All set to step into mama’s shoes

Anu Aga will however remain on the board even after her retirement and will focus on social work, for which 1 per cent of the company’s net profits will be allotted annually. Meher is no new fish in business, having first joined the company as a trainee engineer. She along with her husband Pheroze Pudumjee managed Thermax’s subsidiary company in the UK before returning to India and joining the board of directors in 1996. At present, she is the vice chairperson, a post that has given her enough experience and exposure to be able to head the company when her time comes. Now Thermax with its 11 overseas offices is a market leader. Alliances ranging from Kawasaki in Japan to Honeywell in the USA and its biggest and most recent achievement, a tie up with General Electric to supply chillers for its group company GE Distributed Power systems (GEDP), Aga is making sure that when the time comes for her daughter to step into her shoes, the legacy she receives will be a powerful and fruitful one.

Balaji heads East

Jeetendra Kapoor, the tycoon credited with ensuring that every second Indian woman sits glued to her television every night of her life, is now turning his attention to the eastern market. After tasting sweet success in both north and south India, the tycoon’s company, Balaji Telefilms Ltd, already one of India’s most prominent and successful media houses, is making efforts to tie up with Akash Bangla a 24-hour satellite channel in West Bengal. In spite of the impending introduction of CAS, the tycoon has been confident that it will not affect him as “content will continue to remain the king”. He knows that viewers will continue to pay for the channels which air their popular programmes while advertisers will continue to advertise on channels that viewers watch the most. After the eastern tie up, Balaji Telefilms will produce mega serials based on the same lines as his present serials which are on air, that is, the serials will showcase family ideals and culture, except to click with the Bengali audience, they will depict the traditions and family values of typical Bengali families. This could turn out to be a good move on Kapoor’s part as his serials deal with leading women characters, and Akash Bangla is also known to have most of its programmes pertaining to women. So be ready for one more winner from the Kapoor stable.

(Dilip Cherian runs public relations firm Perfect Relations and can be contacted at dilipcherian@now-india.net.in)