CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Nitin Karmalkar, Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University & W N Gade, former VC, SPPU Volume 3, Issue No. 09 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
July 16-31, 2017 / `50
CAREERS IN DESIGN
Bulbul Chaudhary, Director-Admissions and Outreach, Indian School of Design & Innovation (ISDI) Parsons
Dynamic Duo: 54
Second Honeymoon
Legendary Dancing Couple, Shanta and VP Dhananjayan on their togetherness and fame as Vodafone models
Loved & Married Too
Corporate professionals Richa Dogra and Tarun Singh
Interview
CEO and founder of Mydala, Anisha Singh
Survey
HR firm Mercer’s ‘Cost of Living Survey 2017’
2 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 67
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Guest Talk / Capt Shekhar Dutt
Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian
Capt Shekhar Dutt, SM, IAS (retd) is the former Defence Secretary and former Governor of Chattisgarh
1971 – An Excursion in Sindh:
Notings from a Soldier’s Diary This is a narration of events of the 1971 War in Barmer – Naya Chor (SindhPakistan) Sector, seen through the eyes of a young Captain Shekhar Dutt, SM, who later joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and rose to be the Defence Secretary. The narration takes place in the backdrop of operations of 11 Infantry Division (11 Inf Div), which was tasked to advance to Naya Chor – Umarkot across the international border and pose a threat to Hyderabad (Sindh-Pakistan). Shekhar Dutt was posted in 218 Medium Regiment (218 Med Regt) and was affiliated as Forward Observation Officer (FOO) to 3 Independent Armoured Squadron (3 (I) Armd Sqn), equipped with T/55 tanks. This squadron supported by a company of 2 MAHAR was to spearhead the attack in this sector. Captain Shekhar Dutt carried a small green rexine jacketed notebook 2.5"x 4" in his dungaree (overall) pocket; wherein he made very cryptic entries, which have been elaborated from his memory in this narration. The elaborated entries have been edited at places to keep the narrative short and to the point, but what appears in the pages that follow is generally his own words. Nothing has been edited in the narrative that either changes the events or thoughts or the context. The actual entries in the notebook are highlighted and have been produced verbatim. Please refer to sketch while reading the narrative 4 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Source : Journal of the United Service Institution of India
2nd Lieutenant Veeru Jetley, Captain Vikram Deuskar, VrC (Sqn 2IC), Lieutenant Murdhar Singh, Capt Shekhar Dutt and the Tank Driver Bhik Singh
Entry on 21/10: Joined 3 (I) Armd Sqn.
Came to Forward Assembly Area (FAA). On 21st Oct 1971, I along with my Observation Post (OP) team joined 3 (I) Armd Sqn at FAA, situated North of Muna Bao – Khokhropar – Hyderabad (Sindh) railway track. We found that if the OP party, with its radio sets etc, got inside the gunner’s compartment of the T55 tank then the tank commander and the gunner would not be able to operate efficiently. The Squadron Commander, Major Mehta explained that at best only I could be accommodated in the gunners’ compartment of the tank. Realising that there was no point in being cut off from my Technical Assistant (TA) and Operator Radio Artillery (ORA); I declined the offer and chose to sit on the turret straddling the Anti-Aircraft (AA) Gun, with my boys sitting on either side of the turret. As the tank moved with its hatches closed, I found that I had the best view and knowledge of the surrounding areas. In the event of a war, 3 (I) Armd Sqn was to enter Pakistan from the North of the railway track. It would go behind the Pakistani past at Bhitala and the neighbouring areas. Another group was to cross the border from South of the railway track and onwards to Chachro. The Div spearheaded by 85 Inf Bde would move into Pakistan from Gadra Road – Muna Bao Axis near Border Pillars (BP) 810 and 814, straddling the railway track, and onwards to Khokhropar and beyond to Naya Chor. The task of 3 (I) Armd Sqn was to outflank the Pakistani positions so that the main force of the Division found it easy to progress through the enemy defences.
Entry on 4 Dec (2200 hrs): Entered Pak from BP 810.
The armoured group chose to enter at night from BP 810. Complete radio silence was maintained. We moved from the FAA at about 1900
hrs and it took us three hours of fast cross-country movement to reach the border. I think it was on the 4th of December that we had three visitors to the Sqn. They were Lieutenant Colonel Alexander, Commanding Officer (CO) of a Madras battalion, Major Viroo Mehta and Captain Upreti of 70 Armd Regt. They were going to join their formation/unit South of Chachro. I remember they had a meal with us in the open desert. Major Viroo Mehta told us that he had put in his papers and that his discharge from the Army was almost through. However, since the war had started he chose to experience the war first and would then leave the Army. After the meal, they left in a small convoy. Few days later we heard that this convoy was ambushed by the enemy and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander and Major Viroo Mehta were killed while Captain Upreti escaped with a serious injury in one of his eyes. I have always thought that the intrinsic romance of taking part in an operation makes heroes out of brave men. Major Mehta was drawn into such a romance.
Entry on 5 Dec (0600 hr): Entered Bhitala. Pak forces ran. Got some material.
First to fire Med Guns. Before the daybreak we had reached our first destination and started engaging the enemy with direct tank fire as well as artillery fire from the med guns. The Pakistanis had absolutely no clue where this fire was coming from. Radio silence was maintained and full surprise was achieved. Bhitala is on the Pakistan Western Railway and beyond Khokhropar railway station, which is a key station on that track. The bulk of the Pakistani forces got jittery and scattered. On initial searching of some of the Pakistani positions we found valuable clues regarding their formations and composition etc. As we could not afford to July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 5
Guest Talk / Capt Shekhar Dutt
lose time, we carried on towards Naya Chor leaving the mopping up operations to be done by the forward elements of 85 Inf Bde.
Entry on 6 Dec (1300 hr): Entered Vasarbh. No opposition.
(1500 hr): Mines blow off Colonel Handa and Brigadier Kataria. Vikram Burns got it badly (later died). When we were advancing towards Naya Chor, sitting on the turret of my tank, I heard a loud blast. This was a bit strange as, so far, the progress had been without any major opposition. The noise had come from behind us and after a while we could see a column of black smoke from the general area of Bhitala. I drew the attention of the tank commander and it was decided that we turn back with a troop of tanks and engage any Pakistani elements who may have caused that blast. On reaching the site we found that the 85 Inf Bde Commander, Brigadier Kataria’s vehicle had gone over an anti-tank mine. Brigadier Kataria had a bone injury and Colonel Handa, who was the CO of 164 Field Regiment (164 Fd Regt), was also injured. However, the young InSource : Journal of the United Service Institution of India telligence Officer (IO), Second Lieutenant Vikram Burns Appalaswami suffered the most grievous injuries and died while being evacuated. The fact that the Bde Commander had come so far ahead Entry 7 Dec (1500 hr): Under heavy enemy air demonstrated that the 85 Inf Bde had been advancing at a rather fast pace. attack. Four Sabres. I knew the three officers fairly well and felt very sorry to see a look of Registered couple of tgts. Stayed the night in dejection, especially on the face of Brigadier Kataria who I had always Parcha Ji Veri. seen displaying exceptional enthusiasm. I recall him telling us to carry Our camouflage drill paid dividends as the sky was soon swarming with F on and that he would return to take part in the operation before long. 86 Sabre jets, which circled around Parcha Ji Veri and strafed and bombed Vikram Burns on the other hand was showing no signs of any response whatever they could sight. Some of our three tonners, mainly supply veand perhaps had had a massive internal injury. I felt really sorry for him as hicles, were hit. We used our medium machine guns with great effect, only a few days ago he had presented me with a book on the war in Vietwhich kept the enemy fighters at bay. I noticed that Pakistani aircraft on their way back from bombing missions in India dropped their munitions nam. After ensuring that the Bde Commander and the other injured were on forward Indian positions (like our position at Parcha Ji Veri). I reckevacuated for treatment, we resumed our advance towards Naya Chor. oned that in order to prevent the possibility of damage due to friendly fire, Pakistani units identified their own positions to their returning aircraft Entry on 7 Dec (0700 hr): Firing came from by firing smoke shells in a linear fashion demarcating the area held by Parcha Ji Veri (RS). Indian troops. Paying back in their own coin, on a few occasions, I fired Parcha Ji Veri RS is one station short of Naya Chor and almost at the the same colour of smoke shells as a linear target deep inside the Pakistani end of the Pakistani desert and had a spattering of shrubs and bushes. positions. This led the Pakistani aircraft to strafe and bomb their own For the first time since we entered Pakistan we came under effective positions thinking that it was held by the Indian troops. Since the Pakienemy fire. We took positions and engaged them with tank as well as artillery fire from our Med Regt. stani forces were lulled to believe that their own aircraft would not bomb them, they were careless in their movements and thereby attracted the friendly fire. All through the afternoon, I ranged and registered a number Entry on 7 Dec (1000 hr): Entered Parcha Ji of targets. We had dug in and stayed that night in the Parcha Ji Veri area. I Veri (RS) under heavy enemy arty fire. slept under the tank quite comfortably. Since the time the operation had The Pakistanis were desperately trying to stop our armoured started this was the first night that I had really slept. group. However, because we had divided them from their troops at Khokhropar and Bhitala, they were not able to regroup and give us any worthwhile resistance. We entered Parcha Ji Veri RS and found Entry 8 Dec (0600 hr): Left Parcha Ji Veri RS that it had a fairly large compound and well-constructed railway infratowards SW. Under heavy Pak arty fire. structure. However, all through the day the Pakistani artillery kept on We wanted to take a short detour to Naya Chor and outflank it from pounding our positions in the RS complex. We spread out and made the South. However, Pak arty fire continued relentlessly forcing us to good use of whatever little cover was available. take a wider detour. 6 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Entry 8 Dec (1200 hr): Went with one troop of tanks to relieve 10 SIKH LI under counter attack. Our heavy arty fire beats off counter attack.
(1300 hr): We chased them and ran into their arty fire. (1500 hr): We come back in 10 SIKH LI area. Whole night under shelling. While we were taking a detour to outflank Pakistani positions, we came to know that there was a counter attack on the 10 SIKH LI position. Sqn Commander, Major Mehta asked me to take a troop of tanks to support 10 SIKH LI. I readily agreed. While approaching 10 SIKH LI position, I ranged and targeted the Pak arty positions as well as the advancing Frontier Force Battalion. By this time, our fd arty guns had also become available. Our accurate fire broke up the counter attack. We gave the Pakistanis a chase. As we went closer to their positions, we encountered rather heavy arty shelling. This was obviously a well-entrenched defensive position and the Pakistanis were desperately trying to defend it.
Entry 9 Dec (1000 hr): I engaged some targets.
Our HF-24 aircraft rocketed two tanks of Pakistan and burnt them. In the morning of the 9th for the first time we got a hint that Pakistani tanks were around. We located some of their possible sites and I ‘ranged’ them with our guns and conveyed the information to our Air Force. Panic stricken, two enemy tanks broke cover and were spotted by our HF 24 aircraft, which knocked them out. It was a beautiful sight seeing the pair of Marut aircraft coming almost at tree top level, then climbing up and again diving while releasing their rockets at the enemy tanks.
Entry 9 Dec (1300 hr): Engaged targets.
(1900 hr): Came back to re-join rest of our tanks. From the flanks of the 10 SIKH LI position, I had a panoramic view of the Pakistani defences. A larger number of our fd arty batteries were becoming available to me and I was able to bring down our field as well as medium artillery on the enemy. However, as our troop of tanks had been away from the main squadron for over a day by now, it was decided that we re-join them.
Entry 10 Dec: Enemy air came over twice but could not locate us. Whole day we kept our arty fire on various enemy tgts.
Havaldar Keshav Singh, my Mike NCO (for laying telephone lines), was proving to be a man worth his weight in gold as he kept me in contact not only with the Arty Bde Headquarters but also with the regiments and batteries. During the last few days, I had noticed that the Pakistanis had breached our radio net. In order to counter such a possibility, during the exercises I had developed a simple but failsafe code with Keshav. I used to call him on the PRC 25 radio set and give an indication that we should start operating our own code. He would then switch on to another pre-arranged frequency and receive my instructions, again change the frequency and communicate. For every new communication, we had a pre-arranged method of changing the frequency and communicated with each other without any possibility of being intercepted. Havaldar Keshav Singh would then relay my instructions to the concerned gun positions on line. Keshav was responsible for laying the cables for these lines and connecting me with the gun positions.
Many years later in 1991, when I was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence and responsible for major projects, electronics and ship building, I was educated about the technology of ‘frequency hopping’ radio sets then just being introduced in military warfare. Keshav and I apparently had hit on this concept of frequency hopping and used it successfully in the 1971 war much before the development of the technology. I was, therefore, never out of contact with my guns.
Entry 11 Dec (0300 hr): Attack started by 10 SIKH and 2 Mahar.
(0400 hr): All objectives secured. (0400 hr): We moved in for out flanking manoeuvre. This was a major offensive on a feature called Parbat Ali. The attack started much before daybreak. The units of 85 Inf Bde, i.e. 10 SIKH and 2 MAHAR, overran some of the Pakistani positions. Even in darkness, we could see the disarray amongst the Pakistanis. The Sikh and the Mahar war cries were resonating in the desert. In panic, the enemy left their trenches, many of them in underclothing. Later we found that their soldiers, and especially the officers, were a rather indisciplined lot as evidence pointed to the recent presence of women in their trenches. This was in stark contrast with the discipline existing in the Indian Army. The attack on Parbat Ali was undertaken with complete surprise. Some enemy elements were seen sneaking in the general direction of Naya Chor and it was necessary to cut them off. Therefore, we moved our tanks on an out-flanking manoeuvre.
Entry 11 Dec (0900 hr): Ran into dense anti-tank minefield 4000 yards South of Naya Chor.
(1100 hr): Under intense Pak mortar fire. Three tanks caught in the minefield blew. I engage enemy mortars (Target U 1111) by 164 Fd Regt. I still recall that morning of 11 December. It was biting cold with low visibility. At a distance of about half a kilometre, we could see people running away from us. My TA Virender Pal Singh looked up at me from his perch on the side of the turret with a silly grin. I asked him what had happened. He told me that his rifle was not firing. Apparently, he was trying to fire at some shadowy figures about 250 meters away. I told him to hold his fire because they might be our men. As the tank closed in we found that, indeed, they were 10 SIKH troops carrying out mopping up operations. Our tanks continued moving forward, cleared a hump and suddenly came into a depression. The first few tanks went 30-50 yards into the depression. Lieutenant Murdhar’s tank was the first one and I was sitting atop the second tank. There was a loud thud like sound and my tank, on whose turret I was sitting, suddenly jumped a couple of feet. Then the tank sank in the sand with a big jerk. The bogey wheels of my tank had been disengaged from the tracks thus making the tank completely immovable. Suddenly it was all quiet. The tanks had all stopped in their tracks. I realised that my tank had gone over an anti-tank mine. Thirty yards ahead on our left, Murdhar’s tank had also halted but it was safe. At a distance on my right, I could see one more tank squatting in a peculiar position, clearly incapacitated by another anti-tank mine. It was clear that our tanks had gone into a minefield. Continued on page 54 July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 7
Contents 26
Cover story
Dynamic Duo 54
Second Honeymoon A delightful interview with Shanta and VP Dhananjayan, the renowned classical dancing couple and Padma Bhushan awardees, who stole hearts of millions as models for creative ads for Vodafone SuperNet 4G
11 11 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 15 MANAGE MONEY How Nathan Rothschild made a million pounds profit in a day! 16 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why 8 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Volume 3 Issue No. 09 July 16-31, 2017 www.corporatecitizen.in
18 THE TAX MAN COMETH SK Jha, former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax on farmers’ loan waiver 21 HEALTH Dr Ashwin Porwal, a Proctologist says fitness is flexibility of the body 22 STARTUPS CEO and founder of Mydala, Anisha Singh, on growth story of the merchant marketing platform
22
16
34 CAREERS IN DESIGN Bulbul Chaudhary, DirectorAdmissions and Outreach, Indian School of Design & Innovation (ISDI) Parsons on career opportunities in design
38 34
38 CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP In-depth interviews with Dr Nitin Karmalkar, newly appointed Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University and with Dr W N Gade, outgoing VC, on the various aspects of the university’s governance and education 46 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Swapnil Sanjiv Bambale shares his campus placement experience
18 50
48 LOVED AND MARRIED TOO Corporate professionals Richa Dogra and Tarun Singh on their journey together 50 SURVEY 2017 Cost of Living Survey by world’s largest HR firm Mercer 56 PEARLS OF WISDOM Dada J P Vaswani on the art of forgiveness
46
48 July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 9
contents
56 Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinitapune@gmail.com Assistant Editor Prasannakumar Keskar prasanna.keskar@gmail.com Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com
58 BOLLYWOOD BIZ Corporate Citizen brings to you the best Bollywood films without songs
Sub-Editor Vineet Kapshikar vineetkapshikar@gmail.com
60 MOBILE APPS A look at the best smartphones with dual camera
Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur, mathurpradeep1@gmail.com/ Sharmila Chand
66 LAST WORD There is much to be done for Indians who come from underprivileged classes-By Ganesh Natarajan
58
Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra Manager Circulation Mansha Viradia +91 9765387072, circulations@corporatecitizen.in West : Jaywant Patil +91 9923202560 North : Hemant Gupta +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G +91 9941555389
66
Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com
60 Be A Corporate Citizen
How do you like this issue of Corporate Citizen - The Cool Side of Business? Send in your views, news, suggestions and contributions to corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! 10 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar On Cover Page Shanta and V P Dhananjayan Cover Page Pic Sharp Images 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 Pune to be Startup Capital?
The hugs that hogged the limelight It was like a scene from Bollywood or Hollywood, the great reunion of lost friends or brothers, as they were seen hugging time and again. This was none other than US president Donald Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in their first meeting. This had the international media and social media go gaga. Encashing on the scene, London’s Daily Telegraph ran a story with the headline “Modi’s Trump card: Indian PM eschews handshake with President in favour of a hug.” And so was Washington’s Wall Street Journal in its page one photograph with this pun: “Trump and India’s Modi grapple with divisions, embrace ties.” It was hugs and hugs, as though they were meeting after a long period, but it was the first time they met and this was the untold story. Trump furiously patted Modi on the back and then took a moment to look at him closely. And as they went back to their respective places, Modi held on to Trump’s hand for an extra second. Commenting on this hugging episode, social commentator Santosh Desai describes
that handshakes indicate reserve and distance in a relationship, while hugs show familiarity, signalling peer status. He goes on to say, “Hugs were a compensatory mechanism, a way of bridging anxieties during Modi’s early days as PM. They were silent yet visible declarations: I belong to the world stage.” Hugging is a very basic way of showing warmth. Modi’s greetings are nothing new, these being common occurrences ever since he took over as PM in the year 2014. Former US President Barack Obama, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, former Australian PM Tony Abbott, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak, UAE’s Crown Prince Sheikh Md bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, —he’s enveloped them all in embraces. Some of them have been described as awkward (with former French President Francois Hollande, 2016). The latest embrace was with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel. Kingshuk Nag, author of a biography of Modi believes the PM “wants to show the world he is pally with global leaders, like Nehru was.”
Oxford of the East and the IT hub, Pune is one of the most liked cities in the country. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has urged all concerned to make this city the most sought after by making it the Startup Capital of India, with its own Startup Policy. Fadnavis said this policy will bring in more investment. Many sops are being included in the policy, which is being drafted to attract entrepreneurs. The features in the Startup Policy will be on the lines of the central government’s policy, including state government concessions to start ups. The state-run Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the state government have set up a `200-crore venture capital fund to provide easy financing options to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs. A 2% reservation of space in IT parks for incubator firms is in the pipeline. Though Mumbai is the commercial capital of the country, its startup ecosystem is ranked third by Nasscom in its latest report, ‘Startup India: The Momentous Rise of the Indian Startup Ecosystem’. While Bengaluru tops the Nasscom index, the National Capital Region (NCR) takes second position. Among the emerging cities, Chennai is first, while Pune is behind the leader.
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 11
collywood Deutsche Bank MD joins JP Morgan IDFC Bank elevates Kakar as MD and CEO IDFC Bank has elevated its CFO Sunil Kakar as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. The bank also announced that the board has approved Vikram Limaye’s resignation as MD and CEO. He is to join NSE as MD and CEO. The board of directors have approved the appointment of Sunil Kakar as the MD and CEO three years, IDFC Ltd said in a regulatory filing. Kakar joined IDFC as the Group Chief Financial Officer and was responsible for finance and accounts, business planning and budgeting and investor relations, among others. Earlier, Kakar was CFO of Max New York Life Insurance Company since 2001. He also had a 18 year long stint with Bank of America in various roles.
