Couple on top in trade

A couple who have family ties to Somnath Chatterjee and run a business called the Mamata Group have taken the reins of Gujarat’s top trade body. Mahendra Patel, 62, took over as president of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry earlier this month and his wife Nayana, 59, became chairperson of the GCCI’s Business Women Committee — the first time a husband-wife team is at the helm. “We are a unique couple. Our grandfathers were friends and even started school together, our fathers studied together and we were childhood friends,” says Mahendra, chairperson and managing director of the Rs 600-crore Mamata Group. Their daughter Tarana is married to Shashwat, grandson of Somnath. The two had met in the US as students, married in 2005 and are now settled in Los Angeles. Mahendra recalls his first meeting with the Marxist leader, who was himself head of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation till he became Speaker. It was in Delhi, before the wedding. “When he saw my business card and Mamata Group printed on it, he asked, ‘Why did you choose this silly name? I don’t like Mamata Banerjee,’” Mahendra says. But when Somnath learnt that Mamata was not a name but an acronym — for Mahendra, Manish, the couple’s son who died in a car accident in 2007, and Tarana — he was happy, the Ahmedabad businessman said. Chatterjee often pulled his leg, addressing him as “You rich people”. But this changed after he got to know them better, Mahendra said. The Patels have donated a large sum for a 100-bed hospital, a dental college and an MBA institute on a 100-acre campus at Visnagar in north Gujarat, where Nayana comes from.  They have also given endowment funds to various institutes. The annual lecture organised by the Mamata centre of the Ahmedabad Management Association is a much awaited event. Nayana, who manages Mamata Airwings, one of the nine group companies, is a trustee in various social organisations the group funds. These are mainly education and health services — Mamata does not make any religious donations. Nayana has also designed the bungalow the couple lives in, which runs on solar energy. “We generate our own electricity, 40-odd units every day, through solar power,” her husband says. In 1965, when Mahendra turned 16, his father had borrowed Rs 10,000 to send him to England to study. “I went by ship as it was cheaper. It took 21 days. In England, for seven years I worked as apprentice during the day and attended classes in the evening,” he said. On return, he worked briefly in Mumbai before moving to Ahmedabad to set up Patel Filters, a joint venture with a US-based company. The husband-wife team, who took over on July 16, has actionable ideas for the chamber of commerce. While Nayana’s priority is to reach out to rural women — to train them in entrepreneurial skills, Mahendra want to develop better co-ordination between the apex trade body and the 300-odd chambers in the state. Since Mahendra shares a good rapport with chief minister Narendra Modi and has accompanied him abroad to promote Gujarat, he expects co-operation from the state government as president of GCCI. Courtesy- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110729/jsp/nation/story_14304831.jsp