Jahnavi Kumari Mewar recently joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation as part of NewsX India A-List. In the exclusive conversation, she spoke to us about her business firm along with insights on internationalism, effective global governance practices and the way forward for the post-Covid world.

Jahnavi commenced her talk by speaking about the creation of Auctus Fora and its uniqueness. She said “Auctus fora was born with a need to work with family offices (preferably) without a fund structure in place. If I take a small step back, I initially worked for JP Morgan from where I decided to set up a boutique investment bank and as that business developed and progressed, I had developed very meaningful relationships with family offices globally. We found that there was significant need for family offices to work together under a co-investment structure rather than that of a fund. Moving on we decided to set-up a co-investment platform, entirety focused on private acuity and private structure credit working with family offices globally. It’s a unique model because we work on ‘reverse origination methodology’ developed in 2011. We use this methodology to make investment decisions and direct our investment philosophy.”

When asked about how pandemic months have been for her and her firm, she responded “I think based on facts that firstly we are directed to asset. Number 2, we don’t do listed securities and are a private acuity focused and private structure credit which organically give you a lot more control over your investment decisions. I am very rigid when it comes to investment decision making process. For example – we’ll never chase dues or get into a bidding war as I believe that if you get your buying price wrong then you already made a big mistake in terms of capital allocation and investment process. In such disruptive times when others have faced upheavals, we have ramped up because of our decent decision making. Based on that what we have done over the past 15 months is that the assets which we felt will continue to give long term returns and are relatively resilient to the disruptions caused by global pandemic and lockdown, we have reinvested capital or added additional capital into those assets and portfolios. So, at a macro level we have reinvested capital into our portfolios and at micro level, into select asset portfolios. I mean not to say that we haven’t felt pain but we have been more resilient.”

Explaining the post-Covid global economic changes, she expressed “What we are seeing globally is unprecedented crisis for which a lot of nations have lacked institutional memory because they have never experienced something like this before. In the absence of institutional memory there is institutional unpreparedness. I think that responsibility and accountability of this crisis doesn’t solely sit with the current government because there has been decades of under-investment in the public healthcare infrastructure. Instead the present government has put concentrated efforts towards formulating new public policies. It is my personal opinion that unfortunately the government lacks sophistication in its policy making. Therefore they come across significant opposition to their policies.”

When it comes to changing global supply chains, Jahnavi described “let’s look at global supply chains from both political and economic perspectives. Politically speaking, we have fallen short on collective action and there has been a crisis of global governance. Supply chains and global governance can work hand in hand. A good small scale example is of QUAD members who have been working together and have been multilaterally more effective. So when we talk of re – engineering global supply chains, we have to look at from the perspective that are we going to create an incentivising engagement that affects better global governance practices.”

Lastly speaking about the importance of institutions like QUAD as representative of the changed world over institutions like UN and WHO, she said “QUAD is a great example of a force for global good. WHO has been less effective than QUAD as it has been dispersing contradictory information globally, it along with UN have failed to garner collective action for a global solution to the pandemic. QUAD is representation of way forward. We need to re-engineer a pragmatic form of internationalism which meets the needs for today and future.”

COVID-warriors, a term which in the pandemic year, has given many, power to fight the unseen enemy, i.e, the novel coronavirus, and many, the drive and motivation to step up and contribute to society. Unlike the front-line warriors such as doctors, nurses, police, and the medical staff, the COVID-warriors can be anyone who feels that humanity needs to be kept alive and robust at tough times like these. NewsX’s special series, NewsX A-List, proudly hosted two such warriors. Save The Children is an organisation that focuses on dealing with the plight of the children in the pandemic. Sanjana Sanghi, a well-known actress, and Sudarshan Suchi, the CEO of Save The Children, are working vehemently for this noble cause.

Sanjana Sanghi, on the motivation and drive to work with the organisation, said, “I have been working with children in the areas of education and empowerment since I was a student at Delhi University in 2014. I saw people coming up with various resources to help each other during the pandemic, but the scenario was seen only in the cities. The remote areas and the hinterlands were being neglected, not consciously, but by how things were panning out. Save The Children are doing an incredible work where they tap into aspects that people don’t even know exist.”

