressure cooker, waiting to burst” Challenges Corporates Face

Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian, Editor-in-Chief, Corporate Citizen, receiving the award for exemplary work in the field of social work at the recently held ‘The Asia HRD Awards’ function in Putrajaya, Malaysia. From left: Ms Thilagavathy, Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and Dr R Palan, Chairman & CEO, SMRT Holidays

2 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 67

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68 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Conversation with the Editor-In-Chief

‘Every corporate leader is a pressure cooker, waiting to burst’

The biggest challenge corporates need to address is ensuring the health and well-being of their employees. One manifestation of a stress-filled lifestyle is diabetes, which occurs as a direct result of work-related stress. Unless we take due care of ourselves, be it as individuals, or corporates, the future will be full of sick employees…

By Vinita Deshmukh

Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian, Editor-in- Chief, Corporate Citizen, was recently given an award in recognition of his exemplary work in the field of social work, at the prestigious ‘The Asia HRD Awards’ function held in Putrajaya, Malaysia . The award was given by Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Prof. B Parandhaman, Principal Director, Sri Balaji Society is being felicitated in this photograph

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 3

Conversation with the Editor-In-Chief

All, Role Models: The Asia HRD Awards is a celebration and recognition of virtuosos who contribute to people development - whether it is to the human resource profession, an organisation, the community or society at large. Each award honours individuals and organisations that have demonstrably enriched and made a lasting impact on people development and society. Launched as an independent initiative in 2003 with just five recipients from two countries, the Awards have now become a prestigious annual event with the Asia HRD Awards Hall of Fame honouring a total of 229 Recipients from 21 countries

Dr Col (A) Balasubramanian, fondly known as Bala Sir,

famous place of tourist interest. It was for the first time that I took her on a foreign trip and wanted it to be memorable for her. In fact, I would have further travelled to other countries, but my health did not permit me.”

The function, he says, was fantastically organised with the who’s who of Malaysian industry and quite a few ambassadors of various countries including the foreign minister of Malaysia present there.

However, on his return, he had to be hospitalised as, he believes, he faltered on his diet during his recent overseas trip. This led to the spiking of creatinine levels to 9, leading to the necessity of dialysis. Says he, “This sudden jump in creatinine levels from 3 to 9 in a short span puzzled doctors, as ordinarily it doesn’t happen. While the doctors are investigating as to why creatinine should shoot up so much so suddenly, I am also trying to find out; probably only I have the answer.”

Rewinding his diet schedule, he says, “Actually I haven’t felt like eating since the last four months—I wasn’t feeling hungry. Now, doctors say that was a symptom that creatinine had gone up, but I didn’t know that, neither did I get a check-up done. Earlier, I used to check my creatinine levels very regularly.

In Malaysia, I did not like the food, so I survived the entire day on six

has been living with diabetes since the last 28 years. A go-getter and a person with an extremely positive attitude, he has been countering this lifestyle disease with a regimen of medicine, insulin and simple diet. Having been a soldier of the Indian Army for over two decades, his mental fortitude is as tough as steel. Inwardly, his compassion and sensitivity to life is a rarity. He is the founder of Sri Balaji Society which runs four wellknown MBA colleges, a law college and a commerce college in Pune. His dedication manifests in his residing 24x7 in one of the rooms of the boys’ hostel so that he is available for students and faculty all the time. He travels across India and overseas to meet senior corporate managers and to different metros for admission to his colleges.

Recently, he travelled for a fortnight to Malaysia and Thailand for an award ceremony function and to attend SBS Alumni meets. He was felicitated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, for his exemplary work in the field of social work.

When Hamidi called him to the stage to receive the ‘The biggest challenge to the corporate award, Bala Sir requested him to present the award to world is not meeting targets but maintaining his wife, Thilagavathy (see cover photo).This, he says, was to publicly acknowledge her valuable contribution the health of its employees. There was to his personal and professional life. He stated philoa time when trade unions, lockouts and sophically, “It is important to give credit to our better halves as they are often the power engines behind our strikes used to be the biggest threats. That’s activities and successes.” Therefore, he says, “In both over now...more or less. Wellness is going to the cities, I did not move out of the room but ensured that my wife did not miss visiting any historical site or be an important factor for survival’ 4 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

small idlis that someone brought for me. After that we visited Thailand.

There too, I did not like the food so I used to consume two half-fried eggs and half a litre of milk and survived on this for the entire day. In the meanwhile, someone gave me Amway’s protein powder and some vitamin supplements in the form of capsules. Now, I was unaware that if you don’t eat well, creatinine levels rise and that, when you have high creatinine, you should not have too much protein. As you can see, all that I was eating was only protein and so I’m here, undergoing dialysis.’’ Adds he, “Now doctors say you can eat anything, but then the dietician has restricted my protein intake. At the most, I can only have two whites of egg and no other non-vegetarian protein.’’ He further adds, as a caution, to those who do not take their diabetes seriously, “I have now a long list of do’s and don’ts. As a diabetic patient, I’ve stopped eating red meat a long time back. Today, I am on a diet to restrain my uric acid levels (for which no salt can be consumed). I am also banned from eating all white products like milk, curds, sugar, salt, and products made from maida. So, here’s a learning lesson for all those who have contracted this lifestyle disease to change their lifestyles in the nascent stages of diagnosing it.”

Sir, when did you first get to know that you have diabetes?

About 28 years back, when I was the Rector at Symbiosis. The then Registrar, Dr Palan used to visit me often. One day he asked me to accompany him to the hospital as he was going for a blood test. When we reached there, he suggested that I too do the blood test. I initially hesitated, but then went for it. When my report came, the doctor was shocked that I looked extremely fit, although my blood sugar was 450. He was surprised that I could go about my daily activities despite such high levels of blood sugar. He said I should have been bed-ridden. I too was shocked at what he told me, as I had never imagined that I would get diabetes one day, but still didn’t take it seriously.

diabetes (which I had ignored earlier), but I also discovered Dr Rao, who has been my doctor ever since. He is a leading diabetologist of Pune.’’

What did hospitalisation do to you?

Recalling an instance of hospital negligence, Bala Sir says, “Dr Rao was attending to me and I was kept in the ICU. My blood sugar stabilised, but they had put me on an intravenous drip. I was sedated, so was groggy.

‘Most corporate managers are potentially tuned to become diabetic patients. They are so busy, anxious and stressed in the race to achieve their targets, that that in itself has become an occupational hazard. However, like me, they initially do not understand the seriousness.

Diabetes occurs purely because of occupational/job-related stress’

Why did you not take it seriously?

That’s because of my daily routine which included a lot of physical exercise. I was very proud of that and thought it would control the blood sugar levels. Every morning, I used to cycle from Symbiosis and go to the expansive Gokhale ground and cycle thrice around it. In fact, I used to cycle everywhere, not because of being health conscious but because of poverty.

However, I realised that during my morning cycling, I used to stop at a grocery shop on Prabhat Road and have a Pepsi. This would help me burp and give me relief and renewed energy. In fact, my work was hectic, so whenever I fell short of energy during the day, I used to have soft drinks. I never knew that cold drinks were so dangerous to those with diabetes and particularly those with a fat body constitution. I think that was the trigger.

Now, I know so much about diabetes that I can write a book.

When did you decide to medicate yourself?

Recalling a traumatic experience, Bala Sir says, “I had just started my educational institute, Sri Balaji Society and was residing in Vishrantwadi, in a small flat, on the 5th floor. That was sometime in the year 2000. It was Eid that day and one of my colleagues, Captain Khan, brought mutton kaleja for me. I heartily ate it, but after that I thought I was collapsing. I began to feel unstable. Afraid that something had gone wrong with me, I picked up courage and began climbing down the five floors, holding the sides of the staircase. I somehow took a rickshaw and reached Inlaks & Budhrani Hospital, which was about six kilometres away. That is where I not only discovered that I had suffered a heart attack, and that I continued to have

However, I felt something wet, and so woke up to find that the intravenous needle had fallen off, and my entire bed was filled with blood oozing out of the area where the needle had been pricked. I raised an alarm. Dr K P V Rao too rushed into the room. I was appalled at the callousness of the nurses but I didn’t say anything as I found out how grossly underpaid they were, despite having done their BSc in Nursing. How could they be motivated?’’

I must confess that the Ruby Hall Clinic’s ICU gets a Perfect 10. I will not hesitate to say that the ICU unit of Ruby Hall Clinic can be a model for other hospitals. You must sit through the night to see how sisters and nurses are on their toes. They are running from one ICU bed to another with nobility and service-mindedness. They are the proverbial Florence Nightingales. They are firm, yet very kind. They will tell you not to delay breakfast as medicines have to be taken at the right time—it is their words, gestures and approach filled with love that makes their work selfless and profound.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 5

Conversation with the Editor-In-Chief

‘The society has refused to give the nursing fraternity its due. All private hospitals have become like the private sector – very money minded. They charge exorbitantly despite the fact that they are charitable trusts. All these hospitals earn so much that they can easily spend on the employees.

However, they are interested in expanding their commercial activity, such as starting new branches. This philosophy does not fall in the category of charitable organisations’ To give you an example, one night, I asked my wife to get red chilli chutney as they give bland food out here. However, I choked on the chutney and thought I had passed out for a couple of minutes. However, when I got back my senses I saw my room filled with nurses and doctors with different machines. They had arrived within seconds of my discomfort. I was amazed at their quick action.

The society has refused to give the nursing fraternity its due. All private hospitals have become like the private sector—very money minded.

They charge exorbitantly despite the fact that they are charitable trusts. All these hospitals earn so much that they can easily spend on the employees.

However, they are interested in expanding their commercial activity, such as starting new branches. This philosophy does not fall in the category of charitable organisations.

So, has Dr Rao been with you for over two decades?

Discovering Dr Rao was the best thing that happened to me. For, he is not just a medical practitioner, nor does he chase money. He does a lot of social service through charitable means. He also visits Muktangan, the centre for rehabilitation of alcoholics and drug abuse. Hence, our wavelengths matched and I asked him to also be the official doctor for Sri Balaji Society. Youngsters are generally full of energy and good health but if any student is admitted to any hospital, he is by his/her side, not only for moral support but to ensure that he or she is not over-charged.

How did you come to the stage of taking insulin?

“I never knew that one could inject oneself. The first time I saw it, I was aghast. That was about 25 years back, when I invited the MD of a big company, S R Jeevarajka for a lecture in our college. When I spent some time at the hotel he was staying in, I saw him injecting himself. When I asked him what it was, he said, insulin injection to control his diabetes.

So, when I progressed to taking Insulin, I did not feel that it was a big deal.

What is your advice to people who suffer from diabetes since many of them are from the corporate world?

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Most corporate managers are potentially tuned to become diabetic patients. They are so busy, anxious and stressed in the race to achieve their targets, that that in itself has become an occupational hazard. However, like me, they initially do not understand the seriousness. Diabetes occurs purely because of occupational/job-related stress. No one in the world wants to be a bad guy or an alcoholic or a chronic smoker, be it a man or a woman. Everyone knows that smoking is cancerous; such knowledge comes through classrooms, internet, social media and wellness lectures by the corporates. However, stress levels are so high that they indulge in such vices at the cost of their health.

Envisioning a scenario where corporates will face the challenge of health of their employees, Bala Sir says, “Let me tell you, the biggest challenge to the corporate world is not meeting targets but maintaining the health of its employees. There was a time when trade unions, lockouts and strikes used to be the biggest threats. That’s over now...more or less. Wellness is going to be an important factor for survival. These days people are working continuously for to 12-14 hours and even after they return home, they don’t relax. From top to bottom, everyone is going through job-related stress. The worst part of the tension is when people compare themselves with others and are dissatisfied. Managers require the skill to extract the maximum potential from the human resources system. But as a result, the future will be full of sick employees, yet no one will speak about it because if they speak, they will be out of their job.

you clear the loan of your Maruti car, your eyes are set on acquiring a BMW. That spurs you to work overtime. By hook or crook you have to progress, which arises out of your ambition, your insecurity arising out of your attachment to your family. However, the industry has its limitations. It is not a mall where you can go and pick up any job. They have tailor-made jobs; you have to join the Infosys training centre in Mysore before you begin work in the company. Believe me, now, it is not MBA colleges that provide the training; MBA prepares those who are willing to learn what the company wants to teach them—this is called learnability.

Does poor education quality have anything to do with corporate performance?

As per a recent news report, the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) held by the Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) showed that only two out of every 100 aspirants who want to teach in English medium schools met the minimum qualifying criteria. Of the 1,58,250 candidates, 4.27% cleared Paper I and 2.30% cleared Paper II. With such an abysmal record of competency in the teaching fraternity, can there be a hope of producing efficient corporate leaders?

While we are proud of having so many colleges, the quality in many is disturbing. Under the able leadership of Union HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar, efforts are being made to bring positive changes in the system.

Will he be allowed to succeed? The spirit is there but what we need is not cosmetic surgery but a total revolution in the field of education from nursery to the doctorate level.

Sir, but what is the remedy?

The colleges, MBA institutes will have to redesign the old curriculum now to match the expectations of skills requirement. The country is now going through the worst crisis of trainers. General skills are no more relevant, so managers cannot have a fixed career life span.

The other solution is to change the long working hours which corporate managers have to indulge in because every company is a commercial enThey suffer silently. Competitions, pink slips, raises and promotions will tity. The MD is the top most man under pressure; he puts everyone, down be the stress factors, leading to lifestyle diseases. to the bottom-most level, under pressure. Thus, everyone has to meet targets. We should take a cue from the Europeans and Americans who Could you further elaborate on corporate stress? work for eight hours, five days a week. Weekends are spent on a getaway, The other issue is of finding contentment—although traditionally our which is like a memorable family get-together. In fact, the Tatas and Birlas country has produced people who were Buddha-like in nature, now it had much respect for humanity—they were the first ones to bring in the is all about having more and more materialistic acquisitions. The day concept of employee welfare.

We have to also ask ourselves—are we providing ‘The Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) held by the a loving or threatening environment or a bossy one?

Are we making employees genuinely feel like famiMaharashtra State Council of Examination ly members or team members? If we are talking to (MSCE) showed that only two out of every them as a team, then we are perpetuating a boss era and that should end. We have made a small begin100 aspirants who want to teach in English ning at the Sri Balaji College of Arts and Commerce. medium schools met the minimum qualifying I have given directions to students that every professor should be addressed as ‘Didi’ or ‘Bhaiyya.’ See criteria. Of the 1,58,250 candidates, 4.27% the flow of oneness when you address thus. That has cleared Paper I and 2.30% cleared Paper II. broken the ice of one-upmanship and fear.

Currently, every corporate leader is a pressure With such an abysmal record of competency cooker, waiting to burst. Life span is reducing and the in the teaching fraternity, can there be a hope only answer is contentment and love. vinitapune@gmail.com of producing efficient corporate leaders?’

A Deserving Better Half: When Deputy Prime Minister of Malayasia, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi called him to the stage to receive the award, Col A Balasubramanian requested him to present the award to his wife Thilagavathy

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Contents 3

Conversation with the Editor-In-Chief

Every corporate leader is a pressure cooker, waiting to burst Biggest challenges corporates face and why it is important to take care of ourselves and our employees to keep off stress-filled lifestyle and work-related stress 11 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 15 MANAGE MONEY The rich don’t get rich alone–why only goals are not important 16 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why 18 THE TAX MAN COMETH Why Demonetisation and GST are temporary blips and real dividends will follow when issues of implementation get ironed out 22 CORPORATE STALWART Renowned leadership coach Prof.

Ram Charan, addressing FICCI’s who’s who at its 90th anniversary 8 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Volume 3 Issue No.17 November 16-30, 2017 www.corporatecitizen.in

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special lecture—on why it is important for Indian business leaders to embrace change 27 CORPORATE TREND Are you job-ready?

28 STARTUP STORY Internet entrepreneur Siddhant Satija, Founder & CEO of RitSan Media Ventures, on his startup success story

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30 NHRDN CAREER FEST 2017 Muralidharan Thyagarajan, Chairman and Co-founder, Talent Management Inputs and Services (TMI), on how to pick your first right job 34 CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Dr Gulshan Gidwani, Principal, St. Mira’s College for Women, on the challenges, past and present and how she helmed this august institution for over 18 years now 42 INTERVIEW Web and graphic designer, Kimaya Firodia, on her boundless creativity and her passion for photography

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44 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Winning through hackathon for dream placements 46 LOVED AND MARRIED TOO Rajat Sethi, Advisor to Manipur CM and Shubhrastha, Assistant Editor, India Foundation Journal, on how they manage to keep the flame of love burning

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48 TRAVEL Jayanth Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of Toehold, on his travel discoveries, journeying through Africa 50 SURVEY Global technology company

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contents

Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinitapune@gmail.com

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Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

Philips — Global Beauty Index, identifies modern women’s attitudes towards beauty

Sub-Editor Vineet Kapshikar vineetkapshikar@gmail.com

54 HEALTH Dr Vivek Jawali, Chairman, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council, Fortis Hospitals, Bengaluru, on how are we faring on our heart’s health 56 PEARLS OF WISDOM The power of positive attitude 58 BOLLYWOOD Notable actors who played the role of Chairman at FTII

Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur mathurpradeep1@gmail.com/ Sharmila Chand chand.sharmila@gmail.com Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

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Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra Manager Circulation circulations@corporatecitizen.in West : Jaywant Patil, +91 9923202560 North : Hemant Gupta, +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G, +91 9941555389

60 FUTURE TECH Some of the best current and upcoming electric cars in India 66 LAST WORD USA is the land of opportunity— is India getting there with all the fits and starts our economy has been going through

Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com

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Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar On Cover Page Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian at the Asia HRD awards in Malaysia 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

Give people space: Arundhati Arundhati Bhattacharya, the dynamic chairperson of State Bank of India, recently retired and with a desire to pursue PhD. Before her retirement she had stated to The Times of India that, “Your battle is half won when there are right people in the right place. Giving people their space is the key to success, as very often they will do what needs to be done.” The last year of her career was the toughest for her as dealt with unprecedented issue like demonetisation, GST, merger of some banks and so on, each of which required focus analysis and readiness to change rules depending on the feedback. Rajnish Kumar, who took over as Chairman from Bhattacharya sent a letter to all the SBI employees, stating, “Today, there is also a severe trust deficit amongst the various stakeholders in the financial ecosystem. I believe that ethics is the only way out to bridge this gap. Therefore, I urge you all, to promote moral and ethical grandeur unconditionally in your daily actions and decisions.’’

India’s FB MD quits Being with the Facebook for just one year, Umang Bedi, the India MD has called it quits. In a statement, Facebook India said, “Umang Bedi has built a really strong team during his time with us”.

Sandeep Bhushan, who currently serves as Director (Consumer and Media, South Asia), takes over as the interim MD. Bhushan had joined Facebook in April 2015 from Samsung Electronics.

Bedi joined Facebook in July last year taking over the India business from Kirthiga Reddy who moved to the headquarters in Menlo Park, US. He was mandated to lead strategic relationships with top clients and regional agencies in the country. Prior to Facebook, Bedi served as the MD of South Asia region at Adobe.

After US, India accounts for the largest base of Facebook users with well over 200 million.

Shivakumar opts for Birla Group D. Shivakumar, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. has quit and joined the Aditya Birla Group as President. Pepsi gets in Ahmed El Sheikh, the Senior Vice President and General Manager for PepsiCo Egypt and Jordan, to fill in the vacancy created by Shivakumar. Shivakumar is expected to join the Birla Group soon and will be reporting directly to Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.

This $41-billion conglomerate has business spread across many sectors including telecommunications, cement, chemicals, mining, textiles, financial services, retail and e-commerce spread over 36 countries. Meanwhile, the appointment of Ahmed El Sheikh was supported

by Sanjeev Chadha, the American firm’s CEO (Asia, The Middle East and Africa).

Sheikh will take charge early in November while Shivakumar will continue to be with PepsiCo till the last day of this year. Shivakumar has been with PepsiCo for the past four years and has been instrumental in leading the transformation journey of the company.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 11

collywood IPPB hires ex-Vodafone executive

Murthy-Nilekani rift continues

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has appointed Suresh Sethi, former Vodafone M-Pesa Managing Director, as the bank’s MD and CEO. Sethi takes over from AP Singh who had been the interim MD and CEO of IPPB since January 2017. The IPPB had targeted to setup 650 branches across country by September this year but it now aims to complete the rollout of these branches by early next year. IPPB said that Sethi had been selected by the Banks Board Bureau from amongst top contenders for the post, from both public and private sector banking and financial technologies tech professionals. Sethi has broad international experience of over 27 years in the Banking and Financial Services industry with Citigroup, YES Bank and Vodafone M-Pesa across India, Kenya, UK, Argentina and the US. He has extensively worked in the Financial Inclusion space leveraging Fintech and digital-led innovation. IPPB has been incorporated as a public limited company under the Department of Posts with 100 per cent government equity.

