Ending 2025 Refreshed and Ready: Lessons from a Year of Centering, Ride-alongs with colleagues, and broader engagement

 As 2025 draws to a close, I’m filled with gratitude for the chance to end the year alongside colleagues who are driven by the commitment to innovation, engagement and customer success. This past month afforded me the opportunity to experience this in microcosm, with the remarkable team at IDEX India and our visionary clients. After a tumultuous year—both at a macro level with the economy and industry in steep transformation more and personally—these moments have been a genuine source of renewal.

2025 marked a profound personal journey. The ancients understood the importance of time in farewell rituals, and I found unexpected wisdom in honoring my mother’s memory a full year after her passing. The space allowed me to grieve, to feel anger at her untimely demise, to see her clearly as both an ideal and a human with her own flaws, and to accept loss in a way that felt authentic to Hindu cosmology. The culminating ceremony—a barefoot climb with my father, hubby, son and siblings up a breathtaking mountain and a plunge into the icy mouth of a sacred river—was a deeply grounding farewell. We remembered her soul, and the souls of many ancestors, and sent them onward to their heavenly abode. A cold plunge that clarified the heart. As a spiritual advisor told me we explores what the year was about, "history is just about the intersections of time and space in inspiring ways."

Professionally, I was inspired last week by a day at IIT Madras. I was blown away not only by the energy and intellect that have spawned multiple $1B unicorns, including Aether and Agnikul—but also by the sheer audacity of what’s being built there. Our team is also launching engagement with schools like CMU – harnessing the best of industry and academia to plot the next stage of growth and evolution for our businesses and leaders.

I also had the privilege of spending time with Birla Paints (Birla Opus), valued clients of our IDEX Dispensing business. It was heart-warming to see our team’s integral role in their aspirational and audacious plan to become a major player in India’s tinting ecosystem. Seeing a sprawling 100-acre campus that was fully 3D printed was one of those “the future is already here” moments. The spirit of innovation on that campus is palpable and contagious. Watching our engineers deliver innovative technology at a scale unheard of before—essentially delivering a year’s worth of product in two months so the customer could meet their launch goals—was a masterclass in commitment. Even more meaningful was seeing our team invited to tackle a hitherto unsolved R&D problem. Being the go-to partner on innovation is exactly where IDEX teams excel.

A special thank-you to the leaders who made this collaboration so memorable and impactful: Balu Kuppuswamy, Head of IDEX Dispensing, Sunil Khare , VP Business Line Leader, Asia Dispensing. Vinayak Prabhu, AGM, Head Tinting Ecosystem at Birla Opus, Arvind Jadhav, DGM Procurement ,Birla Opus, and Mohan Raj, AGM Quality, Birla Opus.

It was also wonderful to see the One-IDEX spirit at play as Balu and Sunil shared the potential of other IDEX businesses to support Birla Opus/Birla Paints. That cross-company expertise and commitment to solving customer problems is part of what makes IDEX special.

On a lighter note, I got to flex my old sports cred—launching Birla Paints’ Health Day, flipping the coin for the table tennis game, and even playing a hand after 25 years (I managed a couple of slices!). It was a joyful reminder of the power of play and camaraderie.

Driving with the IDEX India team was just as refreshing—their focus, ingenuity, and sheer commitment to the customer are the lifeblood of a world-class organization. It’s the professional equivalent of that invigorating cold plunge: the reset that to strengthen you and sets the path to excellence.

As we close out 2025, I feel all of us are refreshed and ready. Here’s to new vistas and unlocked futures in 2026.

#Innovation #OneIDEX #IDEXIndia #BirlaOpus #TintingEcosystem #IITMadras #3DPrinting #2025Reflections IDEX Corporation