GLOBAL INDIAN BUSINESS MEET BY NGI FOUNDATION CONCLUDES IN NEW YORK AMIDST HOPE IN INDIAN ECONOMY. A REPORT BY MRITUNJAY KUMAR
“Do not change the cultural identity of your team members in a cosmopolitan business setting, but rather create a business identity of the company, and never go into micro-managing the affairs from the top,” noted Ajit Minocha, the CEO of Global Foundries in the inaugural session of the Global Indian Business Meet 2012 opening on Friday, September 21, 2012, at Marriott Marquis, Manhattan. The Global Chair of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), world’s largest network of entrepreneurs, Ashok Rao, outlined why and how the next generation Indian origin entrepreneurs outside India are expected to become innovators by adding not just functions to existing products and services, rather changing the game. Global Indian Business Meet 2012 opened in Marriott Marquis, Manhattan, being organized by the NGI Foundation (New Global Indian), based out of Delhi, Dubai, Durban and Boston, with rich tributes paid to Swami Vivekananda on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary. Swami Tyagananda, who heads the Ramakrishna Mission in the USA, underlined respect, justice and charity as the hallmarks of businesses to make businesses sustainable and rooted to true Indian values. The Wisden India Chairman, Anand Krishnan, called for institutionalization and corporatization of sports and expounded why and how the world’s first dedicated private equity firm for sports is being created by Fidelis World. The Nanoholdings CEO, Justin Hall-Tipping, outlined futuristic nano-technologies by creating solutions for protecting water, disposing garbage, and securing sustainable housing. Subhra Das, the marketing head honcho of Du Telecom, Gulf’s second largest telecom company, outlined how telecom can become dumb voice and data pipes, unless the telecom companies reinvent themselves with a strategy to create engaging content and partner with content developers for value-added services in an era when voice is becoming almost free and over-the-top players like Google or Facebook are all making money using telecom routes without any revenue shared with them.
The last session of the opening day had an engaging debate between the Bombay Stock Exchange Deputy CEO Ashish Chauhan and the founder of Quantum fund management firm, Ajit Dayal, on the ethics of stock-broking and small investors’ protecon pracces in India. The last session also had the CEO of South Africa-based Garuda Finance, Rajen Pillay, making a fervent appeal to the business community gathered at the venue, to make investments in growth sectors in South Africa, the economy that accounts for 25 percent of the African GDP. Dr Dasarath Chey of DC Communicaons, South Africa, brought some points on the ease of doing business in South Africa. Its overall ranking was 36th from 183 economies in 2011 and now it is 35th from 183 economies in 2012. He discussed South Africa as one of the best growing countries on following parameters. Similar appeal to invest in the Caribbean naons was made by the Industries and Tourism Minister of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, and the Chairman of Mediterranean Shipping Corpora-on, Nicola Arena, highlighng the geo-strategic importance and natural resources of the region.
On the subsequent days, the disnguished economist of Indian origin from the London School of Economics, Lord Meghnad Desai, noted that one on every rupee earned in India goes into external debt interest payment, and to manage this the government is taking resort to “irresponsible fiscal policy” by pumping currency into the economy and devaluang rupee furthermore. He lamented that while entrepreneurship- induced dynamism is there in the Indian economy, there is hardly any government policy-induced dynamism. Suggesons came from many, including the BJP Maharashtra President, Raj Purohit, that an amnesty policy of bringing out black money (from within India and from overseas) with one-fourth or one-fih given to debt repayment and rest legimized without any ques- on asked, would be a good way to tackle this situaon. Vijay Nambiar, the Chief of Staff, United Na- ons, underlined how the UN is reaching out to business, and how the private sector, including from India, is playing an important role in global affairs within and beyond the UN that’s specially aimed at sustainable development. Most speakers agreed that polics is not a maer of domain experse but an art and science of building consensus and taking firm decisions. As the FICCI Secretary General Dr Rajiv Kumar noted, if India can ensure greater coordinaon between the Centre and private and public sectors, enact General Services Tax soon, and focus on educaon and energy in a major way over the next two years, coming close to 10 percent annual growth rate would not be impossible. Anil Vinayak, Markeng Head from Max Healthcare, focused on the current market size and historical growth of Healthcare Industry.
Healthcare Industry is currently valued at USD 65 Bn – grown at 14% CAGR from 2006-10. He said, “Private sector healthcare will account for more than 80 percent of the Healthcare delivery market by 2015. Healthcare expenditure expected to command a greater share of wallet by 2025 (approximately 13 percent).” He also spoke about medical tourism and discussed the gaining momentum of medical tourism over the last few years. With the USD 450 million market in 2008 projected to increase to USD two billion by 2012, medical treatment has been offered to around 300,000 global paents in 2008 and is showing a growing interest from those in the US, UK, Europe, Africa, CIS and SAARC Countries. One of the speakers, Harsha Mukherjee from Ekjaa Foundaon emphasized on breaking the CSR myths and exploring the unexplored dimensions in India. She said. “There are beer ways to pracce CSR like doing high impact philanthropy, bringing social innovave products, taking care of sustainable process while manufacturing products and other acvies and smart invesng in CSR research et al.”
