Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon has risen from middle class background to India's richest woman by sheer hardwork and grit.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw should have been afraid. Every day for three months in 1985 she waded through a crowd of angry employees to get to her office at Biocon India, a maker of enzymes in Bangalore. This was her payback for hiring uneducated employees.
After they joined a communist labor union, she retaliated by automating the plant. The crowd outside burned her in effigy.
"I didn't think they'd hurt a woman," she says. But her detractors have certainly tried to hold her back, making it about as tough as possible for a woman to find her way.
Still, over the last two decades Mazumdar-Shaw, now 51, has turned a small enzyme manufacturer into one of India's premier tech companies. It netted $30.5 million on revenue of $122 million for the fiscal year ended Mar. 31.
Read the full story here.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
India offers Venezuela refinery stake, eyes oilfield
Yahoo reports :
India will offer Venezuela equity in a refining firm and take a stake a Venezuelan oilfield to cement growing ties between Asia's third largest consumer and the World's No. 5 exporter, top officials said on Friday.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), which is bidding for foreign oil assets to secure energy supplies, is likely to take a 49 percent stake in the San Cristobal oilfield, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
In return, Petroleos de Venezuela would be offered equity in ONGC's refining subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Aiyar told reporters after meeting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez.
"MRPL can process Venezuelan crude. In April, a delegation will go to Venezuela to discuss various issues including the quality of crude oil and the volume available," Aiyar said.
Earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country was keen to begin long-terum crude supplies to India.
"We want to have a long-term agreement for crude oil with India," Chavez told a forum of Indian business leaders.
India's sole private refiner, Reliance Industries started importing Venezuelan crude in recent years but state-run firms have not processed oil from the OPEC member.
"Tomorrow, we will sign agreements with the prime minister for energy cooperation. We want to start to supply petroleum in a permanent way, the same as we do with the United States," Chavez said.
Aiyar said India's strong ties with Venezuela will help Indian firms penetrate the Latin American region.
India, which imports 70 percent of its crude needs, consumed 2.46 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2004 and is forecast to use 2.53 million bpd this year, estimates from the International Energy Agency show.
The country is likely to import 85 percent of its needs in the next two decades as its economy grows 7-8 percent a year, encouraging Indian firms to bid for foreign oil projects.
ONGC is competing with Chinese companies in the race for foreign petroleum assets.
In January, China signed energy accords with Venezuela that aimed to make the largest oil consumer in Asia a major player in the oil and gas industry.
Venezuela ships more than half its daily output to the United States in a decades-old energy relationship.
But Chavez, a fierce critic of Washington, has made clear he wants to diversify overseas energy ties to reduce its economic dependence on the American market.
ONGC's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh, has stakes in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, Sudan, Russia, Libya and Australia and recently signed a $40 billion deal to import LNG from Iran.
India will offer Venezuela equity in a refining firm and take a stake a Venezuelan oilfield to cement growing ties between Asia's third largest consumer and the World's No. 5 exporter, top officials said on Friday.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), which is bidding for foreign oil assets to secure energy supplies, is likely to take a 49 percent stake in the San Cristobal oilfield, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
In return, Petroleos de Venezuela would be offered equity in ONGC's refining subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Aiyar told reporters after meeting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez.
"MRPL can process Venezuelan crude. In April, a delegation will go to Venezuela to discuss various issues including the quality of crude oil and the volume available," Aiyar said.
Earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country was keen to begin long-terum crude supplies to India.
"We want to have a long-term agreement for crude oil with India," Chavez told a forum of Indian business leaders.
India's sole private refiner, Reliance Industries started importing Venezuelan crude in recent years but state-run firms have not processed oil from the OPEC member.
"Tomorrow, we will sign agreements with the prime minister for energy cooperation. We want to start to supply petroleum in a permanent way, the same as we do with the United States," Chavez said.
Aiyar said India's strong ties with Venezuela will help Indian firms penetrate the Latin American region.
India, which imports 70 percent of its crude needs, consumed 2.46 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2004 and is forecast to use 2.53 million bpd this year, estimates from the International Energy Agency show.
The country is likely to import 85 percent of its needs in the next two decades as its economy grows 7-8 percent a year, encouraging Indian firms to bid for foreign oil projects.
ONGC is competing with Chinese companies in the race for foreign petroleum assets.
In January, China signed energy accords with Venezuela that aimed to make the largest oil consumer in Asia a major player in the oil and gas industry.
Venezuela ships more than half its daily output to the United States in a decades-old energy relationship.
But Chavez, a fierce critic of Washington, has made clear he wants to diversify overseas energy ties to reduce its economic dependence on the American market.
ONGC's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh, has stakes in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, Sudan, Russia, Libya and Australia and recently signed a $40 billion deal to import LNG from Iran.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The spirit of Kamatchi
Subroto Bagchi of MindTree Consulting writes in BusinessWorld India about A journey of a destitute, young mother that began in 1926 carries lessons in leadership and decisionmaking. Read the real life story (Requires BusinessWorld India's Free Registration). For people who don't have patience to register, please read ahead :
Kamatchi was born in 1898 in Kattikulam - now in Tamil Nadu. Those were the days when a female child was raised with the sole purpose of getting her married off. So was Kamatchi. By stitching together subsequent events in her life, we gather that by the time she was twenty-five, she had five children from her husband, Thalakaswami. He did not care much for her, and one day just went away.
