Conference was intended to take stock of recent advances and development of knowledge bases and easy access to structured databases on systems, processes and technology based on quantitative study trends and developments at the globally competitive environment that will provide future directions to young researchers and practitioners.

Objective of conference was to help in sharing of experience and exchange of ideas, which will also foster National Collaboration. The Conference was of immense benefit to Researchers, Academicians, Industry and Participants from Technical Institutes, R&D organizations, Management & Legal Practicing organizations and students working in the field of Engineering, Management, Law and Education.

Conference witnessed large number of academicians and professionals in the allied fields along with their papers.

Dr Rajeev Johari and Dr Sanjeev Tandon, along with 44 students of the Department of Management (MBA & PGDM) attended the session. The program started with the lamp lighting ceremony by the Chief Guest Mr Amitabh Kant (CEO, NITI Ayog) and other dignitaries on the dais. Mr Amin (Chairman- NCUI) delivered the welcome address. A brief description about the program and the efforts of Mr Vaikunth Bhai Mehta was given by the Mr Satyanarayan (CEO- NCUI). The much awaited deliberation of Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Ayog was highly enriching. He talked about the importance of co-operatives and also the role of technology in the overall development of the farming activities. He also talked about the fact that involving in the allied co-operative services of fisheries and horticulture can enhance the overall productivity. Proper administration of cooperatives can improve the income level of the farmers. He also gave an example from his own life, where he could increase the income from 12% to 20% by introducing proper co-operative marketing strategies. He concluded his lecture by highlighting the importance of co-operatives unions and their collaborative working with the farmers. The benefits drawn are for the union and the villagers at large.

The event came to an end with the vote of thanks by one of the members of the organization who was representing the state of Madhya Pradesh.

 The conference begin with opening remarks by Dr. Rajat Kathuria, Director and CE, ICRIER who highlighted the specific concerns of digital economy in terms of future prospects be it positive or negative and to what extent could it be considered reliable for security and protectionism within government policy framework. Mr. Peter Cherukuri, Executive Director, Data Catalyst Institute delivered his address on data analytics and future course of action in the digitalization of economic growth.

The conference was organized with the partnership between ICRIER and Data Catalyst Institute. Key Note Address was delivered by Ms. Aruna Sundarajan, Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, Govt. of India on policy issues and vertical impact on qualitative data which also highlighted the digital instrumentation for younger demography and e-commerce. She interlinked data with the security of incremental growth and digital drivers.

The conference was structured in three panels and every panel was based on different areas viz. Future of the Digital Economy, Data Security: Emerging Discourse on Encryption and Localization and Identity and Authentication in India’s Digital Economy. Panelist and Moderators were experts from academia, industry, technocrats, service providers, info analysis from public, private and Government institution and Ministries. The discussion centered on data security, privacy security, data space, data user’s identity, quality of data, data storage facility, digital technology and interlinking with growth and delivery of services etc.

A special address by Mr. Gopalakrishnan S., Joint Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt. of India was delivered on the issue of privacy and data storage facility focusing on spectrum supply by Government.

Overall it was a great learning experience with new insights gathered on a wide array of the specified theme.

Session started with the discussion of skill development in 21st century and how technology in important in current era. Session was chaired by Ginni Rometty, Chairman, President & CEO, IBM and Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Govt of India.

Mr. Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President, Cloud and Cognitive Software, IBM discussed the importance of Artificial Intelligence and human potential.

Aruna Sundararajan, Telecom Secretary, Government of India, Juthika Patankar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Diane Gherson. Senior Vice President, Human Resource IBM briefed the role of women in technology and how women are contributing in the world of technology.

School students presented how they used technology to prepare the prototype of water harvesting machine

Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice Chairman, Apollo Group presented the vote of thanks.

It was indeed a lot of learning session wherein faculty members got the exposure of latest technology and how this technology can be used even in teaching.

