JOIN USShe is a business leader, environmentalist, promoter of art and culture as well as a philanthropist. Naturally, her numerous interests make it impossible to define her, but it is safe to say her passion and zest for life have allowed her to achieve distinctions in various fields. Meet Rajshree Pathy, chairperson and managing director of Rajshree Sugars and Chemicals Limited.
After graduating with a commerce degree, she went on to pursue a management programme at Harvard University as an Eisenhower Fellow. “As a child, I recall accompanying my parents to business meetings and visiting mills outside Coimbatore,” she recollects. After her father passed away, she had to take over the family business and mange it all by herself. “It was a challenge. But coming from an industrialist family, I was well aware of the how Indian business houses function,” she says.
Incidentally, she has pioneered technology in her factories with path-breaking initiatives in energy efficiency, water conservation and eco-friendly industrial processes. In fact, during times of drought in Tamil Nadu, her company went through a cash crunch. “I was
running between Andipatti and Coimbatore. I was also expecting my second child. All the sugar biggies in Tamil Nadu asked me to sell. I refused. I decided I have to see this through. So, my first decision was to go public. I was determined to forge ahead and a make a success of the business,” says the 2013 Padma Shri Awardee for Trade and Industry.
As a patron of education, she has established the Srivalli Varadaraj Matriculation School, under the aegis of the GV Memorial Trust, to provide quality education to the children of the farming community, in the most backward district of Andipatti, Tamil Nadu and also runs a higher secondary school in Villupuram district adjoining the sugar factory.
Women’s empowerment has been close to her heart and she has set a unique benchmark in employing female farmer training officers for sugarcane extension activities. Spouses of male employees in the factories are given opportunities to teach in the school or work in some of the laboratory-oriented work of the R&D wing and in the retail packing section.
“I think, slowly but surely, more and more women are now coming at par with men, even in male-centric corporate industries. What does happen is that externally, over a period of time, you react as a man would. Aggression is not a bad thing. But, a lot of times, women do not say it loud and clear,” says Rajshree.
Designing thoughts
Rajshree founded The India Design Forum (IDF) in 2012 with the aim to create an atmosphere conducive for the design community to collaborate, influence policy, facilitate funding and business opportunities, as well as interact and engage nationally and internationally to find a strong network of individuals with a common interest. Incidentally, IDF 2016, will showcase multinational companies who manufacture in India,
designers from India who have become global names and inspirational global thought leaders.
She is also the founder and director of Coimbatore Center for Contemporary Arts (CoCCA) — an initiative that strives to create awareness for contemporary art, design and architecture, through forums, workshops and partnerships.
Quiz her on how she manages to do so much and she smiles, before responding, “Women are multi-taskers and live life seamlessly. I am deeply passionate about everything I do, so nothing really seems stressful.”
An avid collector of art, she likes designing spaces and visiting museums and art galleries whenever she has time on hand. “I love travel and my interests range from being a qualified deep-sea scuba diver to a passion for Ayurveda,” she signs off.