cORPORATE sTALWART
Jagi Panda, Managing Director, Ortel Communications Ltd. Volume 4, Issue No. 03 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
April 16-30, 2018 / `50
The MBA Scenario According to a study by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), barring MBA graduates from the top-20 business management institutes, only 7 per cent get a job after completing their course. Most of the students of 5,500 business schools are “unemployable’’ and those employed earn less than `10,000 a month. Campus recruitment plummeted by 45% between 2014-2016; 220 B-schools have closed down. Read more on Pg 4
Dr (Honorary Colonel) A. Balasubramanian, the Editor-In-Chief of Corporate Citizen, and the President of the prestigious educational society (Sri Balaji Society) was felicitated and conferred the ‘ Lifetime Achievement Award’ by Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister, Maharashtra state, in a public function held in Mumbai on February 28, 2018
2 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 67
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What I like most about the Corporate Citizen magazine is the varied topics it covers, around which the corporate leaders express their views and opinions. The appeal of the magazine triggers both the left and right brain, which is perfect for our logical datadriven self as well as to our emotions. The strive-to-succeed stories to emerging trends in today and tomorrow’s business world, the latest-in-technology usage in domains like manufacturing to life lessons and values learnt along the way, are all touched upon in the magazine. The magazine also pulls our emotional chords by sharing stories of couples who have achieved pinnacles in business and have attributed their achievements to love and togetherness as their success recipe. Stories on disciplined fitness regime and aspects of good health are well illustrated in the magazine. In addition to the business landscape, unique CSR ventures in the social space by corporates addressing the needs of the society are also well-written. To conclude, I would say the mind, body and soul as one entity should be nurtured and that, I feel, is the ethos of the magazine and the key takeaway for its readers. —Col. Vijay Bakshi, HOD and Associate Professor, IFIM B-school (Bangalore)
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A break from the mundane
Your magazine, Corporate Citizen, is a big step up from what we are accustomed to. Page
Exemplary ISRO
INDUSTRY STALWART
Apropos your interviewbased story of the extremely modest ISRO chief A S Kiran Kumar titled ‘Dreaming Big, Delivering Big’ in March 1-15, 2018 issue, truly explains why, despite being a government organisation, it has achieved so many laurels in just five decades of its journey! India is truly blessed to have produced visionary leaders like Vikram Sarabhai, Prof. Satish Dhawan, Prof. UR Rao, APJ Abdul Kalam and such others who motivated ISRO’s scientists to keep doing hard work to solve India’s developmental issues. What’s even more creditable is the fact that ISRO has achieved so much success, that too, at a very low cost to space missions. And, now, it’s absolutely unbelievable how ISRO is trying to integrate Indian industry, engaged in its space programmes for long, to also gain a global footprint. Hats off to you, Sir! CC is doing great job by highlighting positive stories not just from private sector but also from our less-heard PSUs! —Dr Abha Mathur, NTPC, New Delhi
Dreaming Big, De The Indian Space Research Organisation is among the few government organisations that have had a series of successes in their missions. The civilian focus of its programmes, together with its use of spartan resources, has helped it achieve path-breaking space strides at lowest cost, recognised globally. Currently it is looking to get the industry engaged at an accelerated pace in its space programmes, and give them a global footprint. Hence, if 2017 proved to be good for space enthusiasts, 2018 can prove to be even better with the many exciting projects in the pipeline from India’s premier space agency.
By Pradeep Mathur
hanks to their chalta hai attitude, the general impression about our government departments is that nothing works there. But there is an exception where everything seems to work. So much so that whenever we hear its name, we feel happy because it immediately lifts our spirits. Sometimes it’s for a launch into space from its
launch site. Sometimes it’s about PSLV, sometimes GSLV, sometimes a Chandrayan, sometimes a Mars Mission and sometimes about how it launched a whopping 104 satellites, the biggest such launch, in a single mission anywhere in the world! Any guesses? Yes, you’re right. We’re talking about the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which functions from Bengaluru as an agency of Government of India’s Department of Space, answerable directly to none else than the Prime Minister himself. How does it keep breaking new ground, creating new benchmarks and always doing the nation proud?
The man who sits in the hot seat of ISRO, A. S. Kiran Kumar, was recently in the capital to attend a two-day international seminar jointly organised by FICCI, ISRO and ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix, on ‘Indian Space Programme—Trends & Opportunities for Industry’. The modest and completely down-to-
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after page of your magazine is devoted to real cool stories from the corporate world, a real break from the mundane. There is a serious treatment of subjects and one word of advice— please stick to what has earned the magazine its reputation for excellence. However, please tweak the online version of your magazine, matching it with the attention span of the online readers. —Sanjay Pardeshi, Marketing Executive
Encompasses the relevant, current and diverse
Corporate Citizen is one of those rare magazines which encompass relevant, current and diverse topics with regard to corporate culture in India, and also what is significant to the youth as a whole. The layout is so simplistic which is such a great thing when I see other online magazines which are claustrophobic. The images used in the articles are vibrant and they themselves speak a thousand words.
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April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 3
From the desk of Editor-In-Chief
The MBA Scenario Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian, Editor-In-Chief, Corporate Citizen
According to a study by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), barring MBA graduates from the top-20 business management institutes, only 7 per cent get a job after completing their course. Most of the students of 5,500 business schools are “unemployable’’
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f you go to any B-school, the conversation among students, from the time they join an MBA institute to the time they finish their course, revolves around campus placements. Such MBA schools, numbering a whopping 5,500 (as per ASSCHOM Report) are spread across rural and urban areas. When we consider MBA schools in urban areas, the environment is conducive to quality learning due to the proximity of corporate industry, availability of corporate leaders who periodically interact with students and opportunities for students to visit companies for projects without much cost. If you contrast this with a B-school in a remote taluka, the conditions are adverse for students. The language problem, paucity of quality
faculty, lack of a ‘hygiene’ system in terms of supporting system, that is the industry and corporate leaders, are the main hurdles. Besides these two categories of B-schools, the third category is the elite IIMs which are located in strategically advantageous metros. They have the mighty backing of both, the central government as well as the industry. Corporate leaders feel privileged to be associated with these institutions. Relate this with the campus placement scenario. At the admission level, the elite IIMs select their 200-300 students out of approximately 1,50,000 students. Most of the students have significant work experience of five to six years. So the take-off salary of the top five to six IIMs is invariably in the `15 lakh-plus per annum,
Dr (Honorary Colonel) A. Balasubramanian, the Editor-In-Chief of Corporate Citizen, and the President of the prestigious educational society (Sri Balaji Society) was felicitated and conferred the ‘ Lifetime Achievement Award’ by Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister, Maharashtra state, in a public function held in Mumbai on February 28, 2018 4 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
category. The new IIMs too have a brand value. Then comes the other MBA schools in urban areas. According to a study by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), barring the top-20 business management institutes, only 7 per cent of MBA graduates get a job after completing their course. The study states that most of the students of 5,500 business schools are “unemployable’’ and those employed earn less than `10,000 a month. It reveals that campus recruitments plummeted by 45% between 2014-2016, due to economic slowdown and low education quality. From 2014-2016, around 220 B-schools have closed down. Most of the MBA students are in their mid-20s and face the compulsion of looking after their families, paying back their education loans and pursuing their career dreams. Those in MBA schools of urban areas, struggle for long and ultimately land a job somewhere. The dilemma of students who graduate from B-schools in rural areas is heart-wrenching as the support system is not conducive to realise their dreams. In fact, such a grim situation also prevails in the B-schools of those urban areas which are not fortunate to have industry support. This apart, what is critical for a campus placement? The industry is not a charitable organisation—it has to have a particular skill set for a particular job and they have to deliver to their shareholders. No one will go to their rescue if they fail to perform. So, can a B-school deliver students who can match the expectations of the different sectors in the industry? Fortunately, the industry understands this limitation of B-schools, so mostly they visit campuses where they can find students who are adaptable and have been moulded by the institute to be good learners, willing to go through hardships and deliver the result under the leadership of the corporate leaders. The industry then is ready to hand-hold the promising candidates. This is where the concept of ‘management trainee’ comes in. For that, the ‘right attitude, skill and knowledge’ is required to be inculcated into the life system of the students, but this is the challenge for B-schools. For, there is no retention of students up to Std X.
Thereafter, at the undergraduate and graduate level, the educational system is pathetic with hardly four to five hours of college and the examination system that is quite lenient. Hence, becoming a graduate is not difficult. For admission into B-schools, the minimum percentage for entrance for admission is only 50%. Paradoxically, this in itself is a joke as B-schools are searching for students, so of what relevance is the selection by entrance examination? But they have to be conducted because it is mandated by AICTE. These are the systematic disappointments. As for B-schools, students mostly join at the age of 20 years when their personality has been shaped and their behavioural pattern, moulded. In two years flat, they have to be made fit for the industry. If you calculate the Sundays, public holidays, project assignments, examination holidays besides the 75% minimum attendance required, the MBA schools are barely left with one year to hone the skills and personality of these students, besides academics. So, in this leftover one-year period, with inefficient faculties, how to produce the golden mean is the million-dollar question. We, at Sri Balaji Society, felt it imperative to do away with the concept of holidays. In the very pre-admission stage itself, students are told that we do not follow any holiday concept. We also decided to empower women by reserving 50% of the seats for them. We give students the mantra of the 3 Ds of discipline, dedication and determination. They have a dress code and are introduced to the industry culture with a two-month-long induction programme. The result is that our students of BIMM, BITM, BIIB and BIMHRD—the four MBA institutes of Sri Balaji Society—which have mostly fresher candidates, are highly recruitable. The key word here is that B-schools should not only function to impart theories and practices but should also play the role of a finishing school, where the personality of the student is shaped. We, at Sri Balaji Society are proud of having achieved these standards. The result is companies from all over India are regularly visiting us and our alumni are spread across over the world.
The key word here is that B-schools should not only function to impart theories and practices but should also play the role of a finishing school, where the personality of the student is shaped. We, at Sri Balaji Society, are proud of having achieved these standards
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 5
Contents
Volume 4 Issue No. 03 April 16-30, 2018 www.corporatecitizen.in
Corporate Stalwart 07
A Role Model
Jagi Mangat Panda, Managing Director of Ortel Communications Ltd., on her personal and professional journey, and media’s role in constructive democracy
9 COLLYWOOD Chatpata Chatter from the Corporate World 13 Interview Anand Garg, Senior Director and Head of India Supply Chain, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, on future trends 14 WAX ELOQUENT Who said what and why 6 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
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20 ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT-1 Maninder Singh, an alumnus of Balaji Institute of Modern Management, Sri Balaji Society (SBS), talks on the rich legacy of SBS and the lessons it imparts 22 CII MANUFACTURING SUMMIT Discussion on manufacturing excellence and how it is changing with time 26 CRADLE OF LEADERSHIP Debamitra Mitra, Director, Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata, talks on how the institute has succeeded in evolving with the changing needs of the industry
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34 INTERVIEW Pankaj Dubey, MD & Country Head, Polaris India, on why one should dream big
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40 CORPORATE HEALTH Dr Alok Sharma, neurosurgeon, on how lifestyle changes, destressing practices and smart life-choices can help us alleviate the adverse effects of stress 44 HR Talk Haresh Chaturvedi, Vice President - HR, Reliance Industries (Petrochemicals), on his experience in the HR domain 46 CAMPUS PLACEMENT Indrani Kaur Sabharwal on her campus placement experience and her new innings in the corporate world
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48 LOVED & MARRIED TOO Deepak Bharadwaj and Puja Nagpal talk on the importance of positivity, acceptance and patience in making a marriage work 50 SURVEY Earth magazine’s list of global cities on the verge of a water crisis
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 7
contents
50 Editor-In-Chief Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian Consulting Editor Vinita Deshmukh vinita.corporatecitizen@gmail.com Assistant Editor & Senior Business Writer Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com Senior Sub-Editor Neeraj Varty neeraj.varty07@gmail.com Sub-Editor Vineet Kapshikar vineetkapshikar@gmail.com Writers Delhi Bureau Pradeep Mathur mathurpradeep1@gmail.com/ Sharmila Chand chand.sharmila@gmail.com
54 BOLLYWOOD BIZ A look at global celebrities who have spearheaded the #DeleteFacebook movement
Bengaluru Bureau Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar sangeetagd2010@gmail.com
56 MOBILE APPS The best free networking apps and services
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58 UNSUNG HEROES How a daughter of an autorickshaw driver became an all-India topper of the CA exam
Pune Bureau Joe Williams / Kalyani Sardesai / Namrata Gulati Sapra Marketing Manager Delhi: Mohamed Rizwan riz.mohamed@hotmail.com Manager-Circulation circulations@corporatecitizen.in West : Jaywant Patil, +91 9923202560 North : Hemant Gupta, +91 9582210930 South : Asaithambi G, +91 9941555389
66 THE LAST WORD Lead indicators of a city that is getting its act in place to deliver true value to citizens
Creative Direction Sumeet Gupta, www.thepurplestroke.com
66 Be A Corporate Citizen
How do you like this issue of Corporate Citizen - The Cool Side of Business? Send in your views, news, suggestions and contributions to corporatecitizenwriters@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! 8 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Graphic Designer Shantanu Relekar On Cover Page R Tamil Selvan, BJP leader, Devendra Fadnavis, CM, Maharashtra state, Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian, Editor-In-Chief, Corporate Citizen Brig. M. L. Bhambhani (retd), Advisor, Sri Balaji Society 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
Tendulkar, BMW gesture to engineering students There is no need for an engineering professor to teach engineering students, a cricketer can do, provided he is a master blaster. A four-member student team from College of Engineering, Anna University, bolted together an engine and transmission unit and mated it to a soon-to-be-released X3 body at company’s main assembly line, as a part of the programme by none other than cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, the event was organised at the BMW factory in Mahindra World City, in Chennai. The brand ambassador of the German luxury car manufacturer BMW, Tendulkar, said the distribution of engines and transmission units to technical institutions will give the students an opportunity to go beyond book learning. Just reading technology books without hands-on training will be the equal of ‘me playing book cricket,’ he quipped. BMW Group India will distribute 365 engines and transmission units free to engineering and technical institutes across the country to help students get hands-on training in modern automobile technology. Recalling the genesis of the idea, Tendulkar, thanked Bharti AXA General Insurance which was part of the initiative. Under the initiative, the luxury car manufacturer would provide 365 BMW engines and transmissions to various engineering and technical institutes across the country ‘free of cost’. The four-cylinder, two litre engines and 8-speed transmissions are modern units that power six locally produced BMW vehicles. Among the institution they will go to are 100 engineering colleges, 125 it is, 60 polytechnics and 10 automotive skill development centres. Talking on the occasion, Tendulkar said, “Skill Next is a vision which we are extremely passionate about.”
Sethi, now CHRO, Hero MotoCorp Vijay Sethi, replaces Sanjay Jorapur has moved on from Hero MotoCorp, where he was working as chief human resource officer since September, 2014. Sethi has more than 25 years of experience in the manufacturing and consulting space. He joined Hero MotoCorp in 2007, prior to which he has worked with Ranbaxy and TCS. He holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering, an MBA in materials management and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Apart from this, he has attended leadership programmes organised by leading global institutes, including Harvard Business School and Indian School of Business. Sethi also has a number of certifications in various areas of management and IT. Jorapur was instrumental in driving HR processes across through digitisation at Hero MotoCorp. He has also implemented an HR operating model to create best-in-class HR capabilities to support a global organisation.
Why Raghuram Rajan is not on Twitter
Raghuram Rajan, the celebrated economist and former governor of RBI, not on Twitter? He answered that question while delivering a keynote address at Future, a conference organised by the Kerala government. Rajan joked that he is not on social media because he doesn’t have the ability to think quickly and respond in 2030 seconds in 140 characters. Makes sense, doesn’t it? And also saves Rajan from all the trolls and social media experts who would probably claim that they know better than him in matters of economics. Asked why he is not on Twitter, this is what he gave as his reason. “I don’t have time. My sense is that in many of these things once you start engaging, you have to be consistent and I certainly can’t because I don’t have the ability to think quickly and respond in, you know, 20-30 seconds in 140 characters”. Although Twitter has raised the character limit to 280, the idea that it is possible to communicate to the world in a couple of sentences at a time may not be appealing to people who like nuanced and more thoughtful conversations.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 9
collywood SKF India Ltd appoints Carl Orstadius as MD
Carl Orstadius has been appointed Managing Director of SKF India Ltd. According to the Board of Directors of the Company, the appointment came into effect from April 1, this year. “We are delighted to have Mr. Carl Orstadius joining as the MD of SKF India Limited. He has nearly three decades of global experience with the SKF Group. He has a strong track record of executing business turnarounds and managing very successful Product and Business Development. I am confident that Mr. Orstadius will further lead our company in growing and delivering value to our stakeholders,” said Rakesh Makhija, Chairman of the Board, commenting on the move. A Master of Business Administration from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Orstadius has been associated with the SKF Group since 1987 and has held several leading positions in the past with the group. The 56-year-old Orstadius has been with the Automotive & Aero Business segment of SKF Group at Gothenburg, Sweden. He has also been in charge of Supply Chain, Investments and Integrated Cost Reductions and in the past three years, has been the driver behind improvement in the operating margins of the Global Automotive business for SKF.
BITS Pilani to help upskill Samsung employees In an attempt to boost the skills of its employees, Samsung India has joined hands with the engineering institute, BITS Pilani, to facilitate advanced learning for its employees at the Samsung R&D Institute India-Noida (SRI-Noida). The programme will be fully sponsored by Samsung and is intended to offer employees an opportunity to synergise theory with practice on a sustained basis, and to enhance their academic qualification. As part of the initiative, SRI-Noida employees can pursue M.Tech in software systems to further upgrade their skills. The course, consisting of three semesters of theory, work and one semester of dissertation, is designed to offer skills that are in alignment with SRI-Noida’s focus on niche areas, such as machine learning, cloud computing, data
mining, data structure and algorithms design and artificial intelligence. This will enhance the technical knowledge of employees, while giving them a career development opportunity. Throwing more light on the move, Dr Seounghoon Oh, managing director, Samsung R&D Institute IndiaNoida says, “As technology evolves, skill-sets must evolve too, especially for a company such as Samsung that is focused on the next level of innovation. This MoU is in line with our vision to develop futuristic skill-sets aligned to the requirements of the fastevolving mobile and consumer electronics sectors. Through these strategic partnerships, we aim to deliver the best training and skill development to our employees, and thereby accelerate our ‘Make for India’ initiative.”
