The contest had a great response as more than 100 students participated from 13 different colleges of Delhi / NCR.The session was the kaleidoscope of opinions, thoughts and perspective that enhanced the knowledge and understanding about the emerging political,economic, social and current affairs topics.

The event began with an audition round in which each participant spoke their mind on the rationale for, the execution of and the potential future effects on the economy. Unsurprisingly, this led to a wide spectrum of contrasting views – from being heralded as an inevitable future, to being poorly perceived positivity and doubtful future. From the audition round 20 students were shortlisted.

Second round was a team debate round in which students debated in teams of 2 members each. Points presented were accepted by the spectators with cheers and claps. Some of the points even made us think about the facts. There was so much talent in the room. Arguments were made and roved. The competition was so interesting with the exchange student's perspective.

Finally 7 students were selected from the team debate and we proudly  share that three students of PGDM Batch (2022-24) named Nitish Parashar, Sundari Tomar and Srishty Srivastava have been selected from the second round to participate in the zonal round of Speak for India.

At the end the merit certificates were presented to all the winners by Dr.Timira Shukla –Director, I.T.S School of Management, Dr. V.N. Bajpai – Director, Institute of Technology and Science, Dr.Anusha Agarwal, Chairperson PGDM Program and judges for the event Prof. Yachna Malhotra and Prof. Shilpi Rana.

The objective of the conference was to provide a common platform for researchers from the Academia as well as the Industry to discuss and present their research work by providing an opportunity for collaboration among them. Various novel idea and the prototype models on the above mentioned theme were presented in the conference. 

The papers were presented by academicians, research scholars, and executives from industry. Overall the session was more on the research papers dealing with real problems and scenario in techno managerial areas. It was a rich learning opportunity for the participants and all. The interactive nature of the session further added great learning. The feedback was given to the participants on one to one basis along with suggestions for continuing their research in their area of interest.

The program was initiated under the presence of Dr. Timira Shukla, Director; Dr. Shikha Arora, Coordinator – PGDM 1st year; Dr. Neeraj Sanghi, Incharge Finance Club; Dr. Namita Mishra and Prof. Jyoti Mahajan, the judges of the event.

Eleven teams were shortlisted to demonstrate, discuss and analyze various union budget announcements related to key sectors such as Defense, Railway, Agriculture, Industry & MSMEs, Health Care, Infrastructure & Education, Taxation and Finance & Economy.

Participating teams were evaluated on creativity, contents and presentation skills.  Team ‘Analyst’ comprising of Sundari Tomar and Aman Singh won the first prize. Team ‘Limitless’ of Ayushi Gupta and Shristi Bhardwaj and team ‘Achievers’ of Ananya Sharma and Radika Goyal secured second and third places respectively. Audience cherished the event and participated in quiz round. 

The winning teams were felicitated with trophies and certificates of appreciation. All participating teams received certificate of participation.

The event was coordinated by Dr. Neeraj Sanghi.

The visit began with the presentation and briefing by operations manager at the pipelines distribution centre about the functioning and operational aspects of the plant. The IOCLTerminals at Bijwasan and Panipat are strategic installations which monitors and controls the incoming and outgoing flows of Crude Oils, High Speed Diesel and Petrol, Aviation Turbine fuels(ATF) etc.  in different parts of the northern region of India. Some of the important pipelines, which are monitored round the clock are;

·            Mathura – Delhi – Panipat - Jalandhar pipeline

·            Mundra - Panipat pipeline, which is more than 1000 km long and supplies crude oil

·            Panipat - Bijwasan pipeline, which supplies aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to Delhi

·            Dadri - Panipat pipeline, which receives gas supply at panipat

·            Panipat Ambala - Una pipeline, which covers the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh part

·            Panipat - Bhatinda pipeline, which also caters to the need of Oil supplies in the Punjab region.

The operation team explained about the inward-outward movement of oil products, storage, 24X7 monitoring process, security system and checks undertaken at the control room. 

The industrial visit opened new areas of knowledge in logistics and distribution to the students. The students also asked pertinent questions related to receiving oil & gas supplies, fire safety measures, maintenance of pumps & pipelines besides ensuring availability in designated places.

