Radio Mirchi founder receives ‘2009 Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year Award’

Conference on Indo- Israel Relations organized

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has named A.P. Parigi, managing director of Entertainment Network India Limited and managing director and CEO of Times Infotainment Media Limited, as the “2009 William F. Glaser ’53 Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year.”

The “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” recognized Parigi’s vision and commitment in transforming Times’ Network’s Radio Mirchi, once a small player in a heavily regulated industry, into India’s largest private FM radio network in just seven years.

Parigi received the prestigious award at a reception at the Troy, NY-based Rensselaer’s Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Concert Hall on April 8.

Entrepreneurship is one of four building blocks at Rensselaer and is a key element in preparing future leaders to think about and approach challenges creatively, especially in a globalized economy. To that end, the institute has worked diligently in identifying entrepreneurial case studies globally that can be benchmarked.

“Radio Mirchi illustrates the specific transformation of India into the modern world—integrating the rural, non-moneybased economy into the expanding money economy of the growth areas, principally in the major cities—using an ignored technology, radio,” said David Gautschi, dean of the Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology.

“The Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year Award represents an emerging, and growing, global recognition – among academia, businesses, and governments – of India’s potential in the international community,” Parigi said in his acceptance speech.

Radio was a ubiquitous, but ignored, technology at the time of Radio Mirchi’s launch in 2000 when India privatized the radio industry. State radio covered 98 percent of India, but it ignored the 600 million Indians under the age of 30. It was this reality that fueled Parigi’s passion that Radio Mirchi could become a “hot” brand in the world’s second most populous country, and set the tone for what would be the birth of a whole new kind of media company.

Parigi joins past recipients who include Warren Bruggeman ’’46, former vice president and general manager of GE’s Nuclear Business Operations; Fred Smith, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx Corporation; James Crowe ’72, CEO of Level 3 Communications; and Tom Le Fevre ’71, co-founder of Intuit.

India and Israel have come closer and their relationship in all areas have got strengthened in recent times. The Consulate General of India, in association with Yeshiva University, hosted a reception at the New India House, New York late last month on the occasion of an International Conference on Indo-Israel Relations organized by the Yeshiva University, New York. About one hundred and twenty guests attended the reception.

Ambassador Prabhu Dayal, Consul General of India, New York, in his welcome address, said that India-Israel relations were consolidating on various fronts. He highlighted that the organizers have dedicated the conference to the memory of those who lost their lives in the recent terrorist incident in Mumbai. He spoke about the horrors of the terrorist attacks and laid emphasis on the need to contain the cross border terrorism and the efforts that India has made in this regard.

Consul General of Israel, Asaf Shariv mentioned about the growing bilateral relations between India and Israel. He laid stress on taking the relationship further in areas of science and technology, trade and in other related areas.

Richard M. Joel, President of Yeshiva University, mentioned the progress of the University and their future programs on India-Israel relations. Directors of the Centre for Israel Studies and Centre for Public Health Sciences, Yeshiva University, elaborated on their perception about the Centre’s activities. The program concluded with a vote of thanks by P. K. Mohanty, Consul (Education).

A.P Parigi, center, the winner of 2009 William F. Glaser ’53 Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year Award, with David Gautschi, left, Lally School of Management and Technology Dean and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley A. Jackson, at the awards ceremony in Troy, NY, April 8. Photo Courtesy of Rob Totaro/Rensselaer

BY VRN