BW BUSINESSWORLD 20 MAY 2023

TARUN KHANNA: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND A STATE OF MIND www.businessworld.in RNI NO. 39847/81 I 20 MAY 2023 INDIA’S HOTTEST YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS Rs 150 { { (L-R) Top row: Divij Bajaj, Kishan Karunakumar, Pallavi Shrivastava, Ankit Fatehpuria, Shobit Rai. Middle row: Sandeep Devgan, Parul Sharma, Ajay Lakhotia, Aakriti Rawal, Kartik Hajela, Saurabh Kumar Agarwal. Bottom row: Pranav Bajaj, Bharat Bansal, Vivek Singh, Preet Pal Thakur Columns by Gurus of Entreprenuership

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4 | BW BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford Dear reader, I am elated to present to you the annual BW Businessworld YEA special. I am convinced that there’s no better time to be an entrepreneur than now. Even if the economy faces global headwinds and uncertainties due to the war, even if rapid advances being made by Science & Technology make the future absolutely unpredictable, entrepreneurship presents before us an opportunity which is exciting, rewarding and fulfilling at the same time. To get a sense of this, look no further than the rise of many innovation-based companies in India, some founded by very young entrepreneurs, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The BW Businessworld YEA special is “special” for another reason. Our readers know that we are also known for “trendspotting”. Many of our past YEA winners have gone on to make it big on the national stage. This year’s winners – a mix of very enterprising, very audacious – will surely go far and they will leave their imprint. I am also convinced that in India’s evolution, with the startup revolution, there’s been a mindset change in India. Young boys and girls, even when in schools and colleges, today actively consider entrepreneurship as a vocation. This bodes well for India. I am excited by another shift that we are witnessing in India. Wealth generation, through legitimate means, today is absolutely encouraged and wealth creators are valued. This, again, is a good sign for India’s future as it works towards the $5 trillion economy milestone, and then a high-income country status. This special edition of BW Businessworld proudly presents one of the finest minds on India, Harvard Professor Tarun Khanna, who writes on “entrepreneurship as a state of mind”. We also have columns by some of the best-known gurus and mentors in India. AI has given rise to one of the biggest debates of our times. It’s also being discussed if it will lead to huge job losses. VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram, however, is of a different opinion. He thinks that there could be “more job categories” in the future due to the impact of AI. We have an interview with Raghuram as the Last Word. This issue of BW Businessworld has all other exciting features and regular columns. It also features an interview with The Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar that I found particularly exciting to do. Do keep sending your reviews and feedback. Happy reading! ANNURAG BATRA [email protected] A NATION OF PROBLEM SOLVERS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S NOTE

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6 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 BW Businessworld does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage. Published and printed by Annurag Batra for and on behalf of the owners, BW Businessworld Media Private Limited. Published at 74-75, Scindia House, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001, and printed at Infinity Advertising Services Private Limited. Editor : Annurag Batra. © Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. All rights reserved. R.N.I.No. 39847/81 BW Businessworld Media Private Limited EDITORIAL OFFICES BW Businessworld Media Pvt. Ltd. 74-75, Scindia House, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001 Phone: 9818063325 ADVERTISEMENT/CIRCULATION / SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES BW Businessworld Media Pvt. Ltd. 74-75, Scindia House, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001 Phone: 9818063325 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE Vinod Kumar +91 9810961195, [email protected], [email protected] Subscription rates: ONE YEAR - Rs 2,899 TWO YEARS - Rs 5,599 THREE YEARS - Rs 8,199 HUMAN RESOURCES: Namrata Tripathi ([email protected]) LEGAL ADVISOR: Sudhir Mishra (Trust Legal) GROUP CHAIRMAN & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr. ANNURAG BATRA CEO, BW COMMUNITIES Bhuvanesh Khanna CEO & CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER Hoshie Ghaswalla (CEO-BW Engage) GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Noor Fathima Warsia EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Suman K. Jha EDITORIAL TEAM Sr. Associate Editors: Ashish Sinha, Jyotsna Sharma, Meha Mathur Assistant Editor:Tarannum Manjul Sr. Correspondents: Rohit Chintapali, Deep Majumdar Correspondents: Abhishek Sharma, Arjun Yadav Jr. Correspondent: Chandril Chattopadhyay DESK TEAM Deputy Editor: Mukul Rai Associate Editors: Madhumita Chakraborty; Smita Kulshreshth ART TEAM Art Directors: Dinesh Banduni, Shiv Kumar, Shivaji Sengupta Assistant Art Director: Rajinder Kumar Infographics & Data Visualiser: Arun Kumar Assistant Images Editor: Sanjay Jakhmola PHOTO TEAM Sr. Photo Researcher: Kamal Kumar BW ONLINE: Assistant Editor: Poonam Singh VIDEO EDITORIAL TEAM Video Team: Anurag Giri Pappu Kumar Singh Sunny Kumar Paswan Sr. Cameraperson: Ratneshwar Kumar Singh BW APPLAUSE & EVERYTHING EXPERIENTIAL: Ruhail Amin BW AUTO WORLD: Utkarsh Agarwal BW DISRUPT: Resham Suhail BW EDUCATION: Upasana BW HEALTHCARE WORLD: Smridhi Sharma, Shivam Tyagi BW HOTELIER: Editor: Saurabh Tankha Editorial Lead: Bulbul Dhawan Operations Controller: Ajith Kumar LR BW MARKETING WORLD: Soumya Sehgal, Reema Bhaduri BW PEOPLE: Sugandh Bahl, Krishnendra Joshi BW LEGAL WORLD: Kaustubh Mehta BW WELLBEING: Kavi Bhandari VC WORLD: Anisha Aditya BW SECURITY WORLD: Shilpa Chandel BW POLICE WORLD: Ujjawala Nayudu DIRECTOR: Prasar Sharma GROUP SR. VICE PRESIDENT - STRATEGY, OPERATIONS & MARKETING Tanvie Ahuja ([email protected]) CEO, BW HEALTHCARE WORLD & BW WELLBEING WORLD: Harbinder Narula DIRECTOR, ADVERTISING & REVENUE: Aparna Sengupta DIRECTOR, PROJECTS & COMMUNITIES: Talees Rizvi VICE PRESIDENT: Mohit Chopra VICE PRESIDENT STRATEGIC PROJECTS: Uday Laroia MARKETING & DESIGN TEAM: Kartikay Koomar, Mohd. Salman Ali, Moksha Khimasiya, Shweta Boyal, Alka Rawat, Arti Chhipa, Mradul Dwivedi Asst. Manager - Design: Kuldeep Kumar EVENTS TEAM: Tarun Ahuja, Devika Kundu Sengupta, Preksha Jain, Akash Kumar Pandey, Mohd. Arshad Reza, Sneha Sinha, Ashish Kumar, Nandni Sharma, Mahek Surti, Reeti Gupta, Atul Joshi, Mir Salika, Biren Singho, Abhishek Verma, Neeraj Verma, Sushmita Kumari, Prashant Kumar, Mayank Kumar SALES TEAM NORTH: Ravi Khatri, Anjeet Trivedi, Rajeev Chauhan, Amit Bhasin, Somyajit Sengupta, Priyanshi Khandelwal, Sajjad Mohammad WEST: Kiran Dedhia, Nilesh Argekar SOUTH: C S Rajaraman BW COMMUNITIES BUSINESS LEADS Priya Saraf (BW Education), Gareema Ahuja (BW Legal World), Chetan Mehra (BW Disrupt), Shruti Arora (BW Marketing World) CIRCULATION TEAM General Manager - Circulation, Subscription & Sales: Vinod Kumar ([email protected]) NORTH-EAST: Shiv Singh, Mukhtadir Malik, Kamlesh Prasad WEST: Gorakshanath Sanap SOUTH: Sarvothama Nayak K FINANCE TEAM Ankit Kumar, Ishwar Sharma, Shrikant Sharma, Vijay Jangra IT SUPPORT: Brijender Wahal ADMIN SUPPORT: Assistant to Chairman & Editor-in-Chief: Aman Mishra ([email protected]) VOL. 42, ISSUE 15 20 MAY 2023

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 7 MAILBOX YOUR COMMENTS TALK BACK BUSINESS LEADERS WHO GENERATED VALUE FOR THEIR COMPANIES AND SHAREHOLDERS IN A CHALLENGING ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT KESHUB MAHINDRA: A TRIBUTE MOST VALUABLE CEOs Rs 150 www.businessworld.in RNI NO. 39847/81 I 06 MAY 2023 (L-R) Top row: Ravi Chawla, Gulf Oil Lubricants India; Vibha Padalkar, HDFC Life; Rakesh Khanna, Orient Electric. Second row: Siddharth Mittal, Biocon; Pradip Kumar Todi, Lux Industries; Shrikant M. Vaidya, IOC. Third row: Hitesh Oberoi, Info Edge; Sanjiv Lal, Rallis India; Thierry Delaporte, Wipro; Sunil D’Souza, Tata Consumer Products. Fourth row: T.V. Narendran, TSLP; Murali K. Divi, Divi’s Laboratories; Mohit Malhotra, Dabur India. Fifth row: Amitava Mukherjee, NMDC; Balfour Manuel, Blue Dart; C.K. Venkataraman, Titan Company; D.K. Khara, SBI. Bottom row: M.R. Jyothy, Jyothy Labs; Chacko Purackal Thomas, Tata Coffee; Mithun Chittilappilly, V-Guard Industries; Suresh Narayanan, Nestle India A CONSISTENT PERFORMER This refers to the editorial (“Leading From The Front”, BW, May 6). The article highlighting how SBI, India’s leading public sector banking and financial services company with a rich legacy of over 200 years, has been making headway under the leadership of its chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara since late 2020, made for an interesting read. SBI has been focused on expanding its customer base, growing deposits, and advancing loans. During FY22, SBI’s total deposits grew 10 per cent to surpass the Rs 40 lakh crore mark, of which domestic deposits grew 9.80 per cent to Rs 39.20 lakh crore. Also, apart from growth and adoption and integration of latest technologies, SBI has maintained strong focus on its social commitments. During FY22, the total CSR spend by the bank stood at Rs 204.10 crore. It is indeed laudable that in early FY22, SBI spent a total of Rs 71 crore, or 35 per cent of the total CSR spend towards the fight against Covid-19. AASHNA TIWARI, EMAIL ACHIEVING OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE This refers to the editorial (“In Mission Mode ”, BW, May 6). The authors point out how Thierry Delaporte, CEO & MD, Wipro has been driving growth through his strategic vision, deep operational knowledge and experience of leading cross-cultural teams. It is good to know that Wipro IT Services achieved significant growth and operational excellence in the financial year 2021-2022, crossing an important revenue milestone of $10.4 billion. The company’s focus on investing in solutions, capabilities and talent enabled it to generate strong revenue growth, maintain high margins, and drive record net income. HITESH PATEL, EMAIL BLIPP THIS PAGE TO GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK INSTANTLY Submissions to BW |Businessworld should include the writer’s name and address and be sent by email to the editor at [email protected] or by mail to 74-75, Scindia House, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001

8 | BW BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 CONTENTS Cover design by DINESH S BANDUNI 10 Jottings India ‘exciting market’, says Tim Cook; Prof. Jack Ma may have lessons for India Inc.; Samsung overtakes Apple, and more 12 Jottings Plus Hobbled by mounting losses and operational efficiencies, Wadia Group owned airline Go First has filed for voluntary insolvency before the National Compay Law Tribunal 14 Columns Minhaz Merchant (p. 14); Vikas Singh (p. 18); Srinath Sridharan (p. 20); Krishan Kalra (p. 24); Bibek Debroy, Amit Kapoor and Aditya Sinha (p. 28); Kiran Karnik(p. 32); Srinath Sridharan (p. 34); Noor Fathima Warsia (p. 37) 38 Gaining Speed How the revival of demand for trucks, buses and light commercial vehicles has proved to be a boon for commercial vehicles manufacturer Ashok Leyland not just in terms of record sales but also by way of increased market share Young And Enterprising BW Businessworld felicitates 15 young founders who with their proven ideas and business models are likely to emerge the business leaders of tomorrow 50 INDIA’S HOTTEST YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS Photograph by Vectorlab VOLUME 42, ISSUE 15 20 MAY 2023

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 9 The pages in BW Businessworld that are labelled BWi or Promotions contain sponsored content. They are entirely generated by an advertiser or the marketing department of BW Businessworld. Also, the inserts being distributed along with some copies of the magazine are advertorials /advertisements. These pages should not be confused with BW Businessworld’s editorial content. TOTAL NO. OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER 100 62 Kartik Hajela, Co-founder and COO, Log9 Materials 63 Kishan Karunakaran, CEO, Buyofuel 64 Shobit Rai, Director and Cofounder, Prozeal Infra Engineering 65 Saurabh Kumar Agarwal, Founder & CTO, Reshamandi 66 Ankit Fatehpuria, Co-founder, Zetwerk Manufacturing 56 Entrepreneurship Gurus The world’s best and India’s leading entrepreneurship gurus and mentors on how the entrepreneurial culture in the country can be deepened futher GURUSPEAK 74 Tarun Khanna, HBS 76 Suresh Bhaagavatula, IIMB 78 Mukesh Sud, IIMA & Priyank Narayan, Ashoka University 80 Ramya K. Murthy, IIMB 82 Srinath Sridharan 84 In Conversation Anuj Sharma, Founder, ButtonMasala, on what constitutes sustainable fashion 87 Interview Director, screenwriter and cinematographer Kabir Khan on what all goes into his process of filmmaking 97 Last Word VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram on the pace of innovation in AI, possible job losses, the need for AI policies,what India’s approach should be with the technology and much more 92 Interview Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on how to develop wellbeing in troubled times, work-life balance and happiness HOTTEST YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS 52 Aakriti Rawal, Co-founder & CEO, House of Chikankari 53 Vivek Singh, Co-founder & CEO, Anveya Living 54 Divij Bajaj, Founder & CEO, Power Gummies 55 Bharat Bansal, Co-founder & CEO, Nirmalaya Wellness 56 Preet Pal Thakur, Co-founder, Glamyo Health 57 Pranav Bajaj, Co-founder, Medulance 58 Sandeep Devgan, Chief Executive Officer, Stonefield Flavours 59 Parul Sharma, Founder & CEO, Gladful Foods 60 Ajay Lakhotia, Founder & CEO, StockGro 61 Pallavi Shrivastava, Co-founder & Director, Progcap 42 Mantra for AI Leadership Zoho Corp’s Sridhar Vembu on how India can exploit its IT talent and infrastructure to emerge as a leader in artificial intelligence innovation 46 Qualities of a PM Daksha Bharadwaj, Founder Trustee, Dr Satyakam Bharadwaj Vedic Research Foundation on the qualities that an ideal prime minister must possess according to the Vedas

