Sruti, the exclusive magazine for the performing arts, came into the Sanmar fold about a year ago with its launch on 11 December 2006. Ever since, the magazine has successfully found a place in niche journalism and has benefited from the fresh impetus under the management of Sukanya Sankar and V Vaidyanathan. The magazine under the auspices of the Sruti Foundation has patronised veterans in the field of music, dance and other performing arts.
The Sruti Foundation honoured three eminent persons in the field of dance and music on 4 November 2007. The foundation organised a function at the Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, Chennai to honour the awardees and present The E Krishna Iyer Medal of Honour, The Vellore Gopalachariar Award and The M Venkatakrishnan Memorial Award. V Ramnarayan welcomed the gathering, S Janaki compered the proceedings, and P S Narayanan proposed the vote of thanks. N Sankar, Chairman, The Sanmar Group and The Sruti Foundation was present during the function.
The E Krishna Iyer Medal of honour, awarded once in two years to a senior dancer or dance institution, was presented to Mrinalini Sarabhai this year.
The Vellore Gopalachariar Award instituted by Vellore Ramabhadran in memory of his father, was presented to Bombay S Ramachandran. This annual award recognises unsung, veteran musicians and others associated with music.
The M Venkatakrishnan Memorial Award instituted by Ramaa Bharadvaj was awarded to ‘Kartik’ R Rajagopal. It is awarded once in two years to an eminent patron of the arts.
Sukanya Sankar with C V Chandrasekhar (who felicitated Mrinalini) and Minal Daftary (who received the award on Mrinalini’s behalf).
Mrinalini with the citation in Ahmedabad.
R Sekhar receiving the M Venkatakrishnan Memorial Award on behalf of his father Kartik R Rajagopal from K V Ramanathan.
Vellore Ramabhadran honouring Bombay Ramachandran.
The All India Management Association (AIMA) and The Sanmar Group conducted the 8th National Management Quiz. The contest was held in all the four zones of the country and about 150 teams participated representing corporates such as TCS, NTPC, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Reliance, Tata, Idea Cellular, Indian Oil Corporation, BPCL, Aditya Birla Group and MICO. The contest took place in Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern regions between 17 November and 1 December 2007. The grand finals were held in Chennai.
S Gopal of The Sanmar Group and President, MMA, N Sankar and S K Swamy of R K Swamy BBDO and Vice President, AIMA.
The Sanmar team
Sabyasachi Pani and Shantanu Dey from Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Delhi, carried away the title with cash award of Rs 75,000, trophy and attractive gift hampers. The first runner up team - Sun Microsystems, Mumbai, received a cash award of Rs 50,000, trophy and gift hampers, the second runner up team - NTPC, Delhi, took away Rs 25,000, trophy and gift hampers. All the regional winners were awarded Rs 25,000, trophy and attractive hampers and all the regional first runners up were presented with Rs 15,000, trophy and gift hampers. The quiz masters for the event were S P S Jaggi, Jacob Kurian and V Kumar from Bhilai Steel Plant.
The winners of the AIMA-Sanmar 8th National Management Quiz.
The Made in India (MII) Show was organised by the CII in association with the Embassy of India in Cairo between 20-23 November 2007. About 115 companies participated in the exhibition. TCI Sanmar Chemicals, Port Said also participated in the exhibition and sponsored a dinner event on 22 November. As part of the show, a 20-member CEOs delegation led by Rajiv Kaul, past President, CII & Chairman, NICCO Corporation, also visited Egypt. The event provided a platform for interaction and participation to explore economic and business opportunities between the two countries.
Trade between India and Egypt stood at $2.5 billion in 2006-07. India is Egypt’s third largest trading partner, after the US and Italy. Its exports to Egypt crossed $761 million. Egypt’s exports to India, mainly oil and gas, reached $1,743 million. India is also Egypt’s 12th largest foreign investor with close to 40 projects. India’s investments in Egypt are expected to cross $1.5 billion by 2009.
Dr Zeyad Bahaa El Deen, Chief General, Investment Authority and Free Zones with A Gopinathan, Indian Ambassador to Egypt at the dinner in Cairo.
Sanmar at the exhibition.
Chemplast Sanmar’s Sustainability Report was released on 12 November 2007 in Mettur and later on 19 November 2007 at Chennai. A photo exhibition was organised to coincide with the launch of report followed by a press conference. At the Mettur event, Veerapandi Arumugam, Agriculture Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu, released the report. The first copy was received by G K Mani, MLA, Mettur and felicitations were offered by him. P S Jayaraman, Chemplast Sanmar, took the press through a presentation explaining the triple-bottom line approach of the company.
Veerapandi Arumugam (3rd from left), Agriculture Minister of Tamil Nadu, hands over the first copy to G K Mani, MLA, Mettur (2nd from right). K S Venkiteswaran, P S Jayaraman and S B Prabhakar Rao from Sanmar at the release of the report.
Photo exhibition at Mettur.
Sanmar’s top management responding to queries from the press at Chennai.
P S Jayaraman taking K S Narayanan and U Suresh Rao around at the photo exhibition at Chennai.
The Sustainability Report of Chemplast Sanmar won the Silver Award at the 47th Annual Awards of the ABCI (Association of Business Communicators of India) held on 11 January 2008.
The Sustainability Report was entered in the corporate social responsibility communication category in the print media.
The Gold Award went to Hindustan Unilever for their social responsibility communication on safety in electronic equipment.
The Silver Award went to The Sanmar Group - Being Humane, Chemplast Sanmar’s first sustainability report.
The Bronze Award went to Indian Oil Corporation, New Delhi for their sustainability report.
The award for this category was given out by Makarand Khatavkar, Director – HR(Asia Pacific), Deutsche Bank. Other sub groups in the print media included the newspaper campaigns. The Gold went to the Madhya Pradesh Government for the
awareness campaign on registering properties, Silver to Mahindra & Mahindra for the campaign, ‘Mahindra Inspired’ and the Bronze to Tata Power, ‘I will… Mumbai will’... a campaign to save power.
In the electronic media under the same category, Bank of India got a Gold for their film on Shastriji, a retired employee who gets his pension. Weaving Hopes, ONGC’s campaign on the weavers of Chanderi sarees won the Silver. No entry qualified in the Bronze category.
In the environment communication category, State Bank of India won the Gold for their environment campaign, the Silver went to Nerolac for their environment report and Wockhardt received the Bronze for their communication on emergency response.
The ABCI was founded in 1956 and its objective is to recognise excellence in business communication. Organisations all over India participate in the annual awards competition with over 500 entries in 2007 from leading organisations in India.