Abhijit Sarkar bestowed with prestigious Chanakya Juries Special Award for ‘Crisis and Corporate Communications Professional’ during the 11th PRCI Global Communication Conclave

Lucknow, March 06, 2017: Mr. Abhijit Sarkar, Head - Corporate Communications, Corporate Relations & Sports, Sahara India Pariwar, Director - Sahara Force India and Guardian – Sahara Media, has been confered with the prestigious Chanakya Award for National achievers for the year 2017 as a Chanakya Juries Special Award for Crisis Communications by the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) in the 11th Global Communication Conclave. In a grand ceremony, Mr. H. Anjaneya, Co-operation and Social Welfare Minister, Government of Karnataka conferred the award to Mr. Sarkar in Bengaluru. Also, among the annual Corporate Collateral Awards 2017, ‘Think With Me Summit’ 16’ Summit organized by Sahara News Network has been awarded with best Corporate Event of the year.

PRCI felicitated Mr. Sarkar, who is also the most visible face of Corporate Communications profession in India, with the ace Chanakya Award for his effective steering of communications during Sahara-SEBI Issue. His innovative communication solutions not only engaged more than 9 crore investors but also reinstated their faith and belief with the Sahara Group. Timely, smooth and targeted communications, which brings out and forwards Sahara’s side direct to stakeholders, was his and his team’s primary objective.

Mr. Sarkar was also presented the trophy and certificate of the best Corporate Event of the year bestowed to Think With Me Summit. Sahara News Network’s ‘Think With Me’ - Towards Ideal Country…Greater India, Summit – 2016 organized at Lucknow.  In December 2016 the ‘Think With Me’ Summit was created a platform for people to think about our country, its issues and discuss how to make our country ideal and greater. The Summit culminated with the unveiling of Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara’s book ‘Think With Me’, on his in-depth observations on making country greater again. The Summit and the unveiling of the book was attended by eminent personalities and galaxy of stars from across the nation.

Mr. Abhijit Sarkar has been appointed recently as Vice President of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) and the Chairman of the AHF Commercial and TV Committee. For his contribution to Corporate Communication in general and Public Relations in specific, he had been awarded with the ‘Most Dynamic Corporate Communications Professional of the Year’ in the Powerbrands Hall of Fame Awards, held in London in 2011, with Indy’s Excellence Award 2008 in the field of Corporate Communications, Crises Management & PR, ‘Communicator of the Year” Award, 2011 by IPRCCA, as well as ‘Chanakya Corporate Communications Professional of the Year’ by Public Relations Council of India.

Under Mr. Sarkar’s leadership department of Corporate Communications has been conferred with many awards for its innovative and trend setting communications activities. Some of them are  ‘Public Service Campaign Award’ (2011), ‘Corporate Event of the Year’ Gold Award (2012), ‘Best Corporate Event’ (2011), Best ‘Corporate Publication’ (2011), ‘Most Meaningful Event (2008), ‘Corporate Brochure of the year’ (2006), Indy’s Award ‘Best In-House Magazine’ (2009).

About Mr. Abhijit Sarkar

Mr. Abhijit Sarkar, Head - Corporate Communications, Corporate Relations & Sports, Sahara India Pariwar, Director - Sahara Force India and Guardian – Sahara Media. He is also Vice President of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) and the Chairman of the AHF Commercial and TV Committee.

Mr. Sarkar started his career from print journalism. This was followed by a successful stint as a TV news host and then he got selected for the core team of Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing Worker & Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar. Considering his sharp understanding of the nuances of media, he was given the task of establishing the Corporate Communications department for Sahara India Pariwar.  With his fresh ideas and strategic communication planning, he expanded the possibilities and scope of work of the Corporate Communications department, beyond regular corporate communications related solutions. He included Marcom, Brand Management, Sports Management, and events management solutions in its portfolio, which also made a complementing combination of these fields giving strength to each other. The mélange of services of the Corporate Communications department are provided to wide ranging businesses of Sahara group which includes financial services, housing finance, mutual funds, life insurance, city development, real estate activities, print and television media, film production, sports, information technology, health care, tourism, hospitality and consumer products.