Dr. Arpita Mukherjee, professor at ICRIERdelivered the welcome address. Gladys Lopez- Acevedo, lead economist at World Bank gave a brief presentation of the report“Exports to Jobs- Boosting the Gains from Trade in South Asia”, addressing the general issues characterizing the South-Asian countries. The issues taken up by her included high population growth of almost 60%, magnitude of informal jobs immensely exceeding that of formal jobs and related issues. She expressed that the trade to GDP ratio have came down from 55.8% to 41.1% from 2012 to 2017.Daniel Samaan, senior economist at ILO stated that the solution for these was the main thrust of the report, and emphasized on enhancement of export in South Asian counties. In order to increase export three policies have been suggested in the report, which areIncrease the scale of exports, Change the composition of exports to help the disadvantaged workers and Change the composition of workforce to help the disadvantaged group.

Amitabh Kant, CEONitiAyog spoke about Global Value Chain and the need to have single objective to focus on. He stressed on the improvement required in the quality of jobs available in India. He also made special address to the MSME sectors to help exports.Manish Kumar, MD-CEO, NSDC shared inputs regarding government’s policies to encourage skilled workers by giving marginally high wage rate. He also stated that large percentage of workers are skilled but not certified. Ms. Sabina Dewan, ED of Just Jobs network threw light on strategies for job creation and workforce development.

During the course of the panel discussion several new debatable issues emerged like ‘Should India focus on its huge domestic market or on exports only’? ‘How should the composition of exports be formed?’ Trade deficit is a problem featuring South Asian countries, the issue of ‘how to increase exports in this scenario?’ also cropped up.

The illuminating exchanges concluded on the note that exports undoubtedly can increase jobs in a country but we also need to consider a host of other specific aspects to handle the problem of job scarcity in South Asian countries.

Dr. Vidushi Singh received Certificate of Appreciation for Active SPOC for the Swayam-NPTEL Local Chapter for I.T. S Ghaziabad for July-October 2018 by Prof. Satyaki Roy National Coordinator, NPTEL, IIT Kanpur.

Students got insights to the future development and meticulous strategic planning to explore viable ways of future course of action.

Students met Alumini from around 80 + US university including university of Illinois, Springfield, university of South Florida(USF) , Miami University,Oxford Ohio, The University of Texas at Arlington, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Ohio State University, Syracuse University in Florence, Madrid and Strasbourg, Bentley University MA, University of Alabama, University of South California, University of Wisconsin -La Crosse among many others.

This was a very informative for students.

The conference commenced with an interesting panel discussion on ‘New Challenges of leadership in the Emerging Business Environment’ highlighting the dynamic business environment anddirect competition of Public organizations  with agile Private Organizations . Mr. Suresh Sethi, MD & CEO, India Post Payments Bank discussed about Igniting Transformational Change. In this session, he shared insights on how to drive change at a transformational level in the organization with an example of Indian post office system. Mr. Prithvi Shergill Advisory Partner, Tomorrow/Smarten Spaces & Former CHRO – HCL deliberated on role of talent analytics in HR and its implementation in PSEs. A panel on Future Ready PSE Leaders explored into what attributes leaders must have, to be Future Ready.Mr.Stephane Michelin, Chief Executive Officer, Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services, India,  elaborated the relevance of new-age employee benefits in the digital world to keep a highly motivated and productive workforce. Panel discussions also delved into strategies to engage and motivate employees and how to utilize CSR funds for the growth of a new India by 2022. Ms. Garima Garg Director, Deloitte India shared insights on the future of work and HRs changing role. Mr.D.D Misra, President, "Janm" Trust and Former Director HR, ONGC, had drawn very interestinginsights from Indian Mythology, the Ramcharitmanas, focusing on the three attributes of God Hanuman to create learning for employees. Conference also witnessed the launch of ‘A Stranger Truth', book by Ashok Alexander Founder-Director of ‘The Antara Foundation’. He is the man who led the India office of ‘Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’ from its inception in 2003, until 2012 and created Avahan, which became the best ever private prevention program in HIV, and a model of scaling up health delivery.

In nutshell, the conference was an eye opener on various dimensions of HR as well as PSEs challenges & perspective related to workforce, HR strategies and expectations of all stakeholders including government as one of the key player.