Managing Director and investment bank head of Deutsche Bank AG, Ravi Shankar, has found greener pastures as he joins JP Morgan India’s investment banking team as Managing Director. Ravi Shankar put in his papers after a two-year stint with the bank. He has over a decade of experience in financial services, specialised in investment banking. Shankar will report to Kaustubh Kulkarni, head of India investment banking. Shankar joined Deutsche Bank in 2015 from the Avista Advisory Group, also an investment banking firm with operations across India and South-East Asia, where he was MD (investment banking). At Avista, Shankar was involved with deals such as Foreign Currency Convertible Bond (FCCB) restructuring of Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd and Suzlon Energy Ltd. Prior to joining Avista, he had a nine-year stint with UBS Investment Bank. At Deutsche Bank, he earned many laurels for strengthening the capital markets business, which saw the bank win several equity and debt financing mandates. He was involved in the ICICI Prudential Life initial public offering and the Federal Bank Ltd qualified institutional placement. Shankar, who has seen many summers in this field
was a part of several debt transactions such as $300 million worth of bonds of Motherson Sumi Systems Ltd, refinancing of $350 million worth debt of engineering services firm GlobalLogic, refinancing term loans and bonds of Novelis Inc. worth $3 billion, and $400 million worth debt refinance of data analytics firm Mu Sigma. He has also worked on helping Yatra list in the US through a special purpose acquisition company merger. Among others at JP Morgan India’s investment banking, he will be working alongside Nitin Maheshwari, head of India M&A, and Vinay Menon, head-equities capital market.
Sanjay Bahl, MD & CEO of Centum Learning Sanjay Bahl has been appointed as the Managing Director & CEO of Centum Learning. Sanjay will be driving a scalable business strategy leveraging the strengths of the company besides evolving skilling ecosystem. Sanjay brings in over 30 years of rich experience in different sectors, especially in education and skilling space. His contribution to key Skills Forums like CII, ASSOCHAM, SSCs, NSDC etc is widely acknowledged by the industry. He was associated with CII-National Committee on Skills Development, 2016. Earlier in 2013, he had presented a paper at ISB Hyderabad on ‘Innovative Solutions towards Market Awareness and Technology for a Sustainable Retail (student pay) model for Skills programme’. Sanjay was the President and Director of NIIT’s Skills Initiative JV and the National Channel Head of their Skills and Career group before joining Centum. He has also been associated with Crompton Greaves, CASIO, and MTS. He was with Bharti Airtel for over 10 years. 12 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Trump effect is nil on TCS
Protectionism in the Western markets has done no good, is what Tata Consultancy Services Chairman N Chandrasekaran of the country’s largest software exporter feels. It has not changed anything for TCS. “On the ground, nothing has changed. We continue to operate successfully; we continue to recruit people in every market,” Chandrasekaran, who got elevated as the Tata Sons Chairman earlier this year, told TCS shareholders at an
annual general meet (AGM). He said TCS adheres to local laws in every country it operates in and is among the “top recruiters” in each of those markets, including the US. TCS had drastically reduced the number of visa applications to the US to a third of the normal, much before Donald Trump came to occupy the White House. It had also said it would be hiring 10,000 in the US, the largest revenue contributing geography. New Chief Executive Rajesh Gopinathan said, TCS had hired 79,000 globally last fiscal year, including 11,500 in foreign markets. Chandrasekaran, who was the CEO of TCS before being elevated as Tata Sons Chairman in February, said the global business environment is increasingly adopting digital technology and the world is transforming fast. With business leaders speaking of data as the new oil, the head of the saltto-software conglomerate said data excellence will be the most important theme in the future and will hold true for all sectors beyond IT as well.
USL veteran Gill now CEO of Allied Blenders Paramjit Singh Gill is now CEO of Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD), the Kishore Chhabria-controlled company. He recently quit United Spirits as CEO where he was leading Sales and Operations as the President. The country’s largest spirits company USL has named Prathmesh Mishra, who joined from French rival Pernod Ricard two years ago, as its new President, Sales and Operations. USL is engaged in an intense battle for leadership in the domestic premium whisky market where Pernod Ricard has had a lead for over a decade.
Twinkle Khanna to come back to celluloid? Making films from novels is nothing new, but there have been a few who have made it in a big way, and Twinkle Khanna, actress-turned-interior designer and author, could well be joining the elite club. This one is expected to give the movie a strong plot, likely to be coming from `The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad’, a collection of four short stories by Twinkle’s second book, which came after the success of Mrs Funnybones. The film will be produced under the Mrs Funnybones Movies banner, but Twinkle was ambiguous on the details. “Well, I do not expect anything. I will decide if
and when it will happen. I live in the present, and do not plan my future,” she said when queried if she is open to the idea of writing a script of her story for any Bollywood adaption. On asked if a filmmaker can do justice to a story when adapting it from a book to celluloid, she said, “How is that possible? When you read a book, you are creating a world in your head. How can somebody just replicate that? For instance, I might just talk about a non-descriptive face in my book. When you are watching that on screen, you are getting a visual reference, and then it is limiting the imagination.”
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 13
collywood Facebook reaches 2 billion MAU milestone The Facebook recently crossed the 2 billion Monthly Active User (MAU) mark. Celebrating this, Mark Zuckerberg said in his post, “As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially 2 billion people! We’re making progress connecting the world, and now let’s bring the world closer together. It’s an honour to be on this journey with you.” Facebook now leads the number of logged in users as compared to YouTube’s 1.5 billion and Twitter’s 328 million. Launched in 2004, Facebook had reached 500 million users by 2010. It crossed the one billion and one and a half billion mark by 2013 and 2016, respectively. The rising number of affordable smartphones, continuous optimisation of the app for these smartphones and increasing penetration of internet has helped the social media giant to write its success story. In 2011, Facebook acquired Snaptu, an Israeli startup and launched Facebook Lite, which does not require high speed internet for less smarter phones. It helped Facebook reach 200 million users in countries like Nigeria, Vietnam and Bangladesh. It has also come out with Messenger Lite and new Instagram offline modes. Recently, Facebook launched a mission “Bring the world closer” to bring the platform closer to people.
Ex-ISRO chief, Kasturirangan to spearhead NEP
Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan who steered the Indian space programme as Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) between 1994 and 2003, will lead the nine-member human resource development committee on the National Education Policy (NEP), as its Chairman. The other members of the committee apart from Kasturirangan, in this Prakash Javadekar-led HRD ministry include educationist Vasudha Kamat, Vice Chancellor of SNDT University, Mumbai, retired bureaucrat K J Alphonse, Manjul Bhargava, Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, Ram Shankar Kureel, Vice Chancellor of Baba 14 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Saheb Ambedkar University of Social Sciences, Mhow, T V Kattamani, Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, K M Tripathy, Chairperson of Uttar Pradesh High School and Intermediate Examination Board, Mazhar Asif, Professor of Persian, Guwahati University and M K Shridhar, Member, Central Advisory Board of Education and Member Secretary of the Karnataka Innovation Council and Karnataka Knowledge Commission. According to the statement issued by the ministry, “In an exhaustive exercise carried out over the last 30 months, the HRD ministry has received thousands of suggestions from educationists, teachers, experts, students and other stakeholders from across the country. This panel has been appointed keeping in mind that the members bring expertise related to the diverse areas of education. Significantly, the panel also reflects the diversity of the country as the members belong to different sections as well as regions.” A couple of years ago, the HRD ministry had formed a panel under former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian on the New Education Policy, and the inputs from this panel would be used. Kasturirangan has been conferred the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. He has also honoured with the Award of ‘Officer of the Legion d’honneur’ by the President of the French Republic.
Sarkar is Exide’s new CHRO Ranjan Sarkar, the former VP, HR at CEAT Tyres, is now with Exide Industries as its EVP, HR and CHRO. He joins the battery manufacturer with more than 18 years of cross-industry experience, in industries such as automobile, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, BFSI and media and communications. He also has had diverse experience in change management in people practices, strategic partnership to business, championing M&A, building HR roadmaps for south Asian countries and building HR organisations in greenfield assignments. Before Exide Industries, Sarkar worked with CEAT Tyres as GM, HR, where he has been since 2008. In his new role, Sarkar will be based in Kolkata at the headquarters of Exide. The company, founded in 1947, has plants across India and Sri Lanka. Sarkar, an MBA in HR from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, began his career in 1999 with Shaw Wallace as a management trainee and later moved up the corporate ladder. He has been with Kotak Life Insurance, GlaxoSmithKline and Zee Entertainment among the other big corporates. Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com
manage money Dr Anil Lamba
The Battle of Waterloo and the London Stock Market The Battle of Waterloo took place in Belgium on June 18, 1815. While it marked the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, look who actually won in terms of money!
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
T
Nathan Mayer Rothschild
he year was 1815. The Battle of Waterloo was being fought between the Duke of Wellington, representing the then superpower Great Britain, and Napoléon Bonaparte of France. It was a decisive battle in the sense that its outcome could tilt the global power balance in the favour of France in case Britain lost. Also on the outcome hinged the fortunes of the London Stock Exchange. If England regained supremacy by winning the battle, the stock market would expectedly shoot up and, without a doubt, crash in the event it lost. Investors in London were eagerly awaiting news from the battlefield. But it was early nineteenth century. There was no BBC, no satellite TV and no internet. The battle was being fought at Waterloo, far away from London. News of what happened in one part of the world reached another, perhaps 24 or 48 hours later. The Rothschilds were then, and continue to remain even now, a prominent family, having diverse business interests across Europe, including in Germany, Austria and the UK. They possessed a personal communication network, which included carrier pigeons, that enabled them to obtain news from different parts of the world the earliest. The advent of the internet and the World Wide Web has created a level playing field. Before this, information was power. Much of the wealth of the Rothschild family can be attributed to their ability to learn of important world events before others.
Napoléon Bonaparte
The head of the family in England at that time was Nathan Rothschild. Londoners were aware that Nathan will come to know the result of the battle before them. So the strategy was to watch Nathan. If Nathan started to buy in the stock market, it would signal England’s victory. And if he began selling, it would indicate English defeat. Nathan was also aware that everyone was watching him. The battle was fought on Sunday, June 18, 1815. Nathan did come to know of English victory one full day before rest of the people. On Monday, June 19, when the stock market opened, instead of buying Nathan started selling. As a result, the London stock market collapsed. There was a favourite phrase used by Nathan himself, ‘The time to buy is when blood is flowing on the streets.’ On this Black Monday, blood was flowing on the streets. When the markets reached rock bottom, Nathan started buying. Thus, in one day, Nathan made a profit of a million pounds (equal to about 800 million pounds today). (to be continued) Dr Anil Lamba is a practising chartered accountant, financial literacy activist and an international corporate trainer. He is the author of the bestselling book ‘Romancing the Balance Sheet’. He can be contacted at anil@lamconschool.com July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 15
wax eloquent
India is moving faster
Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in the business world
Collecting bits of happiness
What is worth far more?
“Capital doesn’t provide validation; customers do. We have to just focus on the time put in by the entrepreneur, which is worth far more than the capital that the investor is putting in. The customers need to like the business.” Shripathi Acharya, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Prime Venture Partners Courtesy: https://yourstory.com
“I have spent my lifetime collecting bits of happiness. And still I wasn’t happy, till I realised real happiness was with those who were not collecting bits of happiness, but giving out bits of happiness. Writing a cheque is easy. Getting emotionally involved and giving yourself to the service of others is much more difficult.” Lalit Khaitan, Chairman and MD, Radico Khaitan
Courtesy: http://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in
It is the time to look at below the ground
Large organisations are run by people
“Large organisations are run by people. It is confidence and trust of the rank and file in the management at every level that matters. The differentiator has been that I have experimented a lot. Two critical positions in banking are branch manager and regional manager. If you are able to choose the right type of people at these levels, things will happen automatically.” Arun Tiwari, CMD, Union Bank of India
Courtesy: http://www.business-standard.com
16 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
“Government has supported on electricity, government has supported on the seeds, government has supported on fertiliser and government is waiving the loan, all these things are happening above ground. It is the time to look at below the ground. You have so much of wealth below the ground—natural resources sector can create the largest employment.” Anil Agarwal, founder and chairman, Vedanta Resources
Courtesy: Mint
Enough to do if we keep reinventing “Good news is we do not have too much business for somebody to eat into. Today, large banks are paranoid about what digital holds in the future. The future is going to be very different. Today, we are bigger, but five years back nobody was talking about us. There is enough to do if we keep reinventing ourselves. We reached this far with some innovation in the business model.” Rajeev Ahuja, exe. director, RBL Bank
Courtesy: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
My story of India “My story of India is that when a taxi driver picked me from Delhi airport and told me that it took him four days to reach Delhi from Chennai. I was shocked. I asked him how much he can pay to fly. And he gave me a price. We are about two-thirds of the way to make that man fly.” Tony Fernandes, group CEO, AirAsia Courtesy: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
I think everything is an opportunity
“When I wake up in the morning I think everything is an opportunity. It’s just a mental flip. Your life will be better and you will be able to solve the big problem and build a very successful business. I would just say, when everybody is trying to be pessimistic, you should be optimistic.” Bala Parthasarathy, Co-founder, MoneyTap Courtesy: https://yourstory.com
Optimistic about India GST impact
“The Government will have the option of reducing taxes, increasing infrastructure spending, or both. The successful implementation will change the orbit for our markets. Just consider this. Even without the GST, the World Bank expects our per capita GDP to rise to USD 2100 from the current USD 1750. Better demographics and a decreasing percentage of the dependent population would work wonders on our consumption patterns. The Nifty level will merely be a function of this number.” Dhiraj Relli, MD and CEO, HDFC Securities Courtesy: http://www.moneycontrol.com
India a very rapid innovator “India will be the fastest growing economic engine in the world—I said that three years ago, I used to describe India as having the chance to move from a slow follower to a very rapid innovator, I think that transition has occurred. India and US will be among the top-three economies in the world in 2050. India is moving faster than any of the other country in the world.” John Chambers, executive chairman, Cisco Systems
“He (Narendra Modi) is a very action oriented, detail oriented, he has been getting things done, he is very strong, he is charismatic and so we are quite optimistic about India. Very confident. They are doing everything right; the biometrics, the bank accounts, the infrastructure, focusing the issues, being pragmatic, so we are quite optimistic.” Jamie Dimon, CEO, JP Morgan Chase
Courtesy: Mint
Courtesy: http://www.moneycontrol.com
One thing that has not changed is human nature “Capitalism is a wonderful way to generate innovation and create wealth. But it has this troubled history around its distribution of wealth and that’s caused a ton of problems in the past and something we have to think harder about for what’s going to happen in the next generation. The one thing that has not changed is human nature. That’s the reason we have repeated financial crises—because there is this cycle of greed and fear that drives financial services (and) keeps repeating itself.” Geoffrey G Jones, Harvard Business School professor Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com
Everywhere I turn there is something so deep going on
Missed opportunity
“Creatively exploiting the rich history, mythology and heritage of India has been a missed opportunity. Whether it’s film-making, gaming, tourism or literature, we have not leveraged even one per cent of the content available to us.” Vineet Bajpai, Founder and chairman, Magnon Group Courtesy: http://www.afaqs.com
“One of the reasons it would be so hard for me to leave this country, is that everywhere I turn there is something so deep going on. That way I’m lucky in terms of the worlds that I move through here, whether it is in the Narmada Valley or in Kashmir. It is a very anarchic, unformatted world that I live in. To me, if anything it is an overload of every kind of stimulus.” Arundhati Roy, author, Courtesy: http://www.thehindu.com
The way sportsmen in India are marketed “You have to understand where the commercial market is going. In general, the money has increased in the sport, the money has increased with brands, so it’s always going to be a progress. The guy coming in after this group of cricketers is done, they may make more money with brands. And the game is progressing as well, going a little bit more global, and all these factors play a massive role in your brand valuation going up.” Virat Kohli, Indian cricket captain
Courtesy: http://www.livemint.com
Women empowerment in Bollywood
“If we talk about women’s empowerment, there is a big difference in the film industry today. We have women in capacities other than just as heroines. That in itself shows how progressive our country has become. I have always believed that Bollywood has been one of the most progressive industries in the world.” Kajol, actor
Courtesy: https://www.pinkvilla.com
Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 17
The Tax Man Cometh
Let’s not rob our own country!
by S K Jha
(IRS (retd) and former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)
For a country our size, the tax kitty is too small and the demands on it too many. When governments waive off loans and hand out doles, it is the taxes that we pay that get drained into unproductive channels. The truly needy need assistance, not those with the means. It is time we all thought of our country first
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” Consider the case of middle class parents and their growing children. Parents work very hard to bring up their children in order to make them successful in their lives. Which parent will not like to spend whatever they have to get them the best possible education and a comfortable life? However, with the cost of living going up, sometimes parents have to work extra hours to meet the requirements of their children. In many cases, mothers too have to work to generate additional resources so as to give their children a good life. On their part, some children are very sensitive to the situation of their toiling parents, while there are also children who keep on increasing the demands on their parents. To bring peace, parents stretch hard to meet the unjustified demands of such children and the process goes on as new demands surface. Such children get spoilt, and for them parents are just money making machines. The situation faced by a middle class family described above resembles the situation faced by our country today. We are a country rich in history but poor in resources. We are a country with about 130 crore people but 30% of our population live below the poverty line. We are a country with the maximum number of malnourished children. We are a young country but the majority of our youth are unemployed or under employed. We are a country with the maximum number of people engaged in agriculture but we also have a large number of cases of farmers committing suicide. Consider the nation as our parents and we citizens as their children, and then observe and analyse the various demands made by various sections of us. We hear the demands of salary 18 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
hike, pension hike and farm loan waivers. We see strikes on issues relating to language, caste, religion, the creation of separate states and even splitting the country. We see agitations when loss making public sector companies are intended to be privatised or when land is proposed to be acquired for creating infrastructure for the country’s economic growth and for creating jobs. The
noise of demands and visuals of strikes and agitations are very disturbing when our country does not have adequate resources to meet them.
Too many demands
A nation will always want its citizens to be happy in the same way that parents try to keep their children happy. But there is a limit beyond
which the country cannot go, beyond which it will fall into the debt trap. To meet all the demands, the country will have to divert all its income from developing activities and also go for more borrowings. Genuine demands within available resources can be met, but not all the demands of the people who are insensitive to the economic health of the country. It is like killing our country for our greed. One very unfortunate thing happening is that, in many cases, political parties are behind the agitations and strikes with a political goal in mind, at the cost of the interest of the country. With this in the background, it is essential to know about the earnings and payments of the government of India. Citizens and various groups making demands must look into the country’s finance to find out whether there is adequate money to be doled out. Our Union Budget for the year 2017-18 is for `21.47 lakh crore. The break-up of money coming to the central kitty in percentage terms is as under: •From corporation tax (Income tax on companies)… 15% •From personal Income Tax… 16% •From Custom Duty… 9% •From Central Excise Duty… 14% •From Service Tax… 10% •From Non-Tax revenue… 10% •From Non-debt capital receipt… 3% •From borrowings and other liabilities… 19% The break-up of money going out is: •On central plan expenditure… 11% •On interest… 18% •On defence… 9% •On subsidies… 10% •On non-plan expenditure… 5% •On states’ share… 24% •On non-plan grants… 13% •On assistance to states and UTs... 10% The revenue deficit and fiscal deficit resulting from income and payments envisaged is `3,21,163 crores and `5,46,532 crores, respectively. Our tax to GDP ratio is about 13%, which is much less compared to the major developing countries. Our income will increase only when our tax collection increases. The saddest part is that we keep on making demands, but we forget to pay our taxes. The country is not an income-earning business entity, but gets its money from our contribution in the form of tax. More we contribute, bigger will be the kitty of the country from which the country can spend on development and welfare measures. These days, farmer groups are most visible through their agitations seeking waiver of loans, although they do not contribute in the form of tax, since agricultural income is non-taxable under Income Tax.
There are really poor farmers who deserve help and the state must stand behind them. But there are really rich farmers as well who have bigger loans, and now through agitations, want their loans to be waived.
Kitty too small
For a country of about 130 crore people our tax collection is very small. It is sad to note that only about three crore people file income tax returns out of which real tax payable returns are about 1.5 crore only. There is noise for demands but there is no noise for doing our duty in paying our taxes, which can make our national kitty bigger in the process. All of us can have a share in the cake only when the cake is big enough. Since independence, our economy is partly dependent on borrowing, both domestic and external. There is nothing wrong in that if it is not big, and if the borrowing is for development and creating infrastructure. As of today, we pay huge sums as interest which amounts to 18% of our total outgoing payments. Such large payment as interest bleeds our resources. Even for the current year, we have envisaged a substantial amount of money coming to our kitty from borrowings. Our country will fall into a debt trap if we keep on borrowing money for activities that do not increase our income earning capacity but go into meeting the insensible demands of our people, or giving doles to people for political gains. If we avoid taking loans, yet are constrained to meet the demands of doles and waivers, then we will have to curtail planned expenditure earmarked for development. The result will be temporary happiness of some of our people and some ego satisfaction for the agitationists, but then we will have less roads, less electrification and less employment generating infrastructure. We have to understand that it is our money in the national kitty and the payments by the government will be just diversion of our money from one pocket to another. In the case of needs like natural calamities or for really needy people amongst us, there is no harm if some of our money goes for help and philanthropy, but not otherwise. The government is just a custodian of our money, paid in taxes.
