Post Event Report

TAKE PRIDE 2017

TAKE PRIDE SUMMIT

A detailed overview of the sessionsThe 13th annual day of Young Indians and the two day national summit ‘Take Pride’ started on 24 March 2017 at Hotel Taj palace, New Delhi. Starting off on a noble gesture of paying homage to the country, Vivin Mathew, the Emcee of the programme requested everyone to rise to sing the national anthem.

The troop of musicians brought together by the Leap foundation and led by Srinivas Krishnan, who is associated with AR Rahman in many of his major productions, rendered the national anthem, a prayer song and the song ‘vande mataram’ . The team of musicians were also introduced to the gathering - Saurabh Dhamne, Pooja, Harsohena, Nidhi, Dhivya & Roopini – Vocals, Embar Kannan – Electric Violin and Ravi Shankar on the Keyboard

Following this, the summit was inaugurated by Ajay S Shriram, Past President, CII and Chairman & Sr. Managing Director, DCM Shriram Ltd who along with Raghu Kailas, National Chairman, Yi & Managing Director, Unimo Exports Pvt Ltd, Jacob Joy, National Vice Chairman, Yi & Director, JJ confectionery Pvt Ltd, Amita Sarkar, Deputy Director General, CII Central Office and Anamika Kalia, Director, CII & National Head, CII- Yi lighted the lamp.

Acknowledging the wonderful mood that was created for the conference by the solemn rendering of the national anthem, Ajay Shriram emphasized the need to play the national anthem at every possible gathering to instil the feeling of pride for our country. He further provided a snapshot of the current economic situation, the challenges and opportunities that we face as a country and what, we, as Indians, can do for the society, while taking pride for the society. He opined that the country was in a sweat spot, as far as the economy was concerned. With several significant changes in policy being initiated, every state in the country is working on inviting investments and improving Ease of Doing Business.

The implementation of GST would also help raise the GDP by 1.5-2%, predicted Mr Shriram. Speaking on challenges, Mr Shriram said that the largest challenge that the country faced today was in offering productive employment opportunities for the current demographic profile of the country. He encouraged Yi to take up skilling initiatives so as to overcome this major challenge. He also emphasized the need to bring in greater transparency in the country’s functioning, both within the government and outside it too.

He invited Yi to make greater use of the resources offered by CII and the reach it promised across the country and world to grow the organization (Yi). Capitalize on CII’s presence and work closely with CII to fulfil Yi’s goals, he advised. Raghu Kailas also welcomed the gathering to the programme by giving a brief overview of Yi, its goals and objectives. The Take Pride summit, initiated last year, is basically a platform for young Indians to inspire and be inspired, explained Raghu.

Raghu, on behalf of Yi, offered a memento to Ajay Shriram as a token of appreciation. Exclusive interactive sessions with Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, Paytm, Atul Satija, Founder & CEO, The Nudge Foundation, Acharya Balakrishnan, Managing Director, Patanjali Ayurved, Srikant Bolla, Founder & CEO, Bollant Industries were organized during the day.

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Game Changers – New Age Businesses that use Technology to their advantage - A panel discussion on “Game Changers – New Age Businesses that use Technology to their advantage” by Ajit Issac, CEO & CMD, Quess Corp Ltd, Ankur Warikoo, Founder & CEO, Nearbuy.com, Chikki Sarkar, Founder & Publisher, Juggernaut, Tarun Sharma, Managing Director, BioPay at SIXCAP was organized. They spoke about how technology has transformed businesses and opened up new business opportunities.

CASH (LESS) IS KING?- Vijay Shekhar Sharma speaking on “Cash (Less) is king” narrated how by living through an idea one is passionate and committed about can bring the needed thrust in navigating through uncertain times. He also spoke about evolving ideas and the need to be flexible with one’s ideas so as to allow changes and leave it when the idea is no longer relevant. He strongly propagated the need to encourage more women to the IT sector and take up entrepreneurship as a career option. The session was moderated by Pranjal Sharma, Economic Analyst and Writer.

