TATAS: WE OPERATE BUSINESSES AND LIFE ON TRUST, CONFIDENCE
The
Hindu, December 19, 2016
Interview:
Ramachandran Venkataramanan, the managing trustee of Tata Trusts in conversation
with Piyush Pandey:
Excerpts:
“We operate businesses and life on trust and
confidence,
not necessarily on a legal contract. That doesn’t mean we are doing anything
illegal. If you have to finalise the books of accounts of a particular company,
you could say ‘Financial systems and processes do not exist’. It could be
reworded to ‘There is a need to strengthen the financial systems and
processes’. It means the same but the way you interpret it or deal with it
makes a huge difference. If you have trust, you will say the latter. If you don’t
have trust, you will say the former.
*** ***
Salt
fortification
We worked with the Ministry of Women and
Child Development, Health and the Food Safety Standards Authority of India
(FSSAI) to formally adopt and notify standards for fortification. These were
announced on November 16, 2016 in the presence of Hon’ble Minister Ram Vilas
Paswan. Several states are formally launching Double Fortified Salt using such
protocols.
Fortification
has been a practice globally. For example, many years ago, China found a way to
embed micro-nutrients in soya sauce because soya sauce is a staple food in
China. India has always been privy to this sort of fortification, earlier. In
the 80s, iodised salt came into being that way. Then it became a standard, over
the years. Now, we hope that in the coming years, Double Fortified Salt (DFS)
or fortified milk will be a mandatory standard. It is available in the market
but the key difference is that today, Tata Salt sells DFS at a price of about
Rs.28, beyond the reach of many people. What we are attempting to do from the
Trusts is, we are agnostic to any company or any state. The price points in
public programmes will be around Rs.10 or less.
It is on
initiatives like this that Mr. Tata has been personally involved. Conceiving
it, providing strategic direction and also, reviewing it, very periodically –
some times more than a programme manager.
We worked with the Ministry of Women and
Child Development, Health and the Food Safety Standards Authority of India
(FSSAI) to formally adopt and notify standards for fortification. These were
announced on November 16, 2016 in the presence of Hon’ble Minister Ram Vilas
Paswan. Several states are formally launching Double Fortified Salt using such
protocols.
Fortification
has been a practice globally. For example, many years ago, China found a way to
embed micro-nutrients in soya sauce because soya sauce is a staple food in
China. India has always been privy to this sort of fortification, earlier. In
the 80s, iodised salt came into being that way. Then it became a standard, over
the years. Now, we hope that in the coming years, Double Fortified Salt (DFS)
or fortified milk will be a mandatory standard. It is available in the market
but the key difference is that today, Tata Salt sells DFS at a price of about
Rs.28, beyond the reach of many people. What we are attempting to do from the
Trusts is, we are agnostic to any company or any state. The price points in
public programmes will be around Rs.10 or less.
It is on
initiatives like this that Mr. Tata has been personally involved. Conceiving
it, providing strategic direction and also, reviewing it, very periodically –
some times more than a programme manager.”
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