ET Balu: From Cauvery Delta to Car Capital Chennai

2.3.2013

DELTA LAND TO DETROIT CHENNAI: My Fascinating Journey as a Journalist

V Balasubramanian

I hail  from a small village near temple city, Kumbakonam. Born in a large family of five sons and three daughters plus relatives, I have  fascinating stories to share about my childhood, youth and professional life. I enjoyed the excellent affection,  patronage of my parents, elders, in laws, friends  and my beloved wife, G Malathy. God has been very kind to me in leading a meaningful life.

In my three decades of my career in business Journalism in FE and ET,  I had the rare fortune of interacting with different people and writing articles on different subjects. The people I have met include Chief Ministers, politicians, trade union leaders, captains of industry, professionals, experts. Entrepreneurs, achievers and thought leaders. I also had the wonderful opportunity to meet students and young Indians, who are the Becon lights of our Mother India. I thought of recounting some of my interesting experiences.

Pix I: I am greeting Venu on his taking over CII president
Pix 2: I am with Venu at CII autoserve; Also seen is  my good friend, R Dinesh

TVS Venu's style of answer by singing a song

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Venu Srinivasan,CMD, TVS Motor and Sundaram-Clayton (SCL) is one of the leading captains of industry I admire and  have known for long. I used to break lot of exclusives about TVS group. Venu is media friendly, but he will avoid confirming or denying any news break. Before Suzuki’s exit from TVS in the two wheeler business,  they had an uneasy relationship. Whenever I asked him about it, Venu would say, “ It is like a husband-wife partnership. You can’t be asking when did the husband stop beating wife”.

Again,  In early 2000, I along with my ex colleague D Govardan broke the news of SCL recasting its business and hiving off its break’s division into a separate entity and allowing its US partner, Wabco to hold majority stake. It stirred  a big debate inside the company as to who would have leaked the development to ET. I was approached by two or three people to confidentially share with them the sources. I had politely declined their request. The  recast process was dragging for years with pending approval from the US.  I used to come out with regular follow up stories. Whenever I asked Venu about the deal, he would smilingly sing the song, “ Sondham eppodhum thodar Kadhaithan, Mudivey Illadathu ( Relationship is always enduring and it has no end). Finally, the recast came through with SCL exiting break business in favour of Wabco. In turn, Wabco exited SCL.

 In Dec, 2012, I broke the news of Venu and his brother, Gopal Srinivasan parting ways smoothly by de-merging the businesses that came under Sundaram-Clayton and its subsidiaries. It again stirred a big debate in TVS group and in corporate circles. It went on page 1 in ET all editions and won appreciation from ET senior editors.

It is my pleasure to share more such exciting experiences in the coming days.