Winners felicitated in Awards ceremony

Cricket is always in the news. The recent IPL Twenty20 made headlines daily, but on May 1, it was the turn of cricket lovers in our community to support their home teams. In a colourful ceremony at the Parramatta Town Hall, we witnessed the annual awards ceremony for the participants of the IndoAustralian Harmony series.

Twenty teams in all played in the series, which began in September 2009 with the Indian Link Cup, followed by the 30-30 GCA Macquarie Bicentennial and finally the 20–20 MIT Sydney Cup.

At the awards ceremony, players and sports lovers alike gathered together, excited and cheerful, to celebrate this proud moment. Sanjiv Dubey, President of the New Australian Sports Association founded the tournament with his vision of promoting love and harmony through cricket. He collected players and formed teams who played a successful tournament, consisting of matches played each week at the Parramatta Park. Each team was supported by its own set of fans, and the matches were friendly and enjoyable.

It was this combination of players and supporters who came to cheer their teams and felicitate winners Nandos Sri Lanka, who carried away the 2009-2010 Indian catches up with OP Bhatt, Chairman of the State Bank of India who was in Sydney recently

Link Cup. Runners-up Group Colleges of Australia also received resounding applause.

The 30–30 GCA Macquarie Bicentennial Cup winner was the jubilant Mantra Ride Chandigarh team, who received the award from MP Julie Owens. They defeated Ford Pro Vibrant Gujarat. And Ken Auz SKLPS Simba triumphantly carried away the 20-20 MIT Sydney Cup, with Ryde Automotive Haryana Bulls as runners up.

Select individual players impressed with their game, such as Mayank from MIT who represented Baroda in the Ranji Trophy. Shashi Shreshtha represented the under 19s Nepal team and Suleman Syed from the Hyderabad team represented the under 19s India team. Young cricketers Shagun Patel and Vishal Patel were also awarded, along with Harsh Kapila, Varun Laxman, Kabir Patel and Pawan Uppal. For overall sports, Mohak Issar won an award for ice hockey and Shobhika Dubey carried away the award for tennis.

Respected guests included council members and Members of Parliament. The evening’s entertainment was provided by Vishwaas Productions, whose Bollywood songs, dances and bhangra were well appreciated by the audience. They also presented the trailer of their forthcoming play, The Legend of Ashoka. The evening was enjoyed by all, and the winning teams carried away their trophies, ready to take on the next set of challenges in future tournaments.

Speaking to Indian Link, Dubey mentioned that the Women’s Winter Cricket Tournament will be organised this year, and that the summer tournaments will continue to be held, but on a larger scale and possibly with international players. He is also planning to release a book on the tournament, and, in addition to cricket, he has plans to organise tournaments for other sports.

Most people would expect the stereotypical banker to have one of two different looks: pin-striped suit, sharp tie and slick-back hair with a touch of white (think Gordon Gecko), or slightly overweight with rosy cheeks and a mop of white hair (think conservative British). OP Bhatt, the Chairman of India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India, fits neither of the two appearance codes.

Tall, lean, with thick peppery hair, he looks more like a university academic than the man in charge of the bank which proudly states that “every Indian has banked with it”. But when he starts speaking and reels off facts and figures about India’s economic potential and its accelerated growth fuelled by increasing consumption demands of the middle class, Bhatt mesmerizes the listeners. One can well imagine the power this man wields as he works out multi billion dollar deals between India’s largest owned government bank and the exciting opportunities available to foreign investors in a country which he himself believes will be in the top 5 in the world by 2020.

Om Prakash Bhatt, the Chairman of the State Bank of India, was in Australia recently to attend his first board meeting with the Insurance Australia Group (IAG). The State Bank of India with its 80,000 distribution points has recently tied up with IAG to sell general insurance in India. Even as he was in Sydney, the SBI – IAG joint venture had sold their first general insurance policy in India.

Speaking to Indian Link, Mr Bhatt expressed satisfaction with his new partners. In what is widely acknowledged as an excellent deal for the SBI, IAG paid a share premium of Rs 400 crores for its 26% stake in the joint venture.

“India is an exciting place to invest and IAG won this business after beating off strong competition from other overseas general insurance companies. With the Indian middle class market to grow and with the distribution might of the State Bank, there is a very compelling story for people to partner with us”, Bhatt said in an exclusive interview with Indian Link. “We undertook a global tender, did our due diligence, our risk and technological analysis and found that IAG was a good fit for our expansion in this area. We are extremely pleased with the way this relationship is progressing,” he said.

While IAG was the main reason for his visit, his time was also taken up with the Macquarie Group Ltd.

Through MGL, State Bank has created a US $2 billion foreign investment fund to invest in infrastructure products in India.

“Again, we did a world wide search and found that the Macquarie Group with their expertise in infrastructure funds had a unique ability which we were keen to tap. We have already met our subscription levels for this fund; we will be looking at other options in the future. As you are aware, India’s needs for infrastructure are enormous”, he said.

“The Indian economy is growing and it is the people who are driving this economy. It is their aspiration to do the impossible. The Indian mind set is very young; of the 1.2 billion population, 60-70% are below the age of 35. These youngsters are in a hurry, they want the best of everything yesterday, not today or tomorrow.

The Indian Premier League is one such example which has galvanised people.

“Never has an idea been put into place so quickly in India. It was a native idea which now has given birth to an exciting competition which the world wants to copy,” he had earlier stated at a public dinner at the Hilton Hotel.

In the same speech, he also praised the Indian political leadership. “Politically speaking, India is very stable. We have some of our wisest leaders at the helm and they have the correct attitude towards reform. Due to this economic opportunities are coming up all across the country. Small and medium enterprises are booming in India as India becomes a manufacturing hub. India is praised for great growth and greater employment opportunities”, he told the hushed hall of over 300 business leaders.

Later speaking to Indian Link, he agreed that the Indian businesses, Indian banks and Indian government need to move faster to take advantage of the global opportunities.

“India is already doing it in the areas of coal and gas, the Steel Authority of India is also exploring international opportunities. We need to understand that India is a democracy and though it takes time to move, they do move forward in a sustainable and sensible way,” he said.

Mr. Bhatt was scathing in his comments about big bonuses paid to bankers on Wall Street.

“If bonuses are structured in a manner that performances will be driven only by them, then those organisations are at risk and it is a recipe for disaster. The other issue is how much money can you pay to an individual at the top - you hear of stories of people being paid hundreds of millions of dollars so what is it that the person brings other than sitting at the top” he said. “I am saying this from the Indian experience because the Indian public sector is paid peanuts compared to these Wall Street bankers and yet the Indian banking sector has stood out at this time of crisis as an island of stability and success at the times of the global financial crisis,” he added.

And because of these qualities, not a single seat was empty on his Monday night speech to Australian business leaders at the Hilton Hotel. This spoke volumes of not only India’s allure to these business leaders, but also to the respect and awe in which the Chairman of the State Bank of India is held even in Australia.