 Hi and welcome to another episode of Inside Oizong. So we have been interviewing a few of my colleagues in the last few episodes. But today I have a very special guest with me. I have with me Jainam Mehta, who is the Chief Marketing Officer at Oizong. So let's begin this episode with Jainam. Hi Jainam, welcome to Inside Oizong. Hi Anne. And this has been a very good experience for me when I have been talking to my colleagues and finding at a very different angle about them. So I am expecting the same with you. So I think you are the right person to ask this question. Tell us the journey of Oizong. Like how did it all start and where were you with all this? So I would like to hear something. So this is like one of the most interesting stories. Prior to Oizong I was working in a hardcore Bollywood and like a movie industry. Like you know really into the movie space. And then there was this movie called The Revenant which won the Oscars. And I was lucky enough to have an interaction with Leonardo DiCaprio. Where he mentioned just one thing that you know do something that has an impact. The same evening coincidentally Sohil calls me up mentioning about Oizong. Sohil is of course my co-founder and the CTO. He calls me up and we discuss that okay this is a good idea. Moving on to Ankit and that's how Oizong started. You know where the idea was to make environment understandable and predictable. And that's where we started with the whole journey of making air quality scalable and you know yes and we all know how we are right now. I mean we have a good global presence and you have been playing a pivotal role in that. But before I get on to your work and also tell me how did this pandemic affect you? I mean what was your experience? How did you manage to cope up with everything and where are you right now in your mental state? See personally for me it was really tough considering that I would not be somebody who could just stay at home. It was really difficult for me. So of course pandemic changed a lot of things the way how we perceive things. But I think there is always a blessing in disguise. For instance there were a lot of spending things that you know all of us had to do. Maybe a hobby or maybe something at work which we were able to do because you were stuck indoors. You could give time to those things. So what do you think that is one thing that once everything is normal back to routine. We are all you know exactly like zero. What is this one thing that you want to do which used to do previously and now you are restricted to do that. Oh I really want to go just once into the cinemas get a tub of popcorn and like you know just to watch a movie. You know just with that ambient sound people shouting and that that experience you can't get even you know with all the Netflix and Amazon Prime and everything. Absolutely I think that is even one thing that even I am looking forward to so hope that day comes soon. So now coming back to Oizom and something that I wanted to ask you is that this is all about air quality right. And we all know how grief the situation is around. So what do you think about the global scenario and where when we compare it to India. So what's it how is it how is the global scenario in terms of air quality. What's the problem that people are looking to solve and how are we contributing to that. See air quality has been a problem and it's just increasing with the you know rapid urbanization and industrialization. But I think one major thing that we have started now at least post pandemic one positive thing that has happened is a lot of people have realized that you know even in this visible intangible things can be very harmful to your health. So I think a lot of initiatives have been taken for example this year. So as per the plan of 2020 to 2040 Europe is now going to be focusing on extensive you know clean resources green energy setting up special low low emission zones. And I think we are adapting quite well. So as a I mean I am honestly very impressed with the way India is taking you know air quality as a measure and you know all the laws that are coming up. I'm sure you must have heard about the stubble burning doors right for the farmers and everything. So I think this is a this is we are in the right direction. Maybe the pace needs to be accelerated but we are in the right direction. Right. So this is the question that I had which is in connection with that. So where do you think India as a country is missing out in terms of taking this problem. Are we not taking it that seriously. Do we do not have that kind of infrastructure or maybe the economy is not helping us to get solutions to this. See I wouldn't blame the economy because see the biggest advantage and the biggest bottleneck of India as a country is the size and the population. Right. So you would see something happening in France or something happening in UK would be surprised. UK is probably the size of a Gujarat and Maharashtra combined. Now look at the size of India. Look at the population. Right. Like if you see overseas right people have number of people per square foot. Here you have square foot per people. Like it's the opposite. Exactly. That's one reason. But I'm very much in favour that we are taking steps slowly and steady. Of course we might take time to achieve our SDG goals but we certainly will. Okay. So my next question is to understand that how has been the learning from you when as part of Oizom. Like what are the things that you were not aware about and now you are like okay this is something that I wouldn't have known if I was not in Oizom. So I'll tell you a very funny story here because this is more of an insight. So for example you know