From Forbes India Leadership Awards' winners to India's semiconductor dreams, here are our top reads of the week

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1) CEO of the year

In 2020, a year or so before sustainability became a buzzword, Tata Power had already taken its bold step. The company targeted to become net zero by 2050. Importantly, it decided not to add more conventional [read coal-based] power capacity. This was at a time when sustainability had yet to come into the mainstream. ESG investing was still in its infancy. In an announcement later, Tata Power advanced its net zero timeline to 2045. Under Praveer Sinha, CEO and managing director of Tata Power, the company has aimed to significantly enhance its renewables capacity by 2030 and position itself for a net-zero world. Meet our Forbes India Leadership Awards winner for CEO of the year.

2) Make in India

At one point, very early on after he came back from the US, Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala had thought he might need to get into politics to bring about the kind of changes he wanted to see in India. He quickly abandoned that idea and instead joined the electrical engineering faculty at IIT-Madras. He’s a graduate of IIT-Kanpur, with a PhD from America’s University of Maine. The 70-year-old is also a Padma Shri awardee for achievements in wireless telephony and mobile banking to solar equipment and battery swapping for electric vehicles. He’s our FILA winner for Ecosystem Enabler. Here’s his story.

3) A successful stint

Uday Kotak founded and built Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB), India’s fourth-largest bank by market capitalisation in just over two decades. He stepped down as the bank’s managing director and CEO on September 1, 2023, though he remains on its board as a director. He is now looking forward to adding more towards building India’s financial sector through policy, and promoting talent and opportunities, he tells Forbes India. Kotak, 64, is working on—as part of the B20 (the official G20 dialogue forum with the global business community)—creating a financial framework to help sustainability and impact some of the existential risks the planet faces. India's billionaire banker and winner of FILA’s for Institution Builder, shares mantras for new-age entrepreneurs to build a successful venture, and more.

4) Words of wisdom

Veteran banker Uday Kotak delivered a keynote address at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2024, in which he said he envisages a future of finance for India, where financial institutions will have to become world-class and re-imagine themselves to exist in two worlds of finance: The saver-borrower model and the investor-issuer model. Kotak was addressing a large gathering of industrialists, entrepreneurs, and private equity investors on March 7 in Mumbai. “India should aspire to be like the US; we will have to build deep capital markets in addition to traditional banking,” he added. To know more, read this.

5)   A new dawn

In this episode of Tech Conversations, Jaya Jagadish, country head and senior vice president at AMD India, talks about why the company is very optimistic about the prospects of India's fledgling semiconductor ecosystem over the next decade. Jaya also talks about how, over the last 20 years, AMD India has become the company's biggest global R&D location at a time when the multinational chip maker is ramping up its efforts to produce processors specifically suited for artificial intelligence applications. Tune in.
 
6) Never too late

On March 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually initiated ground-breaking ceremonies for three semiconductor projects worth about Rs 1.25 lakh crore. During his address, PM Modi admitted to having missed the bus all these years, but iterated that there was no longer any room to waste time. He laid the foundation for the semiconductor fabrication facility at the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), Gujarat, and the Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility at Morigaon, Assam, and Sanand, Gujarat. With a total investment of over Rs 91,000 crore in the Dholera facility, this will be the first commercial semiconductor fab in the country. Here’s why the timing is just right for India, and it's one of those golden phases when everything is coming together. Read more.

7) Looking ahead

During her visit to India in March, Helen Clarkson, global CEO of Climate Group, an international non-profit that works with businesses and governments to address climate change, said that India is playing an important role globally in encouraging the transition to renewable energy, given the country’s recent commitment to triple its renewable energy capacity by 2030. The Climate Group has been present in India for 15 years. During this time, they have worked with 15 state governments (eight at present), and about 150 businesses. Their network includes more than 500 multinationals in over 175 markets worldwide. Here’s her take on climate awareness among business leadership in India, actions taken by governments at the state and central levels, and how India can chase robust GDP (gross domestic product) by keeping green transition at the core.