The rift between Nandan Nilekani and co-founder NR Narayan Murthy continued, this time the demand that the entire investigation report into the company acquiring Panaya and the hefty severance payout to former CFO Rajiv Bansal be made public. Nilekani-led board at Infosys rejected Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy’s suggestion. The company also said Nilekani had conducted a review of all the external investigations and had found no merit to the allegations of wrongdoing. This has dented as a major setback to Murthy’s long-drawn-out campaign against the manner in which the previous board under R Seshasayee and the management under previous CEO Vishal Sikka had handled the Bansal and Panaya issues. The co-founder, Murthy had suggested that the Bansal payout was not in the interest of the company as termed it as ‘hush money’, paid to buy Bansal’s silence on some critical matter, perhaps related to the cost of the Panaya acquisition or the beneficiaries in that deal. This fallout eventually resulted in a massive turmoil that led to the exit of Seshasayee, Sikka and a third of the board in August, and the return

of co-founder Nilekani as chairman. On the rejection of the demand to make the full report public, the company offered the same reasons that the previous board had. According to the company, “After careful re-consideration, the company has concluded that publishing additional details of the investigation would inhibit the company’s ability to conduct effective investigations into any matter in the future. Confidentiality is critical to ensuring the candour and cooperation of whistleblowers and other participants in any investigative process. The precedent of releasing the full investigation reports could impair the cooperation of participants should the need for an investigation arise in the future”. Underlining the credibility of the investigation itself, the company disclosed more information than even what the previous board did. The company pointed out that the investigators Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Control Risks had no prior dealings with Infosys. No limitations or restrictions were placed on the investigating team from accessing information, and the company and the relevant directors and employees cooperated fully.

Dahiya moves to Wells Fargo The former head of HR (corporate) of Cipla, Ashwani Dahiya joins the financial service company Wells Fargo, as regional VP, HR, and will be based at Hong Kong. Wells Fargo is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. It was founded in 1852 and provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial financial services in over 8,000 locations.

Dahiya, who was Global Chief Talent Officer & Head of HR (corporate) Cipla was leading HR for all corporate functions and centres of excellence, for talent acquisition, talent management, performance & reward, leadership, learning & development, organ-

12 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

isation effectiveness and employee engagement. He quit Cipla in July this year.

He had joined Cipla in September 2016 from Reliance Industries, where he was Senior VP and Group Head (HR & transfomation). A postgraduate from XLRI, and an economics graduate from SRCC, Delhi, Dahiya has spent more than seven years in Singapore as VP HR, Japan, Asia Pacific and Australia, for American Express, wherein he led significant organisation transformation efforts globally, which led to multi-million-dollar contribution.

Bismohun joins KLS as chief

Jack Bismohun with extensive IT background in areas of consulting, product implementation and development has been appointed as the Head of Business Development of the Kale Logistics Solutions (KLS) for Africa region.

He will be based in Mauritius and will strive for the growth of the company and develop market penetration across Africa. “Jack is a great addition to the team. He brings with him experience in tapping and developing an important geography, Africa. At Kale Logistics, we are customer-focused and are growing fast. With Jack’s presence we would like to further accelerate this growth,” said Vineet Malhotra, Director, Kale Logistics Solutions. Jack is a seasoned professional with great knowledge about the African logistics market. He brings with him more than two decades of experience in business development. He was formerly also associated with Mauritius Network Services and Satyam. He was actively involved in delivering electronic solutions, primarily to governments, customs and private logistics companies and has worked in several African and Francophone markets. “I decided

to join Kale Logistics after I was introduced to its wide spectrum of solutions which are at the forefront of emerging trends in logistics, airports and transportation industries. Experience in the logistics domain will bring value across Africa and I am tremendously honoured to be a part of a fast-growing IT solutions provider.

I am happy to bring my knowledge and experience in the African markets where it is already positioned by developing further its presence and success. I am impressed with its fast growth and demands for its solution globally. I am looking forward to be part of this venture by positioning the company across Africa,” said Jack Bismohun, about his new venture in his career. Kale Logistics Solutions Private Limited is a leading Global IT solution provider focused on the logistics, airports and transportation industry. Its broad solution spectrum ranges from ‘Internal Business Automation Systems’ to ‘Community Solutions’ that help various players in the logistics value chain from shipper to consignee to communicate and transact with each other electronically.

Katrina to be the face of Lenskart

Online eyewear firm Lenskart has roped in Katrina Kaif as its first-ever brand ambassador. The Bollywood star will be the face of Lenskart for the next two years and would feature in the brand’s new campaign. Piyush Bansal, the Lenskart.com Founder and CEO said, “We were looking for someone who naturally fits the Lenskart brand proposition of addictive playfulness, and Katrina has been the right person.” This eyewear was founded in the year 2010, and has over 300 stores across the country. It has been funded by venture capitalists like IDG Ventures and Ronnie Screwvala-led Unilazer Ventures, TPG Growth and TR Capital, IFC and Premji Invest. Commenting on the role, Katrina said, “Lenskart is a brand loved by Indian youth and this is a conscious effort to connect with fashion-savvy Indians.”

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 13

collywood ‘Indian economy on solid track’ International Monetary Fund’s chief Christine Lagarde is very positive of the Indian economy, as she has termed the country on ‘very solid track’ in the mid-term, days after the IMF lowered its growth forecast for the current and the next year. Calling the shots on the two major recent reforms in India, the demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the main weapons, Lagarde said it is hardly surprising that there is a little bit of a short-term slowdown as a result. The IMF last week lowered India’s growth projection to 6.7 per cent in 2017, 0.5 percentage points less than its previous two forecasts in April and July, attributing it to demonetisation and introduction of the GST. It also lowered the country’s growth for 2018 to 7.4 per cent, 0.3 percentage points less than its previous two projections in July and April. She said, “Turning to India, we have slightly downgraded India, but we believe that India for medium and long-term is on a growth track that is much more solid as a result of the structural reforms that have been conducted in the last couple of years.”

Aurora joins ANAROCK Sukhdeep Aurora joined ANAROCK Property Consultants as its chief people officer, calling it a strategic career move. He was the HR head for India at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Aurora in his new role is looking at building up on the people front for the rapidly growing business. “JLL is a great organisation and I really enjoyed my journey there. It was a tough decision to move. However, for the want of fresh challenges, I decided to join ANAROCK, which is a growing startup,” said Aurora after his four year stint at Jones Lang LaSalle. At ANAROCK, business has grown tremendously, starting with 150 people which has now reached a headcount of 700. While Aurora shares that the expansion is still on and the company is aiming for a headcount of 1000 by the end of this year, he also explains that they are hiring for cultural fit. An engineering graduate and a postgraduate in HR from IIM-Indore, Aurora began his career in 2003 as a manager-HR with Torrent Pharma. Later, he moved to Infosys in 2006 as the Senior HR Manager (BP-HR). Aurora has been with AEGON Religare Life Insurance as the AVP HR, where he led a team of HR professionals to manage HR operations pan India, for 1800-plus employees across 54 locations. Prior to joining JLL in 2013, Aurora had also worked with Abbott India as the Head-Business HR. 14 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Ganguli moves to Alkem Lab Rajorshi Ganguli, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories’ Vice President and head commercial HR, has moved to Alkem Laboratories as the President and Global Head-HR, and will be based at Mumbai. A seasoned campaigner in the field, Ganguli has over two decades of overall experience and the major tenure has been with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for over 13 years. He is a seasoned HR professional with exposure across geographies and domains. “Alkem Laboratories is a billion-dollar organisation and is growing rapidly. Being a part of its growth aspirations, I will be leading global HR for the company, supporting it in its journey towards the next orbit of growth,” said Ganguli about his new assignment.

Ganguli had spent over eight years at Bharat Petroleum Corporation as a senior officer, before joining Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. An honours graduate in geology, physics and maths from Ranchi University, and a postgraduate in human resources from the Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ganguli started his professional journey in 1994 as an officer-HR with Usha Martin Industries, before moving on to Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com

manage money Robert Shemin

The Rich Don’t Get Rich Alone

I

Too many goals can block your wealth pathways. Why? Think about it. Instead of focusing on the only goal you need to become wealthy, you are focusing on a whole bunch of goals all of which can be very distracting

f you’re trying to go it alone, you’ll probably never make it. What you need is what I finally figured out I needed, and that’s OP power. What’s OP power? It’s Other People Power. Let me share a true story with you that happened to me. A few years ago when I was not yet a Rich Idiot, I began buying properties.

At first, things were good. So good in fact that I bought more. Then more.

And that’s when I ran into trouble. Not because I was buying properties, but because I was inspecting them myself, closing on them myself, searching for them myself, fixing them up myself, renting them out myself. The result?

My family life suffered. My health suffered. And if I hadn’t gotten some very good advice, my business would have suffered.

And that advice is what I’m sharing here with you. Get help. Find experts. Find support.

It’s out there. You’ll do yourself and your own journey to wealth a HUGE favor when you tap into OP Power.

You may have too many goals… That’s right?

Sounds strange, but it’s true. Too many goals can block your wealth pathways. Why? Think about it. Instead of focusing on the only goal you need to become wealthy (and I’ll tell you what that goal is in a minute) you are focusing on a whole bunch of goals all of which can be very distracting. Suddenly you are stressing out if your dozen or hundred goals aren’t being achieved.

Now, your attention is diverted. Now you are thinking, panicking about the private school for your kids, the new business you wanted to set up, the new home you set a goal to purchase, the weekends off…and the list of goals goes on and on. All you need is just one goal. What’s the one goal you need?

Make the personal commitment

It doesn’t matter that your bills are piling up, that the financial news is black and getting blacker, that you are tired, overwhelmed and terrified.

Why doesn’t it matter? Because I’ve been there too. Believe it or not there was a time, not so long ago, that I was down to a jar of change, that’s it, that’s all the money I had. So I know all about being scared.

But I’ll let you in on something that kept me going back then, and still keeps me going every

Believe it or not there was a time, not so long ago, that I was down to a jar of change, that’s it, that’s all the money I had. So I know all about being scared single day. Five little sentences that I repeat morning and night and when I say it, suddenly my fear disappears. Let me share it with you.

Try it. You’ll see. “I’m (say your name here).

This is my commitment. I commit to filling my life with wealth. I commit to filling my life with happiness. I commit to being bold. I commit to taking positive actions. I commit to a new result”.

(Robert Shemin, JD, MBA, and Wall Street Journal bestseller, who was once considered the “least likely to succeed,” is a multi-millionaire who speaks to hundreds of thousands yearly.

Find out more about Robert at http://www. claimmybonus.com)

Reality 'Cheque' A rich, dying man, laid on his deathbed, requested to be joined at his bedside by his vicar, his bank manager and his lawyer. He instructed them that he wished to be buried, when he finally passed away, along with all his money. He gave each of them fifty thousand pounds and asked them to throw the money on top of his coffin, in the burial plot, when he died. A couple of days later the old man passed away and was buried within the week. At the wake, the three men were chatting and the vicar was suddenly overcome with guilt. He confessed to the other two that he had only thrown only half of the money onto the coffin, as the church needed urgent repairs to the roof.

The bank manager thought, ‘What the heck if we are having a confession,’ and told the other two men that he had also only thrown half the money in, as the ‘credit crunch’ was hitting hard and he needed some money for the bank to stop it going bust. The lawyer jumped up and said to the other two, "I think that is a shameful act on both of you. I threw a cheque in for the full amount!"

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 15

wax eloquent

India is an incredible opportunity

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

Reforms are music to our ears

“In the last couple of years, we have got several wellmeaning reforms done such as a bankruptcy code, RERA, GST and demonetisation, all leading to a much higher degree of institutionalisation in the economy. For foreign investors like us looking to deploy long-term capital, this is music to our ears.”

Inspiration in what not to do

“Mallya is an inspiration in what not to do. The learning is to never be overconfident and arrogant—these are the two things that probably took him down.”

Sachiin Joshi,

Chairman, Viiking Ventures, who has recently bought embattled tycoon Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Villa in Goa

Sanjay Nayar, CEO, KKR India Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com

Courtesy: Business Standard

Investing in gold “India has this very specific situation of investing in gold, it is not there anywhere (else) in the world; India is unique in the world, where gold comprises a significant amount of household savings. It is quite difficult for economists from a different environment to get our brains around to what that means.”

Adair Turner, businessman, regulator, author and former chairman of the UK’s Financial Services Authority Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com

Embrace ‘Speed’ as culture

“Whatever you do, think of doing it fast— “SPEED” should be embedded in your business ethos. An organisation that doesn’t gather speed in execution will gradually get wiped out of competition. Speed as a culture is the first thing an entrepreneur must embrace.”

Pravin Daryani,

entrepreneur & MSME business coach Courtesy: http://www.merinews.com

16 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Long-term opportunity with short-term gains “At the Apple level, India is an incredible opportunity... because what we’re seeing is huge advancements in digitisation, bypassing older technologies to newer technologies and we think that we have a really great product that can help move things even faster. We view this as a very long-term opportunity but with very short-term gains that we can have here.”

Eddy Cue, senior vice-president, Apple

Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com

Your mind is important “Both studies and sport are important: more than your career, your mind is important. If you do both (study and sport), your mind is in a good space. You get into a good space, you can start following a career, in sports or studies or wherever it takes you.”

Yuvraj Singh, cricketer

Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com

Entrepreneurs… don’t take short cuts

“The key challenges faced by entrepreneurs are one, how to succeed in a competitive environment; two, how do you deal with people; the third challenge is the use of short cuts.

If you start taking short cuts, it will hit you.”

Harsh Mariwala,

chairman, Marico Limited

Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com

Beat the competition to death

Creating that alignment

“When you have alignment, it also means that decision making also becomes simpler.

You know which way, which routes not to take, which very often takes a lot of time. It’s a very empowered concept. Very entrepreneurial. Once there’s alignment, then the business leader has a lot of latitude.”

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group Courtesy: https://www.ndtv.com

Future of the India-US relationship

“India should count on a strong relationship with the United States that predates him (Trump) and hopefully will postdate him where we continue to deepen and strengthen our ties, government to government, people to people, industry to industry and know that the United States supports the world’s biggest democracy and I think that that has to be the constant in the relationship, no matter who’s in the oval office.”

Hillary Clinton, world leader, presidential nominee for the United States election,

“We want to build something that people want to queue up to buy. Just beat the competition to death, not by marketing heft or marketing dollars or brand building or something, just by sheer novelty and innovation. Almost like break into the market like Fitbit and catch the imagination of people.”

Virender Aggarwal, CEO, Ramco

Courtesy: https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk

ex-Secretary of State and former First Lady

Courtesy: : https://www.ndtv.com/video/exclusive/news/ndtv-exclusive-hillary-clinton-on-election-defeat-indianwomen-and-yoga-468272

Navigate like sharks for competitive edge “If the companies plan a year in advance then the agile world about pays as you, plan as you go, deploy as you go, consume as you go, innovate as you go. The yesteryear IT strategy of innovation for three years and deploy for the next two is down and dusted. The companies probably have to really navigate like sharks in this red ocean for that competitive edge.”

Dheeraj Pandey, CEO, Nutanix

Courage to go beyond any difficulty

“There are always uphills and downhills but it’s a matter of taking it in your stride and checking what is it that will keep you motivated to have the courage to go beyond any difficulty. And once you have done it, it gives you a sense of satisfaction, content and achievement that as a person I am learning and evolving.”

Anju Modi, fashion designer Courtesy: http://www.news18.com

Courtesy: http://www.cio.in

Industry doesn’t differentiate

I am a doer “I am a doer and that’s how I have dealt with my career. I didn’t contemplate what is right and wrong. I simply did my work and that’s why in that 33 years I have been able to do 508 films, almost in every regional language in India.”

Anupam Kher, actor and newly appointed chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Courtesy: Times of India

Indian businesses need to be wary “They [Chinese] have competitive business models, which are quite powerful. I think India still has an advantage with its private sector. But we can learn to do better from China. You need a benchmark and China is a pretty good benchmark for what’s possible. They allowed TCS in China because they wanted to know about the one thing that we do better than China - IT outsourcing.”

Alan Rosling, former executive director of Tata Sons (the only foreigner to hold the post) and co-founder of Kiran Energy, India Courtesy: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com

“I am someone who strongly believes in equality whether you are man or a woman.

But ultimately in the economics of cinema anyone who pulls people in will be paid higher. There is no question about it. Anyone who has the ability to fill seats gets a bigger share in the fee.”

Aamir Khan, actor

Courtesy: https://economictimes. indiatimes.com

Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 17

The Tax Man Cometh

Demo, GST:

Short-term blips, long-term boosters

by S K Jha

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

Although many have blamed demonetisation and GST for the slowdown of the economy, these are temporary blips, and we will reap the real dividends as issues of implementation get ironed out.

Unlike the regular tax desk which is manned by a tax officer whose job is to levy tax on you, this desk is manned by a non-serving tax officer who wishes to share his experience of 35 years in the tax department, while, discussing tax provisions.

It is advantageous to know how the tax department thinks and acts when, as said by Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing is certain except death and taxes�

W

e are a big country with more than 130 crore people, but have a dubious distinction of being the least tax-compliant country.

More than 125 crore people do not file income tax returns, even when more than one crore people can afford to go for foreign tours every year.

Amongst the people filing Income Tax returns, salaried employees account for more than 70% of the people. Of the 14 lakh companies registered, two lakh company registrations have been cancelled recently for being shell companies. Only about six-seven lakh companies file Income Tax returns. Under GST, the number of entities registered so far is about 85 lakh, which includes about 72 lakh of old assesses. The returns filed under GST so far have revealed that a large number of returns are zero tax returns We all know that both for Union and state governments, the major source of income is taxation, both direct and indirect. With a small tax base, it is difficult to generate adequate income for our development, for our defence and for our welfare activities. We get constrained and have to borrow. We are forced to go for fiscal deficit, leading to all sorts of allied financial problems. The problem is not that people have no money, but the problem is that they do not want to pay tax, be it direct or indirect.

Drop in GDP Recently, there has been a discussion on the state of the economy of our country. The trigger

for the ensuing discussion was the sharp decline in our GDP to 5.7% in the preceding quarter when we have been the fastest-growing major economy in the earlier quarters during the last three years. Many intellectuals have found demonetisation and GST as the real culprits for the fall of the economy.

On the contrary, some have also held the view that the fall in the economy is a temporary manifestation due to major structural changes brought about by demonetisation and GST. Unfortunately the scholars who have demonised demonetisation and GST have not looked into the potential benefits emanating from them and their benefits which are already visible. We have to start looking within and ask questions to ourselves whether we have paid taxes honestly before criticising certain schemes like demonetisation and GST. Had we been honest taxpayers, these schemes of the government would perhaps have not been launched at all!

Money has come out Demonetisation was brought in, in the backdrop of huge black money in our country, a part of which was suspected to be in cash, kept in hiding in the form of high denomination notes.

Demonetisation has succeeded as almost all the high denomination currencies including that of black money kept in hiding has come back

to the banks. The income tax department has already identified the quantum of black money which is about `3 lakh crore, out of the total of `15 lakh crore deposited. The owners and depositors of such black money have been identified, and the process of collecting evidence to pin down the tax evaders has started as per various reports published in the media.

Money once kept in the banks will have a trail as to where it is going. Even in the case of substantial cash withdrawals from the banks by the depositors, tax officers will be competent enough to ask where the cash withdrawn has gone. The problem of tax evaders who have deposited cash in the form of demonetised currencies starts now. The department can reopen cases under section 148 of the Income Tax Act. The department has enough time of six years to complete the process of assessment and reassessment.

The tax, together with penalty, will be almost 90% of the cash deposited. The gain of revenue

The income tax department has already identified the quantum of black money which is about `3 lakh crore, out of the total of `15 lakh crore deposited.

The owners and depositors of such black money have been identified, and the process of collecting evidence to pin down the tax evaders has started�

18 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

against `3 lakh crore unaccounted cash will be quite sizeable in the coming years.

Many benefits of demo Some intellectuals have commented that since 99% of demonetised money has been deposited, there is no gain to the government, while at the same time the process gave a lot of hardship to the people. The intellectuals were wrong as their perception of the intended objective behind the demonetisation was wrong.

One visible benefit of demonetisation in the last few months is the steep growth in mutual funds and their high-value investment in the share market. Money which was earlier not going to the banks before demonetisation is now going to the capital market through the mutual fund route. These days the share market is at an all-time high through our domestic investment while not depending upon FIIs. Another

visible benefit is that more income tax returns have been filed during the current year. People probably are gradually realising that it is better to show income to the tax department to escape unwanted worries, but still there is a long way to go.

The process of demonetisation got over long time back; hence it will be wrong to say that the effect of demonetisation continues to pull the economy down. It is an undeniable fact that demonetisation brought sudden hardship to the people for some time but it was well intended and ultimately it will strengthen our economy. Today the cash-GDP ratio is 9% as against 12% in the pre-demonetisation days and the same is an encouraging indication of a healthier economy.

