Sanjiv Bajaj, Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv, was named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017. Bajaj Finserv emerged as the country’s leading name in financial services with solutions across lending, life and general insurance and wealth advisory. EY also named nine other category winners for the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Programme’. The awards were presented at a ceremony in Mumbai, in the presence of over 400 business leaders and special invitees. “Entrepreneurs are fundamental to nation-building and it is their impact which the EOY programme seeks to recognise,” said Rajiv Memani, chairman of EY India. “The winners this year comprise first-time entrepreneurs who are disrupting sectors with innovations or dominating new industries, as also individuals from family enterprises, where despite being in conventional businesses, they have created massive differentiation with their aspirations, innovation and execution intensity.” Bajaj will now represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award (WEOY) in Monte Carlo from June 13-17, 2018. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to E. Sreedharan, who was instrumental in the planning and execution of the Kolkata Metro, Delhi Metro, Kochi Metro and Lucknow Metro. He also spearheaded the Konkan Railway project, considered among the most difficult railway projects in the world. In the business transformation category, chairman and MD of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh got an award, while MD of Dalmia Bharat Group, Puneet Dalmia bagged an award in the manufacturing category.
Kamal Vatnani has joined Qualys as the Vice President-HR – India and APAC. In his new role he will be responsible for managing the end-to-end HR function for India and APAC, which also includes strategy, HR delivery and recruitment across all business verticals of Qualys Inc. In his earlier act with PTC Software, Vatnani, who joined as the senior director, HR was elevated to VP-HR, leading HR Delivery and Operations for Pune, Gurugram, Bengaluru and Mumbai locations. He was with PTC Software, and worked with SAP as the Director-HR, where he managed the SAP Labs Pune site as HR site leader. He has also been with Sybase, Selectica and Dx Technologies in the past. A management graduate from Nagpur University, Vatnani also pursued his PG in HRM from the SIBM, Pune.
Everyone falls in love with our country’s media, and Donald Trump Jr, son of US President Donald Trump is no different. He said he loves the Indian media as it is, while comparing it to the “aggressive and brutal media” back home. “They are so mild and nice,” said Junior Trump while saying, “I am the first person in the history of India to say that I love the media of this country, with their smiling faces, despite hardships. In his second visit after his 2008 visit, he said, “It wasn’t me coming here for the first time. It was me coming here (India) after 10 years. So, everybody understood what I meant. But the ‘Washington Post’ the next day said— ‘Donald Trump Jr likes poor people because they smile,” while adding that he would keep away from politicians as his visit was as a businessman. Looking at the changing business scenario in India as compared to around a decade ago, Trump Jr said he sees a lot of energy and has been able to strike up good deals over the years and was now willing to invest ten times more.
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has been all out to encourage the economy in his own way. Here we have one of the top members of the corporate world, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi who says that it is inspiration from Modi which has made things happen for him in a positive way. He goes on to say that he wishes to do for Uber, what the Indian Prime Minister is doing for India. On his first visit to India after taking over the reins of Uber from former CEO and founder Travis Kalanick, Khosrowshahi is stressing on the importance that India has in Uber’s plan for growth, as India has been their important market. “Starting with cars moving people, we want to ultimately become a platform where any provider of mobility can plug into our system and use our payment system and offer all kinds of transportation,” said Khosrowshahi. He plans to make Uber the Amazon of mobility.
Mumbai to Pune could be the fastest mode of transport, thanks to Virgin Group along with Maharashtra government which has signed a pact to build a hyperloop transportation system between these two cities, to emerge as the fastest mode of transport. Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson claims that if it bears fruit, then it will reduce the travel time between the two cities to 25 minutes from the present three hours. However, the speed rate is not yet known for the route. This is not the first by the Group as Andhra Pradesh government signed an MoU with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) to study and analyse the cityscapes in order to reduce travelling time between Amravati and Vijayawada as signed last September. Hyperloop, a concept created by Elon Musk, aims to reach a speed above the supersonic range, 1,200 kmph. The concept is designed in such a way that hyperloop involves travel in a vacuum tube and the Hyperloop pod will lift off the track and zoom through the tunnel. As of now, Hyperloop is nowhere present in the world. Virgin Hyperloop One is currently testing the pod in a desert outside of Las Vegas, US. The final design for it to execute in reality is not confirmed yet, as well. Also, the firm has achieved 387 kmph as their highest speed as against the theoretical figure.
HR professional for over 15 years, Pawan Setty will head AirAsia people & culture and will be part of the senior management team at AirAsia India. Setty has had an all-round exposure in HR, be it organisation development, HR strategy, talent management and development, organisation change, compensation and benefits, and manpower planning. Setty, former senior manager with Reuters, has moved from an American company - International Flavors & Fragrances,which has over 5,000 employees worldwide. He headed the HR function for India operations for four years. His main role with AirAsia will be talent acquisition, building organisation culture and refining and implementing the right policies and procedures. “Setty is an excellent addition to our leadership team and will provide valuable perspective as we continue to deliver on our long-term strategic objectives, said MD & CEO Amar Abrol about the move. AirAsia India currently flies to 16 destinations with its hubs in Bengaluru, New Delhi and Kolkata covering Kochi, Goa, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Guwahati, Imphal, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Bagdogra, Ranchi, and Bhubaneswar.
