and doing better ever than before. In this series of endeavors Department of Management, I.T.S Mohan Nagar, Ghaziabad organized webinar on 13th June, 2020 at 11.00 AM on the theme “Grabbing Brass Ring: How to Survive and Thrive in the Post Covid New Normal”. This Webinar was addressed by eminent policy maker, scholar, author and philanthropist Dr. Kalpana Gopalan IAS, Ph.D, IIMB, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka.

At the outset, Director (Management), Dr Vidya Sekhri welcomed all to the enlightening learning exercise. She referred to these difficult times as an opportunity not only for the education sector, but also for the other parts of the economy to rise to the occasion. She succinctly encapsulated the situation as the abnormal becoming the new normal.

 In exclusive deliberation of one and half hour, Dr. Gopalan pointed out radical life challenges and reciprocal changes that are rapidly taking place in professional life, conventional education system, organizational functioning, work force management and human behavior. She cited many situations that propelled to bring changes in human life and thought process since the first world war period to economic meltdown in 2008 and highlighted major achievements and value additions that has significant contribution in elevating our socio economic condition at both local and global level.

In this context, she revealed new strategies of inter and intra organizational functioning, VUCA model, freelancing, cross sectoral  collaboration in business and education sector, collective and personal social responsibility as a measure to capacity building and human transformation to deal with  ongoing crises and to ensure sustainable development in business and society.

The session was highly inspirational, informative, thought provocative and interactive. Dr. Gopalan judiciously answered all queries raised by faculty and students, She enlightened young minds to join hands and grab brass ring with enthusiasm, optimism and vitality. More than 200 students, faculty members from different institutions participated in this webinar and indeed it was a great success.

In the backdrop of menacing pandemic outbreak, Institute of Technology and Science, Mohan Nagar believes in the principle that every crisis is the blessing in disguise and opens up many doors for learning and doing better ever than before. In this series of endeavors Department of Management, I.T.S Mohan Nagar, Ghaziabad organized webinar on 13th June, 2020 at 11.00 AM on the theme “Grabbing Brass Ring: How to Survive and Thrive in the Post Covid New Normal”. This Webinar was addressed by eminent policy maker, scholar, author and philanthropist Dr. Kalpana Gopalan IAS, Ph.D, IIMB, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka.

At the outset, Director (Management), Dr Vidya Sekhri welcomed all to the enlightening learning exercise. She referred to these difficult times as an opportunity not only for the education sector, but also for the other parts of the economy to rise to the occasion. She succinctly encapsulated the situation as the abnormal becoming the new normal.

 In exclusive deliberation of one and half hour, Dr. Gopalan pointed out radical life challenges and reciprocal changes that are rapidly taking place in professional life, conventional education system, organizational functioning, work force management and human behavior. She cited many situations that propelled to bring changes in human life and thought process since the first world war period to economic meltdown in 2008 and highlighted major achievements and value additions that has significant contribution in elevating our socio economic condition at both local and global level.

In this context, she revealed new strategies of inter and intra organizational functioning, VUCA model, freelancing, cross sectoral  collaboration in business and education sector, collective and personal social responsibility as a measure to capacity building and human transformation to deal with  ongoing crises and to ensure sustainable development in business and society.

The session was highly inspirational, informative, thought provocative and interactive. Dr. Gopalan judiciously answered all queries raised by faculty and students, She enlightened young minds to join hands and grab brass ring with enthusiasm, optimism and vitality. More than 200 students, faculty members from different institutions participated in this webinar and indeed it was a great success.

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e- Summit program had received an overwhelming response with registrations of 700+ participants which includes 394 Faculty members from 345 institutes and participants from the different foreign countries as well. The e-Summit had the enlightening and insightful two sessions. All the renowned Resource Persons were IIM Alumni, and presented deep insights of Strategies adopted by the organizations to overcome the challenges of Covid-19 and measures to adopt this New Normal in our life.                                                                                                        

These were really informative sessions by the following renowned Expert Speakers:

1. Ms. Madhusmita Aggrawal, Director Operations Support Services, Thales India Ltd(Alumnus-IIM Lucknow
2. Dr. Asit Mohapatra, Secretary Board of Governors, IIM Ranch
3. Ms. Monica Srivasatva, Lead Corporate Communications,Oracle (Alumnus-IIM Lucknow)
4. Prof. Dr. Jyoti Rana, Director Centre of Excellence for Innovative Leadership and Entrepreneurship (Alumnus-IIM Ahemdabad)
5. Mr. Prateek Agrawal, Head Finance (Modelling and Valuation), Asian Paints(Alumnus - IIM Indore)
6. Mr. Nitin Sharma, Director Solution Sales, South Asia, Dormakaba, BOG Member at IIMShillong (Alumnus-IIM Ahemdabad)

Shri Arpit Chadha, Vice Chairman, ITS - The Education Group presented his address and shared about the major life changing situations arising out of the Corona crisis how the businesses have to undergo a complete 180-degree transition.

