December fills me with a range of emotions – from introspecting about the year gone by, its many achievements and challenges and planning for the new one, to missing my father Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra. For it was in December that we lost him. I also promise myself once again to follow in his footsteps and work towards making the MBD Group better and better.
And so, December becomes a memorable month in more ways than one for us at DW as well.
Let me share the excitement. To begin with, it’s our anniversary issue. We turn four this December! The year has also been exceptional because we’ve tried to get some special people in your lives. Be it Saina Nehwal talking about what number one means to her, or Deepika Padukone getting candid about what makes her choose the roles that she does, or Magsaysay award winner Anshu Gupta of Goonj talking about choosing a path that is off the beaten track. The idea has been to give you, dear reader, a sneak-peek into the lives of some people who have been game changers. This is a reason why we have an offbeat cover story this time, and feature few of the most interesting entrepreneurs of our times. You’ll know what made them choose the lines they did and keep at it despite the difficulties.
And since you are so special to us, we gave a midyear surprise treat with some innovative introductions such as Denomination, Mind and Soul, and Creative Genius. And true to the mettle of our intelligent readers, many got back to us saying how much they loved these new sections.
This anniversary issue you get a taste of these yet again. Don’t miss our Mind and Body section that especially talks of gratitude and the power of being thankful.
It’s our small thank you note to all of you. Because we on our part have just tried to carry on the legacy of our founder Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra.
According to him, most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying. A modest bookshop in Jalandhar to an empire that supports the realities of hundreds of people, the MBD group has come a long way.
We at DW, a proud part of the MBD Group, carry on the legacy with pride.
Happy New Year to all of you. May we all outperform ourselves in 2016!
Entrepreneurship isn’t just about making your venture profitable. It is also about self-vindication, creating value for stakeholders, leading a change, bending rules, and surviving all odds. Here’s how four of them did itWhen Vijay Shekhar Sharma started Paytm in 2010, he had already left behind a past that would be best described “eventful”. A topper in school, the Aligarh-born founder- CEO of the popular mobile wallet got admission to an engineering college in 1994, when he was just 15. He started his first company XS Corps four years later and sold it as well -- all while still studying in college. Then he worked with a few companies in fairly senior roles before launching One97, a value-added services (VAS) player, in 2000. Then 9/11 happened and his business crashed.
“I was left with no money. I started using public transport and literally lived on two cups of tea. My father asked me to take up a job. I was 25 years old and the family wanted me to get married. But no one was willing to marry me,” says the Delhi College of Engineering alumnus.
He took up a job as a consultant to sustain himself. Later, with smartphones becoming popular, Sharma decided to do something around it. “I always wanted to impact people’s lives,” he offers. It was then that Paytm, a mobile wallet, came into existence. And then, like his past, his future too took the word “eventful” to a whole new level. Today, Paytm is considered one of India’s largest mobile payment and commerce platforms. With a current user-base of more than 100 million, Paytm is on a mission to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream of economy using mobile payment, mobile commerce and the soon-to-be-launched payment banking services. Headquartered in Delhi-NCR, Paytm today boasts of investors such as the Alibaba Group from China, and legendary businessman Ratan Tata, among others.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Like Paytm, Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip, too, took early advantage of a niche ecommerce sector to become an undisputed leader in the online travel industry in India. Founded in 2000, the Gurgaon-headquartered company saw the heady days of the low-cost carriers (LCCs) -- also known as no-frills, discount or budget carriers or airlines -- when taking a flight was suddenly within the reach of middle-class India. The unbelievable onerupee fares came to a halt soon, but not before inspiring a whole new generation with love for travel and impulse holidays.
The online travel agency (OTA) recorded sales of Rs 1,000 crore and a break-even in 2008 itself, just eight years after its launch. Today, MakeMyTrip is much more than just a travel portal or a famous pioneering brand -- it is a one-stop travel shop that offers the broadest selection of travel products and services in India, including online hotel reservations, holiday package bookings, and rail and bus ticket bookings. In the fiscal year 2015, the website had an average of over 7.8 million unique visitors per month. With over 12 million downloads (to date), MakeMyTrip’s mobile app is considered to be one of the most widely used travel apps in India.
MakeMyTrip recently completed a decade of its India operations -- it was launched in the US market in 2000, to cater to the overseas Indian community for their US-to-India travel needs, but it made its India debut only in September 2005, with its “lowest airfare guarantee”. On the momentous occasion, Kalra, its founding chairman and Group CEO, says: “As the partner and enabler in this journey, we had a ringside view. From being among the first OTA in the world to offer low-cost inventory online and launching the first iPhone travel app in India, besides opening up new avenues for Indian travellers and travelpartners alike, we ushered many first-inindustry offerings. Today, we have a dominant position in the OTA market as a whole, and especially in flights, mobile and hotel transactions.”