1947 and India came out of the darkness as one big country, but we the people have remained divided over caste, religion, regions and languages. We failed to fully understand that we are Indians first. Nationalism was not taught to us. The Britishers had sowed the seeds of divide and rule for their comfort in ruling this big country, but unfortunately the seeds sowed remained embedded even after they left. India embraced democracy and good things linked with democracy like the fundamental rights of freedom of speech, but it also brought many political parties for whom winning elections was
"Genuine demands within available resources can be met, but not all the demands of the people who are insensitive to the economic health of the country. It is like killing our country for our greed. One very unfortunate thing happening is that, in many cases political parties are behind the agitations and strikes with a political goal in mind, at the cost of the interest of the country"
‘Self’ comes first
Our country got independence in the year
more important than nation building. We have sailed through 70 years since independence, but things have not improved, as 'self first' has remained more important than 'Nation First'. Things have rather deteriorated with the advent of many TV channels, as these identity groups making demands at the cost of the nation have become more active in getting TV coverage. We see strikes and agitations and then some anti-social elements adding fuel to the fire to get more mileage. Public properties are burnt and violence is created to bend the government to get their demands met. The right of freedom of speech is misused to abuse India and say things, which may ultimately hurt our economic health, our integrity and our sovereignty. Sometimes we do things not intending to hurt, and sometimes through ignorance, not knowing that they will adversely affect India. Such people have to be taught about India, about the Indian economy so that they mend themselves and do not go after the wrong causes. People July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 19
The Tax Man Cometh who intentionally do things, which harm our country should be treated under the due process of law.
Stop the blackmail
This country is ours. The only way the country can grow is when we all think for it. We must be contributors, be it by our money in the form of taxes or be it by our labour. We should not be black mailers or extortionists to rob our own country. We must know how much our country can afford before putting up our demands. We should not blackmail the government, as some of us constitute sensitive groups of caste, religion or of profession and vocation. Political parties have to win elections, so those in government may succumb to the blackmail, but the end result is bad for the country. There may be some black sheep amongst us but the majority of us want that India should emerge as a great powerful country and this
"The saddest part is that we keep on making demands, but we forget to pay taxes. The country is not an income-earning business entity, but gets its money from our contribution in the form of tax. More we contribute, bigger will be the kitty of the country from which the country can spend on development and welfare" can be possible only when we start thinking ‘India First’. It is known that we are a developing country, and that many of us are poor and have desperate needs, so there is no harm in asking for additional help, but it should not take the colour of extortion by cyclic violence as it happened during the recent agitation of farmers in several parts of the country. I feel that on many occasions the demands are made out of ignorance. If farmer loans are waived countrywide, then the central and the state governments together will have to pay out more than three lakh crore rupees. This will increase our fiscal deficit, which will result in a jump in inflation. Our people, including all farmers will have to buy items of daily need at 20 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
much higher prices while there will be no rise in income. The pain caused will be much more even to those who get the benefits of doles and waivers.
Demand for better means
We should demand, not for doles waivers but for means to increase our income. In the case of farmers, the demand should be for better seeds, fertilisers at affordable price and better facilities for irrigation. We must remember that money given in doles or waivers is not the money of politicians running the government, but our money contributed by our tax paying brothers and sisters. Let the money be used for making a better and stronger India. We are a country with two bad neighbours on the east and west of us. We are troubled everyday by the proxy war going on in Kashmir. We will not like to have wars but we have to strongly fight any war that is thrust upon us. This requires the building up of our arsenal with latest equipment and devices including modern fighter planes and the same require sizeable investment. As of today, our expenditure on defence is `2,74,114 crores which constitutes 9% of our outgoings. We hear news that our arsenal requires massive modernisation if we have to fight
the battle on the two fronts of China and Pakistan. We have to generate more resources to fund the modernisation of our air arsenal and in this context, the slippage of our money in doles and waivers will be suicidal. A big proportion of the income of the Union government goes to the states, and a sizeable 10% of income goes on subsidies. In this situation, there is not enough money for expenditure that does not help the economy. Now, the country is entering a new era of taxation under GST and it is not known how our national or state kitty will do. We have to keep patience before we go in for demands of self-interest. Let us see the country growing and we will grow simultaneously.
CC
tadka
Dosa, India’s favourite breakfast Dosa is preferred by majority of Indians as breakfast food. A survey by Swiggy based on online breakfast orders, placed across over 12000 restaurants in the country, revealed that dosa was the most ordered breakfast over other dishes like poha and parathas. The survey also revealed that breakfast orders peaked during weekends as 30% of urban consumers order their weekend breakfast online.
health
D
Fitness is flexibility of the body Fitness is not just about keeping the body fit but also keeping your mind fit. Both require continuous and sustained effort. Think positive, fill in each bit of your day with positive deeds and try until you succeed. One who does justice to the body will always do justice at work By Sharmila Chand
r Ashwin Porwal, a Proctologist, firmly believes that ‘Pain is what matters the most to the patient, and it is this pain that needs to be taken care of’. This belief led to the genesis of his motto ‘Curing with Care’. He has a strong opinion that many ailments can be non-surgically taken care of, if they are treated holistically. He says that many people are unaware of the consequences of an unhealthy and fast life. Observing this lack of knowledge in society, Ashwin has put in special efforts to spread awareness among the masses, be it the corporates in companies like Infosys, Wipro, Tata Motors, or the ignorant people in the smallest villages of the state. To date, hundreds of seminars, health camps, awareness talks and free health check ups have been conducted by him and his team of trained doctors and staff. Recently, he conducted a special awareness talk for the police force, as he realised that they were particularly vulnerable to these problems, occupational hazard posing a threat. On the academic front, Ashwin has presented many research and study papers in various international conferences, a result of hours of study and analysis at the operation table. His papers have been published in international journals, a matter of pride for any doctor. He was recently awarded with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, 2015, for his contribution to the health sector.
Your philosophy on fitness?
Fitness is not just about keeping the body fit but also keeping your mind fit. Both require continuous and sustained effort. Think positive, fill in each bit of your day with positive deeds and try until you succeed. One who does justice to the body will always do justice at work.
What is your idea of fitness?
I believe in doing mild to moderate intensity cardio daily. Instead of using elevator, take the stairs. Do all your activities on your own like
lifting objects, getting water, carrying luggage... that itself leads to a good cardio workout. Nothing like incorporating exercises into your daily routine.
What keeps you fit and healthy?
I walk a lot from one cabin to another during my working hours. I walk when I am talking to someone over the phone. When I go for a walk, I take the longest route so that I cover more distance. Since I brisk walk, I cover-up that time. I take the stairs even if I have to go to 10th floor. I love playing cricket. I play with my son and his friends and make sure that I run like them.
Your stress busters?
An half an hour of exercise for two or three days in a week. Playing outdoor sports like cricket.
Your food philosophy?
Eat less and stay active. Have lots of citrus fruits, ghee and drink good amount of water. Start your day with a heavy breakfast. Don't eat anything after 8pm. Have small and frequent meals.
Your exercise fundamentals?
I believe in mild form of exercise just to keep the muscles toned. Stretching and yoga gives you lot of flexibility. For me, fitness is flexibility of the body.
Your diet fads?
I try to include as many as superfoods-antioxidant rich foods-in my diet as possible, such as, dates, ghee, lemon, milk, Chia seeds, Quinoa and Flax seeds.
Your flexibility routine?
Minimum 5-10 mins of body stretching daily. Deep tissue body massage once a month.
Your healthy dose as parting shots?
I usually skip one meal of the day when I know I will go for a party. That compensates for the extra calories you consume at a party. In addition, one should workout for minimum 30 minutes either on the day of the party or the next day. chand.sharmila@gmail.com
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 21
Startups
More than a
Startup Mydala, a merchant marketing platform that aims at supporting businesses reach out to the target audience by way of mobile apps and the web, first stepped into the scene in 2009. Eight years later, the platform has evolved to become the largest online deals and coupon provider in India. The CEO and founder of Mydala, Anisha Singh, who spent 12 years in the USA lending help to women entrepreneurs raise funding, talks all things Mydala... By Namrata Gulati Sapra How did the idea of Mydala come about?
Mydala is actually my second company. My first company, Kinis Software, does digital content and has a joint venture with one of the largest real estate marketing firms in the US. When Kinis was doing well and was quite self-sufficient, I started thinking of doing something more “cutting edge�. I was looking for ideas and came across the Chinese getting together and getting a discount. The same model seemed to be evolving in the US as well. It made perfect sense to try it in the Indian market, where the only idea that had taken off was the experience of hybrid e-commerce in travel, wherein you buy online but have your experience offline. However, in the first six months, it also became clear to us that the main need was on the merchant or the small business side where they had limited options to market themselves. Over time, we developed Mydala into a marketing platform that helps all businesses, espe22 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
cially local businesses, to market themselves via social media, mobile and our website. We help businesses build brand awareness and drive conversions to them. We help local businesses as well as online companies reach their right target user group leveraging Mydala’s various platforms. We started in 2009, sharing our first office with a dental clinic to now, when we are present in 209 cities with 38 million registered users.
What were the major challenges while founding Mydala and how did you overcome them?
Building a business in India takes time, patience and real work at the ground level. The cost of customer acquisition is daunting in India and our focus was to build a great product, and scale with a clear path to profitability. Over time, we have understood the market, the needs of our merchants/users and have built a solid product and innovated constantly. Now that we are sitting on a great product, we are scaling up rapidly.
Since our users are both merchant and general consumers, we have to wear both hats and make the user aware that we cater to both groups effectively. From day one, we believed that the word of mouth marketing would take us a long way and help create a sustainable base of users that will be our biggest champions. Today, even with millions of subscribers, our customers who joined us at a viral level, remain our most involved and vocal users. With so many companies mushrooming up in the space, it is truly the word of mouth, which will drive online sales. From day one, it has been about delivering great value-for-money deals to our consumers. Being an entrepreneur the second time around, I know that any business will have its share of highs and lows.
How did you rope in brands for tie-ups?
Getting people and convincing them to use a new service was a challenge. With so many
“The cost of customer acquisition is daunting in India and our focus was to build a great product, and scale with a clear path to profitability. Over time, we have understood the market, the needs of our merchants/users and have built a solid product and innovated constantly� July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 23
Startups companies mushrooming up in the space, it is truly the word of mouth, which will drive online sales. We don’t believe in going in for heavy advertising, but have been driven by delivering good value-for-money deals to our consumers. This is something that merchants have understood over time and we have worked with the best of brands as well as innumerable local merchants. To add, we have worked with over 1,50,000 merchants across 209 cities at Mydala. Everyone from a small to a big brand, such as VLCC, Café Coffee Day, Domino’s Pizza, Cleartrip, PVR Cinemas, YLG and Naturals Salons to an Aura Thai Spa etc. I think businesses that are consumer focused and realise that the consumer finally has a voice as in with social media will do well. Businesses that care about customers and realise that they need to be accessible to customers from all modes-online, mobile, offline will do well.
What were the risks involved in founding a startup. Did you have a backup plan?
My philosophy is-“Either do or do not, there is no try”: Not quitting is half the battle won. There should be no such thing as Plan B. I want to clarify, I am not talking about innovating or pivoting but you definitely can’t be thinking if this doesn’t work then I’ll go start to work with my dad or my chacha. If you’re doing this it better be your best shot. Most importantly, idea mai dum hona chaiye. (The idea should be power packed.) If you’re building a product that’s redundant, then is there a problem.
is grossly underdeveloped. To crack that, and get to the masses, especially outside the major metropolitan cities is hard. We were fortunate to have understood mobile and ridden the mobile wave when no one had thought of it, plus we had morphed into a local merchant marketing platform. I think our competitors found it hard to scale or maybe didn’t understand that an Indian model worked better than a Groupon model. There are only a handful left and they operate out of a handful of cities that we are in. Groupon recently exited—they sold their business to Sequoia, who relabelled it ‘Nearbuy’. There are a couple of other smaller ones in smaller pockets. There are different online cash back sites, but nobody is really trying to understand the user in their entirety. For us, it is about understanding and personalising everything for the user. We’re the only company that showcases local deals in over 150 cities in India and more than 75% of our business comes from mobile now. We have spent considerable time and research on understanding the pain points that the merchants had in terms of marketing themselves. We built out a complete merchant marketing platform that allows the merchants to come and pick the way they want to market themselves and track the response that they get. We aggressively focus on mobile-it has been
look at ways of going pan India with a services marketing platform for local business as there was none, especially outside the six metropolitan cities. But I have never thought about giving up. I live and breathe Mydala and my family. So I don’t know what I would have done. I do know that these have been the most fun years of my life. Everybody looks back to their teens or 20s and say, “Oh! wow those were fun years. But these have been my most fun years.” It’s been very exciting ever since I started this company. So I don’t know what I would have done if Mydala had failed-I would probably be moping somewhere I guess.
In which part of India is Mydala most popular? And what do you think makes it so popular?
With a presence in 209 cities, Mydala’s reach is pretty vast. Besides the metros, we get a lot of traffic from the tier-II and tier-III cities.
Tell us about your partnership with Bollywood.
Bollywood is a vertical that we have relied upon since very early. We were one of the first online marketing platforms that tied up with major production houses for their launch promotions, leveraging the power of our marketing channels and telco associations. We have worked with all the big names and big stars like
Tell us all about the growth story of Mydala.
When we started, we had 52 competitors (including seven, more heavily funded than us). We started with angel funding of $0.2 million from family and friends. InfoEdge was our first investor. In total, Mydala has received 20 million funding. Today, the number of competitors is reduced to less than a handful. As the market leader, Mydala is present in 209 cities and we have 38 million registered users. We have 6.6 million transactions per month-85 per cent of which comes from mobile. Every day, 1,50,000 vouchers are downloaded from Mydala by mobile users. We have launched in Dubai last year and are now looking at alliances and acquisitions to grow in other countries as well.
There are so many portals like Mydala out there. How do you tackle competition?
Building an offline to online business isn’t easy in any country but in a country like India, it’s exceptionally hard because the infrastructure 24 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
the largest revenue and page traffic driver for us. We have exclusive partnerships with most of the telecom partners and OEMs in the country.
Did there ever come a point when you felt like giving up on Mydala?
To be honest, there have been days when I’ve felt that this is not working out. In 2011, Mydala’s obituary was written but me and my co-founders refused to hang up our boots and call it a day unlike most of the internet based companies. With limited funding and virtually no support from the industry, we started to
Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra have vouched for Mydala!
What are the three factors to which you would attribute the success of Mydala?
Firstly, we tailgated on the most popular categories. And I always say that in India, the one thing that sells is the ABC-Astrology, Bollywood and Cricket. At any given point in time, you will see in Mydala’s history, these are the three verticals we have leveraged heavily-tying up with Bollywood, doing tickets for crick-
We women are born with the wonderful quality of empathy but we tend to take it a step further by trying to not offend anyone. There will never be a perfect time or scenario to start your own business. If you wait for all your stars to align, it will never happen” et matches and of course astrology, which is an evergreen vertical on Mydala. Secondly, we relied heavily on virality-giving/rewarding our power users that have helped us in the initial years of growth by inviting their friends. There is a stat at Mydala,
Anisha Singh was an in-demand panelist at the Boao Forum for Asia 2017
doesn’t fail to remind me how easy it would have been if we would have just gone with something that explained what we did. Mydala in Sanskrit means ‘my group’ and in Bengali ‘my basket’-I like it, plus we wanted something that could go international and mean everything and nothing at the same time.
How does people’s perception of startups in India differ from people’s perception of them abroad, since you have experience of the latter?
that one person invites 17 other people to it. Third, which I think has been the most important-we started out aggressively on mobile in 2011 when not a lot of companies were leveraging the platform heavily. We also advertised on mobile-of course at that point the ad rates were less! But all this, along with our strategic alliances, have created the user base that we have today.
What exactly does the term/ name “Mydala” mean?
It’s an odd name and my marketing team
While there are differences, there are parallels also that can be drawn in both cases-women in general tend to second guess themselves all the time and across the globe! I guess it’s inherent in our nature. The glass ceiling exists in the US just as much as it does here, but it’s just that women in the US become independent a lot earlier as opposed to India where we have structural support. But I’ve heard more guts and glory stories there than here in India.
What is your message to those aspiring to have a startup? Anything that you would like to say to women entrepreneurs in particular?
I’m going to quote Gandhi here, “We should be the change we want to see”. If more of us don’t actively make an effort to join the workforce or start a business, then this change where women are the norm and not the exception will never happen. Over the last seven years, I’ve talked to several women who tend to second guess
themselves. We women are born with the wonderful quality of empathy but we tend to take it a step further by trying to not offend anyone. There will never be a perfect time or scenario to start your own business. If you wait for all your stars to align, it will never happen. It’s best to just make a go and adjust your sails along the way. If there is a perfect time for women to start their own business, it is now. My advice to anyone who is starting a business is-do what you enjoy doing. If you start a business with the idea where the basis of everything is to raise funding, it’s sure to fail. Start something you love and ensure that it is solving a need or is disrupting something like time or convenience. Focus on building a sound business and the rest will happen. Make a dent in the universe however, big or small. namratagulati8@gmail.com
CC
tadka
India’s gender ratios skews further
Almost all regions of India are now affected by a skewed sex ratio at birth, as per data from the latest report compiled by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). In fact, India’s gender imbalance may be deepening. At the last national census in 2011, India was found to be producing 919 girls for every 1,000 boys and has been warned that the imbalance will be economically disastrous.
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 25
Pics: Sharp Images
We evolved with the same dance form, same philosophy and so we have always been comfortable with each other. We share so many similarities that, unlike marital couples who often have contrasting views over many issues, we have hardly quarrelled − Shanta 26 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Cover Story Dynamic Duo: 54
Shanta and VP Dhanjanjayans
Second Honeymoon Sometime in early 2016, the Airtel Girl, Sasha Chettri, created a splash with her fresh, innocent looks in the smart Airtel advertisements. Just when you thought no other mobile company could steal the ad thunder from Airtel, Vodafone literally walked off with the smiles by launching the Dhananjayans-Shanta and VP, the renowned classical dancing couple of Chennai and Padma Bhushan awardees-as models for their extremely creative ads for the SuperNet 4G. These ads, brought in early this year, brought smiles on the lips of millions of television audiences. Corporate Citizen spoke to the dynamic septuagenarian couple who are fighting fit, endlessly energetic and enthusiastic, who greet surprises as positive challenges and have a childlike disposition towards life, to be enjoyed every moment By Vinita Deshmukh
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 27
In
one of the tranquil residential areas of Adyar in Chennai, stands a bungalow featuring typical Kerala architecture. It is a famous landmark as it houses 'Bharata Kalanjali', the renowned Bharatnatyam dance academy, run by Shanta and VP Dhananjayan, both of who are recipients of the prestigious Padma Bhushan awards, and are internationally acclaimed in the world of performing arts. While until recently, their fame was confined to the magnificent world of classical dance; overnight they have become famous as models for Vodafone’s SuperNet 4G. The duo make a striking pair as models in several variants of the advertisement, shot in Goa. They continue to receive rave reviews and congratulatory messages for the ease and finesse with which they performed before the camera, which they say was all about running from one real life scene to another, rather than some stiff posing before the camera in a studio, as they had expected. As I approach the bungalow, VP Dhananjayan is already outside the gate, ready to receive me with a namaste, clad in his traditional attire of dhoti, kurta and angavastram slung around his neck. His gentlemanly and humble disposition is amazing-no pride or arrogance of this sudden advertising fame or his long standing success as a classical dancer. As we entered inside, Shanta, his wife, greeted me with warmth and childlike enthusiasm. Both are so people-friendly and ready to narrate their tryst with modelling that it has made them favourite subjects for print, radio and television interviews.
Corporate Citizen: So how did the opportunity to model for Vodafone come about?