Welcome address was presented by Director (Management), Dr. Vidya Sekhri. She shared the objectives of this e-summit and encapsulated that how the world is quietly gravitating towards this New Normal.During the Session-I, Ms. Madhusmita Aggrawal and delivered a very informative session about the various norms adopted by Thales India and other organizations, both within the country and outside. Dr. Asit Mohapatra, referred to the impact of Covid-19 in the Education Sector and also suggested various methods to the students to make themselves employable during this time and tried to draw participant’s attention towards the specialized skills and learning.

Ms. Monica Srivastava, discussed with the students the changing landscape of Advertising and Branding Post Covid-19. She also enlightened the participants with the new methods of collaboration, sharing values and agility among organizations.Prof. Dr. Jyoti Rana, presented an interactive session and discussed the changing role of Leadership post Covid-19, She also emphasized on the concept of Leadership with empathy for Purpose, which will be the key for teams to succeed.Mr. Prateek Agrawal, presented the comprehensive view of the Challenges in the Paint Industry post Covid-19, and how the industries are using this time as an opportunity to diversify and innovate.Mr. Nitin Sharma, delivered a very motivating and inspiring session with the special emphasis on the different needs of Students during this pandemic. He suggested various learning tools to the students and motivated them to work on themselves and explore their uniqueness.

The e-Summit marked out an intellectually profitable learning program for everyone.

All the participants sincerely appreciated the deep insightful sessions delivered by all the IIM Alumni Resource Speakers during the e-Summit on Progressing in the Covid-19 World –The New Normal.

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for management students under the Leadership Talk series.  The Talk was delivered by the distinguished speaker Ms. Shalu Manan, VP- HR Transformation, Genpact.  The objective of this webinar was to make students aware about how to deal with Covid and to better prepare for a tough 2020 and 2021. The session started with a formal welcome address by Prof. (Dr.) Vidya Sekhri, Director (Management) followed her thoughts on the present crisis of Covid 19. Ms Shalu Manan congratulated I.T.S- The Education Group for completing it’s 25 years of existence. She said that life as we know has changed forever, old operating models will not be helpful, as measures of success have transformed.

She emphasised on understanding that “Every End has a New Beginning” and suggested to accept the new reality, as denial and depression are not going to help. She advised students to learn new skills, and find their IKIGI (a Japanese concept), a reason for being. She motivated participants by sharing that every journey has a secret destination, the traveller does not know about. At the end of the session many questions related to HR Roles post Covid 19, how to collaborate with virtual environment, internships, priorities of HR Department and work life balance were raised. Dr. Vivek Pachauri extended a vote of thanks for such an informative session by Ms Shalu Manan. Prof Yachana Malhotra moderated the session very well.

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by Mr Piyush Kumar Srivastava, alumni of MBA 2011-13 batch on 31st May, 2020. He is currently working as a Branch manager at Prathama Gramin Bank. The session was organised to make aware students about the upcoming challenges in the banking industry. In his talk Mr Piyush has explained about the challenges the banking industry is facing especially in rural areas. He has advised the students to keep them updated with the current news related to the banking industry and the announcement made by RBI. He has also laid emphasis on the communication skills of the students and advised work on English communication skills and And the vocabulary. He has also shared his good memories at the institute.

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Trainer for the session was Mr Avinash Jain, and renowned corporate trainer, he has taken training for WHO, RBI, Microsoft and many other companies. The session was organised with the motive of providing a basic and advanced platform to the students. The award show was organised for PGDM and MBA students of the institute. Mr Avinash make students aware about how to make formulas, dashboarding and other tools of MS Excel. Total 196 students in 5 faculty members have attended the workshop.

Mr Avinash also related the applications of MS Excel with all the disciplines of Management.

