On September 9, industry heads, representatives from academia, faculty and students assembled at the International Management Institute, Kolkata, for the first HR Symposium held by the Institute. Themed “Transformation of Human Capital Towards Make In India,” the meet brought together a confluence of ideas from people pursuing a wide range of professions.
Distinguished guests for the day were the Chief Guest, VC Agrawal, President-Corporate HR, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, Executive Director-HR, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and the keynote speaker, Dr. R Sridhar, EVP & Head-Learning and Development, ITC Ltd.
Capitalise on opportunities
VC Agrawal, in his inaugural address, said that transformation is all about changing attitudes rather than enhancing knowledge. He said substantial transformation can be brought about in an organisation only when the employees, its most important asset, are first seen as people before being considered as human capital.
The dignitaries shared valuable insights from their wealth of knowledge and experience. India as a nation at a crucial juncture, from where we can either reach dizzying heights of success or go downhill, depending on how we capitalise the opportunities available to us, said Nihar Ranjan Ghosh. He explained how institutions like IMI Kolkata could play a fundamental role in raising a workforce that will be instrumental in taking India to greater success.
Talent retention
Speaking about the “New Paradigm of HR for Make in India”, R Sridhar put forth a rather sceptical view on the new Make in India initiative. Often, in the past, there have been many attempts to push India towards economic growth; however, even 25 years later, we have not yet reached our potential. This can be attributed to excessive government regulations and bureaucracy that has plagued our system and can be further detrimental to our march towards become a manufacturing hub.
Eminent personalities from the business world participated in panel discussions on the following topics: “Current Practices in Talent Acquisition” and “Managing the Rising Aspirations of High-Calibre Workforce”. The discussion was focused on the biggest challenge of talent acquisition which is finding the right talent and retaining it. The panelists stressed that the measures must be taken to retain the talent and that such an approach could solve most of the issues in acquiring talent.