Sinha, new CEO & MD, Tata Power Praveer Sinha takes charge as the Tata Power’s new chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director with effect from May 1, 2018 to oversee the next phase of expansion. Sinha is currently the CEO & managing director of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL), a public-private partnership between Tata Power and Delhi government, supplying power to over seven million people in North and North-West Delhi. N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Power while commenting on the move, said, “Praveer’s extensive experience in the power sector and his ability to drive performance, maximise returns and work seamlessly with stakeholders will be
10 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
very valuable for Tata Power as it looks to strengthen and expand its position in the fast-evolving energy market.” With over three decades of experience under his belt, Sinha has been in the power sector and spearheaded transforming the power distribution sector and development and setting up of green-field and brown field power plants in India and abroad. “Tata Power is among the oldest and most iconic companies in the Tata group and it is my privilege to lead such an institution. I look forward to working with all our stakeholders and employees to take this company on its next stage of growth,” said Sinha on his new assignment.
organic Farming, THE Juhi Chawla way She is just not an actor but an environmentalist too. Juhi Chawla takes charge as the brand ambassador for the Government of India for a women’s empowerment project. The actress will be the face of the Women’s Organic Festival of India. Juhi who owns two farms on the outskirts of Mumbai, says she couldn’t be happier to take on this new role. “The idea is to create awareness about this organic festival happening in Mumbai for the first time. I’m taking my duties further and using my friendships and contacts to invite people who are interested in organic farming. We have organic produce coming from all over India, from as far as Leh-Ladakh and Kanyakumari, from Kohima and Kutch. The aim is to whip up nostalgia for the small markets of the ’70 and ’80s,” said the actor. A proud farmer herself, Juhi loves working in her field whenever she finds the time. “Twenty years ago, when my father was close to retirement, he bought land in Wada, outside Mumbai, on the banks of the Vaitarna river. He would travel there often to develop his farm. I barely visited then, being busy with my films and shoots. But when he passed away ten years ago, it became my responsibility to look after the land,” she reminisces.
Is there a channel, India can be proud of? Karan Thapar asked while accepting the G.K. Reddy Memorial National Award for Journalism at Teen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi recently, ‘Is there a channel India can be truly proud of just as the British are justifiably proud of the BBC or the Americans of CNN?’ and answered, “There are some channels I’m proud of some of the time, some programmes I’m proud of most of the time but there are also a few channels and programmes that make me cringe all the time. Whilst there are newspapers that I would unreservedly applaud, I’m afraid there isn’t a single channel I can say that of without biting my tongue because I know I’m fibbing. Television did not exist in G K Reddy’s day and it was Doordarshan that was the plaything of our rulers and rightly reviled. But, today there are over 500 independent news channels and Mr Reddy might perhaps be flabbergasted at the number.” First, the reputation the media once enjoyed for reliability, balance and accuracy has suffered. Today you often hear the put-down that just because it’s in a newspaper doesn’t mean it’s true. Social media may have spawned fake news but the fact people rely on Twitter or WhatsApp to find out what’s happened suggests they no longer trust a paper or news channel to tell them the truth or the full story. “Connected to this is the claim the media could once make of being objective and fair. Few people are prepared to believe that today. Without doublechecking or giving a person a right of reply and often without knowing the full story the media judges individuals and finds them at fault. I don’t deny there are occasions when we’re right but every time we’re wrong we condemn an innocent person and leave him with little opportunity to correct the prejudiced image we’ve created,” he said. April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 11
collywood Sharma to anchor Vodafone-Idea behemoth India’s largest telecom company is seeing several changes on the top deck, one of which will be Balesh Sharma, currently chief operating officer of Vodafone India, becoming the CEO of Vodafone Group Plc and Idea Cellular. Sharma will be responsible for the combined business strategy and execution as well as driving integration, according to a statement from Vodafone. Akshaya Moondra, currently chief financial officer at Idea, will head the finance function of the merged entity. Ambrish Jain, currently deputy managing director at Idea, will be the chief operating officer (COO) of the merged entity. This is in line with the original merger announcement of 20 March 2017, which said that the management team of the combined business would be confirmed prior to closing. The joint enterprise of Vodafone and Idea Cellular, currently country’s number two and number three telecom companies, respectively, would unseat Bharti Airtel to grab the top slot. Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman
of the merged company. A non-executive chairman is entrusted with no operational responsibilities but only enjoys board responsibilities, said Vodafone. The company unveiled the leadership team that will manage the company being created after merging the British telecom operator’s India unit and the Aditya Birla Group’s mobile-phone arm. While Sharma takes over as the new chief executive, Idea finance chief Akshaya Moondra will be the chief financial officer of the merged company, the two companies said in a statement.
Unmesh Pawar quits Accenture Unmesh Pawar ends his innings as the global HR head for Accenture’s products operating group. Pawar’s last day at Accenture was at the end of the financial year (March 31, 2018). In his Facebook post, Pawar quoted, “My next big adventure am sure is lurking somewhere around the corner. In the interim, I will continue to use my learnings to coach leaders, start-ups and enable corporates to build their human capital capabilities.” Pawar has been associated with Accenture for 17 years, where he joined as general manager HR, when it had only 70,000 employees globally. In the last 17 years, he has made it to 435k people across 200 cities. He was responsible for 12 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
businesses building differentiated capabilities in the marketplace by designing and deploying complex talent strategies, acquisition and talent management practices on a global scale. He had the overall responsibility for designing and deploying Accenture’s talent acquisition strategy to meet the talent growth needs for all businesses globally across the 59 countries. In this role, he partnered with senior business runners, HR leaders and his teams to deploy fit-for-purpose, innovative market-leading talent acquisition interventions. For five years (2009-2014), Pawar served as managing director-HR for the Accenture operations growth platform. In this role, he led talent transformation to build differentiated market capabilities for the business with strong industry focus, whilst ensuring an all-time high employee engagement, retention and consistently being voted an ‘employer of choice’ in the industry.
Keeping employees WoWengaged There is a deep sense of accomplishment in finding meaning in what you do and being rewarded for the same, and it is this philosophy that forms the basis of the Sulekha Way of Working. This involves leaders having open, honest, frequent and constructive coaching dialogues with their team members on the ‘how’ aspect of performance. Explaining the idea behind Sulekha WoW, Satya Prabhakar, CEO, president, Sulekha says, “When we started thinking about these awards, we realised that it is not just an award but an integral part of the culture and defines our way of working.” The Sulekha WoW dimensions provide a guiding framework to employees—one that acts as a navigating compass, a GPS, helping the managers to take these value-adding coaching conversations, leading to development and growth across levels. The five dimensions of Sulekha WoW are, competence, commitment, collaboration, customer focus and leadership. “While every contributor shines in one dimension or perhaps two, they do bring all these dimensions into focus in delivering a remarkable job, every single day,” is how Param Parameswaran, chairman of the company explains. Compiled by Joe Williams joe78662@gmail.com
Interview
Lead like an entrepreneur A plethora of options open up for students when they step out of the college. Streamlining them is an art. Companies are on a hunt to pick the right candidates and freshers ought to know how to crack the deal. Anand Garg, Senior Director and Head of India Supply Chain, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, spoke at length with Corporate Citizen on future trends, expectations of companies from fresheres and how to deal with stress at the workplace By Ekta Katti
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riginally from Agar, a small town near Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Anand Garg has spent most of his career in consulting. Presently, Garg is leading India Supply Chain, Dr. Reddy's, which constitutes Planning, CFA Management, Logistics and New Product Launch for a business of `2,300 crore. As Garg believes to lead by example, he also spoke about his journey which is truly inspirational. His mantra for success is simple: “If one thinks like an entrepreneur, one will behave like an entrepreneur and will make right decisions.” Corporate Citizen caught up with Garg to know more about the rising trends, his career journey, Internet of Things and much more. Working with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories must be a dream come true? Yes, indeed! Dr. Reddy’s is one of the most renowned companies in India, known for its culture, value system and patient-centricity. What I like about this company is inspirational leadership, empathetic people and open environment to work which makes Dr. Reddy’s one of the best companies to work in. How has the experience been? I have been with this firm for almost four years. The experience in short has been fantastic—couldn’t have asked for more! Here one can get the exposure of working in different roles irrespective to one’s background through its well-known 'Job rotation policy' which makes an individual a better professional. Also, the company empowers people to take decisions and promotes entrepreneurship way of working.
How has the mindset of employees changed over the years? Over the years, Institutes have built state-of-the-art infrastructure to enable student’s accessing wide network of people and knowledge which helps them to relate with business issues quickly and to explore creative solutions or ideas. With the above, their expectations have also risen to lead the business in a short time which puts an enormous pressure to perform without much care for their personal health and personal life. This starts to create disturbance in their ecosystem. What are the industry expectations? Industry expects students to bring fresh perspective for variety of business
issues and at the same time learn the art to deal with different kinds of people to make the change more effective. Stress is inevitable with such work pressure. How should one deal with it? A stress is the origin of one’s own imagination of not achieving desired outcomes. People have adapted many ways to manage stress through regulating expectations, balancing work-life, practising meditation and a hobby, listening to music, etc… One of my preferred ways to manage stress is to accept that problems are part of life which reduces anxiety of not having a smooth life and then deal with each of them objectively. While some of them are solvable, however for remaining, seek assistance. Your views on the rising trend of Internet of Things. IOT is becoming a growing topic of conversation among most of the industries across the globe. It provides an access to live data which will improve the decision-making capability. Already it has picked up among e-commerce industries due to its natural fit and soon other industries will also follow the trend. Any suggestions for the youngsters or freshers? I am a firm believer of thinking first business before one’s domain as most of the business issues are intertwined with other functions, hence its paramount to develop entrepreneurship thinking which helps in connecting all the dots across functions and in making the right decisions. This is also indeed one of the faster ways to learn and deliver business outcomes. ektaakatti@gmail.com April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 13
wax eloquent
India can stand tall
Take a look at what our corporate leaders have to say about recent trends and their experiences in the business world
India’s future lies in startups
“India’s future lies in startups. Most businesses try to earn goodwill after they succeed. But entrepreneurs must come up with a business idea, which can be a business opportunity and earn goodwill at the same time.”
Mindset is changing
“70 years of this elephant, it has a mindset and the mindset was regulatory mindset. We are wanting that elephant to switch to a developmental facilitation mindset. It will change and I can see that change.”
Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister for Commerce,
Vinod Rai, chairman, Banks
Government of India
Board Bureau and former CAG
Courtesy: Economic Times
Courtesy: Mint
Smart Indians can help find smart solutions “You have to understand that the 20th century American way of life is not feasible in the 21st century. The automobile is a very 20th-century invention. In the 21st century, petroleum is going to run out. So the automobile is the wrong direction to go in now. But now that the youth is going to school, there are going to be smart Indians who can help lead and come up with 21st-century solutions.” Mark Lindley, economist, musicologist and historian Courtesy: http://www.deccanherald.com
Tomorrow is another day
“Tomorrow is another day and just because we are successful today does not mean we can guarantee success tomorrow too. We cannot take too much for granted. We have to constantly look at the future and implement ideas.” Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Courtesy: https://www. thehindubusinessline.com
14 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Progression of women in industry “Societies that have strong-economically, as well as mentally-independent women, tend to do better. How do you get there? You get there primarily through making sure that education and work opportunities are equal.” Tiger Tyagarajan, President and CEO, Genpact Courtesy: http://www.thedrum.com
Bollywood should be known for quality and not quantity “We, as a film industry, churn out maximum number of films but just the number is not important. We must give attention to content. Our industry should not be known just for quantity but for quality as well.” Abhinay Deo, film director
Courtesy: http://www.business-standard.com
When you grow so quickly
“Indian companies have grown much faster than other markets. Where rest of the world would have taken 30 years, Indian companies have done that in 10 years. When you grow so quickly the data you collect has also exploded in a short span of time. By definition it means that you are exposed to threats such as hacking, data breach and so on.” Anil Chakravarthy, CEO, Informatica
Courtesy: https://www.moneycontrol.com
Passion is overrated
Speaking her mind
“With the rise of social media, however, I feel, speaking and thinking has become a contested space where people get to question you and tell you what to do. I think that the time when someone tries to shut you down is the test of your conviction, and that gives me the strength to rise above the fear of ‘what will happen if I do this’.” Swara Bhaskar, actor
Courtesy: http://www.business-standard.com
Optimistic about India
“Over the next 10 years, you will make more money in India than say in the US. In fact, looking at the various economies around Asia and the world, I would feel reasonably confident to say that India has a growth potential of say approximately 6% per annum which to Indians may not sound a lot but that is much better than the Europe and the US.” Marc Faber, Swiss investor
“Our generation is wasting its life searching for passion in the same way that the previous generation wasted it looking for stability. Not that we have anything against passion-it’s nice, but fleeting. To follow passions and dreams means to tie yourself to something that’s necessarily ephemeral, and the very act of following it breaks it. We’d rather seek freedom instead.” Kingsley Jegan Joseph, co-founder, Bite Me Cupcakes
Courtesy: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com
Courtesy: https://yourstory.com
Understanding India’s new wealth creators “My job is to understand the new wealth creators, talk about their stories and position India as the land of opportunities and wealth creation to the world. If you were to consider key indicators such as GDP, urbanisation, and average age, the Indian economy is very comparable to China 10 years ago. And when India hits a GDP of $9 trillion in the next 10 years, I would expect the count of Indian billionaires to be at over 500.” Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher,
Make best use of available resources
Hurun Report India
“Champions make the best of facilities that are available to them, without complaining. There will always be something lacking. I would ask the players to go out, give your best, and when there are problems, find solutions. Don’t focus on what’s not there; focus on what you’ve got. And I think you have got plenty to prove.”
I find change is inevitable
Courtesy: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com
“I am waiting for smarter, brighter millennials to come up and share this responsibility forward. It is a cliché that change is constant, and anyone who knows me and my pace knows that I am always out there in the thick of action. But I have accepted change because I find it is inevitable.” Sunil Sethi, President, Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI)
Courtesy: https://www.indiatoday.in
You can either change or you can die
Sachin Tendulkar,
“Be it education, agriculture, health tech, healthcare, banking, finance, non-banking finance companies, insurance, manufacturing or logistics, we are seeing it across the board. They know that if they do not innovate and build digital businesses now, they will get disrupted. You can either change or you can die.”
Courtesy: http://www.firstpost.com
(AISPL)
cricketer
Bikram Bedi, Head (India Region), Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd
Courtesy: http://www.business-standard.com
Take the Made in India concept more seriously
“The world needs to get more eco-friendly. There is a case to be made for the intensive use of crafts and handlooms that do not create an unhealthy footprint, use no power and are wholly eco-friendly. We need to take the Made in India concept more seriously.” Ritu Kumar, designer
Courtesy: https://www.telegraphindia.com
Compiled by Rajesh Rao rajeshrao.rao@gmail.com
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 15
Pics: Sidhantha De
Corporate Stalwart
The media today has a lot of power which they can use to actually keep democracy alive but unfortunately I see a lot of media working just the other way; they have become a hindrance to democracy. I think we must start using the power of media in the right, positive direction. My attitude is positive so I feel that things will turn out positive at the end of the day when he started getting involved’’ 16 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
A Role
Model Jagi Panda, MD of Ortel Communications and co-founder of Odisha Television Ltd., is now the chairperson of CII’s Eastern Chapter. She is a model-turnedmedia entrepreneur and is a staunch votary of media workethics. She strongly believes that the media has a role to play in constructive democracy... By Vinita Deshmukh
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II Eastern Region recently got its first woman at the helm when Jagi Mangat Panda, Managing Director of Ortel Communications Ltd, was elected Chairperson of the apex industry body’s eastern chapter for the year 2018-19. Jagi Panda, who is the co-founder of Ortel Communications Ltd, which has under its banner, Odisha’s No.1 TV channel, Odisha TV, holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Osmania University, Hyderabad. She also holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She was awarded and recognised as the ‘Young Global Leader’ at the World Economic Forum in 2008. She is married to noted politician Jay Panda who is also a leading industrialist of Odisha. She speaks at length to Corporate Citizen on her personal and professional journey. Read on… Tell us a bit about your childhood. Jagi Panda: I am a Punjabi but never lived in Pun-
jab. I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. I am very South Indian at heart, and after my marriage to Jai, I go to Delhi often, but never lived there. How did you get into modelling? Just like any growing-up girl, when you are in college you participate in fashion shows and when you are appreciated, you get encouraged. When I was in Stanley Junior College, I won the Miss Stanley Contest. After that, I won the Miss Andhra Pradesh contest. With these two wins, I came into the limelight so a lot of people approached me for endorsements. This motivated me to go for outside modelling assignments. That’s how I got into professional modelling Your parents never restricted you? No. In fact, they were very supportive no matter what I wanted to do. I used to play badminton for Andhra Pradesh but because I got enticed by this glamour world, I gave up badminton, which I occasionally regret. So, my next move was to move to Mumbai for better modelling opportunities. The highlight of your modelling career was the Cadbury’s ad… No, actually, I want to correct you and though I have corrected this in many interviews, the stamp of me being the model of that advertisement, remains. And that’s unfair to the model who actually did the ad. I thought by now she would rectify it, since she has put in all the hard work, but she hasn’t. Amongst other ads, I did the Palmolive soap ad, which was a very large campaign in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The models comprised Aishwarya Rai, Shehnaz Treasurywala and myself. Strangely, people hardly remember this ad. So what was your experience in modelling like? It was different from what I had expected. Everybody thinks it is a glamorous world and it is a smooth sailing. In actuality, it is a lot of hard work and nothing wrong with that—only people April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 17
Corporate Stalwart who choose this career will understand that it is not so easy in spite of the glamour. The problem with this profession is that there are no definite working hours. Sometimes, I used to go early in the morning and would not return till midnight or even later. It would all depend on when the shoot would finish. You could be sitting for many hours, doing nothing and then suddenly do something and get delayed. This was something that was not very exciting for me. So, how did you become an air hostess? Modelling was so uncertain—sometimes you had work, sometimes there was no work at all. Being an outsider in Mumbai, there was nothing to do when I did not have a modelling assignment; I thought I needed to occupy myself with something else. So I applied for the Air India job and surprisingly got it. That was in 1989.
