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While the debate on the 70 -hour work week is intensifying, Anu Aga, former president of Thermax, says that young people must manage between professional life and family time.
“I am not satisfied with the word balance. When I hear the word balance, I think of Row-Poker. You sometimes have to spend overtime at work and sometimes you need your home. In India, it is relatively easy because so many family members help home. Entitled “Boardroom to Impact: A Leader’s Journey” at BT Mindrush 2025.
Aga, which hung up its boots as the president of Thermax in 2004, told the many challenges she was confronted in her personal life, which finally paved the way for her professional life. Having lost her husband in 1996, he was asked to join the Theater Board of Directors only three days after the disappearance of her husband. With CSR (corporate social responsibility) as a context of education, it was skeptical and under-confident to manage the company. She considers struggle as an opportunity to grow and learn. “The struggle is in everyone’s life. You can learn and face it. Your adaptation mechanism can be different … Do not continue to say: why is it? Because he has no response and takes a lot of energy.
AGA, 82, is often recognized for having transformed Thermax from a company into difficulty into a world engineering center in energy and environmental projects.
In particular, Aga was also recognized for its philanthropic work for social well-being. She believes in the guardianship model of Gandhiji, “in which the wealth given to you is not only for your personal use but also for the right causes.” “When I was appointed president, we decided to give a small quantity to the company. It was well before CSR was compulsory.
While advising companies and startups on CSR, Aga says that if companies do the CSR by constraint, there will be only one consequence. “And if, as a business, you believe in it has another more important impact … earlier, I did not like the CSR’s mandate. But today, seeing the money that is authorized in CSR, I think it’s a good thing,” explains Aga.