Professor Kumar Biswas, Dr. Mayank Sharma & Dr. Shailendra Kumar Dube accompanied the students during the industrial visit.

The discussion was based on the following themes;

·         An Empirical Study on Entrepreneurial Intention and Entrepreneurial Orientation amongst Gen Z

·         A Recent Analysis and Understanding the Attractiveness dimensions of Shopping Malls in Orissa

·         Consumer Awareness and Perception about Cashless Transactions

·         Chatbot Technology in Education Sector – A Bibliometrics Analysis Using VOSviwe

·         Exploring Consumers’ Purchase Intention for Fashion Products: An empirical study based on Spirituality, Need of Uniqueness and Traits of Vanity

Some papers were presented by participants on the above themes in the track-2 of General Management and Marketing. Jury members of the session suggested points for improvement in their research work. The participants were from academia and industry. They discussed their points on literature review, modeling, objectives and applications of statistical tools etc. They asked queries which were based on statistical analysis.

Dr. Johari gave concluding remarks on the presentations on different aspects like objectives of the study, literature review, data collection and sampling procedure of the study. 

The summit commenced with the address by Shri Arpit Chadha, Honourable Vice Chairman, I.T.S - The Education Group. He warmly welcomed all the eminent speakers and shared his valuable insights on the focal theme with audience. He emphasized participants to take maximum learning from the vast experience and expertise of corporate veterans.

Honorable Chief Guest of the inaugural session Mr. Amit Sharma, Managing Director & CEO of Satin Housing Finance Ltd. spoke about the importance of preservation of environment and he quoted It with “Jaan Hai to Jahan Hai”.

Dr. Mahesh Uppal, Director, Com First, Delhi as Guest of Honour, addressed the issue of profit- making business culture, which essentially runs on a philosophy of Take, Make and Waste.

Mr. Nitin Gupta, Chief Financial Officer, Info Edge Venture as second Guest of Honour focused about difficulties for business to survive individually. He highlighted that sustainability is very important for all and for the circular economy all must adopt the strategy of use waste to make resources.

Dr. Prerna Kumar, Head of Public Policy Convergent; the Keynote Speaker, spoke about what are the challenges economy is facing and who are the ones who are majorly facing the brunt. She advised to focus on developing solutions such as inclusive- technology, creating sustainable business processes and compassionate leadership

Panel Session–I on theme ‘Innovative Business Models to Redesign the Future’ was moderated by Ms. Arti Khosla Founder and CEO Centre of Assessment for Excellence. She mentioned about increased complexities in the corporate world and businesses and also discussed about the implications of National Education Policy (NEP 2020) for rural areas.

Mr. Akash Sharma, President Finance - Bajaj Group brought in light the recent incidents happening in the corporate world by discussing the Hinderberg’s report and its impact on Adani group. According to him the report may affect the share price of the company in the short run.

Mr. Gaurav Malik, Chief Strategy Officer - Successive Technologies shared his thoughts about Cloud Computing and apprised the audience that cloud computing is a 40 years old technology which has gained momentum in the recent past.

Mr. Ambrish Ranjan, Executive Director - Asort talked about how offline retail stores will be affected by the growth of E-commerce and how helpful E-commerce is for both the customers and businesses. He also mentioned about Co-commerce i.e. community commerce where companies are aggregating with the local merchants and reducing the order receiving to delivery time.

Mr. Rajat Jain, Regional Sales Director - Dell International Services India Pvt. Ltd. talked about how Dell has improved its service quality and maintained better delivery to the customers. He also discussed about meeting the needs of their customers and the importance of service delivery in today’s era for businesses.

Online Panel Session-II on theme ‘Rethinking Opportunity: Payments and Circular Economy’ witnessed stimulating discussions from the international panelists, Mr. Punit Mehrotra Senior On boarding Manager Group International - HSBC Hong Kong addressed the gathering on issues like  Digital payment and banking systems which are critical components in any economy, that allow real-time access to transactions.

Mr. Amit Kumar Pandey, Director, Technical Program, Walmart Global Tech California, United States was the second speaker who focused on the issues of 50 million digital waste of which only 20% is recycled.

Dr. Ajay Sharma, Founder and CEO-ASR Ventures & Regional Director, Dimitra Technology, South Holland, Netherlands, the third panelist spoke on Hydrogen energy being the most recyclable energy and circular agriculture economy.