How did you meet Jay Panda? When I met Jay, both of us were on a flight to Paris. In fact, later we came to know that Sonia Gandhi was also on the flight (it was soon after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination). There was a bomb scare so the aircraft was diverted to Ankara. We did not know each other on the flight at all. When we landed, they kept us on the ground for seven to eight hours until they searched the aircraft. The airport was so small and ours was a large aircraft, so some 300-odd passengers were accommodated in a small room. So, Jay and I came across each other and started making conversation. At that time Jay was looking after his father’s business. Subsequently, we kept meeting each other in Mumbai, Paris and other places. Finally, three years later, in 1994, we got married. What do you admire about him? When I first met him, I only knew that he was a businessman and I didn’t know anything else. I appreciated the fact that he was so well travelled, 18 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
When did he propose? He proposed two years after we saw each other and by then I obviously knew at some point we would marry. So I accepted his proposal and had absolutely no apprehension about leaving modelling. I had no apprehensions whatever until people started saying, ‘how will you go and live in a small place like Odisha?’ Many said, ‘No, you must go and check out the place’. I said no, because for me what was important was the guy I was getting married to, and not the place. I could be living in Hollywood and not have the right guy and what would it mean? So I did not really bother to check. Your mother-in-law, Ila Panda, was a powerful industrialist and an inspiring woman… Yes, she was very supporting, very open minded and of very modern outlook I really admired that. Soon after Jay became a teenager, he started living on his own and not in his plush family house. So only a very modern mother could allow something like that. It was very easy therefore for me to get into the family. I had no idea what Odisha was like, otherwise. It was ob-
Above: Felicitated by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Right: Jagi Panda with her illustrious husband, Jay Panda who is a noted political leader and entrepreneur
viously not a very important State on the map of India. So, I came with a completely open mind. I found professionalism was lacking here. So I learned that there is no point in being frustrated; you just have to work with what you have. Then I started working with Jay’s firm because I had told Jay that I didn’t care what place I was going to, as long as I was engaged in doing something. Since I had no technical qualifications, obviously Jay put me on a very low-end job. He said you have to grow on your own now. That’s when I went to IIM Ahmedabad and got an executive MBA degree. I came back and I was wanting to work on a new project. When I found that they were doing a communication project, I jumped at it. I was very excited about the project, but I told him I wouldn’t like to make it part of the group company - I would make it my company. Jay told me that was not so easy, you have to work very hard; you have to raise funds. I decided to take up the challenge and recruited four members in my team. It was called Ortel Communications… Yes, when we started the company, we wanted to have a satellite channel. But since the market of satellite channels had not picked up, we decided to launch a cable network, which I had never thought of. It was extremely challenging; in fact a nightmare for the first three years, but I am very stubborn—once I take up something, I just go at it. Nightmare in what sense? There were so many problems in the cable business like dealing with cable operators, government agencies, the police and so on. I had not thought of all these problems - they came onto Pic: http://ateliermagazine.in/
How did you like the air hostess job? What are the pros and cons? It was a brief stint, because I thought I could pursue my modelling assignments when I was not flying. However, after my training and a few flights, I was told that I cannot do modelling; so obviously I had to make a choice between the two careers. I quit Air India as obviously my first choice was modelling. I had won the Gadrags contest in India in 1990. Nasreen Wadia had sent me to Turkey for the best model contest. Subsequently, I joined an agency in Paris for modelling.
very well spoken and had great knowledge of many subjects. It is this that intrigued me because I hadn’t done any of that. His in-depth knowledge on so many subjects really attracted me to him.
Sabha he said I must now fight elections. So, it has been a gradual move for him.
me and I didn’t know what hit me and somebody asked me if I would do it again, I said I don’t think so. So yes, we had a tough time for the first three to four years but luckily, a British firm was looking to invest in poor states like Odisha in the technology business and we actually fitted the bill, so we were very lucky. Thus, we got our first investment and we started from there.
How many hours do you work? I have no working hours. However, earlier, I had no time at all when I was building the organisation. Now after many years I do get time for myself and I am able to do things I wanted to do. I have a good team, so that does help in getting home in time.
Then you established Odisha TV? After a few years of running Ortel, we started the TV channel, but initially it was a cable channel. Now, it is a full-fledged satellite channel for almost 14-15 years now. We got a lot of valuable support from Jay, because before he dabbled in his father’s business, he was a journalist in the USA for five years. He advised me that I must have a charter and ensure that everyone abides by it. Does the charter have something to do about the work culture? Yes, about media work ethics—how media should be balanced, you must cover at least two opposing viewpoints and things like that. That is the biggest gift that Jay gave us. We have firmly stuck to that charter and that has actually got us to come this far in terms of credibility. Today if you talk to any journalist, industrialist or common man, they will look up to Odisha TV because the credibility is very high. So, in the bouquet, the news channel is the premier channel, followed by entertainment, religion and so on. What were the challenges you faced while covering regional news? Human resources was the major challenge. Handling people is another challenge because you have to get people a) to join you and b) to follow the charter. No editorial person is allowed to do space selling. So people did take some time because they had got used to working in a certain way, thanks to much of the media owed by politicians. To counter this, we got a lot of fresh talent who worked with an open mind. What are your views on journalism? The media today has a lot of power which they can use to actually keep democracy alive but unfortunately I see a lot of media working just the other way; they have become a hindrance to democracy. They are not doing what their job is—like speaking boldly, speaking freely. I think we must start using the power of media in the right, positive direction. My attitude is positive so I feel that things will turn out positive at the end of the day. What is it that keeps a marriage going? A marriage is an understanding between two people, not (defined) by how much time you spend with each other. Jay and I never had much time with each other because both of us had very
And do you all go for holidays? We do go for holidays, once a year. We love going to historical places, so Europe is a great place to be in. We sometimes go to the US and we never mix work and holiday. Initially, I did travel with him on a couple of work trips, but it doesn’t work like that.
A marriage is an understanding between two people, not (defined) by how much time you spend with each other. What matters is how communicative you are and how you understand each other. Communication forms an extremely important part of marriage” different lives and stressful lives. In a month we spend at least a week together which is good, I think. What matters is how communicative you are and how you understand each other. Communication forms an extremely important part of marriage. What was your reaction when Jay joined politics? Very negative. I told him, oh no, I don’t think you should join politics. How did it actually happen for him? While he was in business, he had a lot of interaction with politicians whether he liked it or not, because government and politics are an integral part of doing business in India. So there was a certain amount of frustration in him. When he would express this feeling to his friends, they would always tell him that if he was so frustrated, why doesn’t he become a part of it, and that’s when he started getting involved with Biju Babu who had just become the CM. One thing led to another and he was asked to join the Rajya Sabha as a member. From Rajya
Do you have children? We decided not to have kids. We decided this before we decided to get married, strangely both of us had this view that we won’t have kids of our own but we will adopt kids, but it is sad that we got so busy in our work that we never adopted. What is your philosophy of life? In work my philosophy has always been that work is a journey; I don’t think we should be really working for goals; we should be working to enjoy the journey and that’s when we get out of this rat race we are constantly in. And what is your personal philosophy, which you live by? You cannot control other people’s actions; you can only control your own actions and reactions, and you should be focusing on that. How popular is Jay Panda as a politician? I was worried how Jay would handle mainstream politics when he got into the Lok Sabha. However, I was surprised to see how very committed he is to his constituency. He spends 15 days in a month in his constituency. I have not heard of any politician at least in Odisha who spends that kind of time. In the morning his gates are open for anybody to walk in to talk to him and express his/her problems. This really amazes me. vinitapune@gmail.com
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India’s job crisis
India’s state-run railways has received more than 20 million applicants for about 100,000 jobs. With 200 people chasing one job, it shows that the jobs crisis in India is indeed very severe.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 19
Alumni Spotlight-1 Maninder Singh, alumnus, Balaji Institute of Modern Management
My father had given me a priceless advice—never worry about the salary. He suggested that I focus on ‘LEARNING’ and ‘EARNING’ would follow 20 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Fighting
Adversity
Established in 1999, when management education in India was just taking off, and paralleling the rise of the corporate sector in the country, Sri Balaji Society (SBS) has fast gone from being a promising cause to becoming one of the leading management institutions of the country. Maninder Singh, an alumnus of the first batch of the Balaji Institute of Modern Management (BIMM), SBS’s flagship institute, writes to Corporate Citizen to communicate the rich legacy of SBS and the lessons it imparts to its students By Neeraj Varty
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y name is Maninder Singh, and I am a gold medallist from the pioneer batch of BIMM (then IIMM), 19992001. As you would all appreciate, being in the pioneer batch posed a lot of challenges for us. But at the same time, it also provided a tonne of opportunities! We were a completely new set-up… others didn’t know us… we had to do that extra bit (in fact a whole lot) to make our presence felt, heard and seen. I was also part of the Placement Committee and given the guidance from Bala Sir (the founder and Director of SBS), we ventured into newer ideas of attracting corporates to our campuses for internships and placements. One good thing of being the first batch was that we were not bogged down by any previous SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and we creatively formed our own and stuck to what worked best and hopefully laid the foundation for our juniors to pick up. Sitting in elementary school benches did leave some sore backs, but it was all worthwhile in retrospect when we all walked out of the programme with well-paid jobs in our hands I personally was blessed to have been offered four lucrative jobs out of the campus and chose to go with the least-known company giving me the least amount of money. That is because I did see myself learning quite a lot in this company, wearing multiple hats and that intuition proved correct. My father had given me a priceless advice—never worry about the salary. He suggested that I focus on ‘LEARNING’ and ‘EARNING’ would follow. I spent the next two years in this company, majority of this period was spent in the US. After this, I transitioned to HCL and then to Tech Mahindra, where I led a Sales Hunting
Maninder with Family
While in the US, I never cared for my Green Card and wherever there seemed to me an opportunity to learn more, I jumped ship. My career has been focused around my thirst to learn new things team and built a portfolio from 0 to about $40 million. Thereafter, I thrived to learn more and joined Accenture and now I’m the Head of Sales for Media Practice at Genpact. I’ve been blessed with many Sales Achievement awards in my career and often speak in sales conferences on the nuances of pursuing a sales career.
While in the US, I never cared for my Green Card and wherever there seemed to me an opportunity to learn more, I jumped ship. My career has been focused around my thirst to learn new things. I strongly believe that professional career of anyone can be divided into two 20-year phases. The first 20 years, pretty much most of us end up doing similar things and achieving similar results. It is based on the learning and experiences we have in the first 20 years that takes all of us in different altitudes and trajectories in the next 20 years. I am in the final end of the first 20 years of my journey and I sincerely hope I can move to the next level beyond. A few very important things I learnt in my days at Balaji Society were, ‘PROBLEMS ARE OPPORTUNITIES’ and ‘FIGHTING IN ADVERSITY’. The first one is what I imbibe not only in my professional life but it extends to the challenges I’ve faced in my personal life as well. And being a new institute, we had a chip on our shoulder and always strove that extra bit to work harder. Therefore it never hurts to be not the best, because not being the best makes you work harder and the sooner you get that appetite, the better it helps and propels you. Seeing Bala Sir himself going through adversities in life and not giving up was a huge motivation for me personally and his articulation around ‘PROBLEMS ARE OPPORTUNITIES’ is something that echoes in my mind every single time I’m struggling. I live with my wonderful, lovely wife who’s a veternary doctor, Dr Mini and my lovely kids, Sahana (8) and Anant (6). I would love the opportunity to talk to fellow junior Balaji campus students and share with them my experiences and encourage them to excel. My past few years have been extensively selling digital stories to my clients and would love to share my perspective with fellow juniors. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com
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Pact not quite cemented ACC Ltd and Ambuja Cements Ltd, both controlled by LafargeHolcim Ltd, said they were putting on hold their proposed merger, citing constraints related to transfer of mines under current laws. The merger, which would have potentially created India’s second largest cement maker, still remains the “ultimate objective”, the companies said. For now, ACC and Ambuja said that their boards have approved an arrangement to work with each other.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 21
CII Manufacturing Summit
Operational Excellence through Innovation 22 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Pics: Yusuf Khan
Alakesh Roy: If you want to innovate, stop training employees and if you keep on training people, they will be only doing the same job over and over again. There will be nothing new in this scenario. You need to educate people; until and unless you will educate people they will not think and if they will not think, they will not innovate. You might be facing situations which would never have come into your life, so the only way to survive is to innovate. Be it a product or be it a technology, you will have to adapt it to grow and survive. There are millions of examples of technology, which are the best but that technology is simply died—typewriter being one and another technology being the age-old is wristwatch. It has survived every technological onslaught but we all love to wear it. Because that has now become a fashion accessory and status symbol. You need to create value in your product and value in your thought process to innovate and to stay in business. This is the need of the hour. In future, there will be only two qualifications, whether you are relevant or you are irrelevant. There cannot be any other qualification. You might have a degree, you might have fancy rankings in your colleges but if you are not relevant, then you are out of your business.
Creating a culture of excellence has always been a challenge, especially since both internal and external factors often keep changing. There is a need to redefine the way employees and individuals can contribute towards the excellence drive. We hear from organisations and experts who have created such thriving systems to walk on the path of manufacturing excellence. In this context, CII Western Region recently organised a session at Westin, Pune where industry leaders shared their experiences of manufacturing excellence. Panellists for the session were Alakesh Roy (session moderator), Convenor, CII Forum of Operational Excellence and Managing Director, Zamil Steel Buildings India; Govind Gadgil, Zilla Prabhagi, Patanjali Ayurved; Medha Tadpatrikar, Director, Rudra Environmental Solution India and Pulin Shah CMD, Reactive Polymers. Corporate Citizen brings to you the excerpts from the riveting session By Vineet Kapshikar
Govind Gadgil: I am going to share with you Patanjali’s success story. Patanjali Ayurved had to innovate in every domain in order to be in the market, survive and gain market share. Twenty years ago, Swami Ramdev founded Patanjali Ayurved and since then, he started working in the medicine field, i.e. Ayurveda. Earlier in the evenings, many people used to watch different kinds of programmes on TV, he used that opportunity to reach thousands of people and tell them the benefits of yoga. Swamiji also made sure that everyone knows the benefits of Ayurved. In order to manufacture and conduct sciencebased research on Ayurvedic medicines, Swamiji has established a scientific research institute at Haridwar, Uttarakhand. The cost of this institute is `200 crore.
Swadeshi products
Mahatma Gandhi insisted on using swadeshi goods but nobody took that initiative seriously in our country. Nobody was manufacturing swadeshi goods in India. Swamiji has decided to change that market situation and has been working to promote swadeshi goods and products in India.
Education sector
Whatever the syllabus Indian schools and colleges have is not originated in India but in foreign countries. When one gets his/her degree, they opt for post-graduation, but at times, they are not able to earn enough money. Considering that scenario, he started Patanjali’s first school, Acharyakulam in April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 23
CII Manufacturing Summit us will be able to witness a chocolate wrapper disintegrate. According to statistics, 80 thousand billion metric ton of plastic is lying in oceans, either in landfill or in rivers. Every plastic product that has been manufactured since its discovery is still on this planet. Considering its time required to disintegrate, if you are able to make something out of it, it is brilliant. Rudra Environmental Solution was established in 2009; we are an ISO-certified company. We are contributing under Swachh Bharat and Make in India initiative. We are a financially viable, any technology has to be financially-viable, otherwise it's just a hobby.
Haridwar. The students are taught yoga and latest technologies in science.
Health sector
In India, we don’t get any products which are good for our health. Foreign companies, which conduct business here, are not beneficial for our health. ‘Dant Kanti’ was the Patanjali’s first product, which became very popular and as a result, Patanjali became well-known among people. The toothpastes, which are made by foreign companies, damage the teeth due to harmful chemicals; ‘Dant Kanti’ is a chemical-free toothpaste. After using it, you will not have any teeth-related problems. We are manufacturing 15,000-crore-worth products every year. Also, we have set up a plant in Assam, recently whose annual turnover will be `25,000 crore. Around 1,000 products of Patanjali’s are being used across India.
How it all started?
It was all possible due to Acharya Balkrishna, he and Swamiji joined forces and started Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar. Production of amla and aloe vera juice started there. The daily output of the juices is 500 tonnes. The production had started but how to sell such huge quantities of juices? So Swamiji called all the employees at Haridwar, some of them were chosen to market the products from villages to rural areas at Haridwar. But, if the daily production is 500 tonnes, imagine how much waste is generated. So to tackle it Acharya Balkrishna thought of an idea, to burn all the waste that is left after the juice is extracted. The ash that remains is used to make dishwashing soap. As a result, no resource is wasted; every bit of the resource is used to make products. Patanjali outlets are in all the villages as well as urban areas where people can get ayurvedic medicines at minimal cost.
Contribution to the society
The money earned by Patanjali Ayurved is not for its employees, it is for the society. At Haridwar a few years ago, an unfortunate natural calamity had occurred, where 150 children had lost their families in that disaster. So Swamiji adopted these children and started an educational institute worth `25 crore. Since the school is 20 km away, he has arranged daily buses for the students. Philosophy of Patanjali is decentralised, sustainable, inclusive and justified growth. Patanjali Ayurved is based on three pillars—big goal, hard work and determination. Medha Tadpatrikar: I represent Rudra Environmental Solutions. Everybody uses plastic everyday and it is a part of our life. It is a brilliant product, which was discovered only a century ago.
“Mahatma Gandhi insisted on using swadeshi goods but nobody took that initiative seriously in our country. Swamiji has decided to change that market situation and has been working to promote swadeshi goods and products in India” —Govind Gadgil
What is plastic?
For the first three months, we were trying to understand what is plastic. One thought came to my mind, since water turns into ice and ice turns to water, can we do the same thing with plastic? Since plastic is made from petrochemicals and it is volumetric, that means 1 litre of plastic water bottle is hardly about 20 grams. We did a few experiments and later we started to notice that something was happening. After testing it, we realised that it is hydrocarbon fuel and we started working on it. We are pioneers in India to develop waste-to-fuel technology. We recycle most of the plastic. How long does it take for plastic to disintegrate? Thousands of years and that too is a guess, because we haven’t seen any plastic disintegrate or degrade. This is because it was discovered just a century ago and none of
Conversion process
First, we shred the thinner type of plastic, which cannot be recycled, like multilayer packaging, and that type of plastic has no monetary value. We don’t segregate the plastic, because the cost to segregate is very high. We get more than 100 different types of plastic, so you cannot separate the unwanted ones. After shredding the plastic, it is fed to the reactor, we add a catalyst and we heat the reactor, the heating happens through our own fuel and then the gas is generated. This is very energy-efficient system and around at 180° Celsius, the gas is formed, this gas is a mixture of propane, methane and butane, which is similar to LPG. That gas is collected and compressed and we use that gas for our processes of heating the reactor. At around 330° Celsius, the oil/fuel starts to form; once the fuel starts forming, it starts to come out very fast. For 100 kg of plastic, we can get around 50-80 litres of fuel. The entire process from starting the reaction to getting the fuel takes about 5-6 hours. The fuel can be used directly in furnaces, generators, incinerators, etc. After the process, there remains a residue (char), which can be used in tar roads. Recently, we donated 50 metric tonne of waste plastic to PMC. (Pune Municipal Corporation). By using our waste plastic, they are making a 25-km-long road; the saving is `30,000 per square kilometre. These roads are strong as well. We have a plant in Hyderabad, which is a three-tonne plant. The fuel that is generated is much more cleaner and has less emission as compared to petrol and diesel. There is a company, which is using our
”We recycle most of the plastic. How long does it take for plastic to disintegrate? Thousands of years and that too is a guess, because we haven’t seen any plastic disintegrate or degrade” —Medha Tadpatrikar
24 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
fuel for burners for past six months, and it has given good results. We have now been working for past 8-9 years on plastic; we see a lot of different kinds of plastic every day.
tiles are sturdy and lightweight. This machine is at the developing stage and it will be ready in a month or two.