A Q & A session followed the initial address by Vijay. On the question on how he helped his team to take pride, he replied that all that he asked of his team members was to believe that they were making history. If we are not making history, then why work, he said. He also explained how Paytm was a product of his problems. As a person who always forgot his wallet, Paytm was the solution to his problem. With a strong urge to fly high and make his country proud, he refused to move to the Silicon Valley in search of a career.

Taking a bet on his own country that India would one day become a technology hub, he started Paytm in India. All this while. India was looked upon for managing backend operations for the developed world. But now we are in a situation where we are in the front end, said Vijay taking pride in his country. Speaking further on his branding strategy, he explained how he positioned his brand in a supreme way, without getting cluttered between numerous ads. Hence Patym never spent on ads in TV channels, news channels etc.

Looking forward, within a period of 10 years, all that one had to do was smile and the payment would be automatically made, he predicted. He plans to make a global brand and was on his way to launch Paytm in other countries as Canada. It is the next guy who says he would kill me who inspires me the most, Vijay replied to the question on where he drew his inspiration from. Success is a gourmet and not a two minute noodles, he advised concluding that we would make India great again. Shaurya Veer Himatsingka, past National chairman gave a memento to Vijay as a token of appreciation

Nudging India towards gainful employment - Atul Satija spoke about his experience of starting a not-for-profit organization The Nudge Foundation, which worked towards imparting soft skills and other skills for 18-25 year olds who are unable to afford good education. Every individual is built on three foun-dations – an economic foundation, a learning foundation and a life foundation.

The life foundation refers to what one learns outside school and deals largely with one’s ability to manage information, make decisions, manage finances etc. Following a gurukul system of education, the nudge Foundation imparts 100-day programmes on life management with a specialization (as driving, beauty etc.). All the gurukuls under the Nudge foundation are corporate funded and the first batch of 1200 students would be graduating this year, informed Atul. All of us have a default future. If you don’t want this to be our future, we have to declare a break down, advised Atul.

Atul spoke about the massive entry barriers to the non-profit sector as there was hardly any support system. It is very tough to find a balance between making money and doing good. On the question of why he chose the non-profit sector leaving a very high paying and lucrative job, he replied that he gained very little joy from money and this was the major reason why he chose to make the shift. There are many who go for higher education, have high aspirations but very few have higher learning, he said. Following his address and the Q & A session, Jacob Joy handed over the memento to Atul.

With the increase in digitalization and increasing availability of free digital content, Chikki spoke about the difficulties she faced in getting people to pay for digital content. They were currently in the process of creating a database of digital customers who are willing to pay. IOS customers are better customers than android customers, observed Chikki. They are more loyal and more willing to pay. She also spoke about the strategies they adopted as a publisher to get more people to read digital content and pay for it such as breaking down large stories into smaller chapters and selling them separately.

Tarun Sharma spoke about his organization which helped doctors manage their patients better and help people to manage their health better with the help of technology. Ankur Warikoo spoke on how people today are more comfortable being creeped out or leaving behind their digital footprint. If a person spends 15 minutes on an app, there is 83% predictability on what he/ she would buy, explained Ankur. Food, spa and healthcare were the most sought after products online, observed Ankur. On the strategy of attracting online customers through discounts, Ankur said that, In India, it is still the most largely used and effective strategy as India is still a poor country and marketing products with a focus on convenience or efficiency was farfetched in the present scenario. The session was moderated by Vivin Mathew Director, Irasa Housing Ltd. & Co-Founder, India Innovation Prize Following this session, the gathering broke for lunch.

The Patanjali Story – Building India’s fastest growing FMCG Brand - Acharya Balakrishnan, Managing Director, Patanjali Ayurved spoke about the unconventional background and methods with which the FMCG brand Patanjali had charted its success story. He spoke about how a good or a noble intention behind launching a new product can move much ahead of market surveys and normal corporate mantras in giving your product its success.

