Azim Premji tops EdelGive Hurun India 2020 Philanthropy list

Philanthropist Azim Premji and founder Chairperson Wipro, has topped the list of most generous individuals in India as per the 7th edition of the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2020. With a donation of Rs.7,904 crore, which translates to nearly Rs.22 crore per day, Premji, is at the forefront with Education as one of his primary charitable causes. As on April 1, 2020, Azim Premji Foundation (Rs.1,000 crore), Wipro (Rs.100 crore), and Wipro Enterprises (Rs.25 crore) committed Rs.1,125 crore towards the Covid-19 pandemic relief, in addition to Wipro’s annual CSR activities and Azim Premji Foundation’s regular philanthropic spent. “My father has always believed that he was a trustee of his wealth and never its owner,” tweeted Rishad Premji. The list measured the value of donations from April 2019 to March 31 2020 adding nearly 28 philanthropists for the first time. The other top listers include HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar and family at 2nd position with a donation of over Rs.795 crore, 4% lower than the previous year. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman Reliance Industries Ltd. and family stood 3rd, with a donation pool of Rs.458 crore, a 14% increase since last year. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairperson Aditya Birla Group and family ranked 4th with a donation of Rs.276 crore, a 249% jump from the previous year. Anil Agarwal , founder Chair of Vedanta Resources and family are placed 5th with a 90% higher donation of Rs.215, Ajay Piramal and family (6th) slipped by 2% with a contribution of nearly Rs.196 crore, Chairman and Co-founder Infosys, Nandan Nilekani (7th) with over Rs.159 crore, the Hinduja Brothers (8th with Rs.133 crore), Gautam Adani and family (9th with Rs.88 crore) and Rahul Bajaj and family (10th with Rs.74 crore).

Chetan Joshi promoted as Head - Debt Financing, HSBC, India

Chetan Joshi has been elevated as Head of HSBC’s debt financing business in India. An old hand, Joshi was previously Managing Director and head of the bank’s debt capital markets business. He will be overseeing the debt capital markets business as well as shoulder responsibilities for acquisitions and leveraged finances. His contributions entailed leading the UK-based HSBC, as one of the top-ranked arrangers of foreign debt issuances from India. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Joshi started his career with Fitch ratings. Vinod Venkatesh is expected to step into Joshi’s previous role with HSBC.

Ramesh Lakshminarayanan joins as CIO, HDFC Bank

Ramesh Lakshminarayanan joins HDFC Bank as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and will delegate responsibilities as its new Group Head – Information Technology. His role is expected to cut across all vital verticals including technology strategy, enhancing of digital capabilities, strengthening foundational technology, and harnessing new-age Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning technology solutions for HDFC bank. Ramesh relinquished his previous role as Chief Technology and Information Officer, CRISIL, where he spent three years before onboarding HDFC. He was responsible for the transformation of CRISIL’s businesses by leveraging technology, data and analytics. He has been associated with CRISIL since 2017 when Pragmatix Services Pvt. Ltd. that he co-founded was acquired by CRISIL. An industry veteran with over 25 years of experience, Lakshminarayanan has held lead Citibank, ABN AMRO Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Group in prominent roles. A Physics graduate from Mumbai University, with an MBA from the University of Pune, he is an avid follower of cricket with interest in Indian film music.

M M Murugappan steps down from leadership role

M M Murugappan, Chairman of the Murugappa Group conglomerate has stepped down from his leadership position in three companies under the Rs.38,105 crore Murugappa Group mantle - Cholamandalam Investment, Tube Investments of India (TII) and Coromandel International. He turns 65 years on November 12 and relinquished his top roles to pursue philanthropy and other interests. While the three companies have filed his resignation there has been no word from the listed company Carborundum Universal, also managed and run by Murugappan or on his other retirement plans. He continues to be the Chairman of Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd. The Board of Directors of Coromandel International have elected A. Vellayan, as the Chairman of the Board with effect from November 12. Thus Vellayan, who ran the Group’s fertiliser business gets reinstated to the board post his retirement. These recent changes make M.M. Venkatachalam, a Director with the listed sugar major E.I.D. Parry (India) Ltd. as the next senior-most family member of the Murugappa group. While family member M.A.M. Arunachalam (Arun Murugappan), Director of Parry Enterprises India Ltd., will take charge as a Director in Tube Investments, the conglomerate also rests on the shoulders of the gen-next comprising of Vellayan Subbiah (50), current MD at TII, also an additional director and elected Chairman of the board of Cholamandalam. He was appointed Managing Director (Designate) of TII and took over charge from August 14, 2018. He was earlier the MD of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Ltd. and is on the board of Havells India Ltd., Shanthi Gears Ltd. and SRF Ltd. Arun Alagappan, MD, Cholamandalam Investment who had earlier run the Group’s cycle business under Tube Investments, is part of the next crop of senior board executives.