Historic tax reform The issue of GST has to be looked into from a

CC

tadka

Singapore to stop adding new cars to city Singapore has decided to stop increasing the total number of cars on its roads from 2018, in view of land constraints and limited scope for further expansion of its road networks. The government will cut the annual growth rate for cars and motorcycles to zero from 0.25%, starting in February 2018, as per transport regulators there. Singapore is among the world’s most expensive places to own a vehicle and its infrastructure is among the world’s most efficient.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 19

The Tax Man Cometh

One visible benefit of demonetisation in the last few months is the steep growth in mutual funds and their highvalue investment in the share market.

Money which was earlier not going to the banks before demonetisation is now going to the capital market through the mutual fund route� different perspective. It is a historic tax reform in the field of indirect tax. The objective behind GST was to have one tax for the entire country and also to remove the cascading effects of multiple taxes of the Centre and states. The GST came into effect after 11 years of consistent efforts of different governments. Some time will be needed by the people to understand the new system. Unpleasantness is bound to be there for some time. Even the system of the government at the Centre and the states has so far not responded to the satisfaction of the people. Tech-

nical hitches have been seen, though efforts are being made by GSTN to correct the effects. It will not be untrue to say that though the objective of GST is praiseworthy, its implementation is not free from many doubts. It is an accepted fact that a new system always has teething problems. As per a conservative estimate, GST will settle down within one year and then will start giving the desired results for a healthier growth of the economy. The chaotic situation of disruption is temporary and its impact of slowing the growth rate at the moment will go away.

20 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Iron out the glitches Some commentators have adversely commented about GST and its hasty unplanned launch.

There is nothing wrong with GST and even its launch has not been as chaotic as some might have visualised. The situation at the moment requires strengthening our online system, which bears the huge burden and also reviewing the rules, procedures and tax rates so that taxpayers find the new system people-friendly. We see that the GST Council is sensitive to the problems faced by the people and corrections are coming on a monthly basis. Together with the people, even the government is in the process of learning and correcting mistakes.

It will be better if there is a clubbing of tax rates and there should not be more than three slabs. The ideal situation would have been one country and one tax rate, but as of today it may not be practicable, seeing the vast poverty in our country. The other suggestion is to bring all the goods and services under GST; petroleum and alcohol should not be kept out. GST should be one tax for the country in both letter and spirit.

One very important gain from GST will be reducing corruption in the tax administration as now everything will be online and transparent. There will be a huge widening of the tax base as people will not be able to hide their income. It will also have an impact on inflation” No cause for pessimism There is always space for healthy intellectual debate on the state of the economy in our country. It is natural for people to get concerned when the GDP falls, but people should not become pessimistic about it. The slowdown in the economy is due to the planned structural change which was undertaken after careful consideration.

One very important gain from GST will be reducing corruption in the tax administration as now everything will be online and transparent. There will be a huge widening of the tax base as people will not be able to hide their income. It will also have an impact on inflation.

We can see that with GST, there is no price rise connected to the new tax system. In fact, in the coming months inflation will go down. The latest data shows that manufacturing activity is picking up and even export has improved after a considerable time. I do not think that there is any objective reason to be pessimistic.

The IMF and World Bank have also categorically said that in the medium and long term, India will be the fastest-growing economy in the world. The present disappointment is a by-product of structural reforms and the same will not continue, we should not heed the nega-

tive comments and proudly work harder for the betterment of our country. It is in our interest to project our country as a strong economy. FDI will come to our country only when India is seen and perceived as a strong economy. Commentators who present our country negatively are doing great harm to the country. Intellectuals will do well for the country if they come up with constructive suggestions for nurturing our economy, while at the same time remaining optimistic about the future of our country.

Will of the people The economy of a country is dependent on many factors and one of which is the will of the people. See the case of Japan. The country does not have much by way of natural resources, the country was devastated by atom bombs during the Second World War, but today it is a big economic power. It was hard work and the will of the people that Japan is what it is today. Similar are the stories of many countries like South Korea and Switzerland. We have to learn from the people of these countries. We remain busy criticising each other without having a will and passion to make India a world economic power, we do not work hard, we don’t believe in scientific research and innovation to bring about

technological revolution. A small country like Israel which is fighting for its existence, working in the field of scientific research has added a huge economic gain.

We believe that it is the job of the elected government to do everything while we will keep waiting for the benefits. The government cannot be more than a facilitator. We have to work hard to make our economy stronger. Our countrymen should start working to have a cleaner environment and this will help our country in many ways such as helping our tourism industry, eradicating diseases, and promoting a healthy life. Money wasted on drugs can be used in a more productive manner. The government is nudging us for a swachh country, but this can be done only by the people. We should transform ourselves from being argumentative Indians to becoming patriotic Indians and our country will grow economically. Our patriotism should manifest in the work of nation building and not just in raising slogans.

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tadka

Music is the mantra Creativity, they say, is the most important quality in today’s fast-changing world, as it generates innovative solutions for lots of problems and comes up with fresh ideas. The question of what facilitates creative cognition has long been studied, and while music has previously been shown to benefit cognition, little is known about how music affects creative cognition. But latest research proves that listening to happy music helps generate more innovative solutions compared to listening to silence, says a Netherland’s Radboud University study.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 21

Corporate Stalwart

India needs Algorithmic CEOs Digital algorithms are the way forward for any business, says renowned leadership coach Prof.

Ram Charan, addressing FICCI’s who’s who at its 90th anniversary special lecture...

W

By Pradeep Mathur

With new technologies bombarding leaders with mind-boggling complexities, what is it without which no CEO can hope to go far in today’s cut-throat world of business?

“If I’ve to tell you about only one item, which has become the single greatest instrument of change in today’s business world, it is a mathematical tool called proprietary algorithms. It tells you how to maximise the opportunity presented by digital business,” said much sought after Indian-American business consultant, author and global CEO advisor of top Fortune 500 companies Dr Ram Charan at a high-profile gathering of India’s top business leaders.

Putting algorithms at the centre of business growth in today’s marketplace, Charan said, “Algorithms are where the real value lies.” Mathematical tools such as algorithms and their related sophisticated software are “defining not only action but also creating major uncertainties. If digital revenues in tech companies have risen in a big way, it’s all because of this single tool.”

Underlining the need for ‘Algorithmic CEOs’ for the Indian corporate sector, he said, “If you’re not turning your company into a math house, you’re headed for serious trouble. Every industry will soon be driven by nothing but digitisation and every winning company will be using algorithms, or mathematical rules for processing information to shape the end-to-end customer experience.”

Delivering the first lecture of the FICCI’s leadership lecture series to commemorate its 90th anniversary this year, Charan reminded the business leaders, “You’re all aware of the handful of born-digital companies that command outsized market valuations. Yet

22 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

many of you, across India, underestimate the speed and impact that born-digital companies can have on your businesses. So-called legacy companies are still dominating much of India’s business population, but all this will change dramatically if digital players move into your marketspaces through unlikely points of entry.”

He added, “The new players are using algorithms and artificial intelligence in a big way to offer their customers a far superior and increasingly personalised experience, and digital platforms allow them to scale up at breakneck speed and low cost. They won’t just disrupt the existing order; they could outright destroy a company or industry. Nokia and Kodak have practically vanished, and Sears is on the brink.”

“This digitisation phenomenon will continue and those who miss it and delay in dealing with it could be badly damaged, as is happening in retail sectors across the globe. Those, who grasp the immense possibilities it creates will lead business to new heights, as Starbucks and Adobe have done,” Charan added.

In his hour-long interaction, Charan outlined what criteria he focuses on while selecting a CEO and explained why it was important for Indian business leaders to embrace change and develop perceptual acuity to spot the oddities and contradictions in the business environment ahead of others. Corporate Citizen brings excerpts of this thought-provoking session by one of the most respected and influential business thinkers of our times: business leaders need to change You must change because the leadership going forward is different. What made you successful in the past may not make you successful in the future. Your attitude matters. If the attitude continues to look backwards because you’re successful and therefore if you think you’ll again be successful in the future,

‘What made you successful in the past may not make you successful in the future. Your attitude matters. If the attitude continues to look backwards because you’re successful and therefore if you think you’ll again be successful in the future, it’ll not happen; you need to look outside-in and not in the rear-view mirror’ November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 23

Corporate Stalwart it’ll not happen; you need to look outside-in and not in the rear-view mirror. Remember, any organisation that is not in tune with the speed and composition of external change is at a huge risk of becoming irrelevant.

On why digitisation is important Some of the biggest companies that were Number 1 have disappeared only because they thought all this talk about moving from analogue to digital framework is meaningless and mere guesswork. Sensors, the cloud, mobile, data analytics, broadband wireless and such other new technologies are increasing the flow of digitised information exponentially. Algorithms, run on ever faster computers, can do amazing things with that information. From detecting patterns and making predictions to solving the most complex business problems, they can even modify themselves as new information comes to light. In the hands of a 'catalyst,' such as the late Steve Jobs, or Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, or Mark Andreessen, algorithms have radically altered consumer experience. perceptual acumen While digitisation is important, many companies within the digital population are being left behind because they refuse to look at the structural changes happening outside. Only those leaders will succeed who are able to detect the new trends. Perceptual acumen is now mandatory because trends do not come on their own. They are created by human beings and if you can detect “catalysts”, who create new trends, you’ll succeed. For example, Apple’s iPhones killed the Finnish MNC Nokia phones, once considered Number 1 in terms of market share, in just three years. Though Nokia saw the future, it couldn’t build it. I know it because I was in the jury, which selected its CEO. Everything that Apple and Google are today, Nokia wanted to become but its biggest failure was its unwillingness to embrace drastic technological changes it needed. destruction versus disruption Please stop using the word ‘disruption’, and use the word ‘destruction’. If the leadership of the company does not see and embrace new technology, it’ll disappear. We’ve seen how new digital technologies and the Internet have destroyed businesses related to music stores, book stores, Hollywood and now ESPN. So, it’s no longer disruption. It’s either destruction or creation of new industries or a total reconstruction of the value chain if you are into B-to-B. Thus, the mind-set of the top team matters. If it ignores the trend, it’ll be destroyed as happened at Nokia or as reflected in Walmart’s delayed response to Amazon.

‘Digitisation is also liberating the consumer. It has handed all powers to the consumer, led to faster commoditisation, and also changed resource allocation, all of which are affecting industries significantly. I see companies talk about it but they don’t move. The power is rapidly passing on to the consumers’

Amazon’s latest move Amazon recently decided to acquire all Whole Foods stores in America at about $13.7 billion because it believes the future of grocery shopping is online. It sent tremors in America because the future of about 9,000 retail outlets is at stake. They could go bankrupt. It’s a serious situation because these people say they don’t know which way things will go from here. This is not just an American phenomenon; it’s a big change which may hit you too because it may soon shift to India. possibilities in the digital game I also want you to think about the positive side of digitisation. We have an $80 trillion global economy. The digital game permits us to cross boundaries, geographies and industries. So those who have an entrepreneurial flavour and imagination must take their industry definition

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differently because their market size can no longer be X alone. It has to be 10X, 20X, 30X, 100X and may get bigger and bigger, depending upon their mind-set, imagination, perceptual acumen and ability to capitalise on huge possibilities ahead. Does anybody recall how Blockbuster Video was crushed by Netflix? Netflix, a legendary company, could do it because it had a vision, a very simple concept—to provide its customers a simpler and more convenient way to rent movies—and as they went deeper into streaming, they realised how big the market is.

So, it all depends on how quickly you learn to scale up things. consumerisation of the global economy I want you to think about how digitisation and rapid technological changes are affecting consumers. How have they caused pressure on prof-

it margins? Digitisation is shortening not only the shelf life of companies; it’s also shortening the life cycle of a business model. But that’s not all.

Digitisation is also liberating the consumer. It has handed all powers to the consumer, led to faster commoditisation, and also changed resource allocation, all of which are affecting industries significantly. I see companies talk about it but they don’t move. The power is rapidly passing on to the consumers. It’s an unstoppable trend. You all know it. How will you use it if you don’t organise your work and understand what it means? Let me tell you that the global economy is going to change radically in the next couple of years. You are going to see at least a third of the global economy in 10 years on a digital basis. So, here is an opportunity for you to create a new marketspace.

Think about the total business, not just the brand.

When recession hits, marketing budgets suffer.

Therefore, educate your people to show how the consumer is changing, how the value chain is changing. But I’d like each of you to think big and make the best use of this opportunity. how he selects CEOs Selecting a CEO is a tricky job because your judgment about the fit matters a lot... nothing good comes of having the wrong CEO. Mentoring and coaching senior team members with complementary skills and even special help from the board can’t compensate. The misses are devastating—and very public. Yet some boards still pick chief executives who aren’t right for the job—repeatedly. The revolving doors at HP before Meg Whitman, at Apple before Steve Jobs’ second tenure, and at Yahoo during the past decade are only a few of many recent examples.

I’ve seen some surprising CEO appointments that turned out extraordinarily well, such as Lou Gerstner at IBM, Alan Mulally at Ford, and Steve Jobs in his return to Apple.

In my experience, board members, who are adept at picking CEOs do four things: They work painstakingly to clarify the essential qualities needed to succeed in the job; they keep an open mind about where the best candidate will come from; they go deep to understand which candidate is the best fit; and they allow for imperfections in the chosen candidate.

As far as I’m concerned, some of the key traits, besides the ones I just mentioned, that go into the making of a CEO include: perceiving the known and handling the unknown; the ability to judge people and knowing the art of making money in the business. There are five main criteria I focus on while selecting a CEO. These are: personality assessment, ability to network, judgment of people, communication skills and ability to work with regulators and other groups. When you’ve only two or three final candidates, choosing the right fit is of critical importance and your judgment really matters.

Business Guru with a Difference When he speaks, leaders of industry listen. You can feel the sound of silence and attention with which the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies lap up each of his observations. Literally.

No wonder, Jack Welch, former chairman of GE, describes him as someone who has "the rare ability to distil meaningful from meaningless and transfer it to others in a quiet, effective way" while Ivan Seidenberg, the former CEO of Verizon, calls Ram Charan his "secret weapon".

Similar sentiments have been expressed by many successful entrepreneurs, heads and CEOs of huge MNCs over the past 40 years. Some of them include CEOs of Verizon, KLM, DuPont, Novartis, EMC, 3M, Praxair, Aditya Birla Group, Tata Group, GMR, Max Group, Yildiz Holdings, Grupo RBS and Bank of America, to name just a few. They consulted Ram, 78, whenever they faced any tricky and complex problem in their businesses.

Having been on the board of many MNCs including Austin Industries, SSA & Company (formerly Six Sigma Academy), and TE Connectivity, what makes Ram, an Indian-American based in Dallas, Texas state in the USA, known the world over is his ability to cut through the complexities of running a business to their core issues.

His real-world solutions, shared with millions through his nearly 16 books, lectures and hundreds of articles in top business publications, are being referred to by top CEOs for being "practical, relevant and highly actionable—the kind of advice you expect from a respected family elder".

Born in 1939 in modest circumstances, as part of a joint family of 13 that ran a shoe shop in Benaras (UP), Ram learnt the fundamentals of running a business at his family shop. Soon after completing his engineering from IIT BHU, he took a job in Australia where his talent for business was discovered. Ram was encouraged to develop it.

He earned his MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction and was a Baker Scholar, then served on the faculty of Harvard Business School and Northwestern University before pursuing consulting full time.

Ram’s work takes him to the CEOs of the world’s most powerful companies around the globe non-stop, seven days a week, 365 days a year and gives him an unparalleled, up-to-date insider view of how top economies and leading companies operate.

His keen observation and analysis help him come out with powerful insights that help business leaders face their toughest challenges in the areas of growth, talent development, corporate

governance, and profitability. His timely concrete advice is a powerful tool in navigating today’s uncertain business climate.

Some of his bestsellers include 'Talent Masters, Leaders At All Levels', 'Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times', 'Boards That Deliver', 'What The CEO Wants You To Know, Boards At Work', 'Every Business Is a Growth Business' (with Noel Tichy), 'Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business', 'Confronting Reality', 'Know How and Execution' (with Larry Bossidy and Charles Burck) and 'People Before Strategy'. He also has written for publications including Harvard Business Review, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Time, Chief Executive and USA TODAY. Having coached more than a dozen leaders who went on to become CEOs, he reaches many more up-and-coming business leaders through in-house executive education programmes. His energetic, interactive teaching style has won him several awards, including the Bell Ringer award at GE’s famous Crotonville Institute and best teacher award at Northwestern. He was among BusinessWeek’s top ten resources for in-house executive development programmes.

A modest and down-to-earth person Ram is known as a “one-man CEO consulting industry.”

Though a true guru in the best Indian traditions, he disarmingly claims, “I’m not a big thinker or a guru. My mission in life is to give each person who attends my sessions one or two insights which are useful in the fast-changing global business scenario.”

Having been elected a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, Ram has served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on Corporate Governance. He has served on the boards of Hindalco in India, Emaar, Austin Industries, Tyco Electronics, and Fischer and Porter.

Famous for his simple one-liners, in November 2012, Ram, along with Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev guided “Insight: the DNA of Success,” a leadership programme, bringing together, for the first time, the tools of professional and personal empowerment. Fortune magazine calls him 'the most influential consultant alive'.

The four-day programme held at the Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore saw 200 business leaders converge in an exploration that bridged spirituality and business. He was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources in 2000 and named a Distinguished Fellow in 2005. He keeps visiting India off and on. In February 2010 also, he gave a similar presentation to around 400 Indian CEOs who were amazed to see how he excels at reducing their most complex problems down to the most pertinent points.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 25

Corporate Stalwart

‘Selecting a CEO is a tricky job because your judgment about the fit matters a lot... nothing good comes of having the wrong CEO. Mentoring and coaching senior team members with complementary skills and even special help from the board can’t compensate. The misses are devastating—and very public’ his mantra for success It keeps changing with the emergence of new trends. A process, which was successful earlier may not hold ground in the new age because the world is moving from analogue to digital.

This is an unstoppable trend, which requires industries to move fast towards digitisation.

The existing systems need to be replaced with a digitised framework. To be successful in this changing scenario, you also require a change in the mindset. the cost of digitisation A new business model needs enormous investment in technology in conjunction with new core competencies. There is, therefore, a need to create an ecosystem while moving away from industry analysis to data analysis to reap the benefit of competitive advantage. Remember that big

giants will diminish and fall as has happened in the past if they fail to adopt a digital mindset. I feel that a Chief Digital Officer should be a part of the top management team in all organisations.

On Strategic thinking Strategic thinking is a powerful and invaluable skill, one that leads to greater chances of success in today’s competitive business environment.

I’m dealing with it on a daily basis. It involves setting goals, developing long-range plans, anticipating the unexpected, analysing your environment, and cooperating with your competitors.

The only catch: strategic thinking doesn't come naturally. Most of us are static thinkers, who tend to make decisions only for today, strategic thinking skills have to be learned, cultivated, practised, and applied. Hence, a CEO’s willingness and attitude towards learning of strategic

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thinking and changing with time is necessary for his business to remain relevant. I also feel that a CEO must focus on an industry’s decline rather than the company to understand and perceive the emerging trends.

Millennials Millennials are a fact of life. I tell CEOs, you can't fire them; they will fire you. We have to give up most of the hierarchical structures and use digitisation for that. If you do not do that, you will get left behind. It's already happening. Millennials have skills that older people don't have.

On India’s growth story You’re very fortunate that today you have a leader in the government who has a clear vision and he has selected his ministers who are active to follow and execute. That is positive. So, you must also have a positive mindset that supports his efforts that makes doing business with India easy.

You also have some fortunate circumstances like the low prices of crude oil and India’s huge foreign reserve. Despite all odds, India continues to be the fastest growing economy whose growth story is moving favourably. This is a window of time for you all to focus on big things. So, aim high, get high. mathurpradeep1@gmail.com

Corporate Trend Pic: Sameul Zeller on Unsplash

Are you job-ready?

By Rajesh Rao

B

efore you begin your job search or apply for one, you need to consider if you are job-ready. It means knowing, you have skills that employers are looking for, the demand for your skills in the marketplace, your preparedness for job interviews, and you have a good resume that rightly exhibits your qualification, education, qualities, work experience and more.

Your degree or academic qualification is not enough to make you job-ready, it just makes you eligible to apply for jobs. Being job-ready improves your chances of getting hired and the key to it is planning and preparing for it in advance. Remember that the onus of meeting employability requirements lies with you, how you equip yourself is the key to success.

Strong Resume

A strong resume that is tailored to the job description, will be your initial step in the job search process, which will give you a chance to get a call for a personal interview. To catch the attention of prospective employers, your

resume should highlight your skills fit for the job description you are applying for. It should be tweaked to what your employer is looking for.

industry and learn additional skills parallel to your graduation studies.

