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THOUGHT OF THE DAY
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Become a student of change. It is the only thing that
will remain constant.”
Law Updates:
Dispute over implementation and execution of contracts isn't
sufficient ground for winding up.
CA guilty of professional misconduct as he failed to highlight
suspicious book entries during audit.
Depreciation would be excludible to compute PLI when assessee
had made huge additions in fixed assets. Ahmedabad Tribunal.
EPFO clarifies furnishing of Aadhaar is mandatory for final
settlement of pension claims.
PROFESSIONALS INPUTS:
SEBI vide Press Release No. 15/2017 dated 01st March 2017 has
announce that Shri Ajay Tyagi took charge as Chairman, Securities
and Exchange Board of India.
CBEC vide Notification No. 07/2017-Cus. dated 01st March 2017
has made amendment to Notification No.09/2012-Cus reg. enabling
authorised offices or agencies in India of the laboratories mentioned
under para 4.74 of HBP 2015-20.
DVAT vide Circular No. 25/2017 dated 28th February 2017 has
extended the last date of filling of third quarter return of the year
16-17 to 08th of March 2017.
MARKET WATCH:
SENSEX: 28839.79 -144.70 NIFTY: 8899.75 -46.05
SILVER: 43313.00 -31.00 GOLD (MCX): 29397.00 -67.00
USD/INR: 66.76 0.00 CRUDE OIL: 3598.00 -6.00
CS Rajiv Bajaj
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youtube.com/csrajivbajaj
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Date: 03rd March, 2017
www.csrajivbajaj.com
ASHISH THAKKAR FOUNDER & MD, MARA GROUP OF COMPANIES
“When you resolve to start something from nothing, it builds up your
confidence-Ashish Thakkar.”
Early Life
Ashish J. Thakkar’s family emigrated from India to Africa in the 1890s.Thakkar, however, was born in
Leicester in 1981, after his parents had moved to the United Kingdom in 1972 when Idi Amin enforced the
expulsion of Asians from Uganda.Thakkar and his family returned to Africa to live in Rwanda before they were
again forced to leave due to the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. The Thakkar family then fled to Burundi before
settling in Uganda as refugees. At 15 years old, Thakkar dropped out of school to start his own business with a
$5,000 loan.
Career Profile
Ashish J. Thakkar parlayed a small computer trading operation into a pan-African conglomerate, earned a
fortune and attained rock star status along the way. Thakkar began his entrepreneurial journey over 15 years ago
as a high school student in Uganda where he sold computers to his schoolmates and friends. Aged 15, he sold
his new computer to a family friend for a profit of $100 (£60). Immediately realising that making money didn't
have to be complicated or difficult, he then bought and sold a second computer. He showed a natural acumen
for commerce and his parents let him take out a $6,000 loan, with which Mr Thakkar started to import floppy
disks and other computer products from Dubai.
As such goods were hard to buy in Uganda, he would fly to Dubai every weekend and bring back as many as he
could carry. It was the beginning of today's Mara Group. Mr Thakkar persuaded his parents to let him drop out
of school and he widened the business. Instead of personally importing the IT hardware and selling it in
Uganda, he opened an office in Dubai and started to sell to companies across Africa. Since then the Mara Group
has grown and diversified. It now has businesses as wide-ranging as telecoms infrastructure, packaging
manufacture, hotels, conference centres and shopping malls, a paper mill, and thousands of acres of prime
agricultural land.
It operates in 21 countries, mostly in Africa, and employs more than 8,000 people. That small trading operation
snowballed into the Mara Group, a diversified conglomerate with approximately $100 million in revenues,
according to Thakkar. Mara has tentacles in everything from Real Estate and tourism to financial services,
information and communications technology, renewable energy and manufacturing. The group’s operations
span 16 countries in four continents, including Asia. And lest you forget, he didn’t inherit anything; he built it
all from scratch. Ashish J. Thakkar parlayed a small computer trading operation into a pan-African
conglomerate, earned a fortune and attained rock star status along the way.
Partnership Approach
To help fund such stellar growth, Mr Thakkar has brought in outside partners along the way. In the partnerships,
Mara Group typically contributes the "on-the-ground" experience of doing business in Africa, while the other
party brings in investment and expert knowledge about a certain business field. To help the next generation of
entrepreneurs, he also runs a social enterprise called the Mara Foundation, which provides mentoring and other
support to people starting their own businesses. Mara Mentor, a mobile application that connects young
entrepreneurs with business professionals, was launched through Mara Foundation.
In June 2014, Thakkar participated in the "Global Accelerator" event hosted by the United Nations Foundation
and the United Nations Office for Partnerships to discuss entrepreneurships in UN objectives. Thakkar
presented and worked at the event of over 100 entrepreneurs and UN officials including Michael Dell, Barbara
Bush and Arianna Huffington. In August 2014, Thakkar participated in the US-Africa summit, hosted by the
White House, alongside former U.S. President Bill Clinton. He has also participated in the UN Women
Initiative,and was a guest speaker at the Emirates Foundation Youth Philanthropy Summit in November 2014.
