From Roads to Farms

Dr. Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. explains how his organisation is democratising advanced technology.

- Niranjan Mudholkar

Focus, curiosity, humility, firm opinions and vision. Five immediate characteristics that this writer could associate with Dr. Pawan Goenka, Executive Director & Group President (Auto & Farm Sector), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. during this interview. Well, it was déjà vu for me because my impression from the previous interview (June 2014) with him wasn’t much different. He is almost taken aback as I congratulate him for becoming the first Indian to receive the prestigious ‘2016 FISITA Medal of Honor’ for his ‘outstanding contribution to the global automotive industry’. Indeed, a matter of pride not just for the Mahindras and for the Indian automotive industry but also for every Indian! Of course, he values it but isn’t very keen to make it a talking point now. As we start the Q&A, he re-confirms the subject of discussion and we move ahead.

India’s agriculture minister (Shri Radha Mohan Singh) had recently said (at Indian Soil Science Institute’s 81st Annual Conference in Gwalior) that a ‘tremendous challenge is being posed on how we should deliver sophisticated technology to the farmers and to their fields’. That is exactly what Mahindra is trying to do, Dr. Goenka points out. Then he explains the why and how behind it.