 And now to set the tone and context for this day. Let me welcome in on stage an Entrepreneur a journalist an internet evangelist and a media expert all rolled into one Please put your hands together for mr. Anurag Bhatra chairman editor-in-chief for exchange for media and business world Please welcome in you need a doubt or applause, please I'm allowed Punjabi. I normally don't need a mic, but I think it's a large hall It's my honor and privilege to Give a context to the Indian marketing awards. We first did the Indian marketing awards in 2004 I remember it because my daughter was born on 27th August 2004 and we did this on 6th October 2004 So I kind of remember, you know, you're preparing for it when the I remember I went for a Radio red used to be our partner and I went for an interview on that talking about Indian marketing awards And I I know my daughter was going to be born in a couple of days I didn't know it was a boy or a girl, but I know he would have a baby So I remember we started Indian marketing awards 13 years back since then the marketing landscape in India the media and Communication landscape in India has changed for one. I had more hair when I started the Indian marketing awards I can tell you that tonight the Indian marketing awards will be very big our jury chair Mr. Anand Krupalu who's the managing director of the Agio will be here He'll be our keynote speaker in the evening and he will Tell you how the jury process happened and I can tell you that there's no more honest Jury process than this I can tell you a lot of my friends and I have lots of friends in advertising marketing media Called me for various things. I had to politely decline and say I run business world I don't run exchange for me there, which is a truth also But the process is so honest so robust that you know I don't think any awards process in our domain is that honest and that robust what makes it robust is our jury When you see the jury AV in the evening, you know that the jury is so heavy weight that they have a point of view on everything They're themselves practitioners of the art of marketing communication in brand building So they have a very deep dive view on everything and the way Very strong human beings very they have a point of view also we did a huge pre-screening. We also brought in a Marketing veteran to look at every entry and kind of make sure the entries are presented in a Way that the jury could select from the entry So when tonight you see the winners at the Indian marketing award, you know, these are truly the Oscars of the marketing domain Mr. Sumit Sani is here and he's built a fantastic business for Renault in India and he will talk about that The leader who leads Airbnb is also here and he will talk to you about how it takes a New approach to building a new kind of business and We'll have my friendship jeep talking to leaders from the marketing advertising communication domain about how to build new age brands in this VUCA environment just to contextualize The Indian marketing awards we created the India brand conclave to celebrate brands and Businesses that live that philosophy that the Indian marketing awards celebrate Let me ask you at this point. Who's the world's greatest market here? Who's the words? Who's India's greatest market here? Who's India's greatest market here? Narendra Modi, yes, I would agree to that. So, you know, I would I Normally don't use powerpoint presentations because I believe Powerpoint presentations are used by people who are neither powerful nor have a point of view. I'm certainly not one of them I've used this line before it's not an original one, but You know Narendra Modi is more than a brand He's more than a brand creator whether you like him not like him whether he wins an election He's a unique phenomena and he's not Somebody who's just working on the brand. I think he's working on the product itself Demonitization GST is an example of what you need to do with the product And whether you like I like him, you know for once he's a Virgo. I like Virgos me and my daughter are one But that's not the reason. I believe the way Narendra Modi is projecting brand India Will bring dividends to our country Just to give you, you know, sometimes when my Shankar who makes tea for me brings tea late I tell him Modi ji itnei der mein teen country ho kya jata hai, itnei der mein toon chai laata hai. So just to dramatize it He's been to you know 49 countries in three years and a lot of people say so what what has come out? The process of investment and building confidence and building focus on India is a long-term process It's not that he would go for a visit and next day you'll have two billion dollars lined up. It's a process And I can tell you that you know when he addresses the Indian community It does it does Create a connect with India it re invigorates the connect with India it can it make sure that They look at India with a new light and you know again I keep saying do you know that after Modi came to power most of the honeymooning couples stopped going out of India You know why because he told them make in India No, but on a serious note, you know Manufacturing is the only way to make sure you create jobs You create competitiveness and a lot of economic experts believe that we've lost the bus on Manufacturing, but what he's doing in defense and making sure that defense is such a large Manufacturer though it is mechanized Business, you know it uses robotics, but it still creates large number of jobs through his make in India Through improving the ease of doing business and again We can I can tell you India should be even more in the ease of doing business the way the ease of doing business index is created You know, it is not created for India It is created for other countries and we never focused on filling it well So, you know, he's making sure that we actually portray what we have and I promise you Next year and in the years coming after that We will jump in ease of doing business because fundamentally in lots of those parameters we raised wrong He's also, you know, he's taking a visa issues with several countries making sure we have visa on arrival and when when the Prime Minister of the country Talks about the country and the brand that country represents it does in a world where we are, you know, attention is being Focused on China. It is being focused in Japan. It is being focused in a lot of other areas, which are very lucrative Doing that works also Just during his again all marketers look at