Investment in research requires visionary thinking

Prabodhan 2020-The Leadership Conclave Begins at IIM Indore

The annual leadership conclave of Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP), Prabodhan 2020 began at IIM Indore virtually on December 12, 2020. The theme for this year’s conclave is ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat—Developing a sustainable and self-reliant economy’. The two-day event will witness the presence of some of the most influential HR and business leaders sharing valuable insights on managing human capital and business practises.

The inauguration of the event took place in the presence of Professor Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore; Professor Saumya Ranjan Dash, Chair- EPGP; Professor Ranjeet Nambudiri, Dean-Programmes; and all the participants registered for the event virtually.

Sharing his opinion about Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Professor Rai explained how addressing income disparity, catalyzing growth rate in rural areas, addressing the issues in urban areas, finding solutions to the environmental issues and focusing on entrepreneurial motivation play an important role. ‘Madhya Pradesh has around 264K MSMEs and 90 percent of these are micro-enterprises. We need to address the problems faced by these 90 percent first, in order to encourage entrepreneurship’, he said.

He mentioned that Accountability, Compassion and Excellence are the important factors which can help us be an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. ‘We need to be accountable for our actions, be compassionate for everything and everyone and give our cent percent to whatever job or task we are involved in, so that we’re achieve excellence’, he said.

Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India was the Chief Guest for the event. He said that the decision for the lockdown was taken on humane principle, considering that the economy and GDP can be revived in sometime, but we cannot get back the human lives lost.

He noted that the lockdown helped in bringing a shallow curve, which helped the nation buy time to ramp our health and testing infrastructure; and hitting the peak much lower after six months. ‘With such high population, if we didn’t implement a lockdown, India would have witnessedmuch higher deaths.’, he said.

Dr. Subramanian said that even though there has been an impact on the economy, India is on the way to recovery. ‘Our democracy is different from any other democracy in the world—with so many cultures and languages, and hence we have also implemented many reforms during this phase which would benefit all’, he said.

Sharing his views on Aatmanirbhar Bharat, he said that Aatmanirbhar means being self-reliant—which is built on capabilities; and capabilities never manifest without competition. He concluded saying that investment in research requires visionary thinking, hence it is important for Indian organizations to have a long-term vision.

This was followed by a Keynote Address by Dr. Shamika Ravi, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings India. She explained that the Indian economy should be understood as a 28-state economy, led by vibrant political leaders who act as the CEOs of their state and work to bring business to their states. ‘Leadership has always impacted the way various states have grown. Growth depends on the policies adopted by the government and the nations’, she said.

Giving example of how South Korea and China’s economy grew higher than India, Dr. Ravi said its time for India to start entering the global competition. Sharing her views on Aatmanirbhar Bharat, she said that whole idea behind being self-reliance isn’t to protect our industries, it’s about being globally competitive. ‘We need industrialisation across the country to help the labour and develop capabilities to compete with emerging markets. The graduates today don’t take up the jobs they don’t like. Similarly, the industries aren’t able to find high-skilled labour. It’s time for the policy makers to address this issue and create a balance between skills and degrees. This is where NEP is important’, she mentioned.

The highlight of the first day of Prabodhan 2020 was a panel discussion on the topic—‘Digital Transformation and Strategy for Realizing the Vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat’. Mr. Arpit Narain, Global Head of Financial Services, Mathworks; Mr. Gowtham Sivabalan, Lead-Manufacturing Excellence, V-Guard; Mr. Rudra Sircar, Corporate Vice President, WNS Global Services; Mr. Sanjeev Pathak, Head, CMIT India Business, HP and Mr. Vishal Jain, Partner, Deloitte India were the panellists. The session was moderated by Professor Rajhans Mishra, Faculty, IIM Indore.

On this occasion, Professor Saumya Ranjan Dash, Chair, EPGP and Professor Ranjeet Nambudiri, Dean-Programmes also appreciated the EPGP Batch 2020 team for successfully organizing the event.

The conclave will also witness a case study competition—Manthan, wherein the winners would receive cash prizes worth Rs. 1 Lakh and opportunity to pursue CII certifications worth Rs. 53,000 will be given to the winning team. Apart from this, the conclave will also host two quizzes—a general business quiz and a marketing quiz which would be 20 minutes long and will be hosted virtually. The second day will have a panel discussion on the topic—‘Is the Indian Workforce Ready for Aatmanirbhar Bharat-Challenges and the Way Ahead’.