Sanchita Mitra, a social entrepreneur, an impassioned traveller and travel writer, a Gladrags Mrs India finalist in the early 2000s, and an expert in Hispanic Studies, is also a solid support for her dynamic husband, Rajiv Mitra. She, along with Rajiv, spoke at length to Corporate Citizen on their marriage, work and relationship
Sanchita and Rajiv Mitra have built their marital relationship on positivity and banking on the good qualities in each other. They believe in walking the talk, when it comes to bringing up their son, Purushottam, who is presently pursuing his B.Tech. Rajiv believes that life will have dents now and then, but it is important to look at the brighter side of it. Both believe, it is patience, understanding and of course, love, that keep a marriage going. Working honestly and taking one day at a time, is what makes them tick as happy and successful individuals.
The first time they were introduced to each other was at a cricket stadium. States Sanchita, “I was pursuing my Masters in Delhi University. I had accompanied my friends to watch a cricket match at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground. Rajiv too was there with a common friend of ours. That’s when we got introduced to each other.’’
Thereafter they got to know each other. Says Rajiv matter-of-factly, “the chemistry between us was just too good, at the first meeting itself. She was staying in the Delhi University hostel and that time there were no mobiles; only the landline connection and that too, sparingly available. A brief courtship followed by. After which, the rest of the arrangements being outsourced to our parents, we got married in 1996.’’
What is it that they admire about each other? Says Sanchita, “The first thing that I loved about him was his sense of humour which is a rarity these days. And then his strong personality and sociable nature. A conversation with Rajiv can be a very interesting and enriching experience.’’
As for Rajiv, he says that, “I liked her charming smile, a very pleasing and friendly demeanour and her righteousness. She knows exactly what she wants to do—she is the one with a definitive character.’’
I think marriage needs a lot of patience. Understanding each other, attending to each other’s needs and seeing the good side of each other forms a firm foundation for marriage. It is like a journey
—Rajiv Mitra
Says Rajiv, “I think marriage needs a lot of patience. Understanding each other, attending to each other’s needs and seeing the good side of each other forms a firm foundation for marriage. It is like a journey. For example, recently we were driving down from Phaltan to Pune. Our car met with a small accident, as our driver was trying to save himself from a reversing truck. He hit a divider and the car had a dent. Similarly, life’s journey is fraught with dents and we don’t know which way trouble is. But what is it that you want to give more importance to? The dent or the car, which is otherwise shining bright—that’s the choice to make.’’
Says Sanchita, “Today’s generation, whether it is the girl or the boy, is in too much hurry, to have the perfect marriage. They don’t have any respect for the institution of marriage. Though, of course, it would be unfair to make a sweeping statement that all marriages are bad. We do also see a lot of happy marriages now.”
Says Rajiv, “I feel that the acceptance of break-up is also a blessing because if the marital relationship is not working, then it may be better to separate than to have a life of bad marriage. Earlier, people never used to think of a break-up. Social framework has changed now. I don’t think that you have to try too hard and live with friction. However, youngsters must remember that marriage is not about youthful romance all the time. The definition of romance changes— eating out at your favourite place is also romance.’’
We all see and learn. The child sees what his or her parents are doing and picks up on their behaviour. We were not worried that our child wouldn’t listen to us; we were concerned that the child would watch us
— Sanchita Mitra
What are their thoughts on child-upbringing? How did they bring up their only child, Purushottam? Says Sanchita, “We all see and learn. We just can’t dictate and compel him to do this or that. The child sees what his or her parents are doing and picks up on their behaviour. We were not worried that the child wouldn’t listen to us, if at all; we were concerned that the child would watch us. So it is all about doing what you would want him to do.’’
Says Rajiv, “Yes, we are not preachers. Children will do what they see and they will definitely not do what they are told to do. I don’t tell him too much. I remember my childhood—if I was told something, I didn’t like it. We let him make his own choices and then learn through experiences.’’
Has technology changed the role of parents? Says Sanchita, “Oh yes. Technology has made parents the learners. Today, I ask my son, what to watch on Netflix, which app to download. Technology has changed our lives the way the Maruti car changed the way an urban Indian lived in the 1980s. Then came the Internet.’’
Their idea of leisure? Says Rajiv, “We are fond of holidays, reading and watching movies. She is very particular about her fitness at the gym, more than I am.’’ Quips Sanchita, “Gymming and keeping fit is something that I am fond of.’’ Their favourite destination for a holiday in India is Goa. London is their favourite international holiday spot; this is where they go often—to visit family and to holiday.
