A decade later, I entered the private sector and have spent the last 27 years as Managing Director in some of the country’s well-known corporate houses (Kalyani-Sharp, General Electric, and now Cummins India), gaining a span of expertize in setting up and running companies, mergers, acquisitions… in a variety of markets and sectors ranging from industrial to consumer goods, both for domestic and international business. But you know that your father was no ‘race horse’ and has had his share of discomfort being on the race track. But in some ways, I have to acknowledge that my designations and empowering superiors gave me the opportunity of serving common cause by pulling ‘tongas’ in public life. These regular detours onto the side roads were my greatest joys while I was driving on the corporate expressway.
The urge of going beyond corporate expectations and roles was always there in some corner of my heart and it drove me to take up activities that brought me closer to civic society. It came not from any disenchantment with corporate life but from a positive desire to go beyond. Honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed my corporate role—its passion and pressures, highs and lows, adrenalin of growth and pains of decline, creating jobs and wealth, and engaging in its own contribution to society and environment. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was an excellent platform which gave me an opportunity to deliver and seek fulfilment from a space which individual corporates normally don’t focus on. CII has been the best enabler for me, and I learnt so much through my association with some outstanding and caring corporate leaders in this country.
Gudiya, let me start by sharing a journey which has made a deep impact on my persona and in the lives of lakhs of fellow beings around us. Almost a decade ago, Pune city, which had been our home for many years, started experiencing crippling power shortage (affecting the entire State of Maharashtra) resulting in extended load shedding every day. I remember the public outrage when the state government threw up its hands and said the power shortages would continue for the next few years. It struck me then that instead of whining or blaming the government, all of us had the choice of taking control of the situation and resolving the problem. I took upon myself what everyone considered the unrealistic responsibility of making the city of Pune free of load shedding. It was a formidable task considering that I had no framework to work upon and the government had nothing to offer. On the CII platform, we worked on a unique and innovative solution by which industrial units in the city cooperated and used their captive gensets for their needs during peak hours, thereby releasing grid capacity for the citizens who then did not have load shedding. A new framework involving Regulator, State Utility Company, Government, Industry, NGOs and consumers was evolved. Details are not important here, but after three years of stubborn struggle, the city of Pune became load shedding free on 6 June, 2006 and has stayed so since then. It was almost a miracle and it was done not by dependence on the State but by a citizen-industry movement. We have to go beyond analysing problems and offering advice… we need to be a part of the solution. The e-mails and calls I still get from unknown faces and names, thanking me for resolving a daily pain in their lives, are the best reward I can ever aspire for. For me, it was also reiteration of the belief that it is possible for each one of us to bring positive change with commitment and persistence.
In our family, all of us know the value of the words commitment and persistence, don’t we? How can we not? It is these two qualities alone that brought back your brother Amit from the months that he was bedridden after the medical set back eleven years ago. Amit was so young and full of life and so much involved in his passion for tennis and a variety of other sports. I’ve never been able to forget the shock and the searing pain that went through me when I saw my young son on that hospital bed and the doctor’s words that it would be a long haul to recovery. We were all devastated, and for you it was even worse because he was your confidant and soul mate. All of us marvel at Amit’s tremendous will power, his insistence on appearing for his engineering finals with a writer to help him, his moment of triumph when he cleared it with a distinction, and his every
