Readers’ Perspectives on ‘Gandhi before India’

A member of the 1976 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Mr. K. Jairaj retired as Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka. Mr. Jairaj has held key appointments in the Infrastructure, Energy, Transport and Urban Development sectors including Principal Secretary, Energy Department and Chairman, BESCOM; Managing Director, Bangalore International Airport Ltd.; Managing Director, Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd.; Managing Director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation; Commissioner, Bangalore City Corporation (BBMP) for two terms; Commissioner for Commercial Taxes, Transport Commissioner and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

With Mr. N.R. Narayanamurthy as Chairman, Mr. K. Jairaj helped establish the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), India’s first Greenfield Airport, on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. Mr. Jairaj has served with the World Bank, Washington DC., USA, as Senior Public Sector Management Specialist. Mr. Jairaj‘s academic background is in Economics, Public Policy Management and Law.  He has a B.A. Hons (Economics), Bangalore University; M.A. (Economics), Delhi School of Economics; M.P.A, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University & M.P.A, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.  He has a LLB Degree from Bangalore University. Mr. Jairaj was a Mason Fellow at Harvard University.

Mr. K. Jairaj has served as President, All India Management Association (AIMA), Delhi; Member, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Kashipur; Chairman, Advisory Board, TAPMI School of Business, Jaipur; Senior Fellow, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Board Member, SDMIMD, Mysore. He is an Independent Director on the Boards of listed Companies; was Advisor, Ernst & Young and the Manipal Group. He Mentors Startups in the Digital Marketing, Hospitality, Retailing and Precision Engineering.   

Mr. K. Jairaj has a leadership role in Technical and Management Education, during 2012-18 as Trustee, BMS Educational Trust- Chairman, Board of Governors – BMS Institute of Technology & Management; BMS School of Architecture and Chairman, BMS College of Law. 

He is associated with Not For Profit Organizations in Bangalore:  President, Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC); Working President, Sri Krishna Sevashrama Hospital-Chairman, Board of Trustees, Bangalore Gayana Samaja. In 2016-17 during the Centenary year he was President, Century Club, Bangalore, founded by Sir M. Visvesvaraya. Presently, he is Advisor, Dayananda Sagar Institutions. 

Currently an advisor and mentor after retiring from formal full-time employment in 2016, Mr. KRV Parameshwar’s last position was President & CEO of Klüber Lubrication India and General Manager & Vice President of Chem-Trend Chemicals Co, both subsidiaries of Freudenberg Group of Germany. He was also a member of the Global Executive Board and Regional Management Board of Klüber, and on the Global Executive Committee of Chem-Trend apart from leading various other Freudenberg Group activities in India.

Mr. Parameshwar has a B. Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and a Masters from Syracuse University in the US.  He has later had training at various institutes including the Indian Institutes of Management, Ahmedabad & Bangalore and Sloan School of Management at MIT, Boston. 

Mr. Parameshwar joined the Tata Administrative Services in 1976 and after 5 years joined Hindustan Lever Limited, the Indian subsidiary of Unilever Plc.  During his 17 years in Hindustan Lever Limited, he headed various export operations, set up a number of Greenfield projects for export, created a Japan desk and an office in Tokyo and finally was the Head of the Animal Feeds Division. In 1998, he left Hindustan Lever Limited to take up an assignment as Managing Director of the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, a multi-business, multinational organisation employing about 6000 people across 6 countries. Since 2000, he has been associated with the Freudenberg Group.

Mr. Parameshwar has been active in education both as a visiting faculty to a number of institutes, as also through helping in the administration of a well-known residential school. He is on the Governing Council of a management school. He has also been a speaker at various conferences and meetings.