 I also have great pleasure in inviting along with Mr. Hemant Malik as soon as we have the chairs up on stage. Mr. Dvivedi, chief corporate sales he used to be at the Denig Bhaskar Group prior to joining the Sakal Group, one of the most respected voices who comes with a very deep understanding of the media industry. And we really look forward to this conversation between the two of you. So Mr. Malik at the outset, what an inspiring address. I think taking a global perspective of what's happening across the world into an Indian economy and then narrowing it down to how ITC is leveraging these opportunities to really do some transformational work on the ground. I think your address covered a lot of ground. I think I had well practically a million questions popping through my head as I went along but I want to be fair to the audience as well. So I will take the liberty of asking you a couple of questions and then perhaps if time permits open it up for the floor in case there are any other questions. I think one of the points that I picked up from your address the early part was that brands have a responsibility to be transparent and honest in their communication to the audiences. I think going back to the Maggie controversy which somehow spilled over into UP and ITC also had a big challenge in the category itself. When you look at some of the challenges for brands such as Indigo Airlines or Zomato between the last few days, how would you advise these brands to address their marketing challenges and these communication fiascos that they have faced and recover from this and come back on solid ground because you have like a master in it? I think if I can make sure that I can protect my brands from these issues I would have done a great job. It's unfair because one doesn't have the full story what the organization goes through and I believe that no organization wants a brand to get impacted by any act of any individual or anything that has happened which has been a little out of control. How people can address it, I think hindsight is always 20-20. The principles I can only say what we follow, what we would like to follow is to be as transparent as possible to make sure that you have very, we are in the food business and hygiene and quality is extremely important because this is something that gets ingested. So over the years in fact we are moving more and more to having our own factories so that we can, we are investing in the future so that we can make sure that we can control the entire supply chain from a quality and hygiene aspect. Having said that, whatever you do in terms of control some things may go out of way. In fact, the challenge today is fake news and I think between real news and fake news is a big problem and in terms of how do you handle fake news and I think I did mention about something which we experienced briefly and in terms of WhatsApp it just kind of goes so fast that no media system can also handle it. So yeah, you have to be careful and keep your ears to the ground and be consistent with what you do. I think as you are rightly pointing out I think to prevent any kind of a backlash from such a communication issue I think it is highly incumbent on media companies to really work very closely with brands in making sure that the right messages is going out. Moving on to the inspiring part around the eChopal and the social initiatives that ITC has done, when you look at the food value chain in India, I mean farmers traditionally have been short changed because of middlemen over a period of time. In spite of all the digital information that eChopal and other sources have provided to them including government sources, the whole farm to folk concept still continues to remain challenged. So what role do you see organizations such as ITC and other large organizations to play going beyond their own brief of doing what they can do to actually influence the public policy? So how do you take it up to a larger agenda? I think you're right and I'll give you an example which we are going through right now. In the month of May, there were news articles which says that the farmers' potato, for instance, and we use potato for our brand of bingo chips, are being sold for like 3 rupees a kilo. There was so much of production that had taken place that nobody, it was just being thrown away. And in fact, governments were calling up and saying why can't you buy? Come to, we are now in November. There is no potato in the market. And potato chips, what we typically buy for about 12 to 13 rupees a kilo to make potato chips is available for 30 rupees. My cost of production, in fact, is a good time to buy potato chips because potatoes are very expensive and we can't change the prices. But I think what I'm trying to say is that, and we've seen this form crop after crop. One year, the price is very high. We've seen that in pulses. We've all heard about pulses for 150, 200 rupees a kilo. What is the price now? So everybody goes to make more pulses and the price. So what we miss is actually infrastructure, cold chain, which can actually make sure that the shelf life of these products can become larger, so that the variation that takes place in price points. And therefore, always the farmer is the sufferer. So that's a challenge. And I think there's a lot of work which the Ministry of Food Processing is also doing. But that is a key area. But would you say that this is an area where there is a significant scope for public-private partnership and not just incumbent government? Of course there is. And I did briefly mention about World Food India. And a lot of action is happening. There is a lot of incentives being given in terms of how you can improve. I think the government initiative is strong. And when you can see the kind of opportunity, I think the middle layer of infrastructure. And people like us are also doing a lot of investment in backward integration to make sure that we can look at the same thing. I think that's a great initiative. So moving on a little bit to, there is this old saying, I think it comes from one of the IBM CEOs saying, business is all about marketing. And marketing continues to evolve and become challenging over a period of time. In today's day and age where there is proliferation of various kinds of media, there is an audience span of attention challenge. There is a continuous partial attention challenge which plagues almost every brand that is trying to make a meaningful communication to the audiences. So how do you engage your consumers, both current and potential, in a meaningful and a sustainable manner through your communication? You know, the next session I think is from Shrinni and he is the head who runs my media thing. So I think he'll be the guy who'll give the better answer than I can give. So well, perhaps Shrinni has the answers for this one. So we'll let this one go. But just to sort of take your view on this, how do you engage your audience? How do you have a sustainable communication going? What's the mantra? I don't know whether there can be any mantra and I think if there is any one mantra, everybody would have copied that and then there would have been no longer that mantra. Then you'd have to look at another mantra for that because the creativity, I think there is no limit to where you can push the creativity. But from a simplistic perspective, do you have the right insights? Have you made the right products to deliver on the insights? Because it cannot only work only on communication. You need to have something which is solid on the product and therefore you can actually claim why you are different. Audience want to be entertained. So please make sure that your communication as in the media that you use is entertaining because as you also said, there are so many screens available for the audience. I think better targeting