Q. You have been an integral part of the Lumax-DK Jain Group for over 3 decades. Please share your journey with us. A. My journey in Lumax started way back in 1995 when I joined as an Assistant Manager at the Pune Lighting Plant in Chinchwad where we manufac- tured 2-wheeler lamps. I feel privileged to be amongst the few who have had the opportunity of working with Mr. DK Jain and subsequently with Deepak ji and Anmol ji. In the year 2005, Mr. DK Jain entrusted me with the responsi- bility of setting up the current Chakan plant. This was an exciting challenge for me that gave me hands-on experience in 4-Wheeler lamp manufacturing. During that period, I had fruitful interactions with various customers like TATA and Mahindra along with our Chair- man Mr. DK Jain. This helped me thoroughly understand how to be customer-centric and focus on customer delight – the very DNA of Lumax. During my career, I have had the good fortune of shoulder- ing diverse roles in Lumax that helped me grow as a professional and a person. In the year 2008, I was given the opportunity of setting up the R&D Centre in Pune which I developed with a lot of Passion, perseverance and Integrity. It is a labour of love! I embarked on the journey of self-reliance in design & tooling way back in 2008 and started in-house design- ing & local tooling develop- ment for 2-wheeler lamps. Today, I am very proud to see our R&D centre with state-of-the-art Photometric and environmental lab for new product design, development & testing growing stronger day by day with great alignment with the Czech R&D centre and Taiwan R&D centre. Again in the year 2015, I was given charge of our LATL Chakan plant where, as a team, we pushed ourselves for the coveted JIPM TPM Excellence Award and won the same in 2016. My journey in excellence continued and I was given the responsibility of Uttarakhand Region where we have 3 plants. Implementing TPM is a great tool for bringing excellence in manufacturing processes, we have been able to win many awards from customers, ACMA & JIPM in the last 5 years. Currently, I am responsible for all the lighting plants in the West & Uttarakhand region and New product development AMD. Q.As you highlighted you are currently, looking after KNOW YOUR LEADER Lighting Operations for the West Region and Uttarakhand in the North. Can you please share the details? A. All of us are aware that most non-Japanese OEMs are based in West and Pantnagar region for 2 WH, 4 WH, CV, and FES and some of our largest customers like Bajaj, TATA, and Mahindra are present in Pantnagar and West Region and hence both the regions are extremely important for us. Q.What have been your significant contributions? A. As a team committed to its Values of RIPE, we have logged in some signicant milestones. I am humbly sharing a few here: • Setting up R & D facility in Pune and self-reliance in design and development. • Transformation of LATL Chakan through TPM Philosophy • New Product development for AMD which helped to bring in growth in the UTK region and AMD. • Driving TPM as a culture across our plants and achieving JIPM TPM awards in Pune and Pantnagar plants. • Turnaround of LIL Chakan which enabled us to win customer condence in the Western region • Extraordinary efforts were taken in HR Process design, Hiring the Best Talent and Growth of employees within & made Business Friendly HR & IR. Signed multiple wage agreements with tough Unions. Q.How do you see the future growth? A. The future of Lumax is very bright in terms of new business and I am very bullish on our growth. Our capacities are booked for the next 3 years, and we are setting up new plants in Pune and Sanand. We have good wins from EV models of major OEMs, which will help us surpass our vision 2027 targets. I am happy to say that the brand Lumax is on a growth trajectory, and we are strongly connected with all OEMs for multiple product ranges. Q.Aftermarket con- tributess significantly to the growth of the Group. You are responsible for NPD at the AMD. Share your insights on the challenges and developments. A. It's extremely important to have a wide range of product portfolios to grow in After Market. We were short of the required product range and I was entrusted with setting up the NPD center for AMD in 2018 at Pune. When there was no existence of NPD, AMD, the growth potential in the aftermarket lighting space was limited. There was need to advance the product portfolio at a fast pace cost-effectively. The NPD AMD division was setup with the objective of "Quick Launch to Market at affordable cost" in 2018. Our pursuit for Excellence and agility has enabled us to include close to 60 new products in just about 4 years to the AMD portfolio. It is pleasure so see this segment grow in the B2C space.