10 | BW BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 JOTTINGS CHARISMATIC CHINESE entrepreneur and Alibaba Co-founder, Jack Ma, has taken up a teaching assignment as a visiting professor at a university in Japan. The development has attracted global headlines in the light of the domestic conditions in China and Ma’s contentious relations with his home country. But does this have a lesson or two for Indian entrepreneurs? Many Indian business leaders are often invited for guest lectures at universities and MBA schools. Many corporate leaders have set up universities too. But why shouldn’t India Inc. leaders choose teaching as a full-time vocation, post retirement? A Narayana Murthy sharing lessons on compassionate capitalism with students, or a Mukesh Ambani sharing lessons on creating a corporate behemoth can have exciting results, in addition to Photograph courtesy: Apple Inc. Photograph courtesy: World Economic Forum/ Ciaran McCrickard PROF. JACK MA MAY HAVE LESSONS FOR INDIA INC. APPLE’S REVENUE IN Q2 FY2023 beat Wall Street expectations, coming in at $94.8 billion (down three per cent) owing to better-thanexpected iPhone sales. But India was in the spotlight during the company’s earnings call as CEO Tim Cook highlighted setting a quarterly record in the country. “… India is an incredibly exciting market. It’s a major focus for us. I was just there, and the dynamism in the market, the vibrancy is unbelievable,” Cook said. The Apple CEO mentioned the opening of two Apple stores in Mumbai and Delhi as milestones for the company. “I was there to see it for myself, and I couldn’t have been more delighted by the excitement and enthusiasm of the customers, developers, creators and team members I got to spend time with,” he exulted. A forecast by Taiwan’s DigiTimes Research highlighted that India could be assembling up to 50 per cent of all iPhones by 2027, which would put the country’s production on a par with that of China. — Rohit Chintapali immensely benefiting students and the country. True, higher educational institutions, after latest policy tweaks, have instituted practice chairs, where they invite practitioners and industry leaders. Maybe a concerted effort to rope in industry leaders as teachers and mentors needs to be made afresh. — Team BW AVNISH CHABBRIA, Founder, Wellbeing Nutrition, was recently bestowed with the BW Wellbeing 40U40 award for his exceptional leadership and commitment to expanding the holistic wellness sector. The ‘Festival of Wellbeing’ event recognizes exceptional individuals who have made significant contributions to their fields, inspiring others to adopt new habits and setting examples for younger generations. With its cutting-edge product line, Wellbeing Nutrition does exactly what other supplement companies need to do in order to stand out in a congested industry. To navigate the present climate and life post-pandemic, the brand is pioneering the way in the wellness sector with its distinctive approach by offering a variety of supplements to meet the unique demands of people living in this fast-paced world. This is accomplished by bringing nature and modern science together in an ideal way. With a variety of ground-breaking products since its inception in 2019, Wellbeing Nutrition has been at the forefront of natural, wholefood nutrition. The company’s products include effervescent tablets that provide 100% bioavailability; Slow 2 in 1 capsules that use an 8-hour delayed-release technology; Vegan Superfood Plant Protein that provides complete protein for everyone, regardless of their dietary restrictions; melts® Oral Thin Strips that use advanced molecular science to deliver nutrients directly into the bloodstream, and many more. Additional revolutionary products are in the works and are supported by research conducted in the USA by a team of experts. “We, at Wellbeing Nutrition, are aware that sustaining optimum health might be difficult in the fast-paced world of today. In light of this, we have developed a line of dietary supplements that are intended to aid in maintaining a healthy lifestyle in a convenient and efficient way. In this approach, we are helping individuals make the right choices and stick to them to ensure a healthier future.” - Avnish Chabbria, Founder, Wellbeing Nutrition. So, what does the future hold for the brand? The brand’s future will depend significantly on developing and marketing categorydefining innovative supplements to support health at every stage of life, right from conception all the way to old age. The product range already addresses various aspects of health, including immune support, gut health, beauty, and overall well-being. They continue to broaden their categories by doing in-depth market research to identify any gaps in consumer demand and build products to close them, in turn satisfying the needs of the current generation in an easy, convenient, and tasty manner. “With our dedication to traceability and transparency, we aim to become the most trusted name for natural supplements in the nation. After all, people need to know what they are consuming and why. We take great pride in being members of the health and wellness sector and are devoted to giving our consumers the best products that will lead the way for a healthy future.” says Avnish. Wellbeing Nutrition has seen a whopping 400% growth last year and has clocked another 250% growth this year. Expansion plans are underway in the US, UK, and Middle Eastern markets. Helping You Build #AHealthierTomorrow, One Supplement at a Time INDIA ‘EXCITING MARKET’, SAYS TIM COOK

Photograph courtesy: Samsung Samsung Overtakes Apple AVNISH CHABBRIA, Founder, Wellbeing Nutrition, was recently bestowed with the BW Wellbeing 40U40 award for his exceptional leadership and commitment to expanding the holistic wellness sector. The ‘Festival of Wellbeing’ event recognizes exceptional individuals who have made significant contributions to their fields, inspiring others to adopt new habits and setting examples for younger generations. With its cutting-edge product line, Wellbeing Nutrition does exactly what other supplement companies need to do in order to stand out in a congested industry. To navigate the present climate and life post-pandemic, the brand is pioneering the way in the wellness sector with its distinctive approach by offering a variety of supplements to meet the unique demands of people living in this fast-paced world. This is accomplished by bringing nature and modern science together in an ideal way. With a variety of ground-breaking products since its inception in 2019, Wellbeing Nutrition has been at the forefront of natural, wholefood nutrition. The company’s products include effervescent tablets that provide 100% bioavailability; Slow 2 in 1 capsules that use an 8-hour delayed-release technology; Vegan Superfood Plant Protein that provides complete protein for everyone, regardless of their dietary restrictions; melts® Oral Thin Strips that use advanced molecular science to deliver nutrients directly into the bloodstream, and many more. Additional revolutionary products are in the works and are supported by research conducted in the USA by a team of experts. “We, at Wellbeing Nutrition, are aware that sustaining optimum health might be difficult in the fast-paced world of today. In light of this, we have developed a line of dietary supplements that are intended to aid in maintaining a healthy lifestyle in a convenient and efficient way. In this approach, we are helping individuals make the right choices and stick to them to ensure a healthier future.” - Avnish Chabbria, Founder, Wellbeing Nutrition. So, what does the future hold for the brand? The brand’s future will depend significantly on developing and marketing categorydefining innovative supplements to support health at every stage of life, right from conception all the way to old age. The product range already addresses various aspects of health, including immune support, gut health, beauty, and overall well-being. They continue to broaden their categories by doing in-depth market research to identify any gaps in consumer demand and build products to close them, in turn satisfying the needs of the current generation in an easy, convenient, and tasty manner. “With our dedication to traceability and transparency, we aim to become the most trusted name for natural supplements in the nation. After all, people need to know what they are consuming and why. We take great pride in being members of the health and wellness sector and are devoted to giving our consumers the best products that will lead the way for a healthy future.” says Avnish. Wellbeing Nutrition has seen a whopping 400% growth last year and has clocked another 250% growth this year. Expansion plans are underway in the US, UK, and Middle Eastern markets. Helping You Build #AHealthierTomorrow, One Supplement at a Time BRAND SAMSUNG can celebrate for now. According to the latest report by Counterpoint Research, Samsung overtook Apple to become the leading smartphone player in the first quarter, driven by its mid-tier A Series and the newly launched S23 series. However, the global smartphone market witnessed a decline of 14 per cent y-o-y and seven per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, with 280.2 million units having been shipped. The report stated that while Apple’s y-o-y shipment decline was the least among the top five brands, it recorded its highest-ever Q1 market share of 21 per cent. Even as Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi increased their average selling prices y-o-y, global smartphone revenues declined by seven per cent to approximately $104 billion. Harmeet Singh Walia, a senior analyst, said that the weak recovery in China, combined with alarming bank failures on both sides of the Atlantic, further weakened consumer confidence in the face of market volatility, resulting in a decline in smartphone shipments. Some major brands supplied fewer new devices to a market struggling with high inventories, as consumers chose to renew phones less frequently and with more durable smartphones when they did purchase them. So, which smartphone brand would you buy today? —Ashish Sinha

12 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 HE RECENT GROUNDING of flights by Go First, formerly known as Go Air, owing to engine failures has highlighted the high costs and challenges associated with running an airline. Go First, which is owned by the Wadia Group, filed for voluntary insolvency before the National Company Law Tribunal on 2 May, citing a cash crunch a nd non - p ay me nt of dues by Pratt & Whitney (P&W), a US-based airline engine manufacturer. According to the plea, P&W supplied defective engines and failed to provide satisfactory maintenance, resulting in the grounding of a majority of Go First’s fleet. At the time of filing this report, Go First has cancelled all its flights till 9 May and is believed to have initiated full refund to affected passengers. Also, lessors will be repossessing 20 of the airline’s expenses also increased from Rs 2,250 crore in FY2014-15 to Rs 5,907 crore in FY2022-23. Go First states that it had to bear fixed costs related to its grounded fleet, such as lease rentals, aircraft maintenance charges, parking charges, and employee costs, even though the grounded fleet did not generate any revenue. Pratt & Whitney had promised to replace engines within 48 hours and repair failed engines free of cost, according to Go First. However, the airline claims that the enginemaker backed out of its commitments and is now demanding payment for its repairs. Go First’s grounding of f lights comes as a reminder that running an airline business is marred with complex technical and financial issues and that perhaps, more robust systemic changes are necessary if the sector has to grow. — Ashish Sinha A320 NEO aircraft of Go First. Go First claims that more than 80 per cent of engine failures occurred before the engines completed 5,000 hours of use, with combustor distress being the primary cause. The airline also alleges that P&W has acknowledged the failure of its engines, which has put the engine-maker in a difficult operational and financial situation. The grounding of planes owing to engine failures had a significant impact on Go First. The airline reports that 96 per cent of its f leet was available for f lying in FY2015, but that number d ropped t o j u s t 5 4 p e r cent in FY2023. As of 1 March, 2023, 50 per cent of P&W engines were unavailable for flying, according to the airline. The non-availability of planes and engine failures cost the company Rs 10,800 crore in losses in the form of revenue and additional expenses. Go First claims that it started facing losses and was operating with 50 per cent revenue while incurring 100 per cent cost. The Covid-19 outbreak further exacerbated the financial challenges faced by the airline, as air travel was restricted. The grounding of planes coupled with the pandemic, increased Go First’s losses to Rs 3,600 crore in FY 2022- 2 3 f r o m R s 1 , 3 4 6 crore in F Y 2020-21. The T JOTTING Plus Go First The airline has filed for voluntary insolvency before the National Company Law Tribunal IN TURBULENT AIR Photograph courtesy Wadia Group

symbiotic exchange of ideas and technologies, resulting in a stupendous growth for Landmark Crafts Pvt. Ltd. Pvt Ltd to emerge as a pioneer and a market leader in its segment. Not content with a strong market presence, Landmark Crafts Pvt. Ltd. Pvt Ltd is focussing on improvising and expanding its product range. Broadly there are three different kinds of products such as self-drilling screws, aluminum blind rivets and lastly dry-wall screws. However, the application of self-drilling screws has increased drastically, extending itself to the smallest of products. So the company is geared to help the industry with different types of screws or fasteners, designed specifically for different kinds of applications and mediums. Their future project involves screws for concrete walls. Landmark Crafts Pvt. Ltd. has state-of-the-art factories with three units located at Panchkula, Haryana. These sophisticated production units are the major USP of our company. An ISO 9001:2015 accredited company, it is also rated SME-1 by CRISIL & is accredited by D&B D-U-N-S Number: 86-391- 8674. With these proven, superior quality manufacturing facilities, they are capable of tackling the rising challenges in the field in most effective ways. Landmark Crafts Pvt. Ltd. has a pan India presence with close to 10-11 marketing offices in different cities of the country. Future plans include opening up units across the country to cater to industries in an effective and efficient manner. They are focusing on innovation to expand the product range and increasing production to cover up the gap between demand and supply. With a country as diverse as India, the customer demand is different at each and every location and so their application too is different, because we are a geographically diverse country. In Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, the applications are mostly wood based, whereas in the south, there is a need for products that are anti-corrosive considering the salt-laden humidity. Landmark Crafts Pvt. Ltd. customize the products to ensure that the customer’s needs are perfectly met. That is the real secret behind their success in retaining the brand value and reputation. Just attribute it to their quest for perfection. With a roster of prestigious clients like BHEL, Railways and DMRC with whom they enjoy long standing relationships, their credentials are impeccable. It is no surprise that the company that started supplying Delhi Metro, is now the vendor of choice to metro projects all over the country. For a company that is committed to achieve client’s satisfaction by consistently meeting specific requirements and timely delivery by diligently following a process of continued training and adoption of new technology, setting Landmarks is a routine, we suppose. Screws or fasteners are the smallest part in any assembled product. Their size belies their importance. Every assembled product requires a fastener in order to ensure a safe and strong final construction. One Indian entrepreneur identified the importance of this small yet versatile product to build an empire that laid the foundation for the nation to become self-sufficient. In the late 90’s, colour coated sheet profiling trend was picking up in India. The concept of self-drilling screws was nonexistent and it used to be imported. Pankaj and Vipin Lidoo established a company to import screws from Taiwan under the brand name which is a registered trademark of the company. Blessed with tremendous foresight and ambitious by nature, they spend a lot of energies and investments on research and development to enhance their expertise enough to start developing these products in India itself. As a result, they were the first Indian company to manufacture screws within the country. Pankaj and Vipin worked tirelessly to achieve this goal. They often visited Taiwan to understand the manufacturing technology of screws. Having learnt the intricacies of the process, they imported the machines to set up the manufacturing unit for self-drilling screws at Ghaziabad. Joining hands with their Taiwanese partner resulted in a Landmark – The name says iT aLL Mr. Pankaj Lidoo Managing Director, Landmark Crafts Pvt. Ltd. 20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 97 BW BUSINESSWORLD 20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 13