ROI. We did something. What happened? India's jump 30 spots and made it to the top 100 in ease of in ease of doing business I promise you will be substantially higher. I don't know what that number would be Moody Moody's have upgraded India's rating from BA 3 to BA 2 and yesterday I was with mr. Why we ready was the former governor of RBI and you know Ratings we again should do better in future. We're fundamentally more Solid than any banking system in the world. We're fundamentally the fastest growing market in any domain in the world so really in Rankings will do better because we've started to engage with that community Also, the Nikkei Asia review. I can't not talk of media brand Nikkei Asia review forecast says a Indian economy will be number three in the world by 2028 that is 10 years from now. So really the foreign media Which does influence the decision makers that put money into India? Does see India as as the only bright spot in the world's economy and Again, I said he's not just marketing a lot of people say oh Modi is doing another event He's talking about startup India But when the Prime Minister of the country gets on to the stage and he talks about being an entrepreneur about Failing he's changing the mindset of the Families he's changing the culture of the society and he's saying it's okay to fail You know that mindset change will manifest into successful ventures over a period of time So really he's changing the product He's not just marketing the product the goods and services tax. I was the Malaysian Prime Minister on 2nd April 2017 And in Malaysia the GST is flat 6% I'm and he was telling me I mean he knows a little bit about politics and economy both his father was the second Prime Minister of Malaysia He was a deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia for a long time before he became the Malaysian Prime Minister And he was saying that you know GST is the right step in the right direction. Of course, he felt that our GST rates Were high though they will progressively come down He also felt that the slabs should have been simpler but the fact is that he believed somebody who understands economy and who's Bringing GST help that country Endors the fact that GST was being done for the right reasons in the right manner and India you got to do something You cannot build a consensus, you know Housing for all now That may in most of us here may have more than one houses But for a lot of Indians having a roof over there houses very important and again the Americans in the Europeans talk about the inequalities in India the stark poverty and the You know the wealth that a lot of Indians have in some way. He's bridging that he's changing the view of India And it will take some time. It is Ujwala. It's written Ujwala, but it's Ujwala. I did make this last minute So I dictated the PPT But it's Ujwala now again a simple Call to make sure that you give up subsidies wealthy people give a subsidies on the cooking oil The gas that they get created Opportunities for a lot of Indians who need to get that subsidy and I can go on and again Demolitization yes in the short term it has impacted our economy. You cannot deny that But in the long term in some economists would argue that in the long term, we are all dead But in the near long term, I think you will see that this Economy will benefit from this combined force of GST demonetization and the digital economy that is being created and It's not in you know again It's not just about creating a scheme and creating their success But it's how it's marketed for example after a week when LPG subsidy was formally announced, you know I can play this video, but I'm sure most of you have seen it and again I wanted to sum it up. What is it about brand Modi? That the marketeers can learn most of you are very good at your jobs. You build Multi-billion dollar brands you build businesses, but he's an innovator. He's a big risk taker One thing when Modi ji came to power. I went to a professor of mine who who is a vice chancellor in Gujarat If a university and I asked him so what is that unique quality about Modi? He said two things to me one. He said he's very Big risk taker and we saw that when he announced demonetization. So he's an innovator of a scale second He's very dispassionate. He's very business-like, you know, he takes decisions without worrying about whether they'll impact They could go wrong, but he's a guy who moves. So either for innovation You need to be both you need to believe in something that is so different from what exists second as I keep saying he has the three C's he has courage communication and He captures the mood of the moment He understands across the world if Trump has come to power most of you would want to know why Trump has come to power I've shared the secret why he's come to power in the past for those of you who know Who don't know why Trump has come to power. Would you like to know why he has come to power? Yeah, you know, he's come to power because my nutritional therapist Rachna tells me that when you eat junk food your brain makes the wrong choices and the Americans have been eating junk food For 60 years, but that's that's the non-serious Answer, but the serious answer is that there is this belief across a lot of voters that there is Too much of concentration of wealth in a certain section and they've been left behind So Modi knew that sentiment and he captured on that and He believes it's not always about the product and scheme. It is also about the perception your team Creates around it you create around it You know the narrative my friends in the media keep saying Modi is a master of creating a narrative and changing the narrative when he wants And why not you know if you are if you are leading a country and you need to get everyone around you And in this country only two things matter as my friend Arunam Goswami says in the TV business What matters is ratings and water matters is advertiser. I'll tell you politics two things matter. One is the fact is How many votes you get and second is what you do with that mandate? I think in my view, you know, we can keep talking about whether he's good or bad. He's moving on You know, he's not trying to prove something right. He's trying to make it successful I think that's the difference between Modi and everyone and We cannot talk about marketing communication and advertising without talking about digital. He understands that Most of the voters in India most of the opinion makers Are digital natives even those