Overdraft : Saving the Indian Saver

Business & Money

Urjit Patel

Economics

Harper Business India

‘I had never seen a cement plant in my life. I had no idea about limestone deposits or the cement industry in Gujarat. And I had never negotiated an industrial agreement. Yet, in the next few weeks, I would need to be ready for a substantive meeting with Gujarat government officials.’ The year was 1983. A cotton trader, still in his early thirties, began to dream big. His aspiration was to become an ‘industrialist’. The venture he was about to embark on was uncharted territory for him. He knew nothing about cement, limestone or anything remotely associated with it. In the era of Licence Raj, where everything from production to consumption was controlled by the government, Narotam Sekhsaria saw the huge potential in cement and its role in a growing nation. Trusting his instinct, he started Ambuja Cement and went on to create one of the most successful cement companies in the world. Told by the man himself, The Ambuja Story is a tale of grit, determination, honesty and integrity. For a cement company, it’s a unique case study that broke many stereotypes, such as cement production can’t be an environmental friendly activity, good cement can’t be cheaper and it’s difficult to market a product as boring as cement. Narotam Sekhsaria’s vision for Ambuja wasn’t just limited to financial success; he undertook community development around all Ambuja plants to a whole new level. Ambuja’s work in women empowerment, skill development, health and education created new benchmarks for the industry long before corporate social responsibility became mandatory in India. The Ambuja Story provides a new perspective on business and life, inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs to scale greater heights.

The Ambuja Story: How a Group of Ordinary Men Created an Extraordinary Company

Biographies & Memoirs

Narotam Sekhsaria

Professionals & Academics

Of Small Towns, Big Dreams and Greater Achievements Growing up in the sleepy towns of Bhilai and Bokaro, Arundhati Bhattacharya never imagined that one day she would go on to chair India’s largest bank. It was sheer chance that she came to know of the bank probationary officers' entrance examination through a friend. She applied, was selected and went on to have a glorious banking career spanning four decades. Indomitable is the story of Arundhati’s life as a banker and the challenges she faced in a male-dominated bastion. She takes the reader through her growing up years and early education in the 1960s, getting to Kolkata for her college education and then into the State Bank of India, where she started her career. The life of a woman banker with a family in a frequently transferrable job isn’t easy. In Arundhati’s life, too, there were breaking points when she almost thought of quitting her career to balance her personal aspirations with her family's needs. But she didn't give up. Instead, she faced her challenges with humour and positivity and took up every assignment as a new chapter in learning and adapting. In her role as the chairman of SBI, she steered the bank through some of its worst phases. She inspired confidence in the banking sector when the NPA crises led to a significant public trust deficit. Under her leadership, SBI metamorphosed into a customer-centric and digitally advanced bank while playing a pivotal role in national development. Some of her human resources initiatives included industry-first practices that were appreciated and later adopted by other banks. Candid, lucid and humble, Indomitable is the story that will galvanize you to embrace challenges, break barriers, push forward and achieve greater heights.

Indomitable: A Working Woman's Notes on Work, Life and Leadership

Arundhati Bhattacharya

‘The customs officer told me that I needed to leave samples of what I was exporting with him. I was forced to leave the floppy disk of the software with him. The diligent officer immediately planted a stapler pin through the floppy disk and attached it to the form, thereby destroying the media and rendering it unreadable. For the longest time, everybody’s understanding of software differed immensely. This confusion continued into the 1980s, and it was getting challenging to grow the business. The more I met young software entrepreneurs, the more I realized that my frustration was not unique. Something had to be done.’ In the mid-1970s, a young, twenty-something man living an American dream threw away a lucrative job as a database manager and came back to India. At that time, India had no IT industry to speak of; computers were a novelty, and the nation was trapped in socio-economic backwardness and a labyrinthine License Raj. As young Harish Mehta struggled to find his stride, he realized that India’s nascent and fragmented IT industry acutely needed a unified voice that could speak to the government, change laws and harness the country’s potential. In an unlikely alliance of headstrong and competing young professionals, he united other IT entrepreneurs to envision a world-beating association that would revolutionize Indian IT: NASSCOM. The Maverick Effect is the extraordinary story of this band of dreamers who joined hands to transform a nation while also changing the lens through which the world looked at India. Valued at a staggering $200 billion today, the Indian IT industry directly employs more than four million people. It is the largest forex earner and has helped millions of Indians beat poverty and rise to the middle-income group. Honest, open and inspiring, Harish Mehta’s journey proves that no vision is impossible if unrelenting, kindred spirits unite.

The Maverick Effect: The Inside Story of a Movement that Shaped India's IT Revolution

Harish Mehta

In north India, Laxman, a truck driver, takes great pride in his work. Earlier in the day, he had driven his truck to the Pataudi hub, exchanged trailers and was able to drive back to Jaipur―about 250 kilometres and four to five hours each way. Unlike other truck drivers in India, he had more free time and could go home, rather than stay on the road for days on end. He works for a company called Rivigo that uses digital technologies to create what it calls ‘relay as a service’ which makes it possible for drivers to relay trailers from hub to hub, allowing them to stay within a certain distance of their home and spend more time with family. In Kerala, Genrobotics, a start-up, has created Bandicoot, a 50-kg spider-like robot designed to shimmy down manholes and extract the waste that clogs sewers. Working wirelessly, it can do in twenty minutes what two or three manual scavengers would do in three to four hours, ensuring safety and efficiency. In the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian government’s digital platform, COWIN, is helping ensure vaccination of the world’s largest democracy with maximum efficacy. The platform has now been made open source for all countries to adapt and use. Every day it becomes all too obvious how critical a role these technological innovations will play in the continued emergence of developing countries and the 86 per cent of global consumers who work, shop, play, live and dream like consumers anywhere else in the world. Backed by comprehensive data and extensive research covering over 150 organizations, Digital Leapfrogs illustrates how these technologies are changing markets and lives throughout the developing world―from its upscale urban neighbourhoods to its downtrodden slums and its far-flung rural farming regions. Understanding the nature and power of these platforms and technologies will reveal critical insights into how they can transform entire economies, open vast new market opportunities and enhance the welfare of billions of people.

Digital Leapfrogs : How Technology Is Reshaping Consumer Markets in India

Vijay Mahajan

Doing Good : Navigating the CSR Maze in India

Politics & Social Sciences

Meena Raghunathan

Social Sciences

Outskill : Future Proofing Your Career in the Post-Pandemic World

Partha Basu

Fossil Free : Reimagining Clean Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World

Sumant Sinha

Let's Talk Money : You've Worked Hard for It, Now Make It Work for You (Special Edition in Hardback)

Monika Halan

Personal Finance

Forging Mettle : Nrupender Rao and the Pennar Story

Pavan C. Lall

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Harper Business India publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Harper Business India