Patanjali does not sell only products. They also focus on areas where MNCs are exploiting by over pricing. A person is never small or big; his vision is, said Acharya. The more you grow in life, strengthen your roots. Nothing can shake it, advised Acharya. The session was moderated by Shaurya Veer Himatsingka, past National chairman The session was very well received and the gathering expressed their appreciation for Acharya by giving him a standing ovation.

India Innovation – Will an Indian product make it to the world stage in the next five years - A second panel discussion on “India Innovation Will an Indian product make it to the world stage in the next five years” led by Kanika Tekriwal, Founder, JetSetGo, Dr Ritesh Malik, CEO, Innov8.work, Saket Modi, Founder, Lucideus, Shafique Ansari, CMD, Irasa Housing Ltd & C-Founder, India Innovation Prize was held. They spoke about the need to instil the attitude and habit of innovation through the education system. Dr Ritesh emphasized the need to have a free mind to innovate and explained the difficulty one faces when pressurized.

To provide an interlude and entertain members, Karan Singh, India's leading Illusionist & Hypnotist performed few magic tricks and mind reading games for the members. The acts left the audience dumbstruck and Karan Singh promised to return back at a later stage with more tricks.

What it takes to build a 50crore business against all odds - Srikant Bolla, Founder & CEO, Bollant Industries who is a differently abled entrepreneur spoke about his life journey and how difficult situations in life had encouraged him to develop his potentials in the best possible way. He held that exposure to the right things at the right age is very important.

But what one does with the exposure is one’s choice, he added. He defined success as seeing yourself wherever you look.

Since inception, Bollant industries had grown at the rate of 20% a month and they had a revenue of over Rs 40 Crores, informed Srikant.

Only when there are hardships in life do you perform the best, said Srikant.

common platform having representation from across the country, in an era where sectoral and regional differences are creating more barriors for cooperative living and inclusive growth. He encouraged the youth to be self-reliant and come up with solutions for the problems that they face, without depending on others as the Government orinternational funding. Our belief in self, confidence and ability to deliver will determine the progress of our country, he said. Emphasizing the need to stretch our hori-zons, he shared the government’s goal that by 2022, when Independent India turns 75, would be to provide shelter for every family, electricity, water and sanitation for every home, a road leading to every home and provide quality healthcare and education for all. He also shared the government’s plans to make India have 100% electric cars by 2030 which would save the country over $100 billion worth of fuel imports. Its Big Heavy Audacious Goals (BHAG) that will change the destiny of the country, he concluded.

Towards the end of the day, awards and recognitions for chairs of Yi chapters and GC members were distributed. This was followed by a powerful musical performance by Valerie Naranjo, World renowned percussionist of Saturday Night Live & Lion King and the musicians of the Leap Foundation

The day ended with cocktails and dinner. The theme for the party was “traditional with a twist” and members came dressed in their traditional attires, adding their creativity to bring about the twist.

Enlightenment, Experiments & Explorations - The day’s discussions ended with an exclusive Interactive session with Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Government of India. He congratulated Yi for creating such a large

Yi TAKE PRIDE SUMMIT 2017 CONTINUES

Keeping up with the spirit of the first day of the two day national summit ‘Take Pride’, the 2nd day of the summit continued on 25 March 2017 with the same vigour and enthusiasm

