Making the most of his three-day US visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid rich tributes to the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers and paid homage to Indian-American astronaut (late) Kalpana Chawla at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington. Modi also had a brief interaction with Kalpana Chawla’s husband and family members, senior officials from NASA, Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams and her father at Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial. “All of us are very honoured that he took time to come and acknowledge the shuttle catastrophe and the deep cooperation that we have with India in space,” Ms Williams told the media after her brief interaction with Prime Minister Modi. Kalpana Chawla’s husband Jean-Pierre Harrison presented a set of books on the late astronaut, including a biography written by him, to the Prime Minister. The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American service members who have died without their remains being identified.
Styletag gets a new CEO as the former Flipkart Vice President Michael Mehran Adnani joins the online women’s curated fashion platform. As Styletag ventures into a new zone, Adnani will spearhead the company’s operations and helm its evolution as it enters into a new phase of growth and expansion. The former VP of Flipkart, was the at the helm of Flipkart’s as the strategic brand alliances for the e-commerce giant. Styletag has been able to create an enterprise, which has weathered the various weather patterns that have emerged in the eCommerce landscape, according to Styletag.com founder and Managing Director Sanjay Shroff. “We already have an omni-channel presence, which was established two years ago and which has turned profitable. We are pleased to welcome Michael on board as he brings with him hands-on experience in retail and e-commerce,” said Shroff.
Deepak Shikarpur is on the board of the Government of India’s move for a separate board for revitalising and enhancing skill oriented IT education in India. The Pune-based Shikarpur has been nominated as member of the board for a term of three years. Shikarpur is member Academic Council of the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University. He is also on the board of Seed Infotech Ltd and Autoline Design Software Ltd. He has written 33 books on IT in Marathi and English to spread digital literacy. He is also part of the executive committee of the Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries & Agriculture. Shikarpur was employed in the IT department of Telco, now Tata Motors from 1985 till July 2000. He singlehandedly pioneered the concept and marketing of the Software Product, Turbo Analyst, for bringing discipline in the software development life-cycle. This product won several awards and accolades from various forums/IT publications during the 1990-2000 decade. He had a successful and rewarding career for 15 years in the Tata Group.
Another Indian has made it to the international cadre, and this time it is Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, who has been elected as the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He is the third Indian business leader to hold this position in ICC’s near 100-year history. Mittal takes over from Terry McGraw, Chairman Emeritus of S&P Global, who will subsequently become ICC’s Honorary Chairman. The ICC World Council elected the new leaders at the meeting held in Sao Paolo, Brazil, recently. “I look forward to working with our members to ensure that we continue to play a constructive role as the voice of global business in the formulation of economic and trade policies to support inclusive growth,” Mittal said, about his new role. “The global economy is facing unprecedented headwinds to growth and there is an urgent need to restore trade and investment as a driver of growth and jobs, particularly in the developing world, and this will be a central focus of my tenure,” he added. Founded in 1919, ICC is the world’s largest business organisation which represents private sector views to national governments and intergovernmental bodies around the world. It advocates free trade and market economy, working through a network of national committees and direct members in over 130 countries. Sunil Bharti Mittal serves on many international bodies and think-tanks. He is currently the Chair of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Telecommunications Steering Committee; Member: International Business Council-WEF, GSMA Board, Telecom Board of International Telecommunication Union (ITU); and Commissioner of the Broadband Commission, International Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Prime Minister of Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council.
School teachers hold exalted positions in our hearts. This was rightly projected when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa expressed grief over the death of her school teacher Catherine Simon, hailing her as a great influence on her life and an inspiration to girl students. “I was shocked and grieved to learn of the passing away of Catherine Simon, my teacher in Presentation Convent, Church Park, Chennai,” said CM Jayalathiaa. Stating that Catherine dedicated her life to teaching, the CM said, “I had the good fortune of being her student from 1958 to 1964. She was a great influence on my life and we shared a very special relationship as a teacher and student.” Catherine Simon was an inspiration to generations of girl students and her qualities of compassion and firmness honed hundreds of young people to grow up as responsible citizens. Catherine (89) died of a cardiac arrest in Chennai. Catherine taught Physical Training at the school between 1950 and 1969, but for CM Jayalalithaa, she was clearly so much more. Jayalalithaa, who was a state topper in the matriculation examination, was also selected as the best outgoing student of her school.
Corporate world and Bollywood connections are synonymous. This time it is the turn of Deepika Padukone, as Tata SIA Airlines Ltd, which operates under the brand Vistara, to have the actor as its first brand ambassador. The highest-paid female brand ambassador in India, Deepika endorses several brands including Coca-Cola, Axis Bank, Kellogg’s, Vogue, Tissot, Van Heusen, Tanishq and Nike. Tanishq is also a Tata brand. The full-service Vistara launched its service in January last year, three years after Vijay Mallya’s similarly positioned Kingfisher Airlines Ltd grounded its operations after it faced a severe cash-crunch. Interestingly, Padukone was a Kingfisher calendar girl and was also signed on as brand ambassador of Kingfisher Airlines in 2007. Around the same time, Jet Airways signed on actor Shah Rukh Khan for a major advertising campaign. Interestingly, no other Indian airline currently has a brand ambassador from Bollywood.