Pulin Shah: I am an engineer in plastics. I have more than 35 years of experience with business management and polymer. I am the president of Other uses of plastic the association of plastic manufactures and traders Because of our work, we are working with villages. and a patent holder for release-free mouldings of We realised that they do have cooking gas but in cold cure foams. We are manufacturing sofas and the morning, when they are heating the water for we have supplied more than half a million of sofas bath, they burn wood or plastic bottles. Keeping till date. We produce a sofa every six minutes. We that in mind, we are giving them fuel at a cheaper are an ISO 9001:14001 company. rate. Women there, don’t have much of work to do, Why we are in business? Answer is pretty so we thought could we do something about the simple—profit, growth, turnover, development plastic? We have been working with them and we and diversification. After being able to achieve came across a new development wherein we have these factors, we are looking for sustainence. developed a machine, which will develop plastic How do you sustain and grow? By being attuned sheets of waste plastic, and these stitch it into files to the change. Change is the only permanent and folders and they are sold to various colleges, thing. Companies who are willing to accept the change will survive and flourish. We have plenty of examples where the businesses have failed to recognize the upcoming change. They have closed down. Nokia didn’t recognise that android is a better platform for mobile devices and it will be the future. They didn’t adapt and they failed. We, at Reactive Polymers, have tried to adapt with the change, tried to productionise our activities. We started manufacturing polyethene foam, which is just an intermittent product for any kind of seating systems. We saw that the challenges we faced—low margins, very-easy-tomake, very low-entry barrier and lot of things like that and other factors. We adapted and decided that this is not the way we would want to continue and therefore we entered “In future, there will be only two qual- into manufacturing of ifications, whether you are relevant or finished products like cinema hall seats, bus you are irrelevant. If you are not rele- seats and sofas. vant then you are out of your business” There are 2 lakh people manufacturing sofas in —Alakesh Roy India, but we wanted to productionize the activity, which we did by using a conveyer system. The finished sofa is also packed on the conveyer schools and even corporates. This development itself. The sofas are then dispatched using an started about 6-8 months ago. overhead conveyer, which moves in the entire We hear so much of waste plastic in oceans. factory; there are about 100 sofa boxes on the Today if you look at the amount of plastic in the overhead conveyer and then it goes directly into ocean, for three kilos of fish weight, there is 1 kg of the container. There are other small ideas in terms plastic; by 2030, it is going to be almost the same. of big innovation—a chute drops the stitching Somebody came to us, and said, ‘There is lot of material on the conveyer and the sofa, which is plastic, which is mixed in beach soil, and can we ready, has to be stitched and made ready in six use this into machine and turn to fuel?’.However, minutes. Another improvisation, which we did in because of the sand, the machine can be damaged. terms of transporting the sofas to the transport So what if we decided to wash it, water will take vehicle. Earlier, it took four people to manually away the sand, we will have clean plastic but then pick up the sofa, keep in the vehicle but after using what you do of that water? So what we thought, a trolley to transport the sofa, this has reduced can beach waste be turned into roof tiles as well as my loading time into the transport vehicle by 35 paving blocks? There is no need to separate sand minutes, and earlier it used to take 62 minutes to from the plastic; it goes directly into the machine, load into the vehicle. and few chemicals are added into the reactor. Roof
“How do you sustain and grow? By being attuned to the change. Change is the only permanent thing. Companies who are willing to accept the change will survive and flourish. We have plenty of examples where the businesses have failed to recognize” —Pulin Shah We have introduced a 10-metre panel called ‘War on Defect’. Whenever there are defects/ problems noted on the wall, we solve the problems by identification, team creation, analysis and solving those defects. Principle of do it right, first time has been engrained in the people. There are no customer returns or complaints in the FY 2017-2018 as a result, customer satisfaction has been the highest. vineetkapshikar@gmail.com
CC
tadka
NYSE in talks to buy Chicago Stock Exchange at $70 million? Strong rumors abound that The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) may be all set to acquire the Chicago Stock Exchange. Chinese-led North America Casin Holdings was previously trying to acquire CHX Holdings, the parent company of the Chicago Stock Exchange, but the deal collapsed in February after it was rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).The NYSE has discussed paying around $70 million for CHX which would be at thrice the price offered by North America Casin Holdings.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 25
Cradle of Leadership By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar
The
celebrated repertoire of cinematic expressions, its award-winning documentaries, films and the quest for precision spell an audiovisual voyage for students of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata. Spread across 39.36 acres of land in Kolkata’s Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, the autonomous educational institution functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B), Govt. of India and is registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961. Established in 1995, SRFTI holds parallel fort along with the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Pune, as a national-level film and television training institute. ‘In memoriam’ to the legendary epic filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, SRFTI is an evolving experience that has slowly moved from imparting know-how from the ‘celluloid’ by gradually transitioning to digitised versions in its coursework. Its illustrious alumni include filmmakers such as Vipin Vijay, Sagar Ballary, Kanu Bahel and Haobam Paban Kumar, cinematographers the likes of Siddarth Diwan and Mrinmoy Nandi, editors Namrata Rao, Sankhajit Biswas, Moloy Laha and sound recordist Partha Barman, represent but a small chunk of the entire SRFTI diaspora—the past, the present and those to come in the future. The success of SRFTI’s PG diploma courses in Filmmaking and EDM (Electronic Digital Media) at the Kolkata campus has set the ball rolling for a second SRFTI campus—for a full-fledged UG programme, to be permanently established at Jote in Arunachal Pradesh. While the UG syllabus awaits approval from the I&B ministry, proposals are on to get an affiliation from Central University of Itanagar for this programme. And holding vigil through the varied transitions in its curriculum is Ms Debamitra Mitra, Director, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata. Armed with an M. Phil. and PhD. in Social Science, the past 26 years has seen Ms. Mitra’s skills reflect across the domains of social science and media—into academia, research and administration and in audio-visual digital media. She has authored three books, edited 15 books and written more than 70 research papers. Author of End Of Communist Rule in East Europe: Poland, a case study(1993), Indo-Bhutan Relations: Political Process, Conflict and Crisis (2010) and Monograph on India, China and Himalayan Buffers (2016), she believes that nobody can put a ‘perimeter’ on anyone’s creativity. Yet, creativity needs to be nurtured within the framework of technology, politics and the prevailing social structure. “I believe that whether it is technology or the realm of virtual reality, originality should be maintained by whomsoever and in whichever domain they work; it must come up with an original thought and exemplify originality of the student or the person creating that work. ...The original thought should reflect in the film or other creative medium and automatically it (the creative) will be something different from that of the others...,” says Debamitra Mitra, in this special interview for Corporate Citizen
W i de A ng l e
How relevant is SRFTI’s coursework? Debamitra Mitra: Students at SRFTI have both national and international exposure because we teach students the technology and the know-how that impart knowledge not only in filmmaking but also on the skills expected in the television industry and within the scope of electronic digital media (EDM). The curriculum is completely technology-driven where students are trained by facilitating them with the latest and the state -of-the-art equipment, be it the ALEXA camera platform or the Sony F55. Our students use the latest equipment and technology for their projects including short films or their diploma (dissertation) films. Because the entire course is on filmmaking, students are constantly occupied with 26 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Pics: Gobindo Saha
Debamitra Mitra, Director Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata
Learning filmmaking the ‘Ray’ way
The Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI) at Kolkata stands parallel with the famed Film & Television Institute of India at Pune in providing the state-of-the-art opportunities for aspiring filmmakers, with a long list of award-winning films and filmmakers under its belt. Over the years, it has succeeded in evolving with the changing needs of the industry, in terms of courses offered and technologies harnessed. It’s current Director, Debamitra Mitra plans to add a new dimension—research—into its curriculum; filling, what she believes, is a much-felt void April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 27
Cradle of Leadership
hands-on project work. Does SRFTI have a global connect? In more ways than one, as SRFTI is a member and affiliated to CAPA and CILECT - The International Association of Film and Television Schools, which is an esteemed global network of major film and television schools. We also connect via the innumerable films made by our students which gain entry at different international film festivals and through the varied awards won by them across diverse platforms. Within the given academic framework, SRFTI has had collaborations and student exchange programmes with the Beijing Film Academy and ZeLIG School for Documentary, Television and New Media, Italy. We are also close to signing MoUs with Dhaka University and Sri Lanka University including a few other international MoUs that are in the pipeline. What was the idea behind SRFTI as another national institute alongside FTII (Pune)? SRFTI was primarily conceived to tap and cater to the students of Eastern and Northeast India. Apart from trying to bridge or cover their respective geographical boundaries, there are some variations to the curriculum offered at FTII and SRFTI. How comparable are the course offerings at FTII and SRFTI? While FTII runs its one-year TV Certification course, SRFTI runs a full-fledged, 2-year, full-time postgraduation (PG) diploma course for electronic and digital media (EDM). Our EDM department which started 28 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
in 2017 has a scope that is beyond the realm of TV alone. EDM covers six specialisations: cinematography for television, sound design, editing, producing for TV, TV management and writing. Our EDM compares with FTII’s TV stream. While both the institutions offer common courses through their respective departments in the disciplines of direction and screenplay writing, cinematography, editing, sound design and engineering, SRFTI imparts two more specialisations within its Filmmaking wing—animation cinema and producing for films and television. Direction, sound, editing and cinematography are more or less the same in both the institutions. At SRFTI, the departments for filmmaking and EDM have different sets of teachers. Does SRFTI run other short-term courses? We started many short-term courses since August 2017. This academic year, we conducted four short-term courses and in 2018-19, we plan to do the same and add a few more certificate courses. Earlier, SRFTI didn’t have courses like acting, library automation, film appreciation, non-linear editing which we now advertise and run for either a month, three months or sixmonthly durations. The candidates are either PG students or those from the industry who are seeking certification or aiming to gain in-depth knowledge in a particular stream. Even fresh graduates who are keen on filmmaking but could not make the cut at the entrance tests opt for these courses. The courses are aligned to the industry, but in short capsule formats. How has the curriculum evolved? Changes in technology, equipment and the transition from celluloid to digital
platform has resulted in regular reviewing of our curriculum. The industry too has evolved both for film-making and EDM; therefore our syllabus has been evolving to meet the changing demands of the industry. While minor course changes are an ongoing process, we did have a major syllabus overhaul in 2008-09. It was the phase when we witnessed a huge shift from the ‘celluloid’ medium to the digital platform. We do undergo smaller revisions each year to keep pace with new technology. With new technological know-how, new equipment and orientations, transitioning so fast, we do have to take on these minor changes. But, the academic changes that we adapt have to be first approved by our Academic Council. The academic body at SRFTI ropes in reputed academicians in the fields of filmmaking and electronic and digital media, pan-India, and form the Academic Council. Yearly, we organise three to four academic council meetings to keep our curriculum relevant. Our Governing Council members are nominated by the I&B Ministry and meet at least Approach to SRFTI Main Building three to four times in a year. Is there any protocol maintained to affect the curriculum change? The changes are based on parameters which are put before the Academic Council. Once approved, these revisions are then passed on to the Governing Council, after which the changes or revisions made are placed before the I&B ministry for their information and in some cases for further approval. Any update on the proposed affiliations to Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan? I had proposed and applied for an affiliation to the Visva-Bharati University with the aim to get the three-year PG diploma course in Filmmaking and two-year PG diploma course in EDM converted into the PG degree programme. However, I have not heard much on this front which also needs to be approved by the Ministry of HRD and the UGC. Once our diploma programmes get upgraded to degree, students will benefit with more job opportunities and opportunities for higher studies and most important, we can concentrate on research and introduce M Phil and PhD programmes.
Se r iou s passion s
Memoriam - Legendary Satyajit Ray
“Changes in technology, equipment and the transition from celluloid to digital platform has resulted in regular reviewing of our curriculum. The industry too has evolved both for filmmaking and EDM (electronic digital medium), therefore our syllabus has been evolving to meet the changing demands of the industry. While minor course changes are an ongoing process, we did have a major syllabus overhaul in 2008-09”
I assumed office end-January 2017 and since then, we have had many things happening on the course and its applications within SRFTI. I started the EDM wing in August 2017 as a separate department with six specialisations. We started our short-term certificate courses in Arunachal Pradesh and in the SRFTI campus. We also commenced making films for other organisations. These organisations are now commissioning their films through us. Our first commissioned assignment has been a film for Kolkata Traffic Police under their ‘Safe Drive Save Life’ campaign which ranked first in Kolkata. We commissioned a documentary film for the S. N. Bose Institute of Basic Science commemorating the 150th year of the renowned scientist Satyen Bose in January 2018. We made the audio-video outputs for them to mark their commemorative year. We also created an audio-video output for the CAG (Kolkata office) to commemorate their 50th year. A fulllength feature film on ‘Swachh Bharat’ is also in the pipeline to be funded by Bindeshwar Pathak, the architect of the pan-India Sulabh International. Can you share a few details on the proposed SRFTI campus at Arunachal Pradesh? We are working towards starting an extension of our SRFTI campus that will eventually house a permanent campus in Arunachal Pradesh.
Are filmmaking and TV courses viewed as stable career options? Filmmaking does not follow a 10 to 5 job routine. Anybody with adequate knowledge and technological orientation can become a filmmaker. However, filmmaking is shaped by personal passion. Hence it will never lose its relevance. Historically, with the advent of FTII and the launch of SRFTI, filmmaking and TV production have become very well-defined, identified and sought-after discipline for study, research and career. These academies have institutionalised the passion for filmmaking and TV production as academic disciplines for study. What changes did you bring forth since you assumed office?
Wall of Memories
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 29
Cradle of Leadership While the funding is being backed by the I&B ministry, the set-up will be mentored by us. The idea is to offer a three-year Undergraduate (UG) course and to bring in this awareness, we have already started the short term (temporary) certificate course at Itanagar since May 2017. The UG programme will be launched once the building for the permanent campus comes up at Jote in Arunachal Pradesh. Any achievement that SRFTI has had in the short-term since 2017? I always wanted the dissertation/diploma film made by our final year students to imply real-life scenarios in ‘real’ locations. Since 2017-18 sessions, we have been able to fulfil this by allocating funds and allowing our final year (current 12th batch students) who at the end of their 3rd year would create their dissertation films as commissioned. We pay them a budget of `13 lakh per project wherein they can execute their final diploma film from any of the 10 projects sanctioned annually. They execute by forming collaborative teams as per their specialisations. My vision is for making these films more original with the students actually getting the essence of filmmaking in the ‘primary’ zones, thereby encouraging regional films, regional languages and ethnicity. However, for most of the other projects they do resort to re-created scenes.
Students chilling out
L ong shot
What triggered the need for a Joint Entrance Test (JET) for the 2018-19 admissions for FTII and SRFTI? All along, FTII and SRFTI conducted their own admission tests and selection processes individually. However, this limited the capacity of the two institutions in capturing the vast milieu of students nationwide. With the new joint entrance system, we are allowing more students to participate in the courses by enabling more candidates to appear for the selection process. The JET was conducted for the first time in February 2018 that resulted in high numbers of applicants—increasing it three times over that of last year’s. For 2018-19, there are 3,500 applicants for SRFTI courses as opposed to 1,200 applicants last year. The number of exam centres too doubled. This year J&K too had its own exam centre.
Students editing videos
“Earlier, SRFTI didn’t have courses like acting, library automation, film appreciation, non-linear editing which we now advertise for and run for either a month, three months or six-month durations. The candidates are either PG students or those from the industry who are seeking certification or aiming to gain in-depth knowledge in a particular stream. Even fresh graduates who are keen on filmmaking but could not make the cut at the entrance tests opt for these courses. The courses are aligned to the industry but are in short capsule formats”
How many students are enrolled per year and what changes are expected post-JET? Currently, we have 10 national students for each of the six specialisations in Filmmaking which sums up to 60 per batch in a year. We also enrol two foreign students for each of the specialisations who come to us via sponsorship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). Including foreign-nationality students, we currently cater to a batch of 72 students annually. We started our EDM wing, inclusive of TV course in 2017 which also comprises six specialisations. Since it’s a fairly new course, we do not as yet have designated seats for foreign students and currently cater to only five seats for each of the six specialities - summing up to 30 students. For the 2018-2019 sessions, while we hope to maintain the same number of seats for our Filmmaking department, we might consider increasing seats for EDM, which is open to discussion. However, increasing the student strength randomly is not an easy task, as the curriculum is based on collaborative teamwork. Therefore, we have to do our calculations and reason out the need to increase seats or not!
a short-period English teacher for enhancing their vocabulary and speaking skills. We have also engaged a psychologist and a yoga teacher on board along with the existing in-house doctor. Filmmaking institutes work around high-strung creative spaces and these students thus differ from those in regular academic courses. A psychologist can help them to analyse things for themselves, especially for our residential students.
What about student well-being and diversity management within the campus? Initially, they might find it difficult, but the course is such that they intermingle during the first two semesters where the curriculum is integrated and that helps them. It is during this phase that they understand the nuances of having joined SRFTI. With 80% residential students, their well-being is foremost. We do have students from rural backgrounds and extreme remote areas too and one way to integrate them was to incorporate
What about alumni connect? Our brilliant alumni not only conduct workshops but also practical classes and mentor students on scripts/lens shooting, etc. Besides, they are instrumental in bringing in professionals from the industry to engage with our students via workshops. They themselves are highly reputed and SRFTI too sets aside funds for conducting such professionally-driven workshops. We make our own budget for this and the departments allocate their budget for the year. For instance, the cinematography department is
30 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
SRFTI Creative Corner
SRFTI’S Linguistic Creativity Bhasha Divas
Students - hands-on SET creation
Class in progress
constantly working with projects involving many people; the budget for which can run to as high as `70 lakh. Therefore, budgetary discretion is based on the purpose to be fulfilled by the respective departments. What are your strictures for granting scholarship and student grants? SRFTI is very fortunate that the Ministry gives us full aid and we receive 100% grants from the I&B Ministry. Parameters are based on either entrance test results, other test scores and varied other components. Accordingly, we base these guidelines along with marks and attendance and compute it on a case basis. We also get endowments from private entities and corporates. Do you have a placement cell? It is important to understand that filmmaking and TV production have creative dimensions and placements can’t be compared to the kind we see for other MBA or Mass Com graduates. It is a field where everyone works with their own passion. Not everybody is interested in getting mere jobs. A panel of alumni also conduct pitching sessions for students. Letters are posted to SRFTI and the alumni and reputed filmmakers do come on campus and choose from SRFTI’s aspiring talent pool. While some are interested in making their own films, others aspire to be editors or film directors. Some students do get jobs with NFDC, Films Division and the like, but most of them are occupied in their domains within Bollywood or allied film industries as scriptwriters, directors or editors, or cinematographers. Also, by engaging with eminent people who conduct various workshops at the campus, our students are constantly interacting and many get the opportunity to work with them.