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Trainer for the session was Mr Avinash Jain, and renowned corporate trainer, he has taken training for WHO, RBI, Microsoft and many other companies. The session was organised with the motive of providing a basic and advanced platform to the students. The award show was organised for PGDM and MBA students of the institute. Mr Avinash make students aware about how to make formulas, dashboarding and other tools of MS Excel. Total 196 students in 5 faculty members have attended the workshop.

Mr Avinash also related the applications of MS Excel with all the disciplines of Management.

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The session started with a warm welcome of Mr. Jain, by Dr. Vidya Sekhri, Director (Management). In her opening remarks, Dr. Sekhri said, the new work-from-home reality in which we’re living in, brought enormous challenges and opportunities at both personal and professional front. One’s ability to adapt to these changes will decide success and growth in the days to come.

Mr. Sukesh Jain, shared his thoughts on the topic with multiple examples of his own life experiences with a variety of organizations, he was associated with in the past, including Airtel, and Motorola. He emphasized on being a continuous learner and shared that quick learning in both B2C and B2B segments has made him adaptable to different business environments leading to transforming & significantly growing revenue & margins.  He said that in this pandemic situation planning cycles are shrinking, predicting future growth trajectories are difficult, business assumptions that once were used to be guarantee for success are now being questioned.

It was great to have such deeper insights on the issue by the expert. At the end, Director Management, Dr. Vidya Sekhri proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Jain for sparing his valuable time and enriching the participants of the webinar with his words of wisdom.

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Dr Vidya Sekhri, Director (Management) extended a warm welcome to the guest and said that Constant change and disruption in the market is affecting business and career. One should make use of this time to upgrade one’s skills. Upgrading skills can not only help to take on new tasks at work, but also increase your ability to articulate to employers, how you can make a difference in the job assigned to you.
Mr. Manpreet Singh Manna in a very interactive session made participants understand, Self realization as key to success. He said that we should always learn to trust our own culture, own language, own religion, wherever we are. He shared meaningful life lessons and experiences among the young participants. He said that there is no better teacher than grandparents. Until and unless young generations spend their time with their grandparents, they would not learn new things and our culture will not reach our children.
The initiative to have such speakers with extensive exposure and outlook was appreciated by all participants. Director Management, Dr Vidya Sekhri ended the webinar with vote of thanks to the guest for his encouraging talk and sharing his own life lessons and perspective towards life and goal. Prof Yachana Malhotra, the moderator of the session thanked everyone who supported to make this session a very successful one. 

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The session started with the welcome of the guest by Dr Vidya Sekhri followed by address of Shri Arpit Chadha, Vice Chairman, I.T.S The Education Group. He shared that Flexibility, Innovativeness, Dynamism and being Relevant are key success mantras for every company to survive and grow. He reminded participants to be optimistic and futuristic to win over the tough times. Dr Vidya Sekhri, Director (Management) highlighted the importance of such sessions that provide opportunity to supplement classroom learning with the experiences and knowledge sharing by the experts like Mr Manish Kumar. Mr Kumar covered in depth the functioning of a media industry, revenue models of media company and the challenges & opportunities media companies have due to global pandemic. He shared that Covid-19 pandemic is disrupting every industry, media industry is not an exception. It has  created both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, social distancing has led to an increase in at-home media consumption and an upswing in numbers to news providers for timely and trusted information. At the same time, some of the most valuable programmes —such as live sports are being cancelled or postponed, leading to spending reallocations by advertisers and drop in income for media companies.

Students and faculty members participated in webinar with great enthusiasm and asked several questions. It was a great learning for all the  participants.

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Dr. Vidya Sekhri, Director (Management) extended a warm welcome to the guest. The interactive webinar started with the opening remarks of Mr. Arpit Chadha, Vice Chairman of I.T.S – The Education Group. He encouraged students to be optimistic and use such wonderful opportunities to learn more about current industry trends. He said that the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity is our attitude towards it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.

Mrs. Ritika Jatin Ahuja shared a comprehensive analysis of import and export, supply chain control and its future influence on the industry of supercars due to COVID-19. She explained how various trends, challenges and barriers will impact the development and market size of upcoming markets. She further added that now Luxury car industry in the country have one more reason to cheer as a supercar-selling firm has introduced an online facility to buy such vehicles.  Mrs. Ritika said that this newfangled concept in the automotive arena lends the company an undisputed supremacy in the dynamic and ever changing industry. In her talk she emphasized that adaptation is only way out, faster you adapt higher the chances of success.

