By – Khan Ahmad Darvesh
India is looking for gold medals, first at the Olympics and now at the Paralympics. Indian companies are enthusiastically supporting these champions.
When Avani Lekhara made history by winning India’s first shooting gold medal in a disabled sport on Sunday, one of the most heartfelt congratulations on Twitter came from Anand Mahindra.
“A week ago, Deepa Malik (another athlete) suggested that we develop SUVs for the disabled, as she used in Tokyo,” she wrote on Twitter. “I asked my colleague Velu (Senior Vice President R Velusamy) who led the development to meet this challenge. I want to dedicate the first one to Avani Lekhara.
Later, he gave a similar gift to Sumit Antil, India’s second Paralympic gold medalist. Then he asked Mahindra’s design director Pratap Bose to “design another one for this incredible athlete. A Javelin version of the XUV700.” Mahindra also previously announced a gift to Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra. The owner of the car, MG Motor India President and CEO Rajeev Chaba announced similar news: “MG stands for the empowerment of women,” he said. “We applaud (table tennis silver medalist) Davina Patel. We are honored to provide you with a customized SUV.”
Vikram Kirloskar also expressed support to discus silver medalist Yogesh Kathuniya. The reason why the Indian company enthusiastically toasts these athletes is interesting is that marketing expert Harish Bijoor explained that choosing an accessible sports star actually makes a lot of sense. “We live in an era where we believe in storytelling, and these athletes bring very powerful story parties,” he said.
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