The annual HR and leadership conclave of the one-year full-time residential Post-graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) started at IIM Indore on November 9. The two-day event focused on the theme ‘India’s roadmap to a $5-trillion economy’. The event covers one keynote address, panel discussion, case study competition, leadership talks, quizzes, EPGP iKON Guest Lectures and a tree plantation drive.
The inauguration took place in the presence of Vinayak Marathe, SVP, Reliance Industries — the keynote speaker; Prof DL Sunder, Prof Manoj Motiani, Prof Dipayan Dutta Chowdhury, and Prof Prashant Salwan.
Prof Sunder said that in order to make India a $5-trillion economy, the youth today needs to be skilled in marketing, operations, management, finance, statistics and accounts, and EPGP is one such programme which helps enhance these skills.
In his keynote, Marathe noted that India has seen three revolutions yet. The first was the industrial revolution, the second was the information revolution and the third one is the present scenario — the digital revolution. “Today, participants need exposure to national and international learning and opportunities; and this can be provided to them only if our economy continues to grow further,’ Marathe said.
“To achieve a $5-trillion economy, the target average growth rate required is around 11 per cent over the next five years,” he said. He discussed that Asia-Pacific region is likely to face a shortage of 12.3 million workers by 2020, with the opportunity cost amounting to $4.2 trillion. “Around 42 per cent of the core skills required for the jobs would change and in India; over 12 million youth between the ages of 15-29 years will enter India’s labour force annual for the next two decades,” he said.
He pointed out that academia must collaborate with industry experts to redesign educational curriculum and make training of workforce compliant with current industry demands. He shared insights on key enablers for a $5-trillion economy, namely, stable society, better infrastructure and supply chain, good governance, more jobs and skilling, efficient banking and secured digital economy, better higher education, improved productive sectors, urbanisation and empowering big cities.
Panel discussions
The topic of the first panel discussion was Human vs AI — Solving the Rubik’s Cube, with Bikram Nayak, Head HR- L&T; Prabhakar Tiwari, CMO, Angel Broking; and Chetna Gogia, VP HR, Policy Bazaar as the panellists. Gogia said that artificial intelligence will automate tasks, not jobs. Tiwari said, ‘There might be loss in jobs, but may new jobs would also emerge due to AI. The business process will transform in the coming years and prosperity and happiness will follow’, he said.
The second panel discussion was on Translating Ideas into Enterprises. The panellists included Asha Subramanian, Sr Director HR, GoIbibo; Umakanth Nair, SCM Head, John Deere; and Rahul Rekhawar, IAS, Jt MD MSEDCL. Rekhawar said that since all ideas are related to internet technologies, entrepreneurs should also look to speed up government processes. He also said that teachers should always keep on experimenting the teaching methods and try coming out of their comfort zones.
Reshaping Labour Market With Digital Disruption was the third panel discussion. The panellists were Satyajit Mohanty, CHRO (Digital Transformation & HR Innovation and Analytics), Crompton Greaves; Lakshmanan MT, CHRO, L&T Technology Services; Abhijeet Parlikar, Sr GM HR, John Deere; and Rushikesh Humbe, Vice President HR, Merkle Sokrati. Parlikar said that there is a digital disruption, hence we need to think of how we re-skill those employees and how we prepare them to face this future. Mohanty while discussing about technology said that its impact is overestimated in the short-run and underestimated in the long-run.
Speaking of entrepreneurship, Devesh Verma, CEO and co-founder, The Savage Humans, encouraged the participants to be in the business of creating value, and not just focus on making money.