High-profile speakers at GIBM included Dr. Desh Deshpande, Ajit Minocha, Poonam Ahluwalia, Nicola Arena, Ashish Chauhan, Md. Irrfan Ali, Ajit Dayal, Sachin Duggal, Dr. Vijay Eswaran, Dr. Anita Goel, Jusn Hall, Stu Jalan, Sash Jha, Dr. Vinod Juneja, Dr. Sunita Kanumury, Louise Nair, Alkesh Patel, Rajen Pillay, Ashok Rao, Raju Narisey (WSJ), Rohit Vyas (TV Asia), Dr. Gurmit Chilana, Anand S. Krishnan, and Manoj Soma, Vijay Nambiar, Amb.Robert Orris Blake, Ambassador Prabhu Dayal, Prof. Debashis Chaerjee, Lord Meghnad Desai, Mitul Desai, Vibhu Jha, Ashok Rao, Ranjana Khanna, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Dr. Navaratna Rajaram, Dr Anil Lamba, Prof Dasarath Chey, Dr Kapil Raina and Minocher Patel, Kelly Wright from Fox News, spiritual leaders Swami Tyagananda Maharaj and Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha and many more graced the event. New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s, top cabinet member Alphonso David, NY State Labor Commissioner Peter Rivera and New Jersey DMV Chair and Chief Administrator Raymond Marnez, who is also adviser to the Governor of NJ, aended the event.
MOMENTS OF GLORY
NGI foundation was all set for its second edition of Excellence awards. NGI offers these awards to felicitate important people of Indian origin for their contributions for positive changes in the world. The awards celebrate their success and inspire others to make such exceptional behavior the norm. On the eve of second day of GIBM, an NGI Excellence Award Ceremony took place to recognize many great leaders in various fields. Awards categories and winners included Swami Vivekananda Leadership Award in Entrepreneurship Philanthropy to Dr Gururaj Deshpande (USA), NGI Excellence Award for Educational Leadership to Thumbay Moideen (UAE), Communication Leadership to Atul Gupta (South Africa), Community Initiatives to Ramesh Kallicharan (Guyana), Indian Diaspora Leadership to GOPIO President Ashook Ramsaran (USA), Community Leadership to Dr Dasarath Chetty (South Africa), Finance and Banking Leadership to Rajen Pillay (South Africa), and last but not the least, Business Leadership to Dato Dr Vijay Eshwaran (Malaysia).
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Dato Dr.Vijay Eswaran, Executive Chairman, QI Group of Companies, Malaysia, received NGI Excellence Award for Philanthropy and Business Leadership.
Dr.Vijay Eswaran is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of the QI Group of Companies. An economist-turned-entrepreneur, bestselling author, prolific speaker and philanthropist, Dr. Eswaran is a multi-faceted personality. The QI Group, co-founded by him in 1998 is an e-commerce-based conglomerate with businesses that have diversified into retail and direct sales, technology, lifestyle and leisure, luxury and collectibles, education, training and conference management, property development and logistics.
Rajen Pillay,CEO, Garuda Finance, South Africa, got the NGI Excellence Award for Entrepreneurship and Business Finance Leadership.
Rajen Pillay is CEO of Garuda Finance (Pty) Ltd, a boutique Mergers & Acquisitions firm, which specializes in cross border transactions (mainly investments into South Africa). Pillay has experience in the auditing profession (with Deloittes) in banking (he is a Certified Associate of the Institute of Bankers in South Africa, the apex body for banking in SA) and in developmental lending with Business Partners SA.
Poonam Ahluwalia, President, Youth Employment Summit (YES) Inc. USA, received NGI Excellence Award for – Social Entrepreneurship
Poonam Ahluwalia is recognized as a global activist for youth employment and entrepreneurship. As President and Founder of YES, she has worked tirelessly for the past twelve years to successfully bring youth employment to the global agenda. Under her leadership, the work of YES has mobilized stakeholders in over 120 counties around the world to work toward finding innovative ways to promote youth entrepreneurship and employment – this is her contribution towards ending hunger and poverty.
Dr. Dasarath Chetty, Owner, D.C. Communications, South Africa received NGI Excellence Award for Community Leadership.
Dr. Dasarath Chetty served as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), as President of the South African Sociological Association and as National President of Marketing, Advancement and Communications in Education (MACE). He is currently President of GOPIO South Africa and President of Child Welfare South Africa (CWSA) representing the interests of over 250 child welfare societies.
Ramesh Kalicharan, Owner, Kali Travels and Tours, Jamaica got the NGI Excellence Award for Community Relations Leadership.
Indian American Ramesh Kalicharran, popularly known as Kali, is a community leader who commands respect from all segments of the Indian Diaspora and the general population of New York City. He established ‘Kali Group of Companies’ comprising Driving School, Travel Agency and Real Estate. Kali is founder of Gyan Bhakti Satsangh now called the Prem Bhakti Mandir, U.S.A. Pandits’ Parishad, New York and The Phagwah Parade, the largest of its kind in the world. Kali is founding member of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and several Indo-Caribbean Organizations. Presently he is the International Coordinator of the Indo-Caribbean Council (ICC).
Last but not the least…
In addition, an outstanding entertainment program was planned for the three evenings that featured a sarod recital by Padma Vibhushan Ustad Amjad Ali Khan along with his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan. Natya STEM (Space.Time.Energy.Movement) Dance Kampni from Bengaluru also performed and engaged to create and express new expressions of dance, There was a standup comedy act by Rajiv Satyal, the small bespectacled Indian guy from Ohio whose witty and TV-clean act covers everything from racial issues to soap bottles to his favorite topic – himself and a Bollywood dance evening by Shweta Pandit. The niece of Pandit Jasraj and granddaughter of Pandit Pratap Narain, Shweta has become immensely popular in her field of excellence.