RECRUITMENT BY INTUTION

The Mumbai – Howrah Express was rushing through the night piercing the darkness with its beam of light. The First Class Air Conditioned compartment was fairly crowded as the Hon. Minister of Industries of Maharashtra, Shri Jawaharlal Darda was returning to his constituency at Nagpur after completing a successful session of the State Assembly.

Hemant, Rajan and Ajay were relaxing in the compartment after taking the dinner served by the Pantry car of the Express. They were traveling to Wardha, near Nagpur for attending the general meetings of the three rural development societies set up by the Company to implement the various social schemes for the upliftment of the rural population. During the late seventies the Government had announced rebate in income tax to the corporate sector for undertaking rural development work in the rural areas of the country. The Magnum Group of Industries which was headed by Seth Anandbhai Kanitkar, one of the greatest philanthropist of the country was always in the forefront to undertake any such activities even with or without rebates and concessions and hence it was only a matter of time before directions were issued by the Group to all the companies to undertake rural development work in any rural area of its choice.

Pursuant to these directions Galaxy Chemicals Limited, one of the group company decided to undertake rural development work in four different villages in Wardha District. Necessary rural development societies, one for each village, were formed and Madhu Nandgaonkar one of the administrative officer was deputed to Wardha to administer and manage the societies. Hemant, Rajan and Ajay were the trustees of all the societies and hence were proceeding to Wardha to attend the Annual General Meetings of these societies.

Hemant, a legendary figure in Magnum Group had been instrumental in formation and the growth of GCL right from its inception. He had an imposing personality with a flowing beard and was always dressed in spotless white dhoti and Khadi kurta with a white khadi jacket. He had such piercing eyes that every person who met him was always afraid to look at him straight in the eye. He had earned s much respect in the minds of the staff that the moment he used to come and stand at the door of the general hall there was pin drop silence and every employee in the hall put his head down and started doing his work.

“Hemant, I am wondering as to why GCL has decided to choose a far off place like Wardha for carrying out the rural development work when the same purpose could have been achieved by undertaking the same work in nearby Pune or Nasik Districts” Ajay asked Hemant.

“There is an interesting history behind this” replied Hemant.

“At the time in the late fifties when the Magnum Group decided to set up the first integrated plant for the manufacture of inorganic chemicals in India it was Ghorpade, the then Industries Minister of Maharashtra who put the entire State Government machinery at the disposal of Anandbhai for location of a suitable site near Mumbai and ensured that all necessary infrastructure is provided to the Company for expeditious implementation of the project. He also accompanied Anandbhai to Delhi and pleaded the Company’s ca