R e se a rc h dr e a m s
What is your dream vision for SRFTI? I strongly aspire to launch a full-fledged research wing in SRFTI to fill in the gap where none of the universities are conducting any form of institutionalised research in the disciplines of filmmaking, EDM and/or
We might consider increasing seats for EDM
TV production. Also, there is a lack in understanding that filmmaking and EDM can be recognised as stand-alone and distinct disciplines for absolute career progression for aspiring students. My thought is to initiate some form of research on each of these two domains because right now India lacks any research-based approach and I would like to introduce it. It is one of the reasons that I have urged for the diploma courses to be upgraded to degree programmes in the future. If achieved, interested students could complete their research and possibly earn their respective M. Phil or PhDs. I would also like to see the EDM department growing in leaps and bounds with huge numbers of students studying different specialisations; and maybe we could also get 12 foreign students per wing in the future. Any other vision to connect globally? I am supportive of giving in-service training to television personalities from our neighbouring countries in South and Southeast Asia since we are the best in infrastructure, technology and other facilities. I am also aiming at outreach programmes especially with the Afro-Asian countries where we can share our expertise with such countries either by imparting filmmaking and television production courses for them or facilitating them for making film schools in their countries and formulating their courses and curriculum. Can SRFTI also contribute in engaging with all cinema lovers? SRFTI has a large repository of books and resources and our own students’ films which we are looking to digitise. Personally, my thought is to build an archive as part of a heritage mission by bringing together all the exemplary works, thoughts and audio tracks of legendary filmmakers—Satyajit Ray, Ritwick Ghatak et al. We also have other archived historical material, old cinematographic equipment and editing machines with antique and historical implications, besides cameras and the related evolved models as exhibits. Perhaps at a later date, we could also think of sharing these priceless exhibits and cinemas to the general public akin to a museum repository. It could serve as an archived exhibition of work of the great legendary creative minds for all! sangeetagd2010@gmail.com April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 31
Sikkim is home to Mt. Khangchendzonga,
UNESCO WORLD MIXED HERITAGE SITE Khangchendzonga National Park
The first 100% Organic farming State in India
R.O. No. : 227/IPR/Pub/Dis/17-18
the third highest mountain peak in the world.
Pilgrimage Tourism
Adventure Tourism
“The future is created by your dreams because you don’t know what is going to happen next. How do you create your future? You create it by having a dream. And when your dream has a set of timelines, you automatically become passionate“ 34 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Interview
Dream Big to Achieve Big Pankaj Dubey is Managing Director & Country Head at Polaris India. He is also Director, Eicher Polaris. A man of substance, he possesses the rare ability to turn negative aspects into positive. A contented person, he strongly believes in the motto, ‘you become what you think’, and preaches the same to his team. He invests time to motivate the youth through his guest lectures at IIMs and IITs and other leading business schools. In an interview with Corporate Citizen, he spoke on why one should dream big and various other aspects…
By Vineet Kapshikar Tell us about your education and career.
I did my schooling from St. John’s School, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. I did my graduation in Economics, Philosophy and History from the University of Allahabad and post-graduation in Business Management from Motilal Nehru Institute of Research and Business Administration (MONIRBA), Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. As soon as I passed out of XIIth, I started tutoring students who were weak in maths and that’s how teaching became my first job. The students, who used to get marks below 40 in their prelims, would end up getting distinction in maths in just three months’ time. During my college days, I used to earn a lot of money that was enough to fend for myself. Post my MBA, I joined Escorts as a sales officer. I worked there for about five years. I left it as a marketing manager. Then I joined Hero as a zonal head. After about a year, I was promoted to National Sales Head and later became Marketing and Sales Head. Post-Hero, I joined LML; I worked with them for three years. After LML, I changed my domain from automobiles to IT industry and joined Intex. I worked with them for about three years. I diversified Intex from an IT company into an electronics and telecommunications company. I was their sales marketing head and later, I got the additional responsibility to start up their telecom business as Business Head-Telecom. After Intex, I switched back to the automobile domain by joining Yamaha. I worked there for nearly four years and left as National Business Head and joined Polaris in 2011 as Country Head, and MD of Polaris India. We have a joint venture in India and I head that company too. I was given additional responsibility of CEO and Director of a company called Eicher Polaris Pvt. Ltd. At each of the companies I worked for, I got quick promotions and additional responsibilities. While working, I kept on updating my qualifications and skill sets. I accomplished my first dream to become a sales and marketing head. Then, my next dream was to become the CEO. I felt that I should update my skill sets again so I did a one-year course with IIM-Kolkata called April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 35
Interview Programme for Leading and Managing. After joining Polaris, I got an opportunity to get global experience. There was a global programme at Polaris in the Carlson Institute of Management, University of Minnesota, USA, which is one of the top institutes in the US. I did a Leadership Development Programme on Global leadership from there. I keep on updating my skill sets so that I can deliver my best and continue to grow.
What are the challenges that you come across in your role and how do you manage them?
There are many challenges. We are now creating off-road vehicles—All Terrain Vehicles (ATV)
“I keep working hard and try to motivate youngsters to do great for themselves. If a person does great for himself only then can he/she contribute to the society. So start realising your potential, start becoming successful and then contribute to the growth of the family, society and the nation” industry in India. It is a big challenge to create an industry and business for the company. I use very innovative and creative techniques, not the usual way of marketing and business development. We have implemented some unique ideas to grow the business.
How do you view freshers who will be entering the corporate world, and what is your advice to them?
My advice to freshers is to think big, but dream big with timelines. Never forget to attach timelines to your dream. This is the most common mistake due to which dreams remain dreams. India has a very rich past, and just as every individual has a unique personality, similarly, every company and country has unique personality. Our country has been referred to as ‘sone ki chidiya’. In the past few centuries many invaders came, looted our country, went back and became rich. Many others liked the culture so much that they became part of us. My advice to youngsters is to dream big and make India ‘sone ki chidiya’ again. I keep working hard and try to motivate youngsters to do great for themselves. If a person does great for himself only then can he/she contribute to the society. So start realising your potential, start becoming successful and then contribute to the growth of the family, society and the nation. 36 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
What are the qualities you look for in a fresher while hiring?
The most important quality that we look in a candidate is how the candidate looks at tough situations, does he look at them differently, and does he have varied perspectives. We also see whether the candidate has skill sets that we don’t have. For example, if we want to hire somebody
who has social media knowledge and if we don’t have that talent in our company, we go for that. In addition, we generally look at people who dream big, who want to lead companies. If someone has big dreams then he/she would definitely work hard for it. So my favourite question is, ‘What do you want to become in life?’ and if I am satisfied with the answer, then it is a yes from my side. Then I go deeper into the aspect of the candidate,
the position, whether it is a right match or not. Then the final decision is taken.
How do you ensure that your employees give their best?
The human mind tends to see more negative and thus it is our job to keep doing more positive and optimistic activity to keep employees motivated. The most important thing is to keep a positive atmosphere in the office and keep on challenging the employees all the time, so we give them tasks that are a bit difficult for them, and when they complete the smallest part of the task, we celebrate. We keep doing this to keep the people motivated on the task. We interact with them; we celebrate with them and challenge them. These activities keep them focused on the task and they realise their potential and realise the goals that have been assigned to them. The challenge is to prepare a detailed plan as to how to achieve their goals and if they accomplish the goals, then we reward them. However, if they are not able to deliver, then we have a debate on what went wrong and how it can be achieved. We do a weekly review of all departments, where all heads are present in the meeting. The HODs share what is the current progress and what is the progress they have made and what support they need from other departments. We help them with it and if there is a gap, we try to bridge the gap during the meeting.
What efforts are made to empower and encourage women?
Women are much more capable than men. They are great at multitasking. They are very sincere and dedicated to their work. We have many female staff in the office. We don’t distinguish between a male’s job and a female’s job. If a female employee comes and asks for a job which is male-dominated, we do not hesitate to assign it. We also encourage female riders to ride our 1,000 cc and 1,600 cc bikes and lead on that front. Our marketing, finance, India HR teams are dominated by females. On women’s empowerment, we feel that we gain more when we hire female employees because of the contributions that they make to the organisation. I believe in ‘Yatra Nariyastu Pujyante Ramante Tatra Devta’—God resides where women are respected—so if one wishes to progress, women must be respected.
What was the turning point in your corporate life?
My joining an IT hardware company and making big contribution was the trigger point for my career, along with the turnaround of Yamaha that I am credited with. I have always been in the auto trade and when I was offered a position in the IT industry, I was not sure, but the CEO of that company, Mr G. S. Maheshwari was very sure that I
“The most important quality that we look for in a candidate is how the candidate looks at tough situations, does he look at them differently, does he have varied perspectives. We also see whether the candidate has skill sets that we don’t have“ would be able to contribute substantially. When I joined Intex, it was a totally new field for me. I was heading sales and marketing functions, I was able to contribute to the organisation to grow, and finally moving them into the telecom field. I am also credited with the revival and turnaround of Yamaha in India and thus these two, I would say, were the turning points in my corporate life. I started believing very strongly in my abilities and I felt that I could face any challenge confidently.
How do you manage to strike the right work-life balance?
It is important to spend time with the family. I firmly believe in work-life balance. In today’s world, where everything is available on the internet, you don’t need to be physically present everywhere all the time. You do most of the work on phones and laptops, which can be done from anywhere. I encourage that in office. People should not work late. When I am leaving for the day, if my team has not left, I want to know the reason behind it. When I reach home, I feel excited to meet my wife, daughters, relatives and friends, so my approach is that I am going to spend good time with my family and enjoy life. We go out together, have fun, watch movies, and take a couple of holidays in a year to spend time with the family. I believe that if you balance work and life and are happy on the home front, you would contribute more to the organisation too.
How was the transition from Yamaha to Polaris?
It was a huge transformation. At Yamaha, I used to have a big, strong team. At Polaris, I was the first employee and at times, if I did a great job, I had to pat my own back; if there was a mistake, I had to scold myself. It was a big change, but in this process of establishing Polaris, I learnt many things—how to create a company and not only just create a company but also to create an industry. It has been the most satisfying journey of my career so far and I feel very happy and delighted with the kind of work that has happened in the last few years at Polaris.
Tell us about the CSR activities of Polaris.
Polaris makes ATVs, which are very useful
where there are no roads. We have supported various initiatives during natural calamities. As I told earlier, I used to teach maths right after my XIIth, during which time I was teaching a judge’s son at Allahabad, who later became the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. When the Uttarakhand tragedy took place, we donated ATVs to the Uttarakhand government. Thereafter there was the Srinagar flood, where we supported the National Disaster Response Force with our off-road ambulance. They used our vehicles to rescue and save people. We donated vehicles to the Nepalese army when the earthquake occurred there. We also pursue a social cause under the banner ‘Wheels of change’, an initiative of Indian Motorcycles for girl-child education. We go to various parts of the country with our Indian Motorcycle riders group and encourage, motivate and support people who are doing great jobs on girl-child education. We feel this single activity—educating the girl child—can eliminate poverty from the country, and are thus pursuing it very strongly to spread the message.
What are your hobbies?
My hobbies are singing and astrology. I feel that whenever you are immersed in your hobby, you are in a perfect state of mind. I feel the human mind is very negative. To get out of negativity, you must do meditation. The best form of meditation is pursuing your hobby.
What is the philosophy of life that you live by?
I live by two philosophies of life that are the core of everything. First, always think about the future, and what are you doing today, but do not worry about the past. The future is created by your dreams because you don’t know what is going to happen next. How do you create your future? You create it by having a dream. And when your dream has a set of timelines, you automatically become passionate. Secondly, nobody can change the past; even God cannot change the past. You can take learnings from the past so that your future becomes better, but never get stuck in the past. What is important is what you are doing today and what you will do tomorrow. April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 37
Interview
rise in life
Pankaj Dubey is not only a successful corporate leader but also an encouraging and inspiring individual. At a business symposium at a management college in Pune, Pankaj inspired students who will step into the corporate world by his personal experience. He talked about how to be successful in life, how passion is necessary to succeed and much more. Corporate Citizen brings the excerpts from the session‌ Success mantras
I have learnt a lot of my things from my guru. First thing my guru told me was human mind is negative; all our minds are negative. We are all forms of energy; the biggest myth is I am this body; I am not this body, because if I die tomorrow, people will come and say that this is Pankaj Dubey’s body. Then the question arises is who is Pankaj Dubey? Pankaj Dubey is the form of energy, that energy 38 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
is inside that body, and the definition of energy according to physics is, energy cannot be created and cannot be destroyed. Therefore, you and I cannot be destroyed. Now in different religions there are different views that come into picture but in this aspect, there are no issues, Christianity calls it as Soul, Hinduism calls it as Aatma and Islam calls it as Rooh. Energy is what you are therefore you cannot be destroyed or created. When you think of yourself about growing in life, then you will grow in life, if you think of the growth of your company, you will grow slightly more, if you think of the growth of society, you will grow even more and if you think of your country, you will grow even more. Your growth, your trajectory depends on you.
Respect: Respect yourself; if you don’t respect yourselves then you cannot expect others to respect you. If you don’t respect your boss or any individual, you will not learn. If I love a person, what does happen? I listen, when I listen, I improve. When I don’t respect the person, I am not bothered what the person is talking about, I am not listening, if I am not listening, I will not pay attention. Respect women—your mother, your sisters, your colleagues. I have two daughters. When my first daughter was born, I was very happy and gave sweets in my office, my friends and relatives, and the world was telling me ‘Koi baat nahi, agli baar ladka hoga’ (not to worry, your next child will be a son). When the second daughter was born, and again, everybody was expecting a son, and I gave sweets to the doctor who operated on my wife and I thanked her. When my first daughter was born, I got three promotions in a single try. I had a dream when I was a student to be Sales and Marketing Head. I became Sales and Marketing Head, within a month when my second daughter was born. I feel direct correlation of respecting females with success. We call women as ‘Lakshmi ka roop’ but when it comes to practicality, it is different. Respect yourself; respect your boss, respect women in order to grow high in life. Dream big: People say that whatever dreams you have, you should dream big. I am adding another dimension to it, you should dream big with timelines. Most of our dreams don’t get fulfilled because there is no deadline for our dreams. When I was a student, I had a dream to become a Sales and Marketing Head in about 8-10 years’ time. In interviews you will be asked, what is your dream in life, I told the interviewer that my dream is to be a Sales and Marketing Head, and as a result, I was rejected in most of the interviews. Because they said, it is an impractical goal. Nevertheless, I never changed my answer and I had the same answer until I was selected. The person who selected me laughed at me saying that “Please change your goal; otherwise you are going to be suffocated in life. You are saying after 8-10 years but I have 20 years of experience and still I am not the sales and marketing head”. Normally, you don’t go against the person who interviews you, but I said, “Sir, I don’t know about you but I will become in 8-10 years’ time.” I achieved my dream in seven years. After a few years, I realised that I didn’t had a new goal so I created a new goal. In 2010, I wanted to become a CEO. I have promised at the time of marriage that I will buy my wife a Mercedes. I had no money to buy Mercedes then and she used to say, ‘You come on a scooter and talk about buying a Mercedes’. But when I had promised her that in 2010, I will become a CEO, I said that I will never buy a car, my company should give me a Mercedes. In October 2010, nothing happened and people said that change the goal
“If you want to be passionate, then have a dream with a timeline, which is tough to achieve, but if you are able to achieve it, then you will definitely be passionate” but I said to them, ‘I will change my goal on 1st January 2011’. Fortunately, I was on a flight to US to join as a CEO of Polaris India and I got the Mercedes from my company. If you have a dream with timelines, then you should be passionate. Be passionate: If you want to be passionate, then have a dream with a timeline, which is tough to achieve, but if you are able to achieve it, then you will definitely be passionate. Your destiny comes from your thoughts, your thoughts become words, and your words become destiny. I firmly believe in that, if you want to be happy in life, then your thoughts, words, and actions should be synchronised. Your thoughts and your words should all be in sync with each other in order to succeed the dream.
Look for inspiration
When most of the time you hear success stories of successful people, they have failed more number of times than they have become successful. You have to learn from your failures. If you want to be successful, then you will have to do something extra. If you talk to a successful athlete, businessman or a politician, they will surely have something extra in them, try to inculcate that in you.
from 1920 to 1946, and the Chief, made from 1922 until 1953, when the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company halted the production. In 2011, Polaris Industries purchased Indian Motorcycles, moved operations from North Carolina, and merged them into their existing facilities in Minnesota and Iowa. Since August 2013, Polaris has marketed multiple modern Indian motorcycles that reflect Indian’s traditional styling. In 2014, Indian Motorcycles Company launched three models, namely, Indian Chief Classic—cruiser, Indian Chief Vintage—soft bagger and Indian Chieftain—faired hard bagger. In later years, Indian has launched various other models in Midsize, Bagger, Cruiser and Touring categories. Indian Motorcycle sells a wide range of cruiser motorcycles, ranging from the Indian Scout Sixty `10.99 lakh (ex-showroom price) to the top-of-the-line heavy-duty Indian Roadmaster. All Indian bikes are manufactured in the US and brought to India as full imports. vineetkapshikar@gmail.com
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tadka
Indian Motorcycle history
Indian Motorcycle is an American brand of motorcycles originally produced from 1901 to 1953 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Hendee Manufacturing Company initially produced the motorcycles, but the name was changed to the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company in 1928. The Indian factory team took the first three places in the 1911 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. During the 1910s, Indian became the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. Indian’s most popular models were the Scout, made
Uptick in women leadership profile Women entrepreneurs account for almost one-fifth of all leadership profiles, as per LinkedIn data. Business development that requires an entrepreneurial mindset, also witnessed a significant increase of about 35% women leaders since 2009; with an uptick in women joining STEM-focused fields and in observing an almost 30% rise in women leadership in India over the past eight years.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 39
Corporate health
Bust the Corporate
S R T E S!
S
Dr Alok Sharma, Director of NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute, Professor & Head of Department of Neurosurgery, LTMG Hospital & LTM Medical College, and Consultant Neurosurgeon, Fortis Hospital, India, and a leading light in stem cell therapy, says increasingly many of modern-day neurological ailments can be traced to stress, particularly so in the corporate world. While the heart used to bear most of the brunt in the days gone by, the brain is increasingly under stress now, but some preplanning, lifestyle changes, de-stressing practices and smart life-choices can help us alleviate the effects of stress By Vandana Patnaik
Dr
Alok Sharma is the Director of NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute, Professor & Head of Department of Neurosurgery, LTMG Hospital & LTM Medical College & Consultant Neurosurgeon Fortis Hospital, India. He completed MS and M.Ch from Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai and was trained at the Karolinska Hospital, Sweden & University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, USA. He has authored 12 books, edited two books, contributed chapters in eight books, has published 112 scientific publications and made over 150 scientific presentations nationally and internationally. He is Founding President of the ‘Stem Cell Society of India’ and Vice President of ‘International Association of Neurorestoratology’. He is Founder of ‘The Indian Journal of Stem Cell Therapy’ and on the editorial board of four journals. He has been conferred with numerous awards and honours during his career. His other areas of special interest are Neuroendoscopy, Psychosurgery, Spinal fixations & Revascularization for cerebral ischemia.