Building professional contacts

Know the industry you are starting your career with, inside and out. Updating yourself with information about the industry, will increase your confidence level and surely impress your interviewers. To acquaint yourself with job-relevant skills, take part-time job, an internship, volunteer work, and campus activities, while you are studying. This will certainly keep you ahead in the job hunt race.

Having potential contacts which are relevant to your career path, is an asset that will help you progress in your career path. Start building them while you are graduating and mobilise them when you start searching for a job.

Success at interview

Success at an interview depends on your understanding of role you are applying for, your communication skills, your confidence, and how well you can demonstrate your employability. So, interview preparedness is an important key towards being job-ready. You have to demonstrate that you have something more to give.

Update and learn additional skills

If you want to top the job-ready scale, your qualification is not enough—know that employers are also interested in what additional skills you have. So, definitely update yourself with the current requirement of skills in the

Know your industry

Be tech-savvy

Being tech-savvy has become a necessity, but it has to be supported by good verbal and written communication ability—it will help you comprehend information and respond faster.

Perfecting your skills for online networking, language proficiency, word processing software will keep you ahead.

End note

Employers are not interested in what you know, but what you can do for them. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 27

Startup sTORY

If you happen to meet Internet entrepreneur Siddhant Satija, you are more likely to remember him as the boy next door. However, a Google search will give varied results on the visionary who had success at his feet in his early 20s. A graduate in Computer Science, he is the Principal Advisor at AdUncle Affiliate AD Network, which is rated among the Top 10 Startups of India (2011-12). He is also the Founder & CEO of RitSan Media Ventures Pvt Ltd, which boasts of a remarkable success story. The young man who made it to the list of top five young millionaires of the country in 2012 opens up to Corporate Citizen about his ambitions...

Next Door

Millionaire

By Namrata Gulati Sapra

When did the Internet begin to fascinate you?

The Internet has always fascinated me! Being a small town boy from Ferozepur (located on the Indo-Pak border in Punjab), the Internet fuelled my curiosity all the more as people were highly addicted to the social networking websites like Facebook. While everyone was busy thinking of the perfect status or a DP for social networking websites, I was obsessing over questions such as, “How does Facebook work?” And the logic, algorithms, servers behind it all.

How did the idea of starting your own company crop up?

Even as a school-going boy, I knew that I wanted to see myself working for an internet company.

The idea wasn’t about having a venture of my own but to have an established career working for a consumer-oriented dot-com company benefitting people on a day-to-day basis. Henceforth, I got an opportunity to intern with two startups and work on a project for Mr Vineet Nayar, the then CEO of HCL. Having seen both the sides of a coin—the startup culture as well as the corporate culture— really helped. By now, I knew the ins and outs of both and that was more than enough for me to help me get started for my own venture.

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How did you work on your biggest weakness when you first started out as an entrepreneur?

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. The same principle applies here. If one wants to set up an organisation, he should first conquer his own weaknesses. When I came to NCR, I realised that though I was very good at writing in English my communication skills in the language were weak.

I took up a weekend job with an event management company alongside studies. My job required me to sell toothpaste to passers-by in a mall. It was an 8-hour job and I had to interact with over 300 people a day and get their details on a form. That helped my ability to communicaty. I was paid `250 for the job. That taught me the real value of money.

What challenges did you face while setting up your own startup?

Primary among them was keeping the team motivated when I could foresee success at least six to eight months away from the time the journey began. I believe that this has become a general trend across startups these days as most employees looking to work for startups aren’t interested in ESOPs or revenue share options. They are more concerned about a fixed salary, weekend offs and are not willing to burn the midnight oil. The kind who are willing to go the extra mile are few and far between. Having an employee whose vision is aligned in the same direction as the founder’s is a big challenge.

What do you do with the revenue earned from all the hard work?

We, as a team, never let success go to our head.

We are 12 in number and still don’t have an office boy. We save every single penny and reinvest it in the best possible manner. Lavish branding has never been our focus. Despite that, we are amongst some of the best companies in India in our space. The vision is the same as it was a few years ago and goals are chased by the team with a single-minded focus.

Tell us about RitSan Media Venture.

Super profitable since day one, RitSan has a business centre in Noida with a team of 12, a tech office in Ludhiana with a strength of 23, RitSan has also begun operations in USA. Currently doing 8-figure revenues, the team is looking at doing 9-figure (over `10 crore) by 2020.

Sounds like a typical job interview, but where do you see RitSan in the next five years?

We have been running the company as an internet advertising agency through our product AdUncle.com, where we have worked with over 700 brands in the last 5 years. The next big thing for us is to be on the publishing side of the business. We are getting into the education space with our recent project https://www.updatemycareer.in that is scheduled to be launched on July 3rd this year. This would be amongst India’s top 10 websites on education news and updates in the next two years. From here, we may move into E-commerce, health and automobile space as well. That is how we are looking at being a 9-figure company by 2020.

The steps taken by the government have made the environment conducive to venturing into startups. Programmes such as Startup India and Digital India are facilitating the youth

You are a student from Amity University, Noida. How did your alma mater extend support on RitSan when it was a startup?

Amity has an on-campus Innovation Incubator that is not just open to students, but anyone who has a business idea. The incubator has grown from being just ICT-centric to having a vibrant boutique of startups in multiple niches. In addition to mentoring, providing support, infrastructure and seed stage investments, the incubator also has a separate

Give a head start to your startup!

Experience makes a man wiser and Siddhant Satija is a perfect example who validates the famous proverb.

Some handy advice from the man himself... º “Master accounts management, as the knowledge of the subject lends support to all kind of organisation, whether a big corporate

arm that takes care of the private equity and venture capital investments. In my personal opinion, more than the money, it is about the global connects that the incubator can get you and help you grow. I never knew how to start out and register a company in India and today, I have an incorporated company in my name in the USA! I have never been to America myself till date. I would greatly credit my success to the incubator.

organisation or a startup.” º “Once you see a huge sum of money suddenly because of a successful project, do not let success go to your head” º “Always prepare yourself for the worst of circumstances.” º “Do not overspend on parties, meetups. Try to keep

Would you say that setting up a startup is easier these days than it was five years ago?

Yes. It has become relatively easy to get started up. If your business plan is ready with the basic prototyping, there is no lack of incubators, accelerators and seed funds across the country, both in the private and public space, to mentor and take you to next level. It is good to see entrepreneurship spreading its roots widely in India among the youth. I know of many young students making it big in their teenage years itself. It would not be incorrect to say that today’s youth are doing much better than what I was a few years ago. They inspire me to no end and I am glad to see our country progressing by leaps and bounds in the world of startups.

The steps taken by the government have made the environment conducive to venturing into startups. Programmes such as Startup India and Digital India are facilitating the youth to take bolder steps towards it. At the same time, parents these days understand the concept of entrepreneurship and are supportive towards the dreams of their children. Organisations dedicated to helping startups are cropping up almost every week. Startups are mushrooming and being scaled up in a big way.

Lastly, tell us about your personal and professional goals. the burn rate of your company as low as possible.” º “Work for a long-term vision rather than making short-term money” º “The real game lies not in increasing the first-year revenue by 100 times in the next year, but in teamwork. If the team is motivated enough, nothing is impossible!”

Personally, I want a happy life for my family. I am getting married soon and looking forward to raising a family with the best of facilities. I am also targeting a better health as a sound mind resides in a sound body. Of late, I have gained a lot of weight because I have been busy working. I spend two hours a day outdoors so that I can alter my lifestyle for the better. On the professional front, I want to see my venture amongst India’s top 10 reputed internet companies, touching a 9-figure revenue and of course, continue to be super profitable-I want it all by 2020! namratagulati8@gmail.com

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 29

NHRDN Career Fest 2017

A guide to your right first job

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The Government of India has unveiled several initiatives aimed at generating employment and employability through programmes such as Make in India, Startup India, and Skill India. The aim is to transform opportunities for India’s youth to move up the value chain of employment and make our demographic dividend a blessing. In this context, the National HRD Network (NHRDN) Mumbai Chapter, recently organised a Career Fest at Nehru Centre in Mumbai, wherein professionals with multifaceted expertise talked on prevailing career trends and also about diverse sectors which are there.

Muralidharan Thyagarajan is the Chairman and one of the founding members of Talent Management Inputs and Services (TMI). In this edition, Corporate Citizen brings you his talk on how to pick your first right job, how your personality plays a crucial role while choosing the right role and what is current job scenario in the country.

TMI Group has assisted over 400 corporates; TMI Group has been involved in hiring over 10,000 professionals. Muralidharan has been elected as a member of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), apart from Government of India which formulises and regulates the rules and regulations and laws related to the MSME. He is author of two books called ‘An Expert’s Guide to the Right First Job’ and ‘An Expert's Guide to 101 Jobs for Graduates and MBAs’

By Vineet K

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 31

NHRDN Career Fest 2017 What do you want to do in your life?

higher than some other company, there will be a good reason for paying higher salary. The employees who stay for six-seven years, they learn many things from their job, and that’s how they become successful. It is possible that your first job might not be the right one for you, the second should be the right job, the third one must be the right job; if not, then your career takes a beating.

for big names and two-three years later, they apply for an MBA programme.

What is happening nowadays is that you get a job-lot of companies come in the campus, you give a very good interview, because your job is to win that contest. For many people, interview is a contest, so they do their homework and win that contest. But they don’t realise that

a Large number of engineers are not working in engineering domain. More than 70-80% of engineers are working in IT, investment banking, FMCG but very few work in core engineering. Be open to select what is proper for you. What is the ideal time to spend for first job? This is the most important question

after winning the contest, you will be the one who is suffering because, you will be doing the job which you don’t like. Seventy per cent of MBAs are graduates and are looking for jobs every three months. ‘What should I do?’ ‘What is my right job?’ —not easy questions to answer.

I found out one thing, any graduate could do many jobs. Engineers are coming into many domains. Roles with B Com are much narrower because of accounting.

Can you imagine an employee doing the same job for 35 years in life? Every day doing the same thing repeatedly. You might be promoted but you will be stuck with the same job, even though you might be transferred from one department to another. This is the condition in the market nowadays. There is a lot of repetition. Ninety per cent of employees in the corporate, when they get up in the morning they think of applying for a leave. The reason is they don’t like their job. Many employees, what they do is, they keep hopping from jobs to jobs; if they don’t like their job, they will keep hopping from one job to another. What will happen?

Different boss, different job but you will eventually face the same problem of not liking your job. So first thing you should ask yourself is how to find the right job, which you will enjoy for the next 35 years.

Current job scenario

A large number of engineers are not working in engineering domain. More than 70-80% of engineers are working in IT, investment banking, FMCG but very few work in core engineering.

Be open to select what is proper for you. What is the ideal time to spend for first job? This is the most important question. We study resumes of about 10,000 CEOs and CXOs. The resumes of CEOs and CXOs tell us a lot, about how he/ she started his or her career, how long he/she stayed and so on. The most interesting fact, a successful CEO or a CXO in the first or second job found the right job and after finding the

right job stayed there for 6-8 years. The average time spent is about seven years.

Nowadays, after the campus hiring, employees change their job after six-nine months, because they are unhappy. The reason for this is they are not driven by their passion, they don’t think before applying, they are driven by peer pressure.

Employees apply job based on salaries, they don’t think that if a certain company is paying me

Which is the best city to start your non-IT career? Mumbai-there is a research, which shows that those who start their career in Mumbai have a better chance of making to the top. It is a non-IT sector. As I told you earlier, 77% of jobs are only in three industries, BFSI (Banking Financial Services and Insurance) IT/ITeS and Pharma. All the other industries contribute very small. Another interesting fact, IT engineers opt

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How do I search for a job?

Most common mistake students make during the campus recruitments is to assume that the responsibility of approaching companies for campus recruitment is upon the placement officer. Students will bombard with questions, which company is coming, which company is not coming, etc. Job search is student’s responsibility. You have to learn the techniques of job searching. College will help you because they will get better quality of students next time.

They can say that 95% of students are placed for this year. They are not bothered what qual-

Q: I like to go for challenges, I like to do challenging things, and I would love to enter in investment banking. The most challenging part of investment banking is whether you make profit or loss will depend upon me. I would like to do investment banking for more than 60 years.

A: Average life of an investment banker is maximum ten years. What does an investment banker do? Investment banker’s primary job is to make individual or corporation look for money to raise equity. Mostly equity, sometimes debt.

Investment banker advices you to invest. They help you. He makes a document saying what he does. The document explains what is called information memorandum; it explains why someone should invest in his company. Their job is to present investment opportunities and convince them to invest. If the investment banker cracks a deal with me for example, then only their company makes money, otherwise they will not earn money. Their job is very stressful. Investment banking is very glamorous, protecting your job is a challenge, and your bonuses may not come.

Q: I have a dream of working in a finance field because it is such a vast field, and there is always new to learn in every field. I haven’t narrowed down to what exactly I want to do in finance but further studies will help me to identify my real passion.

A: When people talk about finance, there are two sides of finance. You work in-

side a company in a finance department. Finance department’s primary job is to fund operations. In a company, there are customers, there are suppliers, money has to be paid to suppliers, money has to be collected from customers, etc; their job is to ensure money is provided to the business so that it doesn’t stop.

Finance sector can be qualified into two types. ● In the finance field, there is an accounting department. Their job is to create a profit-loss statement, balance sheet that will reflect the truth of the company’s operation and continuously advise the company that you are losing money here, you are making money here, expand this business and so on. ● Next part in finance is financial services. People outside the company try and sell products and services to the companies. The most obvious finance is loans.

Corporates wants large amounts of loans for big investments they want to make.

Ninety per cent of rich people if they want to buy a car, will take a loan and buy a car, ninety per cent of people will take a housing loan. Everybody takes a loan.

Nobody will buy a house with cash. Retail finance is the largest market for jobs.

Your job in finance companies is very small. Careers in finance is dominated by chartered accountants. If you are planning to build a career in financial services, which is a larger market, you can end up being a vice president of the company.

Largest markets for graduates are IT/ITeS, financial services and pharmaceuticals.

ity of job you get, how long you stay in the job, are you happy with your job and it is your luck, whether you will get the right job or not through the campus recruitment process.

Broadly speaking, there are four types of personalities, in which you can classify job roles.

How do I find the right job?

➊ Sales-type – For this role, one should be an extrovert, he or she who is outgoing, is not scared of talking to anybody and can make friends easily. The most essential factor is tolerance for ambiguity. Tomorrow morning I have to meet my target, today is 30th of the night, I am still 20-30% below the target, I have some meetings tomorrow I might click it. But today I have to sleep well. Duty of a sales person is to sleep well. Lot of people are uncertain, I don’t know if it will happen or not, they will sit at night worrying. Those people can’t survive sales. ➋ Support-type – This is the opposite of sales personality. A good example for this would be the

Find the job role that suits your personality. The biggest mistake people do is they pick the job, which their friend has opted for. One should know one's core personality, which job role will make one stay for 35 years.

Which is the industry you want to select? In the right company, in the right city, in the right level. Today if I have to find a job, I will look for a company in management sector because management trainee is the best way to start a career.

Unfortunately, many companies have stopped the management trainee programme. Entry-level jobs have become more of a transaction role.

Four types of personalities

people who are receiving calls in a call centre. There are two types of call centres, inbound which have incoming calls and outbound which have outgoing calls. Incoming calls are the support type, they really want to help people, they want to serve people, and they understand the processes very well. They are not necessarily outgoing-type of people. ➌ Process-type – Process-type is a person who can do the same job repeatedly. For example, accountant. He does accounting at any given time. ➍ Creative-type – Creative type is the opposite of process type. They do the same job better the second time. They don’t like repetitive jobs.

Selection process

Interview is about presenting yourself; it is not about winning the game. Many a time, whenever an interviewer asks a question, there are times when they want to ask something else and if you figure out what they really want to ask, and if you answer that, then it’s a win for you.

It is okay to lose in an interview as long as you know what you are looking for-this is what I can do very well or this is what I want to do.

Your first job teaches you everything. You need to have patience and humility to say that I want to learn, I am not here to make money.

Interviewer judges candidates on communication skills. Keep the following points in your mind when you are giving an interview. ➊ You should articulate your thoughts very well. ➋ Speak clearly; if you are confused, don’t say anything. ➌ Make sure that you are getting feedback of the interviewer. ➍ Understanding the question and answer in a fashion that you can agree upon. vineetkapshikar@gmail.com

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Google, most authentic brand in India Indian consumers regard Google as the ‘most authentic brand’ despite Amazon being the global favourite. In India, Google is followed by Microsoft, Amazon, Maruti Suzuki and Apple, according to global communications agency Cohn & Wolfe's Authentic Brands Study series.

The findings, state that 67% consumers in India report increased purchase interest in a brand they perceive as authentic.

Research shows that brands in India need to focus on the three drivers of authenticity—respectful, reliable, and real.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 33

“Imagine the irony of a person who only wanted to be a Krishna bhakta, becoming the head of an institution.

When I was asked to step up to the task, I was rather uncomfortable doing so�

Dr Gulshan Gidwani believes in being a friend and guide to her girls

34 34 // Corporate Corporate Citizen Citizen // November November 16-30, 16-30 ,2017 2017

Cradle of Leadership St. Mira’s College for women

Dr Gulshan Gidwani, Principal

kindle the light for competence, charity and contemporary change

November November 16-30, 16-30, 2017 2017 // Corporate Corporate Citizen Citizen // 35 35

Cradle of Leadership

H

er unassuming persona belies the impressive roll call of her achievements.

Not only has Dr Gulshan Gidwani helmed this august institution for over 18 years now, she has been at the forefront of inarguably, what has been the most tumultuous and techno-savvy decade for college education, particularly one focused on women’s empowerment. From successfully leading the college’s bid for autonomy, to diversifying into an MBA college to using and designing technology to best effect, she’s gone the distance, all the while ensuring the college St. Mira’s College was stays true to the raison d’être of the first non-proits foundation: society before fessional college in Maharashtra to apply self, and kindling the light of for autonomy in 2005 education for one and all.

Her stint as dean of St. Mira’s College for women, Pune has seen a relentless and largely fruitful attempt at balance: On the one hand there is paperless examination and technology, on the other, the college’s USP, its emphasis on a separate time space dedicated to prayer and sanctuary. Both co-exist simultaneously. If, on one hand, efforts are stepped up to safeguard the security of women students against the backdrop of an increasingly chaotic and disruptive world, the other side sees the students continuing to participate in social outreach programmes, be it the adoption of homeless animals (given the college emphasis on non-violence) or other aspects of women’s empowerment.

To sum up the history briefly, Mira’s College is a part of the ‘Mira Movement in Education’. Founded in the year 1962, St. Mira’s is a deam of realisation of the dream of the progressive visionary, saint, philosopher Sadhu T L Vaswani.

The college enjoys the rare honour of being the first city college, affiliated to Pune University, to be accredited by NAAC as also the first accredited Arts and Commerce college to go autonomous. Recently, the college also added a Science wing.

Preparation is key to all that she does though—as is evident from the sign outside her cabin: ‘If I had eight hours to cut a tree, I would spent six sharpening my axe.’

And sure enough, her life’s journey reflects the adage.

In conversation with Kalyani Sardesai, the soft-spoken Dr Gidwani outlines the challenges, past and present, even as she readies her girls to take on the future with positivity, grace and confidence.

Your college has always emphasised a value-based education system. Do you think it distinguishes your students from the rest ?

It undoubtedly does! The feedback we receive from employers is proof enough: they say there is a core integrity and sincerity about a St. Mira’s student that separates her from the others. It is this goodness that they value; after all, competence and skills can be taught, values cannot be.

A young professional has to come adequately

equipped with them. In fact, a recent correspondence from a CEO testifies to this; the gentleman said that they hadn’t picked up so many students from any one college and they were glad they had done so with St. Mira’s students.

Could you outline the history of this college for us in brief? After all, Mira has always been a leading light for women’s education in Pune.

As some would know, the Mira Movement

36 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

in Education was born out of the vision of a philosopher-saint Sadhu Vaswani, himself a distinguished and erudite professor. What was truly remarkable about him was that he believed in woman power long before the word feminism was even heard of. He founded the Mira School in Sindh in 1932, and the model institution was all set to evolve into a Mira University when the Partition of India forced him and his band of workers to leave their homeland, Sindh, and migrate to Maharashtra in independent India.

This state, with its proud history of culture and liberalism was the ideal ground for the Mira Movement to take new roots. The Mira schools and college were set up in quick succession. St. Mira’s College established in 1962, was one of the pioneering colleges set up exclusively for girls in Pune. Today, the college is a member of the Mira family consisting of nine educational institutions located across India in Pune, New Delhi, Vadodara, Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. The Mira Movement’s headquarter is in Pune, and is headed by the renowned Dada J P Vaswani.

The motivation of the movement is simple: Educate a man and you educate an individual; educate a woman and you empower a whole family.

How have the paradigms of women’s education changed over the last 50 years?

