Ratan Tata Felicitated

Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus Tata Sons, added to his accolades at ‘home’ and ‘away’ as he received two awards back to back, year ending 2020. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured him with The ‘ASSOCHAM Enterprise of the Century Award’, the ‘Global Visionary of Sustainable Business and Peace’ award was bestowed upon him by the Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce. The veteran industrialist and philanthropist received the prestigious ASSOCHAM award on behalf of the Tata Group from PM Modi who acknowledged the contributions of the Tata conglomerate in the last century in working towards strengthening India’s economy and helping its common citizens. Tata too thanked PM Modi for leading the country through difficult times and hoped that the industry will now be able to take forward-looking steps resulting from his strong leadership. Marking the launch of the Federation of Indo-Israel Chamber of Commerce’s International Chapter, Ratan Tata was awarded for his innovative support for peace and sustainability in the region. Raviv Byron, President of the India-Israel Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged that Ratan Tata has also been a promoter of peace in the region. Tata acknowledged the creative qualities of the people of Israel which he envisaged could be combined with India’s low cost of manufacturing for exports to the entire world. “It is a great privilege to be involved with a country like Israel that I have respect for. I have always called it a country of opportunity for India. There is something in the genes of Israeli people that makes them creative,” said Tata at the virtual ceremony. The 82-year-old philanthropist and industrial stalwart is also the recipient of India’s highest civilian awards - the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan.

Bharat Ramamurti appointed to the US Eco Council

US president-elect Joe Biden has appointed Indian-American, Bharat Ramamurti as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) for financial reform and consumer protection. NEC is the White House advisory agency to the president on domestic and global economic policymaking. Ramamurti has shouldered responsibilities as a former economic adviser to Senator Elizabeth Warren during her 2020 presidential campaign. As Warren’s aide, Ramamurti also led the investigation of Wells Fargo. A liberal think-tank and an alumnus of the Harvard College and Yale Law School, he is also the Managing Director of the Corporate Power programme at the Roosevelt Institute. Biden’s choice in Ramamurti has brought to the fore his origins as an Indian with roots in Tamil Nadu from where his father, Ravi Ramamurti had shifted to the US. Ramamurti also served on the Congressional Oversight Commission for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), to oversee spending. In April 2020, post his induction into the CARES, Ramamurti was tasked with investigating whether 50 million and more who lost their livelihoods as a result of the pandemic were actually benefitting from the money. The CARES Act is the largest federal-aid package in American history, and a portion of the funds under the Act, estimated at $500 billion, is managed jointly by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. The fund is earmarked for emergency lending programmes for local and state governments and small businesses.

RBI approves Sandeep Batra as ED at ICICI Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Sandeep Batra as the Executive Director of ICICI Bank for a period of three years effective December 23, 2020. An old hand, Batra is an ICICI Group veteran and has been associated with the bank for the last 20 years. In his current role as President, responsibilities are focused on the Corporate Centre at the bank. He has played multi-dimensional roles across the group’s operations, technology group, secretarial and corporate communications functions. He is also a board member across several ICICI Group companies such as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited, ICICI Bank UK PLC and ICICI Venture Funds Management Company Limited.

Kiran Mazumdar spearheads Lancet Citizen Commission

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon Ltd. will lead the newly launched Lancet’s Citizens’ Commission towards achieving ‘Universal Health Coverage’ in India in the coming decade. The prestigious medical journal The Lancet, stated that “The commission will base its recommendations on a consultative and participatory effort that brings together key stakeholders across India’s healthcare landscape”. The stakeholders will include leaders from the scientific community, academia, the private healthcare industry and civil society. Acknowledging the first of its kind initiative, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said, "We want citizens to pull rather than us pushing healthcare services. And in order to do that we need to do surveys to gather insights into the experiences and expectations of our citizens". According to panellist, Dr Gagandeep Kang of Vellore’s Christian Medical College, the idea is to build a solution-driven resilient healthcare system which is not a luxury and not elusive to the marginalised in society. The other panellists include Vikram Patel, professor at Harvard Medical School-Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Tarun Khanna, affiliated to the Harvard Business School (HBS) and Lakshmi Mittal and Family, South Asia Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge and Jorge Paulo Lemann, Professor at HBS. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), pointed out that the primary need is to gauge the gaps in terms of indicators and the need for real-time data available with most primary healthcare centres which can be acted upon. “The commission, will be guided by the four principles of universal health coverage-it “covers all health concerns”, “includes prevention of mental and physical health problems and long-term care”, gives “financial protection… for all healthcare costs”, and “aspires to (be) a health system that can be accessed by all people”.

