Dr Nageswaran is the new Chief Economic Advisor
Dr Venkatraman Anantha Nageswaran has taken charge as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA), a post vacant since December 2021. He succeeds former CEA, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, who resigned to pursue academia at the end of his three-year tenure. Venkatraman Anantha will liaise with the Finance Minister and provide fresh ideas to improve growth, investments and limit the fiscal deficit. His appointment comes three days before the 2022 Union Budget, marking the CEA’s responsibility as the lead author of the Economic Survey, the annual report card of the economy tabled in Parliament a day before the Union Budget. The distinguished economist has been a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister between 2019 and 2021. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he has a doctoral degree (Finance) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has held multiple leadership roles in macro-economic and capital market research for private wealth management institutions in Switzerland and Singapore. A writer, author, and consultant, he has taught at several business schools and institutes of management in India and Singapore. He was the Dean of the IFMR Graduate School of Business and a distinguished visiting professor of Economics at Krea University, Andhra Pradesh. In previous roles, he had an impressive career in banking at the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) and Credit Suisse in Switzerland and Singapore. He was the Head of Research for Asia in 2006 with Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. bank in Singapore and was later appointed as its Chief Investment Officer. He helped co-found the Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research and education in public policy. His most recent (co-authored) work is the rise of Finance: Causes, Consequences and Cures’ published by the Cambridge University Press. He has also co-authored three other books - ‘Economics of Derivatives’, ‘Derivatives’, and ‘Can India Grow?’
Jennifer StanzlUN appoints former TCS HR-Head (UK)
Jennifer Stanzl, the former HR Head with Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) People Management function, has been appointed as the United Nations’ (UN) Chief Diversity and Engagement Officer. In her 10 year-long inning with TCS, Stanzl led the IT services provider’s talent management, diversity, equity, and inclusion programme for both the UK and Ireland. The German-born Stanzl had been associated with TCS throughout her professional career as an HR expert. In previous roles, she was promoted as a project manager for the Women’s Leadership Program, India in 2011. She then quit the company for further studies at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2011. She re-joined TCS in 2012 as the head of talent development for the UK and Ireland. As the Head of Talent Management in 2016, she was in charge of the company’s diversity agenda for 17,000+ employees from 46 countries, serving close to 200 clients across 12 sectors. Stanzl is an alumna of the London School of Economics and Political Science major. She kick-started her TCS journey in 2009 as an employee-engagement lead and diversity and inclusion coordinator. Before joining TCS in 2008, she worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Media & Communications, University of Augsburg, Germany. She said that she was grateful for her enriching experiences at TCS and all the inspiring leaders and colleagues that she had worked with over the years in shaping her HR career.
Dr Rattan LalBiden appoints eminent Indian American scientist
U.S. President Joe Biden has appointed Dr Rattan Lal, the eminent Indian-American soil scientist, as a member of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD). Bestowed with the 2020 World Food Prize Laureate award, Dr Lal is engaged in a soil-centric approach in increasing food production through restoration and conservation of natural resources in consideration of climate changes. The BIFAD is an advisory to the USAID on agriculture and higher education issues related to food insecurity in developing countries. Dr Lal’s appointment complements his work which is centered around the belief that global food productivity cannot be sustained by ignoring the health of the soil. Dr Lal is a distinguished university professor of Soil Science and Director of the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration at The Ohio State University (OSU). At 77 years, he is also an Adjunct Professor of the University of Iceland and of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR) and a visiting Professor at Pontifical Catholic University. He served as the President of the World Association of the Soil and Water Conservation (1987-1990), the International Soil Tillage Research Organization (1988-1991), the Soil Science Society of America (2005-2007), and the International Union of Soil Sciences (2017-2018). He also Chairs as the Soil Science and Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Issues of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. He grew up on a small farm in India and observed the challenges of ploughing land and these initial experiences on a subsistence farm first triggered his curiosity about soil health. He eventually committed himself to soil research and completed his master’s in science at the ICAR and earned a PhD at The Ohio State University.
Nupur NagpalMyntra Rejigs top management
Nupur Nagpal takes over as the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of Myntra, the Walmart-owned online fashion retailer. In another top management rejig, former Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Raghu Krishnananda has been promoted as its Chief Technology and Product Officer (CTPO). Nupur will lead Myntra’s HR roadmap, having stepped down as the former VP-HR of Sprinklr, the American software company (Unified CXM), where she was responsible for people management functions for the JAPAC markets. In her current role, she is expected to build and scale Myntra as an organisation by enriching its’s human capital. In previous roles, she held leadership responsibilities with the Tata Group, WNS Global Services, Virgin Mobile, Prione Group of Companies and Amazon. An HR veteran for 20+ years, she has initiated and delivered organisational change, enabled culture building, and delivered sustainable businesses across the e-commerce, telecom, and insurance sectors. In another move, Chief Product Officer, Lalitha Ramani quits Myntra as the having served the company for two years to pursue interests outside the organisation.
