“This is a truly special recognition,” says Kalpana Morparia on being conferred the Padma Shri. Describing it as an emotional moment and in some sense also very humbling, Morparia not new to awards and recognitions, says, “when an industry association or a media houses give you an award you feel good about it because they recognise and value your contribution but when a country confers an award on you it is so very special. This is because there is an emotional bond that you feel with your country and this is second only to the bond you feel with God.”
She attributes her contributions and role more to the abilities that were enabled because of the great “platforms” that she got associated with. “I feel fortunate and blessed to have got two great platforms – One was ICICI, which I joined in 1975 and when I retired in 2008, it was a completed changed country with the ICICI story, in many ways, mimicking India’s development journey. Our dharma initially was to finance Indian industry then with liberalisation, ICICI helped set up the modern financial architecture in India whether it was about setting up Crisil, participating in the National Stock Exchange as a promoter, be the first bank from Asia (outside of Japan) to list on the New York Stock Exchange.”
The other platform, to her, was the opportunity she got at JP Morgan Chase, “which is the most valuable bank in the world today and I spent 12 and a half years there. The JP Morgan platform was all about taking India to the world and bringing the world to India and very few people get such an opportunity and not to miss the fact that she got to work with iconic leaders like “Jamie Dimon.”
Morparia serves on four company boards today – Dr Reddy’s, Hindustan Unilever, HSBC Holdings and Phillips Morris International. All the four, she describes as great platforms to learn.
Referring to the Financial Express online article where G V Prasad, the co-chairman and managing director at Dr Reddy’s spoke about Morparia’s contributions, she says, “I have had an association of 17 years with Dr Reddy’s. In fact, people tell me about my contributions but I feel blessed having had the chance of working with wonderful people and learning from them. For example, you have also spoken to Nachiket. He was such a bright student and a rank holder out of IIM, Ahmedabad and I would always feel I was learning a lot from him all along.”