Sharma and Kalra are part of a bunch of entrepreneurs who tried to differentiate themselves among a world full of great ideas and causes, to become game-changers in their own right. They successfully turned their passion and mission into a groundswell of energy that are touching millions of lives in the country and beyond. What these new-age entrepreneurs have in common is an understanding of the power of technology and the new media and an ability to charge people up with their mission.
AGENTS OF CHANGE
OYO Rooms Founder Ritesh Agarwal embarked on his entrepreneurial journey when he was only 17 years old. A college dropout, Agarwal was chosen for the Thiel Fellowship in 2012, which entailed him to a grant of $100,000. The fellowship, created by PayPal founder, Peter Thiel, provides grant to college dropouts under 22 years of age to pursue their ideas. Agarwal is the first resident Indian Thiel fellow.
During this time, he travelled extensively across the country and stayed at over 100 budget hotels, which made him realise how difficult it was to get a pleasant and reliable “consumer experience” in this segment. In a quest to make these affordable stays as “real” as possible, Agarwal launched Oravel Stays in 2012. Oravel was modelled after USbased Airbnb. However, by 2013, Agarwal realised that a mere aggregation of beds and breakfasts couldn't address the problems of budget travelers in India and hence, he pivoted Oravel Stays into OYO Rooms.
Today, OYO Rooms has become synonymous with budget travel in the country, offering an unmatched proposition to its consumers at affordable prices that start as low as Rs 999. Besides bed and breakfast, OYO Rooms promises every customer a comfortable stay that includes an AC room and Wi-Fi with 24x7 customer service support. At a little over 22 years now, Agarwal made headlines this year after his startup got funding of $100 million (approximately Rs 636 crore) by Japan's SoftBank Group.
news. What's also caught people's eye, apart from his age, is his story. Agarwal never studied beyond school and even sold SIM cards to survive, afraid that his well-off family based in Cuttack, Odisha, would end his entrepreneurial dreams and summon him back home if they knew of his struggles. In Kota, where he was ostensibly preparing for his IIT entrance exams, Agarwal says he couldn't wait every weekend to slip out to Delhi and meet those doing their own thing. In a recent interview to a news portal, Agarwal says: “I am today a strong believer of the often-heard advice that the best education often happens outside a classroom. I dropped out of college within days of joining because I felt that attending classes would slow me down from doing what I really wanted to do -- building my own startup.”
DRIVING IN THE FAST LANE
The entrepreneurial itch is what also drove IIT-Bombay graduates Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati to start Ola Cabs, undoubtedly India's most popular mobile app for booking cabs right now. In 2010, Aggarwal -- then 24 years old -- saw the amount of potential that an extraordinary cab booking service could have when he himself faced numerous problems looking for quality cab services. He realised how his plight was probably similar to a lot of customers across the country, which ended up with a cab that stood them up, arrived and dropped them off late, didn’t stick to its promises, and came with drivers that were nightmares behind wheels.
Aggarwal was soon joined by his cofounder Bhati in his start-up journey and thus was born Ola Cabs. “My parents believed I’d gone crazy. They thought I was becoming some kind of a travel agent and were very apprehensive about it. But things started changing. The first round of funding from two angel investors came in as a stamp of approval for the idea and the growth has led them to believe in me now,” the Ludhianaborn Aggarwal was quoted as saying to an online media platform.
Ola has recently closed the Series F funding, raising $500 million (roughly Rs 3,306 crore) from Baillie Gifford, China's Didi Kuaidi and existing investors, including Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group and DST Global. With the current round, Ola has closed over $1.3 billion (roughly Rs 8,600 crore) of external funding, of which over $1.2 billion (roughly Rs 7,936 crore) has been raised over the past year. In April, Ola had raised $400 million (roughly Rs 2,645 crore) in funding, led by DST Global (in Series E) and prior to that, $210 million (roughly Rs. 1,388 crores) led by SoftBank Group (Series D in October 2014). With over 3,50,000 vehicles registered on its platform, Ola today offers services across 102 cities in India.
So what do these game-changers feel about the kind of position that they have reached today? “I am of the opinion that life got better with mobile payments. Cash creates corruption in the economy. Ecommerce can help to remove that,” says Sharma of Paytm. Kalra of MakeMyTrip adds: “The passion for winning goes beyond merely chasing targets and achieving them. It's the zest and zeal with which one goes about the achievement. It's not only about winning, it's about dominating.”