14 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 FTER MORE THAN 300 YEARS, India is once again the world’s most populous country. China is not pleased. Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin was quick to claim that China still had over 900 million people of working age. He tactfully didn’t mention that this number was declining rapidly. How rapidly? According to a United Nations report published on 19 April 2023, the most startling revelation is that China’s total population will halve from the current 1.43 billion to just over 700 million in 2100. India’s population, in sharp contrast, will still be 1.40 billion in 2100, having peaked at 1.60 billion in 2050 before plateauing. Crucially, the average Chinese, already nearly 40 years old, will be over 55 in 2100. The average Indian today is 28 and will still be only 40 in 2100. Population and Productivity What will be the impact of this on workforce productivity? As Roshan Kishore, the data editor of Hindustan Times, pointed out on 21 April 2023, “The 2022 World Population Prospects (WPP) data — the basis of the United Nations (UN) report released on 19 April 2023 — shows that India is expected to have outgrown China in 2023 not just in terms of overall population but also working-age (15-59 year) population. “India’s lead vis-a-vis China’s working-age population will become 1.5 times by 2048 and then reach two times by the year 2076. By 2100, till when WPP projections are available, India’s working-age population will be 2.3 times that of China’s. Ceteris paribus (all other things remaining the same), this should give a huge economic advantage to India vis-a-vis China.” India’s workforce, while young and likely to outperform China’s workers in the next decade, has a low level of productivity today compared to both Chinese workers and global workers. Kishore notes the gap in value added between the average Chinese and Indian worker: “World Bank data show that China’s per worker GDP (in constant 2017 purchasing power parity dollars) was $33,004 in 2021, compared to $20,703 for India.” Productivity Gap & Upskilling The value-added productivity gap in per worker GDP is even wider with the average global worker ($41,017). India’s workers today are therefore 60 per cent as productive as Chinese workers and 50 per cent as productive as average global workers. The way to fix this gap is through education and upskilling. Both are already taking place which is why UN projections show India catching up with the average Chinese worker’s value-added productivity in the next decade. With India’s working-age population projected by the UN to be 1.5 times China’s working-age population in 2048, raising the quality and skillsets of the Indian workforce is crucial. Bigger Is Better A Minhaz Merchant COLUMN MINHAZ MERCHANT The writer is the biographer of Rajiv Gandhi and Aditya Birla and author of The New Clash of Civilizations (Rupa 2014). He is founder of Sterling Newspapers, which was acquired by the Indian Express Group

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 15 LFPR data. Three, a number of educated women drop off the workforce after having children. When they return to work years later, opportunities have dwindled, discouraging many from continuing their careers. The government’s Mudra loan scheme has addressed this problem by helping women in rural India and small towns to become entrepreneurs. It is one of the most understated successes of providing an alternative career to women. Launched in 2015, the Mudra scheme has cumulatively disbursed loans amounting to Rs 22.65 lakh crore as per the latest data (March 2023). Significantly, 45 per cent of those who have been sanctioned loans (which vary between Rs 50,000 and Rs 10 lakh) are women. Many have opted out of formal work to start small businesses with Mudra loans in food, finance, marketing and sales. Mudra loans have been disbursed to over 400 million bank accounts so far. Crucially, 69 per cent of these accounts are held by women. There are many ways in which women can be brought back into the formal Around 70 per cent of India’s population today – roughly 1 billion – is between the age of 15 and 65, regarded as a country’s productive workforce. To raise the skillsets of this large demographic segment in a low-income country is a challenge. Fewer Women in Workforce A granular examination of the UN figures points to the area that needs addressing most urgently: women in the Indian workforce. For those between the ages of 15 and 65, the labour force Around 70 per cent of India’s population today – roughly 1 billion – is between the age of 15 and 65, regarded as a country’s productive workforce. To raise the skillsets of this large demographic segment in a low-income country is a challenge economy. Global firms like Apple have opened up new opportunities for Indian women in manufacturing. While men dominate the informal labour sector in construction, transport and logistics, electronics manufacturing and assembly could be the silver bullet to bring women into the formal workforce. Though the number of people in China’s and India’s productive workforce between the age of 15 and 65 is roughly equal at around 900 million, India has an advantage in the age group of 15-24: 245 million people of India’s total population fall into this demographic slice. That number is the largest in the world and well ahead of China. The key is to provide not only formal education to this segment but give it vocational training in jobs that require practical skills, not merely degrees. Most of the lakhs of workers employed by Apple’s contract manufacturers Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron in China don’t have formal education. Yet, they form part of China’s productive workforce that has made it the factory of the world. As China’s population ages and shrinks, the baton will pass to India. participation rate (LFPR) of Indian women is an abysmal 24.1 per cent compared to 60.4 per cent in China and 47.2 per cent globally. China’s economic surge during its 30-year demographic dividend, which began in the 1990s and is now tapering off, was underpinned by the high proportion of women in the workforce. In India, women face three points of differentiation. One, many belong to socially conservative families where women are not encouraged to work after marriage. Two, women are often self-employed and do not register in Photograph by Subhabrata Das

16 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 SPOTLIGHT I N RECENT YEARS, Uttar Pradesh has grown rapidly in terms of attracting significant amounts of industrial investment, in which UP State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA) has been “sine qua non” in the state’s economic turnaround effort. UPSIDA, which is the state’s nodal authority for the development of industrial infrastructure, is slated to play a critical role in fulfilling the state’s ambitious goal of becoming a US$ 1 trillion economy in the next five years. The growth is visible in the facts, and this long-needed promotion of industrialisation throughout the state has been the priority of a resolute state government headed by the charismatic and forward-thinking Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Through various policies, schemes, and services, steps were taken to amplify, improve, and offer solutions to the key problems of prospective investors. Policies and programmes include the Employment Promotion Policy, Logistics and Warehousing Policy, Private Industrial Park Policy etc. THE CORE OF DEVELOPMENT IN UTTAR PRADESH Mayur Maheshwari (IAS), Chief Executive Officer, UPSIDA

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 17 To ensure balanced regional development across the state, massive efforts have also been made to improve infrastructure needed for industrial expansion in Poorvanchal and Bundelkhand regions. During the recently concluded UP Global Investors’ Summit 2023, Uttar Pradesh attracted investments from across the globe worth more than Rs 33 lakh crore, in which UPSIDA played a noteworthy role in facilitating investment intents of an impressive Rs 3.19 crore. This investment commitment is projected to result in the creation of employment opportunities for over 8.9 lakh individuals within the state. In order to meet the demands of the investors in the state, UPSIDA has already started acquiring and developing a land bank of more than 15000 acres. Additionally, the authority has been making sure that facilities in current industrial areas are routinely upgraded. UPSIDA invested Rs 292.03 crore on the development, improvement, and maintenance of industrial areas in FY 2022–23, a significant increase of 260 per cent over the amount of Rs 112 crore spent in the previous fiscal year. Further, UPSIDA plans to upgrade civil and electrical infrastructure in its industrial areas, with a record additional expenditure of Rs 456.28 crore planned for FY 2023-24 for the upgradation of 93 industrial areas spread across 46 districts in Uttar Pradesh. It is for the first time in the history of UPSIDA that such a huge pandemic, UPSIDA has successfully digitised all of its investor-oriented offerings and integrated them with the Nivesh Mitra platform, thereby migrating to a paperless mode of operation. As on date, 32 investor services are available online. In the last three years, UPSIDA adeptly managed 24,000+ applications from investors via online mode, garnering investor satisfaction ratings exceeding 90 per cent. Additionally, in order to further streamline the procedure, the authority has introduced a mobile app for all investor-related inquiries. As a result of its forward-looking policies, UPSIDA has become the foremost destination for mega investors in the last few years. Varun Beverages invested Rs 2328 crore (3 units), AB Mauri invested Rs 1100 crore, SLMG invested Rs 700 crore, Bestbrew Alocobev invested Rs 516 crore, MAPEI invested Rs 250 crore and so on. In the past six years, year-wise investment in UPSIDA has increased by 277 per cent, with 200 per cent increase in terms of year-wise employment generation. Further, during the past 2.5 years, the authority has drawn Rs 3,200 crore in foreign investment from seven nations, namely United Kingdom, Italy, USA, Canada, Germany, France and Cyprus. expenditure is proposed for upgradation of its ageing industrial areas. The digitalisation of its services was another crucial step along the way. The Covid-19 pandemic’s start made digitalisation essential for promoting UPSIDA’s services and improving user accessibility. UPSIDA had only two investor services through online mode prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the advent of the In the last five years, the number of units under production have increased by 184 per cent, from 403 in FY 2018- 19 to 1148 in FY 2022-23. Some of the major units which started production during this period include Berger Paints – Hardoi, Hindustan Unilever Limited – Hamirpur, PepsiCo – Mathura, SLMG (Coca Cola) – Barabanki, Organic India – Barabanki, Godrej Agrovet – Barabanki, Green Ply – Hardoi and so on. No. of Units Under Production Units under Production Financial Year No. of Units started production FY 2018-19 403 FY 2019-20 502 FY 2020-21 893 FY 2021-22 1105 FY 2022-23 1148 403 502 893 1105 1148 FY 2018-19 FY 2019-20 FY 2020-21 FY 2021-22 FY 2022-23 184% Increase

18 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 GOVERNMENTS have an obligation to use taxpayer money responsibly. Budget making requires a strategic and comprehensive approach. Policymakers must invite consultations, gather input on budget priorities and allocate funds accordingly. Most state budgets do not. Citizens have a bigger role (than they own up to) in influencing budget priorities. They must participate, advocate, organise and mobilise society to raise issues and build momentum. They unfortunately don’t, are despondent and look to others. Civil society and the Press too must shoulder the responsibility and engage with key stakeholders to communicate with and question the government. The Central government’s budget hogs the limelight. It attracts disproportionate attention, even obsession. State policies and budgets that trigger and catalyse economic activities and growth drivers are often ignored. Growth and its dynamics are bottom-up. The policies at the state level attract investment, ‘Ease of doing business’ drives consumption, creates infrastructure and impacts most other growth drivers. In a less developed economy the By Vikas Singh The author is an economist and columnist The views expressed are personal and do not reflect those of BW Businessworld government must prioritise social spending and invest in multipliers such as health, education and rural development. But equally, it must invest for the future, in hard assets and strategic infrastructure that promote growth. Roads, bridges, transit, water, power, rail network, etc. are the essential building blocks of the economy. They enable trade, power businesses. Poorer states, particularly in the north and east need holistic and radical reforms. At the same time they need to build capacity to match and march with other more developed states. Lazy Policymaking: However, the trend is to focus on nonmerit subsidies and misdirected welfare spending. Such spending constitutes over three fourths of what some states ‘earn’. Misdirected and non-merit subsidies benefit only the endowed. It shows up as lopsided development. Some spend over 85 per cent of their income on ‘revenue’ expenditure (‘committed’, salaries, welfare). This comes at the cost of holistic spending in growth drivers like investments in infrastructure, healthcare, and education. Punjab spends only six per cent of its income on capital expenditure (growth and development), West Bengal and Rajasthan spend 10 per cent. A good percentage of this comes from ‘borrowed’ funds. Sample this. Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, MP, West Bengal, each have huge (twice the acceptable ratio of 20 per cent) unviable debts as a percentage of their gross state domestic product (GSDP). Three fourths of Bihar’s income come from devolution (GST, other taxes) and grants and yet, it continues to ignore investment in economic growth drivers. Rajasthan (sitting on a burgeoning debt), Chhattisgarh and now Himachal Pradesh, are reverting to the old pension regime frittering away the present and ‘cashing in’ on what belongs to the future. It will EQUITABLE GROWTH MUST BE THE FULCRUM OF GOVERNMENT BUDGETS COLUMN

