Japanese Technology Meets Indian Opportunity at Indo-Nippon Golf Cup 2011

By Deepak Arora

Pix by Noyanika Arora

GURGAON, Dec 4: Japanese Golfer Yasunobu Fukuda won the prestigious Indo-Nippon Golf cup 2011 held at Golden Green Golf Resort in Gurgaon on Sunday by claiming the Best Score Gross. While Yasunobu Fukuda was also adjudged the Winner Best Score Nett Japanese, the Indian Golfer Ajay Dadwal, Managing Director of Corporate Risks Private Ltd, was declared Winner Best Score Nett Indian.

The Ladies Winner of the Indo-Nippon Golf Tournament was Ms Neelam Pratap Rudy and Runners Up was Ms Garima Sehgal.

The First Runners Up and Second Runners Up Best Score Nett Japanese were Minoru Hoshino of Mitsuba Sical India Ltd and Yasunori Matsumoto, Vice President of Yaskawa Robotics India Ltd respectively.

The First Runners Up and Second Runners Up Best Score Nett Indians were Asit Tripathi, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, and Ravi Kohli of Blue Chip Capital respectively.

There were several other prizes at the Indo Nippon Golf Cup that has become a much eagerly awaited Golf tournament in the Indian circuit.

The lady luck smiled most on the Japanese Golfer Yasunobu Fukuda, who works as Director Operations at IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Company. Besides winning the Best Score Gross and Best Score Nett Japanese titles, Fukuda also bagged the prize of Winner Straightest Drive (Hole No.6) after a lucky dip among the three ties.

The winner Straightest Drive (Hole No.15) was Yasuyuki Sibata of Sumitomo Life; the winners Longest Drive (Hole No.11) was Bharat Kaushal, Managing Director of SMBC Capital India, (239 yds); the winner Longest Drive (Hole No. 9) was Takao Ushigome Managing Director of Hitachi Metals (300 yds); the winner Closest to the pin (Hole No.16) was Kensaku Konishi, President and CEO of Canon, (6 ft) and the winner Closest to the pin (Hole No 8) was Satoru Wada, Managing Director of NTT Communications (3 ft 4 inches).

Canon India presented a special prize -- a Canon life style camera -- and it was bagged by Yusuke Kato, Managing Director, Iwatani India Pvt Ltd.

About 60 Japanese and 50 Indian players, representing a cross section of Japanese and Indian businessmen, took part in the Sixth Indo-Nippon Golf Cup 2011.

For Garima Sehgal, Golf has been her passion ever since she started playing this game at the age of 12. Her first win was in 2003, where she participated in Amit Verma Golf Memorial. The young Indian Golfer has participated in various tournaments at National level and also represented my school and college.

This year the annual golf event was promoted and supported by the Indian Tourism Ministry as Platinum Sponsor with Incredible Tourism logo, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCI) and the Embassy of Japan and has a special focus every year.

The event is an invaluable epicenter which brings together the Ambassador of Japan and Senior Japanese Diplomats, heads of Japanese businesses in India, senior civil servants and officials from Government of India and top management of highly reputed Indian companies.

Rahul Sharma, Founder and President of Indo-Nippon Golf Cup, said this year the focus was on development in Tourism, Urban Development and Auto component in the SME sector. The theme was “Japan the technology, India the opportunity”.

...And the winners are:

Sharma said Japanese enterprise has impacted Indian corporate world in a great way. The benefit has been mutual with the Indian enterprise getting access to unequivocal technology and large funding while the Japanese benefiting through access to the vast market, one of the top two markets- India.

There is no event in India which celebrates this relationship like the Indo Nippon Cup (INGC), a Golf tournament which brings the Indian Bureaucracy and enterprise to interact informally with their Japanese counterparts.

Japanese Ambassador Akitaka Saiki teed off the tournament.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Saiki said the Indo-Nippon Golf Cup was organized to promote Japan India focus and to invite Indian investment in Japan.

The Ambassador said the Japanese investment in India and number of Japanese personnel were working in India were growing at a steady rate and he hoped this trend would continue.

Union Minister of State for Water Resources and Minority Affairs Vincent Pala, who was the chief guest at the function, stressed on the need to further enhance Indo-Japan economic cooperation to benefit the people of the two countries.