Rotary International, the world’s first and largest global service organisation has constituted a Global annual award for individuals performing selfless humanitarian service in the community. The award titled ‘Service Above Self’ was constituted in 1991 with an emphasis on personal volunteer efforts and active involvement in helping others. This is an internationally competitive award. Nominations are invited from 200-plus countries covering all global continents. Shortlisting is done with tough criteria and the Rotary International Board of Directors decides the final list of awardees. This is Rotary International’s highest honour for an individual. The award consists of a citation signed by the World Rotary International President. For the year 2017-18 , Pune-based digital literacy activist Dr Deepak Shikarpur was selected by Rotary International for the Service Above Self’ award. Since 1995, he has been spreading digital literacy among the masses through his 38 books, articles, talk shows, videos and free career counselling. The Union government has nominated him as a member of the National IT Board of AICTE for vitalising IT Education.
Madhusudan Gopalan is the new chief of Procter & Gamble India. Gopalan, the head of P&G business in Indonesia, will take over from Al Rajwani who retired from the company after 37 years of service, recently. Gopalan has 18 years of experience and has worked in P&G across business units and diverse geographies like India, the US and Asean countries. Gopalan, 42, is one of P&G’s youngest CEOs to lead a big and crucial business in India, which has a turnover of over $1.5 billion. “I am excited to come back to my home country for this great role with the company. P&G is bullish on India and it is a priority market for the parent company,” Gopalan said in a statement. According to Gopalan, the strategy for India will be to continue the progress it has made towards a balanced growth. According to a statement issued by the company, over the last three years, the P&G business in India underwent a portfolio transformation that saw the company go from losing money to delivering triple digit profit in a couple of years. In the first half of the company’s financial year 17- 18 ending December ’17, P&G delivered double-digit sales growth with majority of the business growing share.
Priyanka Anand who has been appointed as Vice President and Head of Human Resources for Ericsson in Market Area South East Asia, Oceania and India (MOAI), will oversee HR functions across markets, such as India, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines and Bangladesh, among others. She has nearly two decades of experience which also includes seven years with Ericsson as vice president and head, HR global operations at Ericsson from April 2014 to January 2018. She has been the VP and chief of HR Ericsson Global Services for five years from 2010-14. She has been the main player responsible for the growth of the organisation from its establishment in India to creating an employee base of 15,000. Prior to joining Ericsson, she worked with Colt Technologies, Manpower and STG. Priyanka will head the HR team of 60 resources spread across more than 10 countries, driving HR strategy across different countries within the market area. She will collaborate with business leaders to develop and implement HR practices that inspire employees to achieve outstanding business results. She has been a transformative leader with astute business acumen and a strategic mindset. The key focus of her journey has been to turn talent management into an instrument to drive business transformation and strategy, develop able leaders and transform culture. Talking about her new assignment, she said, “this opportunity to interface and work with HR teams and stakeholders from different nationalities will go a long way towards building the best in class HR strategy within the market area. My main focus will be towards enhancing Ericsson’s winning culture, while further developing and retaining world-class talent.”
A former executive director with IOCL, West Bengal state office, Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra has been elevated as Director-HR. A mechanical engineering graduate from BITS Pilani, and a postgraduate diploma in management from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, Mohapatra joined Indian Oil in 1987, and has since worked on varied assignments, including terminal operations, supply chain management & logistics. With in-depth knowledge and acumen in supply chain & logistics, he had been associated with the evacuation of finished products from Indian Oil’s domestic refineries, and product upliftment agreements with stand-alone refiners as well as other oil marketing companies (OMCs). He has played many roles in different ways, is also the chief architect of the auto fuel quality (BSIII/BS-IV) upgradation programmes of OMCs in India. Between April 2010 and January 2012, he headed the operations function of Indian Oil’s Maharashtra State Office, which oversees the largest number of bulk storage terminals and depots in a state. Widely travelled in Europe, USA, Africa and Southeast Asia, Mohapatra was the Managing Director of Indian Oil (Mauritius) Ltd, the Company’s overseas subsidiary during 2012–2015. Mohapatra led a team of young professionals, registering sizeable growth in market share and profitability. He was also on the Board of Mer Rouge Oil Storage Terminal, a joint venture formed by four MNCs to set up modern oil storage facilities in Mauritius.
With six years loyalty to the company, Sunil Singh, who joined Reliance in 2012, as head of talent management-E&P will now take over as head of the Leadership Academy at Reliance Industries. The role requires him to define and execute the approach to the development of executive education and core leadership capability, within RIL. It involves identification, design, development and delivery of core elements within the L&D curriculum in order to support the building of long-lasting leadership capability within RIL. Singh will have to collaborate and communicate with peers across Learning & Talent centres of excellence to ensure a collaborative approach to leadership development and talent management. Mineral Exploration Corporation, Sasken Communication, Gulf Oil and Punj Lloyd were the other companies he worked at, earlier. Singh is a postgraduate from the Xavier Institute of Social Services and also holds a doctorate in OB and HR from IIM-Banglore.
by Joe Williams