when you are at a crossroad you are standing right and you always see a lot you know when a bus passes you know that okay there is a lot of dust. Now I'm like oh shit PM 2.5. Yeah. So you see it instantly clicks when somebody like dude that's PM 10 that's PM 2.5. So it's constantly at the back of your head and I think this small changes have had a huge impact not just to me but also to the people around me. My friends and my family as well where you know even something as simple as turning off your ignition when you're at a crossroad. These are the things that you realize once you work in the domain because you see how bad you know it is. So I think enough of work and enough of talking about Oizom. So tell us something about yourself how what do you do in your off time like when you're not working or how do you recharge yourself. What's what's the thing that. So one thing that I usually do to recharge myself and luckily enough I have a profession that helps me do that is to travel. Yeah. And considering my role at my role of work I usually get to travel quite a lot pre pandemic care of course. Yeah. But so I think traveling is one thing apart from that I write quite extensively. So I do a lot of writing and publishing medium and other blogging platforms as well. Okay. And in addition to that of course reading because you cannot read if you do you cannot write if you don't read. So I think it goes hand in hand. Right. So in connection to this would that also be your hobby is that something you're very passionate about traveling or there is something else that you still feel that okay this gives me a kick apart from working. So I think my hobby of what gives me a kick into the different things but what gives me that adrenaline rush is meeting new people talking to new people. I would probably be super unproductive if I don't interact with like 10 new people in a month. Okay. Okay. So I think that's something that you know keeps me going. That's great. That's great. The next question is maybe it could be a little controversial because controversial rather I ask it to everyone. So tell me your favorite person at Oizong. This is what I have been asking everyone and I have been wanting an answer from. So I'll tell you so there is this of course I wouldn't want to you know just make it very diplomatic. But see all of us together are stronger than anyone of us at once right. So I think it's the entire team together that has made it. But that is getting to diplomacy. That's the reason I said I need an answer because this is the part where I have been you know trying to fudge it around little. So I think I'll give equal credit of my journey in the past five years to Sohail and Ankit both of them. Okay. Because see one of course was the reason you know why he's like you can do it you know. I remember there was a time I mean extending a bit but I remember when we first moved and started our French office. Yeah. I was a bit you know I was a bit skeptical like would I be able to do it. And I remember Ankit and Sohail asked me to sit down in the office like we know you can do it. And how would you how is it not possible like you have it in you. You can do it. And I'm so glad I took that decision you know. And we all know the reach that we have had overall in the global. So imagine that one discussion that 30 minute meeting to a phase now right now where I handle and talk with like our partners from more than 50 countries. So I think that was the youth. So I will probably give all the credit to Sohail and Ankit equal equal. I mean of course the team goes. Yeah exactly. So this is where you know when you're talking with the team this is also I wanted to show our viewers that what do you think about the culture that we have at Oizom. You can maybe highlight something. So something which someone told me. Okay. Which is like I feel that you guys are probably like just a bunch of young friends just come come and you start working and it's really impactful to see how you know we have evolved. So I have seen the entire team evolve over this period of time. So I think that is one thing that I love about Oizom is there's no hierarchy but you know all of us are learning something from one person or the other irrespective of what position you are in. So my last question to you is any message that you would want to give to our maybe the young audience maybe someone who's as a citizen of a city or maybe a country anything that you want to you know pass a message. So maybe two things one on the of course considering my role and wearing the hat of a chief marketing officer for an air quality company is that please be a bit more cautious when you use the environment. The thought process that you know how is one person going to make a difference there is actually a different there is a marginal difference even for a single person. And for the rest of the audience annual is watching this is that just if you have like even the slightest belief like even one person that you can pull something off give it a shot you never know how and when it's going to work. So I think those are the things that's great. Thank you Janam so much for your time. This was really fun and I'm looking forward to you know interact more and find out more about in the coming days. So thank you so much. Thank you so much. So guys this was Janam Mehta the chief marketing officer at Oizom. I hope you liked this episode. Check out for our other episodes from Inside Oizom. We're also starting a new series with extended Oizom talking with different partners that have associated with us. So hopefully we'll be coming out with more such videos and thank you for your time for watching this. Stay safe stay happy.