People who made news last fortnight
Starring: Anisha Singh, Meera Sanyal, Caroline Hurley, Kalyana Raman Srinivasan, Daniel Sennheiser and Liu Thai Ker
Anisha Singh, CEO, mydala.com <em>Photo: Aditya Kapoor/www.indiatodayimages.com</em>
Right Call
It is difficult to get Anisha Singh to sit still. Her boundless energy is surely among the attributes that have helped her make her company, mydala.com - mydala means 'my group' in Sanskrit - India's biggest online shopping deals site . Started in 2009, mydala is now also a merchant marketing platform. My Delights, a mobile deals service Singh's company launched with Vodafone in August 2012, is her latest success, having already crossed six million users per month. It gives Vodafone subscribers discounts and deals on restaurants, spas, fashion accessories, personal care products, etc, then bills them on their phones instead of their credit cards. Singh attributes the company's success to back-end analytics, which helps merchants monitor customer habits, and her insistence on personally vetting all the merchants registered with the website. A yoga instructor as well, Singh loves bright colours, which explains her company's pink and blue logo.
Vivan Mehra
Banking on Politics
Her twitter handle reads: CEO of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) in India, independent candidate for South Mumbai in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and convener of the Indian Liberal Group. However, Meera Sanyal,51, recently gave up her executive post at RBS while remaining Chairperson of the RBS Foundation, India. The daughter of a former naval officer, she has been a career banker for nearly three decades with Lazard, Grindlays, ABN AMRO and RBS, but now wants to devote more time to issues of governance and economic development. She may well contest the next Lok Sabha polls too, in 2014. "People want honest and competent governance," she says. "I am in the process of formulating my plans and will share them once they crystallise." Her hobbies include sailing, chess and reading.
Anand Adhikari
Wedding Belle
"The biggest challenge is to fulfil a bride's dreams within her father's budget," says Caroline Hurley, Founder of Quintessentially Weddings and Quintessentially Events, a UK-based luxury wedding planning and event management company. Hurley, who was in India recently, started her company's India operations two years ago with Liza Varma, a leading wedding planner and former Miss India. "Nowadays, Indian weddings are getting bigger and longer," she adds. "We have done a few Rs 2 crore weddings so far in India, with spends of around Rs 50 lakh to Rs 70 lakh per day." The most expensive wedding she has ever planned was in Russia in 2011, which cost 4 million. She is still planning her own wedding and hints it could well be held in India.
Dearton Thomas Hector
Achieving a Great Deal
His poverty-stricken childhood in Mannarkoil village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu could not hold him back. Kalyana Raman Srinivasan or Kal Raman as he is called, joined Walmart as an entry-level programmer, only to be promoted 18 times in 12 months. He joined Groupon - the 'deal-of-the-day' website touted as the fastest growing company in the history of the Internet - in May 2012 as Senior Vice President, Americas, soon rising to Senior VP, Global Sales and Operations, and then as Chief Operating Officer in November 2012. With the recent resignation of CEO Andrew Mason, Raman could well land the top job soon if the pace of his growth is any indication. "I was great at mugging (in studies) and put that to best use," says Raman. He also attributes his success to God's grace and some luck. And avid cricket fan, he also funds the education of 30,000 underprivileged children in Tirunelveli district.
N. Madhavan
Sound Strategy
Having grown up amid transducers and drivers, Daniel Sennheiser, 40, has music in his veins. The scion of Sennheiser Electronics, the German audio company synonymous with top quality hi-fi headphones, was in Delhi recently. Sennheiser products have been available in India for six years now, but are still considered a niche acquisition. The brand's visibility, however, has increased since it started packaging its headphones with bigger brands such as Nokia. "This is an India-specific strategy. Cooperation with large brands helps us get much more exposure in markets that don't even know about headphones," he says. What sort of music does he enjoy? "Jazz."
Nandagopal Rajan
In Fine Fettle
"Singapore is a 'fine' city. There is a 'fine' to everything we do," says Liu Thai Ker, Director at RSP Architects, Planners & Engineers, Singapore, who was in Delhi recently to attend the Annual Survey of India's City-Systems. Ker joined the Housing & Development Board in Singapore in 1969 and became its CEO 10 years later. He came to be known as a master planner helping build over 500,000 houses as part of the Singapore government's 'Home Ownership for All' policy. "Most Asian cities, including those in India, China and Indonesia, have a space crunch. You must plan for the long term. When I planned Singapore, it was for 100 years," he says. He adds every country needs political leadership supportive of planners to make cities better to live in.
