Pune-based vaccine major Serum Institute of India (SII), which has acquired a Czech Republic-based vaccine plant, is expected to become world’s largest Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) maker with over 200 million doses by 2020. The total world demand for IPV is 250-300 million doses per year. “The plant we acquired in Holland in 2012 gave us a capacity of 30 million doses. Now, the Czech Republic plant will have a capacity of 160 million doses. In 2020, when the vaccine comes out at this newly acquired facility in the Czech Republic, Serum Group will become the largest manufacturer of IPV in the world,” Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Director of SII recently told the media. As a part of World Health Organisation’s Polio Endgame Strategy, a total of 120 countries across the world including India have replaced trivalent oral polio vaccine and switched over to bivalent oral polio vaccine along with IPV. This has led to a severe crunch of IPV vaccines across the world. Since most manufacturers have pledged their available stock with the government, the shortage of the vaccine has been more acute in private healthcare. The newly acquired plant is a large campus, spanning over 35 acres, at Bohumil in the outskirts of Prague city.
Wipro board has reappointed Azim Premji as Chairman and Managing Director for two years effective from July 31. However, this would be subject to shareholder approval. Premji, who will turn 72 in July, has been with Wipro since the late 1960s, and at its helm has turned a $2-million hydrogenated cooking fat company into an Indian IT powerhouse with nearly $8 billion in revenue. Vivek Wadhwa, distinguished fellow at Carnegie Mellon University at Silicon Valley described Azim Premji as a brilliant visionary who understood the customer and business needs. Stating that Premji has been the pillar of the firm, Wadhwa said that he has met all the challenges they faced with authority.
Former SEBI chief G N Bajpai has taken over as Chairman of Kolkata-based Usha Martin after Prashant Jhawar’s ouster following a boardroom battle. Main promoters of the wire rope and speciality steel manufacturing firm took this action with the support of the lenders, according to sources in the firm. However, in a statement, Jhawar termed his removal as improper. Incidentally, Prashant is the son of the founder, Basant Kumar (BK), as he was fondly addressed. The meeting was convened by SBI nominee R Venkatachalam. The two main points on the agenda proposed by the SBI nominee were: removal of the Chairman and appointment of a replacement. According to sources, the banks wanted the promoters led by Prashant Jhawar to pledge more shares to secure the loans. SBI has an exposure of Rs. 900 crore in corporate debt and Rs. 290 crore as term loan. Lenders have been pressing the promoters to pledge their equity against its debt because they were concerned over the losses incurred by the company. There are allegations that despite repeated reminders from SBI and other banks, Prashant has not pledged his 13% stake to banks. However, Prashant contradicted the statement saying that he had pledged his 13% stake with the SBI mid-last year.
Bhimaraya Metri takes charge as the new Director of IIM Trichy, replacing Prafulla Agnihotri, founding director and also custodian of the institute for the last six years. An academician, Metri has been the Dean of L&T Institute of Project Management, Vadodara, Professor and Dean at MDI Gurgaon, IMI, New Delhi and professor in-charge of PhD programmes at BITS, Pilani. Maharashtrian, Metri did his BE from the Govt. College of Engineering, Karad, his Masters in Engineering from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, and PhD from IIT Powai, Mumbai. Metri is a member of the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), USA and the Institute of Supply Management (ISM), USA. He was on the Board of Directors of DSI and is the first Indian to be elected Vice President (Asia Pacific Division), Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), Texas, USA.
American giants like Apple, Cisco and IBM have been questioned on their standing if they had not sourced the best. This was sounded by Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel while cautioning against protectionism. “I don’t think we have heard the last word on US policy talk about this because there is a push back internationally that the world has benefited from an open trading system,” he said in response to a question on the rise of protectionist tendencies in major world economies after he delivered the Third Kotak Family Distinguished Lecture, sponsored by the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at the Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Patel said calls for protectionism in the US were on account of equity and domestic distribution issues, which “textbook economics tells us should be addressed through domestic fiscal policy”. He noted that using trade instruments for protectionism may take a nation on a trajectory different from that of growth. US President Donald Trump has called for restricting H1-B visas for professionals to higher-level technical positions paying higher wages and bringing back manufacturing to the US. Chief Economic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian said Trump administration’s stance on H1-B visa would be a cause for worry as a majority of Indian exports in the services sector go to the US. “Something like 50 to 60 per cent of all our exports of services goes to the US. So it would worry us quite a bit,” he said.
Jindal Stainless Limited emerged as the best innovators in training practices in the steel sector, and went on to bag the prestigious Golden Peacock National Training award for the year 2017. The country’s largest integrated steel manufacturers, Jindal, were adjudged as the best in this field by His Excellency Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Hon’ble Cabinet Member and Minister of Economy, Govt. of UAE, in a function held in Dubai recently. This award was instituted by the Institute Of Directors in 1998, to identify excellence in training practices at organisations. Jindal Stainless limited emerged the best among other companies of the likes of Maruti Suzuki India Pvt Ltd, Accenture Solutions, Bosch Limited, State Bank of India, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, Nestle India, Oil India Limited, Reliance Industries, VFS Global, and L&T Construction Skills Training Institute. Instituted by the Institute of Directors (IOD) in 1991, Golden Peacock Awards are regarded as a benchmark of Corporate Excellence worldwide.