 Mr. Sarkar’s contribution was not only restricted to the development of his department but was also instrumental in expanding the possibility of the corporate communications profession at large into every aspect of business. He has re-scripted many rules of the industry, especially in the fields of media planning, public relations, sports management, new media, e-communications, internal communications, events management and crisis communications. His ideation and strategic communication of handling his vision of evolving corporate communications into a strategic planning unit and developing it as one of the core components of the organization have established a landmark in the field of communications.

Mr. Sarkar has been instrumental in developing and executing various well acclaimed international and national events like Sahara India Sports Awards, Cricket Cup series, film festivals, Music awards, etc. As an executive producer of one of the largest musical stage shows originated from India namely ‘Bharati’, he took pride for Sahara Group and the Nation, to take the show to international level by conceptualizing and organizing impressive performances in foreign countries.

For his contribution to Corporate Communication in general and Public Relations in specific, he has been awarded with the ‘Most Dynamic Corporate Communications Professional of the Year’ in the Powerbrands Hall of Fame Awards, held in London in 2011. He has also been conferred with Indy’s Excellence Award 2008 in the field of Corporate Communications, Crises Management and PR and ‘Communicator of the Year” Award, 2011 by IPRCCA, ‘Chanakya Corporate Communications Professional of the Year’ by Public Relations Council of India.

In his long career, various Public Relations, Issue and Crisis Management exercises handled by him are today case studies for Public Relations professionals. Mr. Sarkar’s astute understanding of the nuances of the business and his experience as a core member of the Chairman’s team provides him with an ability to look into communication with broader perspective and giving new dimensions to it. This experience can also be seen in the Public Affairs activities on which he has considerable influence. To utilize his experience and understanding of media he has also been appointed an advisor for the Media business of Sahara India Pariwar.

He has also played a pivotal role in Sahara’s association with sportsmen, celebrities, and with other sports like Hockey, Boxing, Wrestling, Archery, Shooting, Football, Golf, Polo, etc. He has made key contributions in cementing Sahara’s inseparable association with Cricket, for the past fifteen years, whether it is the Sahara Cup in Canada, Sponsorship of the Indian Cricket Team or the Sahara IPL team. 

Considering his vast experience and expertise in the area of communications and media management, he has been appointed as a Convener – Publicity & Media Sub Committee of the XIX Commonwealth Games, 2010. He is Co-Chairman of FICCI Sports Committee for the past three years and also a member of the prestigious Sports Committee of CII for last four years. He was also a Convener of Publicity & Media Sub Committee of the XIX Commonwealth Games, 2010.

His contribution has made him an important figure in the world of communications, making him adorn many important forums.

Saharasri and Think with Me

Nearly everybody at some point in their lives have pondered or considered about the “secret” of being successful. While there are many individuals who will give you guidance on this topic but these people have very little success to give them the right to talk about ‘secret’ to success. Although, Subrata Roy is an exceptionally successful man.

He is a man that has effectively begun his own organization with almost no capital and slowly transformed it into one of the greatest organizations of the world. To be exact, he started with INR2000 (about US$32) and 3 workers in 1978, and as on today, Sahara’s worth is INR1,73,000 crores (about US$26 billions). All this was accomplished within a span of just thirty- eight years!

"Sahara" is an organization that was one of the first Indian organizations to have an unmistakable worldwide recognition. It had interests in different divisions and was a flourishing and prospering business that has given employment to a huge amount of people in India. 

Subrata Roy has recently launched ‘Think with Me’ a sequel to 'Life Mantras' which was released in February last year i.e. February 2016. 'Think with Me’ is a book that talks about the fundamentals of making India an ideal country. Issues revolving around Electoral system & leadership, population, education system, media and religion discussed in this book.

Saharasri has shared his thought provoking beliefs which will literally make you think with HIM, understand his thoughts behind how what he thinks can make India an ideal country. The book will act an eye-opening for many citizens and every patriotic, concerned citizen will have similar opinions and thoughts as Subrata Roy Sahara.

