People who made news this past fortnight

Lighting Lives

Just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan, Yoichi Ibi landed in Delhi. Ibi believes that Modi's vision means more business for his company Toshiba Lighting and Technology Corporation.

"For smart cities, you will require smarter lightings. The concept [of] digital India and cleaner India is not complete without improving the lighting system," said Ibi, adding: "We are sensing at least 40 per cent year-on-year growth in the next four years, and at this run India can be one of our biggest markets."

Currently, Japan and the US are the biggest markets for Toshiba. On setting up a manufacturing facility in India, Ibi says: "It makes sense for us. The geographical location of India is good, and [we can] use it as a hub to export final products to West Asia, South-east Asia, and South Asia."

Anilesh S. Mahajan

Saying Tata to Maruti

Having spent over two decades with Maruti Suzuki, India's biggest car maker, Mayank Pareek has now taken on a new assignment. He joined as President of Tata Motors' passenger vehicles unit on October 1. The move comes at a time when Tata Motors is struggling to revive sales of its hatchbacks and sedans in the country.

At Maruti, he spent a great deal of his time in the market learning about customers. According to R.C. Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki, during his tenure, "Pareek has done some great innovations in marketing, and got into areas before others could." Pareek devised special schemes for dhabawalas in Gujarat, granite polishing units in Coimbatore, as well as priests, teachers and farmers. His skills should come in handy at Tata Motors.

Sunny Sen

Mobile Presence

When Jon Fredrik Baksaas went backpacking to China in 1984, there were no mobile phones, and telex was the medium of communication. Now, as the head of Norwegian telecom operator Telenor, he can't think of a life without mobiles, except in extreme situations. On a recent visit to Delhi, Baksaas revealed that Telenor's Indian subsidiary Uninor, which has operations in six circles, is now looking at getting additional spectrum in the same circles as a priority, and then get spectrum in new circles. On being a pan-India player, he said: "Ideally, a pan-India operation is one of the long-term targets, but there are other factors to look at, like profitability...."

Sunny Sen