Sanchita has been a Gladrag’s Mrs India’s finalist. This was something that happened to her by chance. She was spotted and encouraged by a Pune-based groomer/trainer to participate in the pageant. “I was highly encouraged by Rajiv; my in-laws were very supportive too,” quips Sanchita. “It was a different thing to do; a new perspective in life. I am glad I took the plunge”. However, being a career fashionista was not something that she was looking forward to. This elegant couple, however, can be seen in social and fashion circuits of Pune, Mumbai and some other cities.
But, the business of fashion was always on Sanchita’ s mind. And you could not get better than to combine it with a social cause. Sanchita runs her own company, Sanrocks Global Fashions. She procures sarees from the weavers directly and sells them on e-marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and others. Thus providing a good price to the manufacturer and a good value to the buyer. ‘Traditional tant sarees from Bengal, Paithanis from Maharashtra, silk from Bhagalpur are in my collection. I am scheduled to launch my own website soon. I have some charity events lined up, for benefit of the weavers essentially, towards the end of the year’.
An MA in Hispanic Studies, she was working with the Spanish Embassy in Delhi for some time. Says Sanchita, “I specialised in English Literature in Delhi University and also studied Hispanic language. I taught Spanish at the Pune University and at Symbiosis. I have worked as a consultant with a couple of companies having trade relations with Spain and Latin America. I also did a lot of translation for CDAC at that time for Mexican movies that were shown there”.
I travel a lot, write a travel column for the Times of India and a few other publications and have my own travel blog: www.traviajar.in.
Take each day as it comes.
With a vast and versatile experience in varied sectors of the industry from telecom when it was in its infancy to the Indian dairy industry which is gaining international interest—Rajiv Mitra, presently the Managing Director of Govind Milk & Milk Products Pvt Ltd, shares with Corporate Citizen, what it takes to consolidate an enterprise...
Rajiv Mitra, Managing Director, Govind Milk & Milk Products Pvt Ltd, one of India’s leading dairy companies, has over 20 years of experience in FMCG, Telecom and Food industries. He has held senior-level positions with the RPG Group, Bharti Airtel and Reliance. He has extensive experience in marketing, sales, brands, products, supply chain and general management. A post-graduate in Economics, an MBA in Marketing, Mitra takes a keen interest in teaching and mentoring. A day might come, says he, when he may hang his boots and take up teaching full-time at any one of the premier universities of the world. He is an alumnus of Jadavpur University, Calcutta and executive alumnus of IIMA.
A keen lover of sports and a keen reader, a golfer, debater and a commentator on political and social issues, and an avid Amitabh Bachchan fan—read on, for his inspiring story of how he came to be a noted corporate leader…
I was born and raised in Calcutta. The name changed to Kolkata while I was away. Kolkata is a place where I go back to once in a short while, but Calcutta is what goes with me wherever I go. My father who passed away last September was a banker and my mother is a housewife. I graduated from Jadavpur University and I am quite proud of the fact that I studied Economics at Jadavpur where Nobel laureate Amartya Sen once taught. I was a compliant and behaved student and used to take part in extracurricular activities like drama, fine arts and play sports like cricket and football. As an adolescent, I saw myself to be a professor at a global level. I still wish to contribute by way of teaching and sharing my experiences and accomplishments. I do visit a lot of colleges and universities all over the world and exchange thoughts. Interacting with students and freshmen actually uplifts me; it is indeed a great learning experience, motivates me to keep abreast with anything that’s new—technology, society, politics, economics. I read a lot.
I joined the RPG Enterprises, headquartered at Calcutta. They were into varied fields like retail, carbon black to tyres, electricity distribution and IT. I was in the IT sector and that’s how I came to Pune on a transfer to the company headquarters, which, at that time, was called Fujitsu ICIM. A part of it is now well-known as Zensar.
I was fortunate to have very good bosses. I remember Rajan Kohli, who eventually retired as executive president of Hindustan Times, as my super boss during my initial days as a rookie. We used to admire him from a distance. I didn’t get to interact with him on a daily basis. Even an opportunity to meet up with him would make my day.