1mg appoints Mayank Gupta as CFO

Gurugram-based online pharmacy 1mg has roped in Mayank Gupta as its CFO. The former Ecom Express and General Electric senior executive is a corporate veteran and will bring in over 19 years of experience to the table. Prior to his most recent stint as Executive Vice President and CFO of e-commerce logistics startup Ecom Express, he has worked across diverse sectors such as Maruti Suzuki and General Electric and brings significant strategic, financial and operational expertise to 1mg. His appointment comes in the wake of the sector undergoing consolidations with Reliance Industries acquiring Chennai-based Netmeds and Pharmeasy merging with rival MedLife.

Cadila appoints Sanjeev Dixit as Global President – Human Capital

Cadila Pharma has appointed Sanjeev Dixit as Global President – Human Capital Management, in a bid to strengthen its Human Resources (HR) capabilities. Dixit’s focus would be to drive Cadila’s growth objectives through customised HR solutions and collaboratively build the company on its value systems, innovation and a performance-driven culture. Dixit is a veteran global HR leader, a culture coach, and author of ‘Plan C’, a culture transformation book. He has had diversified experiences across geographies charting his 24 years of experiences working across strategic corporate HR & CHRO with varied industry sectors. He has had previous stints with the Himalaya Drug Company, also as Chief People Officer at Allied Blenders & Distilleries. He has leveraged his career graph working with iconic companies such as Hindalco, Philips, PT Indorama – Jakarta, PepsiCo and Alstom.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw ups her wealth quotient

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder Chairperson, Biocon was the biggest percentage gainer as per the Forbes super-rich club of 100 people. She has nearly doubled her wealth from $2.38 billion in 2019 to $4.6 billion in 2020, an astounding 93.28% gain among India’s 100 richest and is one of the only five women billionaires in India. Mazumdar-Shaw started her pharmaceutical company some about 42 years ago with merely two employees and $500 funds. In the past decade, Biocon has grown by leaps and bounds to become a $5 billion company. Three-months post the coronavirus outbreak in India, Biocon announced that it would launch biologic drug Itolizumab for the treatment of moderate to severe Covid-19 patients at a price of around Rs.8,000 per vial. The biologics major is set to begin phase-4 trials of its re-purposed potential drug as Biocon has received Drugs Controller General of India’s (DCGI’s) approval for the commercialisation of Alzumab-L. The new 100 mg/vial formulation of Itolizumab, will treat Cytokine Release Syndrome in moderate to severe Covid-19 patients. This would replace the need to buy four vials of the previous 25 mg formulation of the drug, thus increasing patient convenience.

Shailesh Chaturvedi promoted as CEO, Arvind Fashions

Arvind Fashions Ltd. (AFL) has promoted Shailesh Chaturvedi as the new CEO as veteran J Suresh is slated to retire with effect from January 31, 2020. While the 64-year-old Suresh, steered the fashion retailer for more than 15 years, he will be now be taking on a more advisory position while remaining on the board of Arvind Fashions. Chaturvedi has been managing Arvind’s top brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Arrow, and will assume office as CEO from February 2021. Chaturvedi’s association with AFL began in 2006 to lead Tommy Hilfiger and has since been instrumental in establishing it as one of the top brands under the AFL flagship. In a career spanning 28 years, Chaturvedi is a witness to the innumerable launches and development of popular brands in the Indian retail sector including Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Arrow, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen and Allen Solly. Prior to his journey with AFL, he headed Benetton Plc’s (Italy) wholesale business in the APAC region. Based out of Hong Kong, the fashion retail stalwart was responsible for developing Benetton’s businesses across Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Australia.

