Indian-American Rajesh Subramaniam has taken up the role of president and CEO of the US multinational courier delivery giant FedEx Express. Currently the executive vice president, chief marketing and communications officer of FedEx Corporation, he assumed his new role on January 1, 2019. He replaces David L Cunningham at the Tennessee-headquartered company. An IIT-Bombay graduate from Thiruvananthapuram, Subramaniam has been with FedEx for more than 27 years. He has held various executive positions in the company, and had begun his career in Memphis, before moving to Hong Kong where he oversaw marketing and customer service for the Asia Pacific region. David J Bronczek, president and COO, FedEx Corporation, said, “Raj's global vision and broad experience make him uniquely qualified to lead our largest operating company. We look forward to the continued growth of FedEx Express within our global portfolio as Raj takes on this critical role.”
SC bins plea for SIT probe into PNB scam
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a PIL for a court-monitored special investigation team (SIT) probe into the Punjab National Bank scam for £1.40 billion in which absconding diamond merchant Nirav Modi is the prime accused. A bench of Justices SK Kaul and Deepak Gupta dismissed the petition filed by advocate Vineet Dhanda. In its order, the bench said, “We are not inclined to entertain this petition filed under Section 32 of the Constitution of India. The writ petition is... dismissed.” The petitioner had unsuccessfully argued that the SC should intervene to ensure a free and fair probe in the case.
Govt readies big farm relief plan
The Indian government is working on a plan to provide relief to farmers and is weighing options on a direct benefit transfer scheme for the distressed sector modelled on the Telangana system. Several rounds of discussions have been held and the view emerging within the government favours a limited direct benefit transfer scheme to help small and marginal farmers meet expenses for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labour. Sources said the cost of such a scheme would work out to about £12.50 billion and could be jointly borne by the Centre and states. The urgency to provide relief to the agriculture sector comes against the backdrop of BJP’s losses in three key state elections where farm distress emerged as a major issue.
Indigo airline under fire
India's private airline Indigo is the "worst performing" carrier for consumers, while national carrier Air India has the best luggage policy, said parliamentary panel on civil aviation chairman Derek O' Brien. O'Brien, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tourism, Culture, Road, Shipping and Aviation, said the panel had taken strong note that during festive season some airlines were charging 8-10 times more than the normal fares. He said,"Our committee is very clear that the worst performing airline for consumers is Indigo. All 30 members agreed on this. Every single member (of the panel) is disgusted with the way some private airlines are operating but more so with Indigo, it is discourteous. The airline is very rigid, Indigo even charges for one-two kg overweight, this has not been taken very well and the committee is looking into the matter seriously," he said.
Women replace men as HR heads
The corner office for human resources in India Inc, occupied by the chief HR officer (CHRO), has witnessed an interesting shift with more women replacing men. Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm, mapped 200 movements of women HR officers over the last few years and found that they had replaced a male incumbent as an HR head in over 60% cases. This indicates stronger action by companies to meet their diversity and inclusion (D&I) requirements, especially at leadership levels, albeit through the HR department. Interestingly, only 15% among these women have risen vertically to become CHROs. The study reveals the remaining 85% of these movements were external hires. While this means that talent pipelines internally were largely inadequate, the trend demonstrates a priority associated with the gender of choice for the role of CHRO.