But as I said, I worked with a lot of very good bosses. Whatever I have achieved today, has a lot to do with my parentage, family, professors and my bosses. It would be unfair to name any particular boss. As a management trainee, I had to meet CEOs of client companies or consultants, make presentations to them, negotiate with them. At times, this used to make me very nervous. One of my seniors told me that all I need is confidence, which can take me anywhere. This is something which still remains with me. With confidence, you can take on anything. He said to me that assume that nobody in the room knows anything and you know everything. This was a defining piece of advice that I got. Got that confidence to face the world and never lost it till date. I kept on building on it and I saw it helping me in my career. This approach, he had cautioned, is not to belittle someone or to not pay respect to his intelligence. He also taught me that if you are addressing a crowd and come in a few minutes late, never apologise. Then your dominance is finished. At the outset, never do something for which you need to apologise. Confidence teaches you not to be overconfident.
As a management trainee, I had to meet CEOs of client companies, make presentations to them and negotiate with them. One of my seniors told me that all I need is confidence, which can take me anywhere
—Rajiv Mitra
I worked in the telecom industry for over a decade. I was there from the start of the mobile telephone in this country, around 1999 when the new telecom policy was launched. Being the initial phase of the industry, it was growing at breakneck pace, at the rate of 100% CAGR (compound annual growth rate).
For a while, I was with Reliance and then I moved on to Airtel. I have very fond memories of my Airtel days. Initially in Pune, Maharashtra Circle and then at the headquarters in Gurugram. We were growing at a CAGR of 100% per annum, so we were literally working on the edge. That was the pace of the industry. It’s a story, which would be well worth writing for our grandchildren and for generations to come. Now the industry has an altogether different pace.
As it happens with any other industry, during the early years, it is akin to how a child in its first year will grow rapidly, in high percentages, but in comparison, a 20-year-old man will grow by a small percentage, in the same one year. So, when you are an infant, your growth is very high. Growth has stabilised, revenue pressure has increased, competition has intensified and profitability has shrunk. Telecom once used to be a generous payer to shareholders and employees, but now this generosity has reduced. At that time we were looking for people who would want a mobile phone to talk. Now they are looking for people who will use that mobile phone for a whole lot of purposes other than just talking. Whatever may have happened to growth, in my assessment, mobile telephony has been one of the most important inventions of our age or of all times, for that matter. As important as the aeroplane or the motor car. It has been a very important and positive factor for our macro and micro economic development of the last two decades.
My generation is that of drifters; we are journeymen, unlike my father, who served in a bank and retired from there. The world was very big then; now it is smaller. Why is it that after so many years I still think I will to go to the Harvard to teach? Because there is always a quest to do something more, something new. When I was in telecom, I thought I was having the time of my life. Indeed, I was having a great time. Today, I know life could not have been more fulfilling, more exciting. It is such an indescribable, great feeling to be able touch lives of millions of people—from the marginal dairy farmer to the consumers. No better feeling than to be able to create happiness, to be able to bring about social and economic changes within your area of influence and beyond. I am also working on a book, titled, Dairy Famers of Western Maharashtra.
We moved to Pune in 1998 and fell in love with the city. We made lot of efforts to stay back here. Work, however, took me places. Delhi, a city of great infrastructure; Mumbai; the city of glamour; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, also great, glamorous cities. All great places to live and work. However, we always had Pune in our mind. When I was in Dubai, I got to know of the opportunity at Govind Milk.
Govind Milk & Milk Products was founded by Sanjeev Naik Nimbalkar, descendant of the royal family of Phaltan, a philanthropist and social worker in his own right. We got to know each other through some earlier transactions. He mentioned to me that the then Managing Director was moving on and it would be of my interest to consider the opportunity. I saw the expanse of the operation and envisioned what I would be able to do with it. I sensed a phenomenal opportunity to create an enterprise out of an ambition and took up the job with both hands. I was very impressed with the promoters’ penchant for quality and fabric of ethics in business. I speak broken Marathi and don’t dress up like a farmer but I am able to touch a farmer’s life and that is something that I am very proud of. I am extremely gratified to be able to bring happiness to the farmer, quality to the consumer and value to all stakeholders. We are a well-known name in Maharashtra and Western India. Our pan-India ambitions are taking shape. The next step is to go global.
I read Robert Kiyosaki early in life: manage people well, manage money well and manage systems and processes well. If you do these and use something called common sense abundantly—then be it telecom, fashion or dairy—you can be in command. And that stems out of confidence which I gained decades back. Is it a specialised job? Yes, every job is. But you can’t be a specialist of everything. I could attract the best talent in dairy technology, the best finance manager and the best IT guy—good amongst the very best. My job is done when I am able to add value to their jobs. I don’t need to be a diary technologist though I have a yearning for that knowledge too. I have been able to learn ‘dairy technology’ and believe me, it is very simple. Everything is, when you use your common sense.
