Team size: 16

Can you tell us a little about your significant accomplishments over the last few years, as a team or by yourself?

In 2018, I was the general counsel for Kraft Heinz in India. In 2019, we sold the Indian business of Kraft Heinz to another significant local player for about US$700m. This process was primarily managed by me and a team of two other lawyers, supported by external counsel. We retained the Kraft and Heinz brands, but all the Indian brands were sold.

In October 2019, I joined Hindustan Coca-Cola beverages, the company-owned bottling entity of the Coca-Cola company in India, which is part of the bottling investments group. India is the largest bottling entity within their group, a US$1.2bn net revenue organisation. I have a legal team of 15 lawyers and am responsible for the legal and regulatory issues for just over 50% of India’s market.

As well as heading the legal team, I am also on its board of directors. Another one of our significant achievements is reducing litigations by 20% this year, despite courts being closed and several other challenges brought by the pandemic. We accomplished this by being very strategic about compromising or withdrawing litigations. We also did an in-depth analysis of the cost of litigation versus the benefits of withdrawal; this has saved us around US$3m over the past two years.

What technological advancements have you found most useful in your legal team?

We completely digitised the contract signing process. So, even where electronic stamp paper was not available, our vendor was purchasing stamped paper for us. Therefore, we could continue to stamp all our contracts, even in states where electronic stamp paper was unavailable, which is a unique solution. At any given time, we must manage and maintain 5000 contracts; therefore, this process has saved time and money for the organisation.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?

There has a significant and conscious focus for all businesses to do business in a sustainable way. We at HCCB are no different. Our sustainability strategy is based on The Coca-Cola Company’s sustainability priorities. One of our important goals is that of Water Replenishment. At HCCB, we replenish 130% of the water we use in our processes. We don’t just use ground water in our process, wherever possible, we also use alternate sources of water such as surface water, ponds and wells. Also, we collect 100% of the plastic we put out on the market in line with our Extended Producer Responsibilities.

We continue to find sustainable ways to reuse and recycle the PET plastic used in some of our products. Additionally, we also have re-introduced our products in returnable glass bottles at attractive price points to benefit our customers and they are more environmentally conscious and sustainable.

We also have approved plans to plant about 2.5 million trees to give back to the environment.

From a social license perspective, we have been doing community work across the markets in which we operate. We sponsor water dispensers (Water ATMs) where the local villagers can go and get water in poorly serviced rural markets. We also provide equipment, books, tables, chairs, desks, and cupboards to schools in our local villages. We educate and upskill the local villagers, so they can be independent.