The Nawaab of Bombay House, Ishaat Hussain, began his talk last Tuesday by telling the Rotarians why he chose to speak on corporate culture. The innumerable corporate misdemeanors globally, and especially locally, in the last two years are a cause for concern and confusion. What is wrong with the corporate world in our status quo?...
Padma Shri recipient Sooni Taraporevala has permanent displays for her photographs in the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Her work has also been exhibited in art galleries across the USA, France, and in the Tate Modern Gallery in London. A rendezvous with legendary photographer Raghubir Singh after...
Narrating an incident from a few years ago, Vijay Jatia took to the stage for the first time with his new title - President Jatia. Once, while travelling from Mangalore to Mumbai with his son Mudit, his son was stopped at the boarding gate. The official at the gate asked Mudit, “Are you a Jatia?...
With an unending list of accolades and accomplishments up her sleeve, Dr. Vandana Shiva’s introduction already had the audience awestruck. Dr. Shiva was originally trained as a physicist, who used to “sleep and dream the quanta,” until her attention turned to agriculture after the two tragedies of 1984: the eruption of Punjab violence and the...
Despite being the Managing Director of Bain Capital and a board member of Tata Sons Limited, Amit Chandra’s business acumen and knowledge of banking and equity is not what awed the Rotarians last Tuesday; it was Chandra’s incessant drive to give and better the world that brought the assembly to applause throughout the meeting. When asked about...
Last Tuesday afternoon, Rotarians were privileged to witness a panel discussion between legendary stock market expert Bharat Shah and accomplished macro trends expert Manish Chokhani about the current state of the stock market and the prospect of investing in a seemingly mature bull market. Moderated by Rtn. Dipan Mehta, the discussion was an informative dialogue...
According to Uday Kotak, the Tuesday speaker, Indian corporate governance can be measured by four quadrants. To most Indians these quadrants are already known, but from the speaker’s narration, they were recalled in a manner that will definitely make them hard to forget. “The top right quadrant is the Rama quadrant,” as we all know Lord...
The week before last, we heard Deepak Parekh’s perspective on the government’s development efforts in our city. As the chairman of the Housing Development Finance Corporation, he was very optimistic about the government's plan for our city. The same optimism percolated into the speech of Niranjan Hiranandani, the speaker last Tuesday. As you well know, he...
Deepak Parekh is the Chairman of the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC). By now, the corporation has financed over six million homes. Therefore, when he was presented the Citizen of Mumbai Award, it was a Rotarian who suggested, “He should be honoured not only as a citizen of Mumbai, but as a citizen of India.” As...
Dilip Doshi, former Indian cricketer, was invited to the weekly meeting last Tuesday, entrusted to share his thoughts on a very topical issue: Ethics. Although the subject has been well dissected by some of the greatest philosophers, Doshi’s perspective was rather refreshing. His sporting and business career inspired some very interesting parallels between sportsmanship and...
Should it not be assumed that a speaker, given a keen audience, a good thirty minutes to speak, and a buffet lunch at the Taj Mahal Hotel, is a little too complacent about the honour if he begins his speech by saying, “I will be a little short because I have to catch a flight...
The Tuesday meeting began not with a speaker as is typical, but a technical glitch that made the experience of singing the national anthem a little more heroic, for we had to keep in tune without being guided by the backing track. Till the last moment, many were unsure whether or not to assume that the...