SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) hosted the first India chapter conference on Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) on December 13 and 14. The conference brought together management and leadership from universities, management schools, corporates and civil societies across the Asia-Pacific region. The forum was open to academic, corporate and the social sector audiences.
Discussions centred around why and how 21st century corporations can provide principled leadership, meaningful jobs and a sustainable, inclusive agenda in a changing world. Over the last nine months, SPJIMR has led meetings in different regions of India to promote conversations and partnerships around education, corporate citizenship and sustainable futures, leading up to the conference.
Conference Chair and faculty member at SPJIMR, Chandrika Parmar said, “The deliberations are particularly important because we live in times where we must think of sustainability as a way of life today and not something for the future. All of us at SPJIMR are proud to host the forum, given the institute’s commitment and long-standing work in the larger idea of building value-based leaders for tomorrow who are socially sensitive and can meet the needs of our changing times.”
The conference covered topics relevant to knowledge for the future, ecology, well-being and sustainability, building inclusive economies and challenges of CSR for 21st century leaders. The event had four plenary panels and 15 tracks with topics such as management education and pedagogy, social entrepreneurship, sustainable cities, extreme events, Asian way of thinking, and rethinking CSR and sustainable business. Among those who spoke were Magsaysay Award winners Aruna Roy and TM Krishna, besides several public intellectuals, environmentalists and industry leaders. The speakers included Ashish Nandy, Shiv Visvanathan, Aseem Shrivastava, Saamdu Chettri, Santosh Desai and Anirban Ghosh.
PRME is a United Nations-supported initiative founded in 2007 as a platform to raise the profile of sustainability in schools around the world, and to equip today’s business students with the understanding and ability to deliver change tomorrow.