Three day International Conference entitled Emerging strides in innovations and skill development: A sustainable perspective organized by School of Management Sciences Varanasi
The three day International Conference entitled Emerging strides in innovations and skill development: A sustainable perspective organized by School of Management Sciences (SMS) Varanasi in association with California State University, USA, Claflin University USA, Eastern UP Exporters Association (EUPEA), PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI) and Varanasi Management Association (VMA) was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Shri GK Pillai (MD & CEO Walchand Nagar Industries) with Prof. S. K. Kak (Former Vice Chancellor MMTU-Noida), Prof. Ashish Chandra (University of Houston, Texas, USA), Prof. B. P. Singh (Former-Head & Dean, Delhi School of Economics), Dr. M. P. Singh (Executive Secretary-SMS Varanasi), Dr. K. S. Mishra (Prof.-SMS Varanasi), Prof. R. K. Singh (Prof.-SMS Varanasi) amidst a huge gathering of more than 250 delegates. These delegates were from different parts of India and outside India. Session started with garlanding the statue of goddess Saraswati and ligting the lamp. Director of SMS Varanasi Prof. P. N. Jha delivered welcome address and expressed his thankfulness to all the guests and participants for their presence in Inaugural session of ICON-2016. He spoke about objectives of conference and informed the audience about achievements of SMS Varanasi on different platforms. He has specifically mentioned that SMS Varanasi holds rank amongst Top-50 B-School of India. He discussed about the importance of skill development and need of creativity in overall development of country. He also emphasized upon the value based development for betterment of all the stakeholders of society. He appreciated the skill development initiatives by Government and said that India is among Top-5 start-up countries. Prof. Ashish Chandra, University of Houston, Texas, USA said that every person present in the conference has potential to become CEO. He compiled his deliberation under two headings- Friend and Enemy. He said a person himself can be his best friend or worst enemy. An individuals good qualities are his friends and bad qualities are enemies. He suggested that an individual should always try to come out of his comfort zone then only success can be achieved. He suggested to become good corporate citizen as well as global citizen. Prof. B. P. Singh, Former-Head & Dean, Delhi School of Economics spoke on relationship among the factors- Population of youth in India, Status of high unemployment and Entrepreneurial possibilities through skill development in India. He said that by working on skill development we can make millions of youth of India employable and a kind of sustainability can be developed. He shared the data that skilled workforce in India is only 2% whereas in South Korea this is 96% and in Japan it is close to 80%. India holds 76th position in the list of 134 countries in the world. In his deliberation Mr. G. K. Pillai, MD & CEO Walchand Nagar Industries, also emphasised on need of innovation and skill development. He talked about the requirement of leaders in different domains of innovation and skill development. He clarified that innovation can be done by leaders only and not managers. He spoke that India has immense potential for industrial base and skilled workforce. We need to innovate all the processes for increasing their effectiveness. Skill development can be attained through rigorous discipline. Everybody can innovate in their own area. Innovation can be acquired through passion in concerned area. In his Presidential address, Prof. S. K. Kak, Former Vice Chancellor MMTU-Noida, said that his generation has high hopes,expectations and demands from Indian youth. He emphasized that only high production level and innovation in processes can not make our country, but becoming good human being is more important. He suggested that developing positive attitude is utmost requirement for overall progress. Mere enhancement of technology is not sufficient. He raised the questions on our schooling system as well. He said that now-a-days information gets obsolete very fast, so in place of gathering information we should focus on learning skills. We should develop ability to understand, learn and innovate. The Conference theme was presented by Prof. R. K. Singh while the vote-of-thanks was given by Prof K. S. Mishra. Guests released the Conference Souvenir. First Plenary Session of the conference was conducted by Dr. Avinash Chandra Supkar. During the session Prof. K. B. Gupta, (IIM Lucknow) discussed the issues related to consumer attitude towards food innovation and technology. Speaking on global competitive environment, he said that we cannot simply restrict ourselves to national product; we need to be competitive in terms of export and international market. Although need based innovation has developed product but there is no one to market it. While applying innovation in product development we must also be vigil on marketability aspect of same. He considered the attitude of the people towards the product as a major factor for success or failure of same. He also analyzed the attitude to food innovation and technology with the help of expectancy value model of Fishbein and Ajzen 1975. Day two started with the second plenary session of the conference. In the first key note Mr. D. N . Swain (Sr. President-HRM and Administration, Prism Cement) focused on collaboration of research with skill development in order to ensure better performance of managers in the contemporary and competitive environment. Speaking on skill gap he said that having only management education will not suffice the purpose until its not blended the relevant skill. Throwing light on history of management education he said that it should be transformed as per the changing scenario. Young management graduates should be able to respond to the new and complex situations which are even more transforming now. In the second key note Prof. A. K. Tripathi (IIT-BHU) said that everyone in this world is