Oh, they sure have changed enormously. Sure, internalisation and service continue to be our motto, but they have to be part of a well-developed, skilled persona that is a proud value addition to any workforce. No more are jobs seen as just that;

they are careers meant to accompany the individual for the next few decades and young ladies are investing that much thought, planning and care in choosing something meaningful and intellectually stimulating. There is this wonderful, new focus on growth, not just on job security.

When an individual chooses a career, she wants to know what prospects for growth and development will it offer her in the days to come and the education and environment she receives in college has to be true to that aspiration.

How does your institution mesh its traditional values with New Age feminism?

It does so, with awareness and thought. Yes, turning out skilled professionals is extremely important, and our bid for autonomy testifies to that. But our idea of empowerment is not merely building women professionals to compete with men, it is to ensure it is accompanied with an overall understanding of their unique identities.

The changes in our curriculum testifies to this: not only do we have a Women’s Studies centre on campus offering programmes and courses on gender studies, each subject is taught with a special emphasis on the role of women. So in sociology we teach them about the ‘Founding Mothers’ instead of ‘Founding Fathers’, in entrepreneurship, we teach them about women entrepreneurs, so on and so forth.

Tell us about the bid for autonomy and the journey thereafter.

We applied for autonomy in 2005, and were the first non-professional college in Maharashtra to do so. Thus far, the only colleges that had willfully sought autonomy were the ones offering professional courses such as engineering, medicine and so on. It was an accepted practice down South, but in Maharashtra, not so. At the core of this, was the understanding and acceptance that we needed a well-rounded, competitive curriculum that was not specific to our turf, but would instead equip our girls to be competent professionals, citizens and role models in any environment.

In response, the Government of Maharashtra, identified 12 educational institutions, including our own, to be fast-tracked on the path to autonomy. To that extent, we were required to understand its inherent risks and ramifications and sent on a tour to different autonomous colleges to see how they had gone about designing an individualistic curriculum and system that worked for them. Autonomy is a complex matter that involves taking both the management and staff with you; all the stakeholders have to be equally convinced about it. Other colleges faced opposition from their managements, because it entailed the management giving up some of its powers, but despite being part of a religious NGO, our management was supportive.

Yes, our core philosophy has always been to

Going hi-tech, the Mira’s way ◉ Involves both faculty and students. ◉ Has customised content appropriate to our specific academic and administrative needs. ◉ Has high content quality.

For Teaching, Learning and Evaluation, we have ➊ The Online Study Material Repository

This is a repository of study material such as PowerPoint, diagrams, charts, etc. prepared by teachers for independent use by students. The repository (in the college, electronic and computer laboratories) has ensured a customised version of resources useful to the students. ➋ The Online Interactive

Workbook

It is especially suitable for subjects in which answers are in sequential order (e.g. Mathematics, Accounts, Grammar). The user is able to monitor her own performance, detect her weak areas and can access her scores immediately.

➌ Automated Examination Timetable Scheduler This generates the examination timetable for every class and every examination by successfully catering to the large number of variables involved in examination timetable preparation such as subject combinations offered by students, number of papers to be corrected by every individual teacher, order of preference, time slots in between two examinations to allow for study, etc.

➍ Question Paper Picker This is linked to the exam timetable scheduler. The exam officer gets a combination of question papers scheduled for the day just one hour prior to the commencement of the examination. The system randomly

selects one question paper from the question paper bank, inserts the date of examination and makes it available for printing.

This question paper set is then automatically marked as ‘Used’; it gets excluded from the ‘activated’ folder and moves into the ‘deactivated’. As the question paper selector is now the computer, the innovation has strengthened the confidentiality required in the selection of a question paper set and has done away with the menace of question paper leakage that looms large during every exam conducted in our country. ➎ Advanced Online

Examination

This has added a new dimension to internal testing under the autonomous system. It enables teachers to test all aspects of a student’s expertise in a particular subject, go beyond theoretical knowledge evaluation techniques by including the interpretation of pictures, videos, graphs, mathematical symbols, etc.

➏ Learning and Testing In audio format for visually impaired students, lectures delivered by the teachers and textbooks and reference material are stored in audio format to enhance academic learning and accurate evaluation for the visually impaired students of the college, using computer technology. It helps to do away with the tedium of employing unsuitable ‘writers’ for the visually impaired. ➐ Result Analysis Software

To monitor individual student progression, to keep track of the academic progress of an entire department, and to keep track of the academic progress of the college as a whole.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 37

Cradle of Leadership do good quietly, but in today’s day and age, you have to be seen to be doing good. Visibility is important too.

Also, autonomy is synonymous with accountability. Only such educational institutions that have a track record of excellent academic performances, credibility and are well known for healthy and ethical practices are granted autonomy. An academic board (for each subject) has been constituted with eminent academia drawn from reputed institutions, industrialists, university representatives and practising professionals.

Members of this board meet periodically to change the system, if need be.

better-acquainting them with India’s rich and secular heritage. Be it in the thought of the day, or a student of member of staff waxing eloquent on a single human value—honesty, integrity, compassion and so on, we find creative ways of going about it, through song, skits, audio visual presentations and discussions. We believe this one practice helps build a valuable new dimension in a youngster’s life.

Tell us about the unique practice of Sanctuary time that has always been a part of your college.

Being part of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission, respect for all forms of life has been an unwavering principle of the college, even in the face of change.

Considering the advances made by technology in recent years, there was no reason why scans and computer graphics could not be used to show the internal anatomy of an animal, instead of killing it.

This would not only educate the students, but also save lives of animals. Once I got the go-ahead from Maneka Gandhi, to the effect, we lost no time in setting up a junior college for Science, to accompany the Arts and Commerce streams at long last.

Sanctuary or Prayer has been a way of life at St. Mira’s College. It is a multi-religious approach that has students from different backgrounds bringing their spiritual, religious and cultural traditions to a single altar of prayer. So we have choirs singing hymns, bhajans or shabads. There are readings from assorted religious books, which is a fine way, not only of inducing young minds to reflect on deeper issues of life, but also

The last few years have seen you diversify into the Science stream, which was against your philosophy (as it involved dissection of animals). You followed that up with the St. Mira’s Nursing College and MBA College. Tell us about it.

“We have interpreted ‘Information and Communication Technology (ICT)’ as an umbrella term to include any communication device or application, encompassing, television, cellular phones, computer, and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning”

A science wing has been recently added, considering the advances in technology

38 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

St. Mira’s idea of empowerment is not merely turning out women professionals to compete with men, but to ensure it is accompanied with an overall understanding of their unique identities

Setting up a nursing college was the next logical step. I do know for a fact that a lot of young girls want to be healers, but due to lack of availability of seats, make do with Arts and Commerce instead. But their hearts are not in it. Our BSC in Nursing course offers a degree programme to create world-class professionals in the world of healing.

The MBA college, similarly that is headed by Dr Bhgawanti Nanwani, offers programmes in HR, Marketing, Finance and Accounting, and currently has 120 students.

How has this diversification been aided by technology?

Technology has been an excellent and able partner in making the changes we wanted in the way we teach, learn and test our students.

We have interpreted ‘Information and Communication Technology (ICT)’ as an umbrella term to include any communication device or application, encompassing television, cellular phones, computer, and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.

In our attempt to support and improve the learning of students and to develop learning environments, we have used ICT for developing course material; delivering content and sharing content, increase communication between learners, teachers and the outside world, creation and delivery of presentation and lectures, academic research, administrative support, student enrolment and facilitate the transaction

Dada Vaswani’s warmth and wisdom continues to motivate the girls

of our routine jobs under an autonomous setup.

More importantly, most of the software that we have acquired has been indigenously devised by a team of highly dedicated and proactive teachers from the Computer Science department.

What you mentioned just now is a positive aspect of technology. But what about the challenges it poses, particularly with view to women’s security—surely a common enough question posed before educators like yourself…

Yes, of course, technology and responsibility need to go hand in hand. Every year we have a lecture from the cybercrime cell; it is imperative for girls to recognise and understand the potential pitfalls of social networking and excessive sharing of personal details online. But our proactive approach towards our girls’ safety does not stop there. When the Pune police implemented the ‘Police Kaka’ scheme beseeching citizens, particularly students to report cases of stalking and petty crimes, we were the first to invite the officials to speak to our students.

They were happy to note that within a few days, two of our girls had availed of the facility and reported cases of stalking and harassment to the cops.

Also, we teach self-defence as a subject and over 200 girls per year graduate with the skills of self-defence.

Tell us more about the prevalent atmosphere in college that sets it apart from the rest.

Social outreach has always been at the centre of all we do. Each individual has a duty not just to be a productive member of the workforce to the best of her God-given abilities, but she must also help others wherever and whichever way she can.

Compassion and respect for life is something we strongly believe in—and we take every opportunity to practically demonstrate to the student the value of life. Instead of lecturing them endlessly on non-vegetarianism, we give them the opportunity to interact with animals, be it as volunteers for animal rights groups, or helping tending for a wounded or orphaned animal we may have adopted on campus. We keep having these adoption melas for abandoned animals, and students have the opportunity to help find them a suitable home or shelter.

Similarly, though we don’t force the students to attend programmes at the mission, as I have never believed in forcing my views on them, I incentivise it for them by giving them double the attendance that I do for their lectures as and when on important occasions, as part of the college programme, they attend interactive sessions with Dada. Once the connect happens,

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Companies in India top for CSR reporting India has emerged as the top country by way of companies reporting on CSR information in their respective annual financial reports. Following SEBI’s February disclosure directive, the KPMG study observed that 99% companies reported on their sustainability performance. Around 95 companies acknowledged human rights as an issue to their business, ranking the country well above the global average.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 39

Cradle of Leadership they look forward to being a part of the social outreach programmes of the mission.

We also have a Diwali sale each year, where students and staff, from relatively underprivileged backgrounds have the opportunity to buy items of clothing, art, and household utilities at throwaway prices. These items have been pooled together by each one’s contribution.

Much has been said about the St. Mira’s notion of discipline…

Discipline is the key to all our activities, but we believe in gentle and humane discipline; the kind that seeks to correct the wrong, instead of punishing the wrongdoer. Personally speaking, I don’t believe in ‘punishment’ because it dents the self image and morale of the errant student.

nation’s leading ad agencies. Tell me now what would have happened had we chosen to harshly punish the child ? Our duty as educators is to get to the bottom of the behaviour, not just look at the superficial symptoms.

Dr Gidwani, your personal life has been much-touched by erstwhile principal and current head of the mission, Dada JP Vaswani as well as the ideals of the founder Sadhu Vaswani. We’d like to know about your journey from the very beginning.

“Social outreach has always been at the centre of all we do. Each individual has a duty not just to be a productive member of the workforce to the best of her God-given abilities, but she must also help others wherever and whichever way she can. Compassion and respect for life is something we strongly believe in—and we take every opportunity to practically demonstrate to the student the value of life” We believe more in counselling rather than in punishing.

Once we had just such a student, who was reported by the counsellor to be very destructive. I called her to my office, and offered her one single space in college to restrict her destructive activity to. Initially, she refused my offer, shame-faced and distraught, but within two days returned to ask if I was indeed serious about my offer. I said, yes. She asked for the college canteen to be vacated and given to her for her activity for a period of three days. She also asked for `1,500. When I discussed this with the college Discipline Committee, they cautioned me against consenting to her request saying, I was asking for trouble; there was no telling what damage she would unleash upon the canteen if left unsupervised. Nevertheless, I persisted. My gut instinct told me I ought to let the experiment happen.

At the end of three days, when we entered the canteen we were dumbstruck to see the most beautiful murals on the walls—more lovely and creative than anything we had seen before.

The cause of her destructive behavior was that she was this artistic, disturbed soul who was dying to paint and draw and create. Today, she happens to be creative director at one of the 40 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

I was born in Pune to a family devoted to Sadhu Vaswani’s teachings. We were a simple, spiritually inclined family. In fact, my paternal aunt or bua was the first teacher at Sadhu Vaswani’s school in 1933.

As for me, my entire schooling happened at St. Mira’s School and College.

I was a nervous, quiet and shy young person who was happy to complete her B Com and then work in a bank. I wore fullsleeved dresses, mainly white. My life was pretty much the satsang. However, Dada, who knew me well personally, thought I had potential beyond it. He urged me not to take

famous alumni

up the bank job but to complete en years to heal. When did my post-graduation in Pune’s this fall happen and what Wadia College as Mira’s College was its effect on your life? did not offer PG Courses then.

• Swarnakala Shetty, Like every setback in life, my When I finished, he suggested Civil Court Judge accident with my leg taught I apply as a lecturer. This was me a lot. Despite so many sur• Netra Motadu, absolutely shocking for me; I geries, the bones just wouldn’t Deputy Director was such a reserved person, heal. Dada was a huge support SCHMRD happy to be in a corner. I in this time, constantly encertainly did not see myself quiring about me. One thing • Mona Singh, TV teaching. But with his backing about him is that he is also very actress and encouragement, I took it practical. As treatment after • Shruti Marathe, on, slowly learning on the job. treatment failed to yield reFilm actress It was such a sea-change for me, sults, Dada suggested I take an I tell you, to have to be centre appointment with the famous • Seema stage and take responsibility.

Mumbai-based surgeon Dr Ramachandani, It was a complete U-turn from Dholakia considered to be the Art of Living trainer; the way I had envisaged my best in Asia. Initially, I was told snorkeling expert life to be. What’s more, at each I could not get an appointment • Colonel Suman Rai stage, the course of events have for at least three months as he flowed in a manner as to make was extremely busy. So Dada • Kiran Mehta Luthra me wonder if there was a bigger, suggested I park myself in his (Emirates Cargo Dubai) divine purpose to things. clinic. I did just that-though it • Manju Nichani was extremely uncomfortable Though I had my hands (Principal, KC College to do so with my leg in plaster full, he insisted I pursue my Mumbai) from hips to toes.

PhD. This was a tall task, as I sat in his clinic till 11 am, and I was teaching and studying finally as he readied to leave for at the same time. As time the day, he saw me. We talked and he examined went on, the toughness of my schedule did my leg. His verdict was not encouraging: there not allow me to write down my thesis on was no calcification; my bones were like stubs.

Pharmaceutical Marketing though I had And the way the fracture was, it was hard for completed my field work. This is when I had a the two portions to join. Worse, my bones were fall, sustained multiple fractures in my leg and weak, which was why the graft was not holding. was confined to bed. I had to go through seven He said some portion of the bone had to be cut surgeries over three years. But this enforced to facilitate healing. However, he could not do confinement finally gave me the time to it for me as he was leaving the very next day for complete my thesis writing.

Germany. There was one doctor, however, he I did not see the necessity for it, but as it so said, if he could be persuaded to help me. Sadly, panned out, when I was eventually asked to take though, that doctor did not perform surgeries over as Principal, the Govt. rules mandated that any more due to a horrific setback in his life. principals had to have a doctorate degree as an Apparently, one day as he was on his way to eligibility criterion. All of this does make me hospital for an urgent operation, there was an wonder if it was ordained. I have no wish to accident right in front of him. His car, which exaggerate whatsoever but the detours brought had the medico’s insignia, was stopped, and about by my circumstances have been adequate as as a doctor he was asked to help. No way for the specific role Dada had in mind for me. could he stop though, as his patient had already What’s more, my personality has gradually been given anesthesia. So he told the crowd: he evolved over time: from someone who was would move ahead, and send an ambulance to extremely quiet, to someone who, by virtue of collect the child. He would ask casualty to keep her role in life, has had to be communicative, everything ready. assertive and incharge. The white clothes I After he finished his operation, he went to favoured gave way to coloured, crisply laundered check up on the child who was in the casualty. sarees, when Dada mildly asked me how I They told him he had not survived as he had intended to take people with me, if my clothes not been brought to hospital in time. The doctor proclaimed a distance between me and the rest. pushed the cover aside to look at the child and “Do you want to be holier than thou”? he asked, went numb as he found himself gazing into the and I saw what he meant. As a professor, I had face of his own dead son! to be the focus of attention for hours. My visual That cruel and unbelievable blow rendered appearance had to be as identifiable and positive him unable to perform surgeries anymore, as as my knowledge of subject and teaching abilities. his hands would tremble! When I went to see Your leg took multiple surgeries and sev- him—as he was still a consultant—he told me

he sympathised, but would not be able to help me. I had no choice but to return to my hotel room. A day later, I got a call from his staff. The doctor had asked me to get admitted to Jaslok Hospital and then he would see what he could do. The surgery went off smoothly. When he came to see me the next day though, he was dumbstruck to see Dada’s photo next to my bedside table. Who was that man, he asked ? I told him he was my guru.

The doctor said, he was the very same man who had come in his dream and asked him to perform my surgery, assuring him all would be fine. And it was! My leg healed, there wasn’t even half an mm of difference between the length of my two legs which was very unusual in a surgery of this sort!

For his part, the doctor expressed his fervent gratitude towards Dada, the man who had given him his skill back.

You have been a very successful principal. Would you, yourself have foreseen such success for yourself?

Let me answer this with an anecdote from school when we were asked to write an essay as to what we wanted to become when we grew up. While everyone else they wanted to be a doctor, engineer, teacher and so on—I was the only one who said I wanted to be St. Mira!

So imagine the irony of a person who only wanted to be a Krishna bhakta, becoming the head of an institution. When I was asked to step up to the task, I was rather uncomfortable doing so. In fact, I told Dada: you are taking away St. Mira’s tanpura and replacing it with Arjun’s quiver of arrows. But no regrets. It has been a beautiful, enriching and rewarding journey and each day with my girls is an offering to Sri Krishna!

Sri Krishna arpanam! kalyani.sardesai@gmail.com

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Slash in corporate diwali gifts budget in 2017 Corporate India slashed Diwali spends by 35-40% in 2017, according to a survey by industry body, Assocham.

Study states that there has been a downward impact on bonus payments too as several corporates are reeling under debt and cutting costs in their overall operations. Besides, disruptions arising out of demonetisation and rollout issues of the GST have affected the overall sentiment.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 41

Interview

A

kaleidoscope for posterity

"Odyssey"-web and graphic designer, Kimaya Firodia’s solo maiden photography exhibition recently organised at Pune’s Darpan Art Gallery-is a testimony not only to her passion for capturing moods, perfect moments, beautiful nature and people, but also her boundless creativity By Kalyani Sardesai

It

takes patience and a sense of timing to be a photographer of mettle. Not to forget an inbuilt sense of colour, composition and observational prowess. Good angle, the perfect lighting and ability to immerse yourself in the setting, are must-haves on the list. But all of this feels like a breeze if you truly love the art.

Little wonder then that photography has seamlessly integrated itself into Kimaya Firodia’s busy but vibrant world, despite her professional commitments as a freelance web designer in San Francisco. “Over the last seven years I have taken endless photographs of the places I travelled to,” she says. A treasure trove of moments that culminated in a fourday exhibition in Pune-her childhood home.

And to think, this grand passion has its roots in work-related requirements. “I first started taking photos for the apps (and websites) I design. The search for good visuals in my line of work is constant,” she expresses. Besides, one of her electives at the Academy of Arts for Web Designing & New Media, San Francisco, USA was photography and that provided the necessary training.

“The most wonderful thing about photography is that it allows you to capture a moment for posterity. Times changes, faces change and so do paradigms but there it is your perfect moment—frozen forever for you to reconnect to and recharge from,” she says.

Thus, was born Odyssey-a collection of over 90 pho42 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Kimaya Firodia believes that photography gives you the privilege of capturing a moment for posterity. “Time and tide may change, but there it is, your perfect moment, frozen forever”

tos-shot completely on Kimaya’s iPhone as an experiment—showcasing her visits to exotic locales such as Cape Town, South Africa and Iguazu Falls, Brazil, the enthralling Machu Pichu, Peru, beautiful Greek islands of Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes, historical sites in Athens, Delphi and Meteora, and Kusadasi in Turkey.

The stunning pictures emphasise the beauty and energy of nature in vibrant hues, along with unique shots of local streets and houses that dot the landscape in these alluring settings. Exclusive photos of architecture and glass installations in and around USA also formed part of her display.

These pictorial travelogues bring back fond memories for Kimaya. “While choosing the photos for my exhibition, I revisited these amazing places and relived the special happy

From L to R: Jayashree Firodia, Kimaya Firodiya, Sulajjja Firodia Motwani and Arun Firodia

moments spent with my family! It was a special joy to share this collection with more friends and family in India at this exhibition,” she says.

The collection of pictures tells so many tales at a single go-of the existence of beautiful and Photography has seamdiverse locales on God's earth, of lessly integrated itself into the way natural phenomena as well Kimaya as man-made splendour weave a scintillating story, of how beauty lies not just in their being, but also the lens of the beholder. What’s more, some of the imagery in these photos and her drawings and paintings have also been used to create physical artefacts in fabric and fashion

by VIDA-a global partnership of creators, producers and consumers.