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 19 growth. Infrastructure promotes economic growth (forward linkages); growth in turn makes demands on infrastructure. The two-way relationship is self-sustaining. The MSMEs, the growth engines and the largest employers, benefit even more from growth focused budgets. Rural development is key to equity, opportunity, and mobility. It rebalances growth and elevates living conditions. Other human development indicators bloom too. Empowering Demography, Yet Unexploited: Over a fourth of the young from the northern states are ‘forever seeking’ jobs. Unsuccessfully. Eventually they migrate, driving away the most important assets. This has a larger and more intangible implication than most people understand. Labour migration drives away consumption and capital, triggering a vicious cycle of low consumption, lower investment, lower jobs and diminished growth. While growth in itself is empowering, the outcome of growth is even more so. The state governments are responsible for growth. The policies framework, and effective implementation ‘eases’ doing business, empowers the ecosystem. Meaningful fiscal incentives, land and labour reforms are a magnet for FDI and private investments, stimulating demand and spurring investment. Skill development and infrastructure are enablers of productivity. The capacity, capability, and attitude of industry staff plays a role in easing barriers and enhancing growth. Citizens Must Not Abdicate Their Responsibility: The vision of any budget should be based on the principles of equitable and sustainable growth. People must vote with their wallets. Voters must embrace those who have a development agenda. They must equally shun those who offer ‘sops’. In a democracy the people are the ultimate leaders. worsen their financials and deepen the financial crisis. Misallocation Undermines Trust, Corrodes Credibility: It causes significant warping and inefficiencies. The social fallout is staggering, acute and entrenched. Misallocation of funds erodes the very legitimacy of state institutions, gnaws away growth variables. The cost is difficult to fathom, and greater than the sum of lost money. It has serious consequences. Lobbying and interest accentuate bias and prejudices in budget design and delivery. Poorly designed, badly implemented ‘disguised’ welfare schemes (reverting to old pension schemes, non-merit subsidies) are good examples. Freebies Induced Growth is Low & Shallow: On the other hand, investment led growth is balanced, equitable and a catalyst. Every budget rupee in a well-designed, robust capital sector raises economic activity by three. The budget priorities are misplaced and low ‘yielding’. As an example, rural economy benefits more from sustainable and robust infrastructure, not loan waivers, which in any case benefits only rich farmers. Fertiliser and power subsidies are another case in point. Most agricultural sops come at the cost of creating agricultural capital or ‘taking the road to the village’, or farm to markets. Agricultural infrastructure provides access to irrigation and markets, making agriculture sustainable. It empowers farmers. The misallocation of funds drives away capital and investment, diminishes growth, dries up opportunities. Judicious Budget, Meaningful Reforms: States must muster up the courage and usher in agricultural reform that could benefit underemployed and deprived farmers. Similarly investing in education and skills are investment magnets. Healthcare is a decadal multiplier that improves the quality of life and reduces the burden of disease and illness on the economy. States must budget for research and development that stimulates innovation and triggers new opportunities for The Central government’s budget hogs the limelight. It attracts disproportionate attention, even obsession. State policies and budgets that trigger and catalyse economic activities and growth drivers are often ignored. Growth and its dynamics are bottom-up

20 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 eb3 refers to a new generation of internet technologies that aim to empower individuals and communities with greater control over their online activities and data. It is a vision of the internet that is more open, transparent, and user-centric, with increased privacy, security, and ownership of digital assets. Web3, also known as the decentralised web movement of goods, materials, and products. This can help prevent illegal logging, wildlife trafficking, and other environmentally harmful activities by providing a verifiable record of the entire supply chain, promoting responsible sourcing, and ensuring compliance with environmental regulations. Decentralised Energy Systems Web3 can support the development of decentralised energy systems powered by renewable sources such as solar, wind, and hydro. Blockchain-based platforms can enable peer-topeer energy trading, allowing individuals and communities to generate, share, and sell excess renewable energy, leading to increased adoption of clean energy and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. Carbon Credits and Offsets Web3 can facilitate the creation and trading of digital carbon credits and offsets on blockchain platforms. This can help incentivise and reward sustainable practices, such as reforestation, renewable energy generation, and emission reduction projects, by creating a transparent and verifiable system for tracking and trading carbon credits, leading to more effective and efficient carbon markets. Tokenised Environmental Assets Web3 can enable the tokenisation of environmental assets such as forests, wetlands, and oceans, creating digital representations of these assets on the blockchain. These tokens can be used for conservation financing, allowing individuals and organisations to invest in and support the protection and restoration of critical ecosystems, promoting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience. W Possibilities of Web3 – A Wish List (A)muse & Musings By Srinath Sridharan or the blockchain-powered web, has the potential to contribute to ensuring a safe and sustainable Earth in several ways. Is it possible to ideate on ways in which Web3 can impact climate actions positively? Is it possible to use Web3 for better climate outcomes? The answer seemingly is yes, and some of the possibilities in the newer future are these. Transparent Supply Chains Web3 can enable transparent supply chains by utilising blockchain technology to trace and verify the origin and

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 21 ating decentralised marketplaces for buying, selling, and swapping used and recycled products, incentivising recycling and reducing waste generation. Additionally, blockchain can be used to track and verify the recycling and disposal of waste, promoting responsible waste management practices and reducing environmental pollution. Green NFTs and Digital Art Web3 can promote sustainability in the art and creative industries through the use of green Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and digital art. Green NFTs can be designed to have a low carbon footprint by utilising blockchain networks with low energy consumption, and digital art can help reduce the environmental impact associated with traditional art materials and transportation. Smart Contracts for Environmental Agreements Web3 can utilise smart contracts to create enforceable agreements and incentives for environmental protection and conservation. For example, smart contracts can be used to establish agreements between stakeholders for sustainWeb3 can support the development of decentralised energy systems powered by renewable sources such as solar, wind, and hydro. Blockchain-based platforms can enable peer-to-peer energy trading, allowing individuals and communities to generate, share, and sell excess renewable energy, leading to increased adoption of clean energy and reduced reliance on fossil fuels Decentralised Governance Web3 can enable decentralised governance models that promote community-driven decision-making and consensus-building, empowering local communities to participate in environmental decision-making processes. This can lead to more inclusive and participatory approaches to environmental management and conservation, fostering greater engagement and ownership among stakeholders and promoting sustainable practices. Conservation Monitoring and Reporting Web3 can enable decentralised, crowd-sourced monitoring and reporting of environmental data, such as air and water quality, deforestation, wildlife populations, and climate change impacts. This can allow for real-time data collection, verification, and sharing, enabling better decision-making and accountability in environmental conservation efforts. Circular Economy and Waste Management Web3 can facilitate the transition to a circular economy by crePhotograph by Marcus Millo

22 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 (A)muse & Musings By Srinath Sridharan able land use, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem restoration, with incentives or penalties automatically triggered based on predefined conditions. Climate Risk Management Web3 can facilitate climate risk management through decentralised insurance and risk-sharing mechanisms. Blockchain-based platforms can enable peer-to-peer or community-based insurance for climate-related risks, such as extreme weather events or sea level rise, providing more affordable and accessible insurance options for vulnerable communities. While these ideas will have varying degrees of commercialisation currently, and differing ways of adoption, it is a matter of time that it could move to commercial reality. But then, as with any emerging technology, Web3 has its share of issues. For a technology that can help in climate action, also has criticism that it poses concerns to sustainability efforts. • Energy Consumption: One of the criticisms of blockchain technology, which underlies many Web3 applications, is its energy consumption. Some blockchain networks require significant computational power and electricity to maintain their operations, leading to concerns about carbon emissions and environmental impact. • E-waste and Resource Consumption: Web3 technologies, including blockchainbased hardware devices and digital wallets, may contribute to electronic waste (e-waste) and resource consumption. The production, use, and disposal of electronic devices and infrastructure for Web3 applications may have environmental implications, including resource depletion, pollution, and waste generation. • Scalability and Efficiency: The current state of Web3 technologies, such as blockchain, may face challenges related to scalability and efficiency. Some blockchain networks have limited transaction throughput, which may result in delays and increased energy consumption. Improving the scalability and efficiency of Web3 technologies will be critical in reducing their environmental footprint. • Inclusivity and Accessibility: Web3 technologies may require access to digital infrastructure, including internet connectivity and computing devices, which may not be accessible to all communities and individuals. This may result in a digital divide, where certain groups are excluded from participating in Web3 applications and benefiting from their potential sustainability impact. • Regulatory and Governance Challenges: Web3 technologies operate in a decentralised and borderless environment, which can pose challenges in terms of regulatory oversight, governance, and accountability. Ensuring that Web3 technologies are used responsibly and do not contribute to environmental harm may require controls and checks. Web3 can empower individuals, communities, and organisations to take tangible steps towards mitigating climate change and building a more sustainable future. But then, my guess is as good as yours in how long would the above wish list need to be translated into reality. The writer is an author, policy researcher and corporate advisor Web3 can facilitate climate risk management through decentralised insurance and risksharing mechanisms. Blockchain-based platforms can enable peer-to-peer or community-based insurance for climaterelated risks, such as extreme weather events or sea level rise, providing more affordable and accessible insurance options for vulnerable communities Photograph by Nils Ackermann

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 23 The sugar industry’s potential to produce ethanol and power is expected to drive India’s growth, while also contributing towards the country’s green initiatives and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. We catch-up with Kunal Yadav, Chairman & MD, Yadu Corporation, to decode the sugar, ethanol and power trilogy. Ethanol Production: Green Growth As we begin the discussion, Yadav sets the foundation by saying, “The sugar industry in India has immense potential to drive growth in multiple sectors, particularly in the production of ethanol and power. With the government’s push towards green initiatives, sugar mills are being encouraged to divert excess sugarcane to ethanol production in order to achieve a target of 20 per cent blending with petrol. This not only helps reduce dependence on fossil fuels but also provides an additional source of revenue for sugar mills by effectively utilising its by-products such as bagasse which is carbon negative in nature.” Expansion and Modernisation When we ask him how Yadu Corporation is navigating in the post-Covid world, Yadav responds by saying that, “Our earlier efforts on diversification have already begun to bear fruit and we have recorded 25 per cent growth in overall business during FY23. So, now when we are a fairly diverse corporation already, the short and medium-term strategy for Yadu Corporation is: expansion and modernisation. We plan to increase the overall capacity and modernise the sugar production process to Sulphurless in one of our units in Uttar Pradesh. The company is also exploring the e-commerce route for its 5 gm sachets, 1 kg, 2 kg, and 5 kg sugar packs along with the healthier alternatives like Jaggery, Jaggery powder, Shakar, Khand, Bura and Bakery products.” He adds, “Yadu Corporation is also a parent of K12 schools, governmentaided schools, and degree colleges in Uttar Pradesh. At our CBSE board based school in Sector-73, Noida, we are building infrastructure and deploying advanced learning technology to increase the current threshold of 1,000 children to 5,000 children in the next three years.” Yadav further shares that, “The company is in the advanced stage of R&D work to expand its footprint in beverage production. We are already producing a range of alcoholic beverages from our distillery in Himachal Pradesh but now we plan it to take it to the next level by introducing some good quality brands.” Industry Needs a Supportive Environment Yadav is extremely positive and bullish about India’s growth potential and sees huge opportunities for start-up entrepreneurship. He emphasises that, “Greater synergy between the state and the central government can act as a catalyst for rapid industrial growth which can help unleash India’s true potential. Today, almost every Indian state is actively trying to attract industrial investment by highlighting their business-friendly environment but such efforts would bear fruit only when supplemented with business-friendly policies. State governments must consult with the industry during the policy-making process in such a manner that all the stakeholders feel they are heard and their issues are being addressed.” YADU CORPORATION’S DIVERSIFIED BUSINESS STRATEGY DRIVES 25% GROWTH IN FY22 Kunal Yadav Chairman and MD, Yadu Corporation Since 1998, Yadu Corporation has been operating as a diversified business conglomerate operating in areas including Sugar, Education, Retail, Beverages, Cogen, Biofertilisers, and Trading. The company has four sugar mills; two in UP and two in Punjab. The power plant at one of its units is already supplying 30 MW to the state grid. The company has further secured license for two 120 KLPD ethanol plants that are expected to be operational between CY23-24. By Resham Suhail INTERVIEW

24 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 T WAS IN 1907 WHEN a Belgian scientist Baekeland discovered the ‘first fully synthetic plastic’ while working in his lab – a combination of formaldehyde and phenol under heat and pressure – and named it Bakelite. The material found uses in Purma cameras, telephone instruments, Ekco radios, etc. in the 1930s and companies like Dow, Exxon, DuPont and BASF became the initial manufacturers. Around the same time, ICI used waste from crude processing refineries and came up with Perspex; another accidental find was an ethylene polymer — polyethylene — that became the most common plastic. It was strong, light weight, flexible, heat resistant and post-WW2 the world saw many consumer products made of this wonder material. Tupperware became a pioneer with their food storage containers. They even went on to produce artificial hip and knee joints from this material. Another path breaking find were Nylon and Teflon from DuPont. Plastics have invaded our life like no other material — light and easy to mold — with buckets, pipes, ropes, outdoor furniture, pens, bottles, spectacle frames, safety razors, disposable bags, bottles, straws, plates, cutlery, packaging, toys… almost everything was made from plastics. This incredibly useful and durable material was everywhere — homes, offices, factories. Last 40-50 years could well be called the Plastics Age. The Curse Of Plastic Waste And, then, the trouble started. The world woke up to the fact that plastic goods were difficult to dispose of. They would take hundreds of years to degrade in the landfills. PET water bottles that appeared on the scene as a boon — 500 billion were being sold annually worldwide — suddenly became one of the biggest problems world had faced. Used bottles couldn’t be burned — toxic, carcinogenic fumes were unacceptable — they couldn’t be sent to landfills because the mountains of waste would start growing faster and the bottles would just lie there forever. Millions landed up in the oceans along with disposable plastic bags and many other such items. Cattle would swallow plastic bags with the food dumped in waste bins and get afflicted with all kinds of diseases. Fish swallowed the bags floating in the oceans and eventually human beings ate fish with the plastic bags still inside. Even when the bags were removed during cooking, micro plastics remained in the food and humanity would ingest the same leading to many diseases. A recent frightening report reveals that even after you digest the fish; plastic will remain in your gut and it could eventually get absorbed in your blood and even alter DNA. The wonder material had suddenly turned from a boon to a bane — indeed a curse. CPCB’s 2019-20 report talks about India generating about 3.5 million tonne (perhaps a conservative estimate) of plastic waste annually. Even though I Plastics – A Boon Turned Bane Sustainability/ Environment By Krishan Kalra Column