would be important. And I think, see if you can enjoy doing what you do. I think if my teams can enjoy what they do, they'll produce the best results. I think that's a fantastic response. I just have one more question before I open it up to the floor and as you know, Batra Jain is opening address itself but spoke about exchange for media. So there are a lot of media practitioners in this room and I'm obligated to ask you one question on media. Just bear with me on that. But now globally, obviously, the mix of media is changing significantly. Digital is gaining a lot of stronghold and I don't think India is any different from that. Even in India, it continues to grow. Television has a very strong presence in India but I think surprisingly, India remains one market where print medium not only continues to sustain but grow very significantly and has a meaningful means of communication. So as a large organization like ITC which is into multiple sectors, how do you really leverage or see the future for print medium as a medium for communication in your plans and in your go forward agenda? You know, for many years, I've been part of the board of audit bureau circulation. And which is representative of the print industry. And I believe that for some reason, the print industry itself feels too shy about the fact because I think they have a great product. Because that's finally, you know, and it's not only the English, it's also the vernacular. We are a country where education is very, very important and people are getting more and more educated and therefore they are going to read. I believe that the clutter that you encounter on any other media is very much higher than what you encounter in the print space. The data that I have seen is that it shows that it over the last cagger or itself is about 5 to 6% over the last 10 years. And I think in this whole sexy digital, you know, you have to make sure that you have a right to play. So I take the learning loud and clear. I mean, we need to market ourselves better. I mean, I come from a print major media group so I think that's learning for us. At this stage, I'd like to open up the floor for any questions if there are from the audience. I know that we are a little constrained on time so perhaps we will allow two questions. So, fastest finger first. Please go ahead. Can we get a mic over there, please? Hi, Hemant. Thank you for that wonderful session. I have actually two questions but I think one is seriously pertinent here. I want to know, you mentioned about backward integration and you know, things like that and you're doing a lot of stuff with the farmers. Is there, do you really see a future where we'll be in a situation in this country where we can completely do away with this trading section of the supply chain where the farmer can actually come to a place? Because, you know, as a consumer today, prices are just going through the roof as far as I'm concerned. And I'm a mother, I'm a housewife, and as well, you know, I also cook food for my kids. So those things are just going through the roof but like you're saying, the farmer who's actually producing any of these, and you interact more so with the farmer. So do you think there are any immediate things that, you know, as people, as a community, we can actually do to get farmers closer to us so that we protect their livelihood and as well get the benefit of, you know, the best product? I think, no, no, you are absolutely right. This whole middle men which we typically call, but I don't think that, you know, it is, it's not correct to brand traders as something wrong because a lot of us are traders in many things that we do. And there is a role that it is required in terms of, because there are million farmers and million consumers, how are you going to connect them? There has to be certain platform. And we've seen platforms change and you had a platform for taxis and you've seen how Airbnb or Uber has changed those platforms. So platform can change. A lot of work is happening in terms of actually, particularly when it comes to buying and selling and there are platforms like APMC which at times have been constraining platforms and a lot of government have now allowed that to be kind of opened up. And so that anybody can go and buy from the farmer and, you know, when we, when modern trade stores came in and now a lot of them are buying, there are people who are, but you have to remember it's a very large country. You know, you can't be able to say that from one village in Guna in Madhya Pradesh, you'll be able to find a buyer. So there will be a, but I think the difference will happen is in terms of visibility of information. And earlier the visibility of information was not there. So whatever the person told him, he or she had to believe. But today the visibility has made a difference. And I think that the digitization is going to make a difference to every farmer of the country. Thanks, I think that was a failure. So we have time for just one more question. Can I see if there are any hands or anybody needs a mic? I see, I think that section has not really had anyone. So let's grant them one. Could we get a mic over there? That corner please, second row. But they need a mic, I guess. Hello. Yeah, you're all right. Could you just identify yourself, your name and organization before asking the question? That would be nice. Thank you. Yeah, hi, I'm Niranjan Prakash from Red FM. And I had a question. I've actually written it down so that I can ask it properly. Mr. Malik, thank you for some very important points. Like entertaining, sustainable, and inclusive. That's what brands really need to be. I want to ask this question more as a learning and not as a score. But what is your strategic point when you get combated by brands which look ultra sagacious, quasi-religious, extra patriotic? They call upon the conscience of the common man. While you actually have examples on ground from a strategic point of view, how do you combat market forces? Which examples are you talking about? Patanjali. Would you elaborate your question with an example? Yeah, I need more specifics. Patanjali, Patanjali. Yeah, Patanjali. I am talking about Patanjali. You can't escape a Q&A session without Patanjali. That's why he was couching it in so many words. If you ask me a direct question, you'll get a direct answer. If you couch it, you'll get a couched answer. So I wanted to know what kind of answer you want me to... So brace yourself. I think like any brand, Patanjali is also a brand which is marketing itself in many categories. It has got a value proposition which appeals to a certain set of consumers. Finally, the consumers will try the product. It has to deliver. Finally, the product also has to perform. And if their product continues to perform, they will continue to get the audience. I think there are a few very good learnings that we have as marketeers. And I think one of the key learnings for me is being the simplicity of communication. It's a single message. At times, with our creative agencies and our whole thing, we try to make too much hoo-ha about something which is very simple. And I think that has been done very well. But it's... So you learn from each other. It's another competitor in the market. Seems to have done very well. We'll have to keep on watching. And so we will also compete in the market. So as I said, the market is huge. Many more players can come in. This is not the first. It won't be the last. We just heard this morning that there is another brand which is getting launched with 1,300 stores if you read today's Times of India. Right? That's a very nice answer. Sir, that's very wonderful. Thank you so much, Mr. Malik, for a really exciting address and with the Q&A. Thanks again. From Potatoes to Ultra-National Brands, I request you gentlemen to both please stay back.