FMS-Delhi Holds 31st Edition of Annual Convention 2007

FMS-Delhi Holds 31st Edition of Annual Convention 2007

Session III: "Inclusive Growth - The New Mantra"

The theme for the third session was "Inclusive Growth - The New Mantra". Many luminaries of Indian business including Mr. Kiran Karnik, President,

NASSCOM, Mr. Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Ltd., and Mr. Shivakumar, VP & MD, Mobile phones, Nokia India, participated in this session. The session was moderated by Mr. Sunil Jain, Senior Associate Editor, Business Standard. Mr. Vikram Kaushik, CEO & MD, TATA Sky, kicked off the session with his thoughts on the subject by drawing relevant examples from his own company and TATA Group toward providing equitable opportunities to all. He vehemently urged the industry and academia to play an active role in transforming India to Bharat.

Mr. Shivakumar from Nokia India brought out the perspective that the optimistic numbers showing India's growth had their flip-side as well. Economic as well as social inequalities still plague India and have led to restlessness, tendencies towards crime, strife, strikes and hartals still persist, making it difficult for free and fair business. He suggested that the important components of inclusive growth should be education, health, infrastructure, worthy benchmarks and Public-Private partnership.

Mr. Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM, suggested that the yard-sticks for merit should be established and that merit alone should be rewarded for us to remain competitive. However, he warned that we must not be bound by narrow, urbanized definitions of merit and must be flexible enough to include the native intelligences of 700 million rural Indians. He believes that the market is a great equaliser and might address the economic inequalities but the same cannot be said about the social inequality. He also suggested that inclusive growth is important not just because of its altruistic implications but also because it helps create new and huge markets for corporates.

Mr. Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Ltd., succinctly suggested that if the government allowed the corporate sector to grow unhindered, inclusion and strategies to identify, and nurture talent from among the disenfranchised section would follow. Talent development in his opinion, presents a great entrepreneurial opportunity as well while also helping millions of people to cope with the demands of the new employment opportunities. He pointed out that industry should be given the opportunity to specify their needs to the educationists. Growth and its sustainability needs relevant and current skills - and for this, it is necessary to remove the disconnect between industry and academia.

In all, the convention was a great success with the most influential opinion-makers of our country exhorting the budding leaders of tomorrow to apply their minds and education to take growth and justice forward in the country.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Pritish Mehta,
Media Relations,
Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

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