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 25 in plastic containers. There are bans on use of film below 50-micron thickness but, sadly, sab chalta hai. Ironically, despite our country having piloted — and got passed — a resolution in the UN Environment Assembly in 2019 to mitigate single use plastic pollution, our own record is uninspiring. The 2016 Plastic Waste Management Rules, updated in 2022, include “extended producer responsibility” that binds them to collect same amount of plastic that they generate for proper recycling or disposal but very few even have any plans to become ‘plastic neutral’. Bulk of the trash in India is collected by ragpickers and these urchins — working for a pittance under big kabadiwallas – are our potential saviors if only their energy can be channelised— for proper sorting and disposal by the organised sector. What we need is strict implementation of the rules and heavy penalties, including imprisonment, for violators. We need all this now! Oceans Worse Off Than Land Plastic waste is causing havoc in the oceans too — probably more serious than on the terra-firma. Well-meaning citizen groups have carried out several cleaning drives at Bombay beaches taking out hundreds of truckloads of trash every time. These efforts received rave press reviews but enormous amounts continue to reach the once pristine oceans. Recent news that an ‘80,000-ton cloud of plastic trash was floating in the Pacific’ made headlines as an environmental disaster — more so because it was “teeming with life” hosting invertebrates from 46 species clinging to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — as it was called by the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution — along with toothbrushThe 2016 Plastic Waste Management Rules, updated in 2022, include “extended producer responsibility” that binds them to collect same amount of plastic that they generate for proper recycling or disposal, but very few even have any plans to become ‘plastic neutral’ we are amongst the lowest ‘per capita waste generators’ in the world, this is a colossal amount. This 3.5 mtpa is incidentally double the figure five years earlier. Our ‘plastics used’ figure was estimated at 16.5 MT in 2018. So we do seem to be recycling a very significant amount. An IMAC group report put this at 9 mtpa in 2022. A recent BS report — probably biased — mentioned that India was ranked 20 on the Plastic Management Index among 25 major plastic producing nations. I must add here that there are strict regulations in the domain and we are lagging behind on enforcement. So, even with 9 mtpa recycling and estimated 3.5 mtpa waste generated officially, anywhere up to 5 mtpa is probably landing up in landfills, on the roadsides and in the oceans. Single Use Plastic Pollution The government has even admitted in the parliament that “plastic pollution has become an important environment challenge adversely impacting both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems”. The problem mostly concerns ‘single use’ plastic carry bags. Stray cattle die trying to ingest plastic bags. Human beings too run the risk of toxicity on consuming food packed Photograph by Romolo Tavani

26 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 Sustainability/ Environment By Krishan Kalra pheric Administration that sighted the humungous patch nearly five-day boat ride from California. It was only when samples — frozen at the site and thawed in the labs — were analysed at the Smithsonian Environment Research Centre that they found signs of life — mostly coastal species that had somehow thrived in the extreme temperatures on high seas. These species were probably thrown far into the deep ocean by the 2013 tsunami. It is incredible that the coastal species survived on plastics in the high seas, along with sea snails, Blue Button jelly fish etc. Now the scientists’ community is in a dilemma — should they remove the plastics and uproot life? Or is saving these species more important than removing the gargantuan garbage patch from the high seas? Yet another case of unfathomable mysteries of nature. The trouble with ocean patches is that — unlike carbon footprint that can be computed country wise, nano plastic footprint are anonymous as ‘garbage patches’ get created far away from any country’s coastline and there is no way to track their origin. So, who would take responsibility of clearing the seas? Overall, we are up against a formidable enemy. Work On Biodegradable Plastics Some work has started on producing biodegradable plastic. Again, BIS has come up with a statement that “there are no 100 per cent biodegradable plastics in India” and they have rubbished the claims of companies saying so. According to BIS these people are only “greenwashing” and are liable to face action. The Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology at Bhubaneshwar has still not cleared a single such product. However, some have been certified as ‘compostable plastics’. There is hope on the horizon with common folk getting down to the task of reducing use of plastics. There’s this poor family in Gurgaon that has been engaged for three decades in making paper bags from old newspapers that they buy from raddi traders and supply bags to over 500 shops. According to them, “use of plastics can be reduced not by government bans but through education and social pressure”. And, of course, recycling is happening at scale. A Hyderabad-based company, promoted by youngsters with Silicon Valley exposure, set up in 2013, has recycled more than 100,000 tonne of plastic waste collected through a large network of ragpickers. This company was awarded the Dell Circular Economy Award at WEF Davos in 2018. Armed with technology to clean inks, coatings and other contaminants they are producing near-virgin quality granules and products for several industries — from automotive to cosmetics. CPCB’s 2019-20 report talks about India generating about 3.5 million tonne (perhaps a conservative estimate) of plastic waste annually. Even though we are amongst the lowest ‘per capita waste generators’ in the world, this is a colossal amount. This 3.5 MT is incidentally double the figure five years earlier The author is Trustee of the Climate Project Foundation, India; past president of AIMA and former member, BOG of IIMC es, ropes, nets, buoys, buckets, bottle shards and other waste products. Such patches get formed due to circular currents and this particular one – spread over a mind boggling 610,000 sq. miles—mostly contains micro plastic shards, as reported by the US National Oceanic & AtmosPhotograph by James633 Column

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28 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 ECHOES OF BLEAK HOUSE: Confronting India’s Waste Management Crisis N HIS CLASSIC novel Bleak House, published in 1853, Charles Dickens masterfully illustrates the failure of managing waste in the city of London. Dickens vividly describes the fictional street, Tom-All-Alone’s, as an appalling and squalid urban environment, teeming with filth and refuse. The air is thick with a miasma of decay, and the ground is perpetually soddened from the heaps of waste that seem to have melded with the very fabric of the street. Amidst the mounting piles of garbage, Dickens introduces Jo, a young street sweeper, who is emblematic of the invisible masses trying to eke out a living in the squalor. Through his portrayal of Jo, Dickens brings to light the consequences of a city ill-equipped to manage its waste, and the inevitable human cost of this negligence. The poignant account of Jo and Tom-All-Alone’s serves as a powerful reminder of the urgent need for effective urban solid waste management, a problem that continues to plague cities in India and beyond, even in the modern era. The precarious state of landfills and open dumping sites in Indian cities harkens back to the dismal conditions of London during the era depicted in Bleak House. Metropolitan areas such as Delhi and Mumbai face particularly dire circumstances, generating vast amounts of waste daily while grappling with a scarcity of suitable dumping grounds. For example, the Deonar landfill in Mumbai, established in 1927, is both the oldest and largest landfill in India. Receiving 9,000 metric tonnes of waste each day, it teeters on the brink of collapse. Likewise, the Bhalswa landfill in Delhi, in operation since 1994, is overburdened with decaying waste, having long exceeded its intended carrying capacity. COLUMN By Bibek Debroy, Amit Kapoor & Aditya Sinha Clockwise from left : Bibek Debroy, I Amit Kapoor & Aditya Sinha

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 29 Need for Sustainable Solutions Landfills and open dumping sites in and around Indian cities present a significant challenge for urban planning and environmental sustainability. Rapid urbanisation and population growth have led to an increase in municipal solid waste, causing landfills to overflow and open dumping sites to proliferate. These waste disposal methods not only exacerbate land and water pollution, but also pose serious health risks to local communities. Leachate from landfills can contaminate groundwater, while open dumping contributes to the spread of disease vectors. Furthermore, it generates hazardous greenhouse gases like methane, which contribute to climate change. These issues highlight the pressing need for more sustainable waste management solutions in India, such as recycling, composting, and the implementation of modern waste-to-energy technologies, to reduce reliance on landfills and open dumping and ensure a cleaner, healthier environment for urban residents. The proliferation of landfills and dumping grounds in Indian cities has led to a significant environmental and health crisis. A contributing factor to the emergence of landfills is the lack of waste segregation, which subsequently complicates recycling processes and ultimately results in the waste being relegated to landfills. Historically, waste segregation has been addressed through two markedly distinct methodologies: (1) Source/primary segregation, which entails separating waste at its origin by individuals, households, and institutions, with the implementation of discrete collection systems; and (2) secondary segregation, involving mechanical processing and sorting of commingled waste at centralised facilities handling vast amounts of refuse. The initial approach, primary segregation, offers notable benefits, including optimised municipal resource utilisation, efficient infrastructure operations, and improved environmental outcomes. By reducing the need for capital, energy, and land-intensive secondary segregation, source-segregated waste is less likely to be contaminated, more easily recycled, and less costly to treat. In countries like India, where wet waste constitutes a significant portion of municipal solid waste, source segregation and recycling can substantially reduce transportation costs and landfill demands, extending the lifespan of existing landfills and alleviating land conflicts. Reluctance to Segregate In developing countries, including India, a pervasive behavioral issue related to waste management is the general public’s reluctance or failure to segregate waste. This attitude can be attributed to a combination of factors, including inadequate awareness of the environmental consequences, lack of infrastructure, and the absence of robust waste management policies. The prevailing culture of disposing mixed waste indiscriminately exacerbates the problem, undermining the potential for effective recycling and composting efforts. Consequently, this ingrained behaviour not only perpetuates the expansion of landfills and associated environmental and health hazards but also impedes the progress towards sustainable waste management practices, which are crucial for the nation’s long-term ecological and public health wellbeing. NITI Aayog has come up with Policy Guidelines Promoting Behaviour Change for Strengthening Waste Segregation at Source. States should keep these guidelines in mind while nudging the residents of urban agglomerations for segregating waste at source. However, there are issues with secondary segregation too. In their column “Segregation of Waste,” Isher Judge Ahluwalia and Ayush Khare discuss the negative consequences of waste management The proliferation of landfills and dumping grounds in Indian cities has led to a significant environmental and health crisis. A contributing factor to the emergence of landfills is the lack of waste segregation, which subsequently complicates recycling processes and ultimately results in the waste being relegated to landfills Photograph by Pexels Via Canva

30 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 Debroy is Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Kapoor is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness; Sinha is consultant, EAC-PM practices that discourage waste segregation (https://bit.ly/2mxfq3L). Two primary factors contributing to this problem are the use of waste transport contracts based on tonnage and the rising adoption of compactors in waste management systems. Tonnage-based contracts incentivise private contractors to maximise waste weight by mixing wet and dry waste, while compactors, by their very nature, compress waste and make segregation nearly impossible. Compacted waste not only hinders resource recovery but also leads to environmental issues such as leachate production, groundwater contamination, and methane generation. The latter contributes to global warming and, when combined with waste pickers’ fire-starting practices, can exacerbate landfill fires and release toxic substances like dioxins and furans. Overall, the current waste management practices undermine segregation efforts and have harmful implications for the environment and public health. The Swacch Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 (SMB-U 2.0) has a dashboard of landfills in India. India had 2,439 legacy dumpsites (Primarily dumpsites having legacy waste > 1,000 tonnes) in the country spread in an area of 18,585 acres. SBM-U 2.0 is currently being implemented, with the overarching objective of attaining a “garbage-free” status for every urban centre in the nation. This ambitious initiative encompasses, among other components, the comprehensive remediation of all extant landfills and legacy dumpsites by the year 2026, for which the central government is providing financial support. Too Much Legacy Waste However, in India, the current status of dumpsites presents a concerning situation. With a total of 2,243 dumpsites, primarily consisting of legacy waste exceeding 1,000 tonnes, the scale of the issue is significant. The accumulated legacy waste amounts to 2,439 tonnes, of which only 704 tonnes (29 per cent) have been remediated. This leaves 1,735 tonnes (71 per cent) of waste still requiring remediation. Moreover, the total area occupied by these dumpsites spans 18,588.85 square units. Despite efforts to reclaim this land, only 2,871.37 square units (15 per cent) have been successfully reclaimed, leaving a staggering 15,717 square units (85 per cent) awaiting reclamation. The states which have been most successful in remediating the dumpsites in absolute terms are Tamil Nadu (619.59 acres), Maharashtra (440.04), Telangana (416.00) Uttar Pradesh (459.24), Madhya Pradesh (278.75). The top five states in terms of reclaimed dumpsite area percentage are: Chhattisgarh (59.3 per cent, 50.20/84.71 acres); Telangana (35.6 per cent, 416.00/1,166.57 acres); Madhya Pradesh (32.5 per cent, 278.75/857.23 acres); Tamil Nadu (28.5 per cent, 619.59/2,173.19 acres) and Bihar (26.0 per cent, 63.30/242.98 acres); India continues to face a substantial challenge in addressing and remediating the vast amounts of waste present at the country’s numerous dumpsites. As we reflect on the haunting depiction of waste management failure in Dickens’ Bleak House, it is apparent that the challenges and consequences of inadequate waste management persist today, particularly in Indian cities. With majority of the legacy dumpsites still in need of remediation and a culture of improper waste segregation, India faces an uphill battle in achieving a sustainable and healthy urban environment. By confronting the behavioural, infrastructural, and policy obstacles hindering effective waste segregation and pursuing eco-friendly alternatives to landfills and open dumping, the nation can triumphantly reclaim its land and ensure the health and well-being of its city dwellers. In doing so, the sombre Dickensian panorama can be transformed into a vibrant, flourishing future characterised by sustainability and prosperity. In our upcoming column, we will delve into various approaches and tactics for effective solid waste management in India. COLUMN By Bibek Debroy, Amit Kapoor & Aditya Sinha

