The prestigious Qimpro Platinum Standard 2016 Business Award was bagged by Baba N Kalyani, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Forge. This prestigious award is in recognition of being an inspiration for the business community in India and overseas, and for being a National Statesperson for Excellence for Quality in Business. The award was conferred on Baba Kalyani at the hands of N Chandrasekaran, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services, at a function held in Mumbai recently. The recipients of the awards are selected by three eminent panels of judges, each chaired by the Qimpro Platinum Standards winners of the previous year. Recognised as the country’s premier quality citation, the Qimpro Award was conceptualised in 1989 by J M Juran, the Quality guru, to recognise individual excellence in quality management. Notable winners of this prestigious award from the past include Ratan Tata, Kumarmangalam Birla, Milind V Kirtane, Anand Mahindra, Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy, Dr S S Badrinath, R A Mashelkar, J J Irani, Devi Prasad Shetty, Adi Godrej, Prof Mukti Mishra, Deepak Parekh, E Sreedharan, F C Kohli, Abhay & Rani Bang and Prof Aditya Shastri, to name a few.
In yet another reshuffling in the apex bank of the country, the Reserve Bank appointed Surekha Marandi as executive director and will look after financial inclusion along with other departments. The holder of master’s degree from Jadavpur University will replace U S Paliwal, who retired. Marandi will look after consumer education and protection department, financial inclusion and development department and secretary’s department, according to the statement issued by the RBI. Prior to being promoted as ED, Marandi was principal chief general manager and chief vigilance officer in the Reserve Bank. Marandi has over a span of three decades served in regulatory and supervisory, financial inclusion and development and human resource management areas in the RBI.
Indian gamers are delighted by Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“Jio”) bringing the sought-after, first-of-itskind, Augmented Reality game ‘Pokémon GO’ to India in a partnership with Niantic, Inc., publisher and developer of Pokémon GO in association with The Pokémon Company. With this partnership, thousands of Reliance Digital Stores and select partner premises in India will appear as ‘PokéStops’ or ‘Gyms’ in the Pokémon GO game. This launch is in line with Jio’s mission to empower Indians with opportunities that are fuelled by the power of data and a Digital Life and to delight them on an ongoing basis with entertainment-based apps, such as ‘Pokémon GO,’ the leading app in the gaming category. The Pokémon Go Channel will enable Pokémon Go players to collaborate and be part of an exciting community of players with daily tips, contests, clues, and special events. The Pokémon Go Channel on JioChat is a fun way to socialise with other players and level-up faster.
Karan Bajwa of IBM of its India operations has been appointed as the Managing Director of the technology giant. He succeeds Vanitha Narayana, who has been elevated as chairman of IBM India. Bajwa joined IBM last year as executive for strategy and transformation in the Asia—Pacific region. Previously, he was Microsoft India’s managing director. He was associated with IBM’s networking business and was based in Singapore from 2001-05. Reacting to the elevation in the company for which he has been associated for over a decade, he said that it was a great opportunity ahead for IBM in this market. “I look forward to partnering with the industry, our ecosystem and the IBM team to further strengthen our business in the region,” he said of the company’s foresight in the years to come. He will be responsible for all strategic and operational matters related to IBM’s sales, marketing, services and delivery operations in the India/South Asia region, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Goods and Service Tax roll-out is likely to be delayed by two or three months, according to reliable sources. The government is yet to lock down a date, but is likely to settle for either 1 June or 1 July 2017. Expectations are that the GST legislation will be introduced in the first half of the budget session and the government will seek to get it passed after the recess. While the new dates would delay the roll-out, they are also well within the mandatory deadline of September, 2017 after which the central and state governments will lose powers to levy any indirect taxes other than GST. Differences between the centre and the states, especially over the sharing of powers, has delayed the final approval for supporting legislations for GST, a tax reform which will for the first time bind the country into a common market. States like Kerala and West Bengal had sought a delay in the implementation of the tax, arguing that state finances cannot withstand the double whammy of demonetisation and GST.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, is the leader and star performer for Healthcare Payer IT Services for the second year running, according to research conducted by the Everest Group. TCS is recognised for its market success, scale and strong technology capability characterised by a broad range of domain solutions in the Payer space. Everest Group also cited TCS’ big strides in weaving credible integrated operations into the Payer landscape over the last year to further strengthen its position as a leader. The research was done among the 22 service providers on the Everest Group’s Performance, Experience, Ability, Knowledge (PEAK) matrix in the Global Healthcare Payer sector. “Health plan fundamental business models are under increasing pressure due to value-dilutive new/existing lines of business, evolving regulations, and a broader consumerization of healthcare,” said Abhishek Singh, Practice Director, Everest Group. TCS has emerged as a credible partner for buyers looking to inject operational efficiency and aid cost takeout through an integrated services approach that combines aspects of technology and business processes.