Walmart Asia CEO quits, impacts Flipkart

Dirk Van den Berghe, CEO, Walmart (Asia) has quit and is also likely to step down from the board of Walmart-owned e-commerce platform Flipkart. The move comes at a time when Flipchart, one of India’s e-commerce giant is firming up plans to go public as early as in 2021, at a valuation of $45-$50 billion. Dirk Van den Berghe will relinquish his six-year stint with Walmart, as he has decided to retire in March 2021 to spend more time with family in Europe. Berghe joined Walmart in 2014 as CEO of the Canada region, and also served as the chief executive of Walmart China. He was also part of Walmart’s leadership team that led the US Company’s $16 billion investment in Flipkart in 2018, giving a 77% stake to the homegrown e-tailer.

IBM elevates Arvind Krishna as Chairman

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna takes over as Chairman of the board, effective January 1, 2021, as he succeeds key IBM executive Chairman, Virginia (Ginni) M. Rometty, scheduled to retire on December 31, 2020. Rometty’s retirement and Krishna’s elevation will mark an end to her 39-year tenure with IBM. The move comes after Krishna, a longtime IBM stalwart replaced Ginni Rometty as CEO in April, making him the 10th CEO of the New York-based company. Krishna began his IBM stint in 1990 at the Thomas J. Watson Research Centre, gradually becoming a director of the company in April 2020. He held several senior leadership positions with IBM, including his role as Senior Vice President of IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive Software department. He was also at the fore during IBM’s $34 billion acquisition deal of Red Hat Inc. He also led the spin-off of IBM’s $19 billion ‘Managed Infrastructure Services’ business, pending completion in 2021, which will create two industry-leading companies and enable IBM to focus on its core-open Hybrid Cloud and Artificial Intelligence platform. In 2015, Krishna was promoted as Senior Vice President of the IBM Research group. An alumnus of IIT-Kanpur, he holds a PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois. A seasoned writer, he has co-authored multiple patents and has published regularly in technical journals and as the editor of IEEE (the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for humanity) and ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) journals.

Hina Nagarajan becomes USL’s first woman MD and CEO

Hina Nagarajan takes over as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of liquor major, United Spirits Ltd (USL), effective July 1, 2021, and will be on the board of Diageo’s Executive Committee. Nagarajan succeeds Anand Kripalu, current MD and CEO, who will be relinquishing his board responsibilities effective June 30, 2021. Nagarajan’s elevation from her current role as MD, Africa Regional Markets (ARM) at USL’s flagship company Diageo, making her the first woman to head the liquor giant. Meanwhile, she will be joining USL as the CEO-designate effective April 1, 2020, reporting to John Kennedy, President Diageo (Europe and India). She began her innings with Diageo in 2018 and has led its ARM, managing operations across Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Indian Ocean, Angola and other countries. Prior to her Diageo stint, she was MD China & SVP North Asia with Reckitt Benckiser (RB), also associated for over 30 years in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) businesses where she held several senior marketing and general management positions with the brand majors like Nestle India and Mary Kay India. She is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and holds a Commerce Honors degree from Delhi University and a Diploma in Hotel Management from Pusa Institute, Delhi. Diageo with its umbrella brands such as Black Label, Vat 69, Baileys, Smirnoff, Royal Challenge, among others, holds a controlling stake of 55.9% in USL. Diageo had announced a multi-structured deal in 2012 to acquire a majority stake in USL, which was then led by Vijay Mallya, for INR 11,166.5 crore.

Ajay Bhutoria to helm affairs at Zensar

Ajay S. Bhutoria takes over from Sandeep Kishore as Zensar’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD). While Bhutoria will be inducted as a Member of the RPG Group Management Board, Kishore ends his 5-year tenure in his current position effective from January 11, 2021. Bhutoria, as the CEO & MD-Designate of the digital and IT organisation, has had over 30 years of experience working across America, Europe and India. Prior to his brief stint as the Chief Executive of L&T-NxT, Bhutoria has had a 17-year-long career graph with Cognizant leading verticals across retail, consumer goods, travel and hospitality as well as banking and financial services in the US. Bhutoria was also deputed as Country Head for Cognizant Switzerland. Before joining Cognizant, he was the Regional Head of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in the Netherlands. Zensar has over 9,000 employees across 29 locations. It focuses primarily on the hi-tech manufacturing, consumer services, banking and insurance sectors.

