Yes Bank
YES BANK is India’s fourth-largest private sector bank with a presence across all the 29 states and seven Union Territories of India. Headquartered in the Lower Parel Innovation District (LPID) of Mumbai, it is the outcome of the professional & entrepreneurial commitment of its founder Rana Kapoor and its top management team, to establish a high quality, state-of-the-art private Indian bank with a vision of ‘Building India’s Finest Quality Large Bank’.
YES BANK has adopted international best practices, the highest standards of service quality and operational excellence, and offers comprehensive banking and financial solutions to all its valued customers. It has steadily evolved as the Professionals’ Bank of India, with exemplary business and financial outcomes since inception, with highest profitability and the best asset quality amongst India’s leading public and private banks.
The bank is committed to digital transformation by embracing technology and innovation to create a ‘Digital First’ bank and aid the ongoing transition to a ‘less-cash’ economy. YES BANK has pioneered new paradigms in Digital Banking through an ‘Alliances, Relationships & Technologies (ART)’ approach to foster collaboration & entrepreneurship through initiatives such as the YES FINTECH Accelerator, the YES Head-Startup program and the Bank’s focus on Design & Innovation-led Creative Entrepreneurship (DICE).
TVS
TVS Motor Company Limited is a reputed two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer in India, producing scooters, motorcycles, mopeds and three-wheelers. It ranks among the world’s top ten two-wheeler companies and is the second-largest two-wheeler and three-wheeler exporter in India, distributing to over 60 countries. It was born in 1979 as the flagship brand of the TVS Group, founded by TV Sundaram lyengar. Sitting at the helm is Venu Srinivasan, whose persistent and diligent leadership has led the company to become the largest member of the Group in terms of size and turnover. Headquartered in Chennai, the company is known for its high quality and high-value-for-money products. It has a presence in all segments of the two-wheeler industry.
Wave
With 30 years of experience in finance & accounting, thought leadership & the running of multiple businesses, the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Wave Group, Dr Raju Chadha, has an impeccable record of delivering value and scaling businesses by leading multi-disciplinary business projects and industry growth initiatives. In accordance with Sikhism’s purist origins, Dr Chadha also works on ushering in reforms within the Punjabi diaspora and backing important social causes. He played a key role in the landmark decision with wide ramifications for the Sikh community, whereby Sikhism’s five top priests passed a resolution banning ostentatious weddings and urging religious ceremonies to be held at gurdwaras.
Khadi India
The Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) plans, promotes, organizes and implements programmes for the development of khadi and other village industries in coordination with other agencies engaged in rural development. Its functions also comprise building up of a reserve of raw materials and implements for supplying to producers, creating common service facilities for processing raw materials as semi-finished goods, providing facilities for marketing KVI products; training artisans engaged in these industries and encouraging cooperative efforts amongst them.
PFC
PFC is under the administrative control of the Power Ministry and was conferred the title of a ‘Navratna CPSE’ in June,2007. It plays a crucial role in the rise of India as a global player given that a country’s development is gauged by its energy usage. With a large fraction of the nation still, unfortunately, without any access to electricity, PFC will become an increasingly important factor in the years to come. Despite many hardships played by the power and financial sectors, PFC continues to maintain a healthy loan book, as well as enjoy low levels of NPAs. This is thanks to PFC’s robust evaluation and appraisal processes.
IIFL
IIFL Investment Managers is one of India’s leading investment management companies and part of the IIFL Group, which is among the leaders in the Indian financial services space. The company has catapulted itself to become one of the largest private wealth management firms in India in under a decade. Today, it is the investment and financial advisor to more than 12,900 influential families in the High Net Worth Individuals (HNI) and Ultra HNI segments in India and abroad, with aggregate assets of more than $21 billion under management, advice and distribution. Leading global growth equity firm General Atlantic is invested in the company and holds a 21 per cent stake.
BPCL
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is one of India’s Maharatnas. The oil and gas corporation is headquartered in Mumbai and operates the Mumbai Refinery, which has a capacity of 12 MMTA; Kochi Refineries, with a capacity of 15.5 MMTA; Numaligarh Refinery in Assam, with 3 MMTA capacity; and Bina Refinery, with 6 MMTA capacity. The last is operated by Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd, which is a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum and Oman Oil Company. BPCL is India’s 2nd largest downstream oil company. The business has six SBUs—Retail, Lubricants, Aviation, Refinery, I&C and LPG. The Group has five Indian subsidiaries, six foreign subsidiaries and 23 JVs.
