Schauna Chauhan, Alisha Chauhan, Nadia Chauhan - Parle Agro

Parle Agro is one of the most trusted names in the Indian beverage, packaged drinking water, and confectionery industry. It has leading brands like Frooti, Appy, Appy Fizz and Bailley. As a pioneer, Parle Agro is the first to introduce fruit drink in a Tetra Pak, apple nectar and PET bottles in India. The second generation entrepreneurs, the daughters of the man behind this company, Prakash Chauhan, spoke to DARE about their transition, challenges, and more. From the daughters of Prakash Chauhan to the ones handling Parle Agro, how was the transition planned out? Schuana - Fresh out of school, I had a lot of ideas that I immediately wanted to implement. My father advised me to take one step at a time. That’s how the whole phase started. When I joined the company in 1999, it was a learning phase for me. I started interacting with a lot of departments, understanding the fundamentals of the organization—how we work, what is the culture, etc. It took few years to do this. When I joined, the company itself was going through a transition. We had just sold our soft-drink brand to Coca-Cola. My father and his brother were separating in their business. Because of all this, I could bring in a lot of changes and it was easier since there was an entirely new team coming in. I spent a lot of time recruiting a good team. Alisha - Things were different with me. I finished my education and then did a course in fitness and right after that I came back to Mumbai and immediately started setting up V3 fitness commune. Since I was very passionate about starting a fitness center, a business of my own, my father was extremely supportive, and helped me on all fronts. Nadia - For me, it was a very unique situation as my father had me involved in the business from a very young age. From the age of 11, I attended lot of meetings along with him. The questions that I had in my mind, I used to discuss with him later. This involvement made the transition a lot smoother when I formally joined the business because of the familiarity with the operations, the vision that my father had for the business, and most importantly the culture of the business. From the beginning itself, my father focused me into marketing, sales and product development meetings—from dreaming of the product to making sure that it is established. That is really what I have taken up as my role in the business today. So there wasn’t a phase of transition, it was just that we were involved a lot from such a young age that we just came in and took over. When I joined the company, it was very important for me to earn myself respect, and create an identity of my own. Therefore, I worked at different levels—ground level to the top. More than just the fact that it brings in more humility, it also allows you to understand the ground realities before you start dreaming of things that are completely impossible that might not be good or lucrative for the business. For more than one year, I did spend time in studying the absolute micro level things, and not just looking into it from the point of view of providing direction or leadership.

Kamal Chauhan, former RSS worker, planted bombs on Samjhauta Express

Kamal Chauhan, a disgruntled RSS worker arrested by the NIA, had planted bombs on board Samjhauta Express in 2007 after undergoing training in arms and explosives in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, the agency claimed today. Chauhan was taken to Panchkula court which today granted NIA his custody till February 24 for questioning him on his alleged role in the blast in the Delhi-Lahore train that left 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, dead. Investigations reveal that Chauhan along with Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji and Lokesh Sharma, also charged in the case, planted the explosives in the train at Old Delhi, from where the train originates, NIA's Special Prosecutor R K Handa said outside the court after the in-camera proceedings in the case. Chauhan, believed to be a close aide of Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, key accused in the Samjhauta case, was arrested in Noida on Delhi's outskirts on Sunday and was brought to Panchkula in Haryana today. The NIA had sought his remand for a fortnight. "We have to unearth his complete involvement and association. During investigations, it has come to light that Chauhan underwent extensive training in handling of weapons and explosives. He took training at Karni Singh shooting range in Faridabad (Haryana) and a register seized by CBI on August 10, 2011 has the entries of his name in that shooting range. He also took explosives and arms training at Bagli in Dewas (Madhya Pradesh)," Handa said. "To unearth more information about execution of the plan, preparations that were made, a thorough investigation is required, for which we have sought the remand," he said. Chauhan, born in Mhow, was an activist of Rashtirya Swayamsevak Sangh. Sources claimed that during interrogation, Chauhan had spoken about his association with the RSS and his fall out as he did not subscribe to the "new ideologies". Lokesh Sharma, who was arrested in June 2010 on charges of participating in the criminal conspiracy of the bombing as he was present in the meeting where the alleged plot was hatched, is likely to be slapped with fresh charges for his direct involvement in the bombing, the sources said. Meanwhile, Chauhan's counsel Anil Soni and Shailender Babbar alleged that his arrest was "politically motivated" and aimed at influencing polls in Uttar Pradesh while his family claimed that he is a farmer by profession and in "no way involved in the crime". Handa said that Chauhan's father, who was also present in the court today, was allowed by the court to meet his son and his defence lawyers on his plea. Chauhan's father Radhey Shyam said that his son was summoned by police on February nine and after that he did not return home. "My son is a farmer by profession and he is no way involved in the crime," he told reporters outside the court. The agency has come to conclusion that the bombs used in the blast were prepared by Dange, a right wing militant who is absconding and is alleged to be the core of attacks planned and executed since 2002. NIA is also looking for Dange's right hand Kalsangra in connection with the case. The sources said intense questioning of the accused was being done to ascertain the whereabouts of Dange and Kalsangra, on whom the agency has announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh. After a four-year probe, the NIA had on June 20, 2011, charged Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Lokesh Sharma, Dange alias Parmanand and Kalasangra for hatching a criminal conspiracy which resulted in blasts in Samjhauta Express near Deewana railway station in Haryana's Panipat district, about 80 km from Delhi. NIA is also investigating the role of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Indresh Kumar in the blasts. Swami Aseemanand and Sharma are already in judicial custody. Apart from Ajmer Dargah blast, which claimed three lives and left 15 others injured, Aseemanand and Sharma are accused in several other blast cases across the country, including those at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid and Malegaon.

Neil Nitin Mukesh is dating Sonal Chauhan?

It seems Neil Nitin Mukesh has found love again. The actor who turned 30 last month had claimed that he is ready to fall in love after two failed relationships and it looks like his wish has come true. The lady in question is Sonal Chauhan. They recently put up pictures of them partying happily at his home. We hear that he had invited all of his long-time friends and Sonal was the only one who didn’t fit into that category. Then there is Neil’s tweet in which he admits that he escorted Sonal to the sangeet ceremony of Dheeraj Deshmukh and Honey Bhagnani. That’s enough to break your hearts, isn’t it? Yet, we do wish that Neil has really found true love. He had broken up with his long-time girlfriend Priyanka Bhatia in 2010, a few months after he revealed they were going to get married. He was rumoured to be seeing his Shortcut Romeo co-star Puja Gupta for a while but apparently that has was not true. Neil admitted to a daily that he had been seeing someone till last year, but that ended in heartbreak when his girlfriend walked out on him. Puja had only good things to tweet about Neil even last week so we guess he was not referring to her. Having gone through such pain, we hope Neil has found happiness at last. A close friend of Neil chose to underplay it saying, "It would be premature to say Neil is dating Sonal Chauhan. After what he has gone through, it would require Herculean willpower to commit to another relationship. But yes, their bonding is definitely growing. And they're definitely in a space where love is present. But Neil won't rush into a commitment so fast. The last relationship has broken his faith."