States Shanta, with a glint in her eyes, “It happened early this year. You won’t believe it, one Sunday, we were having breakfast with our son Satyajit, when suddenly he got a call. It was one of his friends. He asked him whether we would be interested in doing a small ad for Vodafone. He, in turn, asked us and we both looked at each other and said okay, why not. And that’s it - by 3 pm on the same day, the Casting Director arrived from Mumbai, clicked our photographs and took some video shoots. She then took some of the photographs and video clippings on a CD to send it to the film company located in Bengaluru. They, in turn, promptly called us to tell us that they had booked our tickets to Goa the very next day.” Says VP, “We were selected because they were not on the lookout for actors-they wanted a real life, elderly couple.” They immediately flew to Goa, anticipating a studio, where they expected to model as per the instructions of the Art Director. But, lo and behold, they were made to go all over Goa to shoot on outdoor locales, including the Chapora Fort made famous by the Bollywood super successful movie, 'Dil Chahta Hai'. Says Shanta, “We had to visit Goa twice, and shoot for ten days in all. It was a totally different experience for us-we had no clue what the shoots would be, so we were highly charged. They were packed with elements of surprise too. For example, for the shooting of the scene where we had to go to the Chapora Fort, VP was asked to ride a scooter and take me pillion on it. If you have seen the ad, it begins with us asking one of the shopkeepers to guide us how to go there. But VP does not know how to drive the scooter…” Elaborates VP, “They arranged for a trainer who would teach me how to ride it in a day’s time. However, I was not too confident, although I seemed to get the hang of it. So, they actually spotted a guy who resembled me-who was part of a crowd for an earlier shoot of the train scene where we were alighting on the platform. He was part of the crowd gathered there who had come to see his wife off. It is amazing how perfectly they shot the scene with my look-alike. Modelling for advertisements is like being in a different world. I had modelled for Nerolac Paints a decade ago, but at that time, it was just a static kind of modelling. Now, they make it look like real life experience.” 28 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
We always keep creating; every day is new for us, so everything that we obtain is adventure for us. Both of us are in the same field; there is a lot of give and take between us, so we understand each other. There is no disparity in our ideas − VP So, how has it been to be suddenly in the limelight?
They have suddenly become busy giving interviews and getting calls from their friends!
What is this advertisement all about?
With a tagline #MakeMostOfNow, it revolves around the Second Honeymoon of an elderly couple, making the point that these days mobile internet is being used by different age groups, including seniors. And that, with Vodafone’s SuperNet 4G, the user need not be worried about usage and network. In an interview to Adage India, Siddharth Banerjee-Executive Vice President, Marketing, Vodafone India, has stated, “Our research and consumer insights indicate that mobile internet is increasingly being used by customers across different age groups for multiple applications like live
Cover Story
Dhananjayans enthusiastically modelling in outdoor locales in Goa, with ease and agility for Vodafone SuperNet 4G
streaming, maps, movie download, group video calls, etc. Vodafone continues to invest in building Vodafone SuperNet 4G – The Data Strong Network, to provide a fast and consistent mobile internet experience for our customers. Our latest campaign captures moments from the life of an old couple who are young at heart and out on a trip to MAKE THE MOST OF NOW with the Data Strong Network.”
Dancing has kept us fit
VP is 78 and Shanta is 73 years old. What is the secret of their unending energy and fitness? Says Shanta, “See, it is all because of Naatya. Couples like us have been through dancing since childhood and that is the best way to keep fit, besides contributing to our rich, cultural heritage.” Adds VP, “We always keep creating; every day is new for us, so everything that we obtain is adventure for us. Both of us are in the same field; there is a lot of give and take between us, so we understand each other. There is no disparity in our ideas. We don’t dispute on most of the issues-we have the same kind of taste and attitude. That’s why our life has been so happy and has kept us in good spirit, always. No negativism overpowers us; we always think positive and advise people to think positive.’’
Growing up, dancing together
A Politics and Economics graduate, VP Dhananjayan arrived from his village in Kerala to Kalakshetra in 1953 as a young boy. He received training in Bharatanatyam and Kathakali simultaneously, which he performed with equal proficiency. He was also given a scholarship to study at Kalakshetra where the rigours of his education and way of life prepared him to meet the challenges of life. Initially, his dance training and education in Kalakshetra
was the only contact with the outside world. Much of his inspiration, dedication and attitude to life were fashioned here. Shanta Dhananjayan holds a Post Graduate Diploma with distinction in Bharatanatyam and has also learnt Kathakali and Carnatic music from Kalakshetra. She was the leading female dancer for Kalakshetra from 1955 till 1968. Though Shanta was born in an affluent family in Malaysia, she traces her ancestry to Kerala from where her family had migrated to Malaysia three generations ago. She joined Kalakshetra as an eight year old in June 1952, a year before Dhananjayan did. Says Shanta, “Both of our upbringing has been at Rukmini Devi Arundale's Kalakshetra, where we literally grew up, watched together and studied together. So we evolved with the same dance form, same philosophy and so we have always been comfortable with each other. We share so many similarities that, unlike marital couples who often have contrasting views over many issues, we have hardly quarrelled.’’
Jab We Met
VP: I joined Kalakshetra in 1953 and Shanta was already there since 1952.
Once, my Ashram Guru called Shanta and told her that she is the only one who knows Malayalam and so she should speak to me and guide me. That was our first meeting. Thereafter, she was chosen to play Sita and I, Rama, for the Valmiki Ramayana dance drama and that got us closer during the rehearsals and performances of this show, outside Kalakshetra.
When did they fall in love with each other?
Says VP, “We can’t pinpoint, but we developed a liking for each other. I expressed my love one day but she was frightened to reciprocate. She was afraid of what the teachers would say and besides, she was extremely serious about her work. Propelled by my friends, I would pick up courage to time July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 29
My grandmother always taught us to be respectful of women. She used to always ask us to respect and be protective of our sisters. Our teachers too would teach us to respect girls and protect them. These days, there is so much sexual abuse and assault happening because our education system has gone wrong − VP
Both students of Kalakshetra, Shanta and VP fell in love and eventually married in 1966
Dhananjayans are internationally acclaimed for their soul-stirring performances
30 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
and again express my feelings for her, but she would just run away when she saw us coming. But in the dance class we were free with each other, and she hinted that she was interested in me by the way she spoke to me. However, she wanted it to be such a secret that she used to shudder even during the enactment of Valmiki Ramayana, when we, as Rama and Sita had to hold hands during the marriage scene. Adding further, he says, “In those days, a love affair was taboo, so she didn’t explicitly express her love for me even when it was time for her to go back to Malaysia after graduation. So all my friends thought it was the end of our love affair. However, three years later when her mother decided to search for a groom for her she broke down. Her mother understood her and asked her whether she was thinking about me. She burst into tears and confessed. Her mother warned her that I came from a humble background so would she be able to cope. But if she was in love with me and firm about marrying, she would be happy getting her married to me. At the same time Rukmini Devi asked her not to waste her talent by residing in Malaysia, so she returned to Kalakshetra. Soon, we had a long tour to Australia in 1966 for the Valmiki Ramayana play which brought us together for four months. We came back from Australia and soon got married. We had a small marriage, all expenses borne by my in-laws. I had to borrow `500 from my friend in Kalakshetra for a small reception.’’ Two years later, in 1968, VP Dhananjayan left Kalakshetra to found the Bharata Kalanjali dance academy. Shanta continued at Kalakshetra and joined him in 1970. Ever since, they have worked relentlessly to make it a renowned academy, honing the dancing skills of hundreds youngsters, making professional dancers of many of them.
Cover Story In the backdrop of growing intolerance between young couples of today, what is it that has kept their marriage going, over 50 years?
VP: Firstly, one must consider marriage as a very important and divine in-
stitution. This in itself will set your attitude towards marriage-that it has to be carefully nurtured. For this, the attitude of give and take is very important between the couple. You should have an open mind to accept each other’s good and bad things. As for us, we have understood each other perfectly and only think positively about each other. Professionally too, we have no clashes. I think it is God’s grace that we think alike always. Shanta: For me, growing up in Kalakshetra and having this connect with him was very lucky. In those days, I was afraid to show my love and used to hide my feelings. It was a difficult period, as somewhere in my heart I knew he was the right person for me, but I had to keep it close to my chest. As a result, I have given him some trying times. I didn’t want to give him too much hope, although I knew I would get support from my parents. I was mature enough to be careful, as I knew that if I was firm, my parents would surely support me.
What do they like about each other?
Shanta: Firstly, he is an artist, par excellence. For me, he is top notch.
Secondly, he is very straight forward, sometimes even to the point of being extremely curt. He may seem rude, but I know he doesn’t mean to be so. He takes quick decisions while I like to mull over them. And of course, he is a handsome man and I am proud of that. VP: I always had in mind that a good wife should have the
five qualities that are mentioned in one of the Sanskrit shloka from Subhaashitam (good talks) or Neethisaaram: essence of righteousness : kaaryeshu manthri (efficient like a minister), karaneshu daasi (work in the spirit of service), rupeshu Lakshmi (beautiful like Mahalakshmi), kshamyaa dharitri (Mother earth like patience), sneheshumaataa (affectionate like mother), sayaneshu vaishyaa (the ideal wife), shatkarma naari kula dharmapathni (these are six attributes of good house wife).’’ This is what I learnt as a child and she has fulfilled each and every of this criteria. Since the Kalakshetra days, I found her very intelligent, beautiful and talented in dancing. My grandmother always taught us to be respectful of women. She used to always ask us to respect and be protective of our sisters. Our teachers too would teach us to respect girls and protect them. These days, there is so much sexual abuse and assault happening because our education system has gone wrong. Unless we bring moral studies in the education system, atrocities against women will not stop.
Is our rich cultural heritage of performing arts, commercialised?
VP: There is lot of commercialism in the world of art in terms of artists
trying to promote their own personality instead of promoting our rich cultural heritage. Our art and culture is based on Sanatan Dharma, which means, you have to live a good family life. You should live by the philosophy of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam, implying that you must think of everyone as a part of your family and love all people. Instead, people in the world of art, have become money-minded. Today, sitting on the seat of power, politicians don’t know
Dhananjayans with their Guru, Rukmini Devi Arundale
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 31
Cover Story the value of art and culture. Unfortunately, even in our Constitution, art and culture have no priority. It is in the last list, in fact, exactly 64th in the priority list. Our ancient kings had art and culture as the first priority. That is why they left so much through monuments, literature and art. It is because of this art and cultural heritage they left behind that our country is respected by international scholars and tourists; not because of the industry or the minds that we have. This is not realised by the corporate houses, the CEOs-they rarely understand the value of classical dance heritage so neither they nor the government encourage art and culture. Art is projected superficially for VIPs during some events. The government has not been able to maintain most monuments of our country. We have so much, but do they keep it clean? Do they look at it in the right spirit of joy and pride? No.
Has the Arangetram too become an event for flaunting?
Shanta: Parents and teachers are both Recipients of Padma Bhushan pushing the child-they are in a hurry to put up the child on the stage and make it a huge event. We tell the parents at the outset, please don’t talk about when the child will perform on stage. He or she is here to learn an art form and by that, he will learn everything from physical fitness to mental awareness and finally to become a good human being. When they come here, we insist upon discipline, devotion and dedication. We call it the 3D VP: Even in our Kalanjali, we talk about Swachh Bharat-keeping everything clean. Our body has to be clean, our environment has to be clean always, and then only can we think clean. That is what Naatya does to the students. It cleans your mind, body and spirit, and enhances spirituality. Spirituality takes you to a higher level of thinking. That is what is taught in Naatya and Nrutya. Today, children are more influenced by the film world. Here, we teach them to be traditional, which includes dressing up decently and even wearing a bindi. Traditionally, the bindi is meant to be medication for the brain and the body because it was made up of turmeric and lime, which are disinfectants. The area where the bindi is put is the most vital area of our brain. Not only for
Our ancient kings had art and culture as the first priority. That is why they left so much through monuments, literature and art. It is because of this art and cultural heritage they left behind that our country is respected by international scholars and tourists; not because of the industry or the minds that we have − VP
Indians, but the practice of wearing the bindi is prevalent all through South East Asian countries. Whether it is the 3000 year old Chinese statue of kings and queens or the statues in Cambodia-they all wear bindis.
Child upbringing
VP: Our children learnt by example. They saw what we taught our students,
of which they were also a part. Our house and our dancing institution are on the same premises, so our children have watched the way we treat everyone equally and so they have imbibed the same spirit of equality and respect towards all. Artistically, they have been growing under the influence of Naatya and Nritya and hence it has been a good upbringing. Both our sons are artistically inclined. We have no problem with our children, they have been brought up very well, and both are artistically inclined. Our elder son, Sanjay is an Electronics Engineer with distinction and has an MS degree in CIM programme from the Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT Rochester, NY with distinction. He is a sensitive musician, both in Carnatic vocal and Mridangam. Sanjay, along with a few African and American drummers and musicians, has an ensemble group in Indianapolis, US, giving regular performances, outside his Management career in Computer Technology. Our younger son, Satyajit is a dancer par excellence and also plays the violin and tabla. He has combined all these in his visual communication career as a photographer. Satyajit has opted to be a professional photographer. His advertising photography for different commercial products are already making a mark in the field, as did his performances in the dance and music field. Shanta: Our sons also have good human values and we are very happy that they have something of art and beautiful culture in them. They have not forgotten the values inculcated in them during childhood.
Children of today
VP: As compared to our days, children these days have too much curriculum in school that is unnecessary for them. Unfortunately, they don’t have
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much time to pursue their passions. Often, they are packed with extracurricular activities that their parents want them to pursue and not what they would like to do. There is too much of parental and peer pressure. If somebody is doing something, parents feel, my child also should do that. We never thrust that on our children. We would like our grandson to learn dance but he likes horse riding and we are all encouraging him in his pursuit. Shanta: Children these days are very disturbed, and we keep telling them, if you do well in whatever you are pursuing, you will have better recognition and you will be the recipient of many other achievements. You need not be a professional dancer or a music professional but when you learn these art forms, it will reflect in whatever profession you have chosen.
Do you think that art should be a part of academic curriculum?
VP: Absolutely, art integrated education is the solution for all the atrocities
happening in the country. Our education system should be revamped and reinstated as in the olden days. There should be yoga, dance, music and painting classes as an important part of academic curriculum and any one of the art subjects should be made compulsory for the child.
All those who want to be artists must pursue their goal and get encouragement from teachers and parents. Always think of the profession first; keep practising it relentlessly and passionately and do it well. Those who take up art as career, project the art and the art will project you. As for the rest of the youngsters, have devotion, dedication and discipline towards whatever you are doing, even if it is small work − VP
What is the philosophy of life that you live by?
VP: Om Sahanavavatu, sahanaubhunaktu, Sahaviryamkaravavahai, Tejasvinavadhitamastu, Ma vidvisavahai. This is what our Upanishad says. Which means, eat together, work together, let us sharpen our intelligence together and have no enmity towards each other. Shanta: Yes, this is the most beautiful part of the Upanishad and we try to inculcate it in all our children.
Secret of keeping fit
Shanta: At the end of the day, getting fulfilment is very important. And you must feel good in whatever you are doing.
Advice for the future generation:
VP: All the kids who are interest-
ed in art, all those who want to be artists, must pursue their goal and get encouragement from teachers and parents. Always think of the profession first; keep practising it relentlessly and passionately and do it well. Those who take up art as career, project the art and the art will project you. As for the rest of the youngsters, have devotion, dedication and discipline towards whatever you are doing, even if it is a small work. Have a positive attitude and listen to the elders. Shanta: I agree with all what he has said, I think these days we need to be able to be patient and patience means you need to understand other people. And not jump to conclusions. Digest what they are trying to say and then give your opinion in a calm manner. Do not get into a heated conversation or be argumentative. There is a saying in Malayalam, ‘If you eat slowly, you can even eat a thorn’. Like that, the most difficult things
in life can be taught or explained if you do it with a little more love and understanding. I think this is what we should inculcate in ourselves.
How should corporate houses help in preserving and promoting art and culture?
VP: Corporate houses, first of all, should understand the value of art and
art integration in education; they should understand that art contributes to the development of any initiative. It should not be looked at for monetary benefit; this is often the case with government and corporate houses. They only see it as a performing and entertaining act. But connected to the art field, there are so many industries surviving, which are getting so much of business and also foreign exchange. For instance, if you take theatre, there are so many small things in theatre, starting from your makeup, costume, light and sound and so on-they are all contributing to the economy of the country, which our politicians and corporate houses don’t realise. According to my estimate and my statistics, these arts earn a sizeable amount of foreign exchange. So corporate houses should spend on art and culture and help artists who are leaving behind a legacy of art and culture, be it in the form of sculptures, paintings or performing arts. I am sculpting new sculptures to leave behind a legacy of new postures that have been developed over and above the ones we see in temples, like in Mahabalipuram, for example. However, this requires funding. We should have state-of-the-art monumental theatres, which will encourage artists and leave a legacy of art and culture behind for future generations. vinitapune@gmail.com July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 33
NHRDN Career Fest 2017
Future of Jobs:
Careers in
Design The Government of India has unveiled several initiatives aimed at generating employment and employability through initiatives such as ‘Make in India’, ‘Startup India’ and ‘Skill India’ to name a few. These initiatives aim 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 Mumbai Chapter of the National HRD Network had recently organised their 2nd edition of the 'Career Fest' in Mumbai. The aim was to provide the student community and young professionals an indepth understanding of career opportunities in diverse sectors and enable them to make informed career choices. A third generation educationist, Bulbul Chaudhary, Director-Admissions and Outreach, Indian School of Design & Innovation (ISDI) Parsons, possess a diverse yet distinctive academic record. Corporate Citizen presents her talk on career opportunities in design, wherein she comes out with her succinct observation among learners. Working with the very young and the very old appears to her as the need of the hour and she believes that interaction with either lends holism to learning By Rajesh Rao 34 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Every business must make design sense today
I did my graduation in Science and I moved to design thereafter. But, one fine day I happened to be in a room like the one we are in and that’s when my career moved from design to business. For the longest time, I have worked in marketing and sales. Lot of people would ask me, eventually, where had I done my MBA from and the honest truth was that I had not done any MBA. I use to feel a little awkward about this and one day I came home and asked my husband that may be, I should do MBA. He said that how many designers do you know who are actually
working in the business field-so to that extent you are special. And I just changed the way I looked at myself and thought back—what is it about a designer that allows them to function even in a business world. I have come to realise after nearly two decades that every business must make design sense today.
Design thinking
So, if you go to IBM today there is a design department. Of course, all your FMCG companies would have a design department, but would you expect an IT company to have a design department—probably not. Why suddenly design is something that everybody is talking about and more so in last 5-6 years the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and IIM-Ahmedabad, has a module called design thinking. I ask myself—I have been doing design for 20 years, why is that people have started to talk about design.
Future belongs to a very different kind of people
There is this book called ‘A whole new mind’ authored by Daniel H Pink. According to the author, the human mind has two parts, the right and the left and most of us have one part of our mind little more aggressive than the other. In the last few decades, I belonged to certain kind of a person with a certain kind of a mind. So, this certain kind of person is being a computer programmer who could crack codes and who could craft contracts, MDs who could crunch numbers. If you go to Bengaluru, it is just IT—you could be playing golf on the golf-course and you can ask where should you touch the ball to, towards Microsoft, towards Accenture, IBM, or Cognizant—this is the way your roads are laid out now. That’s how much IT there is, but the keys to the kingdom are now changing hands. Future belongs to a very different kind of a person with a very different kind of a mind.
Who are these different persons?
Creators and empathisers, pattern recognisers,
“Creators and empathisers, pattern recognisers, storytellers, caregivers, big picture thinkers will now reach societies with richest rewards and share its greatest choice. In times to come, right brainers—right brain is the creative brain—will rule the future” July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 35
NHRDN Career Fest 2017 storytellers, caregivers, big picture thinkers will now reach societies with richest rewards and share its greatest choice. In times to come, right brainers—right brain is the creative brain—will rule the future. The world is divided into people who are practical and people who are creative. The MBA persons are all creative—you understand your excel sheet. And then there are the creative types like the artists. But, is it so that business people don’t have to be creative. Is your mother not creative—all these years ever since you were in school, every single day she had to be creative enough to decide as to what to put in your tiffin. Did it not call for any creativity, or is it just a business mind. So, the first creative person you probably know or the designer you probably came across was your mother. All children are creative, give them a colour pencil and you know what they do to the walls. But you often hear parents say, “My child is just not creative”. What happens to creativity as we grow—we begin to think that we are not very creative and many times we think we are not creative because we cannot draw—drawing is not creativity, it is just an expression of creativity.
Doctors also need to be creative and empathetic
I was listening to a Ted talk video of Dr Devi Shetty from Bengaluru. Talking about empathy—this doctor runs a very big cardiology centre in Bengaluru called ‘Narayan Hrudalaya’ and also runs a smaller specialist unit in Bengaluru itself. He says, after the surgery happens, the post-operative care is just as important as the surgery. In fact, the first week after surgery is just as critical as the surgery, because that’s the time you are likely to get an infection. That’s the time your body is coping up with foreign bodies. The patients continue to live in the ICU and after five days they are discharged, after telling the patient’s near and dear one’s to take care of the patient. These near and dear one’s have no idea of how to take care and nurse the patient. So, talking about empathy, what this hospital is, soon after the surgery, whosoever is the guardian of the patient, they are expected to nurse and take care of the patient along with the medical staff, for all of those five days. So, they know exactly what the patient is going through. And then, when the patient gets discharged, the family members know exactly how to take care. Can you imagine a doctor has to be so creative? And he is one of India’s leading doctors. But, doesn’t that doctor got to be creative enough in thinking about how to make life for the family members
and the patient, a little better post-surgery? And that’s empathy! So, empathy is when you feel what the other person feels. So, it’s that the doctor needs to be creative, doctor needs to be empathetic and so should anyone else. The only place you can’t be empathetic is in the Indian Army.