Petronet
Diageo
VLCC
Ahujasons
In June 2018, the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the world's most dangerous country for women. It cited the risks that our women face from sexual violence and harassment, from cultural and traditional practices, and from human trafficking. Was anyone surprised? Probably not. Because everyone knows that in our deeply patriarchal and traditional society, we revere our goddesses but ill-treat our girls. The #MeToo movement, which was slow to come to India but has quietly taken root, shows us the universality of the problem. It tells us that no relationship is sacred, no one is exempt; women from all classes and sections of society are repressed and oppressed here. And yet our women persevere. They fight to get ahead at work and play; they show intelligence, ingenuity and the indomitable spirit of the Devi when going for their goals; and sometimes, just sometimes, they beat the odds and give the world a success story to rejoice in. It is these heart-warming success stories that the Sunday Standard Devi Awards celebrate. The awards are designed to recognize and honour professional women who, through their exceptional work in different sectors, are helping to change the lives and lot of people around them. We instituted the Awards in New Delhi in December 2014, and have since paid tribute to women achievers from around the country. We returned to the capital for the fifth edition of the Devi in the city, and our 16th edition nationally, to celebrate the achievements of ten remarkable women drawn from across the country. Join us in listening to their stories and wishing them strong winds beneath their wings.
Anju Mangla is the first female superintendent at the prison for young male offenders at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Anju likes to think of the inmates as “children in her gurukul” and prefers using the carrot over the stick. In line with that thinking, she has developed reformatory programmes that are designed to reshape the thinking of her young prisoners and to help with their intellectual and spiritual development. She believes most young offenders end up on the wrong side of the law because of a lack of guidance and emotional bonding, and therefore makes a point of regularly interacting with the prisoners to get to the cause of their problems. Her “gurukul system of education” includes literacy classes, daily sessions of sports, PT and yoga, skill development programmes and recreational activities. In order to make the young men economically independent post-release, Anju also encourages all of them to learn vocational skills. “I want them to re-enter society empowered and not battered, embittered and cynical in life,” she says.
When she was just a child, Aparajita Rai decided she wanted to do something to make people’s lives easier. Her beloved forest officer father died when she was eight, and she saw her school teacher mother running from one apathetic government employee to another for simple procedural work. The little girl decided to grow up and change the way things worked–from inside the system. The police was an unusual choice, in a state where most people try and get basic government office jobs. “But the power that the police has to help people and cinema’s depiction of angry young policemen seeking to bring fairness to society attracted me to the service,” she says. Aparajita set about policing in style, becoming the first woman from Sikkim to get into the IPS. Today, posted as an Additional Deputy Commissioner with Kolkata Police, she finds good detection work and meaningful public outreach programmes highly satisfying. She’s also very proud of the resilience shown by the police force. “Our working hours are probably the worst in the world, and yet the force moves on. It’s the daily contribution of motivated officers and police personnel that keeps the country safe,’ she says. Going forward, Aparajita wants to make her force even more motivated and community-centric and turn the police into a standard of service rather than a symbol of corruption.
The first water sports coach of Kashmir Valley and the sole Indian water sports judge in the Asian Games 2018, Bilquis Mir couldn’t be prouder of what she does. The journey hasn’t been easy, whether kayaking in Srinagar’s Dal Lake or canoeing through white waters in Europe. “At every step, I had to over-perform to bust the myth that girls can’t play sports. As one of three sisters, I was determined to prove everyone wrong. Not only did most people in Kashmir not understand water sports, they looked down on me for being a coach. It didn’t help that I was the only girl to take up this sport in the Valley,” she says. But Bilquis, who started kayaking and canoeing in 1996, loved what she did and got herself a coaching diploma from Budapest, Hungary. Today she’s training 300 students, half of them girls from Kashmir Valley. “I started from Dal Lake, and love working here. We have natural water resources and our kids have innate talent. Our team has already got 56 medals in national tournaments,” she says. Her dream is to see maximum representation of paddlers from the Valley in international tournaments.
A patron, collector and gallerist, Kiran Nadar has shaped and inspired the Indian art world and become a pivotal force in the country’s cultural landscape. Her journey into the world of art has been the result of a combination of circumstances and factors, which include her intuitive judgment, adventurous experiments and experiential learning of the art ecosystem. Over the years, Kiran has evolved from a passionate collector to an astute art lover, determined to enrich, enhance and inspire young artists and build a museum for people to cherish the work of contemporary Indian artists. As a collector, she has brought back to India long-gone paintings by master artists like Tagore, Raja Ravi Verma and Amrita Sher-Gil. She has also re-defined cultural patronage, underlining the importance of patrons in today’s cultural context, and made significant contributions to our cultural infrastructure.
With the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA)—which has a display space of approximately 50,000 sq ft—she has created India’s first private art museum that exemplifies the dynamic relationship between the arts and culture, creates a platform for India’s most talented artists, and bridges the gap between art and the public through exhibitions, publications, workshops, and educational and public programmes. Working on a non-commercial model, KNMA is a free museum that does not charge visitors any fee for entrance or participation in any activity.