who of us like punkers who are not digital natives. We are Digital, you know, so to say expats, you know, we've kind of went there He's made sure he leverages digital very well And most importantly He appeals to people's emotions, you know, I'm I travel a lot and I asked the you know Taxi driver in Lucknow. What does he feel? I asked the taxi driver in Hyderabad. I asked the guard You know, I talked to people who are not from the media and not from advertising not from communication and let's say, you know You know, kushto karenge saap You know, that's the kind of he comes across a per man with a purpose again I know that a lot of people love him and a lot of people don't like him He's a very polarizing figure in some way, but the fact is he come across as a person was a purpose You know, he appeals to the emotive side of people. So I think, you know, I These are very simple and basic things that come across from Modi but the fact is that sometimes we as practitioners and marketers forget and You know, I keep saying Philip Kottler asked young people, you know, who's Philip Kottler and tell them by the way He's not an IPL player. He doesn't play for Australia, but When I was in a business school, which is long long back we used to read Philip Kottler and I would call Narendra Modi the marketing guru of a marketing guru and Just to substantiate that when Philip Kottler couple of years when he came to power was asked about Narendra Modi He said can't teach anything to Modi on marketing because he already knows everything That's what Philip Kottler said. He's practicing. I mean traditionally the four-piece Modi is really living the product is living the brand India and he's also making sure that he communicates his idea of a new India. I Also, you know, I have a I have a role as you know, I spend a dual role I don't know I'll spend all this time in E4M and runs the E4M I spend 99% of my time in business world and one person on E4M Coming to the event, but I also want to use this opportunity to plug business world since we acquired it Four years and a month back and we have a long way to go another six months before we can be perfect in lots of area We have huge improvements to make But I want to kind of tell you that business world is no longer just a magazine Sunil who's our president and Samir who's our group CEO is there Is you know, we are aiming for something bigger one of course We are a magazine in India print still works and leads read the latest issue of business world I think we in the print business do a very bad job of marketing ourselves We have to play on the front foot because print a certain credibility interaction. I have a 13 and a half year old daughter I got her a Kindle at 11 and she loves her Kindle, but He knows she buys 20 physical books a month And read them not on our Kindle. She likes to read the newspaper. She shares a birthday with her dad. So she has some of those qualities Point is we are doing well in print. This is the last issue of business world Which was our best B schools and in magazines. You cannot be newsy, but you can be topical We do two three covers. We cook two three cover stories So we the second cover was the the economy cost of air pollution What is the business cost of air pollution with this topical and yet an editorial product? I'm an editorial person though. I didn't go to a media school. I went to an engineering school and went to a business school We also so we continue to build and we'll strengthen print, you know KPMG and PWC say the sunset years for print Are ten years I've taken five I'm safe. I think print continues to grow with us This is the last issue current issue which is on stand. We've done three covers The first cover is on the lal bhai group how it is becoming a You know a non textile group. He's moving away from Textiles into value-added and it's moving from denims. They started it in him second is on the Anson you going kind is for a and what's working and what's not working with them and third is the second coming of print So we've done three covers in the order and I don't talk about revenues, but you can see the number of ads We have the highest yields And I promise you maybe not this year next year in our IRS numbers and every number will be number one We're already number one on stand sales when we increase the price to 100 rupees two years back Everybody scoffed now. Everyone followed will increase the price further. I don't want to lose money per copy I believe if it's valuable people will buy and my subscription team was very worried about You know drop in sales and drop in subscription today. They come and say what's the right decision? While we continue to build that we built a Digital business, which is average 15 million traffic in a month. We want to be a 50 million site in the next six months and the next 12 months Maybe 100 million Sameer comes from Yahoo. He led a 200 crore digital revenue business that Hopefully we'll build that in the next three to five years. We are building this Clutch of businesses in digital and we believe in the business of communities I'm not in the business of magazine websites events. We do all that but we're in the business of building communities Of course the main business world brand is a B2C brand and tomorrow it may be in 24 by 7 digital OTTV TV, you know videos what will matter in the future? We may not do a traditional business channel, but we may do a new age So we are using a legacy brand to create a new Age business and you have a long way to go. I mean we have lots of things to improve But I just wanted to take this opportunity to tell you we've built already 11 communities we showed nine hair two on the way. We will launch police world So I just wanted to use this opportunity because I spent my business world time now So I have to use the business world So I just wanted to tell the you know every media brand sponsors the India brand conclave in the Indian marketing award I didn't want to miss this opportunity to tell you what we are doing at business world. I Thank you for being here and I hope We go back richer in knowledge We make meaningful connections at the conference and tonight when you see the jury members and the winners You know that the brands and the people that have been awarded tonight have been awarded through a three-tiered process of editorial Pre-screening and a very rigorous high-powered jury. I thank you for being part of our initiative and wish you luck in the coming year 2018. Thank you. God bless you