Irani feted in Nagpur

Eighteen Rotary Clubs of Nagpur city combined to honor Dr Jamshed Jiji Irani with the "Vocational Excellence Award for the year 2013- 2014” at the state-of-the-art auditorium of Persistent Systems, IT Park, Nagpur, on June 21, 2014.
Since some years these Clubs have been honoring a son of the soil, a person who has lived and studied in Nagpur and then gone on to imprint his/her name on the national and international canvas.

For the Rotarians present, Irani was more than just an icon of excellence. He was family. Jamshed’s father Jiji was one of the founders of the Rotary Club of Nagpur and served as its president in 1951-52, some 60 years ago. Jamshed himself is a Rotarian, attending meetings as and where his work takes him. Irani won the hearts of the audience by telling them that his father had placed a plaque with the Rotary 4-Way Test on his desk, since he was a schoolboy. Willy-nilly he had imbibed the principles.
Past president of the Club Shabbir Shakir introduced Irani as a "Superman in our midst today. Apart from his academic and professional excellence it was a determination of steel that took him to the top of the steel industry. He was also an avid cricketer, a Freemason, a Lion, a Rotarian, a Fellow of the Institute of Metals, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, managing director (MD) of Tata Steel, director of Tata Sons and holder of many, many more positions of honor,” Shakir listed.
District governor Kishore Kedia in his welcome address disclosed that Irani, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, is credited with having produced the lowest cost steel after he took over as MD of Tata Steel. He steered TISCO (Tata Iron and Steel Company, as it was formerly known) from the brink of closure back to robust health.
In his address to the gathering of Rotarians, corporate heads and elite guests, Irani, a plain speaking man, said his guiding principle in all walks of life has been "do what you say and say what you think.” He stressed on the values of fairness and firmness, integrity and excellence. "Credibility takes a lifetime to establish,” he said, "but an instant to lose.” Another piece of wisdom gleaned from his long experience cautioned, "The moment you stop learning, you stop growing.”
Giving an example of the difficult situations corporate heads have to deal with, Irani spoke of the Himalayan obstacles put in the way of Ratan Tata’s efforts in setting up the Nano car plant in West Bengal where despite pouring crores of rupees into the project, Tata Motors faced strikes, strife and opposition. Tata withdrew the project from West Bengal and the very next week "the Sanand land (in Gujarat) was given to Tata Motors, deal signed and sealed.” This shows what a decisive government can do. "I have great hopes of the new Prime Minister taking the country forward,” he averred, while repeating in his inimitable Parsi-accented Hindi, "Achhé din aané walé hai (good times will come).”
Irani urged people to avoid seeking political solutions to problems and to stand by ethical principles in business. "Indian brains can compare with the best in the world,” he opined. "Where we lag behind is in research, imagination and innovation.”
If the Rotarians monopolized Irani on the first day of his stay in Nagpur, the Freemasons led by Worshipful Master J. K. Wadhwan captured him on the second day. It was a sentimental trip down memory lane for Irani to visit his mother lodge, Lodge Corinth, and see old records of his induction into it on June 10, 1957, when he had just turned 21. Irani was felicitated with a shawl and shreefal (coconut) by Wadhwan.
Jamshed and his wife Daisy attended a games evening followed by a gahanbar that was already on the calendar of the Nagpur Cricket Gymkhana and the Nagpur Anjuman. Old timers delighted in meeting Jamshed whom they remembered as a young boy while Daisy reached out with friendly charm and graciousness to those who just wanted to shake hands and chat with them.