Viral Acharya, known as a cricketer, singer and poet with a music album to his credit, takes over as the new deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in charge of monetary policy. ‘Poor man’s Rajan’, Acharya, has seen the newfound stardom and fanfare accompanying the days of Raghuram Rajan, former RBI governor, who was often called the ‘rock star’ governor of Mint Street. However, this youngest deputy governor of RBI, Acharya (42) has the task cut out for him as many are of the opinion that there is a trial by fire awaiting him. Acharya is entering the RBI at a time when the economy is fighting a self-imposed demonetisation crisis and the central bank itself is fighting a major trust deficit and credibility crisis, due to the way it handled the Modi government’s demonetisation decision. He needs to hit the ground running, making the RBI’s voice heard in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on the course of interest rates in a challenging economic scenario. But since there is already an MPC with experts in place, his task wouldn’t be too tough as in the old days when the monetary policy was solely the central bank’s responsibility. However, there is likely to be pressure from the ruling political dispensation for steeper rate cuts in the backdrop of a sharp decline in economic growth due to the demonetisation-induced cash crunch.
India-born Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced initiatives for Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as part of the tech giant’s efforts to bring more businesses online in the country. “Small and medium businesses are the backbone of the Indian economy and are powering the next wave of the country’s growth. At Google, we are excited about partnering with businesses to help them unlock exponential growth through the power of the digital,” Pichai said at his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, recently. Google has been aggressively focusing on the Indian market over the last few years. With products like Google for Business and a new Cloud region, the company is betting big on tapping into the multi-million dollar opportunity in India. Its products compete with those from the stables of global giants like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
Anshu Jain is making a comeback in the world of finance as an investment banker, as Cantor Fitzgerald LP, the New York-based financial services company has appointed Jain as president—a newly created role. The former Deutsche Bank bigwig, Jain will be the second-in-command. Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick said Jain will help expand Cantor Fitzgerald’s business in Asia, among other markets. Jain’s appointment came even as he faced flak from global media who saw him as a force behind Deutsche Bank’s appetite for risk. Cantor Fitzgerald was struck by tragedy when it lost 658 of its 960 employees in the 9/11 attack.
NCR (National Capital Region)- based real estate company M3M India has brought in Surajit Banerjee as president HR. Earlier he was senior V-P HR at DLF. Banerjee worked with SpiceJet, Max Healthcare, Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Airtel before that. After passing out from XLRI, Banerjee joined Hindustan Unilever (then Hindustan Lever) as factory personnel manager and led the HR function in several operating units. He was with the Oberoi group as director HR between 1995 and 1998. Later, he moved to the FMCG company Reckitt Benckiser as GM employee relations. After serving a stint as VP-HR at Bharti Airtel, he joined the aviation industry as V-P, HR at SpiceJet. Banerjee’s role at M3M includes encouraging progressive ‘people practices’ and creating a ‘hi-performing’ talent pool. He also plans to initiate organisational development through strategic people practices, build organisational capability around a competency framework, performance management and functional job analysis to serve business goals. Banerjee says in an official communique, “With expanding footprints across the realty sector and a workplace brimming with young and dynamic talent, the organisation presents newer and challenging opportunities almost every day. It is an invigorating experience managing such an energetic workforce and developing organisational practices through relentless pursuit of business excellence.” M3M India has 11 residential and seven commercial projects at different stages of development. It recently awarded Rs.350 crore contracts to three construction firms, including Tata Projects, for development of four residential and commercial projects in Gurgaon.
Capgemini has roped in Anil Jalali, former executive director-HR of IBM India, as its head-HR for India operations. He will be named chief human resource officer, Capgemini India. Jalani had quit IBM, where he was heading HR for India and South Asia operations in November 2016. Jalali’s predecessor, BL Narayan, has been given a business role as head of solutions & sales support in Capgemini’s Business Services strategic business unit. Capgemini employs more than 180,000 professionals across 40 countries, of which, 100,000 people are out of India. Jalali brings in experience of more than two decades of handling a diverse portfolio including talent management, leadership development, employee engagement, compensation & benefits (C&B), careers and recruitment. He has successfully led various companies during transformational changes. A ’95-batch pass out from XLRI, Jalani began his career with the RPG group, where he played a key role in setting up the HR function for a telecom JV of RPG-Vodafone, in addition to other assignments. Five years later, he moved to Wipro, where he spent around seven years with growth path from manager- HR to the level of head–compensation & benefits. He joined IBM as director - total compensation, India and South Asia, in 2007, and had a decade- long stint there.
Chennai-based Medall Healthcare is all set to go abroad if reports are to be believed, as a Dubai investor Abraaj has emerged frontrunner to acquire this India’s diagnostics chain and radiology services provider. The deal is valued at about Rs.1,600 crore, according to reliable sources. Global long-term risk investors have revved up action in the rapidly evolving diagnostics industry in Asia’s third largest economy buoyed by health insurance and improving healthcare facilities. Medall has presence in over 70 centres across southern cities besides operating a slew of public-private healthcare partnerships, including a hugely successful outsourcing deal from the Andhra Pradesh government. Abraaj is holding advanced discussions to acquire the principal shareholder Peepul Capital, an Indian private equity investor that owns 80% in Medall. In 2009, Peepul partnered with serial entrepreneur Raju Venkatraman to acquire Medall, which was earlier known as Precision Diagnostics. This is not the first time Abraaj is making its presence in India, as last year they acquired Hyderabad- based Care Hospitals for around Rs.2,000 crore marking the first acquisition of an Indian business by a Middle East investor. However, people concerned in Abraaj are silent about the whole development.
by Joe Williams