He also invited the organizers to hold the Golf tournament in Shillong in the North-East of India.

Several other eminent persons, including Dr Surajit Mitra, Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Sanjay Kothari, Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Tourism, Kensaku Konishi, President & CEO of Canon India, Katsuya Okhihiro, President of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII), Ichiro Lino, Vice President of JCCII, Subbaiah, President of Mahindra World City Jaipur, Keiichi Nakagaki, Chairman and Managing Director of Mitsubishi Corporation India Pvt Ltd, and Abhishek Chaudhary, Company Secretary of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Ltd. (DMICDC), were also present on the occasion.

Enjoying Lunch

Also present on the occasion were senior officials from Panasonic, Sumitomo Life Insurance Company, Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ, NEC India and Hitachi.

As per the traditions, a pre-event dinner was held facilitating networking amongst the players from both the countries. The dinner at the historic Delhi Golf Club was attended amongst others by Indian Ministers Salman Khurshid and Vincent Pala and Javed Akhtar.

Rahul Sharma thanked the Embassy of Japan in India and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII) for their dedicated support to the tournament for the last six years.

The Gold sponsors of the event were Mahindra World City Jaipur and Sri City and Silver sponsors were Chandra Group and Dimension Data.

Indo-Nippon Golf Cup was first held in 2006 with the objective of building a cordial working relationship between the Japanese and the Indian community both in Government and Business. The then Japanese Ambassador Y Enoki graced the inaugural tournament with his presence and it was a great success. The Japan desk was inaugurated with the event. The chief guest representing the Indian side was Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi.

In 2007, the tournament was held to promote the “India-Japan Tourism Year”. The Chief Guest representing Japan was K Takewaka, Minister Economic, Embassy of Japan and from India P V Bhide, the Revenue Secretary. Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) and JNTO lead to promote tourism between the two countries.

The Indo-Nippon Golf Cup 2008 was organized amidst much fan fare. The Chief Guest representing Japan was H Domichi, Ambassador of Japan and form India Special Secretary Dinesh Jain, Ministry of External Affairs.

The theme was “Cool the Earth – initiative of ASSOCHAM” for promoting environmental technologies of Japan to India.

Indo-Nippon Golf Cup 2009 promoted the theme of “New and Renewable Energy”. It accounted for the Japanese companies introducing their latest technologies on renewable energy in India which are in process. The chief guest representing Japan was H Domichi, Ambassador of Japan and from India Deepak Gupta, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

INGC 2010 was organized to promote Japan-India focus on “General Development of Japanese Industries in India especially SMEs” and to invite Indian investment in Japan. The Chief Guests from Japan were H. Domichi, Ambassador of Japan and S. Watanabe, President –JCCII and from Indian side were Amitabh Kant, Managing Director & CEO, Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Ltd., and Uday Kumar Verma, Secretary, Ministry of MSMEs.

Sehwag scores 219, creates world record; India wins one-day series against

INDORE, Dec 8: Virender Sehwag smashes 219 against the West Indies here and created a world record of scoring the highest runs in a one-day internationals. Sehwag has become the second player to score a double ton in the history of one-day matches. Sehwag's doble ton also ensured India to series win over the West Indies held here on Thursday at the Holkar stadium.

After posting their highest ODI total – 418 for five – India bowled out the visitors to 265 in 49.2 overs to register a comprehensive 153-run win to take an unassailable 3-1 lead going into Chennai’s final match on Sunday. On a day when Sehwag authored a masterpiece, Denesh Ramdin’s valiant run-a-ball 96 was a mere footnote.

While the day largely belonged to Sehwag, debutant Rahul Sharma (3/43) managed to steal some limelight with three crucial blows when the West Indies were going berserk. The Punjab leg-spinner struck thrice in his first three overs -- all with the last ball of each over and all bowled – to reduce the match into a no-contest.

Sehwag, who also completed 8000 ODI runs during his knock, won the toss for the fourth time in succession, but this time opted to bat first on what appeared a batting beauty. Having endured a succession of poor starts in the previous three matches, India went in with their tried and tested pair at the top, Sehwag partnering his Delhi mate Gautam Gambhir (67, 67, 11x4). The move paid handsome returns as the left-right combination laid a strong platform for a big total.