So, if you need some food for thought about how to make India a better nation, pick ‘Think with me’ by Subrata Roy Sahara a.k.a ‘Saharasri’.

Lucknow: Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing Worker & Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar, Unveiled his book ‘Think With Me’ – an exhaustive and thought provoking treatise, in the presence of Shri Suhel Seth. The book is a life time experiences, observations as well as insights to restore India to its past glory.

‘Think With Me’ Book Launch Event by Subrata Roy

Lucknow: Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara’s book ‘Think With Me’ unveiled in the presence of Shri Akhilesh Yadav, Hon’ble Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The book is a life time experiences, observations as well as insights of Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing worker & Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar, to restore India to its past glory.

Thoughts on ‘Think with me’ by Subrata Roy

With great power comes great responsibility

“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.” Who doesn’t want to achieve success in life? Today, we all know the importance of success. An individual is recognised in the society based on his/her potential of success. When we take success to another tangent, it could perhaps be a myth, not everyone likes to or wants to share their secret to success. However, we always have exceptions. Highlighting the exception in this article, he is none other than Subrata Roy. Possessing his own company, he is among those generous souls who shares his secret to success. ‘Sahara’ is the company that was one among the first Indian companies to have an evident global presence. Covering various sectors, Sahara flourished to the fullest wherein millions of people were employed at one point of time.

“Think with Me” by Subrata Roy is doing exceptionally well across. It emphasizes our day-to-day concern in regards to political leadership, population growth, education, the media and religion going from bad to worse. Don’t you want to know what went wrong? Why are we facing these horrid problems? “Think with Me” is an answer to all the above concerns. This book involves Mr Roy’s years of experience where he discusses problems related to the above five fundamental issues. He has liberally shared some of those experiences in detail throughout the book. Along with it being an interesting read, it’s also a great guidebook that values the sacred for the love of the country before independence.

Thus, Mr Roy, through a deep-seated & thought provoking commentary on these issues invites you to think along with him and muse over these issues honestly and sincerely. Subrata Roy has been the man who takes responsibility for his actions. In this book, he talks about the need for a wider awakening on the issues mentioned above.

Life Mantras – a manual for positivity

The world at any given point of time is filled with people that are successful and can teach about it to other people so that they too can prosper. Many people have the capability to be that kind of a person but those that actually care about the rest of us are few in number. Mr Subrata Roy is a man that can be considered as a part of the latter group. He is the former chairman of the Indian multinational conglomerate ‘Sahara Group’. ‘Sahara’ is a business empire with interests in various sectors of business and the Subrata Roy is the man who built it from scratch!

He started the company with a few thousand rupees in capital and not more than a few employees. In a relatively short time, Subrata Roy managed to turn the fortunes of the company soaring skywards. He took charge of the company and instilled a specific work ethic among his huge workforce. He looked upon them as members of his extended family rather than people that work for him. This philosophy is what guided him in his path according to his informative book, ‘Life Mantras’.

Mr Subrata penned the book while he was going through a major difficult time in life. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of his life, he chose to ruminate on the positive qualities in life that made him a successful man and compiled them all into a single book, ‘Life Mantras’. It has some of the best advice to achieve a balanced and positive outlook in life. Along with a positive outlook, the book is filled to the brim with real life experiences of Mr Subrata that had an impact on him or taught him the value of something important. These experiences have been drawn from both his personal life and professional life.

The book has Subrata Roy’s thoughts on almost all the important things in life like marriage, time, love, respect, dedication, resilience, usefulness etc. The mix of topics is eclectic and it has a wonderful effect on your personal motivation after just one reading session. 

The secret of staying positive

Almost everyone at some points of time in their lives, have wondered or mused about the ‘secret’ to success. While there are many people who seem to offer advice on that topic with not much to show in terms of credentials, Subrata Roy is an exception. He is a man that has successfully started his own company with very little capital and gradually turned it into one of the biggest companies of the world. ‘Sahara’ is a company that was one of the first Indian companies to have a tangible global presence. It had interests in various sectors and was a thriving and flourishing business that employed millions of people at one point of time.