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32 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 E, AS INDIANS, take great pride in our country being amongst the leaders in any field. We have excelled in certain areas and won wide international recognition. Space, nuclear technology, pharmaceuticals, and IT come immediately to mind, in the tech area. Elsewhere, movies, music, cuisine, yoga. And, of course, beauty: both natural (of the National Geographic type) and human (as recognised in Miss Universe or Miss World contests). Now, even preceding our much-publicised G20 Presidency, which puts us up there amongst world leaders, our ambitions have soared to being not a, but the Vishwaguru. This means being not just amongst the top few, but numero uno. There are some areas in which we are number one: cricket, for example. But then we are often displaced quickly by some other country. The same may be true of GDP growth rates, though with caveats like “amongst big economies”, which (though in fine print) take away some of the glory. There are other areas in which we have long and indisputably been number one (the number of poor or of illiterates), but let’s not talk of those. Who W knows, the data may be wrong. We are (already, or will be, next month) number one in population and will stay so for many decades at least, but somehow this parameter (unless we call it a productivity indicator) is not one that sits comfortably with the Vishwaguru role. There is another area in which we are indisputably on top and have been so for long: wrong-side driving. No country comes anywhere near us in the extent, scale, and spread of this. On highways, to avoid the few extra kilometres to a U-turn, vehicles (often tractors) routinely drive on the wrong side of the road. In cities, though the U-turn may be only a few hundred metres away, one sees the same phenomenon. This is not restricted to motorbikes and autorickshaws, cars do the same too. In a city where the Audis, Mercs and BMWs outnumber the rickshaws, even their owner-drivers do this. FOLLOWING THE ‘MIDDLE PATH’ On undivided roads, many drive in the middle. On divided highways and roads, it is common to see three-wheelers (though legally barred on some expressways), motorbikes, and trucks driving in the extreme right lane, as close to the middle as possible. Possibly, this has to do with the Buddhist philosophical inheritance of following the “middle path”. After all, as a country, we have laudably navigated the middle path between Russia and the West/Ukraine. More pragmatically, on undivided roads, using the middle path enables an easy shift to the other side. In driving, though right is wrong (one more deep dialectical issue, which we shall not discuss), maybe it comes from another inherited value: waste not. After all, if roads are a limited capacity resource, why not use the right (i.e., wrong!) side of the road if it is relatively empty? The same applies to footpaths, so don’t begrudge the motorbike weaving past as you walk on the footpath: after all, he is optimising use of civic investments in infrastructure. WRONG-SIDE DRIVING By Kiran Karnik COLUMN n KIRAN’S KONTRARIAN KORNER n

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 33 The author loves to think in tongue-in-cheek ways, with no maliciousness or offence intended. At other times, he is a public policy analyst and author. His latest book is Decisive Decade: India 2030 Gazelle or Hippo (Rupa, 2021) THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF IT Whether to take pride in being number one in this may seem arguable to many. After all, it is indicative of indiscipline, adding to the general chaos on our roads. Yet, wrong-side driving does much good. First, it saves time for the individuals concerned; time that they may use productively, thus contributing to their income. It also enables faster logistics (Gati Shakti), contributing to growing the GDP. Besides, it saves fuel, and the resulting increase in disposable income with the individual will drive consumer demand, benefitting industry and the economy. Less fuel consumption means lower oil imports, reducing our adverse balance of payments and the fiscal deficit. This will contribute to strengthening both, our economic foundation and the rupee. Therefore, both individual and macro benefits. There is, of course, the matter of accidents. Some figures show that one of the biggest causes of accidents on the road is vehicles driving on the wrong side. But then data, as noted earlier, is contestable. Also, given the many benefits — including those noted above — driving “right” clearly has its virtues. Accidents, though very unfortunate, can be considered collateral damage, to borrow a term from the US lexicon: the explanation for civilian casualties in a terrorist-targeted bombing or drone attack. SEARCH FOR OPTIMAL SOLUTIONS More seriously and importantly, we might give thought to this penchant for wrong-side driving, a habit that seems to unite very diverse Indians, almost as much as cricket or movies. It is, one may argue, indicative of a deeper rebellion against authority and regulation: a vote for complete freedom and autonomy. A similar “voting with their feet” is done by pedestrians who randomly walk across roads where they please, a habit formed by lack of any properly demarcated crossings. Apart from the philosophical point of preferring anarchy to regulated order, this mindset is indicative of something else: a constant search for optimal solutions and seeking these even outside the given framework (traffic rules, in the case of driving). A practice characterised, in popular jargon, as “thinking outside the box”. The big challenge to organisations, and to the country, is how to tap this innate DNA so that instead of indiscipline and chaos, it is channelised towards creativity and innovation. In a world of AI, automation and robots - all bound by training, rules and algorithms - metaphorical wrong-side driving may yet be a saviour. Going beyond regulations, frameworks and givens, it may create solutions, through innovation and creativity, that overtake AI’s (present?) capability and keep humans in the driving seat (even if it be on the wrong side of the road). Apart from the philosophical point of preferring anarchy to regulated order, this mind-set is indicative of something else: a constant search for optimal solutions and seeking these even outside the given framework (traffic rules, in the case of driving). A practice characterised, in popular jargon, as “thinking outside the box” Photograph by Bivash Banerjee

34 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 rencies have seen wild swings, with Bitcoin, the most well-known digital currency, experiencing both staggering highs and devastating lows. Currently, Bitcoin is on an upswing, reaching new record highs after a lengthy bear market. There are several reasons for this current price increase, but one major factor is the upcoming cryptocurrency halving, in the next few months. Bitcoin-halving is a scheduled event that happens every four years, and it cuts the reward for mining new blocks in half. This event makes it harder to mine Bitcoin, which leads to a decrease in the supply of the currency. With a limited supply, the demand for Bitcoin increases, and as a result, the price goes up. Another interesting fact is that Bitcoin’s supply is limited to 21 million coins, which means that there will only ever be that many Bitcoins in circulation. Currently, over 18 million coins have been mined, and it is estimated that the last Bitcoin will be mined in the year 2140. This limited supply is a significant factor in the cryptocurrency’s value. Criticism, challenges, concerns The meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, has caused alarm bells to ring amongst financial regulators worldwide. As the popularity of digital currencies continues to soar, regulators are increasingly worried about their potential impact on the global economy and financial systems. Furthermore, cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, with their value fluctuating wildly on a daily basis. This volatility creates significant risks for investors and can destabiRYPTOCURRENCIES HAVE C come a long way since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009. Initially viewed as a niche product for tech-savvy individuals, cryptocurrencies have become mainstream and have gained significant attention from both consumers and investors alike. Despite their growing popularity, cryptocurrencies continue to face challenges that threaten their longterm viability. The genesis of cryptocurrencies can be traced back to the early 2000s when a person or group of people known as Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin. The ideology behind Bitcoin was to create a decentralised currency that would operate independently of any government or financial institution. Nakamoto’s vision was to create a currency that was secure, private, and could not be manipulated by central authorities. In 2010, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz famously spent 10,000 Bitcoins to buy two Papa John’s pizzas, making it the first known real-world transaction using Bitcoin - probably the most expensive pizza in the world! The identity of the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, remains unknown to this day. Fluctuating fortunes In recent years, the fortunes of cryptocurCryptos Genesis to Governance CRYPTO By Srinath Sridharan In recent years, the fortunes of cryptocurrencies have seen wild swings, with Bitcoin, the most well-known digital currency, experiencing both staggering highs and devastating lows. Currently, Bitcoin is on an upswing, reaching new record highs after a lengthy bear market

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 35 $450 million at the time. This incident highlighted the risks and vulnerabilities of holding digital currencies and sparked calls for greater regulation. Another notable challenge that cryptocurrencies face is scalability. The blockchain technology that underpins many cryptocurrencies can only handle a limited number of transactions per second, which can lead to slow transaction times and high fees. Several solutions are being developed to address this issue, such as the Lightning Network and Sharding. The ideology behind cryptocurrencies is rooted in the concept of decentralisation and freedom from traditional financial systems. However, this ideology has also attracted criticism from some who see it as a tool for criminals and tax evaders. Cryptocurrencies have long been associated with illicit activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion. Due to their anonymous nature, digital currencies can be used to conceal illicit transactions, making them a popular tool for criminals and other bad actors. The lack of regulation and oversight around cryptocurrencies only exacerbates these risks, making them a prime target for fraud and other illegal activities. lise financial markets, leading to significant economic losses. One of the most significant challenges facing cryptocurrencies is consumer adoption. While early adopters of cryptocurrencies were willing to invest in them, the average consumer remains hesitant to use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. The volatility of the cryptocurrency market is a key factor that has contributed to this reluctance. As a result, cryptocurrencies remain more of a speculative investment than a practical currency for everyday transactions. Cryptocurrencies have also faced their fair share of controversies and challenges. The issue of price volatility is compounded by the fact that many cryptocurrency exchanges are unregulated and prone to fraud. This lack of regulation has led to instances of cryptocurrency exchanges going out of business, taking their customers’ funds with them. This has eroded trust in the cryptocurrency market and has made it difficult for consumers to feel confident in investing in cryptocurrencies. For example, in 2014, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges at the time, Mt. Gox, declared bankruptcy after losing 850,000 Bitcoins, worth over Bitcoin’s supply is limited to 21 million coins, which means that there will only ever be that many Bitcoins in circulation. Currently, over 18 million coins have been mined, and it is estimated that the last Bitcoin will be mined in the year 2140. This limited supply is a significant factor in the cryptocurrency’s value Photograph by Peshkova

36 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 regulated, making it difficult for businesses to incorporate them into their operations. However, regulators are worried about the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies. As Bitcoin and other digital currencies continue to gain mainstream acceptance, governments are becoming increasingly concerned about their potential impact on the economy. The G20, a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union, recently discussed the regulation of cryptocurrencies, and the risks they pose. Unlike traditional currencies, which are backed by governments and financial institutions, cryptocurrencies operate independently of any central authority. This decentralisation makes them a threat to the existing financial order, which relies on centralised institutions to maintain stability. Cryptocurrencies have come a long way since Bitcoin’s creation, with thousands of different digital currencies in existence today. Whatever their purpose, cryptocurrencies have captured the attention of millions of people around the world, and their impact on the global economy is sure to be felt for years to come. Another critical component of stable crypto regulation is transparency. Cryptocurrencies operate on a decentralised ledger technology called blockchain, which can be difficult to track and monitor. To ensure the stability of financial markets and protect consumers, regulators must work to increase transparency around cryptocurrency transactions, requiring crypto exchanges and other service providers to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and AntiMoney Laundering (AML) regulations. An important concern is the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. The process of mining cryptocurrencies requires a significant amount of energy, which has led to criticism over their carbon footprint. Additionally, the high energy consumption required for mining means that cryptocurrencies are not accessible to everyone, as it requires expensive hardware and access to cheap energy. Regulatory concerns also pose a challenge to the cryptocurrency market. Governments around the world have been hesitant to embrace cryptocurrencies, with some even outright banning them. This regulatory uncertainty has led to a lack of clarity on how cryptocurrencies should be taxed and Srinath Sridharan is an author, policy researcher & corporate advisor Cryptocurrencies operate on a decentralised ledger technology called blockchain, which can be difficult to track and monitor. To ensure the stability of financial markets and protect consumers, regulators must work to increase transparency around cryptocurrency transactions, requiring crypto exchanges and other service providers to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations CRYPTO By Srinath Sridharan Photograph by Phongphan

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 37 ENTREPRENEURS & ESG Startups and young entrepreneurs must relook their ESG strategy to ensure their business models remain sustainable and scalable by Noor Fathima Warsia HE YOUNG Entrepreneur Awards (YEA) has always been an important initiative for BW Businessworld. The reasons for this were aplenty, fostering the young leaders who will create the big businesses of tomorrow, be a positive force for society at large and that these companies will play an important role as direct contributors to India’s economy and its holistic growth. Startups and young entrepreneurs are building businesses that solve for present-day concerns, and this includes all things sustainability in a big way. Over the last few years, more and more companies that have taken the sustainable route, have begun with a purpose or have identified and solved gaps in health, food, jobs and the like have been identified among YEA winners. These are the companies that everyone believes will also succeed because their impact is beyond their businesses. Many young (and established) companies have understood the importance of environment, social and governance (ESG) in their business decisions and structures. People are taking steps to embrace this also because governments are making some of the connected mandates compulsory. India’s regulatory schemes such as the introduction of business responsibility and sustainability reporting (BRSR) by Sebi in 2021 can be counted among these. This sustainability reporting format is based on the nine principles of the National Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) introduced by Sebi. In spirit, BRSR aims to align various regulatory frameworks and compliance requirements in terms of ESG parameters to be followed by companies operating within India. This is to ensure responsible conduct of business and transparent disclosure of the non-financial parameters and sustainability goals of the company. Startups have the advantage that they are born into some of these realities that older companies are looking to adapt to now. They can look for transparency and get it right at the beginning. The catch is ESG requires commitment and can be perceived to take away from business growth focus. As the ecosystem becomes more challenging, some startups may prioritise survival, and therefore profitability, over the likes of ESG. This would be short-termed and unwise. ESG can serve as a blueprint of sorts for a business to create a good framework. A net zero target at the beginning can guide decisions in building a natural resource footprint. Because ‘social’ asks for an inclusive culture, gender equity and even prioritising areas such as mental health, it will ensure the right culture-building in an organisation from the word go. The focus on the ‘governance’ aspect will require startups to have diverse boards and create strong data security rules. The former will assist in ensuring the right decision-making and guidance and the latter will be valued more by consumers in the time to come. Startups that will have a strong and continued focus on their ESG strategies are more likely to survive the uncertainties of the time to come. It will help them grow in a future-fit way and remain scalable. T Noorings [email protected]