Yes Securities promotes Prabhakaran

Prasanth Prabhakaran takes charge as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD and CEO) of YES Securities, with immediate effect. His most recent post was that of Joint-MD & CEO, YES Securities-a wholly-owned subsidiary of YES Bank Ltd. With over two and a half decades of experience in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, Prabhakaran began his association with YES Securities from 2017. He has been steering Wealth Broking & Investment Advisory and Institutional Equities business. In addition to his existing portfolio, he will also be overseeing the investment banking and merchant banking verticals. Prior to YES Securities, he worked with India Infoline, Kotak Securities and HDFC Bank.

Rejigs at Amazon Fashion India

Saurabh Srivastava has taken over as the new head of Amazon Fashion India as Arun Sirdeshmukh steps down. In another move, Puneet Gupta, category leader for men, women and kids apparels is being moved to a different position within the company while his current role is being replaced by another Amazon executive, as per industry know-how. Market watchers observe that Amazon has been struggling with its fashion vertical and is second to Myntra and Flipkart combined, while Flipkart continues to hold about 60% market share for most of the prominent global and Indian fashion brands. In a few categories, Ajio has taken a bigger leap in comparison to Amazon. India’s e-retailing business is expected to swell 30% annually over the next five years to touch $100-120 billion from its present $30 billion annual business.

Ex-Cognizant CMD joins Krea

Former Chairman & Managing Director of Cognizant (India), Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, will join as the first Pro Vice Chancellor responsible for Professional Learning with the Krea University in January 2021. His role entails driving the mission and long-term strategy of all professional programmes including Masters in Business Administration, executive education, as well as modularised & laddered advanced programmes and micro-credentials. Ramamoorthy brings in 30 years of experience in the information technology industry as well as in academia. During his 22 years with Cognizant, he nurtured and grew more than half a dozen portfolios and held various leadership positions including Executive Director, India and Chief Knowledge Officer. Prior to his Cognizant stint, Ramamoorthy was engaged with Tata Consultancy Services. He is also on the Governing Council of the IT/BPM Skill Sector Council of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and the Board for undergraduate studies in engineering and technology at All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). His association extends to the Chennai Mathematical Institute.

Indian Origin Michelin winner launches London restaurant

Chef Dayashankar Sharma, a Michelin Plate winner will launch a new fine dining Indian restaurant Heritage in London. Dayashankar will draw from his 30 years of culinary expertise including Michelin starred Tamarind and Kensington classic Zaika restaurants, to create a menu that celebrates traditional and authentic Indian recipes and ingredients, interspersed with seasonal produce and modern cookery techniques.

Amazon India ropes in ex-Nissan communication expert

Amazon India has roped in Abhishek Mahapatra as Director, Consumer Communications to strengthen its tact. To be based out of Gurugram, he will report to Minari Shah, Director of Corporate Communications. Mahapatra has relinquished his four-year-old stint with Nissan Motor Corporation in favour of Amazon’s new role. His last role with Nissan was that of General Manager, Communications (Africa, the Middle East and India). He began his corporate communications stint with Hyundai Motors India Ltd as Senior Officer, also working with top-notch brands like Ford Motor Company and Uber. An integrated communications professional he began his career with the agency, Ipan Hill and Knowlton. His other associations include those with Edelman India and Comma Consultants in various capacities. Mahapatra’s 18 years’ professional journey has seen specialist roles being scaled across advocacy and counsel, issues & crisis advocacy & management, reputation management, marketing communications, storytelling, product communications, media and influencer engagement, campaigning and content, brand management, corporate affairs, public policy and government relations, sustainability and CSR, brand communications, experiential marketing and events management.

Ruchi Soya shareholders approve onboarding Baba Ramdev

Shareholders of Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd., now a Patanjali Ayurved group firm has approved appointing yoga exponent Swami Ram Dev, his younger brother Ram Bharat and close aide Acharya Balkrishna to the company’s board. Ruchi Soya had sought shareholders’ approval to induct Ram Bharat as the Managing Director of the company and re-designate Acharya Balkrishna as Chairman. Swami Ramdev has been inducted as a Director on the company board. In December 2017, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had ordered the start of insolvency proceedings against Ruchi Soya to recover unpaid loans. The move follows the takeover bid by Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved last year, whereby Patanjali had paid INR 4,350 crore to acquire Ruchi Soya. Ruchi Soya used INR 4,235 to pay up creditors and another INR 115 crore was mobilised for capital expenditure and working capital requirements. The acquisition has benefitted Patanjali in getting access to Ruchi’s edible oil plants as well as its soybean oil brands such as Mahakosh and Ruchi Gold. Patanjali won the bid to acquire Ruchi Soya after Adani Wilmar withdrew from the race that impacted the resolution process and subsequent deterioration of assets.