The world billiards and snooker champion, Pankaj Advani, signed a multiple year representation agreement with the sports marketing and brand licensing firm, Baseline Ventures, which also manages Indian badminton stars PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and cricketer Ravindra Jadeja. The 31-year-old champion Advani has the highest number of world championship gold medals won by any Indian athlete ever. He is the only player in the world to win world titles in all formats of both billiards and snooker. Commenting on the deal, Tuhin Mishra, MD at Baseline Ventures said, “We are excited to have Pankaj come on board with Baseline Ventures and show faith in our firm’s ability to manage his commercial interests. He is truly a world champion and a gentleman, the two ingredients which brands always want to be associated with, and is surely one of the greatest athletes of our nation. We look forward to a long and fruitful association.”
Robin Kamark will be the new Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airline Equity Partners, taking charge from Bruno Matheu, who is quitting for personal reasons. Kamark, who moves to Etihad from Norwegian financial services firm Storebrand, will lead and develop the Group’s minority equity investment strategy including stakes in airberlin, Alitalia, Jet Airways, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Etihad Regional and Virgin Australia. Kamark who will report to group president and CEO James Hogan, will take up his new position in October 2017.
Many Bollywood stars have found avenues other than those associated with their known talents to make it in the corporate world. Jacqueline Fernandez has found Rakyan Beverages, the makers of juices under the Raw Pressery brand, to invest in this juicy product. In the process, she becomes the country’s first celebrity to part-finance a consumer products firm. This trend of funding by celebrities by investing in brands is on the increase, and not just by endorsing them. Singer Madonna funded coconut water brand Vita Coco, rapper 50 Cent had minority stake in Glaceau vitamin water, while Beyonce invested last year in watermelon water startup WTRMLN WTR. Jacqueline, with over 13 million followers just on Instagram, is not an ambassador but an evangelist who can have an impact on the top line, many experts believe. Rakyan runs in-house logistics and manufacturing units that help control cost and quality. Unlike packed juices that have shelf lives of up to six months, Rakyan products have limited shelf life and need chillers in their supply chain. Globally, shifting consumer tastes are prompting global beverage giants to find ways to diversify away from traditional soda and high-calorie juices. Two years ago, Coca- Cola Co acquired a minority stake in Suja Life, an organic, cold-pressed juices brand, while PepsiCo bought Naked Juice Co more than a decade ago. In India too, the demand for healthier drinks is increasing faster in urban centres, with consumers switching to fruit-based beverages.
L’Oréal India has appointed Roshni Wadhwa, previously Human Resources Director for L’Oréal Singapore, as its HR Director, India. She replaces Mohit James who has been assigned to a global role. Mohit James had a six year stint as the HR Director for L’Oréal India. He has been moved up as South Asia HR Director for L’Oréal and APAC HRD for L’Oréal’s Professional Products and Active Cosmetics Divisions. James was picked up from the Indian talent pool of L’Oréal. He has over 23 years of HR experience in Consumer, Manufacturing and IT organisations. Under his leadership, L’Oréal India took several initiatives such as the Management Trainee programme, Employer Branding, Rewards Competitiveness, Gender Diversity Inclusion and Recognition programme. Wadhwa has 19 years of experience in the fields of business HR partnering and organisational development in companies such as Novartis and Pantaloon Retail. She joined L’Oréal India in July 2013 as General Manager–HR for Consumer Products Division (CPD). In 2015, she moved to Singapore as Human Resources Director for the country. Talking about the new appointments, Jean-Christophe Letellier, Managing Director, L’Oréal India said, “Mohit has played a key part in establishing leadership teams, hiring of talent, and building a learning, performing and open culture. We are sure he will continue to lead L’Oréal in the APAC region well. We are also delighted that Roshni who has played an instrumental role at L’Oréal in building the proximity of HR with the business, will continue doing great work in developing the ever evolving HR function.” Her appointment takes the number of women on the leadership team of company to 33%.
Udiay Khanna, who was Vice President and Head, HR, Samsung Electronics, has moved to Metro Cash & Curry as Director, HR. This is the second stint of Khanna, a XLRI alumni, in retail. Arvind Mediratta, CEO and Managing Director, Metro India, said in an official communiqué, “We are poised for continuous expansion in the coming years. This growth will be fuelled by motivated employees working in a culture of excellence. Khanna has been on-boarded with the vision to strengthen two most vital pillars of our organisation-people and culture.” Prior to Samsung, Khanna worked with Bharti-Walmart Joint Venture and then, post the JV, with Walmart India as Vice President, HR Operations and Talent Acquisition. Before joining Bharti-Walmart, he spent 11 years at GE Healthcare, marking growth path from Operations Manager to Vice-President and HR Leader for ITS (Information Technology and Software Business for Genpact). Metro Cash & Carry has over 750 self-service wholesale stores in 25 countries and 100,000 plus employees worldwide. It had achieved sales of around €29 billion in the fiscal 2015-16.
The Smart Cube has appointed Sushma Rana as its first Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), with a remit to lead the global HR strategy to support the company’s existing client business and its ambitious growth plans. Sushma brings two decades of leadership experience in human resources and talent management to this role for this award-winning global analytics company. Sushma has spent 11 years with MSL GROUP-part of Publicis Groupe, the world’s third largest communications company-most recently as HR and Talent Director, and a member of the Executive Team. Sushma holds a B Tech degree in Electronics & Communications from the National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur and Masters in Human Resource Development from the Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune.
by Joe Williams
