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Ashwamedh 2005: National-level Conference at XIMB Keeping up with past traditions of organizing important discussion forums, XIMB students successfully staged Ashwamedh - the national level conference on the manufacturing sector in India at the XIMB auditorium on 16th July 2005, Saturday evening. Distinguished speakers from different segments of the manufacturing sector descended on the campus to give their valuable insights on theme - "Manufacturing excellence in India - Opportunities & Challenges". Mr. Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Board of Governors acted as the moderator for the evening and initiated the discussion highlighting the need for manufacturing sector to grow at the faster rate if India had to become the third largest economy in the coming decades. "Although the service sector forms more than 50% of the Indian economy, you would ideally want the industrial sector to increase its share from the present 27%. Until this happens the economy wont get the necessary impetus it needs to grow at an accelerated rate", commented Mr. Kaul. Mr. Ram Mohan Rao, Dean, Indian School Of Business, Hyderabad, was next to take the centre stage. Pointing out the automobile, pharma, oil and chemicals sector as the best performing ones, he felt that it was imperative for the entire manufacturing industry to take that quantum jump of excellence with the world standards soon. He also added, "Infrastructural development would be of prime importance if manufacturing sector has to grow. This is one serious bottleneck, which has to be cleared. Moreover, companies should also develop flexible and effective supply chain that can sustain the most demanding manufacturing processes." He also stressed on the fact to equate the capabilities of both India and China as combined powers instead of always comparing them. Mr. M. K. Choudhary, Senior VP, Lafarge India outlined key measures like improving total factor product rates, labour productivity as the necessary tools through which Indian manufacturing sector can reach the world standards. He also highlighted factors like government patronage, market distortions, and ineffective management philosophies as serious barriers to growth over the years. He said, "Apart from China, countries like Thailand, Malaysia have taken a head start in developing sound manufacturing processes. Therefore, we must now focus on aspects like quality management, leveraging human capital, optimum use of IT recourses in order to improve the productivity of the manufacturing sector." Contributed by - |
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