The initiative to have such speakers with extensive exposure and outlook was appreciated by all participants. Director Management, Dr Vidya Sekhri ended the webinar with special vote of thanks to Mrs. Ahuja and thanking everyone who supported to make the event a very successful one. It was very well coordinated by Prof Shikha Arora.

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On Sunday evening the participating teams were highly enthusiastic and passionate to win. The event started at 7:30 pm, where we shared the Home ID and Password to the participants in the presence of Dr. D.K. Pandey Sir and all the members of the Statesman Club. 62 participants enrolled for the event.

It was a great evening and each participant was displaying team efforts to win the game. The event required presence of mind, alertness and agility. The event came to an end at 8:40 pm. It was a great experience and much required change for all the students during this lockdown period. The event ended happily with much of learning for each team.                                 

The event was a grand success. All students appreciated the initiative taken by team "STATESMAN".  

The Session started in the evening of the 21st May,2020 at 6.30 PM  and  the Director (Management) Dr Vidya Sekhri welcomed all to the enlightening learning exercise. She referred to these difficult times as an opportunity not only for the education sector, but also for the other parts of the economy to rise to the occasion. She succinctly encapsulated the situation as the abnormal becoming the new normal. Lauding the government for its ground breaking revival package, she said that leaders from various sectors needed to deliberate threadbare on the issues involved. That was the avowed purpose of the online FDP programme.

Next the Honourable Vice Chairman- The I.T.S Group, Shri Arpit Chaddha Sir addressed the gathering. He described the faculty as the unsung warriors as they had to respond quickly to the unraveling situation arising from the unexpected lockdown at short notice. He pointed to the major life changing situations arising out of the Corona crisis and added that we need to be  prepared for wholesale changes in the way we conduct our lives. He hoped that the FDP would provide a fertile ground for a fruitful exchange of ideas.

Our resource person of this FDP, Dr. Justin Paul, an internationally acclaimed management professor, University of Puerto Rico, Saun Juan, PR , USA, Editor in Chief International Journal of Consumer Studies and eminent author (International Marketing and Business Environment) started his deliberation on  FDP theme  with wide coverage of various dimensions in research paper writing for premier journals of different category and also discussed types, nature and characteristics  of research papers  (viz Emperical Paper, Behavioral Theory Paper, Conceptual Papers and Case Base Papers). He also shared generalized super findings that are particularly visualized by the experts while grading quality of research papers on the basis of Antecedents, Decision and Outcome (ADO).

Further session was continued with Bruce and Dartenco framework of Do’s and Don’ts and discussion revolved uninterruptedly around plagiarism, hypotheses, interview variety, research paper questions, robustness check, citations, writing conceptual papers based on prior studies, english proof reading and contrast of findings from other research papers etc and emphasized on highlighting Uniqueness, Novels and Abstracts out of research work to capture notice of reviewers.

He cautioned researchers not to avoid citations from local and regional journals, website materials and references and suggested for generalized title of research paper not limited to a particular area, state or country and advised for not spending much time on formatting of the text and not defending reviewers.

Dr. Justin Paul disclosed himself frequently asked questions (FAQ) and clarified doubts of researchers  with respect to listing of journals, selection of journals, length of research papers, duration of publication, degree of plagiarism, features of abstracts (purpose, methodology, findings and originality), and avoidance of long sentences.

Ultimately this was a wonderful, mind blowing, interactive and enlightened session and participants were extremely delighted with the valued inputs that they gained during this FDP session. This is worth highlighting that the resource person answered all questions raised by the participants (more than 15 questions)   judiciously. 

More than 250 participants from different parts of the country were registered for this FDP. E- Certificate of participation was given to all participants. 

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Mr. Jain started by mentioning that entrepreneurs mostly take the road less travelled, and as such, solve those problems which are not taken up by others. He gave the example of companies like Microsoft and Apple which were founded during the recessionary market in the US, and yet went on to become strong players which defined an industry. He cautioned that it was not easy to be an entrepreneur, yet anybody can take up this vocation.

Clarifying that the startup culture is all about following a passion, he frequently gave the example of Mr. Vijay Shankar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, and the things that he himself had learnt from this long term association. He referred to how the small town background of Mr. Sharma had helped him grasp the needs of the common man in India, which ultimately contributed to the success of Paytm as it went about setting up its digital payment interface.