Sudarshan Suchi, CEO, Save The Children, elaborating on how the pandemic is impacting children, said, “The list runs long. Even though the disease, in particular, did not impact the children, but everything around it has hit them. Whatever could go wrong is going wrong with vulnerable children – who live on the brink of society – their caregivers are weak in terms of livelihood, security, and network. Child safeguarding became a big issue. The school was a big source of nutrition through the mid-day meal is no longer functional.” Sudarshan also highlighted the lack of space for the children living in slum areas who cannot follow the social distancing norms, even if they want to. He gave an example of a girl from Kolkata whose parents got infected, and the only idea of quarantine was that the whole family had to move out. “The whole family started getting ostracized due to the lack of basic facilities like water,” said Mr. Suchi.

Explaining the mechanism of their organisation, Sudarshan said, “Our efforts have been three-fold. Firstly, we try to be aware of any kind of distress calls from our community mobilisers and others. We ensure that they get safe health care. Secondly, we have been working with communities to build their capacities around the knowledge of COVID and hygiene. Thirdly, we are also focusing on the continuity of nutrition and education of the children who are not able to cope up with this extraordinary situation.” The digital gap is glaring and worrying since everything has switched to online. Save The Children is working against reducing this digital gap. “I would rate the time and engagement with the children far higher than any support,” he added.

Sanjana is also working very passionately with the organisation at the forefront. Stressing on the need for education for children, she said, “The effects of the pandemic are both short-term and long-term. The long-term effects of the pandemic will impact the nation at large. The children’s right to personality development, sense of self, dignity, and the right to learn is being taken away from them due to lack of infrastructure. To interweave digital learning into the learning process in such areas is a huge challenge. We are especially focusing on the girl-child as they experience greater neglect.” Sanjana has been associated with such works “deeply.” Starting from a teacher volunteer in a small NGO, she realised the value of her education for hundreds of underprivileged children. “Being a nerd also helped me realise the importance of education,” she said. She has been associated with multiple organisations in the past.

Sudarshan Sanghi appreciated the efforts made by Sanjana and told how she chased the organisation to play the right-front role for the cause, unlike other public figures who the organisations run behind to get more reach. Discussing his aspiration from the road ahead and the future of India, he said, “Ultimately lasting impact will come from an aware and educated community. We are focusing on helping the government help deliver help efficiently. We are also building a team of pediatricians who can deconstruct the implication of pandemic on children and get insights on how to take care of them.” Mr. Sanghi ended with discussing a three-prone approach which involved short-term – Survival, middle-term – Education and Continuity, and long-term – Future Employment and preparing children for the changes. He also stated that across all dimensions and one of the top agendas is Mental Health of the Children.

Ashish Khandelwal joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation this week for its special segment NewsX India A-List. Speaking about the company, Mr. Ashish spoke about how the company was formed in 1999 and was made by his forefathers. Having been the business for the past 75 years, Bl Agro Industries Limited has created a niche for itself. 

When asked about the reason behind the entry into kitchen ready products, he said, “Basically for diversification, we started it. We are doing distribution and all the customers and retailers ask for quality products. So we decided why not move forward with diversification and move into food products.”

Talking about the response gained for the product, he said, “Just after the launch, Covid-19 started. It started in January, 2020. The journey has not been very long. We faced lockdown. Moving forward, we will hit our targets.” After Covid hit, kitchen ready products became one of the most searched productions and most of the people started exploring various option. Talking about this, he said,“We got a good push in delivery because of this. Otherwise, a new product introduction during lockdown would have been tough.”

When asked about the existing market and new markets in India, he said, “Right now, we are in northern parts like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Bihar, etc. and we are permanent here. In a couple of months, we are moving to the South.” Stressing on the company’s new marketing strategy, he added, “We are always after distribution. We try to maintain relations with distributors. So, companies provide all sales staff and everything. The sales staff gathers all the market reports and demands and then we work on it. The more prominent and convenient strategy is retailing nowadays because nobody is moving out and going to market and all. Today, Covid problem is for retailers to move out. So we are trying to maintain our market. We recently started our online portal. Soon it will be fully functional.”