38 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 Hinduja group flagship and the secondlargest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India, Ashok Leyland is driving in the fast lane now with the revival in demand for trucks, buses and LCVs By Ashish Sinha T HE COMMERCIAL vehicles (CV) segment is up to speed once again. After slowing down considerably as a result of pandemic-induced roadblocks during all of FY21 (2020-21) and a large part of FY22, the CV segment comprising trucks, buses and light commercial vehicles (LCV) picked up smartly clocking sales volume growth of 34 per cent y-o-y in FY23 and the second highest domestic sales ever, after the previous peak of 2018-19. This revival in demand has augured very well for Ashok Leyland, one of India’s largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) makers. The company registered cumulative sales (domestic as well as exports) of 1,92,205 units for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2023, which was 50 per cent higher compared to FY22. While trucks saw a 60 per cent growth in sales to 1,05,777 units, sales of buses grew 135 per cent to 18,332 units and light commercial vehicle sales jumped 25 per cent to 68,096 units during the period under consideration. Explaining the pick-up in the CV industry as well as the substantial increase in Ashok Leyland’s M&HCV market share, Shenu Agarwal, the recently appointed MD & CEO of Ashok Leyland says, “The macroeconomic climate has improved, and end-user industries are in high demand, therefore the CV industry is currently doing well.” He adds: “Volumes in the SHIFTING IN DEPTH AUTOMOTIVE

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 39 M&HCV market have risen as a result of development initiatives in important sectors including mining and construction, higher capital expenditure for infrastructure projects, higher expenditure for road transport and highways, multimodal connectivity, and pent-up replacement demand.” At the micro level, Agarwal attributes the growth in market share to the measures taken by the company. “We have also achieved this market share on the strong back of introduction of contemporary new products and focused expansion of our network touch points,” he says. Experts cite additional reasons for this mega turnaround in the CV category. Says Tanvi Shah, Director of CareEdge Advisory & Research: “This growth is being driven by robust demand for heavy trucks in light of the strong infrastructure push by the government plus increased activity in ecommerce, construction, and mining segments. Higher replacement demand, advance buying in anticipation of price hikes, and year-end buying further buoyed the demand in the last quarter of FY23.” Himanshu Singh, Research Analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher says: “In the fourth quarter of FY23, the CV industry clocked a cumulative growth of 9 per cent YoY with M&HCV outperforming (29 per cent YoY) led by strong end-user industry demand and pre-buying ahead of emission norm change. Tractors industry grew by 19 per cent YoY in 4Q and ended the year with a cumulative growth of 12 per cent.” Ecommerce & LCV The massive expansion of ecommerce, especially during the pandemic period, is a widely known fact. Ecommerce growth positively impacted the logistics sector leading to the creation and expansion of the warehouses, multi-modal parks, interconnectivity between metros and large cities. Another positive spin-off of the ecommerce boom has been the spike in the business of Light Commercial Vehicles or LCVs. And Ashok GEARS “We have lined up our EV-CV roadmap, with the goal of becoming one of the world’s top-10 CV brands. We will roll out electric LCVs very shortly” SHENU AGARWAL, MD & CEO

40 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 Leyland, among others, has largely benefitted from this. Explains Agarwal: “The ecommerce boom post-pandemic, the changes in purchasing habits and demand from the agricultural sector have resulted in an increase in last-mile transport requirement which has led to a surge in demand for smaller trucks, and this demand will help in growth of electric LCVs.” He adds: “Ecommerce players are looking for reliable options since they need a rapid turnaround time and a greater uptime for the vehicle, and light commercial vehicles or compact trucks give them both. As a result, LCVs in India have benefited greatly from the ecommerce boom and will continue to do so.” The LCV vertical completes Ashok Leyland’s presence in the CV space as a full-fledged CV player, offering customer solutions from 2.5-ton to 55-ton in terms of size and from 13 seats to 79 seats in terms of capacity. The LCV business also helps the company de-risk itself from the business cycles associated with medium heavy commercial vehicles. The ‘Dost’ series of LCVs have been generating the big numbers for the company month after month. Push to EV, Alternate Fuels Ashok Leyland is also among the first to align itself with the government’s decision to turn to cleaner fuel technology as well as electric vehicle (EV) fleet in CV category as well. In fact, “Alternative fuel is the future” What are your plans for improving Ashok Leyland’s profitability? At the operational level, we are in a good position. We have reported good numbers in terms of PAT and EBITDA in the last quarter. Our robust market share growth across all segments exemplifies the technological leadership of Ashok Leyland. The industry has seen strong volumes so far in FY 2023 and going forward in FY 2024 over the same period last year, and we remain confident and optimistic about the future. How are you planning to increase exports and expand presence overseas? Currently, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Middle East Ashok Leyland is confident about the growth cycle continuing for the next few years. Shenu Agarwal, MD & CEO, Ashok Leyland speaks with Ashish Sinha about CV, EV and alternate fuels as the next big bets for the company. Excerpts: the company is clear on spending around Rs 500 crore every year towards the development of alternate and clean solutions for the CV segment. “We have lined up our EV-CV roadmap, with the goal of becoming one of the world’s top-10 CV brands. We will roll out electric LCVs very shortly. We remain very optimistic about the future of the CV industry in India,” says Agarwal. Ashok Leyland recently launched its Switch EiV12 electric bus platform for the Indian market. Currently, the company has firm orders for 600 electric buses and around 50 of these are in production for the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. “This will increase our market share upwards to double digits in the coming financial year. We were L2 in CESL and in the recent Mumbai BEST tenders. This clearly proves our competitiveness, and we have another 1,200 STU IN DEPTH AUTOMOTIVE DOMESTIC + EXPORTS CATEGORY MAR '23 MAR '22 % INCREASE M&HCV TRUCKS 1,05,777 66,086 60 DOMESTIC + EXPORTS CATEGORY MAR ’23 MAR ’22 % INCREASE M&HCV BUS 18,332 7,799 135 DOMESTIC + EXPORTS CATEGORY MAR ’23 MAR ’22 % INCREASE LCV 68,096 54,441 25

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 41 field of clean energy. As part of this collaboration, Ashok Leyland and IIT Madras plan to jointly develop hydrogen fuel cell technology for use in commercial vehicles, with the goal of achieving a range of up to 1,000 kilometres on a single charge. Recently, Agarwal informs, the company collaborated with Reliance to launch India’s first hydrogen-powered tech for heavy-duty trucks. It also collaborated with the Adani Group to develop Asia’s first hydrogen-mining truck – the Fuel Cell Electric Truck (FCET). Watch this space for the latest developments in the automotive sector. [email protected]; @Ashish_BW orders in the pipeline,” he says. Ashok Leyland is also working on other alternative fuels like CNG/LNG, hydrogen, blended fuel as electric won’t be the sole answer to net zero carbon emission goal, informs Agarwal. In the case of LCV & SCV (small CVs), the primary focus of the company would be on electrification and CNG. In the ICV (fuel-based CVs), in addition to the CNG, the company is developing EVs and some H2-based options. “In the M&HCV segment we have a combination of EV (in buses and short haul trucks) and H2-based (fuel cell and ICE) for medium and long-haul applications,” says Agarwal. In January 2021, Ashok Leyland had signed a MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to carry out research and development activities in the are the traditional markets for us, while we are also expanding in African and European countries. In LCVs, our new Phoenix platform (with LHD version) is a game-changer for us, helping us enter markets which we were not able to penetrate before. This new platform has started yielding results. Our share in CV exports from India has grown and we continually assess the market and will continue to grow our operations and manufacturing capabilities. What are your plans for expanding the market share in India? Ashok Leyland’s MHCV market share has increased on a year-on-year basis. We have expanded our product line by releasing the first 8-wheel truck in the market, the AVTR 2620, and our Ecomet 1815 which provides consumers with a transportation choice. We also launched H6 4V Engine in AVTR range with Premium N Cabin; AVTR 4825 Tippers; New AVTR 4220 and AVTR 4420. We also introduced variants of Bada Dost and bolstered our LCV portfolio. How are you looking at EVs and alternate fuels in the CV segment? We as a company believe that alternative fuel is the future for the industry. The company has also put in place a strong and capable team to focus exclusively on alternate fuel technology that uses low carbon. To facilitate this endeavour, we have dedicated our existing testing facility in Hosur to exclusively focus on alternate fuels.

T HE AUDACITY OF ZOHO Corporation’s CEO Sridhar Vembu has always been admired in the corporate circles in India. But his endeavour of leading development from the “local” is nothing short of an enigma. A testament to this is Zoho Corporation’s Tenkasi office, located 630 km from Chennai, which hosts more than 700 employees. But the Tenkasi office is just one of the five Zoho hub offices that accommodate up to 1,000 employees, while smaller branches or ‘spoke offices’ house up to 100 employees. Under Vembu’s leadership, Zoho envisions each hub office to have a few spoke offices associated with it for infrastructure support and team collaboration. Zoho currently has five hub offices, including ones in Chennai, Tenkasi, and Renigunta and around 30 spoke offices presently in India. Nearly 2,000 employees are working out of Zoho’s hub-and-spoke offices in villages and Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, out of which about 1,000 employees have been reportedly hired locally. As part of their rural empowerment efforts, the spoke offices periodically conduct free career awareness sessions in surrounding colleges, as well as upskilling workshops and incubation programmes to identify and hire talented local youth. Nation-building From The Rural Vembu is a man of many passions. He likes to swim, read, communicate, code, and research. He begins his days at 3 am and hits the bed by 9 pm. Vembu also has a deep sense of serving the nation and the “local”, wherever the talent exists. This has led him to pioneer the hub-and-spoke model of offices for Zoho to cater to a distributed workforce, as part of its ‘transnational localism’ strategy of being locally rooted, while staying globally connected. Zoho began to double down on this model in 2020. “The distributed workforce model reflects the idea of distributing growth and income across Tier 2/3 communities instead of urban concentration. Many of our product development teams today sit out of these hub-and-spoke offices, including some teams that are involved in deep-tech R&D. The long-term vision of these efforts is to create self-sufficient and economically prosperous rural communities,” said Vembu. Besides this, Zoho is also supporting Kalaivani Kalvi MaiFEATURE CORPORATE SRIDHAR VEMBU Founder & CEO, Zoho Corporation AIm High, India 42 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023

Zoho Corp’s Sridhar Vembu believes the country has the potential and IT talent to be a leader in artificial intelligence innovation, and what’s needed is a strong policy and a national AIm High, India consensus on AI use By Rohit Chintapali “Nearly 2,000 employees are working out of Zoho’s hub-and-spoke offices, located in ( villages and Tier-2/3 towns, out of which about 1,000 employees have been hired locally" ( “The hub-and-spoke model are part of Zoho’s ‘transnational localism’ ( strategy of being locally rooted, while staying globally connected” (

44 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 yam (KKM) school, which is located on its farm campus. It functions as a free learning centre catering to students aged 2-16. The primary focus at KKM is literacy and numeracy, to build a strong foundation in communication and critical thinking. Vocational training such as terracotta jewellery making, two-wheeler mechanism, and cultural training such as martial arts (Silambam) and classical dance (Bharatanatyam) are also added as part of the curriculum. Started in 2020 in Govindaperi village near Tenkasi, KKM school follows the Montessori system for primary school and is aligned with the National Institute of Open Schooling. Its objective is to empower the students with practical life skills and befitting capabilities, which will guide them when they graduate in pursuing college studies or directly taking up a job or entrepreneurship. “The driving philosophy behind the rural initiatives is to preserve and revitalise small villages and towns before they decline due to severe urban migration and lack of resources. The future generation in the rural areas needs to be enabled with the necessary skills, capabilities, and tools to nurture grassroots innovation, solve local problems, locally manufacture high-value goods, and drive community progress,” said Vembu. ‘Go For AI, India’ In April, Vembu hosted journalists at Zoho’s Tenkasi office and he spoke about the need for India to go head-first into artificial intelligence (AI) innovation to prevent international monopolies from forming. He suggested that the country needed to do something on the scale of Digital Public Goods, which has already been lauded by leaders across the globe, including Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. At present, the US and China are undoubtedly leading the global pack in the AI revolution, which is touted to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. According to a recent Goldman Sachs report, Generative AI alone is expected to increase global GDP by $7 trillion and lift productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points over 10 years. But much before ChatGPT’s famous public rollout in November 2022, IBM CEO Aravind Krishna had predicted that AI could contribute as much as $10 trillion to the global GDP over the coming decade. We can only assume that this number could be much higher considering the interest the space has received in the months bygone. Despite the existing conundrums around the risks posed by AI, Vembu says India must have a strong AI policy in place to excel in the space. He also announced he had signed an Open Letter addressed to stakeholders including IT researchers, academicians, industry leaders, and members of civil society to help evolve a national consensus on how to utilise AI to achieve national goals. This letter was also signed by Rajiv Kumar (Chairman, Pahle India Foundation) and Sharad Sharma (Co-founder of iSPRIT Foundation). Last year, when BW Businessworld had the chance to speak to NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang during a press conference, he too said (much like Vembu) that the age of classical enterprise computing had reached a plateau. Huang said that new computing has emerged - artificial intelligence (AI). He emphasised that the presence of IT talent and companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro in India gave the country a chance on delivering its AI expertise to the world’s enterprises. Software Jobs Will Get Hit By AI It isn’t lost on the global software community that the emergence of low-code no-code (LCNC) and now, with the ascendance of AI, their jobs would be affected. During the press conference at TenJENSEN HUANG, Founder & CEO, NVIDIA “The presence of IT talent and companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro give India a chance to deliver its AI expertise to the world” Local to Global: (Clockwise from right) An employee working at Zoho’s Madurai office; Zoho’s Madurai office; Tenkasi Hub office; and Sridhar Vembu at KKM School on Zoho’s farm campus FEATURE CORPORATE Photograph courtesy: NVIDIA