Mr. Jain mentioned how anxiety filled the work of an entrepreneur which is filled with uncertainties and risks at every corner. He interestingly classified startups into three groups – winner takes all, lifestyle and social, providing examples of each type. He also enlightened the students about the eight types of intelligence, clarifying that three of these viz., - inter, intra and naturalistic – were crucial for entrepreneurial risk. 

The main part of Mr. Jain’s lecture concentrated on what he described as the Startup Canvas – the nine step guide to success in the entrepreneurial universe. He delineated these on the basis of three focus areas, i.e., - product, people and purchasing power – compared against the three organizational growth stages – search, build and scale. Interspersed amidst all this were critical elements like the product-market fit; the organization – comprising of the founders, the core team and the major functional areas; and the enabling processes and people, like bootstrapping, angel investors and venture capitalists. While the actual process was easier said than done, Mr. Jain’s lucid examples from his own knowledge and experience made the issue most approachable for all concerned.

The myriad examples offered by Mr. Jain had the effect of greatly inspiring the students, many of whom appeared intent on exploring the world of startups. The constant stream of questions from the youngsters almost right from the beginning demonstrated not just their excitement about the theme, but were also a proof of Mr. Jain’s hold on the topic as well as his convincing arguments. All in all, it was a very fruitful session for one and all.

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The session started with welcome of the guest and opening remarks by Shri Arpit Chadha, Vice Chairman of I.T.S The Education Group. He shared, the purpose of any educational institution as to prepare students for life beyond books. One of the accepted ways to help inculcate required skills among students is to incorporate learning experience through platforms where one can  have an opportunity to interact with the experts who not only practice many of these skills in managing the business issues on daily basis but also have been able to mark their presence among success stories. Dr Vidya Sekhri, Director (Management) shared her words of wisdom with the participants.

In a very interactive session Mr Deepak Choudhary, CEO- Audi Delhi West & Audi Noida shared that Learning outside the classroom activities and books are often authentic, hands-on, interactive and build on theoretical foundation.  He discussed many of his life experiences to explain some of the very important management lessons including Goal setting, Time management, Persistent efforts etc. Students and faculty members participated in  webinar with great enthusiasm and asked several questions. It was a great learning for all the participants.  

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The Inaugural Session started in the morning of the 16th as the Director (Management) Dr. Vidya Sekhri welcomed all to the enlightening learning exercise. She referred to these difficult times as an opportunity not only for the education sector, but also for the other parts of the economy to rise to the occasion. She succinctly encapsulated the situation as the abnormal becoming the new normal. Lauding the government for its ground breaking revival package, she said that leaders from various sectors needed to deliberate threadbare on the issues involved. That was the avowed purpose of the online FDP programme.

Next the Honourable Vice Chancellor Shri Arpit Chaddha ji addressed the gathering. He described the faculty as the unsung warriors as they had to respond quickly to the unraveling situation arising from the unexpected lockdown at short notice. He pointed to the major life changing situations arising out of the Corona crisis and added that we need to prepared for wholesale changes in the way we conduct our lives. He hoped that the FDP over two days would provide a fertile ground for a fruitful exchange of ideas.

Session-1
In the session, there were two speakers. The session was coordinated by Prof Yacchnna Malhotra.

Speaker-1: Then it was the turn of the first resource person of the day Prof. Parimal H. Vyas, Vice Chancellor, The M S University of Baroda, Vadodara to start the FDP programme. Prof. Vyas quickly got down to the task of analysing the prevailing economic situation, both within the country and outside. He spoke about the decreasing growth rate of the real GDP and massive demand shock. However, he also insisted that we need to be pragmatic in that the pandemic could provide an opportunity for India to make its presence felt in the global economy. In this context he referred to the yeoman’s service rendered by Indian companies through the export of much needed medicines, PPEs and ventilators at this critical juncture to the countries that need them badly. He spoke of the need to bolster manufacturing, which would raise demend, in turn attracting FDI. Other solutions suggested included sector specific regulations, infrastructure development, restoration of supply chains, maintenance of liquidity and government support for vulnerable sectors. Finally he summed it all up by saying that we may be good at management, but not necessarily at solutions.