Subrata Roy is currently penning the sequel to his successful book, ‘Life Mantras’ which was released some time back. ‘Life Mantras’ is a book that is filled with pearls of wisdom relating to success. These pearls of wisdom emanate from Mr Roy’s life as a businessman and his various experiences during his life time. He has generously shared some of those experiences in detail throughout the book. Along with it being an interesting read, it is also a great guidebook to finding success in all the key areas of life.

There are amazing insights in the book about staying positive in life. It also has some meaningful words on handling one’s composure through the tough times. This was and remains to this day, Subrata Roy’s most inspirational quality. He has faced all of his life’s experiences with a great amount of humility and dignity. There are many men that will stand proudly when people talk of
their successes but there are very few men with enough guts to own up to their mistakes and take some responsibility. Subrata Roy has always been the man that takes responsibility for his actions.

He talks about the meaning and importance of ‘responsibility’ in great detail throughout his book, ‘Life Mantras’. Anybody that is looking to add some kind of structure to their lives should read this book. It has guidelines for attaining a peaceful work-life balance that most people can only dream about.

Sahara chief Subrata Roy’s mother passes away

With a deep pain and anguish, We are to inform that mother of 'Saharasri' Subrata Roy Sahara and the guiding light of our Sahara India Pariwar, Rev. Smt. Chhabi Roy, departed for her heavenly abode today i.e. 6th May,  2016 at 1:34 a.m. in the night. Smt Chhabi Roy wife of Late Shri Sudhir Chandra Roy was 95 year old. She was born on 15th of January in Araria district of Bihar. She has been critically ailing with for last more than 2 years and was at a makeshift hospital at Sahara Shaher, Lucknow. 

Sahara India Pariwar

Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara’s book – ‘Life Mantras’ hits number one spot in the best seller chart of Nielsen

Lucknow, February 29, 2016: ‘Life Mantras’ – An exhaustive and thought provoking treatise by Shri Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing Worker & Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar, is ranked number one and has become best seller in the non-fiction category of Nielsen BookScan. According to Nielsen best-seller list, recently unveiled ‘Life Mantras’ which is published by Rupa Publication has topped the non-fiction book list this week and left popular Manorma Yearbook 2016 on the second spot.

The Nielsen BookScan service is the world’s largest continuous book sales tracking service operating in India, the UK, Ireland, Australia, US, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Brazil and Spain. It collects total transaction data at the point of sale directly from the tills and dispatch systems of all major book retailers. Nielsen BookScan collects data from online and offline booksellers including Bookadda, Crosswords, Connexion, DC Books, Flipkart, Indiatimes, Infibeam, Landmark, Landmarketail, Capital Book Depot, Rediff, Odyssey, Pageturners, TV18 Homeshopping, WH Smith India, ebay, Mahindra Retail, Relaince Timeout, Snapdeal etc.

‘Life Mantras’ has walked upright in the chart within a month of its launch and became a best seller. In his book Shri Subrata Roy Sahara elaborately details out the various psychological and emotional aspects of life vis-à-vis the basic instincts inherent in all human beings so that the gift of ‘Life’, bestowed upon us by the Almighty, emerges out in its true beauty.

‘Life Mantras’ happens to be the first book in the  ‘Thoughts from Tihar’ trilogy and is available in all leading book stores across India and abroad, at all leading online portals and also in the form of an e-book. The forthcoming books of the said trilogy are 'Think with Me - How to make our country ideal’ and 'Reflections from Tihar - A book on Tihar Jail’. These other two books of the trilogy will also be released soon. 

Sahara India Pariwar flags-off 1000 village adoption project

VEDAS project will fully adopt villages for overall development, directly benefiting 25 lakh Rural Indians in 7 States

With the flag-off of the VEDAS, the project gets launched in 172 villages of Kannauj (U.P.) and Araria (Bihar) Districts

Lucknow, June 10, 2013: Sahara India Pariwar, a major business conglomerate of India, today flagged off VEDAS, its 1000 village full adoption programme. VEDAS project was flagged by ‘Saharasri’ Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing Worker and Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar today, along with launching of project in 172 villages at districts Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh and district Araria in Bihar. Under VEDAS, Sahara is fully adopting 1000 villages for holistic and sustainable overall development.  The project aims to cover 4.5 lakh rural households, touching the lives of 25 lakh people of 7 States. 

