A team from TCS Chennai won the Madras Management Association’s young managers’ award at its annual convention 2019 held last weekend. NTPC Tamil Nadu Energy Co Ltd was the runner-up while a team from Tube Investment of India was judged the second runners-up. Vinoth Gopinath of TCS was adjudged the best young manager of the year.
The MMA competition for young managers has been held annually since 1996 as a prelude to its annual convention on the same theme and is restricted to those below 40 years of age. It provides a platform for young managers to exhibit their talent and leadership skills. This year’s competition was held on February 9 on the theme ‘Future forward: India leaping ahead’. Totally 60 young managers from various corporates participated.
The TCS team comprised Sonali Parimalam, Vinoth Gopinath and Syed Shahid. They received medals and a cash prize of ₹25,000 from the chief guests Dr Santrupt Misra, Director, Group HR, Aditya Birla Group, and Bijou Kurien, a consultant and member of the strategic advisory board, L Catterton Asia.
Presenting their perspectives on the theme, the winning team stated that that the international community, through the United Nations Development Programme, has defined 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) effective from January 2016, which aim to build a more prosperous, secure and equal world by year 2030. India is currently ranked 112th out of 156 countries with an SDG index of 59.1.
The team explained a behavioural change model that could be addressed at the social, organisational and individual levels in accordance with the 17 SDGs. The team recommended the changes that are required for improving the SDG index of India.
The team from NTPC comprised Prabhu Ramakrishnan, G Gokul and D Lakshmanan, while Divya Sri, Abhiskek Sareen and KM Sreekanth made up the TI of India team.