Kimaya’s zeal for travel is reflected in each of her photographic creations. According to her, travelling makes us sensitive to newer cultures and people and also brings us close to the glory of nature, which, in turn, has the therapeutic power to uplift our spirits and soothe our souls. “To see these photos in a physical form displayed together with harmonious correlation of the colours and form, brings immense satisfaction to me as a photographer; as an artist as I work mainly with the digital form,” she shares.

On the anvil are plans to further explore the potential of her DSLR camera as well as take pictures of India to display abroad. “Despite having settled in the US, there has been an unbroken link with India as I regularly visit my parents, friends and relatives in Pune,” she says. “However, the one thing you have to take care of when you shoot in social settings, especially for a good cause, is to communicate to people that you actually care for their issues.

Your photos must have both a heart as well as a sense of purpose,” she shares.

Given her passion for photography, what does she believe is the reason for relatively few female photographers dotting the Indian scene? “Possibly, the fact that as a photographer, one has to shed inhibitions and go right ahead and shoot the moment-thereby standing out in a crowd juxtaposed with women's traditional reticence has something to do with it. Apart from which one has to sometimes lug around heavy equipment. It is also an expensive hobby. But these so-called obstacles are increasingly becoming redundant. The newer generation is savvy, with-it, bold, strong and willing to push the envelope,” she says.

Over the years, she has juggled both work and her family commitments with dexterity. With both her boys Abhijat (23) and Anurag (20) grown up and pursuing their independent careers, she believes she will find more time to devote to photography in the days to come.

A firm advocate of work-life bal-

‘the fact that as a photographer one has to shed inhibitions and go right ahead and shoot the moment, thereby standing out in a crowd juxtaposed with women’s traditional reticence has something to do with it. Apart from which one has to sometimes lug around heavy equipment. It is also an expensive hobby. But these so-called obstacles are increasingly becoming redundant’ ance, she believes both are as critical as the other. “It is important to give your family and loved ones the time and care they deserve. At the same time, always have your own independent passion that will sustain you at all points of your life and in turn set an example to inspire your children to pursue their own interests,” she rounds off.

And so, her quest for the perfect shot continues. It could be flowers, faces or an interplay of shadow and light—as long as it is beautiful and meaningful, it deserves the perfect frame. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com

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Cheaper to call a cab than to own a car Rating agency Crisil’s research study shows that a personal car (petrol/diesel) is cheaper only if the distance driven is over 15,000 km annually and with a chauffeur, this doubles to 30,000 km. Study shows that if you drive your car for less than 12,000 km a year it is better to hail an Uber or Ola for your rides than own a car. The cost of hailing a cab is `19 per km, compared to `22 for own car that’s driven 12,000 km a year.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 43

Campus Placement

T

<Winning the hackathon />

hey are young and enterprising, all of them students at International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B), and winning hackathon after hackathon. In fact, it was a hackathon in Malaysia which proved life-changing for the awesome threesome. For, not only did they win it, they were also offered amazing jobs. V Abhivijay, Anubhav Bhardwaj and Lijo Johny are an inspiring example of how focus, hard work and a never-say-die attitude can win the day.

Overcoming hurdles and hardship, Lijo Johny, V Abhivijay and Abhivijay recalls the experience of their first hackathon and the ones that followed, “I still reAnubhav Bhardwaj blazed their way through hackathons, winning member participating in the first hackathon, a not only laurels galore but also dream placements, following an 24-hour competition, in our first year itself. We international hackathon in Malaysia. Students of International were probably the youngest and didn't know Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, they trace their much. That was a reality check for us. From then journey as students, what went into winning the hackathon which on, we attended multiple hackathons in 20132014, just gaining experience. We didn't win a had 200 teams from over 26 countries By Geetha Rao single hackathon during this period. We only learnt all we could, and developed our skills. In 2013, we participated in the Goibibo hack and them internships. They signed the internship es an IT competition to help solve some of the won the first prize of `3 lakh. Then there was letters before they went on the Euro Tour. There industry’s most pressing problems. The compeno looking back. We went on to win Swiss Re was more: after a few months of internship, the tition was to make a mobile app for Hilti. After (`3 lakh), Amadeus (`1 lakh), IBM and Myntra company was happy with their performance and three rounds of shortlisting, the 10 best teams hackathons. All these had pan-India participant offered them full-time jobs. The company also from all over the world were invited to Hilti's developers. In 2015, IBM gave us the title of ‘best made them the offer of working at the Hilti US office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the grand student team at the national level’ and we got to office after a year of work in Kuala Lumpur. finale in February 2016. With 200 teams from share the stage with CEO of IBM and the Chief Anubhav remembers, “I was very happy when over 26 countries competing, we secured the first Editor of Forbes.” the company offered us a summer internship place in the Hilti Mobile App Hackathon 2016.

Anubhav fills in: “When everyone in because it was my first international internship.

We made an artificially-intelligent augmented recollege was preparing for GATE, a senior of Then in July 2016, the company confirmed a 6 ality application for Hilti’s customers, so that they ours suggested that our team participate in month internship and a full-time job offer.” can obtain quick information about the products hackathons, and the following Sunday, we won Their happiness was complete. by just scanning them usour first one organised Looking back, perhaps it was destiny that ing their mobile device.”

by Goibibo. Then, our brought the three together at IIIT-B and paved The Hackathon was diwinning streak continued “A major struggle their way to success. vided into three parts, says till we won our 10th one when I joined enLijo Johny studied till his tenth at Kendriya Anubhav: “A video demo arranged by Myntra.” gineering was that Vidyalaya in Hyderabad and “later, joined the of the prototype, Skype Then, they learnt about I didn’t have prior trend of preparing for IIT JEE at Narayana Junior round with the judges and the Hilti Mobile App College. Despite being above-average in studies, finals in Hilti Malaysia.

Hackathon in Malaysia. knowledge about IIT JEE was one thing that I couldn't crack. ForThe whole process took “We were given three programming, tunately, I got around 205 marks in AIEEE and around a month, and at themes to choose from while almost all my helped me to secure a seat in integrated last we were invited to and the idea was to build classmates did. This Hilti Malaysia for the final this M Tech (5-year) course at IIIT-B,” he remarks. a mobile app in the choHis master’s is in Data Science. demo and presentation.” sen theme. We designed was a major issue Abhivijay did his schooling from VidyaraSince they were classan app that involved Ar- because the profesnya High School, Hyderabad, joined IITians mates, they knew each tificial Intelligence and sors were teaching Pace for his 11th and 12th. In 2012, he joined other very well, so they Augmented Reality. Task the 5-year integrated course (B Tech + M Tech) would discuss their ideas division was always clear at a fast pace and I Computer Science at IIIT-B. “This was probably and then split them into among us—we knew who had to work twice a life-changing decision for me,’’ he says, adding various small tasks with among us three could find as hard as my that the special emphasis on ‘Silicon City’ Bengaeach focusing on a specific bugs in the software and classmates. Though luru was a huge plus. one and helping the others who could pitch any idea Anubhav did most of his schooling from when they hit a road block. on stage and who could I failed initially, I Dungarpur Public School in Dungarpur and But winning the hackgive the product demo, trusted my abilities St. Paul’s. He says, “Even though I was good at athon was not all. Less Abhivijay explains.

Biology till my secondary education, I chose enthan 24 hours after that, Lijo adds more details. and succeeded” gineering because I was always fascinated by how the company offered “Every year, Hilti organis- — Lijo Johny 44 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

all they say is that it was the highest placement package in college. What was the reaction of their parents and others? Says Abhivijay, “Our teachers were thrilled. Some of my friends asked us to recommend their names to the company. My mother was in tears when I told her the news. My dad was pretty cool about it. I attribute a large part of my success to my parents, who were instrumental in convincing me to join IIIT-Bangalore.” or Lijo, it’s his mother, a nurse. He elaborates, “My Mom has been my biggest source of inspiration throughout my life. She motivates, guides and challenges me every day; and this has been my pillar of strength when in adversity. Despite failing in the tenth class once and dropping a year in school, she got a bachelor’s in nursing and today, she is a successful nurse.

The mere thought that she does what she has to do—that’s uncomfortable, scary and hard— as part of her profession and that she has the will to succeed even after failing in her tenth inspires me every day.”

For Anubhav, “There is not just one person who has helped me throughout my journey of five years at college. I had the constant support of my family and friends who helped me handle all my ups and downs.”

And Abhivijay speaks of his uncle and others. “My uncle, Dinesh Arora, IAS, always believed in me and motivated me to go the extra mile. I quote his words, which, in turn, were told him by his father: ‘There is no competition in the extra mile.’ Then, there’s Abhivijay’s professor at college, Prof Debabrata Das. “He believed in me when I performed poorly in my first year. I always consulted him when I needed advice.” Plus, there are his seniors, “Priyankar Talukdar and Abhinav Pundir guided me continuously. Priyankar was the one who told us to participate in a hackathon when our entire batch was preparing for the GATE Exam.” geetrao@gmail.com

F

L to R: Anubhav Bhardwaj,V Abhivijay and Lijo Johny

machines worked. Initially, I wanted to study Mechanical Engineering but couldn't get into any good college because of my score in AIEEE. But, as they say, “Whatever happens, happens for the best”, and I got into Computer Science at IIIT-B,” his course being Integrated B Tech and M Tech in Computer Science.

Of course, there were stumbling blocks and struggles along the way. Lijo Johny looks back, saying, “There were a lot of struggles and failures throughout my life. But I’m blessed with supporting parents and friends who chipped in whenever required. A major struggle when I joined engineering was that I didn't have prior

knowledge about programming, while almost all my classmates did. This was a major issue because the professors were teaching at a fast pace and I had to work twice as hard as my classmates.

Though I failed initially, I trusted my abilities and succeeded.” Then followed a 3-month internship during the 5th semester at a startup named Plivo. The first-hand experience was very useful. “I could choose a field of my choice and work on it; at the end of the third month, the knowledge I gained was quite substantial,’ he remembers.

That was then. Now, a bright future awaits them. Coming back to the hackathon and after, of course, they received hefty pay packages. But

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Maruti Suzuki—India’s top car exporter Rupees 76,140 crore Maruti Suzuki has become India’s top exporter and will end the year by exporting more than 100,000 cars. It has now dethroned Hyundai Motor India Ltd, which has now been pushed to the fourth spot behind Volkswagen and General Motors.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 45

Loved & Married too

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

Rajat and Shubhrastha at Loch Ness, Scotland

, r e h t e g o t s k r o w t a h t e l p u o c A ! r e h t e g o t stays

If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know about Rajat Sethi and Shubhrastha already, allow us to introduce you to them. The young duo rose to fame when it worked tirelessly to carve out a win for a political party in Assam in 2016. The couple that got married in December last year, is riding on the crest of a wave. While Rajat is the Advisor to Manipur CM, Shubhrastha is a common face as a panellist on news channels, fiercely debating and discussing contemporary issues. The power couple that has to stay apart often in order to meet professional commitments, manages to keep the flame of love burning. The team of two gets candid with about all things marriage and career...

By Namrata Gulati Sapra 46 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Distance makes the heart grow fonder!

Currently working as the Assistant Editor at India Foundation Journal, Shubhrastha lives by herself at a rented property in East Delhi, while Rajat, being the right-hand man of the CM of Manipur, is preoccupied with issues confronting the north east. Being the thorough professionals that they are, Shubhrastha and Rajat chose to forego a romantic honeymoon, so they could keep pace with professional goals and deadlines.

Shubhrastha herself took just two days off from work for her own wedding. So, does work take precedence over love for this power couple? Pat comes the reply from Shubhrastha, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Though our

professional lives are of utmost importance to us, our personal and family space with each other is the topmost priority, and hence, the choice of same profession helps.”

How it all began

Shubhrastha metamorphoses from a firebrand into a shy schoolgirl as she talks about how they fell in love with each other when they first met in year 2012, “We met through a common friend then and right from day one, took our relationship rather seriously. We had decided to marry each other instantly way back in 2012, when none of us were even sure of getting into politics.” Soon afterward, Rajat set out for the USA, where he pursued a Master’s degree in Public Policy at the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School and a three-year dual degree between 2012 and 2015 at Boston University.

Meanwhile, Shubhrastha expended her energy and potential on momentous assignments, “I started working on elections in 2013 on Narendra Modi’s campaign and in 2015, on Nitish Kumar’s campaigns. In the meantime, Rajat began working in Assam in 2015. I joined him within a month of his starting out. It was a logical decision since we had been staying apart for three years.

Not contrary to expectations, their bind grew stronger when they worked in unison in Assam to achieve the same goals, “I couldn’t help but fall in love with how committed he was to his work. I saw a reflection of myself in him when I learnt that he wanted to pursue good work.

Sparks flew! We immediately struck a chord because of our burning desire to experiment with our careers and life,” shares Shubhrastha.

Shubhrastha continues to be the perfect storyteller that she is, “One day, he confided in me about his desire to settle down emotionally and I was bowled over! I could sense the sincerity in his voice as he spoke dreamily about relationships.” Just like any other woman from a modest family background would, Shubhrastha had her reservations about a relationship with a US-returned man, armed with a degree from the coveted Harvard University. But like they say, matches are made in heaven and this one was no exception to this rule, “After we tasted success in Assam, we got married.”

Spouses-cum-colleagues

“I for one, don’t know how success is measured.

But if you must call us that (successful), attribute it partly to our choice of an unconventional career path,” Shubhrastha answers when asked

Soaking in the sun at Edinburgh, Scotland

“One day, he confided in me about his desire to settle down emotionally and I was bowled over! I could sense the sincerity in his voice as he spoke dreamily about relationships” — Shubhrastha

about their success. Though she speaks humbly about her accomplishments, she doesn’t deny that being wedded to a professional colleague doesn’t hurt, “There are times when I don’t want to meet prospective MLAs at 3 am. That is when Rajat fills in my shoes when the need arises. On the other hand, I can handle women-oriented activities with ease.” Rajat pitches in, “The challenges of working in the same industry/office are well documented, but it gets a little more interesting when it comes to politics. We share a common ideology and a political vision. In my opinion, it is quite difficult for a couple with politics as a vocation to have divergent ideologies. Thankfully, having the same ideological stance has helped our relationship.”

But sometimes being both a married couple and colleagues can backfire, “Our discussions mostly revolve around work and we do not get much personal time either. If we happen to get some time off of our professional commitments, work pretty much takes up our personal space!” says Shubhrastha, while Rajat makes a point, “While working towards the same goal, individual approaches are likely to differ and cause friction. As is with most other cases, mutual respect is really important to sail through ego battles.”

Walking the tightrope

The power couple is single-mindedly pursuing the same goal at the moment, “Sharing common goals for the northeastern region of

Rajat and Shubhrastha enjoy their time in Scotland

India keeps us connected even though we are geographically divided. Together, we aspire to integrate the northeast with the rest of India and bring the governance issues of its communities to the table.” The distance, however, is getting to Rajat, who is determined to work out a solution, “With time passing by, distance is taking a toll on us. We can’t afford to spend most of our youthful years staying away from each other. It is one challenge that we are working towards.

Surprisingly, senior political leaders, in spite of being bachelors all their life, understand the constraints of a married couple working as political karyakartas. They try to do their best to accommodate our assignments in way so that we are in geographical proximity.” namratagulati8@gmail.com

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Gun control urgently needed 11,652 people lost their lives to gun violence in the US this year, resulting from 46,595 incidents, according to Gun Violence Archive. This includes death from the deadliest mass shooting in US history in September, where 59 people lost their lives.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 47

Travel

Waka,Waka this time for Jayanth Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of Toehold, is an avid photographer and has been to Africa 29 times in the last decade. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s find out his travel discoveries

By Sharmila Chand

48 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

A former IT Professional, Jayanth took up serious photography in 2004. Gradually moving out of IT, Jayanth has established himself as a fine Natural History photographer in the recent years. He believes there is no meaning to wildlife photography if these pictures can't be used to conserve wildlife. He travels extensively to take pictures and reports stories on birds and animals to generate awareness about the importance of conserving vulnerable Indian wildlife.

He believes he should explore all possible natural hotspots of the world before he leaves the planet. He has experience in travelling across continents and countries like South America, Africa, South East Asia and Russia for photography.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, he co-founded Toehold in April 2010 to help professionals and photography enthusiasts improve their skills by providing them the best-in-class products and services.

Which is your favourite holiday destination and why?

Africa is the best place and I love Kenya. Being a nature and wildlife lover and a photographer, I think I would never miss visiting Kenya. Guaranteed wildlife encounters, state-of-the-art tourism facilities and accessibility makes it my favourite destination.

Which restaurants you like to visit there and why?

While every lodge has its own restaurant, I recommend the Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi, which is a great way to experience food in Kenya.

I also love some Indian restaurants there, which I usually visit when I am craving for spicy food.

For instance, I would be delighted if affordable charter planes can be run to key destinations in India. For instance, to go to Bandhavgarh National Park in MP, one has to fly to Mumbai or Delhi and then take a plane to Jabalpur. It takes a complete day, which, otherwise, is perhaps a two-hour journey from any corner of India in an aircraft.

Which is your favourite hotel to stay?

In Nairobi, there are several options like the Intercontinental and Fairmont. When it comes to the national park, I like the Sarova Mara or Mara Serena in the Masai Mara. I love the Serena Lodge in Amboseli and the Sarova Lion Hill in Lake Nakuru. The best lodges are expensive but they are in the right places for game viewing.

Any interesting episode of your holiday?

Many people associate Africa with high temperatures, and notions on the crime and risk. However, I find Kenya quite safe, if one travels wisely.

I remember, a client of mine had forgotten his camera bag in a store while buying merchandise and boarded a flight to India. It took a couple of days for the Nairobi police and immigration authorities to sort the problem, find the bag and send it to India. Kenyans are great people, very warm, friendly and welcoming. That’s why they sing the famous ‘Kenya Yeto’ – Jambo song.

Three tips you can give to fellow travellers?

1. Consult an experienced tour company to be particular about the lodge/rooms facilities, etc. and to find out about the right time of the

When did you visit last?

December 2016.

What do you like about Kenya?

National parks of Kenya like the Masai Mara, Amboseli or the Samburu is the primary reason why I like the country. One cannot dislike vast plains of the Mara with numerous wildlife encounters there. I have been to Kenya 29 times over the last 10 years. I think it’s an affordable high-class destination with various levels of lodges and hotels available. Most people in Kenya speak good English and are very courteous.

What are the highlights of Kenya and what we should not miss?

Definitely, the Masai Mara National Park is a must visit. Besides, Lake Nakuru, Amboseli and Samburu are parks worth visiting. Mount Kenya is a great place to relax. Beach lovers can also visit Mombasa to end the trip with a beach holiday.

One important advice I can give people is not to hop destinations. It is important to stay a couple of days or probably three days at each destination to enjoy the place and allow nature to showcase itself. One-day hopping trips are done by generic groups and are disappointing and tiring.

year and the right area of the park.

2. Obtain a Yellow fever vaccination whenever possible, even without a travel date in mind. It’s a tedious process to obtain it, but once obtained, it is valid for 10 years.

3. Do not compromise too much on the lodge you stay. Better lodges are at better locations. One should not be penny wise and pound foolish.

How can Kenya be improved?

The airport in Nairobi needs a lot of improvement. A lot of time is wasted in the traffic upon arrival in Nairobi, which I think needs a revisit by the authorities. I can also think of improving highways, especially the highway to Masai Mara from Nairobi, which becomes a nightmare to commute in the last leg of the journey.

What can other destinations learn from Kenya?

Tourism is the key inudstry in Kenya. Their affordable charter plane options are worth copying in different parts of the world to help people save time and the hassle of commuting by road or rail.

What kind of a traveller are you−planning well or more impulsive?

I plan my travel very well. Time is most important to me, so I can’t waste time waiting, which often is the case during unplanned travels. I don’t prefer backpacker style of travelling for this reason. I would know my schedule months ahead. Master planning travel is something I prefer doing and again, it saves a lot of time in the long run, even though it consumes a bit of time before the travel.

What tops your mind when you travel?

Most of the travel I do is for sightseeing.

I wouldn’t travel much for shopping, but I enjoy buying something that belongs there. I love to buy local handicrafts and curios. That’s why I love Africa. They are a treasure of artwork, sculpture, toys and artefacts. chand.sharmila@gmail.com

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India, good in entrepreneurship Among BRICS countries, 79% of earlystage entrepreneurs were motivated to start a venture in India. This is the highest in BRICS economies. Also 8% entrepreneurial exits in India were successful and 47% unprofitable, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey. While only 19% of early-stage Indian entrepreneurs were forced into entrepreneurship due to a lack of alternatives, 34% of the adult population was improvement-driven.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 49

Survey

% of I n di a n omen Wconsidet h e mr se lve s eautiful B

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Yet, women around the world are subjected to unwarranted pressure to look beautiful. Beauty, however, is not as related to external factors as it is to inner well-being. Over the past three years, global technology company Philips has conducted its Global Beauty Index, a research project aimed at identifying modern womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attitudes towards beauty, from the personal to their feelings on the industry as a whole and hopes for the future. Corporate Citizen presents the results Compiled by Neeraj Varty

50 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 51

Survey Methodology The study reached a global sample of about 11,060 women aged 18 and over across 11 countries: USA, UK, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Turkey, China, Japan, South Korea and India. The sample for each country was collected to be representative of each country.