We all are part of a value chain
As the economies are moving from the people’s bags to an intellectual or a knowledge driven economy, that’s what the evolution of man would look like—you know about the Darwinian human evolution from a monkey to a man. In the same way, economy has moved from agrarian to mining, which is the industrial revolution, to the classic briefcase man—the IT and technology economy, which we are living, and the last one is where the man can pick up his art palate and become the artist or the designer. Remember that all designers are not artists—art and design are two different things. Everyone knows about the food chain, we have microorganisms like algae and fungi at the bottom of the pyramid, followed by fishes, then the herbivores and carnivores, and then the human beings at the top. It means that for one man to survive, you need so much going for you. The remerging value chain looks somewhat similar—we have come to realise that we are just as important as anyone else. The snake may be as important as the human being, simply because there might lie something out there, which might be a cure for a disease, yet not found. So, there is a value chain where there is an equal amount of place under the sun for everyone.
What’s design got to do with value chain?
Pics: Yusuf Khan
Referring to the story of a man called Doug Dietz—what do you think Dietz does for living? He is basically a technical person, from a company called General Electric (GE). He made large MRI machines, which is a scanner that scans a human body and virtually slices your body. If there is anything like small clot or tumour in your body, the machine can detect it. This gentleman, because he made these machines, he would actually go to the hospitals where his machines were being used. He wanted to know how well the machines were functioning or whether its components were fine, where there any glitches. One day he went
“‘Make in India’ is great, but if you make and design in India, you have all the value right here. That’s exactly why people are suddenly talking about design and that’s why we are talking about digital India, ‘Make in India’, and ‘Startup India’ and so on” 36 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
to a children’s hospital and he saw the parents with their little five-year-old daughter. He saw the little girl crying. He was a little disturbed, so he walked towards radiology department where the machine was. When he spoke to the people there, he learnt that the child was crying, because kids were very scared to be inside that machine. It is like a spacecraft, where you go in a compact little cell, its dark and you are not supposed to move and be absolutely still. So the doctor said to Dietz that they had a way to solve this out. The kids were given sedatives to make them still. Dietz saw that after the MRI scan was over, parents walked out with the sedated kids on their shoulder. Then Dietz went back home that day and he couldn’t sleep in the night, because till then he was doing a fantastic job, making the best possible MRI machines. So, he thought that something is not right about what he was doing. He thought about to crack this—my users, who are children, don’t seem to like what I make and therefore they have to be sedated. So, he thought, let me do something
“If everyone is going to look for a job, chances are there are not going to be so many jobs. So, there is unemployment and then there is underemployment. So, instead of job seekers, we got to be a country of job creators” that changes the way these machines are accepted by my young consumers. He thought, suppose we tell children that they are going to an amusement park and not a hospital and MRI machine is going to be a game where you are going into a pirate ship, where there are going to be pirates out there and you got to be absolutely still. He got the doctors and nurses trained by the people in the amusement park, on how to handle children. He converted the MRI machine to look like a pirate ship from outside. This is a very elementary example where Doug Dietz started thinking like a designer. I just want to say—how everyone is actually a designer.
years. This young population, many of them would go for STEM-Science, Technology, Engineering or Management careers. There is a challenge—with many of these people doing STEM careers, are we going to cope with creativeness in our jobs. We have 22 million babies that are born every year in this country and how many new jobs are created every year? The number of jobs created is two million. So, what are the other 20 million going to do? If everyone is going to look for a job, chances are there are not going to be so many jobs. So, there is unemployment and then there is underemployment. So instead of job seekers, we got to be a country of job creators.
What does it take to be a designer?
Where does design fit in here?
Imagination, definitely empathy, adaptability and it also takes a little bit of heart which all of us have.
Why has design suddenly become so important to India?
We are big as a country—1.3 billion population, that’s how big we are. We are probably one of the youngest countries, with an average age of 27 years and in a few years, our country’s average age is going to be 25
For example, we have a piece of leather a standard A4 size—probably its worth in the market is around 25 rupees. Now, suppose we turn this piece of leather into a luxury bag—do you see the value added after it is designed into a bag? So, by converting or adding design to an object, you are adding much more value to the object. You make money, but the country also makes money, because you pay taxes. And who is rich, in turn? The country! ‘Make in India’ is great, but if you make and design in India, you have all the value right here. That’s exactly
why people are talking about design and that’s why we are talking about ‘Digital India’, ‘Make in India’, ‘Startup India’ and so on. Your cars and watches are manufactured in India. Half of world’s automobiles are manufactured here. But, who designed it—someone in Italy designed the car at one point. If we design in India, the whole world will be happy to make it through us. So, that’s the value a good design could bring, whether it’s a watch, a garment, chair or any product. rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com
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tadka
Bengaluru - Most green The increase in demand for solar as well as garden products has placed Bengaluru as the most green and environmentally responsible city. The survey, by retail giant Amazon.in, found the demand for solar power products grew nearly 400% year-on-year with over 55% of the demand coming in from the tier-II and tier-III cities.
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 37
Cradle of Leadership
Dr Nitin Karmalkar
Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University
‘Education and Research should be socially relevant’ Within three months of taking over as the Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Dr Nitin Karmalkar, has initiated a systems audit of the functioning of the university, to find the gaps and close them. Despite being an out-and-out academic-first as a student, then as faculty and now VC-his approach to the aims and objectives of a hallowed academic institution such as the SPPU are quite unconventional and out-ofthe-box. Education has to ensure a means to livelihood, and research has to be socially relevant, believes he, and is steering efforts to achieve these goals By Vinita Deshmukh
38 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Pics: Yusuf Khan
Dr
Dr Nitin Karmalkar has recently taken over as the Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University. His tryst with the university goes back to his college days. After graduation, he completed his MSc in Geology and then his PhD. Thereafter, he served as Professor of Geology and Head of the Environmental Science Department of the University. He has two post-doctoral research qualifications to his credit-one from Macquarie University, Australia and another from Max-Plank Institute for Geo-Chemistry at Mainz, Germany. As Corporate Citizen found out during our interview with him, despite his academic sojourn of so many years, his approach as a VC to research and college education is most pragmatic.
Corporate Citizen: How do you feel, taking over as Vice Chancellor of the University where you have been closely associated with it since your student days?
Dr Karmalkar: I am proud and privileged to be associated with such an esteemed university, first as a student, then as a teacher and now as Vice Chancellor. It is a unique opportunity. I have worked for the ranking for the university where it has come almost to Number one in the state of Maharashtra and 10th in the overall National Circuit Indian ranking.
You have also been a professor here and worked in so many departments. What were your observations in terms of governance over the past so many years?
A phenomenal change has occurred over the years in technology. In terms of the admission process, in the way we conduct examinations and in administrative areas too, we have been using technology to a large extent, resulting in good progress. Obviously, you have to look into certain issues that crop up when you use technology, such as when a question paper goes viral on social media. More security needs to be imposed in such areas, and we are definitely working on that.
What is your observation about students, from the time you were a student to the present generation, in terms of their commitment, attitude and intelligence?
Overall, there is progress because youngsters are exposed to the media, the Internet; so information wise, they are well informed. However, they lack from a knowledge point of view because everything is available at the click of a button. They have very poor reading habits so they do not go into the depth of the subject; they have a very superficial understanding of the subject. Also, due to gadgets, connectivity has increased but dialogue has decreased. There is erosion in social interaction, morals and values. That needs to be looked at.
Could you elaborate on the difference between ‘knowledge’ and ‘information’?
There is a subtle difference between knowledge and information. What is available on the Internet is ‘information’ and not ‘knowledge’. Knowledge actually gets imparted to the students through teaching at regular classes. But we find students not attending classes so teachers too need to undertake some introspection. Are they providing the students knowledge, or mere information? Because of such a tussle, there are issues with the students. You find them neither in the classes nor in the libraries. But there is always one lot of about 20-25 per cent of the students who are really studious and who attend classes, work in the laboratories and use the libraries.
Now that you have taken over as Vice Chancellor, what is your vision for Savitribai Phule Pune University?
The first issue that I will try to address in my mandate of five years is connecting or interlinking education with livelihood. Whether whatever is taught in the class, provide that student a job opportunity? There appears some gap between the two. Also, it’s not the case that everyone who graduates from this university gets a job in the field in which he/she has knowledge. There has to be serious work done in this aspect. That is my first priority, for which you have to make the
“There is a subtle difference between knowledge and information. What is available on the Internet is information and not knowledge. Knowledge actually gets imparted to the students through teaching at regular classes. But we find students not attending classes so teachers too need to undertake some introspection” July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 39
Cradle of Leadership “The walls we have created around our faculties have to break down. We have stopped interacting with other faculties as well as within our own faculty. Unless and until you interact, you cannot create a job opportunity for a student. The education that is imparted should offer glimpses of everything� student aware of what is happening outside, especially in the industry, at NGOs, at the government level and what kind of opportunities are available. And then involving those stakeholders in the teaching programme, as well as in making the syllabi. Perhaps you can even involve them in research activity, so that the issues they have become the subject of research for our students. That could perhaps provide them better job opportunities. Secondly, I have spoken about the erosion of moral standards. We need to restore the character of students through value based courses which they can imbibe and inculcate. What are ethics, and how should they be implemented? In the progression of life, it is not the shortcuts but the full in-depth understanding and value based education system, keeping morals and values intact, which will make students into better human beings and better citizens. Thirdly, we all know that the job situation is grim; so I would like to explore whether we can convert the students from job seekers to job providers. Whether we can provide them the necessary skills to make them entrepreneurs; propel them to open startups and provide financial assistance to promote their startups. These are some of the issues I would like to
work on, rather than focus merely on elevating the standard of the university to improve its ranking. If students are ranked, obviously the university gets a better ranking.
Do you have enough skill development courses to realise your mission of entrepreneurship?
Certainly, in the last five years under the NHRD, we have set up a very well established Skill Development Centre through which we have been promoting certain courses. There are vocational courses. Some of them are very region specific-I am talking about Nashik, Ahmednagar and Pune-the three districts, which come under the jurisdiction of this particular university. So Nashik would perhaps have a requirement of a different skill depending upon the industry, NGOs and other organisations available in the vicinity. You have to do the mapping of what skills are required where, accordingly formulate and advocate the courses. For example, Nashik is known for Paithani weaving-so this old traditional skill can be taken as a challenge and the required skills identified and skill based courses provided. We can also look at wine and alcohol based technology as we have vineyards there. Food processing has taken a backseat in the overall Indian scenario. Certain courses to promote these industries and generate jobs and inspire entrepreneurship can be looked at. These are the kinds of courses I would think of initiating. First, we need to map the different skills that are required in each region, and then get the appropriate skill based courses.
Would these skill courses be conducted alongside the graduate and postgraduate courses?
Yes, it has to be that way-in fact, the walls we have created around our faculties have also to break down. We have stopped interacting with other faculties as well as within our own faculty. Many a times we do not even know what work the person sitting next to you, in your own department, is doing. Unless and until you interact, you cannot create a job opportunity for a student. The education that is imparted should offer glimpses of everything. From that point of view, it might help build up a team, inculcating the spirit of working in a team, understanding subjects you do not know. That might ensure better prospects outside and lead to a better understanding of the world.
You are talking of breaking these barriers which have become a hindrance to the employability of students who graduate. That is a great step, but is it possible to achieve that within your five-year mandate?
The government has already taken certain steps. There is a credit system already in place in which 40 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
The Savitribai Phule Pune University’s standing is 10th in the National Circuit. Is that a good ranking?
For the first time we have a marking system that has evolved. So now we can understand where we stand. From that point of view, 10th place is not at all a bad number. And we are the first in the state of Maharashtra. But at the international level, yes, we still have to strive hard to get the required number there and for which there has to be an exchange happening with the Western world. We have to have more MOUs not just on paper, but ones that are working and effective on the ground. There has to be exchange of faculty as well as students. Visibility will increase; the overall ranking at the global and national level will also increase.
“We will be completing 70 years next year. Since its inception, the university has obviously produced lakhs of graduates. Many of them must have reached very high positions or are running their own industries, or playing prominent roles at the policy makers’ level. But, until they are connected back to the university, the perception about the university will not get better” 75% of the component is compulsory-which you choose from your own course-but 25% can be chosen from other branches as well. So there is already a provision. But students are not adequately sensitised about this. So most of them still try to confine themselves to their own domain-try to be in their own cocoon. They need to be sensitised and made aware about other courses, which they would have otherwise pursued after graduation by paying a lot more money. It can be a part of their graduate programme, thanks to the skill development courses.
Tell us about your efforts to enhance research quality in the university, which has been taken forward by former Vice Chancellor Dr Gade.
We have not done very well on two issues-one is perception and the second is research. We have scored reasonably high in research, but again research that is socially relevant and market-oriented is not happening. Most research serves to satisfy your own ego and getting your paper published in some good journal. In this kind of research, relevance to society as a whole is not considered. What research you do should be relevant to what is required outside. When that kind of research happens, perhaps it will have better visibility, standing and longevity.
There should be more involvement of other stakeholders in your research activity, so students on the campus know what is required outside, and that becomes a research subject for them. That will be a win-win situation for the students and to the industry.
You said perception wise the university did not score well, but it is called the Oxford of the East…
As I said, what is lacking is dialogue with other stakeholders. Perception will come once people outside understand that whatever is taught here is of relevance to them. Secondly, with regard to involving the alumni, that has still remained on paper. We will be completing 70 years next year. Since its inception, the university has obviously produced lakhs of graduates. Many of them must have reached very high positions or are running their own industries, or playing prominent roles at the policy makers’ level. But, until they are connected back to the university and until we inculcate a sense of belonging for them by having a dialogue and calling them over, the perception about the university will not get better. A proper dialogue with the alumni will help in enhancing the overall quality of education and potential funding from them.
Dr Gade mentioned about improving security in the campus and mess food. Is that your priority?
Certainly. Since I took over-it has been about three months-I thought, let me get a system audit, be it IT, security, or exams, and that too from outside experts. By involving the industry, perhaps we will be able to understand whether we are on the right track or we need to have some kind of integration; whether there are flaws in the system, etc. This kind of audit would identify the gaps in the domain of examinations, IT, IT operations, etc. Once they get integrated and connected, things will improve. As for food, health facilities and hostel, yes, it is on my agenda to make all possible improvement for which I am taking a survey. Within whatever limited resources we have and limited space that we have, we can work out a better strategy and make up for what is actually lacking.
What do you expect students to give to the university?
I can say for myself that I have been a student here over so many years and I feel that the university has given me enough. Now it is my turn to give back to the university. That is the reason I accepted to occupy this particular chair, which is a medium through which I can try to make life in the university a lot better. Similarly, I expect the students also to think that it is not the university directly but whatever knowledge that you have gained from this particular university, needs to be put to use for the society. If not anything else, try to be a better human being, be compassionate and work for the society. The university will get the benefit indirectly from such activity.
What is the philosophy of life that you live by?
Hard work and relentless effort will take you to the goal you have set for yourself. There is no short cut to success. Your efforts have to be sincere and sufficient enough to achieve your goal. vinitapune@gmail.com July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 41
Cradle of Leadership
Dr W N Gade
Outgoing Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University
Fortifying the strongest, skilling the weakest
Fondly known as the Oxford of the East, the renowned Savitribai Phule Pune University, well known for its quality of education, has taken further strides to enhance the credibility of Ph D degrees and skill up the last student. Corporate Citizen spoke to the outgoing Vice Chancellor, Dr W N Gade on his role in the university’s progress, as he made way for the new Vice Chancellor
N
By Vinita Deshmukh
Noted biologist and life sciences expert Wasudeo Namdeo Gade was till recently the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the prestigious Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). A recipient of the Lupin Endowment Award instituted by the University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, he began his career as a scientist in the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology of the CSIR in Delhi for 20 years between 1983 and 2003. This gave him an opportunity to interact with students, after which he developed an interest in taking up teaching as a career. He was Reader and later Professor in the Department of Biotechnology, University of Pune, from July 2003. An
42 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
overview of his thoughts and action on several issues concerning SPPU:
Corporate Citizen: How has been your tenure as a Vice Chancellor in the Savitribai Phule Pune University in terms of administration, students, environment and governance?
Dr W N Gade: The Savitribai Phule Pune University has a great name internationally. It has established itself through its excellent teaching programmes and research. The good thing about this university is that right from 1949 when the university was established, it has been blessed
with great and visionary leaders starting from Vice Chancellor Barrister M R Jayakar. It has also had the fortune of having visionary senior faculty and innumerable people who contributed very significantly to research. This is also the university that has the largest number of students. In 2003, I came here as faculty in the Department of Biotechnology, which was established in 1985 under the initiative of the Government of India. Five biotechnology departments were started for the first time in the country in five universities-JNU, Pune, Madurai, Kamaraj and MS University, Baroda. So Pune was one of those five, and since its inception, this department con-
that the university has great potential-it is just that we were not working as a team. I took it as a challenge to take this university forward with the involvement of all faculty, good administration and all the decision making bodies, and started working on that line. I started decentralising responsibilities and brought in new research initiatives, changed some policy decisions, and brought in transparency into the administration. Our main focus was on promoting genuine research and discouraging plagiarism and substandard research.
we have spare capacity, we allow the industry to use it as well. National institutes, which are on the campus and outside the campus can also use it against payment. We did that. Now, some of the equipment are being used 24-hours without any break and some are reserved for weeks and months in advance-so much is the demand. This has generated a lot of funds too. More importantly, the researcher is rest assured that his or her work will not be hampered.
So what were the changes that had an impact?
Absolutely.
If you want to compete internationally and nationally also, you have to improve your research output; even if you want to improve
That must have shaken off the slumber in university research. . . So PhD has become more credible here. Yes. More credible.
“We introduced a programme called Departmental Research and Development Programme (DRDP). Under this programme, we started providing funds to each of the departments specifically for research initiatives. They decide the type of project they should take up and we fund that. That has motivated faculty to be totally involved”
tinues to be the best biotechnology department in the country. In the recent past, Vice Chancellors were being frequently changed and that had affected the credibility of the university and there was negative talk about it. The faculty and the administration too were not very positive about it. Earlier the university was graded highly with an A++ but it went down to getting just A with CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) given by the NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) just bordering, at 3.1. Therefore in 2012, when I got this opportunity to become its Vice Chancellor, I took it as a challenge. I knew
your teaching quality then also research is most important. If you are not a good teacher then you cannot be a good researcher-that is what I have been telling my students too. For good research, money, infrastructure, equipment and flexibility in rules for expenditure for research is imperative. So we introduced a programme called Departmental Research and Development Programme (DRDP). Under this programme, we started providing funds to each of the departments specifically for research initiatives. At their departmental level, in their departmental committee, they should decide the type of project they should take up and we will fund that. And the money was allocated in the budget and provided to them at the beginning of the financial year itself. That has motivated faculty to be totally involved. We initiated discussion among the faculty groups; not within the social sciences, but across faculty. When they started discussing, large areas of research emerged and we were able to submit big proposals and get huge grants. I conceptualised the Central Instrument Facility (CIF), as I thought that sophisticated equipment, so essential for research, cannot be made available to each and every laboratory for each and every person; besides, it will be underutilised. So, we decided to establish one Central Instrument Facility where simple as well as highly sophisticated equipment would be installed. It would be made available to the faculty and students across all the departments. We not only allow the college faculty to use that, but when
Two years back, all the deans were dismissed−has that diluted academic standards?
Nobody has been dismissed. We have a new University Act called the Maharashtra University Act 2016. Now the term of these bodies-elected bodies, management council, academic council and several others-is for five years, which got over on 31st August, 2015. After that, new elections were to take place but since the new Act was to be implemented, the government decided not to have elections till such time, and to form these bodies after the new Act. Therefore, for two years, decision making bodies didn’t exist. Now, we have started the process of electing the new bodies. Nothing was hampered because of the absence of the deans, as most of the bodies have certain ex-officio members, who were mostly the same persons.
The backbone of any good education is good faculty but do you agree that there is a paucity of quality faculty?
Having so many colleges puts an enormous burden on the university administration-there is absolutely no doubt about that. Each college selects its own faculty and to ensure quality selection of each one of them becomes difficult for me. Also, colleges do not fill up the required number of faculty, which also is very difficult for a VC to monitor from the university headquarters. There are many practical difficulties because of the size in ensuring quality and the satisfaction level of July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 43
Cradle of Leadership the students. I am aware that the satisfaction level of the students is very low. Examination is also an over burden because so many answer sheets have to be corrected and so many question papers have to be prepared. If some marking goes wrong, it becomes a question of life and death for that particular student, and people talk negatively. So, there are issues because of the size.
But is there a solution?