capable for doing innovation and we keep doing the same in our daily lives but when it comes to professional and skill based innovations we fail. He also said that innovation depends up on creativity and knowledge of usability. He classified the skills in two parts- First Machine Oriented and Second Non Machine oriented. He further emphasized on sustainability issues and said that there should always be scope for further development. In the Third Keynote of Plenary Session second Prof. B. P. Singh considered the basic purpose of innovation as facilitation; he said that whenever a new idea finds transition in human life, it is through technology. He also considered creativity as another important aspect of innovation and gave specific localized example of crafts, Pan and sweets of Varanasi. In his deliberation global rising unemployment was the major concern. He advocated for short term skill based degree or diploma program for imparting the basic skills and which can help in earning livelihood and eradicating unemployment. As the first keynote in third Plenary Session Dr. Shakti Vinay Shukla (Principal Director, FFDC Kanauj) presented anOverview of Indian Aroma Industry and discussed the various start up opportunity in same. He highlighted the various innovative ideas to be implemented in the Indian Aroma industry in order to generate sustainable employment. He discussed the complete process and requirement of starting a new venture in Aroma Industry. In second keynote deliberation Mr. Sanjay Singhal (Founder and Principal Consultant, Strategizers) discussed various business strategy, entrepreneurial skills and opportunities. He considered entrepreneurship as an idea of entering in to a profitable business. While discussing the opportunity landscape he focused on service sector as one of the increasing segment of economy. He further said that every business either solves a problem or fulfils a need (active or latent) more prevalent the problem or need, higher the chances of success. In the third keynote Mr. Praphul Mishra (MD CEO, Net Carrots.com private limited) discussed his journey from a student of IIT to a successful entrepreneur. He shared the struggle some journey of his own life and emphasized that to become a successful entrepenuer, one needs to know each and every job, either big or small in order to ensure the smooth flow of the business. He considered networking as an important tool in imparting the various entrepreneurial skills and the attitude to experiment new ventures. As the concluding keynote of third plenary session Prof. P. K. Mishra (IIT BHU) emphasized on innovation to serve the society, imparting sustainability through utilization of re-usable sources of energy. He discussed various problems of global warming and how they can be minimised by use of alternative source of energy comprising of solar energy, bio energy etc. He further reiterated the opportunities for entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector highlighting the abundance of solar energy opportunities available in India. He also presented a sustainable model of waste management in order to minimize the negative impact on the eco system. Day 3 witnessed the 4th Plenary Session of the conference. In his deliberation Prof. A. K. Mittal (IIT Kanpur) said that skill development and innovation is as old as human civilization and this is the only thing which differentiates human beings from others. He further added that human mind coordinates with various tasks and the whole coordinated task result into a skill. He insisted that innovation and skills are complementary to each other as skill is required to convert the innovation in to a specific domain. Later in the session Mr. D. K. Srivastava (Executive Director, QCFI) highlighted the functionality and contribution of QCFI in the skill development through various training programme across the country. He also highlighted various CSR activities being carried out by QCFI in various dimension of the country. As concluding key note of 4th and the final plenary session Dr. Ashok Rai (President QCFI) threw some light on the concept Total Quality Management and related the same with quality improvement of nursing and health workers. Later on in the session Dr. Vartika Kulsheshtrha (An Eye Specialist) discussed her 5-S Model and through this she tried to focus on improving the overall quality of the process. Further in the Valedictory session Prof.P. N. Jha extended a very warm welcome to the guest and said that skill development amongst youth is the prime national agenda and the institute takes utmost care to fulfill the same by creating practical and dynamic learning environment. He considered skill as channel wisdom and wisdom as laurel to creativity and prosperity. He further said that Innovations in various dimensions and startups are boosting Indian economy and considered the same as the vehicle of growth for the country. The Chief Guest of the Valedictory Session of the International Conference, Prof. Prithvish Nag (Vice Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith University, Varanasi) said that skill development is the only tool which can improve the position of the country in terms of growth and employment generation. Prof. Prithvish Nag stated that huge population of India can be its greatest strength if it is accompanied by contemporary skill. He further added that skill development courses should contain minimum sixty percent practical skill development exercises and only up to forty percent theoretical discussions. He said that Government of India is also promoting these programs. He commented that Universities should try to remove the obstacles in the related area and motivate the youth to join such courses. Conference report was presented by Mr. Ashish Tiwari (Assistant. Professor, SMS Varanasi). At the end of the session guests were felicitated by Dr M P Singh (Executive Secretary-SMS, Varanasi). Vote of thanks was given by Prof. Raj Kumar Singh (Conference Convener) A total of 100 Research Papers were presented by different research scholars as well as industry delegates across the country in 5 Technical sessions.