Dearton Thomas Hector
It is difficult to get Anisha Singh to sit still. Her boundless energy is surely among the attributes that have helped her make her company, mydala.com - mydala means 'my group' in Sanskrit - India's biggest online shopping deals site . Started in 2009, mydala is now also a merchant marketing platform. My Delights, a mobile deals service Singh's company launched with Vodafone in August 2012, is her latest success, having already crossed six million users per month. It gives Vodafone subscribers discounts and deals on restaurants, spas, fashion accessories, personal care products, etc, then bills them on their phones instead of their credit cards. Singh attributes the company's success to back-end analytics, which helps merchants monitor customer habits, and her insistence on personally vetting all the merchants registered with the website. A yoga instructor as well, Singh loves bright colours, which explains her company's pink and blue logo.
Vivan Mehra
Meera Sanyal, Chairperson, RBS Foundation India Photo: Bhaskar Paul
Her twitter handle reads: CEO of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) in India, independent candidate for South Mumbai in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and convener of the Indian Liberal Group. However, Meera Sanyal,51, recently gave up her executive post at RBS while remaining Chairperson of the RBS Foundation, India. The daughter of a former naval officer, she has been a career banker for nearly three decades with Lazard, Grindlays, ABN AMRO and RBS, but now wants to devote more time to issues of governance and economic development. She may well contest the next Lok Sabha polls too, in 2014. "People want honest and competent governance," she says. "I am in the process of formulating my plans and will share them once they crystallise." Her hobbies include sailing, chess and reading.
Anand Adhikari
Caroline Hurley, Founder, Quintessentially Weddings Photo: Aditya Kapoor/www.indiatodayimages.com
"The biggest challenge is to fulfil a bride's dreams within her father's budget," says Caroline Hurley, Founder of Quintessentially Weddings and Quintessentially Events, a UK-based luxury wedding planning and event management company. Hurley, who was in India recently, started her company's India operations two years ago with Liza Varma, a leading wedding planner and former Miss India. "Nowadays, Indian weddings are getting bigger and longer," she adds. "We have done a few Rs 2 crore weddings so far in India, with spends of around Rs 50 lakh to Rs 70 lakh per day." The most expensive wedding she has ever planned was in Russia in 2011, which cost 4 million. She is still planning her own wedding and hints it could well be held in India.
Dearton Thomas Hector
Kal Raman, COO, Groupon Photo: H . K . Rajashekar
His poverty-stricken childhood in Mannarkoil village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu could not hold him back. Kalyana Raman Srinivasan or Kal Raman as he is called, joined Walmart as an entry-level programmer, only to be promoted 18 times in 12 months. He joined Groupon - the 'deal-of-the-day' website touted as the fastest growing company in the history of the Internet - in May 2012 as Senior Vice President, Americas, soon rising to Senior VP, Global Sales and Operations, and then as Chief Operating Officer in November 2012. With the recent resignation of CEO Andrew Mason, Raman could well land the top job soon if the pace of his growth is any indication. "I was great at mugging (in studies) and put that to best use," says Raman. He also attributes his success to God's grace and some luck. And avid cricket fan, he also funds the education of 30,000 underprivileged children in Tirunelveli district.
N. Madhavan
Daniel Sennheiser, Global President, Strategy and Finance, Sennheiser Electronics Photo: Aditya Kapoor/www.indiatodayimages.com
Having grown up amid transducers and drivers, Daniel Sennheiser, 40, has music in his veins. The scion of Sennheiser Electronics, the German audio company synonymous with top quality hi-fi headphones, was in Delhi recently. Sennheiser products have been available in India for six years now, but are still considered a niche acquisition. The brand's visibility, however, has increased since it started packaging its headphones with bigger brands such as Nokia. "This is an India-specific strategy. Cooperation with large brands helps us get much more exposure in markets that don't even know about headphones," he says. What sort of music does he enjoy? "Jazz."
Nandagopal Rajan
Liu Thai Ker, Director, RSP Architects Planners & Engineers, Singapore Photo: Aditya Kapoor/www.indiatodayimages.com
"Singapore is a 'fine' city. There is a 'fine' to everything we do," says Liu Thai Ker, Director at RSP Architects, Planners & Engineers, Singapore, who was in Delhi recently to attend the Annual Survey of India's City-Systems. Ker joined the Housing & Development Board in Singapore in 1969 and became its CEO 10 years later. He came to be known as a master planner helping build over 500,000 houses as part of the Singapore government's 'Home Ownership for All' policy. "Most Asian cities, including those in India, China and Indonesia, have a space crunch. You must plan for the long term. When I planned Singapore, it was for 100 years," he says. He adds every country needs political leadership supportive of planners to make cities better to live in.
Dearton Thomas Hector