A Detailed Overview of the sessions on Day 2

Live Simply, Spend Frugally, Dream Boldly, Create Magnificently - The day started with a lively interactive session with Dr A Velumani, Chairman & Managing Director, Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. Speaking about his incredible journey as an entrepreneur who started off from Rs 150 per month to a one that has over Rs 3300 crores, Dr Velumani explained how he had converted his apparent ‘disadvantage’ of being born into a poor family to the most valued fortune of his life. He called this the ‘luxury of poverty’. If you do what you have studied, you will survive. But if you do what you don’t know, you would be a leader, said Dr Velumani who narrated his story of building up a venture for which he had no relevant educational background then. Villages are the true universities and not big educational institutions like Harvard or Oxford, he said as he recounted the wealth of knowledge and wisdom he had gained from his life experiences in villages. He further stressed on the importance of ‘Focus’ and termed it as the ‘ultimate’ in life. Speaking further on how focus can influence success, he said “when you focus on opportunity, you can’t see competition and when you focus on competition, you can’t see opportunity”. He concluded by congratulating Yi for the wonderful programme and said that it was the biggest event he had attended in the last one year.

The lines that divide patriotism, equality and intolerance and the games that are played around it - A panel discussion on “The lines that divide patriotism, equality and intolerance and the games that are played around it” was held. Led by Chetan Bhagat, Bestselling author & TV presenter, JJ Valaya, Fashion Designer, Dr Kaushik Bhaumik, Associate Professor (Cinema Studies), Jawaharlal Nehru University, the discussions focussed on what freedom means to each of them and how the line between freedom and discipline should be maintained.

Looking Ahead – Life lessons from a Global Leader & an Institution Builder - Rajat Gupta, American Businessman & Former CEO, McKinsey & Company spoke about his experiences that had defined the course of his life. Life is full of experiences. It is neither good nor bad; it is what you make of it, he said. Revealing his secret of success, he said ‘if you let others succeed, then others would help you succeed’. He also emphasized the need for business like thinking to address social issues. He gave a very touching recount of his 19 months of experience in imprisonment.

Havells 2000 - Rs. 30 Crores; Havells 2017 - Rs. 27,000 Crores: SHOCK laga! Anil Rai Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, Havells India Ltd presented how he worked to expand the organization which his father founded. A great believer of professional entrepreneurship, he professed the need to bring in process and rigour into your job. He strongly supported the GST initiative and saw this as the biggest reform in the Indian economy after the economic reforms of 1992-93. He also explained his model of increasing sales by not setting targets, but by empowering traders and dealers that they work with. Quoting from the Bhagavat Gita, he advised the need to master the art of attaching and detaching. Nothing is too small to overlook nor nothing is too big to overcome, he said. The session was moderated by Pranjal Sharma, Economic Analyst and Writer

Leadership Lessons from Sports, Politics and Life - A lively interactive session with Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Hon’ble Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Government of India and Olympic Medalist, moderated by Harsha Bhogle, Indian Cricket Commentator & Journalist was organized. The minister spoke about his career spanning three different professions as an army personnel, athlete and a politician. Filled with a perpetual yearning to grow and develop, his willingness and ability to deliver on his promises had taken him to heights in all the three careers that he had pursued.

The need to prove oneself was the one common thread that ran along all the three careers he had pursued, observed the Minister. Don’t try to kill competition within your country or else we will never be able to kill competition outside our country, he advised. It was self-respect and the will to do something big that motivated me in all three careers, concluded Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

The increasing political activism and violence in colleges were explored from different perspectives and how they impact lives of students who do not engage in such activities. All of them strongly held that freedom is important, but it should not be at the cost of individual discipline. Six other interactive sessions with individuals from varying backgrounds as business, sports, politics and journalism were held during the day.

He also read out a poem that he had penned for his friend, while in prison. During the Q & A session that followed, he described his fundamental nature of trusting everybody and over committing himself as his biggest weakness. The session was moderated by DNV Kumara Guru, Past National Chairman, Yi & Director - External Relations and HR, ISB.

