Day Three of the India Immersion: A Fabulous Day of Learning
The third day of India Immersion Programme ringed in with a dash of erudition and a zest of interaction. The day that kickstarted with an inaugural address from Dr. Seshan Ramaswami, Associate Professor of Marketing (Education) at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at the Singapore Management University. Prof. Ramaswami emphasised the importance of cross cultural exchange for educating emerging leaders and mentioned of the various historical and cultural ties India has had with Singapore. The programme proceeded into an event of conversations on sustainability, international cooperation, sustainable agriculture, government programmes and much more.
The students from the Singapore Management University interacted with Dr. Shailesh Kumar, the Chief Data Scientist at Centre of Excellence at AI/ML, Reliance Jio, Mr. Munir Sayyed, AVP Reliance Jio, and Dr. Rasananda Panda, Professor, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad. Dr. Shailesh asked the Singapore students to stop being used by technology and always let only humans use technology and not vice versa. Dr. Shailesh Kumar further explicated how in the west the primary usage of artificial intelligence is convenience whereas that in India is addressal of social causes.
He further introduced various ways in which the students could use digital programmes initiated by the government of India, the Aadhar initiative, the national internet market for farmers, e-connections with rural India and encouragement given to digital start-ups.
Mr. Munir Sayyed talked about how digital infrastructure is developing India’s GDP growth, how a boom in India’s fintech sector has benefitted businesses like Paytm, PhonePay, and how UPI has revolutionised digital payments, how ecommerce is booming in India, the role of technology in sustaining remote work culture, and IT’s contribution to software exports. He further tracked India’s progress in the global market on the grounds of technical stability.
Dr. Rasananda Panda discussed how India could best utilise her diversity and rich culture to bring in optimum business engagement. He further iterated the business rationale that stipulates to recognise the necessity of quality in low cost products, cater to customers who don’t know to be customers, respect the power of religion and culture, look at the deeper meaning of products.
Further, Dr. Panda discussed the solutions to challenges arising from India’s diversity and a comparable analysis of the Singapore business management system. He shared keen insight on how businesses could thrive in difficult situations and diverse landscapes , cited cross-border stories and narrated features of the Indian firms thriving in the Singapore business market. He also explicated how could future entrepreneurship flourish in the ample opportunity carrying India. One example of Dr. Panda’s lecture was how to tap into the opportunities of the festival and occasions market like tapping into the business of the festive economy of the Kumbh Mela.
Further, the students were shown a presentation by Mr. Mujtaba Rasool from Products and Partnership, Jio, on the topic of the app Jio Health Hub, which is a health tracker designed for the new generation and caters to the new world challenges.
The informative day that the students experienced concluded in a calm evening and a sumptuous dinner.