Cyrus Poonawalla and Dr Krishna Ella and Suchitra EllaPadma Bhushan to Poonawalla and Ellas
Cyrus Poonawalla, Managing Director of the Serum Institute of India (SII), and the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Dr Krishna Ella and his better half Suchitra Ella, Joint MD, have received the prestigious Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian award for their incomparable contributions in India’s fight against the Coronavirus. Both SII and Bharat Biotech have led India’s vaccination drive and supported global vaccination programmes. The two vaccine-makers joined the list of 128 Padma awardees in 2022, honoured by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the President on the eve of India’s 73rd Republic Day celebrations. Both the pharmaceutical firms have contributed to India becoming self-sufficient in manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines and making them available at the lowest possible price globally. SII owns and manufactures the Covishield vaccine brand, while Covaxin has been developed indigenously and manufactured by Bharat Biotech Limited. The Ella couple has been selected for their distinguished service in the trade category. Dr Ella has steered Bharat Biotech into becoming one of the global leaders in innovative vaccines. They developed Covaxin, the country’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, collaborating with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Virology (NIV). The Ella couple owns 145 patents and has delivered over four billion vaccines doses globally.
Prahlad Rai Agarwala
Jagjit Singh DardiPadma Shri conferred on Agarwala and Dardi
Prahlad Rai Agarwala, the Chairman of Rupa & Company Ltd, is a leader in the knitwear industry, and Chandigarh-based Jagjit Singh Dardi, Editor-in-Chief, Chardikala, and Chairman of Sri Guru Harkrishan Public Schools & Chardilkla Time TV and an educationist; have been felicitated with the national Padma Shri award. Dardi has divided his roles as a media baron and served as a member of the Lok Sabha Press/Media Advisory Committee during 1997-98 and the Rajya Sabha Press/Media Advisory Committee in 2014. Since 1988, he has also been an executive committee member of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS). In 2001, he was elected to the Press Council of India, serving three terms and from 1993, he has represented Prime Ministers’ media delegations.
Chandrasekaran, Pichai, Nadella are Padma Bhushan awardees
(L-R)Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Satya Nadella, Sundar PichaiNatarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons; Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO); and Pichai Sundararajan (Sundar Pichai), CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary, Google, have been conferred with the prestigious civilian award-the Padma Bhushan, for their outstanding contributions in the trade and industry category. N Chandrasekaran, the Chairman of Tata Sons, leads the conglomerate across 10 business verticals with aggregate annual revenue of over $110 billion. Chandrasekaran, known as the ‘Marathon Man,’ kick-started his journey as an intern with the Tata Consultancy Group in 1987 and built a 30 years corporate journey to helm the business conglomerate. Under his watchful guidance, the Tata Group re-assessed and ensured the Group’s current role in the aviation sector in acquiring the erstwhile national carrier-Air India, one of his many achievements with the Tata Group. Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer in 2014 as the Microsoft CEO and has his origins in Hyderabad. An alumnus of the Manipal Institute of Technology, Karnataka, he moved on to the U.S., pursued an M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and later earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1997. Pichai was born in Chennai and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, Stanford University, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Pichai began his career as a materials engineer, and following a short stint at McKinsey & Co, joined Google in 2004.
Vikram Dev DuttVikram Dev Dutt appointed as CMD of Air India
Vikram Dev Dutt, a senior bureaucrat has taken over as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India Ltd. as part of a senior-level bureaucratic reshuffle. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions have appointed Dev Dutt as the new CMD. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved Dutt as Air India’s CMD and he will hold the rank and pay of Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Dutt takes over from Rajiv Bansal, the Union Civil Aviation Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, who has been helming Air India so far. Dutt is a 1993-batch IAS officer of AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre. Dutt’s appointment comes at a time when the government officially handed over India’s national flag carrier to the Tata Group, its original founders-after nearly 69 years. The Tata Group won full ownership of the state-owned airline in October 2021 when the Centre signed the share purchase agreement with the diversified conglomerate for the sale of Air India for Rs.18,000 crore as enterprise value (EV) consideration. Prior to his current appointment, Dutt was appointed as the Principal Secretary for the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Delhi Government. But was transferred and posted as the Principal Secretary of the Services Department in March 2021. As per market speculations, Tata Sons is considering hiring several key executives for Air India, including Fred Reid, a former executive with Virgin America Inc., and Airbnb. Reid is touted to be the Air India CEO as per close aviation circle members.
Ram MudaliarAstraZeneca India appoints Ram Mudaliar as Lead Clinical Data
Ram Mudaliar takes over as the India lead (CDI India Lead) of the Clinical Data & Insights division at AstraZeneca India Private Limited. Mudaliar will establish and expand CDI’s footprint in India, coordinating with their CDI global and local leaders in developing and implementing strategic decisions. His responsibilities include local planning and coordination of facilities by enabling the India support team, consulting with Human Resources Facilities Management, R&D Site Leadership, IT, and Compliance. Mudaliar’s team will help translate huge volumes of clinical information into meaningful insights, further strengthening the company’s ability to solve complex business problems and serving patients with a data-driven approach. He will establish an effective workforce and innovation centre, equipping AstraZeneca India to manage all data-related aspects of clinical trials with a lean mindset. With the new role, he continues his association with the company for over five years across geographies in clinical data management. Before joining the Indian arm, his most recent role was with AstraZeneca Canada, managing delivery of the Lung portfolio and leading their Oncology data management teams in North America and Europe. He was also the Interim Global Head of Oncology in Data Management for a brief period. Mudaliar kick-started his journey with the launch of the CDI India division in October 2021, a critical move in supporting AstraZeneca’s growing global portfolio and building its internal data knowledge. He holds a master’s degree in Biotechnology from Mumbai University with a passion for data and insights and in developing patient-centric solutions. He has had previous stints with Cognizant Technology Solutions for seven-plus years in Clinical Data Management and Statistical Programming, Analysis, and Medical Writing.