I have been talking about it. We have three districts under our university-Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar. Savitribai Phule Pune University is a brand internationally as well; every student yearns to have a degree from here. If we propose to bifurcate this university and make Nashik a separate university and Ahmednagar another one with degrees given by those universities, people will protest. They want a degree from Pune University. I think, making sub-campuses could help. For example, we have 62 acres of land in Nashik and 83 acres in Ahmednagar. I would like these to be converted to sub-campuses of the SPPU but totally decentralise them. This means they will have their own Vice Chancellors and departments just as we have it here. This will ensure quality control. The university’s administration burden will be reduced. Students too would be happy as they would get a degree from this prestigious SPPU. Not suddenly, but slowly and steadily this process can be initiated.
Teaching is a noble profession. What do you think about the fact that when one does an MBA, his salary gallops within a short time, whereas a faculty member, teacher or professor who is moulding an entire generation stagnates in terms of personal economic growth?
This is a very important question. Teaching is a noble profession. Teachers have the responsibility of building a nation, a society. You are creating human resource for transforming the country. In my opinion, this is the biggest responsibility that anybody has. Therefore, people with genuine interest and passion should come forward to choose this profession. Our country’s expenditure on education unfortunately is quite low. Now, it is a mere 0.6% or 0.7% of GDP. Whereas China is spending much more than that-about 0.9%. The silver lining is that the 6th Pay Commission has provided significant enhancement in salaries as compared to earlier ones. Career-wise too it has become easier to get promotions. So, things are improving. We have to make efforts to bring the best brains into education and then only will there be change. The change in education for a societal transformation will only happen if competent people choose to be teachers and guides. Unfortunately, good people are leaving educational in44 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
stitutes and going to industries or research. Their last option is to come to state and private universities, and 94% of the students in our country are in state universities and these institutes have hardly 6-7% of them.
Why do students of Arts and Commerce just have four hours of college? Don’t you think this is letting them go astray?
Definitely, only three to four hours are not enough, as our course is such that 25 credits have to be covered by the student in one year. That is not a joke and three to four hours of teaching in my opinion is not enough. But if they are really able to finish teaching in three to four hours, there are many options you can offer to the students to keep them busy the whole day. So we have taken an initiative on skill development. We have established a centre for skill development on the campus, and this centre coordinates with all the colleges too. At the moment, there are 70 skills-related courses on offer, in addition to the courses they are pursuing. I would suggest that if there is spare time, why can’t colleges offer these courses to the students after the regular hours of teaching-let them do three to four hours of skills-related courses. We have all types of cours-
es -banking, telecommunication, computation, automobile, and so many others.
So the college has to take the initiative?
Yes. The college has to take the initiative. We offer the courses and we offer to teach them as well. We have tied up with several industries and also established a virtual classroom facility. We can teach from the campus, direct, live, to the colleges, in an interactive mode. Technology has transformed the way of teaching. In addition, our skill development faculty can go physically to colleges and take classes too. We have been doing this in various colleges. Colleges like Fergusson College have initiated it, but in rural areas also, where girls come from various backgrounds, we can design courses as per their specific needs. We also have industry partners who design the syllabus, teach, certify and also conduct examinations in most cases.
The results of your Law department are weak. Please comment...
The Law department is not weak-the minimum passing percentage is overall 50%, and that is tough to achieve. My point is, irrespective of what type of marks you get, your level of
knowledge is more important. If that can be ensured, a student can stand up anywhere. There are universities where it is easy to get 98% but look at the performance of students who pass out from them–wherever they go they don’t do well at all, but there are colleges like for example Presidency College in Kolkata where it is very difficult to get a first class, but these students excel everywhere. If the standard of teaching is very good, there could be tough marking. That department or that faculty becomes known nationally, as graduates coming from that department have high levels of knowledge.
So you put the onus on the faculty…
I put the onus on the faculty; the faculty generally decides the type of examination standards we have to maintain by way of setting the quality of a question paper. The Principal and the faculty must ensure that the syllabus has been covered properly and the subject has been explained to the students properly, that they have compre-
1st July, then all teaching must start on 1st July. If it has to end at the end of December then it must end by December-examinations, result and all. Due to various processes, results are declared late; when results are declared late, admissions get delayed. It is a vicious circle. We have an academic calendar-here we decide that our teaching will start on this day and will end on this day and examinations will be over by this time. We here in Pune University do it, but in other universities we have absolutely no control.
And eligibility of the candidates-it is conveyed after four to five months, by that time if that candidate is not eligible he is left in the lurch …
The eligibility criteria is well defined by Pune University.
Affiliated colleges have to renew
vide food at a very reasonable price of `28 per meal. A student body monitors the quality as well as the menu. We also have a separate refectory committee. In the past, there have been certain issues, but now the university provides a lot of support to the contractor, such as free electricity, water and equipment. So we expect good quality food from the contractor. There is now a good level of satisfaction among the students. Security is an administrative issue. It is handled by the state government so we do not have much say in it. We have taken the matter up with the government, seeking a better quality security agency and are waiting for their response. For girls we have a separate vehicle that shuttles within the campus from 7 pm to midnight. If girls are going from the laboratory to the hostel, our vehicle drops them. Dropping the girl students as well as the women family members-picking them up from the gate, dropping them home or hostel is done free of cost.
“Teaching is a noble profession. Teachers have the responsibility of building a nation, a society. You are creating human resource for transforming the country... this is the biggest responsibility that anybody has. Therefore, people with genuine interest and passion should come forward to choose this profession. Our country’s expenditure on education unfortunately is quite low. Now, it is a mere 0.6% or 0.7% of GDP’’ hended it well and after that if they give a tough paper there is no problem.
Do you think colleges are given too many holidays because of which there is not enough time to finish the syllabus?
We have to ensure 90 days of teaching in a semester-without that your minimum requirement doesn’t get completed, so every student has to complete that and every teacher has to ensure a minimum 90 days of teaching. Now we have credit systems so students have to earn that credit, for which they have to attend classes. We have a lot of flexibility in timings for the student as well as for the faculty. This minimum statutory requirement has to be complied. Many a times, admissions are delayed; then we get very little time so we have to take extra classes on Saturdays and Sundays and all other holidays. Without fulfilling the minimum requirement of attendance and classes, students are not eligible to fill his/ her examination form. That is what we ensure.
What is the solution for delayed admissions?
At the national level, all our educational programmes must start at one time. If we decide
their licenses every year-don’t you think it is a kind of harassment, or is there a certain reason for doing it?
If there is regular recruitment of teachers, if the teachers stay, then there is absolutely no problem. Many a times, colleges make short-term recruitments for six months or one year even for the Principal’s post. We have the responsibility of ensuring the quality of education, therefore we have to monitor that and we study that-we send a committee to each and every college to ensure that they have infrastructure, faculty, management, library and equipment. We address their grievances too. To ensure all that, we have to adhere to the annual license renewal policy.
Your MBA course hardly draws students, and yet you have an admission test. Isn’t that a contradiction?
I agree with you, I don’t see any reason for having such an admission process, but that is handled by the UGC.
There have been many complaints about the hostel, mess food and security in the campus. How have you addressed them?
Certainly. We have a refectory where we pro-
What is the philosophy of life that you live by?
I live a very simple life. I and my family have been totally honest to ourselves. During my entire career, I have never tried to deliberately or otherwise hurt anybody. If by doing some administrative work somebody has been unhappy, that is because of my professional responsibility. I tried honestly to bring up this university and to some extent the results show. It is tremendously hard and thankless work. I have not given enough time to my family, but they too have not complained. If I take up responsibility I give my best, I don’t take it lightly. I didn’t take up any responsibility to help my own personal progress. There are lots of things I have sacrificed.
What is your advice to students?
They have to work. Getting a degree by hook or by crook is not going to help them in the long run, but they have to ensure themselves whether the degree they get is worth or not. They have to put in extra efforts and they have to skill themselves not only in the subject they have studied but all related subjects too so that they can face the challenges more competently, otherwise it can become very difficult. vinitapune@gmail.com July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 45
Campus Placement
Try, try until you
succeed
Sheer determination and dedication to become someone in this competitive world enabled Swapnil Bambale achieve his goal By Joe Williams
L
ike father, like son. This, in a nutshell, speaks about Swapnil Sanjiv Bambale. But he seems to be a step ahead of his father, who is also an electrical engineer. He did take up engineering like his father, but in Instrumentation and Control, and while his father works with the state electricity company, Swapnil starts off his journey as a management trainee with Bharat Petroleum Corporation. But it has not been a cake walk for Swapnil-only sheer determination and dedication have taken him where he is. Taking on responsibilities and fulfilling them to the utmost is the success mantra for Swapnil. Although it was easy enough during school days, being a pampered child, the real test started when he moved to the X standard for his first board exam. A resident of the eighth largest metropolis in India, Pune, Swapnil first tasted what life was all about when his parents let him take the call on whether he wanted to walk five kms to school or cycle, and Swapnil opted for the latter. He studied with the Shikshan Maharshi Dr D Y Patil English Medium School at Chinchwad in Pune, securing 91.45%. But after getting out of the school where everything was monitored, his performance in higher secondary education at Jai Hind Junior College at Pimpri in Pune was not as good. He secured only 72% in his HSC. He had to choose between two professional courses, medicine and engineering, where again Swapnil’s parents left him to take the call. He opted for engineering, like his father.
Early days…
Swapnil and his friends at ICTIEE Conference
He remembers school life fondly-the school bus, lunch box, punishment for not doing his homework, et al. “My early school life was both awesome and had some struggles, but I have good memories-travelling in the school bus with friends, eating their lunch boxes, bunking, punishment, and many more,” recalls Swapnil. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride until he made it to the X standard. “It was a struggle, cycling to school, carrying school bag weighing over 3 kg, attending special and coaching classes after school hours.” 46 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
But all this paid off, as Swapnil secured 91.45%. However, he failed to keep up in academics in the XII standard. He got 72% in the HSC exam.
Making choices
After passing the HSC exam, he was in a dilemma as to which course to take, medicine or engineering. He chose engineering, following the footsteps of his father. “I didn’t have much interest in biology, but was good at mathematics, and more importantly, I had a tutor as home, my father, who has vast knowledge of different engineering subjects,” says Swapnil. He got his admission at the College of Engineering, Pune. “Everything was new to me. I would go to the college and return home immediately after college,
Swapnil with his mother
Swapnil with his colleagues
His tricks to success...
making no friends,” says Swapnil about his early days in the college. “Being home-sick and depressed after being separated from old friends, I didn’t even participate in any clubs or extra-curricular activities. But that reflected on my studies, as I managed to score 5.55/10, luckily without any backlog.”
Friends made the difference…
Swapnil soon got acquainted with others and Pranay Deshmukh and Sushant Chavan were his early friends. Deshmukh was a topper since childhood and Sushant, despite being physically challenged, never underestimated himself. “These two formed a great combination and were examples for not giving up or losing hope. They were an inspiration to me. Then Pratik, Saurabh, Apurv, Vaibhav, and Kunal were my classmates I began my engineering with an SGPA of 5.55/10 and ended with 8.55/10, with an overall CGPA of 7.13/10.” This boosted his morale, and he became one of the most sought students in the class.
Responsibilities change you..
Being one of the best in the class, he was picked up to be the Class Representative (CR). This changed his approach, not just as a student, but most importantly as a person. “When one is bestowed with responsibility his approach changes, and that is what happened to me,” says Swapnil. Taking decisions, making initiatives at the department level and coming up with a solution taking into account all perspectives were among the things he was tasked to do. “Being a CR, one has to know the syllabus of every subject, communicate with the faculty to shift lectures and adjust extra lectures, etc. This helped me and brought about a complete change in me.”
Placement ups and downs…
Placement was in a different league altogether. Facing people with experience, who had seen what the corporate world was all about, was a testing time for him. With not much knowledge in the field, he could not make it in his early attempts, but failures did not hinder him in making the move ahead. “The first company that visited our cam-
•Never consider yourself as less than others. Everyone is good at one thing or the other. No one in this world is perfect. You should consider your strong skills to boost your confidence and work on improving your weak skills. Try to be an all-rounder. • Be self-motivated as well as motivate others. When you are successful in any field don’t try to be selfish but instead help your friends who are unable to deal with the same. • Overcome the habit of procrastination. You may find it difficult to overcome it today, but it will help you tomorrow. • Participate in extra-curricular activities. It gives you an opportunity during interviews to express yourself even if you are technically weak. • Make your resume impressive, don’t copy it from others. Don’t put anything false in your resume, you may get into trouble during interviews. •Communicate fluently; try to begin the discussion; try to involve others in the discussion; respect others’ opinions.
pus was ZS Associates. But I was not eligible as my CGPA was low. Then there was Johnson Control, where I failed to clear the aptitude test. Honeywell was the first company where I reached up to the interview stage. Like everyone else, I was nervous too. But the fact was that I was not prepared at all. I didn’t even know enough about the project I was working on (B.Tech project). Somehow, I managed to cope with those interviewers and came out after 25 minutes. Those were the worst 25 minutes of my life.” Though it was bad experience, he learned many things in the process which helped him to overcome his fear of interviews. Many companies came-Honeywell, Vedanta Resources, Pernod Richard, Wipro, L&T, Sun Pharma, Air Products, Reliance Industries, Rockwell Automation, Hindustan Petroleum and many more, but he could not make the cut. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited finally changed his life. “Though I was not that good in solving the aptitude test due to time constraints and lack of practice, there was one positive skill which I had developed during my mentorship programme-I was able to clear every group discussion and this boosted my confidence to overcome the feeling of being worthless.” He was picked up as Management Trainee with the BPCL, the government-owned public sector undertak-
“Getting rejected by companies which visited early was actually a blessing in disguise for me. If I had got placed in any of those companies I would have missed the chance to try for BPCL. You don’t have to be successful to be happy” ing. “That was the best day of my life and at that moment I felt like it was one of the sought-after placements for me after lots of failures.”
On success…
There were many mentors and friends who played their role in his life. But it was his parents who are responsible for his success. When he faced failures, they stood by his side. “They believed in me and they still do. Besides, my mentors and teachers helped me bring out the positivity within me, which boosted my confidence.”
Blessing in disguise…
The many failures and setbacks were like a blessing in disguise for Swapnil. “Getting rejected by companies which visited early was actually a blessing in disguise for me. If I had got placed in any of those companies I would have missed the chance to try for BPCL.” “You don’t have to be successful to be happy. You may be happy and success will follow. It’s on how you take failures in life, in a positive or negative way. One should try to find happiness in the smallest things and live life to the fullest without expecting anything from anyone.” Joe78662@gmail.com July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 47
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
a This chemistry that started with physics They met in their Physics tuition class and have not been without each other, ever since. Married and happy, corporate professionals Richa Dogra and Tarun Singh, enjoy a mature marriage nourished by the roots of a long-standing friendship and mutual respect. A happy picture, further enriched by the entry of their toddler, little Vedaant, into their lovely world By Kalyani Sardesai
48 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
romance dates all the way back to Class XII, even as Richa Dogra and Tarun Singh, both ambitious students, were busily preparing for their boards. To that end, they both attended a tuition class for Physics. It wasn't love at first sight-or maybe it was-says Richa. But it was not something they were willing to acknowledge as yet. "There was a lot of friction-which was actually just attraction projected as such," she laughs. "At least that was the case with me." Both defence kids, with their fathers in the Indian Air Force, they were studying at Gandhinagar, Gujarat at the time. In some time, the boards got over and they applied for their engineering degree. Both secured admission in North Maharashtra University. Here's where they really got talking. And it was a classic case of opposites attracting. "She is patient and composed. I found that quality really fascinating, since I'm not big on it myself," says Tarun. "My motto at the time was to get things done, no matter what it takes. On the other hand, her approach was structured and unhurried, and yet she managed to deliver. I wanted to learn this from her," he says. "Despite the differences in personality, we have similar ideas about life. Both of us are huge be-
lievers in the power of compassion and respect towards others and each other," chips in Richa. And that's how love happened. "This was way back in 2003. The Telecom boom had just taken place. Almost everybody had a mobile phone; service providers were wooing customers with free SMSes and other lucrative plans. So yes, we really got to chat a lot," smiles Richa. As they spent more time together, they realised they were meant to be. By this time, both had completed their engineering. Richa was pursuing a Master's Degree in HR at a prestigious institute in Pune, while Tarun was working with Hitachi Consulting. "He would drive down all the way from his office in Hadapsar to Wakad, just to meet me for about 30 minutes in between a jampacked schedule. We were really close by now and it was time to take it to the next level." A little hitch though. Richa's father had no idea about their romance. Their cultural background was different. She's a Himachali and he from Lucknow, they are bonded by their shared defence background.
Taking family along
"Both of us believe in gentle parenting. However, looking after such a young child can be stressful. The trick is in one partner being calm, particularly if the other is losing patience" - Richa After this decision of seeing it through, there was no looking back. "I took the tension in my stride and never once fought with my parents. In my heart of hearts, I knew dad would relent sometime," she says. On his part, Tarun understood his father-inlaw's plans for his daughter. "He wanted the best for her and why not? In fact, in a way it helped me pace my career and do better," he says. Eventually, their patience paid off and one fine day, out of the blue, even as she was ironing her clothes to go to work, her father asked Richa quietly: "So you are sure about Tarun?" It was such a seminal moment, one they had longed for-and yet she did not know how to react. But then things moved quickly. The duo was finally wed in February 2013 at Richa's hometown in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh amidst much fanfare and rejoicing.
"It's just that they had no idea we were in a relationship. Her dad knew me and saw me as someone who would protect his girl. Predictably, he did not take it too well when he realised that we were in love," narrates Tarun. However, they had little The building blocks choice but to tell the truth, of a home particularly since Richa's Post-marriage, both are Golden memories from based in Mumbai. And parents were looking for a the wedding album suitable match for her. "The no, the adjustment has not pressure was high on me to been difficult. "Barring the say yes to a fellow they had fact that he refuses to cap in mind for me. So I had to the toothpaste, everything tell my folks," she recalls. else has been relatively There was no direct coneasy," she grins. Love, respect and compassion versation between her dad One thing they have adtowards each other and others and Richa, but nevertheless, hered to is that they never Appreciating and celebrating it was awkward because she allowed their relationship the diversity and individuality could tell that it was weighto change. "We were and of each family member are each other's best friends. ing heavily on his mind. TaExpressing gratitude towards Marriage has just been an run's parents were fine with each other extension and value addition their marriage. Even so, the to our bond," says Tarun. duo agreed to go ahead only Spending a few moments each While she is working as with both sets of parents day in meaningful conversation a Senior Manager and HR giving their whole-hearted Business Partner with Unitconsent. "We absolutely did not wish to hurt our elders. Their blessings were ed Spirits-Diageo, he is about to join MindTeck hugely important to both of us." India Ltd as Regional Program Head. It is a busy and hectic time-what with their 19-month-old It was a confusing, hurtful time and one day Rison Vedaant, demanding best, but like other cha told Tarun that she would not be able to stretch things, they are approaching parenthood with the imbroglio any further. "But in less than a week, systematic planning and teamwork. “Both of us I realised I would not be able to live without him."
Mantras of Marriage
believe in gentle parenting. However, looking after such a young child can be stressful. The trick is in one partner being calm, if the other is losing patience," says Richa. "He was very keen that I join back work post-baby. To effect that, his parents have taken a transfer to Mumbai and are living with us. Momin-law is the best support I could ever hope to have," she expresses. So how does it work in a joint family? Very well, they say. "Each member of the house, whether he or she stays at home, or goes out to work, is contributing to the well-being of the family. The trick is to respect the diversity each one brings to the table and expresses due appreciation and gratitude towards each other," says Richa. Thus, even though the early days of their marriage were spent as a nuclear family, the elders moving in has brought in more joy all around. "They have their own value system, and ideas about how to do things which is absolutely fine by me. For their part, though, they have never forced anything on me. For example, I am more spiritual than religious, but they respect that," says Richa. Both are particular about spending some time daily in a meaningful conversation. "It could be early morning over chai, or while we are both travelling to work. Those few minutes of sharing what's happening at work and home make a world of difference," says Tarun. Similarly, there are dinners together, once a month. "That time we spend together, just the two of us, is important," he rounds off. kalyanisardesai@gmail.com
CC
tadka
Dip in India Inc.’s average pay hike Consulting firm, Aon Hewitt’s India Inc’s ‘India Salary Increase Survey’ shows that average pay hike nosedived to 10.2% in 2016 from 15.1% in 2007. Pay hikes in life sciences sector picked up from 13.2% in 2007 to 16% in 2008 and dropped to 11.3% in 2017 (projected). In consumer products, average pay hikes were 13.4% in 2015 and might be 10.2% in 2017.