40 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
He spoke to Corporate Citizen on neurological disorders and stresses in the corporate world and ways of dealing with them. What are the causes of common neurological problems in the corporate world? Is stress the major cause? There’s a lot of stress in the corporate world today. Since stress levels are high, people suffer from these disorders. There is competition, there are deadlines, targets, and this puts a severe strain on all the systems. For example, these people sleep less, work late nights. Lack of sleep has a direct negative effect on the nervous system. Their diets are not proper; they consume junk food which too has a negative effect on the heart as well as the brain. Then there’s lack of exercise because of which there’s lack of circulation of blood. Earlier, the heart used to take the brunt. But now cardiac care is very good so many of these people survive cardiac problems. But the next system to be hit is the brain or the nervous system. Both cardiac and brain problems occur because there’s less blood supply. Additionally, there’s hypertension. They also land up having diabetes very early,
Pics: Tushar Mane
In a good life, you won’t need a doctor. It has been documented that if you follow the basic health principles—seven hours of sleep which is free of cost, exercise, simple homemade food, drinking two litres of water everyday, 30 minutes of walking, supplements which will cost just a few hundred rupees a month, green tea, thrice a day —neutralizes the effects of stress
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 41
Corporate health which again, is a contributing factor. So it’s basically a combination of all these factors. What a corporate lifestyle does is, put pressure on all the systems for which the brain and heart take the brunt. If we could divide the problems—they are minor problems. One of the most common things amongst these people is tension headaches which they get when the stress is high and seek relief with drugs. But drugs have their own side effects. People who have pain killers over a long period end up having kidney failures. Many people have migraine which also is related to stress. Migraines are headaches for which the factors are biological—the reasons are in the body itself, whereas tension headache is only because of tension, there’s no other problem in the brain. Tension headache is a lifestyle disease. Migraine is a separate disease by itself. There are two things: 1) there’s a disease and 2) there’s a predisposition to the disease. Stress becomes a trigger. You may be predisposed to migraine, but if you live a normal, healthy life you may not have it. But stress triggers what you are predisposed to.
When you come home, you have to disengage from everything electronic. Because it’s these electronic devices that keep you busy for another two hours or so. We’ve lived our lives without electronics
At what age do people get these problems? Twenty-five years ago, we got patients who were in their late 40s or 50s , suffering from a brain stroke. Today we see people having brain strokes even in their 20s and 30s. Stress is causing the onset of these dreaded diseases at a much early stage. Tension headaches and migraines are minor things. Major problems are brain strokes. We see youngsters popping in pills for the slightest reason. How does that harm in the long run? The reason for this is electronic devices. All youngsters are either on their mobiles, iPods or computers or watching television. This results in their sleeping late. Their sleeping patterns are disrupted. Most young people sleep at 1 am or 2 am and they wake up with headaches. Then they just pop in pills. Then you have a vicious circle. How do we counter these problems in the corporate sector? There’s stress and competition. How does one save oneself? There’s a distinction between stress and distress. A little amount of stress is good. It pushes you to achieve and accomplish and makes things happen, whereas distress has a negative effect. It’s very important to know when stress becomes distress, stress cannot be eliminated. What we suggest is to have alternative de-stressing systems. It is important how you start your day. Start your day with a 30-minute cardio workout—a walk, a jog or a swim or a session on the treadmill which gets the circulation going. Another half an hour of yoga is also good. It reduces the stress 42 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
chemicals in the body. Drink lots of water. That is a very important thing that people miss out on: water. It hydrates the body and makes you less prone to the sequences of stress. Always have a healthy, full breakfast. Having a healthy breakfast helps you to manage through the rest of the day. Another recommendation is to have a short break every two to three hours for just a couple of minutes to stretch or drink water. The Chinese have a nice system of having green tea at small intervals. That not only results in continued hydration, but also has an antioxidant effect, so they drink a lot but never put on weight. Their stress levels are slightly low. These breaks of stretching, having water or even tea or a healthy snack after a
few hours keep you going, as opposed to running late, missing out on your breakfast, then lunch. Or you can take a break just sitting at your table by taking a two-minute respite. One can do a bit of pranayam, or deep breathing. Just a couple of deep breaths oxygenates your system, the water hydrates you, and you are ready to go. Another thing that helps is to make a complete schedule the previous day, before sleeping. How that helps is that in your sleep you prepare yourself for what you have to do. You can structure your day better. The problem happens when you’re rushing from one place to the other, but if you are structured well, it saves you a lot of stress.
People in the Western countries work to time. They too are under pressure but they take their weekends off. They keep their weekends private, and they are not to be disturbed during their time. How do we achieve that here? In the corporate world where one reaches home at midnigt and has to report early? There’s a lot to learn from the Westerners. We have to ask ourselves, if we had a choice to do this or organise ourselves and avoid a heart attack or a brain stroke, isn’t that a better choice? It’s the choices we all make. Which of the following is difficult? To make a ‘to do’ list the night before? Trying to get seven hours of sleep? That’s not impossible. One of the reasons why people don’t sleep is that because they come home late, then they are on their mobile phones. When you come home, you have to disengage from everything electronic. Because it’s these electronic devices that keep you busy for another two hours or so. Yes, it’s difficult but not impossible. We’ve lived our lives without electronics. The problem is that people in our country do not give importance to their health. They have to realise that their office can run without them. Even if you drop dead, the office will still continue, the family will also continue. Nothing stops - people will be sad for some time but they will continue. But your body has only you to take care of it. There are small things that turn serious. For example, there’s stress, which leads to diabetes and then you’re on insulin. It affects your kidneys, and you reach the transplant stage. It’s just that no one just reaches the transplant level directly. It just starts with elevated sugar levels. Now at that time a 30-minute of cardio workout, diet control, a good treatment can prevent it. The focus needs to be giving it importance. Your health and body are important. It’s got nobody else but you and if you neglect it all these things will happen. I’d like to reiterate that it’s about focus and giving importance and prioritising. I tell people, chuck your job. What is more important, your health or your job? If you were to have a stroke, your company won’t even look at you. The corporate world is ruthless. If you were disabled, they won’t even bother with you. It has happened, I have had these conversations and these people have come back with strokes, cancer and stuff like that. What is the difference between accidental brain problems and stress-related ones? The underlying cause for all problems is stress. For example, if you haven’t slept the night before and are rushing to office, and you haven’t eaten well, your concentration level will be low and when you’re driving you’re likely to doze off and it’s likely you’ll have an accident. So it’s not
stress but lack of organising yourself, lack of food, sleep… all these factors contribute to these accidents which you may have been able to prevent. What’s the percentage of people who have these neurological problems? Is it more prevalent among younger people or the older ones? It’s still more among older people. But we are increasingly seeing it among youngsters. Another thing that I suggest to a lot of people is to go for nature therapy. That’s basically detoxifying your body. There are multiple centres where you can go and spend a couple of days or a week or so. There’s detoxification, yoga, ayurvedic massages, various hydrotherapies which help you to de-stress and at the same time get rid of the toxins in the body. We also tell people to look at their genetic background—for example, if your father has had diabetes or a heart attack or your mother has, you’re likely to get it. Talk to your physician. You need to do preventive things rather than wait for things to happen to start taking precautions. We see that even young boys and girls have electrolyte imbalances. Why? Stress. Stress creates something called free radicals in the body. These free radicals are the cause of all our diseases and illnesses. These are very concentrated toxins, not substances, and stress releases a lot of these. They cause heart attacks, cancers and various other diseases. There are some supplements which are called antioxidants. The free radicals are the bad stuff and the antioxidants are the good stuff. Therefore, if you have a stressful life, take these supplements so that the body’s strength is able to combat it. In the ideal world one should not have stress, but we know that stress exists. So, what you try to do is organise your lifestyle in such a way that the negative effects of the stress are less on the body. Does neglecting these factors at a young age lead to dementia in the elderly? What’s the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer’s? Dementia is a generic term when you have degeneration in the brain and you start losing memory, and other executive functions also slow down. Dementia there are of two types. One is Alzheimer’s and the other is vascular dementia. Alzheimer’s is more prevalent in America, not so much in India. The reason is that we have turmeric in our food which protects us against Alzheimer’s. In India, we have a lot of vascular dementia. This is because of lot of ghee and oil in our foods, leading to blood vessels and arteries becoming thicker and lined. So there’s less blood supply to the brain. Lower blood supply to the brain leads to shrinking of the brain. This results in the patients losing recent memory. They have
difficulty in walking and sometimes they have incontinence of urine. Slowly, the sharpness of mind goes down and over a period of time, it totally shuts down. There are some medications and treatments, and if you start giving them early just as you see the dementia setting in, they help. How is Parkinson’s different than Alzheimer’s? Is it also a neurological disorder? Parkinson’s has nothing to do with stress and it’s not a common disease in the corporate world. It is a rare disease. It is the lack of dopamine in the brain that leads to Parkinson’s and it is not hereditary. Dementia also is not hereditary. What is your philosophy of life? I live life in the today. So for me, today is important. I don’t look at yesterday. I consider it dead, like you can’t put life into a dead body; I don’t bother about what happened yesterday. Also, I don’t worry about what’s going to happen tomorrow. I live life one day at a time. I start the day with positivity. I do a bit of cardio, yoga and focus on today. Secondly, I’ve got very clear aims in my life. What I want five, 10 and 25 years from now, I have them written. I believe in prevention and I do a complete medical check-up twice a year. You need to be smart. Like the famous saying that the timeto repair the roof is when the sun is shining. When the rain comes, it’s a patchy job. I also like Kabir’s doha: “Dukh main sumiran sab karein, such main karey na koye, jo such main sumiran karey, toh dukh kahey ko hoye”. Everyone prays when they are sad but if you pray when everything is good then you’ll never be sad. It’s the same for health also, if you take prevention there will be less disease. What is the secret of leading a good life? In a good life, you won’t need a doctor. It has been documented that if you follow the basic health principles—seven hours of sleep which is free of cost, exercise, simple homemade food, drinking two litres of water everyday, 30 minutes of walking, supplements which will cost just a few hundred rupees a month, green tea, thrice a day—neutralizes the effects of stress. nitts64@gmail.com
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tadka Saudi Arabia rules the roost Saudi Arabia continues to be the highest sources of remittances to India. Of the nearly $69 billion that came into India in 2017, Saudi Arabia accounted for over $10.5 billion alone—about a sixth of the total remittances.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 43
Hr Talk
Every Individual in this world is relevant
Dr Haresh Chaturvedi, Vice President - HR, Reliance Industries (Petrochemicals) is soft-spoken and a people person. With over 29 years of experience in HR domain, he has witnessed the technological changes occurred in that domain. He believes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was used earlier and will be used in future, but we as an HR professionals have to learn to use it to our benefit. As far as human presence is there at work, HR will be there. Apart from his interest in HR, he is also interested in graphology; he is trained in hypnosis and mind control. In an interview with Corporate Citizen, he spoke on what mistakes are done by companies while addressing the issues, benefits of digitisation and much more By Vineet Kapshikar Tell us about your education and career.
I am a graduate in Economics from M. S. University Baroda, Gujarat, after which I did Masters in Social Work from there. Recently, I completed my doctorate in Succession Planning. The actual name of the subject is Succession Planning in Spiritual Organisation, and then somehow it has converted to Succession Planning. Apart from formal education, I am trained in graphology, hypnosis, and in mind control. I am currently working with Reliance Industries (Petrochemicals) as a Vice President - HR, Reliance.
What are the challenges that you come across your role and how do you cope up with them?
I think every day there is a challenge. We are dealing with a human being and there is no certainty that a certain individual will behave in a certain way. The same individual can react in a different way at different time and HR has to face and handle such a complicated machine. If HR is unbiased, non-judgemental, that will help you to take the right decision. There should be a problem-based approach, and not person-based approach. Because you have to address the problem, not the person. Usually, we attack the person and not the problems—while treating the cause.
How has the role of HR changed over the years?
The role of HR has remained the same since the last 30 years, and it will remain the same the next 30 years. There are the four roles of HR—Welcome, Welfare, Warfare, and Farewell. However, over a period of time, there are a lot of challenges we are facing. Major challenge is technology and HR professionals are not tech-savvy. For example, if you say SAP, SuccessFactors, then people 44 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
are acquainted with that. As HR professionals, we have to align with the technology coming in. If we don’t adapt to the change, technology will force you to change and which would be painful. Role of HR has changed dramatically—the only role for HR in future would be to bringing employees every day at workplace where they wouldn’t want to go. That is the biggest challenge. Robots or AI will handle majority of the processes.
How do you see the freshers entering the corporate world, and what is your advice to them?
I think freshers are more intelligent, aware and are energetic. They are exposed to technology and they are well-informed. The only thing they have to come up with is passion. They have to learn to be patient when they enter into the corporate world, they should keep in mind the culture of the organisation, the policies and practices and accept it that every day they are not going to get a promotion, or rewarded, or new work. What they require is patience and gain experience as people with they have to work are having experience of the age of freshers so interpersonal relation is most important (sambandh ya sub bandh). Otherwise, this generation has a lot of potential to do well. I am sure this generation is going to make changes in coming time.
What are the qualities that you see in a fresher while hiring?
Basically, a fresher is told to face interview means the selection is done on FACE VALUE... I see FIVE things in a fresher apart from subject knowledge—Attitude (to learn and develop), Direction (dream and goal), Value (what is important family, friends, work, spiritual, etc.), Commitment (feelings may change commitment may not), Motivation (what make you motivate—motivation and love are contagious
qualities that can change the mind of even the most stubborn people).
How are the new trends disrupting HR function in India?
Disruptions are happening every now and then and if we don’t move ourselves with changes coming in as disruptive, we will be thrown out. There are known examples of OLA, UBER, FB, etc. The role of HR which was within the confined space will change to open market, working with technology and to develop and scape process with the relevance of the business. Now in India, the HR field is going to be difficult. So if you are not able to learn quickly and adapt to the change, adapt to the technology, then it will be a challenge. We are dealing with this new generation, which is full of energy, they should channelize this energy into something positive, which will benefit a lot for themselves. But this require leadership—again where are good leaders?
How has digitisation changed the corporate hiring?
Let’s make first clear that there is a difference between Automation and Digitisation. I don’t think digitisation has made an impact on the corporate hiring. Digitisation is only going to replace paper and file which is easy to store and easy to retrieve. Digitisation is going to help HR in keeping all the data about employee and make it easy to use at appropriate time with speed. With the help of automation, lots of processes will be done by machine and would replace human effort. Automation is the biggest change for HR hiring. As it makes easy to identify suitable candidate (nowadays LinkedIn, Facebook and lately, Instagram is used for hiring). It helps to match the nearmost accurate match of requirement and also track while he’s working and give early signals on engagement and attrition.
Pics: Yusuf Khan
Role of HR has changed dramatically—the only role for HR in future would be to bringing employees every day at workplace where they wouldn’t want to go. That is the biggest challenge. Robots or AI will handle majority of the processes How do you manage to strike the right balance between work and life? Honestly, I don’t believe in this concept. If you enjoy your work, balance will automatically fall into place. If you love what you do, then there is no work, it is more of a passion and then no need of balance.
What is your idea of relaxation? I do meditation.
What is your philosophy of life that you live by?
No individual in this world is useless and not a single thing in this world is useless. Complete your work on time, don’t procrastinate. Band ghadi bhi din mein do baar sahi samay dikhati hai aur ek glass pani bahut tha jab aag lagi fir bujhana muskil hota hai. vineetkapshikar@gmail.com
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Shares of GE at historic 9-year low
What are the efforts being made to empower and encourage women?
Empowering women at workplace is a subject of mindset change of female employees’ and the peers’ working. Laws are made in favour of the female employee but a few of the conditions inbuilt in law stop from making it
implementable. First, all of us have to accept the female worker with all biological limitations for work. And second, the laws should be made flexible without any condition by which an employer may feel not to appoint a female. Apart from all such we have to take care right from infrastructure for female employees.
The mightier you are, the harder the fall. Shares of General Electric dropped below $13 in Monday trading. Pressure on GE has not let up this year at all, with the stock sliding more than 25 per cent. 2017 was bad enough with company shares less than 42 per cent. Reports say unit still has assets it has been unable to sell, with the added possibility GE may be held liable for some assets it unloaded since the 2008 financial crisis. Also, the conglomerate continues to use commercial paper, a type of short-term debt.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 45
Campus Placement
‘Narrow down and
focus’ Adapt to the conditions that the present world is looking for, that will narrow down your options a great deal while appearing for placement, suggests Indrani Kaur Sabharwal, spelling out the key to her success By Joe Williams
T
here were many hurdles before Indrani Kaur Sabharwal, who passed out from one of the well-known colleges in the city, before she made headway into the corporate world. A lover of pets and reptiles, she always wanted to be a veterinary doctor and serve animals, but as she grew up she realised that her goal had changed. She narrowed down her options a great deal when it came down to placement. But when things did look bright for her, she was ruled out of placement due to her poor attendance. Because of severe dengue in the previous semester, it took quite a while to make up for her lack of attendance. But her determination and focus to turn the tables saw her cut across the lines to join Aditya Birla Retail Ltd. (ABRL), as a retail leadership programmer. As she recalls the ordeal, “It took me quite a while to make up for my attendance. Once I was eligible, I decided retail was the best sector for me, and I started applying for placements accordingly.” Today, this adventurous girl who loves trekking, riding two-wheelers and pets has made it into the corporate world and is now set to explore the world.
Early days
Born and brought up in Mysore, she moved to Chennai, Bengaluru, Thane and finally to Pune, along with her family, as her father, Hardev Singh 46 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Sabharwal switched jobs. “Since I shifted around a lot as a kid, I know the basics of quite a few languages (Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, French). I also have no problem mingling with people or adjusting to new environments. I have been in Pune for almost 12 years now (since 2006), so I am more attached to this city as compared to others,” she recalls. Thankfully, it was
here that her father held on to one job over a long period, and this enabled Indrani to complete her studies. She completed her schooling from Hutchings High School and later joined Bishop’s Junior College for her XIth and XIIth. “I have always been an introvert, in the sense that I prefer solitude over unnecessary interaction. That does not mean I’m uncomfortable interacting with
people. I’d just rather curl up with a book and a mug of coffee or play with dogs or go on treks or long drives with a select few.” Then came the Symbiosis School of Economics. “I decided to pursue commerce in XIth and XIIth. Two subjects caught my interest, Computer Science and Economics. I am a strong believer of the fact that a good teacher is the key to a child’s interest in any subject. Luckily enough, I had excellent teachers for both the subjects. It was probably the only time in my life when I hung back after lectures clarifying doubts or asking for extra information on the topics covered in class. In fact, I still have the notebooks I used for these subjects.” She took a break from regular studies to learn French and prepare for MBA exam. “I got through Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), FLAME Institute and BIMM. After a thorough research, I decided that BIMM would be a better option for me. Learning opportunities, strict curriculum and the return on investment were some of the major factors which attracted me to the institute,.” she says. Apart from academics, since she was staying all alone for the first time in her life, there were certain tenets she vouched for and practised, which helped her to manage all by herself. • Try talking to more than just a handful of people. • Try to be more approachable. • Take part in as many extracurricular activities as possible.
Placement challenges
She did have some reservations when it came to placement. The Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry was the last option she ever thought of, but again adapting to the conditions, she narrowed down her options a great deal while appearing for placement. ABRL came for campus placement only to BIMM. It was a pool campus process, and her college candidates were joined by MIT students as well. There were over 200 people who sat for the process which consisted of aptitude test, case study, group activity, psychometric test and finally the personal interview. Indrani did some homework before she took up the decision to be a part of ABRL. “I did speak to a few people and also a few seniors working in the company. Once I was sure that I wanted to go ahead with this company, the only thing standing in my way was the aptitude test. This was definitely not my forte as I lack expertise in the field of maths. To overcome this roadblock, I solved many practice tests online. I also referred to the books I used for MBA entrance exams. This definitely helped me get through the aptitude test.” Then came what every candidate looks forward to—his/her name to be announced. “When the panel was declaring the results, the tension in the room was palpable. As and when they took a
Hitting the open road with friends
“Since I shifted around a lot as a kid, I know the basics of quite a few languages (Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, French). I also have no problem mingling with people or adjusting to new environments”
With the loving family
Sharing a happy moment with friends
candidate’s name, I’d clap almost mechanically because I was so focused on hearing my name. My name was taken right at the end, and it felt like I could breathe again. Post this, I do not remember much. All that I remember was placing a call to my parents as well as my grandparents. Hearing the relief in their voices was the only thing that made the idea of me getting placed seem real.”
