Want to serve my country by way of generating employment: Shaw
Date :12-Aug-2019
Basant Lall Shaw
By Niraj Chinchkhede:
Founder Chairman of NECO Group of Industries Basant Lall Shaw keeps defying age even as he turns 86. Recently, when he started getting tremors on his right hand that made him unable to write, Shaw learnt writing with his left hand. For the past one year, he has been signing office files with his left hand. Today he is so confident about his recently acquired skill that he does not hesitate to sign cheques with left hand, leave aside putting remarks on official files.
There are many other acts that reflect Shaw is becoming young every passing day. “I go to office daily and work till 7.30 pm. It gives me immense pleasure to be with my employees and staff members,” he told The Hitavada on Sunday in an interview. Shaw-led NECO Group is posting annual turnover of about Rs 5,000 crore. But the energetic entrepreneur is eyeing turnover of Rs 8,000 crore three years down the line and Rs 10,000 crore turnover in next two years. Interestingly, Shaw believes that earning more only does not make one successful. “There are many other aspects to it.
To achieve success one should discharge his duties towards family, community, city and country,” Shaw said, remembering incidents of how his father had bought ‘war bonds’ worth Rs 10,000 to avoid penal action against his village during the British rule in pre-Independence era. At the time of World War II, the then British Government had issued war bonds and all the villages were supposed to buy it. “But in our village in Azamgarh, people were very poor and no one had money to buy the bonds. Eventually, my father came forward and bought the bonds,” he recalled.
“It is not that minting money is my sole aim in life. In fact, I want to serve my country by way of generating employment. As we grow, we recruit more people and that really excites me,” the employer of about 10,000 persons said. Reflecting other features of his multi-dimensional personality, Shaw said all of the employees are his brothers. “We treat our employees with great respect and thus nobody in the group is allowed to shout at his or her subordinates. It gives the group an identity of a big family,” Shaw explained. Shaw is associated with various social organisations and is committed to the cause of social uplift of underprivileged. Shaw is associated with Rashtrasant Tukdoji Regional Cancer Research Centre and Hospital. There is more to his personality, which he has unveiled in his autobiography ‘Mera Jeevan Pravah’. Sitting in the drawing room of his bungalow in posh Civil Lines area, one can see that there are people who draw inspiration from him. As the interview comes to an end, Shaw entertains his grand-daughter. As she seeks a signed copy of his autobiography, he happily obliges. Of course, signing with left hand. For, he is still evolving, just like ‘Basant’... the spring.