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 49
Cost of Living Survey
Mumbai is the most expensive Indian city for Expats
There are over 30,000 expatriates from countries all over the world living in India, while over 15 million Indians live in other countries. When selecting the country to migrate to, expats need to consider the cost of living in those countries and specifically the cities. The world’s largest HR firm Mercer has conducted their 2017 Cost of Living Survey to rank the world’s most expensive cities for expats. Corporate Citizen brings you the results Compiled By Neeraj Varty
50 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
raditionally, New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong have always been considered as expensive cities to live in. While that does remain true to an extent, Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey brings up some interesting results. Mumbai has emerged as the most expensive city for expats in India, highlighting the appeal of India’s commercial capital to the world. In fact, almost all Indian cities are ranked high, a testament to India’s status as a favoured investment destination. Another trend that has been noticed is the shifting of the rankings from western countries to Asian countries. Almost all European cities have moved down the list and Asian cities have taken their place. Let us now look at these points in detail. According to Mercer’s 23rd annual Cost of Living Survey, Mumbai (57) is India’s most expensive city for expatriates, inching closer to break into the top 50 most expensive cities in the world. New Delhi, ranked 99, has moved into the top 100 category, Chennai (135), Bengaluru (166) and followed by Kolkata (184). Mumbai (57) is ranked higher and more expensive than cities like Auckland (61), Dallas and Paris (62), Canberra (71), Seattle (76) and Vienna (78). It has moved 25 places up from being ranked 82 in 2016. New Delhi and Mumbai have become more expensive, over last year, and their rankings have gone up substantially. Residential rental prices increased in Mumbai and New Delhi. Due to demonetisation, real estate market has been severely hit. However, the rental market benefitted from the consumers’ sudden withdrawal from the purchase market, thereby putting pressure on rents.
Reasons for Mumbai’s high cost of living Mumbai’s jump in ranking is also attributable to surge in prices of food and personal care. Inflation, amongst the highest in Indian cities, moved from 4.81% to 5.57%, during this period in Mumbai. Overall, while inflation in India has been maintained over the last few years, prices of expat food items such as cheese, butter, fish, meat etc. have increased significantly. Prices for fruits and vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, lettuce and pineapple have also increased. Mumbai is also the most expensive cities in India on account of transportation, which includes taxi fares, cost of auto and auto parts and running costs. Overall, Indian cities have moved up the global ranking substantially, not just on account of internal factors, but additionally due to some cities falling in rankings globally, on account of currency volatility especially in Egypt, Turkey and United Kingdom. City MUMBAI NEW DELHI CHENNAI BENGALURU KOLKATA
Rank as of March 2017 57 99 135 166 184
Rank as of March 2015 82 130 158 180 194
All Indian cities have moved up in the cost of living rankings from their position in the 2016 rankings. The survey finds that factors like instability of housing markets, inflation for goods and services and foreign exchange fluctuations contribute to the overall cost of doing business in today’s global environment. July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 51
Cost of Living Survey
Luanda, the capital of Angola, Leads as the world’s costliest city to live in
An aerial view of Luanda, the most expensive real estate destination in the world.
Companies pay for expats
The survey finds that Asian and European cities-particularly Hong Kong (2), Tokyo (3), Zurich (4), and Singapore (5)top the list of most expensive cities for expatriates. The costliest city, driven by cost of goods and security, is Luanda (1), the capital of Angola. Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s costliest cities for expatriates are Seoul (6), Geneva (7), Shanghai (8), New York City (9), and Bern (10). The world’s least expensive cities for expatriates, according to Mercer’s survey, are Tunis (209), Bishkek (208), and Skopje (206).
Ranking of American cities
According to Mercer’s International Policies and Practices Report-India, 88% of the companies in India pay a Cost of Living allowance to their long-term assignees either as a separately identified allowance or as part of a single expatriate allowance, covering other items in addition to goods and services in the remuneration package.
Cities in the United States are the most expensive locations in the America, with New York City (9) ranked as the costliest city, climbing two spots from last year. San Francisco (22) and Los Angeles (24) follow, having climbed four and three spots respectively. Among other major US cities, Chicago (32) is up two places, Boston (51) is down four places, and Seattle is up seven places. Portland (115) and Winston Salem (140) remain the least expensive surveyed cities for expatriates in the US. This has a direct impact on the cost of expatriate assignments for Indian multinationals.
52 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
United States, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates top destination for Indian expats
Across continents, countries with the highest current number of India assignees are United States, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates (UAE). Across continents, countries with the highest expected increase in the number of Indian international assignees are UAE, UK and Kenya.
Europe losing appeal for expats Only three European cities remain in the top 10 list of most expensive cities for expatriates. Zurich (4) is still the most costly European city on the list, followed by Geneva (7) and Bern (10). Moscow (14) and St. Petersburg (36) surged fifty-three and one hundred and sixteen places from last year respectively, due to the strong appreciation of the Russian rouble against the US dollar and the cost of goods and services. Meanwhile, London (30), Aberdeen (146) and Birmingham (147) dropped thirteen, sixty-one and fifty-one spots respectively as a result of the pound weakening against the US dollar following the Brexit vote. Copenhagen (28) fell four places from 24 to 28. Oslo (46) is up thirteen spots from last year, while Paris fell eighteen places to rank 62. Ranking 17, Tel Aviv jumped two spots from last year and continues to be the most expensive city in the Middle East for expatriates followed by Dubai (20), Abu Dhabi (23), and Riyadh (52), which have all climbed in this year’s ranking. Jeddah (117), Muscat (92), and Doha (81) are among the least expensive cities in the region. Cairo (183) is the least expensive city in the region plummeting ninety-two spots from last year, following a major devaluation of its local currency. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 53
Guest Talk / Capt Shekhar Dutt
Notings from a Soldier’s Diary
Continued from page 7 In a little while, I heard some high-pitched whistling sounds over my head. A minefield is usually covered by small arms fire and we realised that the whining sound was that of bullets flying over our heads. Thus, it was only a matter of time before the Pakistanis would engage us with recoilless (RCL) guns or other anti-tank weapons. Therefore, we decided to get off the tanks and walk back in the direction we had come from, and take cover behind the hump. I took all our weapons and ammunition, picked my camera and radio from the gunner’s compartment and put them in my haversack. I was about to disembark when the tank driver, Bhik Singh, stopped me from getting down. He told me “Sir, aap mere piche chalo, jahan per main pair rakhta hoon, wahein apna pair dalo.” He wanted me to follow him and step at the same places where his steps fell. Only much later did I realise that Bhik Singh knew that where anti-tank mines were laid there could be anti-personnel mines also. He was risking his life in order to give me a better chance. Lieutenant Murdhar Singh’s tank, which was the first to enter and
of an Indep Inf Bde had joined us, greatly improving our strike capability. Our fire-power was also improving day by day as I was finding more artillery regiments on my net. The Pakistani Air Force, consisting mostly of F 86 Sabres, occasionally circled around us and took on isolated supply or ammunition vehicles but could not damage any of our tanks.
Entry 11 Dec (1700 hr): 4 Sabres came and get the two stranded tanks.
(1800 hr): Pak RCLs blow the same two tanks off. Own arty fired the whole night. This was expected. Pakistanis were, however, not willing to risk their soldiers in their own minefield and attempt to recover our tanks.
Entry 12 Dec (0800 hr): Four Sabres come back but could not locate us.
All through the day, we regrouped and prepared for the final assault on Parbat Ali.
Entry 13 Dec (0400 hr): 10 SIKH and 2 MAHAR attack and capture Parbat Ali occupied by 39 FFR. Heavy Pakistani casualties. 350 captured.
The final assault on Parbat Ali was well planned and didn’t give the enemy much chance. We used our guns to the fullest advantage and took on the targets that we had ranged and registered earlier with precision, accuracy and volume. The enemy who was well dug in and entrenched, gave in and this time our forces were able to fully occupy the Pakistani positions at Parbat Ali.
Entry 14 Dec: Moved to 10 SIKH LI area.
travelled the maximum distance into the minefield, miraculously did not go over a mine. Showing tremendous bravery, Murdhar later went back to his tank and with the help of his driver and a Sapper NCO, backed the tank out of the minefield following exactly the same tracks it had made while entering the minefield. Murdhar and the Sapper NCO walked along the tracks guiding the driver to exactly retrace the tank’s earlier path. Thus, the tank could re-join the battle. After this, Murdhar and I rode the same tank, with me sitting on top of the turret. Without doubt, Lieutenant Murdhar Singh and Driver Bhik Singh were among the bravest men. Many years later, in 2005, when I was Defence Secretary and attending the Raising Day function of Skinner’s Horse, I asked about Bhik Singh and was told that he had passed away a few years ago. I also asked about Murdhar Singh and was informed that he had probably made it to a Lieutenant Colonel, but his present whereabouts could not be confirmed.
Entry 11 Dec (1300 hr): Came back to Raj Rif area with rest of the tanks.
(1500 hr): Enemy air spotted our tks. We regrouped in 22 RAJ RIF area and continued on our mission to completely overcome the defences at Parbat Ali. By this time, elements 54 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
10 SIKH LI was preparing to launch an attack on Pakistani positions near Naya Chor. The area was registered as an arty target and named 5 Tree Area. It was, as the name suggests, the beginning of their green belt. There was a village on one side. The whole day I ranged and registered various targets in the area.
Entry 15 Dec: 10 SIKH LI attacks on village and 5 Tree Area. Heavy enemy arty fire. 10 SIKH LI suffers
a lot of causalities. Capt Sengupta (Arty OP) injured. 2nd Lieutenant Bahadur (10 SIKH LI) killed. The resistance from the Pakistanis was severe because 10 SIKH LI had moved into the range of their arty. Unfortunately, they lost the services of their OP officer Captain Sengupta of 164 Fd Regt. I volunteered to replace Captain Sengupta and went in the direction of 10 SIKH LI. There was a great deal of firing. While I was running towards them I saw one of their company commanders, Major Arora whose leg seemed to have been almost severed, being evacuated. There were many other casualties. Colonel Basant Singh, the CO of 10 SIKH LI, was calmness personified. He was very happy that I had come. A Pakistani Lysander observation aircraft was hovering in the skies. The Pakistanis were firing airburst shells, which were causing maximum casualties. As their OP officer had been injured, 10 SIKH LI became rather vulnerable without any arty support. Also, their forward elements were within the machine gun range of the enemy. Taking advantage of all this, the Pakistanis had launched a counter attack on 10 SIKH LI and
thrice and strafe and bomb. Some damage to soft vehicles. Their GOC, ex GOC, a lieutenant col and a maj were hit by our air. Pakistan agrees to our call for cease fire at 2000 hr today. Dhaka surrendered at 1101 hr on 16 Dec.
were approaching under the cover of arty fire. I immediately started directing fire on the Pakistani gun positions and also the machine gun posts which I had already ‘ranged and registered’ the day before. With some corrections, I was able to bring down fire on the Pakistani guns. That afternoon I was returning after consultations with Colonel Basant Singh, CO 10 SIKH LI, when I noticed TA Virender Pal Singh communicating on the radio. I heard him saying “To confuge enemy aircraft”. He repeated this number of times. I asked him whom he was speaking with. He told me that he was giving the target description to the gun position for firing smoke shells at least 2-3 kilometres inside the Pakistani held territory. This he was doing, he said, as the Pakistani aircraft had gone out for a sortie and would soon be returning. Virender Pal Singh was ensuring that the returning Pakistani aircraft would be confused into bombarding their own troops. Within a few seconds our guns had fired their smoke shells deep in Pakistani territory and indeed the returning Pakistani air sortie emptied their remaining ammunition on their own troops. TA Virender Pal Singh was awarded a mention in despatches for his adventurous presence of mind and initiative to bring harm to the enemy in the operation.
Entry 16 Dec: Engaged lot of enemy tgts. Am still in SIKH LI area village.
A very difficult time. Heavy shelling, chaps killed in next trench. Shift to B Coy. Engage DFs. Stay whole night under air attack and shelling. This was a very difficult day. 10 SIKH LI was in an open and plain area which was obviously a known and registered Pakistani arty and air target. During one spell of intense shelling I, with my TA and Operator had taken shelter in a trench when there was a loud noise very close by. This was a direct hit by a Pakistani shell on a trench very near us which I believe had more than three soldiers-all of whom were killed. I decided to shift to Bravo Company as it gave us a better field of vision. I found at least one more subscriber on my radio net indicating the addition of another arty regt with us. I believe it was 68 Fd Regt. This boosted our fire-power considerably. Realising the intention of the enemy, I started engaging a series of Defensive Fire (DF) targets. The Pakistanis were also obviously desperate to prevent Indian ingress. The whole night shelling went on from both sides. The Pakistanis also carried out a few air raids at night.
Entry 17 Dec: Two East Bengali Officers Capt Hussain, AMC and one from Engrs surrendered. Get a lot of info. Mulla Feroze and Dastoor capture confirmed. 4 to 5 Sabres come
On the morning of 17 December a number of East Bengali officers in the Pakistan Army sneaked across towards our position. Two such officers came right across my position. They told me that Flight Lieutenant Mulla Feroze and Captain Dastoor had been captured when they strayed and bumped into Pakistani elements that were in the process of retreating from Bhitala/Khokhropar. Immediately I realised how the Pakistani side had breached into our radio net. Being the Air Control Team (ACT) with tentacle, the two Indian officers were in possession of all frequencies and diagram of our Radio Net and that must have fallen into Pakistani hands. My pre-war arrangement of alternate communication channel with Keshav Singh, therefore, had paid us rich dividends. The two East Bengali officers told us about the loss sustained by the Pakistanis, especially some of their General rank officers. They also spoke about their own relief and joy that Dhaka had fallen. By evening, it was clear that there would be “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Cease fire was agreed.
Entry 18 Dec: GOC 11 Div, Commander Inf Bde and Commander Arty Bde come to SIKH LI position.
Without losing any time the three commanders of the main formations taking part in our sector of operations, namely GOC 11 Inf Div, Commander 85 Inf Bde and Commander 11 Arty Bde, came together to 10 SIKH LI position and met the CO, officers and men, and visited the forward most unit of the Div which had suffered the maximum casualties. This speaks volumes regarding the quality of leadership present in the Indian Army during Operation Cactus Lily (as this operation was code named). As a young captain, albeit on a ringside seat, I found this to be a remarkable event and wrote this as the last entry of my diary in the war. Epilogue Nostalgia tends to add colour to events, forcing an element of subjectivity into a narration. To retain objectivity, I have stuck to the cryptic notes of a fairly ancient and war torn pocket notebook. There was a sense of adventure, an enthusiasm for combat and a great sense of team spirit in the youngster who penned these small thoughts. I am sure it was true of all of us who were my age and service and had the good fortune of being part of the 1971 War. History was being made but this was the last thing in our minds when actual tasks and combat were an obsession. There will be much time and occasion to draw lessons and see the events in a larger perspective. I have purposely denied myself the benefit of hindsight and experience so as to retain the flavour of youthful participation. I will leave the scholarly part for another occasion. (Captain Shekhar Dutt, SM, IAS (Retd) was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery on 06 August 1969. After release from the Army he joined the Indian Administrative Service and rose to be the Defence Secretary from 29 July 2005 to 31 July 2007. After retirement he served as the Deputy National Security Adviser for two years. Presently, he is serving as the Governor of Chattisgarh since 23 January 2010.) Source : Journal of the United Service Institution of India, Vol. CXLI, No. 590, October-December 2012. July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 55
Pearls of Wisdom
By Dada J P Vaswani
Rarely is a dispute one-sided
We need to practice the art of forgiveness if we wish to restore our relationships. No emotional hurt can be unforgivable. With a little effort, we can put them behind us to give effect to a reconciliation with our loved ones and friends, thus restoring peace within our minds and hearts
56 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31 , 2017
Power of Forgiveness
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Forgiveness has to be cultivated. It is a well-considered, well-thought out emotional choice that we make to forgive
Seize the
in Jo
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other Teresa once said, People ask me what advice I have for a married couple struggling in their relationship. I always answer, pray and forgive. To young people from violent homes, I say, pray and forgive. And, even to a single mother with no family support, I say, pray and forgive. Any relationship between couples, parents and children, siblings, friends or colleagues involves two people, two human beings, neither of which is perfect. To err is human, as we all know. We have our sins of omission and commission, through which we hurt each other. Just think of all the actions that strain a relationship-lying, cheating, indifference, apathy, shirking our responsibility, shifting the blame on to the other person, use of abusive language, violence and betrayal. Alas, the bitter truth is that all this happens, not between strangers, but between two people who are very close to each other. Such acts cause emotional injuries, which do not heal easily and relationships are jeopardised. We need to practice the art of forgiveness if we wish to restore our relationships. No emotional hurt can be unforgivable. With a little effort, we can put them behind us to give effect to a reconciliation with our loved ones and friends, thus restoring peace within our minds and hearts. Forgiveness, as in contrast to retaliation, is not an instinctive or spontaneous impulse. If we are hurt, almost as a reflex, we are conditioned to think: I'll fight back, I'll do to you what you did to me. On the other hand, forgiveness has to be cultivated. It is a wellconsidered, well-thought out emotional choice that we make to forgive freely, those who have hurt us. For as we all realise, forgiveness does not just consist of mouthing the words, "I forgive you." It involves letting go of anger, resentment, hurt and bitterness. It allows us to heal the other and be healed ourselves in the process. Every day we face the need to forgive a spouse, a parent, a child, a colleague, a friend, a neighbour, or even a perfect stranger. This is no easy task. People find it is easier to forgive a stranger or an acquaintance than to forgive a friend or relative, someone whom we know and trust. At such times, we can only tell ourselves that in the end, we are not responsible for what others do to us but only for what we do to them. There is another important fact that we often overlook in emotional disputes with those who are close to us. Rarely is a dispute one-sided. Somewhere, somehow, we have a share in what we regard as an offence against ourselves. However, in our grief and hurt, we become blind to our own faults, while we magnify the faults of others. A little reflection, a period of calm introspection and a little humility will set the balance right.
Pause, clear your heart of ill-feelings. Forgive and feel the peace. The Moment of Calm is a worldwide peace initiative that aims at bringing calm in the hearts of people through the power of forgiveness. There can be no world peace without peace in the heart. Young and old, individuals and organisations join the Moment of Calm on August 2 at 2 pm by observing two minutes silence and forgiving those who have wronged them. The simple act of forgiving and removing negative emotions of anger and hatred from hearts can raise world consciousness and generate powerful positive vibrations that will envelope the planet with love and peace. The Moment of Calm has received tremendous support and enthusiasm from individuals from all walks of life. In 2016, over 18.2 million people participated from across the globe, including Morocco, UAE, UK, USA, Spain, India, Singapore, South America, South Africa, China and Taiwan. All are invited to join this growing wave of peace. To sign up, ‘Like’ www.facebook. com/momentofcalm or visit www. momentofcalm.org. The Moment of Calm marks the birth time of a leading spiritual luminary of India – Rev Dada J P Vaswani, who believes, ‘The best giving is forgiving.’ Date: August 2, 2017 Time: 2 pm for 2 mins
CC
tadka
Infant named after GST
A baby girl, who was born to parents from Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district on July 1—the day on which the Goods and Services Tax came in force, has been named as ‘GST’ by her parents. Quoting father Jagdish Prasad, a report by ANI said, “The day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Goods and Service Tax (GST) reform as a tax revolution on July 1, my daughter was born. So I could not hold my excitement and named her GST to make this day a memorable one.” Now the enthusiastic villagers are flocking to see the newborn. (Pic Source:Twitter)
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 57
Bollywood Biz
The Best Bollywood Films
without S ngs
Bollywood for most Indians is synonymous with musical numbers. In fact, when you ask foreigners about Bollywood, all they know is that our movies contain songs and dances. Which is why when a movie like ‘Dangal’ with minimal songs is released internationally, audiences are surprised at the high standard of Bollywood cinema and can’t get enough of it. This edition, Corporate Citizen takes a look at the best Bollywood films without songs that you must watch By Neeraj Varty
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) Kundan Shah’s black comedy, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah and Satish Kaushik, was a satire on corruption in Indian politics, bureaucracy, business and media. Today, the film is considered a cult classic and is credited for introducing Indian audiences to a more nuanced humour as compared to the slapstick fare they were used to. It was also one of the first Bollywood movies, to contain no songs (the movie does not even have a traditional hero or heroine). Despite having no songs, the movie went on to be a hit and grossed over two crores at the box office, which is a huge amount for that time. 58 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Fan (2016) Shahrukh Khan is the ‘Baadshah’ of Bollywood, and the primary reason he achieved such success is due to his candy floss romantic roles in movies like ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, which are remembered more for their elaborate songs than the story. It is therefore refreshing to see SRK do a movie like Fan, which is a dark thriller about a superstar and his doppelganger, which contains no songs. The movie went on to earn `75 crores at the box office, which wasn’t a huge hit by SRK standards, but a hit nonetheless.
