Q&A: Shyam S Bhartia, CMD, Jubilant Bhartia Group

The Jubilant Bhartia Group is one of India’s most respected business conglomerates, with varied businesses, including pharmaceuticals (Jubilant Life Sciences), food (Jubilant Foodworks), agriculture and polymers (Jubilant Industries), oil and energy (Jubilant Energy) and services (Jubilant Enpro). The group is also associated with the Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOY) Award, presented during the India Economic Summit, jointly by the Schwab Foundation and Jubilant Bhartia Foundation (CSR wing of the group). Shyam S Bhartia, Chairman and Managing Director of the group, tells M. Saraswathy about the awards and the other endeavours of the group. Excerpts:

The Jubilant Bhartia Foundation has been associated with the SOEF awards for a long time. What is your opinion on the initiative?
In the Indian context, social entrepreneurs need encouragement to increase their impact and scale of operations. They can bring innovative approaches to social problems and can bring change to the people at the bottom of the pyramid. Their contribution to society is tremendous. The Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, which joined hands with the Schwab Foundation to launch the awards in India, supports financial linkages and networks for social entrepreneurs so that the entrepreneur's models can have an impact on inclusive growth.

Can you give us an overview of this year's finalists?
This year’s finalists were from varied backgrounds. They included individuals lighting up rural areas through innovative technology, individuals working for safe drinking water and those working to transform impoverished communities into taking charge of their own enterprise (Industree Crafts). There was also a concept given by a finalist, namely Magic Bus, which promotes sports for development. This has resulted in participants in the initiative also enrolling in higher education and skills development initiatives

What are the other initiatives of the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, apart from the social entrepreneurship awards?
The Jubilant Bhartia Foundation is active in areas of rural primary education and vocational training. We are working with more than 1,350 children across 60 villages. We also run several vocational training centres and are planning to continuously add to the existing centres. The Jubilant Bhartia Foundation is also working to provide basic healthcare facilities in Gajraula in Uttar Pradesh and several other rural and semi-urban areas.

The India Economic Summit is happening at a time when the world is on the brink of a financial crisis. Has the Jubilant Bhartia group also witnessed it in its businesses?
The Jubilant Bhartia Group has not seen a slowdown. All our businesses including food and pharma have not seen a financial slump. Our H1 results were good. We are expecting equally good numbers in H2. I am also happy with our recent Q2 results.

Though uncertainty and increasing financial charges are affecting new investments of companies in general, we are very optimistic that the Eurozone crisis will be resolved by the Europeans by the year-end.