6 get Rotary award for corporate excellence

The Rotary Award for Corporate Excellence, that took place in Ahmedabad on Sunday, saw six winners.

The award, instituted to recognise corporate excellence, was received by T C Venkat Subramanian, CMD, Exim Bank, U K Sinha, chairman, UTI Asset Management Company, M V Nair, CMD, Union Bank of India, Arun Mehta, vice-chairman and MD, Varun Shipping Company, and Ahmedabad-based Kaushal Mehta, CEO, Motif.

With rise in income levels, liquidity and the booming capital market, Keki Mistry, MD HDFC predicts a growth rate of atleast 30 per cent for his bank in the near future.

Mistry, one of the recipients of the Rotary Award for Corporate Excellence, said that while the mortgage ratio in the US and the UK is as high as 51 and 54 per cent respectively, the Indian ratio is just 4 per cent while in the rest of Asia it is around 12 per cent.

Such a ratio would bode well for the development of the country's housing and finance sector in the future, he said.

With around 60 per cent of the Indian population in the under-30 age bracket and the middle class in India all set to treble in the next few years, Mistry predicted a new surge in housing and finance requirements. But all this would not be an automatic transition in a country where just one in every 23 people with a bank account holds a credit card, he added while accepting the award.

All the recipients spoke of their organisation's involvement in the country's development issues and their strategies to tackle them at the grassroots level.

While Exim Bank advocates sustainable development and rural technology exports, UTI has formulated pension policies for low-end workers such as vegetable vendors, cart pullers and scavengers.

Union Bank of India has tie-ups with 175 self-help groups (SHGs) to introduce the rural poor to basic banking and plans to widen the network across the country.

Bakul Dholakia, director of IIM-Ahmedabad, who presided over the ceremony, spoke of the wide implications of corporate social responsiblity and lauded the efforts of those who have made a difference.