Most people are used to bigger platforms like Amazon but small companies have also curated their apps, which shows whatever product available. Bl Agro Industries Limited has the same plan. He says, “Definitely, we are launching an app. We will be available side-by-side with the sites and all. From the first of July, we are trying to fulfil the desire of the customers.”

“We are thinking about expansion typically in pulses, flowers and all. In India, it has not been innovated. There are not many innovations and all. So we have tried to introduce some machines and all. Right now, we are grinding it with the stone mill which was modernized and from Austria. We have started vacuum packaging of pulses and food items. Nobody in India does vacuum packs for pulses. Similarly, we try to procure more specific machines and all and try to give more flavours and more specific aromas and the best quality we can provide,” he added.

Ashish expressed, “After Covid, people are more aware of the quality of products. They are more concerned about the quality. So we are trying to produce good and better things today. We don’t have such competitions and we are focusing on Indian pulses.” When asked about organic chains, he said, “Right now, we are not planning for organic because organic has lost its quality as every brand is producing organic products. Specifically, we don’t have any tests for organic. That is the problem when we say organic, it needs a specific amount of time. It takes 7 years for an organic crop to come and is financially not feasible.” 

NewsX recently interacted with KIIT and KISS founder Prof (Dr.) Achyuta Samanta as part of its special series NewsX India A-List, wherein he talks about his journey as an entrepreneur and social worker. Speaking about the initial stages of start-up, Prof Achyuta said, “Now the word start-up is very much familiar with everybody. It is very popular. And all the young masses are generally starting something in the name and style of a start-up. But practically when we started, there was no word like a start-up. But I am very much happy that we have started from scratch. With Rs. 5000 in my pocket in those days, in a two-rented house, in two organisations. Both organisations have come up like anything and earned World appreciation.” 

He added “The Kalinga Institute of Technology (KIIT) is one of the most promising universities in the World. In the league of eminence, recognised by the government of India along with nine other universities, with 30,000 students present in the campus from Pan India and from the 65 countries, with one lakh alumni students from the KIIT University. Besides spreading over 25000 square kilometres of the area with 1.5 crores square foot built up in 25 campuses. This university’s aim is humanity and compassion. At the same time, I started the Kalinga Institute of Social Science(KISS). Now it is home for poor tribal children.”

When asked about reason or the idea behind starting it, Prof Achyuta said, “Idea is very simple. Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. As Achyuta Samanta was born and brought up in those days amid severe poverty. Achyuta Samanta was so poor after losing his father at the age of four with other six brothers and sisters and mother. Achyuta Samanta himself was not getting even one square meal or two pieces of roti in one day. So that type of poverty, hunger Achyuta Samanta was experiencing from the age of four. I had this experience on how poverty and hunger kill everything. I used to say education is the third eye of a child. Education is the tool of everything. If one is educated or given education, all the problems will be taken care of. Achyuta Samanta himself is the best example before the World. Unless and until I am educated a little bit, I will not have been the instrument to give this smiling face to millions of children. This is the reason I started the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences. It is also the first-ever tribal university in the entire world and it is fully residential.”

Talking about his village, he said, “As a social worker and entrepreneur I work for the people. I developed my native village into a smart village giving all city amenities in that village. Also, the entire Panchayath is known as the model panchayat and that village is a smart village. Everything is available there.” He added, “If someone wants to manage things he or she can do it. I have been working 17-18 hours per day for the last 29 years without taking single daybreak. “

Talking about the work he does for women empowerment, he said, “I know from my childhood, the more we respect women, the more prosperity we get. From my childhood, I’ve been respecting women. Women are the real source of inspiration. In the last 20 years, countries are prospering because women are on par with men. There is one scheme- the Kalinga Fellowship for empowering women.”