The eldest daughter was all of twelve and the youngest was two and a half years old when Kamatchi decided to take charge. We do not know how but she left Kattikulam and finally landed up in Madras in a state of destitution. She looked for work - not an easy thing in 1926. Around the same time, there were recruitment agents looking for rubber plantation workers for British clients. Kamatchi signed up and sat in a sailboat with the five children in tow, and arrived at a rubber plantation to become a 'tapper'. As Kamatchi went to work, the oldest daughter took up the task of mothering the other four. Two of these were the in-between sons who started going to school. Kamatchi and her brood braved on under a hutment of a swampy rubber estate until 1945. Then came the Japanese, and took away the two boys as slaves to build the bridge over the river Kwai in Burma. This was called the 'death railway' because people seldom returned, falling to the rampant bouts of cholera, typhoid and malaria.
The war was over and the Japanese retreated, but Kamatchi's little boy never came back. The older son somehow did and went on to complete his higher education, eventually becoming a headmaster. On his return, he took complete charge of the surviving siblings, and asked Kamatchi to retire. In 1966, she passed away, a single mother - leaving behind her legacy in Malaysia, a country with the highest number of people of Indian origin. Kamatchi's son, in turn, carried on her lineage. One of his sons, Dr Vignesh, was narrating this fascinating story of courage as he was driving me to the venue of the Malaysian-Indian Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
He grew up to qualify as a veterinary practitioner. All his siblings are in the mainstream of Malaysian society today. I asked him about his recollections of Kamatchi. When Dr Vignesh was a boy, Kamatchi's sunset years had begun. Life in the rubber estates had left her an asthmatic. But she remained until her last, the matriarch who was a go-getter, who knew no fear, a motivator and a fighter. Though she believed in God, she was non-ritualistic and exhorted her children to rely on self-help. She used to say: "You have to take charge; God does not come through the tin roof to dole out bounties."
We study leadership and decision-making in business - a subject that fascinates us. We debate if leaders create circumstances or vice versa. We talk about decisions and momentous ones, with the power to create generational impact. In all this, we analyse character in leadership, and use analogies from political history and military conquests because business leadership hasn't been in existence long enough to create narratives with directional value.
My mind goes back to 1926. I see a twenty-five year old, illiterate woman - nah, girl. She is with five children; the youngest by her bosom. Six human frames and a small bundle of cloth, representing her departure from the past. What would have happened if Kamatchi had stayed on in Kattikulam, bemoaning the runaway husband and seeking the alms and mercy of village elders? What would have happened if she had killed her children and herself? What if she had abandoned them? I shudder and seek solace in the miracle of now.
In all this, what was the most important decision that Kamatchi took? For me, it was the one to dislocate herself from Kattikulam. That single decision changed the fate of three generations. It was the potently unsafe option. Kamatchi did not go to business school but lived the saying that 'the safest place for a ship is the harbour'. But it was never built to stay there.
Kamatchi was born in 1898 in Kattikulam - now in Tamil Nadu. Those were the days when a female child was raised with the sole purpose of getting her married off. So was Kamatchi. By stitching together subsequent events in her life, we gather that by the time she was twenty-five, she had five children from her husband, Thalakaswami. He did not care much for her, and one day just went away.
The eldest daughter was all of twelve and the youngest was two and a half years old when Kamatchi decided to take charge. We do not know how but she left Kattikulam and finally landed up in Madras in a state of destitution. She looked for work - not an easy thing in 1926. Around the same time, there were recruitment agents looking for rubber plantation workers for British clients. Kamatchi signed up and sat in a sailboat with the five children in tow, and arrived at a rubber plantation to become a 'tapper'. As Kamatchi went to work, the oldest daughter took up the task of mothering the other four. Two of these were the in-between sons who started going to school. Kamatchi and her brood braved on under a hutment of a swampy rubber estate until 1945. Then came the Japanese, and took away the two boys as slaves to build the bridge over the river Kwai in Burma. This was called the 'death railway' because people seldom returned, falling to the rampant bouts of cholera, typhoid and malaria.
The war was over and the Japanese retreated, but Kamatchi's little boy never came back. The older son somehow did and went on to complete his higher education, eventually becoming a headmaster. On his return, he took complete charge of the surviving siblings, and asked Kamatchi to retire. In 1966, she passed away, a single mother - leaving behind her legacy in Malaysia, a country with the highest number of people of Indian origin. Kamatchi's son, in turn, carried on her lineage. One of his sons, Dr Vignesh, was narrating this fascinating story of courage as he was driving me to the venue of the Malaysian-Indian Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
He grew up to qualify as a veterinary practitioner. All his siblings are in the mainstream of Malaysian society today. I asked him about his recollections of Kamatchi. When Dr Vignesh was a boy, Kamatchi's sunset years had begun. Life in the rubber estates had left her an asthmatic. But she remained until her last, the matriarch who was a go-getter, who knew no fear, a motivator and a fighter. Though she believed in God, she was non-ritualistic and exhorted her children to rely on self-help. She used to say: "You have to take charge; God does not come through the tin roof to dole out bounties."
We study leadership and decision-making in business - a subject that fascinates us. We debate if leaders create circumstances or vice versa. We talk about decisions and momentous ones, with the power to create generational impact. In all this, we analyse character in leadership, and use analogies from political history and military conquests because business leadership hasn't been in existence long enough to create narratives with directional value.
My mind goes back to 1926. I see a twenty-five year old, illiterate woman - nah, girl. She is with five children; the youngest by her bosom. Six human frames and a small bundle of cloth, representing her departure from the past. What would have happened if Kamatchi had stayed on in Kattikulam, bemoaning the runaway husband and seeking the alms and mercy of village elders? What would have happened if she had killed her children and herself? What if she had abandoned them? I shudder and seek solace in the miracle of now.
In all this, what was the most important decision that Kamatchi took? For me, it was the one to dislocate herself from Kattikulam. That single decision changed the fate of three generations. It was the potently unsafe option. Kamatchi did not go to business school but lived the saying that 'the safest place for a ship is the harbour'. But it was never built to stay there.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)