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Union minister for electronics and IT, information & broadcasting and railways Ashwini Vaishnaw will give away the FE CFO Awards at a glittering function in Mumbai on Friday evening. The awards, now in their seventh year, will be presented to 14 outstanding individuals and institutions in recognition of their pioneering work. Applauding the winners will be the who’s who of the country’s corporate sector.
Vaishnaw, one of the important scriptwriters of the country’s growth story, will also participate in a fireside chat to share his vision for a new India and explain the blueprint to take electronics manufacturing and the Indian Railways to the next level of growth.
Vaishnaw has several firsts to his credit. Most importantly, he piloted a Personal Data Protection Bill which was simpler than the draft version and also shorn of legal complexities. The final iteration found much greater acceptance across foreign governments, Big Tech and other stakeholders. Under his stewardship, the Rs 76,000-crore domestic semiconductor manufacturing scheme has been scaled up. Vaishnaw has also been responsible for drafting a fresh Telecom Act, which not only frames a law that is in sync with the times but has also, for the first time, clearly demarcated the areas where spectrum needs to be auctioned and where it can be allocated administratively.
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For several years now, Financial Express has been recognising the efforts of chief financial officers (CFOs), acknowledging their contribution to the India Inc growth story. While Sushil Agarwal, group CFO, Aditya Birla Group, will get the award for Lifetime Achievement, Srinivasan Vaidyanathan, CFO, HDFC Bank, has been adjudged the CFO of the Year by an external jury led by Keki Mistry, former vice-chairman and CEO, HDFC Ltd.
Agarwal has been with the Aditya Birla Group for more than three decades, working with different companies and for the group as a whole. During this time, he has not merely managed the day-to-day finances of various businesses, but has also overseen many mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and fundraises.
Vaidyanathan presided over a complicated and difficult merger of HDFC with HDFC Bank, managing to complete the process well within the scheduled timelines.
Apart from Mistry, the other members of the jury were Rajeev Gupta, founding partner, Arpwood Capital, Ashu Suyash, former MD & CEO – Crisil, Vishakha Mulye, CEO, Aditya Birla Capital, and Amit Tandon, founder & MD, Institutional Investor Advisory Services. The data support was provided by knowledge partner Deloitte. The team sifted through hundreds of companies to arrive at workable shortlists. The candidates were assessed not merely on financials but also on the standard of corporate governance standards.
CFOs are rarely in the limelight even though they play a key role in the business. While 2022-23 might have been a better time than the previous years, CFOs are always under pressure to rein in costs and manage cash flows efficiently. The winners have been chosen from companies in two categories — manufacturing and services – and across sub-categories based on the turnover of the company.
There will also be a panel discussion on ‘Tech in credit: Can it move the needle’ and the participants are Dinesh Khara, former chairman, State Bank of India, V Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO, IDFC First Bank, Sharad Sharma, founder, iSPIRT, and Rajiv Sabharwal, MD & CEO, Tata Capital.