As we go about expanding our circle of innovation in India – a sustainable partnership between alumni, startups and industry becomes critical. And venture capital paradigms are the only way to speed diffuse innovation. On the weekend, I had the honour of meeting the 100th corporate on my itinery but probably the first on my list of desirable partners.
Larsen & Toubro
For some this is a well performing stock on the capital markets. Some see it as a great engineering company. Others believe it is among the best governed. The govt trusts them for the most complex projects. But for me they are much more than just a corporate. My journey with them started more than forty years ago. In 1983, L&T came up with a scheme to sponsor BTechs at IIT Bombay. It was a very generous offer. They would bear the entire cost of education … everything, messbill, tuition, hostel, books, calculator, travel, even buying a cycle. And in return the student would do projects for them in every course, work for them in the vacations and even solve a real world problem in their BTech project. It was just too good to be true. Suddenly I could see a path to buying an expensive Indian camera and pursuing photography more seriously. It was not about affording iit education, it was about diverting the money I got from home towards non academic pursuits and getting someone else to pay for my education. Cameras were expensive in those days and even then they were upward of Rs 20,000/- (equivalent to two years cost of doing a BTech). I applied immediately. And as my good luck would have it, I got selected. The person who interviewed and selected me was a highly rated divisional manager of Group 2 (this was then the project execution division) – A M Naik. Under him was SS Sidhu, a stalwart at site management. And below him was MK Patil – a really good design engineer. Below Mr Patil was Mr Vaid who oversaw the drafting section and at the end was a young graduate engineering trainee called Gautam Barua. From memory he was from VJTI. This really was the entire team called “Project Execution” and I was the latest addition to the team. In August 1983, I got my first visiting card, it said “Research Officer – Fertiliser Plant Design”. My office was the L&T factory which made metallic crown caps for aerated beverages like Thums Up and Campa Cola. The factory worked 24/7. Group 2 was located in the mezzanine of this factory and one took a corner staircase from inside the factory to go up.
Today I was visiting the same L&T campus. I was headed to the board room on the 15th floor of a million square feet Leeds Platinum IOT controlled building called the AM Naik Centre. And I was meeting Anil Parab who is the head of what was then Group 2. And we were discussing nuclear reactors and climate change technologies. With me was my IIT BTech guide Vinay Juvekar who then became the L&T Chair Professor at IIT Bombay.
Thank you L&T