TERRORISM// A series of coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis, on the night of November 13, 2015. Gunmen attacked a number of restaurants, two suicide bombers and a bomb detonated near the Stade de France, and gunmen wearing suicide belts killed 89 at the Bataclan theatre during an Eagles of Death Metal gig. At least 128 people were killed in the Paris and Saint-Denis shootings and bombings, French officials said. It came 10 months after the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine, which left 12 dead, and the siege at a Jewish supermarket, which had claimed four victims. These attacks were the deadliest on France since World War II, and the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was in retaliation for the French airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq. The President of France, François Hollande said the attacks were an act of war by ISIL , planned in Syria, organised in Belgium, and perpetrated with French complicity. In response, a state of emergency was declared, and temporary border checks were introduced. France immediately launched the biggest airstrike of Opération Chammal, its contribution to the anti-ISIL bombing campaign, striking ISIL targets in Al-Raqqah. A few days later, the suspected lead operative of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in Saint- Denis, along with at least two other people.
POLITICS// India’s neighbour Myanmar will soon have a new leader in the form of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party has won the recent elections in that country. For the first time in 50 years, the Burmese people will have a fairly elected person as their leader.
For a long time, Myanmar has been ruled by its army, which didn’t grant much freedom to its people. Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned in her own home for many years because she spoke out against the army and worked for the freedom of her people. She was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her actions to free the Burmese people from military rule. After a long struggle, the Myanmar’s military rulers recently agreed to hold proper elections in the country. Suu Kyi’s political party -- the National League for Democracy (NLD) -- participated in the elections and won most of the votes. That gives the NLD the right to form the next government in Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi will control that government.
However, she may not become the President of Myamnar as the country’s law prevents those married to foreigners (Suu Kyi’s husband was an American) from becoming the President of the country. However, it’s clear that Suu Kyi, who is the most popular leader in Myanmar, will be in charge of the new government, no matter the name of the role given to her.
CALAMITY// Incessant rain continued to batter parts of Tamil Nadu, and Chennai literally went under water during mid-November. It is the season of the north-east monsoon, which brings rain to southern state, but the amount of rainfall the city has seen over the past few weeks is extraordinary. Things got so bad that boats were seen in flooded areas to help people get around. Rescue operations by the Indian Air Force were also pressed into service. Entire neighbourhoods were cut off from the rest of the city due to flooding, and electricity supply was switched off in parts. Schools were shut as travelling in the city’s flooded roads had become impossible. Many schools and office buildings were unusable as they had filled up with water. The situation was equally bad in other parts of Tamil Nadu that have also received heavy rain. According to the weather office, a "trough of low pressure at mean sea level lay over Southwest Bay and adjoining equatorial Indian Ocean," triggering more rains. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered immediate release of Rs 940 crore-assistance for Tamil Nadu flood relief. According to the state government, 169 people have been killed since October 1 in various rain-related incidents across the state.
ELECTIONS// Nitish Kumar will continue to be the chief minister of Bihar for another five years after the political group that he led won the recent state elections. The election also saw a bitter defeat for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lost to Nitish Kumar.
This election saw the highest voter turnout in Bihar Assembly polls since 2000, with a 56.8 per cent voter turnout in this election. The RJD emerged as a single largest party with 80 seats, followed by the JD (U) with 71 seats, and the BJP with 53 seats. In terms of vote share, BJP came first with 24.4 per cent, followed by the RJD with 18.4 per cent and the JD (U) with 16.8 per cent, while the Congress got 6.7 per cent.
Nitish Kumar has been the Chief Minister of Bihar for almost 10 years nonstop since 2005. He leads the JD (U). After many years of poor leadership, the people of Bihar elected Kumar in 2005. Compared to previous chief ministers, Kumar has tried to build roads, schools and appoint doctors and school teachers in hospitals and schools run by the government. That is why, inspite of a strong effort from Modi, Kumar and his group won the Bihar elections. The Bihar result is also a strong shock for Modi since this is the second big state election that the party has lost after Delhi. With the Uttar Pradesh state elections coming up, next Modi’s political party, the BJP, has reason to be worried.
RANKING// Moving up six spots, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ranked ninth, has for the first time made it to the top 10 in Forbes’ seventh annual list of “The World’s Most Powerful People”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin takes the top spot out of 73, for the third year in a row, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (No 2) moving up three spots from last year. US President Barack Obama (No 3) dropped one spot, making it the first year a sitting American president has not made it to the top two spots.
IPL// Come the summer of 2016, and the familiar sunny yellow of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and royal blue of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) will no longer take the field (play) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016. That’s because the two teams have been banned as their owners placed bets on the results of matches in 2013 IPL tournament. In their place two new teams will play. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which manages cricket in the country, has issued advertisements inviting bids for the two new teams. Under the “bid” system the two parties that ask for the lowest share of revenue earned by the organisers of the IPL tournament will be given the chance to form the new teams.
The two new teams will also be allowed to pick five players each from the CSK and RR squads. The remaining players will have to be selected through a player auction where different teams will compete with each other to bid for players, and those offering the most money will ultimately get the cricketer.