Total sample n = 11,060 (Global) Country

Total surveyed

United Kingdom

n=1,002

France

n=1,007

Germany

n=1,013

Poland

n=1,012

Russia

n=1,001

China

n=1,020

Japan

n=1,000

South Korea

n=1,000

India

n=1,005

Turkey

n=1,000

USA

n=1,000

Key findings

• 89% of women around the globe believe that there are lots of ways to be beautiful. There is no single, universal definition of beauty.

• More women find themselves beautiful; when only 51% of women considered themselves beautiful in 2016, in 2017, 60% of women considered themselves beautiful.

Along with this increase, we see that 70% of women believe beauty is something you define for yourself — not something decided by someone else.

Inner beauty matters more

• Women increasingly agree that being healthy is more linked to confidence than looking beautiful. Over 2016 and 2017, women rate the number one contributor to feeling confident as being healthy, with an increase from 2016 (71%) to 2017 (77%). Interestingly, looking beautiful has decreased from 29% in 2016 to 26% in 2017.

When women feel good on the inside, they project confidence on the outside.

• Health (especially mental health) and beauty are strongly intertwined. Women consistently turn to other aspects to define their sense of beauty: 89% agree that having a positive mindset is important to how they define their sense of beauty, 85% say feeling emotionally balanced is important, and 81% say being physically fit is important.

A woman’s sense of beauty is so much more than how she looks.

The pressure to look beautiful

• At the same time, women continue to feel pressure from the outside world (society, media, peers) to look beauti52 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

ful. More women in 2017 said they feel some or more pressure to look beautiful (63%) than did in 2016 (57%).

• What’s the source of this pressure? While over half of women agree that the beauty industry (61%) and celebrities (58%) put pressure on women to look a certain way, women put pressure on themselves to always look beautiful. In fact, ‘wanting to look my best for myself ’ comes in as the biggest driver of pressure (54%).

• Half the women (50%) admit they feel uncomfortable in situations where they are expected to look a certain way. But this also means that 50% don’t feel uncomfortable, feeding into the notion that while women can thrive on compliments they receive if they ‘are looking the part on someone else’s terms’, they are also not necessarily always seeking affirmation from others.

Do you consider yourself beautiful?

2017

60%

40%

2016

57%

43%

2015

51%

49%

0

20

40

60

YES

80

100

NO

When the Beauty Index was initially launched in 2015, only about half the women considered themselves to be beautiful (51%). In 2016, this figure rose to 57%, and in 2017, it rose again to 60%.

Where in the world do women consider themselves most beautiful?

German : 53%

Poland:4 0%

Russia: 81%

UK: 29%

USA: 65%

France: 41%

China: 73%

Turkey: 91%

Japan: 26% Korea: 61%

India: 96%

India has the highest percentage of women who consider themselves beautiful, which speaks for the high self-esteem that Indian women have. This uptick in the percentage of people who consider themselves to be beautiful may also be attributed to the fact that nine in 10 women around the world (89%) agree that there are lots of ways to be beautiful, a statement that the beauty industry is responding to by featuring more diverse kinds of beauty, providing more customisable products, and proving a welcoming shopping experience.

More than skin deep: A healthy mindset encourages beauty from within, but are beauty companies keeping up? In 2017, women are interested not only in being healthy, but also in cultivating a healthy beauty mindset and taking care of their mental health, which in turn, helps them feel more beautiful. Whether it be prioritising eco-friendly (72%) or organic (70%) beauty products, or feeling emotionally balanced — 85% consider this important to defining their sense of beauty, along with 89% who attribute a positive mindset to their definition of beauty, and 81% attribute being physically fit to this sentiment.

Indeed, beauty is increasingly focused on incorporating more than the superficial.

“When I feel healthy, I feel more beautiful” (82%)

1.7bn wellness apps downloaded by 2018

Interesting market differences:

• Only just over half of women in the UK consider looking attractive important (52%), whereas 83% of those in Russia do • In India (77%) and Turkey (66%) making ethical choices about beauty products and brands is important, although overall 48% of women say it defines their sense of beauty.

Despite seeing beauty as rooted in health, most women still feel under pressure to look beautiful – even if only for themselves.

Women around the world are more likely to feel either some or a lot of pressure — from society, the media, or peers — to look beautiful (63%) than to not feel any pressure to look beautiful (37%).

• Although women in Japan are least likely to think of themselves as beautiful — three in four don’t (74%) — they are most likely not to feel any pressure to look beautiful, with half saying they don’t feel any pressure (50%) and only 7% saying they feel a lot of pressure.

• Women in the US are most likely to feel a lot of pressure; one in five says so (19%). A similar amount of American women say they feel pressure to always look beautiful because the beauty industry makes them feel inadequate (21%).

•In China, women are most likely to feel more pressure than they did five years ago (36%); one in three feel pressure to always look beautiful because it is expected of them at work (33%).

Health and well-being are becoming more intrinsically linked to beauty than ever before. But, is the beauty industry itself keeping pace? Fewer than one in four women globally believe that the beauty industry is more focused on overall well-being than appearance than it was in the past (23%).

In fact, 31% still believe that the beauty industry is not at all focused on well-being — highlighting a pressing need for beauty companies to respond to what women want and need to be their healthiest, most beautiful selves.

Women are increasingly looking to wellness and beauty devices to help them maintain a healthy outlook and appearance. PWC forecast that ‘wellness’ apps will have been downloaded over 1.7 billion times by the end of this year, and fitness trackers have more than doubled in use in the US from 2014 to 2016, clearly showing that there is little hesitation in adopting technology in order to monitor and improve health.

How important are these in how you define your sense of beauty?

Being physically fit (81%)

Having a positive mindset (89%)

Feeling emotionally balanced (85%)

Making ethical choices around products and brands (48%)

Looking attractive (70%)

Sources of beauty pressure 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

71% 63% 54% 36%

28%

Total

39%

UK

FR

20%

21%

DE

PL

60%

58% 48%

46%

33% 24%

70%

28%

56%

43%

32%

36%

36% 27%

28%

KI

NT

17%

USAR

UC

HJ

PS

UR

I want to look my best for myself

Indian perspective Almost all women in India consider themselves to be beautiful (96%). However, half the women here also agree that beauty and physical appearance are one and the same (49%). This feels at odds with the more holistic beauty activities which women in India tend to favour — they are the most likely to have incorporated yoga and meditation into their daily routine for example. Instead, it seems to suggest that by cultivating a sense of inner peace and emotional calm the benefits will be visible externally. Women in India are the most likely to say they feel less pressure to look beautiful now than they did five years ago (42%). Although they may seem to equate beauty with looking good, they don’t seem to ascribe to a fixed definition of how that should be. By believing in more fluid notions of what beauty looks like, Indian women enjoy and benefit from the maintenance of their inner selves to feel beautiful outwardly.

Indeed, 83% of Indian women consider beauty to be something they define for themselves.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 53

Health

How

‘Heart Aware’ Are we really faring well on our heart’s health? While most of us are aware of the basic ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ of heart’s healthy living, how many of us consciously step up to keep our hearts disease free or are capable of helping others in an emergency situation? Irrespective of repeated warnings and heart health awareness campaigns, it is said that by 2030, India alone will account for 60% of the world’s cardiac patients, nearly four times its share of the world’s population. The alarming statistics is blamed on the lack of awareness towards a ‘healthy’ lifestyle and the lack of knowledge of a few simple steps that can be taken during an emergency or before reaching the hospital. This was emphasised by many city hospitals as they got innovative to bring about the much needed change

By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar

M

odern living with its adverse lifestyles of smoking, improper diet, sedentary dispositions and stress, etc. has affected all and most primarily, corporate employees. The impact is the rising prevalence of chronic disease factors and silent killers such as obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes. This, in turn, has resulted in urban Indians experiencing cardiac problems even at early ages. WHO census statistics says that approximately 4280 out of every one lakh people die every year from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in India alone.

While health trends do point to individuals hitting the gyms in more numbers, a lack of basic understanding of the why’s and don’ts can help pave good health and especially heart health in the long run. While managing one’s own heart health is imperative, the need of the hour is to know and act upon basic techniques that can help a cardiac arrest victim in the most crucial ‘hour’ of revival.

Are We?

Dr Vivek Jawali, Chairman, Department of Cardio Vascular Sciences, Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council, Fortis Hospitals, Bengaluru said, “India is going through an epidemiologic transition whereby the burden of communicable diseases have declined slowly, but that of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) has risen rapidly, thus leading to a dual burden. People are becoming a victim of heart disease due to a lot of factors which comprises of sedentary lifestyle to lack of awareness regarding keeping one’s heart healthy.... A simple four-point formula of not smoking, keeping physically active, eating right and reducing excess weight will cut the risk of heart attacks and stroke by a large percentage. Innovative methods need to be developed to overcome these challenges. Some approaches that could potentially improve the efficiency of care include incorporating information communication technology tools, advanced techniques and improving the quality of care given to patients.”

Twin healers – BLS and CPR

To this end, knowledge of Basic Life Support (BLS) and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) goes a long way in dealing with emergency cardiac patients. However, medical experts say that timely intervention during an emergency is the biggest gainer. “Out of the people who die from heart attack, about 50% die within an hour of their initial symptoms before they reach the hospital. The chances of survival of any victim can increase significantly if they are provided CPR immediately. Hence, people present at the scene can help avert the risk of death by providing CPR promptly to the victim.”

Doctors from Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur (CARHY) have been educating people to take charge and be aware of BLS and CPR techniques that can successfully improve the quality of life of the victim. Apollo Hospitals launched its ‘Healthy Heart’ programme on the occasion of the World Heart Day on 29th September. This programme is one of the service additions in Dr Prathap Chandra Reddy’s ‘dream of taking Apollo up along unexplored trajectories’ of healing and health.

An eminent cardiologist and founder of Apollo Hospitals, Reddy said, “Around 20% of heart pa-

54 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

tients across Apollo Hospitals are in the age group of 25-35 years. With these numbers, it is difficult to guarantee that Young India will be able to have a healthy heart in the future. “The need of the hour is a ‘heart disease prevention and reversal’ programme, a unique combination of personalised monitoring, counselling, treatment, diet, yoga, micronutrients and meditation. Our plan is to make India heart attack-proof,” he said.

No panic attacks!

Most medical practitioners explain that ‘time’ is the saviour while treating any heart attack and cardiac arrest victims.

In doing so, they said that providing BLS and CPR during the ‘golden hour’ can help in preventing pre-hospital deaths from injuries as well as heart attack if there is a delay in receiving hospital treatment or medical care. “Mostly, the steps we take in haste while attending to an emergency, makes a deep-rooted impact in saving the life of the patient. Thus, it is vital for all to learn the BLS and CPR techniques, so that we can take the right measures when required,” said Dr Firozahmad Torgal, Consultant Emergency Medicine, Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur.

“These are simple steps like early recognition and initiating chest compression in cardiac arrest or protecting cervical spine with c-collar in road traffic accident victims and for this you don’t need to be an expert in medicine to take these life-saving steps. Therefore, CPR and BLS should be made mandatory in secondary level of education and to all public service job holders as the chances of survival of the victim increase double-fold if appropriate emergency medical care is provided immediately,” added Dr Torgal.

Understanding the pang

“When the heart stops beating, blood flow to the body organs ceases. Of all the organs, brain is affected first. People become unconscious within 15-20 seconds after the heart stops and chances of brain recovery decreases with time so much so that irreversible brain damage is common if circulation is not restored within five minutes of cardiac arrest,” explained Dr Prabhakar Shetty Heggunje, Chief of Cardiology, Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur.

“When the heart stops beating, blood flow to the body organs ceases. Of all the organs, brain is affected first. People become unconscious within 15 -20 seconds after the heart stops and chances of brain recovery decreases with time so much so that irreversible brain damage is common if circulation is not restored within five minutes of cardiac arrest” —Dr Prabhakar Shetty Heggunje, Chief of Cardiology, Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur

Each one save one

“The need of the hour is to train common people to do CPR and BLS before the victim reaches the hospital. This training will help them to learn special skills required to deal with heart-related emergencies. Skills to perform CPR through chest compressions, maintaining victim’s breathing by providing appropriate rescue breaths, can greatly improve the chances of survival of these unfortunate people,” Dr Heggunje added.

Walk Your Heart

Dr Prabhakar Shetty, Cardiologist, Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal, asserted the need for walking to save our individual hearts! He said, “We often ignore the benefits of walking daily.

Brisk walking has enormous benefits to overall health of a person and to the cardiac health in particular. Some of the benefits include lowering blood pressure, improving insulin sensitivity, burning extra calories, improving good cholesterol or HDL levels, agile muscles and joints.”

“Give up the elevator for stairs; park your car half a kilometre far from your destination, and while at work take short breaks and go out for 10 to 15 minutes of walk,” said Dr Ananth N. Rao, General Manager, Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal.

Case it!

In case studies released by Columbia Asia Hospital, a 44-year-old man had collapsed and re-

quired urgent medical attention. Doctors from Columbia Asia confirmed whether the wife of the victim knew BLS. The hospital sent an advanced cardiac life support team along with the ambulance as the wife was unaware of the basic techniques. A team of professionals from Columbia Asia, who were trained by the American Heart Association tried reviving the victim on their way to the hospital. After effective CPR for 45 minutes in the emergency department, the patient was however declared dead. The medical team felt that had the victim’s wife or some neighbours been aware of CPR, the patient could have survived.

According to Dr Keshava, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Fortis Hospital, Cunningham Road, Bengaluru, “Cardiovascular diseases have been gaining importance in India recently because of increased incidence of the disease. It is the first among top five causes of deaths in Indian population. I come across patients who suffer from heart-related disorders due to lack of physical activities, and poor eating habits. ‘Charge your hearts’ is our initiative to include people and work towards a healthy cause. The day promotes preventative measures and steps that people should inculcate in their lifestyle to keep heart attacks at bay. Let us not wait for the 29th of September each year to push our ‘heart’; be heart-healthy everyday! sangeetagd2010@gmail.com

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 55

Pearls of Wisdom

By Dada J P Vaswani

the Tremendous

Power of Attitude

It is not that the man of positive attitude refuses to recognise the negative side of life. Life has a negative side, a dark side. Life is full of difficulties and dangers.

But the man with the positive attitude refuses to dwell on the negative side of life. He looks for the best results from the worst conditions.

Conditions may be very adverse, yet he continues to expect good things

T

hey asked a great American philosopher what is the greatest discovery of our generation? He said that the greatest discovery of our generation is that by changing our attitude, we can change our life. All that you have to do is to change your attitude.

There are people whose thinking is always negative. Speak to them something, and they will tell you: “It cannot be done!” “It is impossible!” There are people who always think in terms of disease and death. Those are the ones who, through the magnetic power of their own thoughts, draw disease to themselves. They are their own enemies.

You can be your own friend.

You can be your own foe.

What would you like to be?

It is very easy, in difficult and trying circumstances, to throw the blame on others. No one outside of us can do us harm. It is we who are our own foes: it is we who can be our own friends. If we would be our own friends, let us adopt a positive attitude, a friendly attitude towards life.

The man, with a friendly attitude, is cheerful and buoyant and has the strength to face the difficulties of life in the right spirit.

The man, with the friendly attitude, has a singing heart: his heart keeps on singing all the time.

Psychologists have always told us that attitudes can influence results. Two scientists decided to conduct an experiment to find out if attitudes could affect seeds.

Two identical cans were taken. Into each was poured soil and fertilizer of the same quality and quantity, and 23 seeds were dropped into each 56 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

can. They were both placed in a greenhouse so that they could have the same conditions of weather and temperature.

There was only one variable in the experiment, all other things being the same. Everyday, the two scientists came to the greenhouse, and standing before the first can, poured into it all the negativism of which they were capable.

They said to the seeds, "You are good for nothing. Nothing is ever going to come out of you, and even if something comes out, it is not going to last," and so on and so forth.

Then they came and stood in front of the second can and poured into it all the positivism of which they were capable.

"You are so wonderful," they said to the seeds, "And you are going to show wonderful results. It will be a sight to see what is coming out of you," and so on and so forth.

What is it to have the positive attitude? It is not that the man of positive attitude refuses to recognise the negative side of life This was repeated thrice a day for three weeks.

At the end of the three weeks, the scientists found that while there came forth only two or three shoots of grass out of the first can, out of the second can, there came forth whole strands of grass, so strong that they could clutch it and lift up the entire can with its soil and fertiliser. If this is what attitude can do to seeds what can it not do to human beings?

What is it to have the positive attitude? It is not that the man of positive attitude refuses to recognise the negative side of life. Life has a negative side, a dark side. Life is full of difficulties and dangers. But the man with the positive attitude refuses to dwell on the negative side of life. He looks for the best results from the worst conditions. Conditions may be very adverse, yet he continues to expect good things. Remember your expectations have magnetic power—they draw unto themselves what you expect.

Here are few practical tips for developing positive attitude:

◉ Being non-judgmental – when something or someone annoys you, you analyse your own feelings, instead of blaming others. Thus, you will not say, "My friend hurt me by her behaviour." Rather, you will ask yourself, "Why did I feel hurt and upset by my friend's behaviour?" ◉ Cultivating the spirit of acceptance – this involves overcoming selfish expectations and demands. We expect certain things from our parents, spouse, children and friends. When your expectations are not met, frustration and unhappiness follow. Fathers want their sons to become doctors or engineers; mothers expect their daughters to get married and 'settle down'; when the children wish to pursue their own dreams and aspirations, the poor parents are unhappy. ◉ Developing optimism – this includes the practice of positive thinking, as well as belief in ourselves and our capacity to change for the better. As philosophers and sages tell us again and again, "This too, shall pass away". Even the worst of the conditions will change, sooner or later. ◉ Developing a sense of maturity – this will enable us to view ourselves and our life with dispassion and detachment, and not give in to negative emotions.

CC

tadka

Job-seekers prefer India as their dream job destination Around 60% job-seekers want their dream jobs in India. While nearly 25% male job-seekers prefer to become doctors or pursue medical professional, 20% prefer the IT industry; 15% men as CAs while 10% are keen on becoming lawyers. Of women job-seekers, while a majority are eager on professions such as medicine, 25% want to be CAs, a 20% into IT, 15% as engineers and a mere 10% as HR professionals.

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 57

Bollywood Biz

FTII Chairmen who were Actors

The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is India’s premier film and television institute, and has produced several legendary actors in Indian cinema. Over its nearly 60 year-old-history, FTII has had some notable actors as its Chairman. On the eve of Anupam Kher’s appointment as the new FTII Chairman, Corporate Citizen brings you all the actor chairmen in the FTII’s illustrious history By Neeraj Varty

Vinod Khanna October 12, 2001 March 3, 2005)

The most well-known FTII chairman has been the late superstar Vinod Khanna.

Vinod Khanna ruled Bollywood in the 1970s and 80s, before taking a sabbatical at the peak of his career in 1982. Having acted in over a hundred films, Vinod Khanna is known for his performances in superhit movies like Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Amar Akbar Anthony. He was last seen in the 2015 Shah Rukh Khan starrer Dilwale, before passing away in April 2017 to cancer. One of Bollywoods first true stars, Vinod Khanna will always be remembered as one of the finest actors to grace the silver screen.

58 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Anupam Kher

(11 October 2017 present)

Anupam Kher is one of the most versatile actors in world cinema. He has acted in over 500 films in several languages. His finest role came from his second movie Saaransh, where 28-year-old Kher played a retired middle-class Maharashtrian man who has lost his son. Since then, Kher has acted as a villain, comedian and even as a leading man in movies (A Wednesday). He has also appeared in acclaimed international films such as the 2002 Golden Globe nominated Bend It Like Beckham, Ang Lee's 2007 Golden Lion-winning Lust, Caution, and David O. Russell’s 2013 Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook. Kher has won the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role five times. For his performance in the 1988 film Vijay he won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Girish Karnad (February 16,1999 - October 10, 2001)

Gajendra Singh Chauhan (June 9, 2015 11 October 2017)

Gajendra Chauhan, though not in the league of the other actors on the list, has also had a presence on celluloid. He is best known for his portrayal of Yudhishthira in the historical television series, Mahabharat (1988–90). He has also appeared in some minor roles in Bollywood movies; however, he has been in the news less for his acting and more for the controversy when he was appointed Chairman in 2015. A large section of the students opposed his appointment due to a perceived lack of credentials.

The controversy refused to die down until eventually he was replaced in 2017 by Anupam Kher.

Girish Karnad is one of the most acclaimed actors, writers, and directors in India.