Emphasising his organisation’s efforts towards Covid relief, he said, “It is such a challenging time for everybody and we have been with people during every calamity. During the pandemic, I’ve been happy to help people. We have been running four Covid hospitals. We have been dropping 10 kg of dry food at the doorstep of every child for the last 15 months. We have announced if any faculty dies, children will be given free education. In the meantime I’ve been taking care of 100 orphans and once the pandemic ends they will be given good education till they are adults. These are some of the good things that we are doing.”

From ‘Bhiku Mharte’ in ‘Satya’ to ‘Babu’ in ‘Road,’ from ‘Sardar Khan’ in ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ to ‘Ganpath Bhonsle’ in ‘Bhonsle,’ and now winning hearts as ‘Srikant Tiwari’ in ‘Family Man,’ Manoj Bajpayee, has never ceased to amaze and mesmerize the audience with his effortless yet sophisticated acting. Manoj Bajpayee was accoladed with the National Award for Best Actor for his film ‘Bhonsle.’ He was also awarded the Filmfare OTT awards for the Best Actor in a Drama Series.  NewsX’s special series NewsX A-List recognised Manoj Bajpayee for his excellent and unforgettable performances in the entertainment industry.

The sequel of his very successful show, ‘Family Man,’ was released after a long wait by the fans excited to watch the second season of the series. “It’s quite overwhelming for me. Getting so much love from the audience is quite unprecedented and historic. We can still not digest the way the show and the character of ‘Srikant Tiwary’ is being received by the fans and audience,” said Manoj on how it has been like since the National Award and the success of Family Man. He added, “The RAW agents we talked to, and the agents who had written to us, the love and appreciation given by them was unimaginable. People have seen this 10-episode show in a matter of two days. Many of them are watching it twice or thrice. We’ve been fortunate and blessed to be very honest.”

Manoj Bajpayee is very interactive with his fans. He replies to their messages regularly on social media. “A unique thing that happened with this show was that I catered to an audience which I had never catered to, which is the audience aged between 11-14. Getting appreciated and love by this group of audience is very new and exciting for me. When I started acting, the art of it is what made me excited and still keeps me driven to put out good content for the people who watch me,” said Manoj talking about how surprised he was to capture the attention of that segment audience. “I am very thankful to Rajan DK for giving me the space to reach out to that segment,” he added. After the massive success of Family Man 1 & 2, all the binge-watchers and fans of the show are anxiously waiting for Season 3. Putting the minds of such viewers at rest, he said, “People have to understand that in this one year, people hardly worked. The second season was supposed to come in the previous year, but it got postponed. We are still to dub the show in vernaculars. Rajan DK does have a further story in mind, but a lot goes into making the show. So, I believe it will take almost two years before the next season comes out.”

The movie buffs are eagerly waiting for the pandemic to end so that they can again enjoy buckets of popcorns in the theatre. On being asked if he would be working on both the theatres and OTT platforms, Manoj Bajpayee said, “I will be working on both the mediums. I feel we need more mediums. There is a plethora of talent out there looking to work. More options will give birth to more choices, and this is what talent wants. Earlier, only a few people used to work in films. Now it has been overshadowed by many new stories, actors, and directors. But OTT is very demanding in the sense that it requires pure skill and knowledge of art when creating content of OTT.” He also added, “Going to theatres will one of the ways people will feel the freedom of going out without any worries. Theatres will fire up again, but the cinema will never be the same after the OTT has become mainstream. OTT will be a parallel force for the cinema to deal with.”

Manoj Tiwari won a national award for his film ‘Bhonsle.’ Recalling the time he got the award, he said, “I was sleeping when I got the award. I had hundreds of messages on my phone. At first, I thought that there had been another attack because the same thing happened when 26/11 happened. When I opened my phone, then I got to know about the news of the award. I was shocked, but it was a delightful surprise. It took four years-worth of struggle and hard work to make this film. The award for ‘Bhonsle’ was least expected as I had lost all hope to get an award.”

The Black Swan Event, the Pandemic, was an unfortunate time for the world. But Manoj, being the guy he is, looked at the positives in the situation. He said, “One thing that came across very strongly was an ambience of helplessness all around the place, The scenario was heart-breaking, but the silver lining in this was that at a time of crisis, the entire country became one. Everyone was helping each other, be it for beds, oxygen, or medicines. I had never seen such visuals in my entire life. It made me feel so proud belonging to this country.”