I did it my way - Seema Rao, India’s first and only Woman Commando Trainer addressed the gathering. Giving a very inspirational message of stretching one’s limits, she gave an account of her life and how she took up martial arts, emerged as a runner up in the Mrs India World Competition, came out with several books and films that had received critical reviews amongst many other achievements. ‘Intense desires creates its own talents and opportunities’, she said. Speaking about her encounter with three rag pickers at Chowpatty beach in Mumbai, she described how the event turned out to be the turning point in her life for it gave her a taste of her strength and the power of the moment. It is very important to take the first step, she advised. She professed a principle of cautious boldness to take on the world.

A View from the top – A fighter pilot’s world view - A session on ‘A View from the top- A fighter pilot’s world view’ by SP Dharkar AVSM, Air Vice Marshal was organized. With over 32 years in the Airforce and 41 years with Military, the Air Vice Marshal gave an overview of his life as a strike pilot and in the air force.

Leading Indian Investigative Journalist - Josy Joseph, Leading Indian investigative Journalist also spoke on his book, ‘A feast of vultures – the hidden business of democracy in India”.

Acche Din- Myth or Reality - Another panel discussion on “Acche Din- Myth or Reality” with Dinesh Trivedi, Member of Parliament (MP), All India Trinamool Congress, Jay Panda, MP & Leader, BJD, Meenakshi Lekhi, MP & Spokesperson, BJP was organized. All the panellists unanimously agreed that the Achhe din is not far away and the prospectives for the country appeared much more positive than before.

Yi also signed an MOU with Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCP) by which Yi entered into a partnership with KSCP on the aspect of tackling child sexual abuse and trafficking by undertaking projects/initiatives/raising funds. The Yi initiative Masoom was launched by Shri Kailash Satyarthi, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize & Founder, KSCP in 2015. The objective of CII-Yi’s engagement on this initiative is to spread awareness and desensitise the issues on Child Sexual Abuse by conducting workshops with children of age 7years-13years, primary school teachers, visiting schools to teach children about safe and unsafe touch, sensitise the parents about it and to spread awareness in the public through rallies & campaigns.

Yi chapters were also recognised for their contribution towards Nation Building, Thought Leadership and Youth Leadership.

The 100 million for 100 million campaign, led by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi will see 100 million children and young people raising their voices and becoming the torch-bearers for protection of 100 million vulnerable children around the world. This unique movement will create a generation of aware, conscientious, and prepared global citizens, empowered to demand their rights as well as the rights of others like them through series of activities, organic in nature, led and guided by Mr Satyarthi over a period of five years. In 2017, the first year of the campaign, Mr Satyarthi will lead a march in India against all forms of sexual violence against and trafficking of children. This MOU would link ‘Masoom’, an initiative of Young Indians, with the ‘100 million for 100 million’ campaign’s India chapter towards protected childhoods in India.

Yi ANNUAL DAY 2016 – 2017

The Annual Session of Young Indians 2016-17 was organized where Jacob Joy, Director, JJ confectionery Pvt Ltd took over as the National Chairman for 2017-18 from Raghu Kailas who was the National Chairman for 2016-17. Anuj Kothari, Founder & Partner, Wholistix Foods was nominated as the Vice Chairman for Yi for the year 2017-18.

The Yi Alumni was formally launched by Srikant Suryanarayan, Past National chairman, Yi and Mala Patodia, Export Executive, GTN Enterprises. The Yi Alumni would involve Yi members who have crossed the age of 45 but still hold the passion for Yi close to their hearts, explained Srikant and Mala. The first 12 members who had agreed to be part of Yi Alumni were announced during the programme.Past national chairmen as Srikant Suryanarayan, Kumara Guru, Shankar Vanavarayar, Rahul Mirchandani also spoke on the occasion.

Yi’S GOT TALENT

Following this members who were shortlisted for Yi’s got talent competition performed. The results for the same were also announced after the programme. The two day Take Pride summit and the Yi Annual day 2017 came to a close with a DJ night and cocktail dinner.

Yi Jaipur

Musical Extravaganza by Jonqui & Rittesh Sikri

Yi Jaipur

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See you at Take Pride 2018