The nationalist on the MNC board

PASSING THROUGH: Dinesh Chandra Paliwal

Dinesh Chandra Paliwal is a global citizen in the true sense of the term. He works in Connecticut in the US, where he heads the global automation division of ABB (the division accounts for 55 per cent of the group's $20 billion turnover).

What's more, Paliwal is a member of ABB's highest decision-making body, the Group Executive Committee, CEO of the ABB group in the US and looks after the group's interests in the Americas. He's also chairman of ABB India, chairman of the ABB group in Singapore and even economic advisor to the governor of the Guangdong province in China.

The list of his responsibilities is long but the import is straight: Paliwal is among the most powerful men at ABB, charting the Zurich-headquartered global engineering giant's destiny as it looks for newer markets for its products and more efficient locations for its manufacturing facilities. And Paliwal is clear in his mind where the opportunities lie ""China and India.

By 2008, China and India will account for almost a quarter of ABB's revenues, up from 15 per cent now. And by 2015, over 50 per cent of ABB's manufacturing will be done in the two countries. At the moment, India and China make 20 per cent of ABB's automation products and 35 per cent of its power technology products.

In New Delhi with his wife Ela, a trained Hindustani classical vocalist, to attend the India Economic Summit, Paliwal says emphatically: "It doesn't matter if it is made in the US, India or China. It is made by ABB.

"I hate the expression 'low-cost countries' used for India and China. I call them high productivity countries," he adds, in a strong American accent.

Clearly, Paliwal has more than just labour arbitrage in mind. ABB manufacturing processes are highly automated and labour makes up only eight per cent of the value chain.

"Moving to China and India means an improvement in the whole supply chain which can help cut costs by as much as 40 per cent," he adds.

For the time being, Paliwal seems to have convinced ABB headquarters that this indeed is the only way to go forward. To be sure, Paliwal is a convincing talker. His short but stocky frame radiates energy. He shoots straight from the hip and rarely sugarcoats criticism.

This trait, Paliwal says, he picked up from his father, Rama Chandra Paliwal, a freedom fighter who worked closely first with Mahatma Gandhi and then with Ram Manohar Lohia. This is perhaps one reason Paliwal still carries an Indian passport, though the rest of his family are US citizens.

His father used to bring out a nationalist publication called Praja Sewak (Servant of the People) and would spend a great deal of time away from home.

Uncertainty about the next meal would often loom large over the family. But this didn't keep him from providing for a good education for his seven children.

ABB's Paliwal joined the Roorkee Engineering College (now the Indian Institute of Technology, Saharanpur) and after passing out in 1979, signed up with Ballarpur Industries and worked at its Yamunanagar plant.

There, he would often sneak out of bed at night to spend time with the mechanics in the factory, observing how they worked, asking questions till there was none left.

In 1981, he joined Miami University in the US on a full scholarship and earned a master's degree in applied science and engineering two years later.

In 1985, he acquired an MBA (finance) from the same university. The same year he joined AccuRay Corporation as a systems engineer. In 1990, he joined ABB.

The turning point in his life came in 1994. He had a lucrative offer from a company in the US and was all set to put in his papers. But ABB wanted to retain him and put him in charge of its operations in China.

Since then, there has been no looking back for Paliwal. In January 2001, he became the first Asian to become a member of the ABB Group Executive Committee.

Many people within and outside ABB believe that Paliwal is destined for still bigger things within ABB. For one, he has age on his side "" he turns 47 on December 17. But he will not be in India to celebrate his birthday "" by then, Paliwal will have winged his way back to the US, after dashing to Agra to meet his mother.