Two big gigs of India corporate (private equity industries) moved out of their respective firms, Jayesh Desai, co-head of Piramal Capital’s Structured Investments Group (SIG), and Aluri Srinivasa Rao, managing director for India at Morgan Stanley Private Equity, deciding to call it quits. “He (Desai) had put in his formal resignation around a couple of weeks ago. He might take some time off before deciding his next move. The group (Piramal Enterprises Ltd) is looking at an internal promotion to replace him,” said a person, requesting anonymity.
The high-profile managing director Sanjay Dutt of Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) is set to join Singapore-based real estate developer-investor Ascendas-Singbridge as chief executive officer for its Indian operations. Dutt, an industry veteran of 20 years, would relocate to Bengaluru to take up the new assignment. Dutt will replace Lee Fu Nyap. “Since Dutt has vast experience helping developers invest and buy land and market properties, he took up the role at Ascendas,” according to a company executive. Dutt has worked with top realty consultants such as Jones Lang LaSall, CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield. Before joining Cushman, he was chief executive at JLL India. Prior to that, he was at Cushman as joint managing director in his first stint. Dutt left JLL in 2012 to launch his own real estate fund in an equal partnership with Nipun Sahni, former managing director and India head of global commercial real estate firm DSP Merrill Lynch. Dutt has brokered a number of high-profile property sales in the country such as the sale of Cadbury’s property in south Mumbai to a business tycoon, PE firm Xander’s investment of Rs.525 crore .
Kunoor Ojha, an Indian-American youth activist from Illinois, has become Hillary Clinton’s first major hire from the Sanders campaign, as the race for the White House candidate heats up. Ojha will serve as the Clinton campaign’s National Campus and Student Organising Director, tasked with listening to young voters and convincing them to back Clinton. Ojha began her political activism as a field organiser on `Obama for America’ campaign in Chicago in 2011, and worked in various state level campaigns before joining the Sanders bandwagon in 2015. The campaign’s outreach to students, fuelled primarily by the pledge to make college tuition free, saw America’s youth flock to him. Early in the race, he was beating Clinton 84-14 among Democrats under 29; even in the 30-44 demographic, he had a 21 percent lead. It was only in the 45-64 age group that Clinton retrieved ground (58-35), increasing it to 69-26 in the 65+ age group. Now the Clinton campaign is moving quickly to ensure that the Sanders’ youth brigade remains firmly in the Democratic fold. That’s where Ojha comes in. She has plenty of experience in this area, having worked as a field director for political campaigns tasked with organising volunteers and ensuring Election Day turn out. Of course, it will need a lot more to win over the youth, many of whom believe Hillary Clinton is part of the “establishment” regardless of political colours -”a milque-toast neo-liberal” in the words of one Sanders’ supporters.
Gunit Chadha, chief executive officer for the Asia-Pacific, Deutsche Bank, Germany, has relinquished his post. According to a note on the bank’s website from chief executive John Cryan, it is given to understand that Chadha’s quitting would be effective July 17 and a successor announced in due course. “I am grateful to Gunit for his contribution and especially his role in developing our presence across 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific. In 2012, Gunit was appointed as co-chief executive officer (CEO) for the Asia-Pacific and sole CEO in 2015. During this period, our businesses (there) delivered substantial growth, coupled with increased profitability,” mentioned Cryan in the note.
The 16 countries covered India, Asean, Greater China, Australia and Japan. The region was considered a significant contributor to the business, with five of the top 10 countries globally for Deutsche Bank (by profits before tax) from here. Chadha had joined the bank as its India CEO in 2003, from IDBI Bank. During 2012-2015, under Chadha, profits from the region more than doubled to a record of €4.4 billion (Rs. 33,300 crore). However, the overall performance of the bank has been under pressure, with the lender announcing a loss of €6.8 billion (Rs. 51,680 crore) in calendar year 2015. This came at a time when Cryan had decided to restructure the business, including closing down operations in ten countries, reducing risks, strengthening the capital position and laying off around 15,000 people.
The presence of NIvaan Goyal, son of Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways, at the recently held International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) annual general meeting held in Dublin, Ireland, took many by surprise. However, Naresh Goyal had other ideas, as he was looking for a successor. Goyal, who was re-elected as the only Indian airline executive on IATA’s board of governors, has always been a regular at the AGMs, one of the biggest congregations of top global airline executives. He is often accompanied by his wife, Anita, a member of Jet’s board. Goyal was seen introducing his son to industry colleagues with his characteristic wide smile, chatting them up and, at times, stepping into a quiet corner for a more serious discussion with one of them. Questions of Goyal’s succession have been casually thrown around in the aviation industry. When Jet sold a 24 percent stake to Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways in 2013, some had speculated that Goyal would hang his boots soon and there were questions on who would take over the reins of the only one from India’s first lot of private carriers that is still flying. However, most of Goyal’s colleagues still swear by his energy, involvement and tight control over the goings on at Jet.
By Joe Williams