CRIME// The grisly high-society murder case that has gripped India took an unexpected twist recently as a British-born media tycoon appeared in a Mumbai court over the killing of his stepdaughter. He was later arrested by the CBI in connection with the probe into the 2012 murder of Sheena Bora. He has been booked under IPC Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender). Following this, Mukerjea becomes the fourth person to be held over the death of 24-year-old Bora. He had not previously been accused of any wrongdoing in the case, in which his wife Indrani, her exhusband, and her former driver are accused of strangling Bora, burning her body and burying the remains in a forest outside Mumbai in April 2012. While officers did not elaborate on the nature of Mukerjea’s involvement in the case, they claimed that during her questioning, Indrani had dropped enough hints. “She has given enough indications… he knew of the murder,” a CBI officer claimed.
Sometimes you have to travel long distances to find your rootsWHEN THIS KIND magazine contacted me for a column on Indians living abroad, little did they know that they would be chasing the proverbial nightmare.
Being from the same community as them (the journalist brigade that is) I know exactly what a pain I have been to them.
I have never been a fan of turning up late anywhere. In fact, I used to turn up five minutes early to the cinema hall and then miss the first 10 minutes because my friends would not be on time. Yet, now things are different. I turn up late or never turn up at all. I take ages to write an article that would have taken me an hour at most. I don’t bother about what I wear when I step out as opposed to being power-dressed like the editor I was in my previous job.
I also wake up to cuddles and the sweetest recitation of “ABCD” ever and enjoy watching Inside Out for the nth time with my little boy. Alex was born in Muscat, Oman, in 2014. I had completed nearly eight years as a resident of Oman by then. Yet, I never thought of myself as an NRI. How could I? Oman was full of Indians. I never felt like a foreigner, except for the inherent lack of language skills while negotiating taxis.
The first time I went back to India, I was heralded as an NRI and I did the shoulder shrug and mumbled something remotely funny, like “I travelled only two hours to get here. It could very well be the city next door.”
Yet, being an NRI is more, is it not? It is about travelling distances to find your roots. Oman was my first foreign destination and it gave me my entity as the NRI, who would forever miss India and seek it in packets of Maggi and Haldiram’s bhujia.
I met my husband, a British national, and got married while both of us were working there. Although we were from culturally stark backgrounds, Oman became our meeting ground. We were both new to the nuances of the Arab world and in some ways, it allowed us the luxury of learning things together.
Alex’s birth and then job changes for the husband meant I would have to leave Oman and travel to yet another destination that I would learn to call home in a few years time. I quit work and we moved to the UK, where summer is a mirage and weather is the most talked about subject after beer and curry. UK is yet another cultural upward climb for someone with the knees of an octogenarian and a new human being to look after.
Moreover, it was home for my husband and a new place for me. We weren’t equals in that sense anymore. I am in the process of learning the ropes on social etiquettes. As a cynical Indian journalist, I am not used to strangers smiling at me and nodding their head in an “I see you” hello on the streets. Yet, when a polite Briton makes eye contact with you and acknowledges you with the nod of the head, then it would only be considered rude not to nod in response. Thankfully, the words “thank you” and “sorry” have been with me forever, so it does save me some learning time. (The British like to say sorry for everything, even if it is not their fault!)
Apart from these tiny bridges to cross, I have realised that the UK is more India than India itself. More so in its love for the curry; the British have not just developed a taste for it, they have even “adopted” it and made it their own with culinary abandon. Indian food abounds, with curry and chips as the national dish. Asian faces pepper the crowds across malls and shopping outlets. Once you move down south (near London), you might as well have walked into Delhi or Bombay with its cosmopolitan outlook.
I have been struggling to juggle motherhood, working from home and sundry other things. But, struggling to fit in, I am not. How can I not fit in? I have so much of my country around me: in shops, on streets, and in the culture. It allows me the comfort of knowing that my son will know his mother’s roots. As he grows older we will be able to celebrate Diwali and Christmas. I am looking forward to introducing Alex to the aromas of streets filled with samosa stalls and chaat. He is only 20- months-old now and already shares his mother’s love for all things spicy, so introducing him to Indian food as we Indians know, will be a delight. He won’t have to order the “blandest thing on the menu” wherever he goes.
He might develop an accent as he grows up but he will learn to talk three different Indian languages apart from English. And who knows, by then Hindi might become one of the languages of the UK. *wink*
A part of me does wonder if by settling for “India” in foreign lands, I am doing injustice to the India I grew up in. It calls for a boisterous debate with myself on whether this is a good thing or not. The jury is still out that one. However, one thing is for sure: “You can take an Indian out of India, but you cannot take India out of her.”