“Keep improving on the base that has been created,” says DGE Ajay Gupta
Ajay Gupta
Good afternoon, friends. Today, we have amongst us District Governor Elect Ajay Gupta and his lovely wife R/Anne Ranju. I am privileged to introduce Ajay, who always believes in doing good to people. He prefers hearing before judging and thinks before he speaks. Service above self is the motto of his life. He is dedicated, clean in his actions and, above all, honest by nature. Ajay is an ever-smiling, innovative, hard-working, dedicated and passionate Rotarian. Born in Mumbai, he studied at Green Lawns High School and graduated with a degree in industrial and production engineering from M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru. In 1986, he established a Tool Room Unit with CNC Precision Machining. He is presently the Managing Director of Micron Cut (Bombay) Pvt. Ltd.Ajay has served as the International Service Director for the Rotaract Club of West of Chord, Rajajinagar. He has held various important posts at the District level and has won numerous awards and accolades for his service. He is also a multiple Paul Harris fellow.
The charismatic Ajay is loved by all. He is a visionary with commitments and conviction. I now present to you the bold and balanced, young and cautious, knowledgeable and humble DGE Ajay Gupta. – PP Rtn. Kalpana Munshi
Thank you very much for the beautiful introduction, Kalpana. What does a person do when he comes to ‘the Club of Bombay’? The Club which is the great grandfather of all clubs in the city. It really feels good to be honoured here, in the 30th largest Club in the world. You may not know how much people believe in you. This Club does a lot of good work and you all are members of a strongly cohesive group. President Nirav deserves special mention here because he has made a lot of difference to the District. He has changed the perception of the Rotary Club of Bombay. He along with the Ace Presidents have done a fabulous job.
The spirit is to keep improving on the base that has already been created and it is a fabulous base indeed! This year, so many people got together for the welfare of our society. The Wow Core Team with Wow Presidents will also come pretty soon.
My topic is “Light up Rotary — the Wow Way”. We all need to light a candle to light up the world. This was the thought process behind the Annapoorna project conceived by Rtn. Sunil Mehra. The focus of this project is to make the world understand that there is hunger in this world. When I went for the International Assembly, I was shocked to know that there is hunger in Florida and in many other parts of the United incident in Germany where an Indian gentleman along with his foreign partners visited a restaurant. His host ordered a number of dishes but they were able to finish only half of it. They paid the bill and were about to leave when they were stopped by a small group of elderly German ladies. They were angry because they had wasted food. They called an officer, who fined them 100 euros for wasting the food. The officer told them, “The money is yours; you can waste it all you want. But the resources belong to the community. You have no business to waste our resources.” If a highly industrialised country like Germany can think like that then I think it is time we did too. Thirty-three percent of food in the world is wasted. If we just stop wasting our resources and, instead, use them judiciously we will be able to eliminate hunger and other problems.
Even when it comes to water we enjoy leaving our taps open. However, in the process, we deprive many people of their resources, especially in summer. We are the largest group of Rotarians in the world today, but that is not good enough. The potential for growth here is very high and we need to grow. We need more hands and money to work. We are having this huge conference where we are inviting outsiders to come.
We want everyone to see the potential of this fabulous organisation. There are so many philanthropists, who are ready to give money to our organisation because they believe in us. Why do they believe in us? Because we use their money judiciously and ensure that the money benefits people.
We have had personal discussions with every senior member of the District and then allowed them to form their own teams. Earlier, there used to be complaints about members not functioning. But this time, there cannot be any complaints because they themselves have chosen their teams. They have to work with them and ensure that maximum work is done in this ‘Wow Year’. We began with shubhaarambh — the first meeting with the presidents. After a brainstorming session the Presidents came up with the brilliant logo — hands reaching out to the sky for wisdom. That is how we got the Wow logo. And people are appreciating it. When I walked into the International Assembly, people wanted to know what this was about. Even non-Rotarians want the Wow t-shirts.
We have joined hands with some Districts in California and are trying to get Indians, who can help us in financing projects, to join Rotary. At our 2014 Vision Meet we tried to understand the needs of the District. We then had training and bonding programmes, which were well-attended.
We have ensured that the whole system has a proper plan and place so that people know what they have to do. Now there are some challenges which we might have to face — the Rotary Foundation programmes, district and global grants. You have to present a very solid project to get the money. We need to support the Foundation and work hard on membership growth. Service projects such as polio, literacy, environment, water conservation and sanitation are the normal things. We have to look into challenges arising due to fast urbanisation and address them. Membership retention I think is also a major issue. I strongly believe in the corporate style of functioning. Can anybody here say that I do everything myself? No. Then why is it that in Rotary the President has to do everything? I don’t believe in that at all. The team has to work together at all levels. If everyone contributes, the Club will benefit.
We are also involving the new generation and expanding our presence in social media. Rotary ideas are being pushed through. For the first time in the history of Rotary, every single Club in our District has got an E-administrator. We have people working on the various aspects of social media so that Rotary’s work gets maximum coverage. Our new website will facilitate more interaction. We also have the Roster on Wheels (RoW) to search and connect with Rotarians at a global level. You will know where the programmes are provided your Club subscribes to RoW. We have negotiated a low price to implement this in every Club. It’s just `5,000. The President can also send a message to all members at one go. You don’t have to go through the SMS channel.
We have also come up with a new idea called NGO Coordination, where coordination with the NGOs we have worked with will be taken care of by a full-fledged avenue. So, whatever we can do and whatever we have been doing has been put in place. For Polio Plus, 4.5 billion dollars have already come in; we are short of a billion dollars now. Polio may have been eradicated from India, but we are still in danger since our neighbouring countries still have it. Another feature that has been introduced is the Poonar Nirmaan — revisiting of old projects, seeing what went wrong and bringing them back into shape. A legal cell for women in distress is another aspect, which we need to take forward and, of course, RTI applications.
Sometimes Rotary duty can be like a walk in the park and sometimes it can be as hectic as a race. We need to break out of the shackles and overcome the challenges. The idea is to convert challenges into goals that you need to achieve. We have done the ground work and now it is about starting. The thoughts are in place; it is time to put them into action. Have faith in your fellow Rotarians. We need to learn to lean on each other and share our learning across several networks. Together we can make the impossible possible. The Wow team can do that. We shall be the Rotary wonders of the world.