Explaining further, Vembu says, “That’s why you build up your reserves during good times so that you can withstand a loss during bad times. That way the employees have a measure of security, which translates into longer-term R&D culture. That’s what we want to do.” The statement from Vembu comes at a time when the world’s most valuable companies including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, Disney, Accenture, Indeed, McKinsey, Zoom, Yahoo, SAP, Walmart and many more have announced tens of thousands of job cuts. The total number of layoffs at these major companies in 2023 stands at over 2,00,000 in 2023 alone. These companies had admittedly over-hired, in anticipation of a greater tech boom, only to realise that they had made a mistake as things worsened in 2022 and 2023. But despite the tough times, Vembu insists that retaining employees in the current climate will provide Zoho employees a measure of security, which would translate into a longer-term R&D culture. Record Customer Wins In March Vembu believes that the signs are positive for his company despite the anticipated drop in tech spending all over the world in 2023. During the press conference at Zoho’s Tenkasi office, he noted that the company had signed up its highestever number of customers in a month during March 2023. Zoho Suite has six lakh customers in 2023 and the number is expected to reach one million in one-and-half years. Talking to BW Businessworld, Vembu stressed that companies doing business with Salesforce in India or ServiceNow are overpaying and that those technologies are not “worth it”. “We can replace them at enormous savings. This is true for our US customers and it is also true for European customers. This applies to our Indian customers as well. And we saw that switch just last month when we won a lot of deals in March,” he said, adding that Zoho could compete aggressively with Salesforce and ServiceNow in the present tough market conditions by offering both superior products and vastly superior value. In 2023, Zoho has now set its sights on eastern Uttar Pradesh and surrounding areas to implement its hub-andspoke model and is currently focused on beginning its journey in the northern part of the country with the vision of making India its #1 market in the next seven to ten years, displacing the US from numero uno position. [email protected] kasi, Vembu emphasised that soon companies would longer need armies of programmers/software developers as Large Language Models (LLMs) could train and learn code from each other and enhance it. The Goldman Sachs report mentioned earlier in this story also highlighted that AI systems would have a major impact on employment markets. Increased automation is expected to affect job losses of up to 300 million in the future. “Jobs AI will pose a threat to would-be programming jobs. I have been saying this internally for at least four to five years now because I saw the potential of how much automation could be done in software development,” Vembu said. Hard Times But No Layoffs Back at his home at Zoho’s farm, Vembu told BW Businessworld that Zoho was willing to sacrifice profit and accept losses for a certain period in order to persist with the company’s no-layoff policy despite the tough times globally. According to him, in the current tough market scenario companies should focus on research and development (R&D) and build a company culture as it would matter in the long run. “That’s why we have taken a no-layoff policy at Zoho. We would rather share the pain with our employees,”he says. There has been no-layoffs at Zoho despite the tough market conditions even as the world’s most valuable ( companies including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter undertake job cuts in thousands (

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20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 47 A N evil head of a kingdom always provokes revolt and the people rise against him and overthrow him. But a good king who is himself a pious person, who selflessly conducts his laws and keeps his people happy, it is only then, his people will observe all social laws and will be noble people. The king or Prime Minister according to Veda should have these qualifications: “Brahmacharyena tapasaa raajaa2 raastram viraksati” – (Atharva Veda XI-5-17). 2.Raajaa – is a derivative of ‘Raaj’. “Deeptow” – to glow, illuminate, shine – he should be praiseworthy and popular. Raja, in Veda, does not mean a king. It may be any illustrious, strong, virtuous person, with love for his people (Dhatupath BhawadigaNo.894). The hymn explains: Raajaa – The king or the Prime Minister (Viraksati) is duty bound to protect perfectly, (tapasaa) very wisely and diligently (raastram) his kingdom and it (brahma) is only then that the State can be prosperous. According to this hymn, a person who is fully dedicated to his country and people and who is learned, wise, active, dexterous and powerful should be selected as the head of the nation and country. There is no question of any hierarchy or lineage system in selection of the head of a kingdom. “Baahoo Raajañyah Krtah” – (Yajur Veda XXXI – 11). Baahoo: The Prime Minister has two arms, with their appendages, hands and fingers etc. If someone attacks someone, it is the arms which go forward and protect the body. It is their specific duty to protect the whole body as a defensive organ. In this way, they serve as an agent of defence and offence. In the case of a nation, it is like Ministries of Defence & Home. They are also called Baahoo Bandhanaat. “Baahoo means binding agents and system”. This hold is for dangerous persons who have criminal intentions. They are to be strongly controlled and held tight. So, Baahoo are agents to hold or control the society. The other hold is a gentle embrace, which shows praise and appreciation, as one does to a good person etc., appreciation of people’s good doings. In this way arms function like the Home Ministry of a country; because it is the duty of this ministry to thoroughly catch hold of the evil elements of the society for punishment and encourage and praise, and show warmth and reward those people who serve the nation by performing their duties well. In short, the arms thus serve the body as Defence, Offence and Home Ministries of a nation. Again, Lord Manu describes the king as an amalgamation of the following qualities: “Indra anila yamarkaanaam agneshcha varunasya cha chandra vitteshayowshchaiva maatraa nirhrtya shaashvateeh” – (Manu Smriti VII4). (Indra) He should be an epitome of great potential and might, that is powerful and strong, (anila) fast like wind and force, (Yama) strong, just administrator and preserver of all laws. He should also be furious and harsh towards evil forces, (chandra) cool and pleasant in temperament like the moon and watchful to manage (vittesha) his treasures, vaults and finances, so that they grow and do not have deficit budgets. The person selected as the head of the country must have the above qualifications, before one can think of prosperity and well-being of the nation and the country. “Sve Sve dharma nivistaanaam sarvesaam aanupoorvashah varnaanaam aashramaanaam cha raajaa srsto abhirakshitaa” – (Manu Smriti VII-35). The selected head of the State should have the capability to make (aashrame) everyone function in his individual order of life, (varnaanaam) in his profession (sve sve dharma) such that they perform their social duties faithfully, in all their vocations. Yajur Veda warns the king thus: “Ksatrasya yonirasi ksatrasya naabhirasi maa twaa hinseen maamaa hinseeh” – (Yajur Veda XX-1). It says: Oh King! (Yonirasi) you are the source or the centre of law, for protection from (ksatrasya) disintegration. You are (naabhi) the binding force, which (ksatrasya) saves us from dissolution and degeneration of society, nation or the country. Veda again explains: “Yatra brahma cha ksatram cha samyanchow charatah saha tam lokam punyam prajñesam yatra devaah saha agninaa” – (Yajur Veda XX-25). It states: Remember – (yatra) when or wherever (brahma) growth, prosperity and (ksatram cha) prevention from disintegration or loss, both are thoroughly observed together, (tam lokam) in those circumstances or situations (punyam prajñesam) may it be known to you, Criteria For Prime Minister An Ideal Daksha Bharadwaj, Founder Trustee, Dr Satyakam Bharadwaj Vedic Research Foundation, elucidates on the qualities that an ideal prime minister must possess based on Vedic ethos Photographs by PMO/PIB

48 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023 that there resides happiness and proliferation and prosperity and (yatra), it is on this principle that (devah) the wise act (saha agninaa) diligently, dexterously and industriously. The king should be careful, to protect the savings of the nation and not to squander and waste for wrong and wasteful purposes, and on non-productive projects. Veda advises the king thus: “Shiro me shree Yasho mukham (5) Jihvaa me bhadram (6) Baahu me Balam Indriyam hastow me karma Veeryam aatmaa ksatram uro mama (7)” – (Yajur Veda XX-5,6,7) . The king (shiro me shree) should always bear in his mind, the sustenance and the preservation of his people (Yasho mukham). His actions and administration should be such that his people have nothing but praise in their speech for him. (Baahoo Balam) He should have power and strength to hold the whole country and the society and save them from all the evils and disintegration. All his administrators and workers should be laborious and active, (karma and Veeryam) firm in their duties, strong and active in all accomplishments. May he always (uro) in his heart (ksatram) bear that the society does not disintegrate, rather his people may attain progressive prosperity. The king must always feel confident and be so strong that he could proudly say: “Krtam me daksine haste jayo me savya aahitah” – (Atharva Veda VII-50-8). “May my right hand work so hard, and virtuously, that my left hand may enjoy the victory and total accomplishments”. Veda advises the king again: “Chaksusmate shrvate te braveemi maa nah prajaam reeriso maa uta veeraan” – (Yajur Veda XXXV-7). Oh King! Always (chaksusmat) be vigilant with open eyes and look to the State affairs and (shrnvata) always (te braveemi) lend a patient ear to the people’s complaints, be watchful and look to the best of the nation. Lord Manu lays special stress on the moral and ethics of a king or the head of the country. He says: “Indriyaanaam jaye yogam samaatisthed divaanisham Jitendriyo hi shaknoti vashe sthaapayitum prajaah” – (Manu Smriti VII-44). The king should, day and night, keep all his senses (Jaye) under his strong control. Such a king who himself observes all social ethics and upholds them, it is only such a king who can (Vashe sthaapitum) keep under control and hold and guide (prajaa) his people and nation, on high social and national ethics. He should himself observe all social codes and it is then his people would follow. It is often said “Yathaa raajaa Yathaa prajaa”, that is, “as is the king so is his subject”. In my opinion after analysing what Vedas command, almost all the qualities are the basis of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ethos towards protecting us and taking forward the nation, keeping in mind the welfare of all irrespective of relation, caste and creed, punishing the evil and the seditious anti-nationals. His stature as the leader of the word who reaches out and helps the needy globally has been recognised by the world. I would like to add that it is after centuries that we have a Prime Minister/ Ruler in our country who has brought about fantastic change within a short period of eight years by following the Vedic ethos of how the country should be ruled in terms of Protection and Prosperity and Progress for one and all living in Bharatvarsh. “It is after centuries that we have a Prime Minister who has brought about fantastic change within a short period of eight years by following the Vedic ethos of how the country should be ruled” INSIGHT INSIGHT

20 May 2023 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 49 In an exclusive interaction, Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder & CEO of Exotel talks about how they want businesses to deepen their connection with customers, one conversation at a time. Just like a friend By Team BW What is Exotel’s position as a business platform for orchestrating connected customer conversations? Today businesses are talking to customers who use multiple products at different stages of their buying journey. For the most part, these solutions don’t talk to each other and work in silos. This only ends up creating a broken experience for the customer. Conversations are fragmented, impersonal and lack understanding and empathy. The winning businesses will be those that treat customers like a friend - in the way they listen, in the way they connect, in the way they anticipate and also in the way they personalise their customer experiences through conversation. With all this, businesses must also protect the customer’s privacy and keep the customer safe during the conversation. With expanded and essential business capabilities, Exotel’s connected customer platform is uniquely positioned to help businesses communicate with customers seamlessly and at scale, everywhere and faster than ever before. The new Exotel combines an omnichannel contact centre, a communications API suite and a Conversational AI application on one powerful platform. Businesses now have less need for multiple conversation products and solutions that tend to be disjointed, lack customer history and insight, or fail to deliver a personalised or empathetic conversation. Our new brand purpose is to create a world where businesses “Personalising CX By Connecting Customer Conversations Is The Gold Standard” INTERVIEW and customers are not strangers to each other. Where conversations between them happen like a friend, on any channel the customer is satisfied with. We want businesses to deepen their connection with customers, one conversation at a time. Just like a friend. We tomer conversations, with businesses using multichannel approaches instead of just relying on voice. As younger generations are more comfortable engaging with companies through chat, this presents opportunities for businesses to expand the use of chatbots. ChatGPT has the potential to disrupt the customer engagement space and enhance companies’ conversational AI products. This will help boost the selfservice capabilities of chatbots, resulting in reduced costs for businesses over time while increasing the customer satisfaction. As conversational and generative AI gain popularity, businesses are realising the crucial role of automation. ChatGPT leads the way in transforming the CX landscape. By automating repetitive tasks, reducing wait times, and improving response times, ChatGPT’s conversational abilities extend to handling FAQs, product queries, customer support, and even sales assistance. This allows businesses to streamline operations, cut costs, and improve CX metrics such as customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. Please elucidate on Exotel’s presence and plans for leadership in emerging markets. We are looking to further expand our full-stack suite of offerings into markets within Southeast Asia and the Middle East. So far, the full-stack platform has been rolled out in Indonesia for about a year and we recently entered the UAE market. In the UAE, we have set up a local entity and partnered with local telecom operators to offer our full spectrum of services. We are currently observing how those markets are responding and then are looking to launch in Saudi Arabia. hope our new brand identity resonates with businesses that want to grow based on customer loyalty and affinity. What are the trends in Customer Experience (CX) and the role of ChatGPT in enhancing CX? In the coming year, messaging will become increasingly important in cusShivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder & CEO of Exotel

Y OUNG E NTREPRENEUR A WARDS ESSAY Ranging from beauty and personal care to apparel, logistics to food and healthtech to fintech, 15 top enterprises and entrepreneurs stand above their peers By Team BW THE YOUNG & ENTERPRISING The year gone was among the tougher ones for the Indian startup ecosystem in general. Many of the planned developments got delayed and the headlines were a mix of cost-cutting, restructuring and layoffs. Despite the prolonged funding winter, the wave of mass layoffs, Initial Public Offer call-offs, and major banks collapsing in global markets, many entrepreneurs in India stood strong. Not only have they survived, but these startups have taken great strides in making a large-scale impact and generating revenue. BW Businessworld and BW Disrupt took a closer look at some of these young companies, which proved their ideas and business models, and took the right initiatives indicating that the road ahead will most likely see them becoming established large enterprises of tomorrow. India’s Time Is Now India’s startup ecosystem has seen consistent growth even in challenging times. According to a report by Statista, in the year 2022, around 19,000 startups were recognised by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). India’s startups have been growing since 2016, with their numbers swelling to more than 92,000 as of March 2023. Given the size of India’s consumer base, young entrepreneurs have been able to spot the whitespaces even in India’s best-regarded sectors, such as financial services, automotive, and more. The rise of technology-led solutions has assisted them in adding Photograph by Mentalmind 50 | B W BUSINESSWORLD | 20 May 2023