At the conclusion of the speech, the Director (Management) thanked Prof. Vyas on behalf of the participants for his comprehensive yet insightful discourse.  

Speaker-2: The other speaker for the session-1 was Shri Gopal Krishna Agarwal, National Spokesperson for Economic Affairs, Bharatiya Janata Party. He started by saying that economy is in a challenging position right now. He referred to the lockdown in India as a strategy for creating an atmosphere where health infrastructure can be adequately multiplied for dealing with the crisis. He mentioned the increased production of medicines, PPEs and ventilators, which was so much greater than that at the outset that India is now in a position to export the same.

Describing the emergence of India gradually as a global economic power, Mr Agarwal referred to the five pillars of the Indian economy, as elucidated by the Prime Minister. Firstly we need to be strong in manufacturing. Certain sectors need to be a more specifically identified. Thirdly technology needs to be harnessed more effectively – something that has been brilliantly demonstrated during the present crisis. The fourth element is demography, another component that needs to be grasped fully in the Indian extent. The fifth pillar is demand; without effective demand creation, there can be no gainful investment. Then Mr Agarwal proceeded to the factors of production, again something that the PM threw light upon. These were law, labour, liquidity, and compliance.

The Director Management thanked Mr Agarwal for the informative session, saying that it was the responsibility of the faculty to select the young talent judiciously. Supply having been taken care of, it was the demand that was the issue. She thanked Mr Agarwal, inviting him to come to the institute. Dr Vinay K. Srivastava, Convener of the e-FDP, also thanked Mr Agarwal for making time despite his busy schedule.  

Session 2, Day I
After a thought-provoking Inaugural Session, the e-FDP on the fallout of the Covid-19 crisis resumed with three interesting speakers lined up for the second session of the first day. The session was coordinated by Prof Shikha Arora

Speaker-3: The first speaker in this session was Prof. N. D. Mathur from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Manipal University, Jaipur. Prof. Mathur began by referring to the oft repeated conundrum about Economics – that it is not an ideal science, but more of a decision science. After going through the major proponents of Economics as a subject, he focused on the situation in India in the post-liberalisation era. Speaking of the prevailing conditions, he began with the migrant labour crisis. He opined that it was unlikely that the lakhs who had been forced to leave the cities would return even if the problem is resolved. The net result would be that rural income is likely to come down.

On a larger scale the unemployment situation could get exacerbated. Support needs to provided either through government schemes like NREGA or via interest free loans. The agriculture sector has always been a victim of neglect. While the service sector has contributed as much as 80% of the GDP, it does not provide employment support. This is where agriculture plays the role of savior. While agricultural prices have hardly gone up by 15 to 17%, salary has gone up more than 10 times. Raising of support prices and other associated measures are the need of the hour.

Prof. Mathur also suggested the need for growth in manufacturing, technological shift, changes in wages, structural changes in the economy, modifications in work culture, rise of the gig economy, changes in the realty sector, liquidity infusion, etc. Painting a brighter picture amidst the gloom, he referred to the opportunities arising out of all the problems, viz., the happiness of spending time with family members, reduction in pollution levels, increase in empathy, reduction in consumption of luxury items, changes in eating habits leading to better health, greater dignity for household work, decrease in crime, etc.

Speaker-4: The next session involved Prof. Seema Gupta, Associate Professor in Digital Marketing at IIM Bangalore. She started by quoting Charles Darwin, saying that who survive are not necessarily the strongest or most intelligent, but the most adaptable. Speaking of the economic impact of the crisis, she referred to how its effect could be likened to that of a wrecking ball. She applauded the government on visionary steps like the decision to stop FDI from the neighbouring countries. Even with a reduced GDP of 1.9% p.a., India could end up with the highest GDP among the G20 nations.

Creating a portrait of life after the crisis, Prof. Gupta said the widening demand supply gap could lead to the collapse of several companies. Further, considering the time taken to get a vaccine commercially available, and the state of the healthcare system in India, the problem itself may take a long time to be resolved. Coming to consumption patterns, there would be less tendency for consumers to have out-of-home experiences, which could result in the growth of e-commerce and home delivery segments. Work wise job content was likely to change, and job seekers would have to become more versatile and adaptive in terms of skills. A siginificant percentage of the workforce may have to work permanently from home. Students would have to actively create and nurture networks for job seeking purposes, while becoming specialised in a bouquet of job skills.