He made his acting debut in Kannada movie Samskara in 1970, but he is known in Bollywood for his roles in Nishaant (1975), Manthan (1976), Swami (1977) and Pukar (2000). He has acted in a number of Nagesh Kukunoor films, starting with Iqbal (2005), where Karnad's role of the ruthless cricket coach got him critical acclaim. This was followed by Dor (2006), 8 x 10 Tasveer (2009), with lead actor Akshay Kumar and Aashayein (2010). Karnad has been awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and won four Filmfare Awards, of which three are Filmfare Award for Best Director — Kannada and the fourth a Filmfare Best Screenplay Award. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 59

Future Tech

The Best Electric Cars in India

The Indian car space has come a long way in the past few years in terms of technology. However, the rising cost of fuel, combined with the pollution it causes, has made electric cars a desirable option. While we as a market still haven’t completely accepted electric and hybrid cars, the mindset of buyers is slowly yet steadily changing. Electric cars are non-polluting, give tremendous mileage, and are now becoming very much stylish. This issue, we look at some of the best current and upcoming electric cars in India

By Neeraj Varty

BMW i3

`20 Lakhs (expected) BMW i3 electric is a suave electric car expected to be launched in India soon. The BMW i3 electric will be priced `20 lakh ex showroom. Powering the electric BMW i3 is the 25kw motor run by lithium ion batteries. The offered range is 50 km on a single charge.

Under BMW’s new sub-brand BMW i, this is the first car which is being launched. The BMW i8 electric car is another speculated car along with the i3.

Mahindra e2oPlus `5.46 lakh—`8.46 lakh (Ex-showroom)

Mahindra is the first and only manufacturer in India selling electric four-wheelers. While the journey was started with the two-door Mahindra e2o (previously know as Reva e2o) the company has now replaced it with a slightly bigger four-door Mahindra e2oPlus electric hatchback which was launched in India in October 2016. The Mahindra e2oPlus comes with a new powertrain powered by a 72V lithium-ion battery that has increases the driving range to 140 km per charge. It has a top speed of 85 kmph. A full charge for the e2oPlus takes about 9 hours but Mahindra also has QuickCharge that helps charge the car in just about an hour. The e2oPlus also gets an SOS feature called, revive, which is being carried over from the e2o that gives you an additional range of 7-10 km if your battery power dips below 10 per cent.

60 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Nissan Leaf

`24 lakh (expected)

Nissan LEAF is an upcoming luxury electric hatchback, which comes with automatic transmission. The car has already received several awards for its efficiency and performance worldwide.

Powering the car are 48 laminated compact lithium-ion battery modules. There is also a high-response 80kW AC synchronous motor. It can offer 107 horsepower and 207 lb-ft of torque on ride. The vehicle offers mileage of 102 MPGe on the highway. 75 miles is the offered driving range, and the car takes 16 hours to charge.

Tata Megapixel `5 to `7 lakh (expected)

Tata Megapixel is an expected electric car to be launched in India soon from the Tata Motors. This is a stylish four-seater city-smart car for day-to-day use. The Tata Megapixel hatchback will be offered with manual transmission facility. The model will be produced under the Tata’s global range extended electric vehicle (REEV) concept. The model will be a best option if you are looking for performance and environment-conscious car without pollution problems. Internally, the car is fitted with lithium ion phosphate battery for power to run. There is also another on-board petrol engine generator for recharging option. The car assures 900 km range by a single tank of fuel. An astounding 100 km mileage is the most attractive feature of Tata Megapixel with the battery power only. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com

Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps for Inspector R Sanjay Kumar of Nampally Police Station, Hyderabad and his team for rescuing 4-month-old baby Faizan Khan, son of a beggar woman, Humera

Corporate Citizen Slaps the poor planning and unmanageable neglect that has broken links between rivers, nature and people whereby India is heading for a grave water crisis

“The boy’s smile and his mother’s tears of joy were worth the team’s effort. The boy was crying when he was rescued. He kept crying even after he was handed over to his mother. At that time, I took him in my arms, rocked him gently and he stopped crying. Then he looked at me and gave the widest smile I have ever seen,’’ said Inspector Sanjay.

A snapshot of the infant boy grinning from ear-to-ear looking up at Inspector Kumar has since been tweeted by Hyderabad IPS officer Swati Lakra and has been ‘liked’ over 21,000 times on the microblogging website. It has also been retweeted over 5,000 times since being shared on October 7, 2017. Baby Faizan was rescued 15 hours after he was kidnapped. Cops nabbed the two suspects with the help of the CCTV footage and handed the infant back to his mother, Humera Begum. “The boy was crying but as soon as I took him in my arms, he became quiet, looked at me with eyes wide open and a big toothless grin followed. It filled my heart with happiness. The moment may have been captured by camera, but it will remain etched in my mind forever,’’ said Inspector R Sanjay Kumar of Nampally Police Station.”

Nampally police arrested the two child kidnappers.

Four-month-old Faizan was kidnapped while he was sleeping beside his mother on the pavement near Himmatram Jewellers in Nampally. Humera woke up at 4:30 am and after searching for her son decided to approach the Nampally police station and lodged a complaint. Officials said that they showed the photos of the suspects in the locality and came to know that Mushtaq was an autorickshaw driver who usually loitered around Nilofer Children’s Hospital and that Yusuf was his friend. They lived near Dargah Shah at Agapura.

Post-surveillance in the area, officials finally revealed that on questioning Mushtaq and Yusuf—they said that they were trying to help a relative of Mushtaq-Mohammed Ghouse, in adopting a child. However, Ghouse, confirmed saying that they did want to adopt someone whose parents were too poor to take care of the child. Mushtaq then convinced them that he knew many poor couples who wanted to give away their children for adoption and promised to arrange for a baby.

He then allegedly kidnapped little Faizan with Yusuf ’s help. Ghouse apparently got suspicious. Officials are probing if the duo wanted to sell the baby, and if Ghouse was expected to pay them for arranging for the ‘adoption’. Thankfully, the baby got back his real mom!

The recent ‘Rally for Rivers’ campaign has proposed that a one kilometre-wide belt along riverbanks be reserved for generating tree-cover. As per reports, the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act is expected to make `6,000 crore available annually to state governments, in addition to a corpus of `42,000 crore; that remained unspent for years. Suggestions are that these monies could be utilised to generate tree covers along the rivers, which would then deliver environmental, social and economic benefits. There is a strong need to check pollution of rivers through discharge of industrial effluents, municipal waste and generation of thermal energy.

The Centre’s Namami Gange programme has been a slow start and needs to show results. Besides, much emphasis is often given to state governments as water is a state subject. In India, while irrigation accounts for nearly 80% of water demand, followed by drinking needs, industry and energy sector; there is a significant demand for mitigatory steps like changing of cropping patterns, curbing wasteful practices, and promoting renewable energy.

The National Institute of Hydrology had pegged India’s utilisable per capita water availability at 938 cubic metres in 2010, and expects this to drop to 814 cubic metres by 2025. A solution propounded has been to rejuvenate rivers by interlinking them such that the surplus in one river can be transferred to another.

The `18,000 crore Ken-Betwa interlinking project according to environmentalists would destroy 10,000 hectares of forests, with nearly half of that in the Panna Tiger Reserve. While forests serve as critical catchment areas for rain-fed rivers, is it wise to carry on schemes that are expected to do more harm than good?

As regards pollution, sections of rivers all around the nation continually get choked with plastic, flowers and debris. Waterways, dense with debris, rubbish and flowers have become a regular sight, particularly in large population centres such as Delhi, whose main river, the Yamuna, is already one of the most polluted in India. Same is the case with the Ganges and the Hoogly rivers in West Bengal.

(Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar)

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 61

Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian

From The Mobile

Parent-induced wastefulness

When parents strive to give their children the best of everything at an early age, they are sowing seeds for materially insatiable monsters that are prone to sloth, apathy, avarice and fear.

As I sit in my counsellor’s chair, day after day I encounter an altogether a new disorder that I have come to label as – Parent-Induced Wastefulness

Here are a few examples:

26-year-old Manas does not want to finish his

Engineering degree because he does not ‘feel like’ studying. But he harasses his parents every day for money. He tells me that whenever he did not feel like doing any particular activity, his parents told him he can quit. They always said they did not want him to get ‘stressed’ like they were when growing up.

34-year-old Raghav is a qualified Engineer and is married for two years but his wife is not ready to live with him hence the counselling. He is qualified all right but refuses to stick to any job as it makes him feel stressed! Every two months he runs back home from work and wants his parents to solve his problem like they did every time he refused to go to school.

28-year-old Anjali does not want to go back to her oneyear-old marriage because it is too much for her to work in the office and then look after the household. She wants her mother to come and live with her and do the household work.

There are many others... but all originating in overzealous parents wanting to protect their children from even the smallest discomfort in childhood.

You love them all right, but when you shield them from the adversities of life, what you are doing is bringing them up in a sterile environment.

The result: the moment they are exposed to the world, their immunity buckles up and they stand threadbare wanting to run away from everything that is anything but comfortable. They have to live in this very world and away from you. Do you really love them? Or do you love yourself more?

If it is them, then you would ensure to make them future-ready—let them face, talk to them, provide support, but let them face housework, studies, and adversities.

Tell them money is limited and let them learn to hear a lot of 'NO'.

That’s what makes them 'FUTURE READY'.

Dr Sapna Sharma Psychotherapist, Spiritual Counsellor, Life Reinvention Coach and Motivational speaker.

62 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Have the right attitude

How to stay Motivated?

A story by Swami Vivekananda In the jungle, which animal is the biggest…?

I heard you say, Elephant.

In the jungle, which animal is the tallest...?

I heard you say, Giraffe.

In the jungle, which animal is the wisest...?

I heard you say, Fox. In the jungle, which animal is the fastest...?

I heard you say, Cheetah.

Among all these wonderful qualities mentioned, where is the Lion in the picture?

Yet, you say the Lion is the KING of the jungle even without ANY of these qualities.

Why? Because...

The Lion is courageous The Lion is very bold The Lion is always ready to face any challenges, any barrier that crosses his path, no matter how big/threatening they are!

The Lion walks with confidence.

The Lion dares anything and is never afraid. The Lion believes he is unstoppable. The Lion is a risk taker. The Lion believes any animal is food for him. The Lion believes any opportunity is worth giving a try and never lets

it slip from his hands. The Lion has charisma!!

So, what is it that we get to learn from the Lion?

• You don't need to be the fastest.

• You don't need to be the wisest.

• You don't need to be the smartest.

• You don't need to be the most brilliant.

• You don't need to be generally accepted to achieve your dreams and be great in life!

• All you need is courage.

• All you need is boldness.

• All you need is the will to try.

• All you need is the faith to believe it is possible.

• All you need is to believe in yourself, that you can do it It's TIME to bring out the Lion in you!

Stay motivated. "Face the terrible, face it boldly".

When Aditya Birla was in charge of Hindalco, one of his senior executives made a blunder that cost the company over `10 crores.

Several top executives thought Aditya Birla would come down heavily on this person and probably fire him from job. But he didn't.

Before he called the man in, he sat down, took a notepad and wrote across the top of it: 'Points in favour of this man'. Then he listed the man's strengths, including how he'd once helped the company make the right decision and earn them millions of dollars.

One of the senior executives who witnessed this Aditya Birla's philosophy, later said, "Whenever I am tempted to rip into someone, I force myself to sit down and compile a list of the good qualities they have. By the time I have finished, I have the right perspective. And best of all, my anger is under control. I can't tell you how many times this habit has prevented me from committing one of costliest mistakes by losing my temper. I recommend it to anyone who deals with people regularly. So before you jump to conclusions about someone, stop, sit down and make a list of person's best qualities. If you do... you may come to a different conclusion.

One thing is for sure, you'll approach the person with the right attitude and may be won't say things you'll later regret".

The Parts of Speech Poem Every name is called a noun.

As field and fountain, street and town.

In place of noun the pronoun stands, As he and she can clap their hands.

The adjective describes a thing, As magic wand or bridal ring.

The verb means action, something done.

As read and write and jump and run.

How things are done the adverbs tell.

As quickly, slowly, badly, well.

The preposition shows relation, As in the street or at the station.

Conjunctions join, in many ways, Sentences, words, or phrase and phrase.

The interjection cries out, "Hark!

I need an exclamation mark!"

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 63

astroturf Job seekers have an opportunity this month. Love can be found in spiritual settings. If you are in a relationship already then the bonds strengthen further. You will benefit from travelling in various aspects.

Aries

Mar 21 - April 20

Greatest days: 19, 20, 29, 30 Hectic days: 21, 22 Honey days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Money days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Profession days: 20, 21, 22, 30 On October 23rd, your 8th house became powerful and remains so till the next year paying off debts or refinancing and restructuring becomes manageable. Health has improved over last month and self-esteem and self-confidence will also get a boost.

(www.dollymanghat.com)

Fortune favours the bold and the lucky

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

other.

TAURUS

April 21 - May 20

Greatest days: 21, 22 Hectic days: 16, 17, 24, 25 Honey days: 16, 17, 21, 22, 26, 27 Money days: 16, 17, 19, 20, 27, 29, 30 Profession days: 20, 24, 25, 30 Health was delicate last month.

There is nothing serious expect for minor glitches in energy levels. Finances remain on the upswing. Keep functionality in mind, keep the things that you use and rest be done away with.

GEMINI

May 21 - June 21

Greatest days: 24, 25 Hectic days: 19, 20, 26, 27 Honey days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Money days: 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29 Profession days: 16, 17, 26, 27 You could experience plenty of opportunities coming your way.

Mixing your work with pleasure is a good idea these days. You will have the energy to complete your tasks effortlessly.

CANCER

June 22 - July 23

Greatest days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Hectic days: 21, 22, 29, 30 Honey days: 16, 17, 20, 22, 26, 27, 30 Money days: 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29 Profession days: 24, 25, 29, 30 You might be travelling for

business-related purpose, which will be fruitful and productive.

There are important career changes happening and if you want to make those changes then at least plan your strategy.

LEO

July 24 - Aug 23 Â

Greatest days: 19, 20, 29, 30 Hectic days: 16, 17, 20, 24, 25, 27, 30 Honey days: 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 27, 30 Money days: 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 27, 30 Profession days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Focusing on your home base and bringing order on that front will help in building your emotional well-being. Since career aspect is not the focus this month there is a nice opportunity coming up this month, so be alert.

VIRGO

Aug 24 - Sept 23

Greatest days: 21, 22 Hectic days: 19, 20, 26, 27 Honey days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Money days: 16, 17, 21, 22, 26, 27 Profession days: 19, 20, 29, 30 Singles are bound to meet up with their prospective lovers.

Health and energy remain good especially until the 22nd. post which you need to take your breaks between work. A successful career rests on a solid psychological and domestic base.

64 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

CAPRICORN

Dec 23 - Jan 20

Greatest days: 21, 22 Hectic days: 29, 30 Honey days: 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 17, 20, 25, 26 27, 30 Profession days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Earnings might be slowed.

Health will be much improved and will improve next month.

If you feel unwell then spiritual healing will benefit you.

LIBRA

Sept 24 - Oct 22

Greatest days: 24, 25 Hectic days: 21, 22, 29, 30 Honey days: 16, 17, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30 Money days: 16, 17, 21, 22, 26, 27 Profession days: 17, 18, 28, 29 Your money house is even more stronger than last month. Health remains good. You most likely will feel more energetic and look dynamic. Your self-confidence will get a boost.

AQUARIUS

Jan 21 - Feb19

Greatest days: 24, 25 Hectic days: 16, 17 Honey days: 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Profession days: 16, 17, 21, 22 You are still at your yearly career peak until 22nd. The overall prognosis is prosperity. Your personal initiatives and skills matter now. Singles might get involved with their bosses.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 - Nov 22

Greatest days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Hectic days: 24, 25 Honey days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Money days: 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 27 Profession days: 17, 18, 28, 29 Health remains good this month.

Your physical appearance is much more appealing and your energy levels also will be high. You should grab financial opportunities.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22

Greatest days: 19, 20, 29, 30 Hectic days: 26, 27 Honey days: 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 27, 30 Money days: 16, 17, 20, 21, 26, 27, 30 Profession days: 19, 20, 29, 30

PISCES

Feb 20 - Mar 20

Greatest days: 16, 17, 26, 27 Hectic days: 19, 20 Honey days: 16, 17, 19, 20, 27, 29, 30 Money days: 16, 17, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30 Profession days: 16, 17, 19, 26, 27 Good news for those who are involved in any kind of legal issues. Your interest in human psyche will also be strong.

Good health means more than physical symptoms. It means good philosophical health.

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PROF. SUDHIR K SOPORY, VICE CHANCELLOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU) Volume 1, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in

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CORPORATE CULTURE

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

INTERVIEW

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

Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR

UNFLINCHING SUPPORT

November 16-30, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 65

the last word

Ganesh Natarajan

Success of Indians abroad

The two weeks in the USA reinforced my belief that the USA is truly the land of opportunity for all, much as we would like to believe that India is getting there with all the fits and starts our economy has been going through

T

ravelling in the US at the end of summer and early fall is always pleasant because the vagaries of the weather are not a factor to consider in planning a trip. In fact, it was not the most pleasant of beginnings for a three-week trip when the British Airways flight at Mumbai airport suddenly experienced a power outage. After fifteen minutes we were told that the insect repellant had mistakenly been sprayed on the electronics and resulted in all the smoke detectors being activated. After serious efforts by “our finest engineers”, BA finally managed a four-hour delayed take-off from Mumbai resulting in a missed connection in London and finally reaching Dulles Airport in Washington DC seven hours later than scheduled.

The two weeks that followed reinforced my belief that the USA is truly the land of opportunity for all, much as we would like to believe that India is getting there with all the fits and starts our economy has been going through.

Three encounters in three cities bring this out. The first was in DC itself where we had the opportunity to first meet the four Indian-American Congressmen or their staffers on Capitol Hill, interact with a young Indian man who has been part of the White House Press Secretary’s office and another Indian who is now the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Each one represents the opportunities that bright and am-

bitious Indians have chased and college mates from IIT Madras, the successes many have enjoyed here is a small firm that boasts of in the country. The Indiaspora some of the topmost American conclave itself, over a gathering of corporate names in Manufacturyoung successful Indians who have ing, Healthcare, Retail, Insurance succeeded beyond recognition in and Financial Services and does business, consulting, academia, truly leading-edge work in the politics, philanthropy and the soapplication of Machine Learning cial sector in the US is always a and Big Data platforms to solve revelation to see the dreams that business problems. What characare being chased by already sucterises Systech is something that cessful Indian Americans—to do is missing in many Indian firms— more for their land of origin and the willingness to seek out the best for the land where they have built talent, pay for it and ensure that their careers and success! they deliver the best returns!

Indiaspora has been built as a Finally, my journey brought worthy institution by entrepreme to a weekend halt with my neur turned evangelist MR Rangaswami. MR Indian intellect has has fused together the prevailed and Indian collective desire of high achiever Indian Amercapabilities must find icans into a unit which many transformative has the potential to make solutions for our country the Indians in Americas as potent a force as the Jewish body, though we may not daughter, a physician scientist at at this point have the lobbying the prestigious Memorial Sloan power or desire that community Kettering Cancer Center, whose possesses in great abundance. passion for cancer research and care is only rivalled by her love Following on from this great for Indian culture, mythology and beginning, I spent a few days inphilosophy. In her words, “my teracting with an outstanding love for cross-cultural exploration company in Southern California, makes me seek out the experiencSystech Inc. as part of our mission es of others across time who have at 5F World to build relationsought shared humanity across ships with a handful of Indian geographies. Megasthenes, a 3rd and American young companies century BC Greek diplomat to the and invest or work with them Maurya court in India, wrote that to take them to the next level of he was surprised to learn that the success. Set up over a decade ago Indians already knew of the Iliad. by first-generation entrepreneur Later scholars have pointed out Arun Gollapudi and two of his

66 / Corporate Citizen / November 16-30, 2017

Ganesh Natarajan at the US Capitol in Washington DC

that Megasthenes had probably heard about the Indian epic the Mahabharata, and that both the Iliad and the Mahabharata share stories, likely derived from a common Indo-European precursor, possibly from the Bronze Age Persian steppe. My PhD advisor and I would often end the working day debating the perspectives of the writers whose work we admired, but whose motivations we did not understand.” In her own style, Karuna is a voyager into the unknown—past and future and will never let a research opportunity pass to unearth the real truth!

It’s not just MR Rangaswami, Arun Gollapudi and Karuna Ganesh but a couple of million of our best Indians who are using their undeniable intellect and passion to help shape the American dream.

They do it with the strength of their training and determination to do their best in their chosen field of endeavor. We have quite a few of their ilk in India too but possibly the problems our country faces are many orders of magnitude larger than the USA. But I remain an optimist—Indian intellect has prevailed and Indian capabilities must find many transformative solutions for our country and countrymen in the years to come!

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

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