Nilekani upbeat on Infosys and Parekh’s leadership

Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman, Infosys will continue to helm affairs and remain in office with the IT services provider. He said that “I will stay as long as required to complete my job”. Nilekani returned to a non-executive role at Infosys in August 2017 amidst corporate governance challenges faced by the company which also led to the exit of Vishal Sikka, former CEO Infosys. Nilekani then ushered in ex-Capgemini executive Salil Parekh to lead the company and enabled him to chart a three-year revival strategy. The Infosys Board backed Parekh’s strategy in April 2018 and the results are part of Nilekani’s full faith invested in the Bengaluru-based Infosys’s current leadership in Parekh as CEO. Parekh has been accoladed for reinventing the firm in the last three years as he prepared to capitalise on the shifts in technology adoption in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. While Parekh added that Infosys was focusing on a clear set of margin drivers, Nilekani said the execution of the strategy was pending as the company was in the middle of a technological shift. “We are in the middle of the journey. We are well positioned to continue our growth and continue our margin trajectory as we come out of Covid-19. We are still growing at 2.2%. All our strategic investments are making us more relevant for clients,” he said.

Debosmita Majumdar quits Puma to head Porsche CRM

Debosmita Majumder has relinquished her position as Associate Director and Head of Marketing at Puma India to onboard Porsche India. As Head of Marketing, PR (public relations) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) at Porsche India, Skoda Volkswagen Group, Debosmita will bring in her prior experience of over 14 years in the industry to the table. Her five-year-stint with Puma India entailed her to lead projects and devise strategies on growing Puma’s women’s range of business in India, demand generation in B2C platforms and social commerce through micro-influencer. Her other stronghold experiences have been associated working with top-notch brands and companies including Sony Six and Kix, MSL India, Weber Shandwick and Genesis Burson Marsteller across roles within the purview of client servicing, business development and as corporate communication manager.

Alok K Gupta takes charge as MD & CEO, ONGC Videsh

Alok K Gupta takes charge as Managing Director and CEO of ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) from his previous role as Director (Operations) of OVL, the overseas arm of national oil and gas major ONGC Limited. He brings in three decades of experience in various capacities across domestic and overseas oil and gas exploration and production operations. In other previous roles, Gupta was the Head of New Businesses in Marketing in ONGC and Head of Business Development with ONGC Videsh. He has handled commercial negotiations with alliance partners, regulators, customers and national oil companies. He has conceptualised, commissioned and executed projects across diverse geographies in Myanmar, Vietnam, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela under difficult circumstances. He has had a long association with ONGC since 1984, as a Graduate Trainee and is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and FMS, Delhi University.

Odedra to reinforce UBS’s India operations

UBS Bank has appointed Uday Odedra as India Country Head with effect from January 2021, adding on to his current existing responsibility as Head of Group Technology, APAC region to steer the global wealth management organisation. A UBS veteran having spent over twenty three years of his illustrious career with the company, Odedra in previous stints, fulfilled the role of Chief Information Officer at APAC Technology in addition to his role as Technology Head of India and Poland. Prior to his India offices, Odedra had taken on the role of Co-head for UBS Group Finance Technology the UK-based project which was accomplished in one year. In other moves, UBS has also appointed Harald Egger as Chairman of UBS India, in a newly minted role to steer the Group’s presence in the subcontinent. Egger will continue to shoulder his existing role as Group Head Corporate Service along with his India-specific responsibilities.

Softbank CEO Steps down

Rajeev Misra, CEO, SoftBank Vision Fund along with three other internal directors will be stepping down from the Board to make way for external members in a bid for a better corporate governance. SoftBank’s Board has appointed Masayoshi Son, Ronald D. Fisher, Marcelo Claure, Katsunori Sago, Rajeev Misra and Yoshimitsu Goto as corporate officers. Misra has been at the helm of affairs with the $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, as a board member since 2017 when the group mobilised capital in technology companies globally. In addition to Misra, CEO Marcelo Claure, Chief Strategy Officer, Katsunori Sago, and Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, will be stepping down too. The changes come after SoftBank faced a string of challenges in its many technology investments including high WeWork. “These initiatives are aimed at increasing the proportion of external board directors on the board and separating the management decision-making function from the business execution function to clarify the persons responsible for business execution,” as per the company statement.