Turnover-wise we have beaten the industry which growing at a CAGR of 16%. That too, during the very challenging years that the industry is going through. More importantly, we have been able to create a household name in our chosen area of operation, we have created exceptional trade equity, attracted the best human capital and got the attention of the community as a whole—the consumers, the investors, the suppliers et al. We have been able to take some products through sales charts that do give some jitters to competition. We are working hard towards creating a brand that is most loved by consumers, valued by stakeholders, trusted by partners and associates, envied by competitors. We are on track, yet a long way to go.
Going forward, the percentage of revenue that the industry earns from milk products will increase manifold. Coupled with changing tastes and increased urbanisation, westernised products like cheese will gain ground
—Rajiv Mitra
Extremely buoyant. India is the largest producer of milk in the world. We are also the largest consumer of milk. With sustained growth of the Indian economy and a consequent rise in the purchasing power during the last two decades, more and more people today are able to afford milk and various other dairy products. Moreover, milk is a very affordable source of protein to the large vegetarian population in the country. This growing trend in demand is expected to continue with the sector experiencing a robust growth in the short and medium run. However, if the impediments in the way of growth and development are left unaddressed, India is likely to face a serious supply-demand mismatch and may gradually turn into a net importer of milk and milk products.
Several impediments are there. Availability of cold-chain facilities is something that remains wanting. India needs to have more colleges and universities churning out quality dairy technologists and professionals. The industry also has to turn attractive to talent. Adulteration, contamination needs to be addressed at its root. Though India is the largest producer of milk, we still are the poorest in per capita yield. Lot of work needs to done on this.
At Govind, we are working hard on increasing milk quality and yield through series of concerted activities. Our pioneering concept of ‘Happy Cows’ is appreciated and widely emulated. Our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities are geared up to cater to increased demand in our chosen markets. Our robust distribution system reaches out to all our markets. We also have online sales facility for ghee and milk powder for the discerning consumer and for markets where our traditional distribution has not yet reached.
Going forward, the percentage of revenue that the industry earns from milk products will increase manifold. Coupled with changing tastes and increased urbanisation, westernised products like cheese will gain ground. We are already seeing high involvement in purchase of milk products. This leads to hypercompetition. Communicating to the consumer about quality, availability, usefulness becomes very important. You would have seen, product categories like butter, cheese, etc. have always had brilliant marketing campaigns.
‘Happy Makers’ is our thought-out tag line. We live it. We are reason for happiness for the dairy farmers. We cause happiness to the consumer when the products land up on her dining table. Our team of happy employees and distributors make happiness. We give an experience to all our stakeholders—an experience of happiness.
In all my interactions with the youngsters, I find them a much smarter lot than we were. I see the same thing at home, with my son, who is slightly younger than the MBA students. Exposure is much more and so is knowledge and understanding, well mostly. Adherence and conformity to basic values of life is very strong—now this is very encouraging. I am impressed, encouraged and hopeful of the future of our country, the community, the world.
As for colleges, they are rated more on average salary that a student gets during campus placement than the quality of professors or the curriculum; education is not meant to be that. It is a placement factory, and I think people are okay with that. Parents want it that way. They will do a survey as to where their child will get a good placement or the best salary. I think the starting salary, and the salary you draw after five years have no linkage to each other, whatsoever. So what is it that you are chasing? Is it excellence, or is it the first pay packet? This worries me. Excellence is perhaps a more sustaining attribute to pursue!
Secondly, I went to speak at a very reputed a college. I found them accessing JDs from companies and training people based on that JD, which is a good idea but what it leads to is over specialisation. Like an HR during an interview will say that I want only compensation and benefits, somebody will do only recruitment, somebody from marketing specialisation will say I will do only pricing, or brand. If you have it in you then why you worry about such overspecialisation.
However, having said what I said, I think, the MBA revolution has been good for the corporate world and also for millions of boys and girls across the country.
First up, I live honestly and responsibly. I stand up to the national anthem respectfully, don’t jump red lights, clean my pet poop and yes, pay my taxes. Secondly, I love to dress well and address well. Apart from this, every time I watch a Bachchan movie or an Al Pacino or DeCaprio movie or read Alvin Toffler or Tom Peters or Tagore, I add something or other to my philosophy of life.
By Vinita Deshmukh
