Leadership Summit successfully concludes at IIM Jammu

Jammu: Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu successfully concluded the third installment of its flagship event, the Leadership Summit, a two-day grand event from 26th-27th Feb 2022, with many thought-provoking sessions by the global heavyweights from industry, government, and other walks of life. The main theme for this year is centered around “Leadership next for Atmanirbhar Bharat’, with the primary focus on self-reliance, self-sustenance, adopted by the Government of India and making India a part of the global economy. Prof. B.S. Sahay, Director, IIM Jammu was the Chair of the Summit, Dr. Muqbil Burhan, was the Program Chair, and Dr. Prateek Jain was the Program Co-Chair of the event
On day two of Leadership Summit 3.0, Papiya Banerjee, Co-founder, Unqbe, and Kailash Kulkarni, CEO, L&T Mutual Funds, spoke on the theme, “Gig Economy: Unlocking the Potential of an Independent Indian Workforce”. Ms. Banerjee began the discussion by mentioning the main drivers of the gig economy, transformation in the core of technology, changing scenarios, and change of perception towards work among people during the ongoing pandemic. She believed that despite the pandemic, remote work was in full swing, there was no lag in the efficiency and overall functioning. Moreover, the economy is more reliant on gig workers now, and the risk-taking appetite has increased since the entrepreneurial DNA is gaining momentum. Taking the discussion further, Kulkarni spoke about the dependence of digitization on the growth of the gig economy. He stated that a large no. people have developed a quest for learning, and there is a whole gamut of people who are now open to working as freelancers or have taken the entrepreneurial path by creating their own start-ups. According to him, passion was something that should always be pursued. The two most crucial aspects for success are diligence and the process of learning and unlearning.
Rajashree Natarajan, CEO, Cognizant Foundation, spoke on the topic “Forging an emerging leader: disrupting the status quo”, was the next guest in the panel. She laid the foundation of this discussion by giving an overview of her background and her illustrious journey. Taking the segment forward, she then cited the need to try new things, be inquisitive, and the need to bring in a change in mindset in order to drive major reforms. According to her, the youth are more flexible nowadays and ready to break the conventional stereotypes. She also urged the youngsters to take risks and embrace change. Apart from this, she also talked about how women, although underrepresented, are gradually taking up leadership roles by constantly striving to shun unconscious bias and inculcating the right teachings from the beginning. She also mentioned that more and more women should come forward, motivate and support women for creating role models amongst themselves and thereby driving growth and development.
The Founder-CEO of OYO Rooms and winner of the Business World Young Entrepreneur Award, Ritesh Agarwal graced the event with his virtual presence. He advised the students to take bigger leads ahead of themselves and not hesitate to try by pursuing new business opportunities. Further, he asked potential entrepreneurs to spend time directly with customers and learn from them. Agarwal used real-life examples from his life and shared valuable experiences with the audience, motivating them to become entrepreneurs and become job-creators.
In the panel discussion, the institute got an opportunity to host esteemed visionaries such as Mr. Ranjan Thakur, Principal Secretary, Dept. of Industries and Commerce, J&K, and Vanitha Datla, Vice-Chairperson & MD, Elico Ltd. who spoke on the topic “Unlocking the potential of J & K.”. Ranjan Thakur mentioned that transformation has to be a rapid process, it needs to dismantle the entire regime in order to bring real change. According to him, everyone amongst us should have the commitment to drive the change on all fronts as India is a young nation and it needs to keep changing with time. He also gave an overview on the various reforms by the Central Govt for the state of J & K, increased flight connectivity, various collaborations, and giving more impetus to exports from the state. He also gave a detailed insight into the overall transformation of governance and switching over to e-governance during the past year.
Vanitha Datla, Vice-Chairperson & MD, Elico Ltd., spoke about the critical issues faced by the nation comprising of low labor rate despite having skilled homemakers. According to her, the female force is on a decline in India since 2005 and stressed the importance of females and allowing them to develop. She urged everyone to invest in infrastructure and the creation of gender equality for sustainable development. She stressed the need for actions that automatically lead to parity and in turn claim their right to a position in society. Needless to mention, there is a strong need for us to work assiduously on providing gender parity. She also gave an insight into the six-ups of leadership.
In his valedictory address, Professor B.S. Sahay, Director, IIM Jammu, motivated students to pursue entrepreneurship and highlighted that IIM Jammu is committed to promoting entrepreneurship as its core subject. Professor Sahay also mentioned that it is better to be a job creator rather than being a job seeker. He further urged the students to believe in themselves, as they have all the potential and capability to reach their goals by staying focused. He assured all possible support from the Institute on all fronts. He thanked all the speakers for their valuable time and the insights they shared with the students. He lauded the team of faculty members and students for the successful completion of the event.
Padmashri Dr. Milind Kamble, Chairman BoG, IIM Jammu and CMD, MPK Group of Companies & Founder of DICCI gave an insight into the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package announced by Govt. Of India and the various incentives for various strata of society. He mentioned that the future of India lies in being self-sufficient and self-reliant. According to him, Leadership Summit 3.0 is an important platform that promotes the growth and development of leadership and entrepreneurship in India.
The program consisted of interesting questions and answers by students at the end of each panel discussion. The vote of thanks was given by Dr. Pankaj Agarwal, Chairperson, Chairperson, Executive Education IIM Jammu to all the panelists, for taking time out of their busy schedules, sharing their knowledge and wisdom with all the participants.

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