Ever since she launched her eponymous label in 1987, Madhu Jain has worked only with natural fibres. Her extensive experiments with fibres that leave the smallest carbon footprint and the blending of weaving traditions from different regions to create new textiles has made her a forerunner in the indigenous weaves industry. A career highlight as a conservationist presented itself in 2011 when Madhu was entrusted the job of restoring a khadi sari woven in prison in 1941 by Jawaharlal Nehru. Madhu introduced bamboo as an alternative textile in India at the 7th World Bamboo Congress in 2004, and in 2017, unveiled bamboo silk ikat, the first totally biodegradable textile of its kind in the world. Madhu’s perfecting of the bamboo yarn, which she is using increasingly in her collections, demonstrates how the fashion industry can strive towards sustainability. By revitalizing traditional skills, this craft revivalist-cum-textile conservationist’s intensive work with rural weaver communities through NGOs serves a much-needed economic purpose.
Rita Sarin has made gender and social justice her life’s work. She joined the women’s rights movement under the mentorship of Dr. Vina Mazumdar, one of the most articulate vanguards of the movement in India, and was part of the team that set up India’s first women’s NGO, the Centre for Women and Development Studies. Here she worked closely with women in Punjab’s villages on issues of gender equity, local governance and development. She went on to work with a Swedish agency, where she established and supported a network of 120 NGOs in 18 states, all working on women’s participation in local government. At the Hunger Project, where she is Global Vice-President and India Country Director, she is committed to igniting and sustaining the leadership spirit of elected women at the grassroots level. In the coming years, Rita’s intent is to continue building the skills of locally-elected women leaders so that they become effective public office-bearers on the ground and role models for the families, communities and villages of India.
Losing her mother at an early age owing to medical negligence had a deep impact on Shilpi Marwaha. She took up socio-political theatre as a career as she wanted to dedicate her life to raising a voice against the injustices and inequalities prevalent in society. Today, Shilpi is a renowned name in theatre and a leading voice on issues related to women’s empowerment. Her popular stage plays include A Woman Alone, Kasturba vs Gandhi, Seven Steps Around the Fire and Kabira Khada Bazar. One of Shilpi’s great contributions to theatre has been the revival of street plays which she uses to raise awareness on social ills. Recipient of many awards, Shilpi is also an actor-trainer who works with students in India’s leading educational institutions as well as street children. After working with Asmita Theatre Group for over a decade, she started Sukhmanch Theatre in 2017 to create a platform for theatre enthusiasts to learn the craft and, in the process, become socially-responsible individuals.
Channeling her inner curiosity, Suchita Salwan started blogging about her favourite finds in and around Delhi when she was 22, thinking it could help outsiders see the city in a different light. She wrote about places and products she found interesting; about brands and services that she thought were useful. She called her blog the ‘Little Black Book’. Though she’d set out only to share what she loved about her city, she soon realized that her pet project had turned into the city’s favourite online directory, with people consulting it for restaurant and shopping recommendations, holiday destinations et al. The extent of LBB’s influence drove Suchita to consider turning it into a business proposition. And so she did. Today, six years after it started, LBB is a web and app-based recommendations platform that reaches over 18 million users a year. It is available in eight cities and has raised `16 crore from investors.
The 60-year-old eco-activist and president of the Women’s Alliance Ladakh, Tsering Chondol has been at the task of cleaning up Ladakh and conserving its natural resources since the inception of the Alliance in 1991. In 1998, along with her fellow-members, Tsering helped make Ladakh plastic-free, by getting the locals to switch to cloth bags. Today, she is out on the hills again, trying to help farmers of the cold desert cope with the water scarcity that’s been triggered by low snowfall and shrinking glaciers. It’s not just climate change that’s affecting the water cycle; groundwater is also shrinking with more borewells being drilled to cater to the needs of burgeoning tourists. “Farm lands are going without crops as there’s no water for irrigation,” says a distraught Chondol as she teaches farmers how to harvest water in the off-season (winter) for use in spring when water is not available and shows them how to use organic manure instead of chemical fertilizers, as it needs less watering.
A zero-tolerance of corruption and a transparent administration mark the working style of the Maharashtra-born Vijaya Narayanrao Jadhav, who is posted as Deputy Development Commissioner at Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. Currently focused on the successful implementation of schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yogana, MGNREGA and Ayushman Bharat, this 2015 batch IAS officer doesn’t shy away from getting her hands dirty or taking on unsavoury sections of society. During her stint as SDM, Giridih, on the Bihar-Jharkhand border, Vijaya had to battle all sorts of criminals. Those included the sand mafia involved in cross-border smuggling, people running illegal wood mills, stocking illegal crackers and liquor, selling cattle and prohibited bovine meat, as well as land mafia goons. Her next stint at the Giridih Municipal Council saw her making a record recovery of tax arrears, turning the town plastic-free, stopping encroachments and pollution by iron and steel manufacturing units. “Through fair and transparent dealings with the public, I want to restore the people’s faith in public institutions,” she says.
Express Building, 3rd Floor
9-10, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg
New Delhi-110002
Phone: +91 11 23705701-05