Looking ahead…
“Being a fresher, I believe that I would be more adaptable and flexible to new experiences. I’d be a fast learner as all that I have right now is theoretical knowledge. I suppose many companies prefer hiring freshers so that they can mould us to fit into the company, and they look forward to the zest and vigour that come with us. I would like to evolve into a corporate citizen from a student manager. I am looking forward to this change and there is nothing that can stand in the way of success.”
Credit goes to…
She gives all credit to her success to her parents. She is of the opinion that it is their (parents’) hard work and sacrifice which helps children to evolve into the persons they become. “I can only hope that I continue to bring joy to their lives by not just
meeting their expectations, but surpassing them completely. We are a summation of all the experiences that we go through, success as well as failures. Crediting just one aspect of life would be an injustice to the rest. I have no complaints, nor regrets holding me back. I am grateful for every bump and curve on the road that I’ve travelled, as I am at peace with where I am now. Now, I’m setting out to inherit the ocean from the edge of the sky”.
Tips for juniors
* There is no such thing as competing with your batchmates. Set a benchmark for yourself, and either try to meet it or surpass it. * Letting the opinions or success of others hinder your perceptions as well as desires is not just a blunder, it is a grave mistake. * Stay focused, work smart and stay true to yourself. You have only one life, try living for yourself and the people who brought you into this world and not for those who will eventually be filed away into history. * If life doesn’t go as planned, don’t fret. It’s not the end of the road. It’s a mere obstacle you had to overcome. Every obstacle is a stepping stone towards your success and each failure gives rise to another opportunity. joe78662@gmail.com April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 47
Loved & Married too
It is not often these days that a college romance fructifies into wedlock. Corporate Citizen unlocks the story of love that has culminated into marriage, for we believe in the stability of a relationship and family unit. We bring to you real-life romances that got sealed in marriage
Through Thick and Thin Love and life are all about partnership, and supporting each other with one's respective strengths. IT professionals Deepak Bharadwaj and Puja Nagpal on the importance of positivity, acceptance and patience in making it work
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By Kalyani SardesAi
ome stories are simply meant to be. Through time, distance and all the pressures that inevitably go with a long-distance relationship, not to forget the pressures of nascent careers. But Deepak Bharadwaj (34) and Puja Nagpal (32) are adept at keeping it going through thick and thin, thanks to their seven-year-old courtship.
Back to the beginning
Strangely but symbolically enough, this relationship started with the duo sitting next to each other at an examination bench. He was in his final year of electrical engineering at Lingaya’s College, Faridabad, while she, two years his junior, was pursuing a degree in computer science. From the outset, the conversation flowed easily and comfortably, despite, or because of, the contrasting differences in the duo’s personality. He—outgoing, extroverted, life-of-the-party kind. She—quiet, compassionate, caring and a woman of few words. •Trust Still, it wasn’t quite the right time to foresee a future together. • Acceptance Both youngsters had careers to build. After graduation, he took up • Giving the a job for a brief 1.5 years with the relationship time Goenka Group before heading to BIMM Pune to pursue his MBA in • Stepping back Marketing & IT in 2006. That was when fights the first time they were separated. happen But this was to be the pattern over the next few years, when she • Embracing moved to Wipro Bengaluru for cultural work, and he moved to Delhi for differences with the same. Nevertheless, the friendpositivity ship merely grew stronger day by day. By 2010, they realized they
The mantras of a marriage
48 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
were meant to be together and decided to tell their respective families. There was a quite a difference in their cultural backgrounds and the parents were not pleased. He is a Brahmin, and she, a Punjabi. “Her parents were far more open to the situation than mine. Luckily, my brother had a love marriage and had married a South Indian, so we had support from that quarter,” explains Deepak.
After some persuasion, the duo was wed in 2012 with everyone’s blessings. “At that point of time I was based out of London where I was working for HCL Technologies. Puja took a transfer from TCS and joined me there,” he says.
The building blocks
Those early days of pulling together in a foreign country went a long way in nurturing their marriage, says Puja. “I mean when you are by yourselves, the sense of togetherness and responsibility becomes that much more,” she says.
A Parisian vacation “Our workplaces were at quite a distance from each other. But when I would get home each weekend, there would be dinner and a clean home waiting for me. I really appreciated that,” she shares. However, the duo moved back to New Delhi in 2015 when Deepak’s father became ill and have lived there since. A year later, they welcomed their baby boy Ayaan (now 2) into their lives. As of today, Deepak is designated as senior project manager with DXC Technology but is soon slated to join a leading consulting firm to start a new journey, while Puja is working as team lead with IBM.
From strength to strength: with acceptance and adjustment
The young couple lead a hectic but fulfilling life managing work, home and baby. There is a trick to managing work-life balance, they say. “Flexi hours, work from home, even working different shifts so that at least one of us is home with the child helps,” says Deepak. For her part, Puja is on the afternoon shift so she gets to share those precious few hours with their little boy before starting work for the day. What’s more, the two have leveraged the inherent strengths of a joint family to the utmost. “Deepak’s parents stay with us and his mom is a huge ally in helping us out,” smiles Puja. Deepak says he can travel with the knowledge that both his wife and child have someone to look after them in his absence. “It is quite a comfort to know that,” he adds. Which brings us to the question: Just how challenging has it been adjusting to a totally different culture? “See, each family has a way of doing things, a core culture that is based on a logic and reasoning of its own. Instead of fighting, it is far more intelligent to approach it with positivity and try to understand your new family. No one expects you to be perfect and well-versed in your way of life—and are prepared to meet the changes halfway—provided you are open to change,” she says. “See, ours is a generation that wants everything on its own terms, as per its understanding. That is not how life, or the IT industry works. Step back a bit, see things from the other person’s perspective and things will be easier,” chips in Deepak.
Rock star at work
“Each family has a way of doing things, a core culture that is based on a logic and reasoning of its own. Instead of fighting it, it is far more intelligent to approach it with positivity and try to understand your new family. No one expects you to be perfect... and are prepared to meet the changes halfway—provided you are open to change” —Puja Nagpal
Both are appreciative of each other’s strengths. While Deepak loves her for her caring and considerate ways, she is thankful for his support in all aspects of life, including the decision to get back to work soon after the little one was born. As parents to a bright and energetic two-year-old, life has changed considerably. Both are sure that their priority is more towards raising a good human being rather than simply focusing on academics. “I am the more lenient, patient parent, whereas dad is stricter one,”
A happy moment together
Depak with baby Aayan
smiles Puja. The balancing act works out—in everyone’s favour. Quality time consists of dedicating the weekends to full-on family time and out-of-town trips. “These trips bring a family together as you relax, unwind and reconnect,” says Deepak. However, both Deepak and Puja stress the importance of communication in not just managing conflict but staying abreast of the happenings in each other’s lives. “Deep, heartfelt conversation wherein you ask your partner how they are feeling is a wonderful way of keeping the marriage resonant and meaningful,” rounds off Deepak. kalyani.sardesai@gmail.com
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Indians not keen on entrepreneurship Only 11%of adult population in India is engaged in “early-stage entrepreneurial activities”, and only 5% per cent of India’s population go on to establish their own business, as per the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) India Report 2016-17. The 5% accounts for the lowest rates in the world, while the business discontinuation rate in India is among the highest at 26.4%.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 49
Survey Survey
Bengaluru amongst global cities facing water crisis
50 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Water is arguably the most precious natural resource along with clean air. However, on a planet where 71 percent of the surface is water, the world is facing an acute water shortage the likes of which we have never seen. Cities are parched, and Day Zero – the day when cities run out of water, is not far. Down to Earth magazine has prepared a list of global cities on the verge of a water crisis. Corporate Citizen brings you the findings Compiled By Neeraj Varty
Cape Town, South Africa
Bengaluru, India
In 2015, Cape Town, one of Africa’s richest cities, had bagged the C40 Cities Award for its water conservation and water demand programme. By 2017-18, the city was in the throes of an unprecedented water shortage. It is estimated that the city’s taps will run dry this year, within the next few months. In fact, the expected date for Day Zero is July 15, 2018.
How did this happen?
Cape Town relies on rainwater to fill up its six reservoirs, and below average rainfall from 2015-17 has contributed to the drying up of these reservoirs. In fact, the western cape region where Cape Town is situated has been undergoing a massive drying up process – linked to climate change - since 2015.
But Cape Town is not alone as it waits Down To Earth’s analysis shows that at least 200 cities across the world are fast running out of water and 10 metropolitan cities are moving quickly towards Day Zero.
• The number of waterbodies in Bengaluru has reduced by 79 per cent due to unplanned urbanisation and encroachment – while built-up area has increased from 8 per cent in 1973 to 77 per cent now. • The water table has shrunk from 10-12 metres (m) to 76-91 m in just two decades. • The number of extraction wells has gone up from 5,000 to 0.45 million in just 30 years. • The city only uses half of its treatment capacity to treat waste and a substantial amount is dumped into its waterbodies. • Bengaluru’s population might reach 20.3 million by 2031 – and is growing by 3.5 per cent annually.
Beijing, China
Though more than 200 rivers and streams can still be found on the arid city’s official maps, they have all dried up. For the past three decades, the city has survived by digging, boring and drilling groundwater. But hydrologists warn that groundwater is depleting at a rate of 1 metre per year and becoming polluted. April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 51
Survey
Mexico City, Mexico
700 years ago, the Aztecs had built a city of floating gardens, known as the “Venice of the New World”. Over the years, the lakes that once filled the plains have been steadily drained by settlers. The lake beds now remain covered by grey sea of concrete, tarmac and steel, forcing the city to source its supplies by pumping water from hundreds of metres underground or from a distance of over 100 kilometres. Moreover, the devastating floods of 2013 have contaminated groundwater and extraction wells in the city.
Nairobi, Kenya
The city is so heavily dependent on groundwater that it plunges into a crisis every time the monsoon plays truant. About 75% Nairobians buy water from the kiosks and pushcart vendors at a higher price – up to 300 times the supply rate – because they are either not covered under the city’s water supply system or do not receive adequate supply. Even though the city started rationing water in 2016, the crisis is likely to continue till 2026.
After exploiting the last drops of groundwater, the city is now looking for alternative sources. According to World Bank, the groundwater level in the basin has fallen from 30 metres in the 1970s to around 150 metres in the 1990s. Media reports speculate that the city may reach Day Zero by 2019.
Sanaa, Yemen
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The decline in the water table due to unsustainable extraction ranges from 30-150 metres in some areas. By 2020, the demand-supply gap will reach 607 million cubic metres per year, says a 2015 study.
Istanbul, Turkey
In 2015, the city experienced its greatest water crisis in over 80 years. Residents endured 12hour water cut-offs daily; the licenses that authorize businesses, agricultural enterprises and private entities to draw directly from rivers, reservoirs and artesian wells were suspended. Scientists blame the large-scale felling of rainforests in the Amazon basin as a major cause of drought. Moreover, Sao Paulo loses 30 per cent of its treated supply due to leaks in the piping system.
Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) barely meets 50 per cent of the city’s total water requirement, while the city’s population is growing at a rate of 5 per cent per annum. The worsening water crisis has even been the cause of a civil unrest in 2016. However, dearth of water is not the only reason the city is water-stressed, people here also suffer due to lack of sufficient clean and potable water, while outbreaks of water-borne diseases are now a regular feature of the city.
Karachi, Pakistan
Preventing Day Zero
While all may seem gloom and doom, this situation can still be avoided. Water conservation and recycling is the need of the hour. Cape Town has executed a judicious rationing of water, which has shown significant benefits. Citizens need to be made aware of the impending water crisis and the need to conserve it. Natural water bodies need to be preserved. In Bangalore, rampant illegal encroachments on river banks need to be checked in order to conserve river flows. Cities need to build water storage infrastructure to better meet the demands of the ever rising population. Most importantly, every single citizen must take it upon themselves to spread awareness. Then, and only then, can our cities flourish. neeraj.varty07@gmail.com April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 53
Bollywood Biz
Celebrities who have
Deleted facebook Ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke out, it has become obvious that Facebook allowed user data to be manipulated by companies in order to influence political elections. This has caused a massive uproar worldwide, and many celebrities have begun to delete their Facebook account as a sign of protest. This issue, we look at global celebrities who have spearheaded on the #DeleteFacebook movement By Neeraj Varty
Jim Carrey
Funny man Jim Carrey too, has had enough of Facebook. After it became obvious earlier this year that Russians interfered with the 2016 United States Election through the manipulation of users using Facebook, it was the proverbial last straw for the talented actor. While axing his Facebook account, he tweeted “I’m dumping my @facebook stock and deleting my page because @facebook profited from Russian interference in our elections and they’re still not doing enough to stop it.”
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk, the world renowned CEO of SpaceX, which includes the cutting edge electric car company Tesla, is a celebrity in his own right. He has always been critical of Facbook, often questioning the motives of Mark Zuckerberg at public forums. In a bunch of Twitter messages sent last week, Elon Musk said he would delete SpaceX’s Facebook page, as well as the one for his electric car company Tesla. As promised, he and the social media teams for those companies have followed through.
Farhan Akhtar
Farhan Akhtar is Bollywood royalty. Whether he sits in the Director’s chair helming movies like Dil Chahta Hai and Don, or he dons the actor’s hat in iconic roles such as Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Farhan has always been a trendsetter. Now he has become the first Bollywood celebrity to quit the social network in the wake of the Facebook data breach row. While quitting the platform, he tweeted "Good morning. This is to inform you all that I have permanently deleted my personal Facebook account. However, the verified FarhanAkhtarLive page is still active."
Will Ferrel
Will Ferrell, known for his funny roles in Anchorman, The Lego Movie, The Other Guys, and many more in his over 30 year career, knows that there are lines a company should never cross. The actor, who had 10 million fans on facebook, is livid with the social media giant’s handling of user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. “I’m reaching out to let you know that in 72 hours I will be deleting my Facebook account. I am not deleting it immediately, in order to give this message enough time to get across to my fans and followers, “I know I am not alone when I say that I was very disturbed to hear about Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of millions of Facebook users’ information in order to undermine our democracy and infringe on our citizens’ privacy. I can no longer, in good conscience, use the services of a company that allowed the spread of propaganda and directly aimed it at those most vulnerable.” neeraj.varty07@gmail.com
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Mobile apps
The Best Networking Apps If you have a business or you are a working professional looking to rise in the corporate ranks, you know that the most important tool for the cause is Networking. Who you know is often more valuable than what you know. With that in mind, Corporate Citizen lists some of the best free networking apps and services out there that can help you find new business connections By Neeraj Varty Evernote Scannable
Have trouble wrangling business cards after networking events? The free Evernote Scannable app for iPhone and iPad takes the human error out of storing that valuable information. Use their business card camera to capture a crystal-clear image of the business card, and the app will automatically save your prospect’s name, title, company, contact info, card image, and LinkedIn profile in a single contact note.
Shapr
Shapr functionality and usability of a matrimonial app into a powerful tool for business professionals. How does it work? Shapr will present you with a pool of professionals with similar interests and, just like Tinder, you can swipe left or right to indicate whether you’d like to connect. When it’s a match, you’ll both be notified and you can connect in person.
Rapportive
Rapportive is an app for Gmail that allows you to quickly see information about the person you’ve just received email from. It connects your LinkedIn profile and gives you data about the contact’s job titles, location, etc. It’s a social CRM that can help you put a name to a face, as well as company and other useful information.
Calendly
If you’ve met a prospect who’s really interested in setting up a demo of your product, don’t wait until you’re back at the office to schedule that meeting. Pull up the Calendly app right there and send them a link. They can instantly choose a date and time that works for them and add a meeting reminder on their calendar — all before you’ve even parted ways.
With over 380 million registered users, LinkedIn is the most widely used service for business networking. The best feature of LinkedIn may be the sheer size of the service. Odds are, you’ve probably already got an account or at least been invited to use the service. This can greatly increase your chances of getting an introduction through a connection to just about anybody.
neeraj.varty07@gmail.com 56 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Unsung Heroes
a
shining example Prema Jayakumar, daughter of an autorickshaw driver becomes all-India topper of CA exam
“Keep your dreams alive. Understand that to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination and dedication. Remember, all things are possible for those who believe.” —Gail Devers There is hustle-bustle of activity in the first floor of S. B. Khan Chawl in Malad East, a north-western suburb of Mumbai. Media persons with camera crew are jostling with each other to catch a glimpse of Prema who lives here. Overnight, Prema Jayakumar, the 24-year-old daughter of Jayakumar Perumal, an autorickshaw driver for the past 20 years, has become a celebrity. She topped the final chartered accountancy (CA) examination by scoring 607 out of 800 marks (75.8 per cent), and has become a shining example of how “hard work, hard work and hard work” can bring success at the doorstep of anybody with “a mission in life”, irrespective of class. Overnight, Prema’s world has turned upside down. She is looked upon as a role model, which she indeed is because of what she has achieved despite odds, and a celebrity in her own right. It is in this context that Prema’s mother, Lingammal, a God-fearing woman, who had toiled all her life for this very moment, was beseeching her to come into the house and eat some food. Surprisingly, their kitchen is just 80 square feet in size. It accommodates a Cuddapah platform to cook food, a cabinet full of steel utensils, a plastic drum to store water, a small bathroom and a toilet. The rest of the house makes up for their living and study room. Usually, Prema would either sit on a five-feet-long cot or on the empty floor to study. Her 22-year-old brother, Dhanraj, who too cleared the CA exam in his first attempt just like his sister, would sit on a study table for almost 10 to 12 hours a day as they prepared for their examination. 58 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
“Doing CA was a passion,” says Prema, beaming like an innocent child who had asked for the moon and got it. “But topping the exam at the all-India-level came as a big surprise,” she says. Exhausted with all the attention, she has attracted ever since the news broke out about her feat, Prema was running a slight fever and had to visit a doctor for medicines with her brother Dhanraj.