Speaker-5: The last speaker of the day was Mr Rahul Kumar, Managing Director, Lactalis India and ex-MD, Amul. Coming from the dairy sector, Mr Kumar preferred to confine his lecture to the food sector and agriculture at large. He started by saying that while the Corona crisis undoubtedly represented a major challenge, one of the bright spots was that food was abundantly available, thanks to a bumper harvest. However, while food was available, it needed to be managed and distributed properly.

Food was one of the rare sectors where losses had been minimum amidst all the economic gloom. Poultry, fish and meat were the only segments that recorded significant losses due to the changing food habits. Coming to milk and milk products, Mr Kumar provided a variety of statistics to demonstrate the burgeoning growth since the days of Operation Flood. In a largely vegetarian society, milk functions as a de facto source of protein. While dairy products were easily available, they are not affordable for all. Finally, Mr Kumar rounded off the interaction with a snapshot the activities of his current company Lactalis.

All three speakers received a vote of thanks from Director Management Dr Vidya Sekhri and Convener of the e-FDP Dr Vinay K. Srivastava. It marked out an intellectually profitable first day of the learning programme.

Session 3, Day II
The second and final day of the e-FDP on the fallout of the Covid-19 had only one session from the outset. Two speakers had been earmarked for this session. The session was coordinated by Prof Surendra Tiwari.

Speaker-6: The first speaker of the day was Mr Ashish Patel, Managing Direcctor, Morgan Franklin Consulting, Virginia-USA, linking up all the way from the USA. He chose to speak on the topic “Impact of the Pandemic on Education – Recalibrating for the New Normal”. Mr Patel started with a historical reference, going back to the Spanish Flu of 1920. Then there was the Swine Flu of more recent times. Due to globalisation and increased movement of people across the world pandemics have the potential of becoming a global phenomenon.

Mr Patel continued with the economic effects of the Pandemic, talking about job losses and/or reduction in income and the need for students to focus on areas other than the widely chosen marketing. Work from home and lifestyle changes are another part of this reality. The question is how many people have the skill sets to adapt to the changed circumstances.

From the digital perspective, Mr Patel spoke about escalation in the use of e-commerce, the rise of distance economy, the spread of the geographical supply chain, the increasing learning curve and legacy education. Cautioning that technology can only be an enabler, he said that businesses needed to restrategise. The same applies to the education sector. He gave the example of several schools and colleges in India which made the successful transition from traditional to online education in the matter of weeks.

Mr Patel went on to touch on topics like female participation bolstering the digital economy; initiatives of the Government of India like Digital India, Startup India and Skill India riding on digitilasiation; and value added systems based on attributes like innovation, lateral thinking, digital transformation, change management, cyber security and disruption. He concluded by saying that innovation would be the key for India, and that as a country the crisis could turn out to be a key opportunity. It was a highly informative session which was widely appreciated by all present.

Speaker-7: The next and final speaker was Prof. Arun Kumar from MONIRBA University, Allahabad. His topic was “Post Covid-19: Governance for Independence”. He initiated the session by saying that lockdown translated for the general population in terms of aspects like shutdown of activity, cash flow shortage, paycuts, retrenchment, loss of demand and economic standstill. He demonstrated how the different sectors of the economy had been severely affected as a result of the crisis.

Coming to the question of independence, Prof. Kumar interpreted it in terms of political, economic, social and cultural independence. He stressed on the fact that he was focusing more on economic independence, rather than the political one, though both were interdependent, as the former had become very relevant after the Prime Minister emphasising on Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Prof. Kumar broke down the current issues into pressing problems; crises; planning and prevention; production capability; recognising new opportunities; relationship building; renewal and recreation. He took time to explain each element. Lastly he discussed areas like the organic components of business; various stages of business (survival, maturity and sustainability); and the five variables of business (entrepreneur, finance community, educational institutes, research and development institutes and government).
Once again it was a very comprehensive discussion of the topic at hand which was enlightening for one and all.

Both speakers were thanked by Director Management Dr Vidya Sekhri. Finally, Dr Vinay K. Srivastava delivered the Vote of Thanks before the Director Madam brought the programme to a close with her parting remarks and observations.

The two-day e-FDP turned out to be very successful as all participants and faculty members marveled at the variety of learnings obtained across three sessions with highly knowledgeable resource persons. It was hoped there would be more such sessions in future enabling all to build on the knowledge gained. 

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