Son of the soil, Rajan Dogra is well known as an experienced Chartered Accountant in the region. Apart from that, he has around two decades of experience in Telecom and Banking sector and also runs a successful liquor distributorship. Sound business acumen and resilience helped him to scale new heights in his career.Jammu Links News talked to him recently. Read excerpts from the interview.Q: Can you walk us through your childhood and college journey?Well, I was born and brought up in Jammu city. I graduated from Jammu University as a Commerce student with a silver medal. Later, I completed my CA from Chandigarh and started my own practice with ‘Rajan Dogra and Co.’ in Jammu.My journey in academics and professional career have always been highly inspired by my father, Late Sh. Ram Krishan Dogra and uncle Late Sh. G.L. Dogra, former finance minister J&K state.Q: How did you move into the telecom and banking sector and achieved new heights?After almost a decade of running successful CA practice in Jammu, I floated a company named “Syncpro Solutions Private Limited” which forayed into the telecom and banking sector. Over the years, I worked with big telecom players like Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance, TATA Communications in Jammu and then in north India mostly as Document Management Process partner. Things snowballed and I moved to Gurugram for expansion purposes and ended up running a successful business with almost 2000 employees.My work ethics helped me to reach the position of Board of Directors at Vijaya Bank. This opportunity provided me a pathway to meet visionary people via seminars and conferences. Keen behaviour to learn new things and surfeit of confidence helped me to push boundaries and move onto unexplored arenas. I became a part of Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and association with people like Ashwini Mahajan, Ratin Roy and many more from the RSS think tank contributed to my development as an emerging voice in business related issues.I have attended multiple national and international conferences with SJM members and met Congress senators and visited the World Bank office in regard to business related matters. All those meetings had a great impact and provided an enriching experience to me as an entrepreneur.Q: How do you view Jammu’s entrepreneurial scene? Your thoughts on New Industrial Policy?Most companies in Jammu and Kashmir belong to the MSME category and over the years, multiple policies were floated but nothing substantial came out. Businessmen from outside the UT come, take subsidies, run their plants for 10-15 years and later wind up everything and move elsewhere.I believe, in a labour surplus economy, doing away with archaic labour laws and ‘n’ number of compliances laid out for small businesses can help immensely. Essentially, Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities need to ramp up their performance for simplifying labour laws.Ease of Doing Business should be on the priority list for UT administration then only can we expect a resounding change.Q: What are your aspirations for J&K UT?Based on my national and global understanding of business related matters, I have a lot of dreams and ideas for Jammu and Kashmir. In case, I ever get the chance to serve my UT, I would like to make changes in the economic, social and political narrative and would want J&K UT to become one of the top performing state in terms of various economic indicators.Q: What are your views on Atmanirbhar Bharat during COVID times?First and foremost, India needs to become self-reliant and focus on increasing exports rather than imports. Boosting local manufacturing with the “Make in India” and “Vocal for Local” initiatives will help India to emerge as a strong and self-sufficient nation. The Central government has taken several initiatives but we can’t deny that India deals with the issue of unskilled labour, sluggishness in logistics, land reforms etc. Off late, the investment climate has changed in India due to ease in Foreign Direct Investment norms. Such steps can help India to scale up in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) club.Q: Any message for young readers of JLN?I would suggest them to become a CA as it provides an expertise in business related subjects. And in case youngsters have an entrepreneurial streak, CA course can work as a solid foundation.