Tanuj Virwani, who has won a lot of accolades for his role in ‘The Tattoo Murders’, recently joined NewsX for an exclusive interview as part of NewsX India A-List and opened up about his current projects and how the pandemic has been affecting him.

Tanuj Virwani is an actor and model, who has won a lot of accolades for his role in ‘The Tattoo Murders’ on Disney+Hotstar, and yet again he packed with a powerful role as ACP Aditya in ‘Murder Meri Jaan’ streaming on Disney + Hotstar alongside Barkha Singh. Along with being an actor he has shown a keen interest in direction and writing and has made several socially relevant short films. Tanuj recently joined NewsX for an exclusive interview as part of NewsX India A-List and talked about how his current projects and roles in it and how the pandemic has been affecting him.

When asked about what convinced the director and also him to do the role in his recent film ‘Tattoo Murders’, Tanuj shared with us, “If you propose that question in front of our director Shravan sir maybe he will ask what convinced Tanuj to do the role. It was sort of a perfect role because I think I was also itching to do something different. Since I have started getting work, I have been offered an array of roles such as after ‘Inside Edge’ I have been offered interesting projects. It was more urban in the treatment of how those characters lived, and I specifically felt that with the character of Prabhat Pratap on ‘Tattoo Murders’, it offered me the chance to do something drastically different and I like to experiment.”

“On this particular project, I did not have the sort of pressure to carry a shoot but I was okay to try something different because sometimes you will pass with flying colours and audience will embrace it or sometimes just mixed reactions. But if you don’t try, if you don’t take that first step into the water you will never know whether you can sink or swim. I think the OTT platform also largely should be credited because it really gives us as actors a lot more scope for experimentation, shoots and even films.”

When asked about how appealing the role was to him, the actor replied, “Absolutely, the one thing I am happy having seen the show entirely is that our director who is also one of the writers on the show was kind of able to read it in the authenticity that was present in the writing. Many times what happens is that things get lost in translation, you might read a script and whereas the whole story may appeal to you but when you see the way it’s finally done on the screen executed very differently. In this particular case, I feel Shravan sir has done an excellent job of maintaining the authenticity and it’s very raw and very edgy because there’s no sex involved in a lot of projects was involved shooting in real life which I think will be impossible during a pandemic but we finished shooting just before Covid has hit.”

When asked about his success with digital platforms, Tanuj said, “I think just the visibility of what OTT platform offers to actors like myself and many others in my position is insane. I still remember when I was signed on ‘Inside Edge’ and we were shooting back in 2016, a lot of us were very cautiously optimistic that we know we are making something cool and interesting but no one could have in their wildest dreams thought like the impact it could have. Today when you look at the entire landscape of entertainment in our country it has just shifted so dramatically and has given birth to so many wonderful actors and I consider myself very fortunate that I am an active actor at this point of my career who is getting these opportunities. I am just so glad that I listened to my instincts and it has given me even more confidence on going ahead to trust my instincts.”

While talking about his next upcoming movie, the actor shared with us and said, “The lineup seems to be very solid right now so I believe my next release would be a show called ‘Tandoor’ that is based on a Tandoor murder case that happened in Delhi in 1995 and I am portraying the role of the person who was responsible for it and it’s a miracle to get that on Covid situation. I have got another show coming up with Barkha Singh so I am looking forward to it as it has given me another opportunity to do other works. There is one upcoming project which I am passionate about with the mafia in Bombay city because it’s again a very different kind of project.”

When asked how the actor himself has adjusted to the pandemic situation, Tanuj revealed, “Everybody collectively put our guards down and we are in a probably worst situation than from last year. I would like to say is that we all have been redirecting for the last year about social distancing, sanitisation and wearing masks and hence I request viewers to take of themselves and others around especially those who are vulnerable. It has been frustrating for me also but whenever I put on television I consider myself extremely fortunate and grateful to be in the position that I am and there is so much to look forward to in life and I am sure few years from now when we will look back at this as learning curve thinking and how we lived through it and we survived.”