Non-stop media interviews, felicitations, a steady stream of visitors, local politicians who wanted to bask in her glory and relatives distant and near, is what Prema had been attending to since the last week. “It feels great,” says Dhanraj when asked about his sister’s achievement “like a double dhamaka,” he quips to anybody who congratulates him. Dhanraj is all admiration for his sister and her determination and devotion—
two things that, Prema says, kept her going through times thick and thin. At moments like this day when she is not keeping well, it is this stamina built during her exam days that helps her bravely face the media with a smile. One can gauge Prema’s determination as she patiently poses for photographers, gives them interviews, turn by turn. When asked about her parents: “They are my life; they have given me life and I want to give them rest now. The reason why we siblings did not face many hardships as we grew up was because they silently toiled while we studied,” she says about her father, an autorickshaw driver, and her mother, who would work from home for a cottage industry. It was as recent as 2010 that Prema and Dhanraj told their mother that enough was enough, because they earned stipends through their articleships, even as they prepared for their CA exam, they would contribute in the household expenditure. Jayakumar, however, continued with his 12hour duty from 8 am to 8 pm to ferry people in the city in his autorickshaw, earning him about `15,000 every month. A simpleton to the core, Jayakumar, who has studied only till Class V, answers pointed queries from the media without showing a trace of discomfort. He never utters a word to even hints that his finances were stretched as his two children began their tryst with higher education. All he says is this: “I have studied only till Class V in a remote village. I didn’t much understand what Prema and Dhanraj wanted to do when they said they would like to become CAs one day. But we never questioned their decisions about what they wanted to do, and always stood by them.” “We would always encourage them to study whatever they wanted, the way they wanted. We always assured them that we would do all we could to help them achieve their goals in life.” Now it is time Jayakumar takes it easy and enjoys the small pleasures of life. “In the next few months, Dhanraj and I are sure to get a good job. Then we would request father to retire and do all that he could not do because of the pressure of rearing three children and taking care of their education,” says Prema. The odds that the
When a former ICAI president called and asked, if I had seen my result, I trembled with nervousness. I said I hadn’t. Then he told me that I had topped the all-India CA exam. I began to cry. He asked me to hand over the phone to my father and informed him about the result
family faced gave birth to Prema’s doughty determination. “I had seen my mother and father struggle to make ends meet when we were kids. I was always determined that one day when we grew up, we would have to help them with their everyday struggle,” says Prema, who studied in Tamil till Class VIII from a Tamil-medium municipal school in Malad. Talking about the challenges, she says, “It was only in the ninth
standard that I began to learn and understand English. The switch was difficult, but then if you have the determination to do something, hurdles look small,” Prema says about how she was introduced to an alien language, but yet adapted quickly. It was this determination that got her 79 per cent marks in the Class Xth, 80 per cent marks in Class XIIth and later 90 per cent marks in her final year of graduation to emerge second in Mumbai University. Despite her academic record, Prema humbly offers that she was confident to pass the CA exam, but emerging as Prema with her father the national topper has completely floored her. “Two days before the results, everybody had huge expectations from me. People would ask what rank I would get. That built a huge pressure on me, not only to pass, but pass with a good rank,” she says of the nail-biting moments before the results were declared. “When a former ICAI president called and asked, if I had seen my result, I trembled with nervousness. I said I hadn’t. Then he told me that I had topped the all-India CA exam. I began to cry. He asked me to hand over the phone to my father and informed him about the result,” Prema recalls. The above story is featured in ‘Real Inspiring Stories’ ISBN 978-81-8430-290-5 by Maj Pradeep Khare (pradeepkhare2011@gmail.com).
CC
tadka
Happiness linked to success Indian professionals ranked 3rd in feeling successful, following UAE in the first spot and Brazil ranked 2nd. According to LinkedIn, about 72% Indians chose the option of ‘being happy’ as their ultimate definition for success. For others, good health (65%) and a healthy work-life balance (57%) stood as the important indicators of success.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 59
Claps & Slaps Corporate Citizen claps for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials for going ahead and shutting down a packaged drinking water plant in Baner, in suburban Pune. The plant had been operating without mandatory licenses. The ban in Pune follows close suit with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) drive whereby they recently joined hands with the Enforcement Branch to pull up unscrupulous businesses that produce packaged drinking water without valid licenses. The joint KMC and EB team has conducted a series of raids across several shops and manufacturing units that produced packaged drinking water in and around Kolkata. Unlike previous methods of taking the offenders to court, KMC has adopted a two-prong approach —first, food safety inspectors from KMC will collect water samples and conduct the laboratory tests. If any of the tested samples are found to be adulterated, the police would take appropriate action against the errant traders or the owners of these manufacturing units. The constant and increased demand for processed drinking water has resulted in the mushrooming of packaged drinking water plants. “To make easy money, some plant owners compromise on the quality of water, which can put people’s lives at risk,” FDA officials said. FDA had drawn 136 samples of packaged drinking water from Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amaravati, Nagpur and Pune between March 1, 2016 and April 31, 2017. Of them, 48 samples were found to be of poor quality and labels on some of the bottles were found tampered. As per the survey conducted by the FDA in 2017, high levels of bacteria were found in a large number of packaged drinking water samples drawn from across the state. Traces of cyanide, a very powerful poison and chemical contaminant were also found in two packaged drinking water samples from Jalna and Parbhani districts. Beware of packaged water that you drink, lest you have to battle your own ‘watered down’ health! 60 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Corporate Citizen slaps the streak of vandalism ingrained in our mindset that refuses to respect ‘national pride’ in government properties in the guise of citizen amenities. Forget self-pride and human values; the last ‘shameful’ straw was proved to be the move by the railway board officials who recently decided to remove infotainment LCD devices from the stylish Anubhuti coaches on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express and the Tejas Express between Mumbai and Goa. Launched with much fanfare in May 2017, the Tejas Express is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, including bio-vacuum toilets along with infotainment LCD devices that proved to be the prime attractions for its passengers. But the Railways, now fed up with constant reports of passengers damaging the screens, has decided to remove them from these two trains. “We reviewed the Tejas Express and found that the infotainment devices are getting damaged frequently. The devices will be removed as passengers use smartphone and the hotspot Wi-Fi facility will be available in trains,” said Ved Prakash, director of information and publicity, Railway Board. They also cited damaged LCD screens, broken wires and dismantled or missing power switches in these premium coaches. “The order was issued in February and all zonal railways will start removing the devices soon,” said a senior railway board official. Despite the lack of apathy of its ‘esteemed’ passengers, the Railways has however decided to keep its promise of providing free Wi-Fi in all trains, which is currently available only on premium trains. The demeanour of passengers in this case is absolutely shocking when the railways, in tuning up with global standards, is attempting to enhance its ‘upmarket travel factor’—the question is, do we really understand or deserve these good things? Point is to look within and be prepared to accept what you (passengers) deserve! (Compiled by Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar)
Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian
From The Mobile
Workplace rules for A happy life
1 2
Trust no one but respect every one.
What happens in office, remains in office. Never take office gossip to home and vice versa.
3
Enter office on time, leave on time. Your desktop doesn’t help to improve your health.
4
Never make relationships in the workplace. It will always backfire.
5
Expect nothing. If somebody helps, feel thankful. If not, you will learn to know things on your own.
6
Never rush for a position. If you get promoted, good! If not, it doesn’t matter. You will always be remembered for your knowledge and politeness.
7
Never run behind office stuff. You have better things to do in life.
8
Avoid taking everything on your ego. Your salary matters. You are being paid. Use your assets to get happiness.
9
It doesn’t matter how people treat you. Be humble. You are not everyone’s cup of tea.
10
In the end nothing matters except family, friends and inner peace.
Source: (www.who.int/mental_health/worldmental-health-day/2017/en/)
62 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
Manohar Parrikar’s inspiring words... Manohar Parrikar’s words while he is under treatment for pancreatitis in US hospital
Life has given me abundant political respect and it has become synonymous with my name. However as I have noticed, except my work I rarely had any other moments of enjoyment. Only my political status has remained a reality. Today in this bedridden state, I introspect my life... the popularity and wealth that I thought to be milestones of life. In addition, the inflated ego... all of it appears to be jaded and meaningless as I stand facing the death. With each passing second as the death creeps to me stealthily, I see the green lights of life-saving machines around me, their humming noise makes me realize my proximity to death. At this critical moment, I have understood that there is so much more to life than accumulating wealth and fame... social service and managing our relationships with others whom we like are a few things not to be missed. I realize that of all the political success that I have earned, I can carry nothing with me. This bed of sickness is the most exclusive bed as nobody can use it except yourself. You can have servants, drivers, employees to serve and earn for you but none to share your sickness. All the things that are lost can be found or earned back but what cannot be retrieved is time.
As you run through the rat race of life pursuing success one must realise that at some point of time you have to reach the last part of drama in the theatre where end of the show is visible. So, learn to first look after yourself, take care of others, learn to spend your money and shower your feelings on people around you. When a child is born, he is weeping and when he dies, others are weeping so friends let’s have all the laughter and fun time in between before we call it a day. —Manohar Parrikar
laugh it out How bedroom smells after marriage: First three years Perfumes, flowers, chocolate and fruits... After three years... Baby powder, Johnson's cream and lotions, and baby oils.... After 15 years... Zandu Balm, Vicks, Iodex and Relispray After 40 years... Agarbatti... Four stages of marriage: Mad for each other, Made for each other, Mad at each other and Mad because of each other What's marriage? Answer: Marriage is the seventh sense of humans that destroys all the six senses and makes the person non-sense! Definition of a happy couple: HE does what SHE wants… SHE does what SHE wants. Wife: Dear, this computer is not working as per my command... Husband: Exactly darling! It’s a computer, not a husband! Laughing at your own mistakes can lengthen your life. —Shakespeare Laughing at your wife's mistakes, can shorten your life... —Shakespeare's wife
A pack of cookies:
A powerful lesson
A
young lady was waiting for her flight in the boarding room of a big airport. As she would need to wait many hours, she decided to buy a book to spend her time and also bought a packet of cookies, then sat down in an armchair, in the VIP room of the airport, to rest and read in peace. Beside the armchair where the packet of cookies lay, a man sat down in the next seat, opened his magazine and started reading. When she took out the first cookie, the man took one also. She felt irritated but said nothing. She just thought “What a nerve! If I was in the mood I would punch him for daring!” For each cookie she took, the man took one too. This was infuriating her but she didn’t want to cause a scene. When only one cookie remained, she thought, “Ah... what would this abusive man do now?” Then, the man, taking the last cookie, divided it into half, giving her one-half. That was too much! She was much
too angry now! In a huff, she insulted the man, took her book, her things and stormed to the boarding place. When she sat down in her seat, inside the plane, she looked into her bag to take her eyeglasses, and, to her surprise, her packet of cookies was there, untouched, unopened! She felt so ashamed! She realized that she was wrong. She had forgotten that her cookies were in her bag. The man had shared his cookies with her, without feeling angered or bitter, while she had been very angry, thinking that she was sharing her cookies with him. Now there was no chance to explain herself... nor to apologize. In life, there are four things that you cannot recover… The cake… after it’s eaten! The word... after it’s been said! The occasion... after the loss! And The time… after it’s gone! Let’s all be careful and watch our ATTITUDE ALWAYS.
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 63
astroturf Finance: This month is not really a suitable time for you. Those in the travel industry will have to sustain certain losses this month in their business.
Aries
March 21 - April 20
Career: The predictions for your career scenarios are quite optimistic. The foremost aspect is travel that would prove quite beneficial for your growth. Finance: Stay alarmed as your finance is not great this month. Looking at the debts, things can add up and burden you significantly. other.
TAURUS
April 21 - May 20
Career: Looking at the prospects in your professional life, seeking something bright might be quite a task. Adding onto the tussle, travel would consume most of your time but might end up being useless. Finance: There isn’t anything this time to enhance your finances. There are chances of travel, but this would also prove pointless. Savings can be difficult, since movement of extra cash isn’t promised.
GEMINI
May 21 - June 21
Career: Career-wise, this month would reap fruits that can be utilised for the future. Travelling is on the cards for work purposes. Also, you must prefer travel tours that are located in the south. Finance: The predictions related to financial status for April are slightly positive. The involvement of travel in moving your finances is also effective.
CANCER
June 22 - July 23
Career: The work environment is expected to stay pleasant and you will stay content with your level of dedication in the workplace.
(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 Finance: Money flow would stay below expectations. Hence, there is a need to plan your finances by reducing expenses. Considering your business, grabbing new orders might be tough.
LEO
July 24 - Aug 23
Career: Your professional front doesn’t seem encouraging. There are evident indications hanging in regard to certain contingencies. Some of you might be inclined to function outside the law for fast money. Finance: If you are seeking small gains, then the situation can prove suitable. You need to conserve your bank balance this month.
Virgo
aug 24 - Sept 23
Career: Considering your workspace and career prospects, this month is expected to be profitable. Because there will be several circumstances turning in your favour. Be sure that you do not offer half-effort strategy; this can prove as a disadvantageous act. Finance: Your financial life will hit a steady path this month. You would be able to seek financial help from trusted sources.
64 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
LIBRA
CAPRICORN
Dec 23 - Jan 20
Career: At times, you may even feel that all your hard work and efforts are going unnoticed and unrewarded at work. Play a low profile and in time, good things will come to you. Finance: Profits are on the cards for people who are doing business. However, this month is not very favourable for turning up gains.
Sept 24 - Oct 22
Career: On the career front, you will see a good time ahead. For those who are interested in advancements in their career, changes will be positive. Finance: Regarding your financial aspect, you might find yourself in trouble. Success might seem to evade you at every step, in spite of continuous hard work.
SCORPIO
AQUARIUS
Jan 21 - Feb19
Career: You will find yourself working hard to achieve all that you want. A lot will be happening on the career front, which will take up your focus and attention. Finance: Many profitable deals will come your way to grab them and make the most of them. You will find ample opportunities to open a profitable venture.
Oct 23 - Nov 22
Career: Your career will not see many changes this month. You might not enjoy your work and it might seem that it’s stepping out of your hand. Finance: You may find yourself in a situation where you need a regular stream of money for your expenses. Meanwhile, you may face some unexpected financial gains.
SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22
Career: Your career will not face any major developments this month. You may not be able to gain any major satisfaction from work.
PISCES
Feb 20 - Mar 20
Career: You will be working stretching more than usual to accomplish the plans that you have seen for your career. Promotions and increments are also on their way. Finance: You will have a favorable time this month in terms of finances. Gains will also come in for you from various fronts. Address: 143, St Patrick’s Town, Gate# 3, Hadapsar IE, Pune-411 013. Tel.: 020-26872677 / 020-32905748 Email: connect@dollymanghat.com/ info.dollymanghat@gmail.com
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PROF. SUDHIR K SOPORY, VICE CHANCELLOR, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY (JNU) Volume 1, Issue No. 21 / Pages 68 / www.corporatecitizen.in
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CORPORATE CULTURE
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank on women in leadership and gender diversity
INTERVIEW
An in-depth interview with Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director India with Kingston Technology and Rajeev Bhadauria, Director, Group HR, at Jindal Steel & Power
Dynamic Duo 21 MEERA SHANKAR AND AJAY SHANKAR
UNFLINCHING SUPPORT
April 16-30, 2018 / Corporate Citizen / 65
the last word
Ganesh Natarajan
The best city is still not the best Pune pipped Thiruvanthapuram and Bhubaneswar to be rated at the top of the heap. But the fact that even Pune at the top only got a 5.1 rating on a scale of 10 and all Indian cities lag far below New York, London and even Johannesburg, shows how much more needs to be done
T
he Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS) done for the fifth year by Bengaluru-based Janagraha threw up some interesting data and raised a number of questions. Of course, for many of us who have been involved in the major projects undertaken in Pune City and the conceptualisation and implementation of major initiatives like Digital Literacy, Skills Lighthouses and Pune Smart City, there was something to rejoice about as Pune pipped Thiruvanthapuram and Bhubaneswar to be rated at the top of the heap. But the fact that even Pune at the top only got a 5.1 rating on a scale of 10 and all Indian cities lag far below New York, London and even Johannesburg, shows how much more needs to be done in our cities at a time when rapid urbanisation seems to be inevitable in India. While it is important to note that the Janagraha survey does not measure outcomes like air pollution, garbage management, traffic control, etc. (Bengaluru, which came in the bottom five, may have fared much worse if traffic management were to be an indicator), the “city-systems” they measure— municipal finance and staffing, spatial planning, transparency and citizen participation are definitely lead indicators of any city that is getting its act in place to deliver true value
Ganesh Natarajan with Kunal Kumar, former Municipal Commissioner, Pune
over a part of the Empress Gardens for development of new buildings brought a large section of the citizens together in protest and it is important for a consultative approach to be adapted everywhere to set priorities so that there is a proper planning and consultation process to citizens. In spite of the inevitable in place. political pushes and pulls and the 2. Financial accountability and susbureaucratic red tape that can delay tainability. This seems to be a probimplementations, our own experilem for the centre, states and cities ence in co-creating a unique Public and weak allocation to significant Private Partnership in Pune City projects like the Pune Metro can Connect (PCC) where State Mincreate a level of disillusionment that isters, successive Mayors, the Muwill take years to overcome. It is not nicipal Commissioner, large and for lack of intention but often lack medium corporations, individuals of funds that creates these impasses and civil society have all played a and need to be resolved by proper role has shown that Pune has what budgeting and funds allocation. it takes to go even further and be3. Human resource management, come a role model for South Asia. numbers skills and availability. This Having said that, there is much is one area which receives topmost to be done in Pune and everywhere attention in the corporate sector to ensure that our cities become livbut seems to be more an There is much to be done act of cajoling and persuasion to get the wheels to ensure that our cities to move in Government. become livable, where At PCC, we have been privileged to work with a our children can breathe of well-meaning easy and become respon- battery folks in the corporation sible citizens of the world and have managed to get most of our projects to take off with minimum delays but able and provide the space for chilreal progress will happen nationaldren to be brought up into a world ly when the right people with the where they can breathe easy and right attitude and skills are made become responsible citizens of the available in the right numbers to world. The five pointers provided deliver on promises made to citiby Janagraha are worth pondering zens. over in this regard. 4. Avoiding fragmentation of re1. Creation of a modern and consponsibility across municipal cortemporary framework for spatial porations, para-statal agencies and planning and utilities in the city. state departments. This is clearly The recent furore that arose in one area where powerful Mayors Pune over the proposal to hand
66 / Corporate Citizen / April 16-30, 2018
like the luminaries in London, New York and even China succeed because of the ability to plan and implement with unified command. I still recall being the Chief Guest at a centre opening in Shenzhen in China where the Mayor promised that a full tech park would be opened within ten months, an activity which would have taken at least a couple of years in India. And he accomplished it in nine. 5. Transparency of operations and systematic citizen participation. This is one area where we still have a long way to go everywhere and its not just the lack of reaching out by the powers that be but also the general cynicism that pervades the citizen about the intentions and the capabilities of local agencies. Time to resolve these perceptions if we have to make Indian cities truly successful. Personally, I must say that I am sanguine. The two cities I spend most time in, Pune and New York have been recognised as the best in the country and the best in the world, respectively. Enough and more for a habitual optimist like me to feel good about the future! And let me end this column by wishing Kunal Kumar, the Commissioner who has led Pune Municipal Corporation with such integrity and commitment for over three years the very best in his new Joint Secretary role in the national capital. More power to excellent bureaucrats like him to lead the nation to success! Dr Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World, Pune City Connect and Social Venture Partners, India.
Printed and published by Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian on behalf of Sri Balaji Society. Editor: Dr (Col.) A. Balasubramanian. 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.