Black (2005) Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s drama on a blind and deaf girl and her relationship with her teacher was inspired by the life of American author Hellen Keller. The movie hinges entirely on the interactions between the deaf girl, played by Rani Mukherjee, and her teacher, played by the legendary Amitabh Bachchan. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is most renowned for his musical set pieces in films like ‘Devdas’ and ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’, shot the movie with no songs, which was considered to be a huge risk at that time. Fortunately, it earned rave reviews and grossed more than `8 crore at the box office, which is a decent profit considering that the movie was made on a shoestring budget.
A Wednesday! (2008) Neeraj Pandey’s directorial debut was a drama thriller starring Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah. The movie is about a common man who loses someone he loves in a terrorist attack and fights back against government inefficiency which makes such attacks possible in the first place. The sleeper hit made over `9 crore at the box office and was even remade in English as ‘A Common Man’, featuring Ben Kingsley. The movie contains no songs, and Neeraj Pandey has kept this approach towards his later films like ‘Special 26’ and ‘Baby’, which contain none or minimal songs.
neeraj.varty07@gmail.com July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 59
Mobile apps OnePlus 5 `32,999 onwards
Oppo R11 `31,999
Oppo R11 is the latest launch that bears dual cameras at the back. It's an upper mid-range smartphone with a premium metal design and good performance. What makes it a complete package is the presence of dual cameras. It has one 16MP IMX398 regular sensor with f/1.7 lens and a 20MP IMX376 sensor with f/2.6 telephoto lens. These two sensors have been set up in a way to provide up to 2x optical zoom with lossless quality. With the help of the Portrait mode, one can blur the background and focus on the subject. The telephoto lens produces images without any loss of quality and this results in crisp and sharp images.
OnePlus 5 bundles a Sony IMX 298 sensor with a 16MP f/1.7 camera with Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) and a Sony IMX 350 sensor with a 20MP f/2.6 camera. It’s possible now to click portrait mode images with bokeh effect with this smartphone. The camera is also capable of shooting 4K videos at 30fps, 1080p videos at 60fps and 30fps. Selfie lovers will love the front 16MP camera, which is the best in the market currently. The OnePlus 5 is powered by the best mobile chipset in the market, the Snapdragon 835, has a whopping 8GB of Ram, 128GB memory, and the best part is that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Best Phones with Dual Camera What is a dual camera? It means, there are two photo sensors. While the main sensor acts like a normal camera and takes colour images, second sensor adds elements like depth of field that can't be captured with the first sensor. The combination of both images produces the best looking photos which simply can’t be matched by a single camera. This issue, Corporate Citizen brings you the best Dual Camera Smartphones in the market By Neeraj Varty LG G6 `38,990
The G6, the flagship phone from LG, features two 13MP rear cameras and a front-facing 5MP shooter. The snapper on the G6 has a few tricks up its sleeves. You can switch between the standard 13MP lens and the 120-degree wide-angle lens to capture more content in each frame. It has laser assisted autofocus which lets the camera focus on the subject in milliseconds. The camera also has Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), which ensures that whether you are taking pictures or shooting a video, there is no blur or shake. Finally, the phone is waterproof, so you can take underwater shots too.
Apple iPhone 7 Plus `55,000 onwards
The Apple iPhone 7 Plus rules the roost when it comes to photography. It boasts of a dual lens 12MP main snapper at its rear and an 7MP front-facing selfie shooter. The rear camera has a wide-angle f/1.8 aperture, and a telephoto f/2.8 aperture, both of which fire at the same time. Apple uses some software wizardry to stitch the two together and given you a stunning image. The dual camera enables the phone to zoom superfast, and there is no pixilation at all-even at maximum zoom. If you are into photography, the iPhone 7 Plus’s camera is the best one on a smartphone yet. 60 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen Claps police and volunteers for the rescue of 55 Mumbai collegians, stuck at Devkund Water Fall in Raigad District of Maharashtra due to a flash flood Had the Mumbai collegians not been rescued in the nick of the time, there could have been a repeat of the June 8, 2014 incident wherein 24 second year engineering students from V N R Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology of Hyderabad and one tour operator were drowned in the Beas River in Himachal Pradesh. The rescued Mumbai students, who belonged to the age group of 17-20 years, were students of the Poddar College in Matunga and Vaze College in Mulund. It took over three hour long operation by a team of policemen to save their lives. The 55 teenagers, 20 of them girls, had formed a WhatsApp group of youths interested in adventure activities. They had gone on a monsoon trip to Devkund Waterfall near Bhira in the ridges of Sahyadri to do rafting in the Kundalika River. The students, who had left Mumbai on the trip in the morning, found themselves trapped in the middle of the riverbed as the water levels suddenly increased in the afternoon due to the torrential monsoon rains. One of them was washed away in the gushing water. Luckily, he managed to save himself by holding onto a rock. The police said they received a call around 3 pm saying that a youth has been washed away in the river. The policemen at Maangaon Police Station then summoned local rafting expert Virendra Sawant and formed a rescue team led by Assistant Police Inspector Navnath Jagtap, which left for the spot within an hour of receiving the tip off. A member of the rescue party said, “Since the spot was remote and had no connectivity with motorable road, we had to walk seven kms to reach there. He added, “On reaching the spot, we spotted a student clinging to a rock and others standing at a short distance from there. The velocity of water gushing on the slopes in the mountain terrain was a major hurdle in reaching them. We managed to reach them with the help of ropes and managed to bring them to a safe place.” About 130 kms from Mumbai, Devkund Waterfall is considered to be the origin of Kundalika River. It is a two hour long trek from the base village along the backwaters of Bhira Dam and Tamini forest. Though it is a popular tourist spot, it is also risk prone due to harsh terrain, heavy rains and unavailability of immediate help.
Corporate Citizen Slaps the poor maintenance of aircrafts by India’s official carrier, Air India, which inconveniences passengers and damages the reputation of the Maharaja Recently, Air India took a nasty beating, with its audacity to actually fly an aircraft with air-conditioning system, not functioning. The Delhi-bound Air India flight from Bagdogra in Darjeeling district (AI-880), was in the air with 168 passengers, for about two hours. One can imagine the plight of the 168 passengers who had to bear the claustrophobia for two hours and that too at high altitude! Fortunately, all of them were physically fine when they landed. One of the videos that went viral on social media showed the passengers, desperately fanning themselves with newspapers and complaining to the staff on board about the tremendous discomfort. Allegedly, even the oxygen masks malfunctioned. Still worse, the Air India staff/management allegedly had knowledge about this deficient service. According to news reports, the passengers complained to the flight cabin crew and were assured that the ACs would be functional in a short while, but the matter was not resolved. Newspaper reports stated that a few passengers, who tried putting on the oxygen masks, found out to their horror that the masks too were not working. After landing in New Delhi, some passengers vented their anger on Twitter. Would Air India have the audacity to fly a politician or any other celebrity with this unpardonable deficiency of service? Worst is that, by no means is this an isolated incident as passengers of different flights of Air India have suffered similarly in the past. In March this year, after the Delhi-Chicago Air India flight departed, much to their consternation, the passengers on board, found out that only eight out of the 12 toilets were functioning. As the 17 hour flight progressed, even these eight toilets went out of order. Over 340 passengers, including seven infants, had to suffer utmost discomfort, till the flight landed. In fact, Air India’s 14 flights to various destinations including London, Newark, Chicago and New York were delayed due to choked toilets between June 5, 2016 and August 23, 2016. Once the country’s biggest airline, Air India’s share in the domestic market has shrivelled to 13% while that of private airlines such as Indigo and Spice Jet has expanded. Recently, the government decided to privatise the debt-laden Air India, but let us see who will adopt this mega white elephant with a notorious image! (Compiled by Prasannakumar Keskar) July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 61
Dr (Col) A Balasubramanian
From The Mobile
Less known information In the 1400's, a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence, we have 'the rule of thumb'. Many years ago in Scotland, a game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden' and thus, the word 'G O L F' entered into the English language. Men can read smaller print than women can and women can hear better. In a deck of cards, each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs - Alexander the Great Diamonds - Julius Caesar Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'a'? Answer: One thousand. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer. Hence the phrase...'Goodnight, sleep tight'. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as honeymoon.
62 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
J
Two Horses
ust up the road from my home, there is a field, where two horses live. From a distance, each horse looks like any other horse. But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing... Looking into the eyes of one horse, he will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing. If you stand nearby and listen, you will hear the sound of a bell. When you look around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the other horse in the field. Attached to the horse's halter is a small bell. It lets the blind friend know where the other horse is, so he can follow. As you stand and watch these two friends, you'll see that the horse with the bell is always checking on the blind horse, and that the blind horse will listen for the bell and then slowly walk to where the other horse is, trusting that he will not be led astray. When the horse with the bell returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, it stops oc-
casionally and looks back, making sure that the blind friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell. Moral - Like the owner of these two horses, the God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges! He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need. Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell placed by the God in our lives. Other times we are the guide horse, helping others to find their way. Good friends are like that... You may not always see them, but you know they are always there. Please listen for their bell and they'll listen for yours. And remember... Be kinder than necessary. Everyone you meet is fighting some kind of a battle. Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply and Speak kindly. FOR WE WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT.
Funny Leave Applications
How many actresses can you recognise?
Leave applications found in different parts of India. ● Bengaluru: “As my motherin-law has expired and I’m the only one responsible for it, please grant me 10 days leave.” ● Maharashtra: “Since I have to go to my village to sell my land along with my wife, please sanction me one-week leave.” ● Jharkhand: An employee who was performing the “mundan” ceremony of his son: “As I want to cut my son's head in Gaya, please leave me for two days.” ● Hyderabad:An employee who was performing his daughter's wedding: “As I am marrying my daughter, please grant a week's leave.” ● Gujarat: Half-day leave application: “Since I've to go to the cremation ground at 10 o'clock and I may not return, please grant me half day casual leave.” ● Bihar: “I am suffering from fever, please declare one-day holiday for me.” ● Jamshedpur: Application to the principal of a school: “As I am studying in this school, I am suffering from headache and the headache is paining, please grant me one day leave.” ●Kolkata: “My wife is suffering from sickness and as I am her only husband at home, I may be granted leave.” ●Job application: “Dear Sir, with reference to the above employment circular number, please refer to my bottom.” Kindly laugh to stay healthy and pass to others to make them stay fit...
(Answers in the next issue, August 1-15)
A wise man once said… A learned and well-known personality, Maula Ali, once replied to a group of ten learned men who said, 'We seek your permission for asking a question to you.' Maula Ali, replied, 'You are at perfect liberty.' They said, 'Of knowledge and wealth, which is better and why? Please give a separate answer to each. Maula Ali answered in ten parts: ➊ Knowledge is the legacy of the Prophets; wealth is the inheritance of the Pharaohs. Therefore, knowledge is better than wealth. ➋ You are to guard your wealth but knowledge guards you. Therefore, knowledge is better. ➌ A man of wealth has many enemies, while a man of knowledge has many friends. Hence, knowledge is better. ➍ Knowledge is better because it increases with distribution, while wealth decreases by that act. ➎ Knowledge is better because a learned man is apt to be generous while a wealthy person is apt to be miserly. ➏ Knowledge is better because it cannot be stolen while wealth can be stolen. ➐ Knowledge is better because time cannot harm knowledge but wealth rusts in course of time and wears away.
➑ Knowledge is better because it is boundless. Wealth is limited and you can keep account of it. ➒ Knowledge is better because it illuminates the mind while wealth is apt to blacken it. ➓ Knowledge is better because knowledge induced the humanity in our Prophet to say to GOD 'we worship thee as we are your servants,' while wealth engendered in Pharaoh and Nimrod the vanity, which made them claim god-head. Seek knowledge, peace and health will follow.
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 63
astroturf Profession days: 16, 25, 26 Health and energy see an upward trend and remain good throughout. If in any case you do feel under weather, rest, proper diet and relaxation will uplift you.
Aries
Mar 21 April 20
Greatest days: 16, 23, 24 Hectic days: 21, 22, 28, 29 Honey days: 19, 20, 28, 29 Money days: 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29 Profession days: 16, 23, 24 Your 4th house of family was very strong last month and continues to be stronger this month till the 22nd. Venus will make nice aspects to Jupiter on the 18th and 19th which will improve your finances. other.
TAURUS April 21 May 20
Greatest days: 17, 18, 23, 24 Hectic days: 23, 24, 30, 31 Honey days: 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31 Money days: 16, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29 Profession days: 16, 24 On the 6th, Mercury moves into your 4th house indicating the importance of family. Family support will remain good. The financial planet makes you a risk taker. After 20th you need to get enough rest and relaxation.
GEMINI May 21 June 21
Greatest days: 19, 20, 28,29 Hectic days: 25, 26 Honey days: 19, 20, 28, 29 Money days: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29 Profession days: 21, 22, 30, 31 Finances remain important and a priority this month until the 22nd. Since you are still in your yearly financial peak they remain a priority this month and you are sure to shine in these areas. The 21st looks like a particularly strong financial day.
CANCER June 22 July 23
Greatest days: 21, 22, 30, 31 Hectic days: 16, 28, 29 Honey days: 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29 Money days: 19, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29 Profession days: 16, 23, 30, 31 Money and opportunities seek you.
(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 Just go about your daily business— prosperity will find you. On the 22nd, the Sun moves into your money house and you enter a yearly financial peak a period of peak earnings.
LEO
July 24 Aug 23
Greatest days: 16, 23, 24 Hectic days: 17, 18, 30, 31 Honey days: 16, 19, 20, 24, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29 Profession days: 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29 You are in a period of maximum independence and personal power. You will be able to shape and mould your life your way. You can and should have your own way. Make the changes as you wanted to make.
VIRGO
Aug 24 Sept 23
Greatest days: 17, 18, 23, 24 Hectic days: 19, 20 Honey days: 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30, 31 Money days: 19, 20, 28, 29 Profession days: 16, 19, 20, 25, 26 Health will be good this month. The 19th and 20th seem a little stressful (a short term issue) so try to rest and relax more those days. Love is bittersweet this month. Finances remain good. Take responsibility of your own happiness.
64 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
LIBRA
Sept 24 Oct 22
Greatest days: 19, 20, 28, 29 Hectic days: 16, 21, 22 Honey days: 16, 19, 20, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31 Money days: 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31 Profession days: 21, 22, 23, 24 Career remains the focus this month, as you are in your yearly career peak till the 22nd. Much progress and success is seen. Health needs to be monitored until the 22nd.
SCORPIO Oct 23 Nov 22
Greatest days: 21, 22, 30, 31 Hectic days: 17, 18, 23, 24 Honey days: 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29 Money days: 19, 20, 28, 29 Profession days: 23, 24 Even though health remains excellent till the 20th, rest and relaxation is needed to avoid any complaints. Career looks successful from the 22nd onwards, your hard work attitude is rewarded amply.
SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 Dec 22
Greatest days: 16, 23, 24 Hectic days: 19, 20, 25, 26 Honey days: 16, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29
CAPRICORN Dec 23 Jan 20
Greatest days: 17, 18, 23, 24 Hectic days: 16, 21, 22, 28, 29 Honey days: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 19, 20, 24, 28, 29 Profession days: 19, 20, 28, 29 It is imperative that you monitor your health and take intermittent breaks. Staying healthy should be your real mission this month. Family will be involved in your happiness.
AQUARIUS Jan 21 Feb19
Greatest days: 19, 20, 28, 29 Hectic days: 17, 18, 23, 24, 30, 31 Honey days: 19, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29 Money days: 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30, 31 Profession days: 17, 18, 25, 26, 30, 31 On the 22nd there will be another shift in love as your love planet enters your 7th house. The joy will be more alluring as four planets are in or moving through the 7th house this month.
PISCES Feb 20 Mar 20
Greatest days: 21, 22, 30, 31 Hectic days: 19, 20, 25, 26 Honey days: 16, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29 Money days: 16, 19, 20, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31 Profession days: 19, 20, 28, 29 Until the 22nd of July, you are under the influence of a cosmic holiday, which means that you can be having as much fun as you want. Happiness and goodwill surrounds you. Address: 143, St Patrick’s Town, Gate# 3, Hadapsar IE, Pune-411 013. Tel.: 020-26872677 / 020-32905748 Email: connect@dollymanghat.com/ info.dollymanghat@gmail.com
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CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP
PROF. SUDHIR K SOPORY, VICE CHANCELLOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU) Volume 1, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
January 1-15, 2016 / `50
CORPORATE CULTURE
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity
INTERVIEW
An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power
Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR
UNFLINCHING SUPPORT
July 16-31, 2017 / Corporate Citizen / 65
the last word
Ganesh Natarajan
What about the many Funtooshes? There is much to be done in our country, for Indians like Funtoosh who come from underprivileged classes. Missions like Digital Literacy and skilling are all steps in the right direction but we need to step up livelihood and entrepreneurial opportunity creation at a rapid clip
I
t was the early sixties in a little village called Tatisilwai, a dozen kilometres down Purulia Road from the small town of Ranchi in the state of Bihar (now in Jharkhand). My father had just moved from Kolkata to set up a factory for his firm, Waxpol Industries, in this village and I had to forsake my admission into St Lawrence School, Kolkata to be admitted as a first grader in Bishop Westcott School in the neighbouring village of Namkum. Back from school one afternoon in my first week in a new environment, I wandered into a nearby village (no fears of Maoist terrorists or kidnappers those days) and met a village boy who was busy making a gilli for a gilli-danda competition. My curiosity aroused, I quickly understood from him the nuances of this village game and found a friend who would be my companion through the next ten school years. His real name was some exotic multi-syllable Thakur name but we all called him Funtoosh. Growing up in a village sounds romantic to many city dwellers but let me tell you it’s not easy either! And in a village like Tatisilwai, with only the Tuesday cock fighting at the village “haat” market and occasional fire walking for entertainment, my village friends and I had to innovate every day to keep ourselves amused. Games of Kabbadi
and Kho Kho supplemented gilli-danda at times. We got the village carpenter to make iron wheels for us, which we would roll through the dusty paths of the village with great dexterity. Every tree, however tall or difficult, was meant to be climbed to access the forbidden fruit that grew in abundance in the state. Those were the days of innocence and wonder and it was Funtoosh, the son of my father’s driver Manna (Parameshwar Thakur), who lit up my afternoons and weekends with his creative penchant for new games and pranks and willingness to follow wherever I chose to lead. To a large extent, we may have been inspired by our fathers. Manna and my father were like brothers and long after I had moved out of home to pursue education and then employment in Western India, it was his loyalty that took care of my parents. So much so that when my father succumbed to a cardiac arrest in the eighties, Manna came to visit us and ensured my mother’s
66 / Corporate Citizen / July 16-31, 2017
Sentimental Selfie: Funtoosh with Ganesh Natarajan
move to live with us was easy. He then went back to the village….. and just died! He was 60 years old. Having lost contact with Funtoosh for thirty years, I went back in 2016 to search him and was delighted to find him in the same village. His story has been one that three hundred million and more of our less privileged fellow citizens endure all over the country. Dropping out of school after the eighth grade, he managed to find a casual job in Waxpol along with his two brothers and just retired last year. With a second wife and two teenage children, his savings are probably less than a hundred thousand rupees and one wonders how he will manage to get his family to some modicum of prosperity. As I write this, Funtoosh is sitting opposite me, having gratefully accepted a ticket to come and spend ten days with us in Pune, but his story is already causing trouble to us. We know that we will help one Funtoosh, but what of the lakhs and crores of people like him for whom time has stood still and “acche din” is still a dream! There is much to be done in our country. Missions like Digital Literacy and skilling are all steps in the right direction but we need
We need to worry about the next generation of Funtooshes, who are entering a world of jobless growth, threats of artificial intelligence and robotics
to step up livelihood and entrepreneurial opportunity creation at a rapid clip. When one compares the Funtooshes of the world to many of our youth in the upwardly mobile cities who suffer from a selfish angst of not being rich enough even at the age of 30 with multiple credit cards, a house and a car, the imperative for inclusive growth strikes us squarely in the face. We need to worry about the next generation of Funtooshes, who are entering a world of jobless growth and threats of artificial intelligence, robotics and other forms of automation eliminating jobs at a faster pace than job creation in many industries. Using technology to create a level playing field and build a platform from which every town and every Gram Panchayat is connected and investing in content that enables the most relevant job skills to be imparted to our youth would be a welcome first step. And this should be supported by investments in artisan livelihoods, tourism and of course labour intensive manufacturing and services to give even the village of Tatisilwai a glimpse of the future! The good news today is that Funtoosh has a strong belief in Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Raghuvar Das and is optimistic about the future in which his children will seek careers. It is up to us now to ensure that his optimism is translated into a better reality for India and all Indians. Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect & Social Venture Partners, Pune.
Printed and published by Suresh Chandra Padhy on behalf of Sri Balaji Society. Editor: Suresh Chandra Padhy. Published from : 925/5, Mujumdar Apt, F.C. Road, Pune - 411004, Maharashtra. Printed at Magna Graphics (I) Ltd., 101-C&D Govt. Industrial Estate, Hindustan Naka, Kandivali (W), Mumbai - 400067.