CERE 2018 Concludes at IIM Indore

The Ninth Conference on Excellence in Research and Education (CERE 2018) concluded at IIM Indore on May 06, 2018. The four day conference (May 03-06), organized by the FPM participants of the Institute, witnessed over 117 paper presentations along with various workshops and round-table discussions.

After the inauguration on May 04, the third day of the conference had various workshops by experts who shared insights on topics related to research, paper development and teaching. Third day began with a Workshop on Joy of Research by Professor Gajendra K. Adil, SJSOM, IIT Bombay. He talked about what is research and research process, how to handle research problems and ways to identify research topics and themes; and work on them accordingly. ‘Research is like ‘Tapasya’, we need to continuously keep practicing it to get better at it’, he said.

This was followed by two round-table discussions. The topic for first discussion was—‘Future of Management Education—Addressing the Changing Nature of Work’. The speakers included Professor Kanika Tandon Bhal, DMS, IIT Delhi; Professor Palash Deb, IIM Calcutta; Dr. Parag Diwan, CEO, Paradigm Consulting Private Ltd and Founder Vice Chancellor, UPES, Dehradun. The session was moderated by Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore. The speakers shared their views on change in management education and the corrections needed in the course curriculum, replacement of humans with artificial intelligence, evolution and industrial revolution, and how digital world has brought changes in our lives and round table business analytics.

The second round-table discussion was on Business Analytics, with Mr. Hindol Basu, CEO, Actify Data Labs; Mr. Shankar Subra M, Director-Analytics, Contentrix; Mr. Anuj Khandelwal, Principal Data Scientist, Fractal Analytics Inc and Professor Pulak Ghosh, IIM Bangalore as the speakers. The speakers shared insights on big data, history and evolution of data science and how it affects the research trends. Noting that analytics is one of the fastest growing professions, they also shared views on algorithms and statistical and machine learnings.

The fourth day had a Workshop on Joy of Teaching conducted by Professor Arup Varma, Loyola University, Chicago, USA. He began his talk saying that joy of teaching is only possible through joy of learning. The more you have the curiosity to keep learning, the more you will enjoy teaching as well. ‘Grades and high scores in exams do matter. But always keep in mind, never to get carried away with high marks. Passion and dedication is equally important to achieve success’, he said. He concluded the workshop noting that teaching is a noble profession and teachers should make sure that students enjoy their classes, smile and have fun during learning.

The valedictory session was conducted in the second half wherein awards were presented to the best papers. The awards this year were given in two categories namely, Doctoral Colloquium and Paper Presentation. The details are as follows:

Doctoral Colloquium:

Award to:Anju Goswami and Rachita Gulati
Topic: Bank efficiency and convergence in the presence of non-performing loans: evidence from India
Cash Prize: Rs. 15,000/-

Paper Presentation:

First Prize to: Rajesh Mokale
Topic:Measuring the Intangibles: Role of Intellectual Capital Management in Strategic Literature
Cash Prize: Rs. 25,000/-

Second Prize to: Ayush Chaudhary, Rajesh Kumar, Krutheeka Baskaran and Dr. Varisha Rehman
Topic:An Alternate Perspective of New Product Development For The Bottom-of-the-Pyramid Market- Insights From Geddesian Town Planning Theory
Cash Prize: Rs. 20,000/-

Professor Krishnan also congratulated all the participants for being a part of CERE and thanked the organizing committee for conducting the event smoothly. He advised the participants to stay focused and keep enhancing the learnings from CERE and share them with others in order to spread knowledge.

The conference concluded with a vote of thanks by Jyoti, Coordinator, CERE and FPM Participant.