Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company and a business legend who stood tall for his global vision famously said, “coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.” His words sit very well on the Chartered Account duo of Mr S.C. Aggarwal and Mr Mahesh C Gupta, founders of the SMC Group, and today its CMD and Vice CMD respectively. When they met first inside a library in the mid-1970s while preparing for their accountancy examinations, little did they know that destiny would forge them into everlasting friendship, and turn them into astute business partners that would go on to create a hugely successful financial group. Like Mr Ford said, by keeping together, Mr Aggarwal and Mr Gupta witnessed progress, by working together they smelt, tasted and spread abundant success.

Success for SMC has come accompanied by its close friends—accolades, awards and appreciation. The duo’s exceptional leadership and outstanding commitment have combined to make SMC Group one of the most reputed and award-winning financial solutions providers in the country. In the year 2015, SMC has been conferred the ‘Best Financial Services Provider’ and the ‘Best Real Estate Broker of the Year’ awards by ASSOCHAM. In the year 2014, SMC was awarded the ‘Commodity Broker of the year’. It bagged the much coveted ‘Best Equity Broking house in Derivative Segment in India’ for 3 consecutive years between 2012 and 2014, awarded jointly by Dun and Bradstreet, and BSE. SMC had earlier won the Best Equity Broking House in India (2012 and 2010) and Best Currency Broking House in India (2012 and 2010) awards by D&B, BSE and Bloomberg-UTV respectively.

A young India looking for business stories that inspire does not have to look further than the story of SMC. As American actor Michael Douglas says of his nation, “our economy is increasingly dependent on the success and integrity of the financial markets.” He could well be saying the same for the Indian financial market, and SMC. We have chosen to put this success of two men from Haryana’s Mahendragarh district that once met inside a library, on our cover.

Business and philanthropy can walk the ramp together with true aplomb. And so, an Indian-American couple—Ms Chandrika Tandon and her spouse Mr Ranjan Tandon—has announced a USD 100 million gift to the New York University School of Engineering. It is believed to be the largest ever philanthropic gift by a member of the Indian American community, good enough to buy over 20,000 small cars in India. The school will henceforth be known as the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Ms Tandon says that she is inspired by wanting to give back to the city that has given the couple so much. “Our hope is that this gift will bring many more of us together to reinvent engineering and advance New York’s efforts to become a science and technology capital, and foster talent of young innovators, applied scientists and entrepreneurs.”

We keep the inspiration flowing as we cover Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi’s visit to both coasts of the USA, casting a spell over the Indian community in the Silicon Valley.

There is much more to mentally navigate in the pages of this issue.

Happy reading.

(sayantanc@gmail.com)