Under VEDAS, Sahara will undertake numerous initiatives which include providing Safe Drinking Water through Water Purification Plants and distributing it through Water ATMs, imparting Joyful Education through more than 500 Education Resource Centers with smart interactive classrooms equipped with high end Q Cloud technology. Free Primary Health Care will be provided to all villages on regular basis through fleets of Mobile Health Unit (MHU) vans. This will be augmented with Medical Center for serious cases at Central Point Village, with each center catering to a cluster of around 50 villages within its immediate vicinity. To empower people of the villages, Sahara is setting up Empowerment Centers at each Center Point Village. The centers will impart training and will have workplace equipped with food & beverages processing units, machines for traditional Household goods manufacturing, facility to make local craft products and products based on local resources. Besides, it will help all small and big farmers increase their land yield through its teams of highly qualified agriculturists. For all round sanitation, community awareness and advocacy program will be initiated and community toilets will be renovated. Sahara will also provide assistance in safe migration to people going to big cities for opportunities. Under VEDAS, Solar Powered Lanterns will be distributed to 4.5 lakh families of these villages, so that they have a healthy and eco-friendly source of lighting.

On this occasion, Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing Worker and Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar said, “It is our dream that all our countrymen can get quality living. Even being the bread basket of the nation, our villages have always reeled behind in this walk of development. Only collective growth can make our beloved nation into a powerful nation and this requires sharing with and caring of our left out fellow brethrens. VEDAS is our humble initiative to fully adopt villages so that a substantial and sustainable rise in the quality of the life and livelihood of our rural brethrens can be achieved. Initially, we are taking 1000 villages across India and we intend to take this project to more villages in times to come”.

Notes to the Editor

Sahara India Pariwar is a major business conglomerate in India with operations in multiple sectors, including financial services, life insurance, mutual funds, housing finance,  infrastructure & housing, print and television news media, entertainment channels, cinema production, consumer merchandise retail, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, sports, and information technology.

Sahara India Pariwar has always been prompt in its services towards the nation and its nationals who have sacrificed their lives at the altar of nationalism. Sahara India Pariwar’s commitment to Social Welfare is evident from the fact that 25% of its profits every year are dedicated towards social development activities. In fact, it’s the firm conviction of the Chief Guardian of Sahara India Pariwar, Hon’ble Saharasri, Subrata Roy Sahara that every organization, along with its own development and progress should also contribute towards the cause of the society and the nation at large.

Sahara also works on various Health programmes, including Mobile Healthcare Units, under which 52 medical vans across the country are running 30 days a month, throughout the year, taking free primary healthcare services to the remotest rural areas where medical services do not exist. Besides this, Sahara also works on various programs on Nutrition, Literacy, Vocational Training, Civic Development, Behavioral Change, Communication and Rehabilitation of the Physically Challenged People.

Under its Disaster Management initiatives, Sahara has always stood up in the need of the hour of the country, be it super cyclone of Orissa, earthquake in Gujarat, drought in Rajasthan or floods in the state of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Sahara has adopted Bhimasar-Chakasar village in Taluka Anjar, District Kutch for relocation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the village along with basic amenities, panchayat ghar, bus stop, post office, play ground, primary and secondary school and street lights. When the devastating earthquake hit Latur district of Maharashtra, Sahara India Pariwar came forward to rehabilitate the earthquake stricken citizens of the region and also developed a cluster of earthquake houses in Killari Village in Latur, The houses were handed over to the villagers by Reverend Mother Teresa.

Sahara is also providing monthly financial assistance is also provided to the families of the Martyrs of the Mumbai Nov '08 terror attack, Dantewada Massacre and to the families of Kargil War Martyrs. Today, it provides, monthly financial assistance to 320 families of martyrs.