Daara Patel, Secretary General, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA), talks to Garima Arora about his younger years, his passion for singing, life at IDMA and much more

As I get the dates mixed up and arrive for an interview with Daara Patel, Secretary General, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA), two days ahead of our scheduled appointment, Patel walks into the conference room looking confounded yet complacent. "Let's get this done with anyways," he says. It is then when I realised it is maybe this very steadfast attitude towards his work and commitments that makes Patel one of the most successful and fervent men in the Indian pharma industry today.

In the making

Born in Mumbai on February 6, 1954, Patel finished his schooling from St Mary's High School, Mumbai. Like his vibrant personality suggests, it was never just about the books for him. "I was always been into extracurricular activities and sports. I used to participate in drama, debates and singing competitions. I was an athlete and also played volleyball during school," says Patel. However, what stuck out most amongst the things he mentioned was that he is a good singer and has shared the stage with some well-known names. "Nadeem (of the Nadeem-Shravan duo) was a classmate of mine. We did participate in a number of competitions during our days in college. However, he has gone a long way today and I never really pursued singing after that," recounts Patel. As I quiz him further on his tastes in music he says that he is an all and all Bollywood music fan. And Himesh? "He is a good singer but I am not too fond of listening to him," says Patel "I have always been a Kishore Kumar and Mukesh fan. However, today singers like Shaan are doing a great job," he opines.

Patel went on to finish his college from Bhurani College in Mumbai where his subjects were accounts and auditing. Later, he completed his Diploma in Materials Management from the Indian Institute of Materials Management (IIMM). Patel's professional life began with Ciba Geigy. From there Patel went onto work with Warner Hindustan. After the merger of Warner Hindustan with Park Davis, Patel worked for the latter.

He then had a short stint with JM Morrison, when he was called back to Park Davis and was offered the position of Director of Purchasing. Between his first job at Ciba and last at Park Davis, where Patel handled purchasing for both Bombay and Hyderabad based plants of the company, together with handing scrap by third party operations like corporate manufacturing, etc. Patel had the opportunity to work with Wockhardt India and Sinar Mas Group in Indonesia as General Manager, Procurement (Agri-business Division). If such varied professional achievements weren't enough, Patel also had a stint with Jet Airways as General Manager, Purchase, Properties and Administration. "Today I find my job as Secretary General of IDMA very interesting. There is never a dull moment," he says.

Life with IDMA

Today, as the Secretary General of IDMA, Patel has a number of responsibilities to shoulder. Right from satisfactory running of the Association as per the Constitution and by-laws, prompt response to member's queries and problems, organising industry specific seminars and training programmes to co-ordinating activities with other associations. "Fortunately, I have done this kind of thing before. My pharma background has helped me tremendously," says Patel, almost breathing a sigh of relief. He seems to be doing a fine job of balancing internal and external queries and problems. "I see to it that I am always involved with two things. One is a government query, which is given top priority. Even if we can't answer them, we try and give them a feedback and tell them that we are attending to the query. And the second is members' problems like dealing with the FDA, DPCO etc," says Patel.

So how does he balance the conflicting interests of big and small member pharma companies? "It is a tough job no doubt. But though it is a big organisation there are a few people who give us their time and their guidance so operations become much simpler. There are just four or five people whose experience and help I can count on and that is how we run the show. Because big companies have their own agenda and smaller companies need help with almost everything, it's almost like running their business. But we do carry them with us," says Patel.

All in a lion’s day's

A day in the life of Daara Patel is not surprisingly, stressful. But he knows how to unwind well. "I make it a point to swim at least twice a week. It's a great stress buster," says Patel. Though he is not involved actively in any other kind of sporting activity he does enjoy catching that occasional tennis match on TV. Besides, he is actively involved with the Lions International. "Whatever little time I get, I spend there. Lionism stands for service and fellowship, we come together and get to know a lot of people and do a lot of organised service. We do social work and try to inculcate discipline and leadership qualities in our members who have not had the opportunity otherwise. We encourage them to develop public speaking and presentation skills. I give a lot of talks on that also," states Patel.

garima.arora@expressindia.com