Prof. Roy Sembel, Co-Founder, Proud Media Group, Professor - IPMI International Business School  Jakarta, Indonesia addressed on Blue Economy and its features like Inspired by the nature, good impact on the world economy, and sustainability.

Mr. Sunish Sinha, Relationship Manager, Doha Bank, Doha discussed state efforts on circular economy in Qatar. In Qatar government is concerned about a circular economy and ensuring the same, successfully organized FIFA world cup.

The beauty of the summit was evident from the way the audience kept peppering the sessions with different questions to the panelists, speakers and their responses for the same. The conveners of Business Summit - 2023 presented plaques to all the eminent guests as a token of gratitude.

Honourable Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24. In the last full-fledged Budget before the general elections next year, the finance minister said that the Indian economy is on the right path and heading towards a bright future. In a boost to taxpayers and economy, finance minister announced major changes in tax slabs under new tax regime and a big boost for railways and capital expenditure.

This budget followed seven priorities as Inclusive development, Reaching the last mile, Infrastructure and investment, Unleashing the potential, Green growth, Youth power and Financial sector.

In this live budget session, students watched the budget announcements on big screen of auditorium and noted key takeaways of various sectors such as health care, infrastructure, agriculture, direct and indirect taxation, railways, defense, education, MSME, etc. The students appreciated budget announcements related to direct and indirect taxation, small saving schemes and capital expenditure.

The “Budget Discussion” by AAZ TAK had the distinguished panellists which comprised Jayant Sinha, Former Central Government Minister & MP (BJP); Supriya spokesperson (Congress –I);Tax Expert Sameer Gogia and Alok Joshi (Journalist).

Jayant Sinha called the budget as balanced which caters to the need of one and all. In his view, it was a balanced budget, which is based on reality. He pointed out  twin factors- provision for high capital investment (CAPEX)  which will lead to growth in production and manageable fiscal deficit. Supriya told that budget didn’t spur savings. Sameer, tax expert, justified how the proposed “Tax slabs” in the budget would encourage the present youth towards tax compliance. On the issue of encouraging manufacturing and export sector, Sinha, elaborated that Government’s Profit Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme is already in action. He also allayed the concerns regarding growth and explained that increased CAPEX  would have a multiplier effect, which will ultimately increase employment and  bring down the logistics cost. The debate also touched upon rising trade deficit, disinvestment, digitisation, fiscal deficit, and others.

By attending such live programme, the students on exposure of how live debates are conducted on contemporary issues.

The programme began with the opening remarks and welcome by Mr Arun Kumar Singh, CMD, ONGC, and President UN GCNI. This was followed by the special address (via video) by René Van Berkel, UNIDO representative and Head, Regional Office in India, where he held forth on the circular economy; take, make and recycle approach; and the replacement of the traditional 3Rs. Then Mr. Hindol Sengupta, Chief Economic Research Officer and VP, Invest India, explained the research done in this area, including the use of materials like bamboo. He also discussed how the circular economy is related to SDGs, using the acronym GST (Gender, Sustainability and Transitivity). The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Sivasubramanian Ramann, CMO of SIDBI. Mr Ramann spoke of the need for a bottom up approach, and how India has had a centuries old relationship with the circular economy. The inaugural address was given by Dr Rakesh Sarwal, CMD, National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation. He pointed out the relation between affluence, consumerism and waste, session ended with the vote of thanks delivered by Dr Ratnesh Jha, Executive Director, UN GCNI.

The inaugural session was followed by a session on the theme Business Commitment: Integration of Circular Economy Practices by Businesses to achieve SDGs.

The panelists of the session are:

·         Mr Ganesh Ramamurti, CEO, Auro Research;

·         Mr Prashant Choubey, Lixil;

·         Ms. Priyanka Tanwar, Leader Communications and Corporate Responsibility Asia, Lixil

The session was moderated by Dr Ratnesh Jha.

The deliberations centred on different aspects of renewable energy and how that played into the circular economy.

Session 2 had the theme Uncomplicate Technology: Technology as a Catalyst to integrate Circular Economy/Waste to Wealth into Business Models and to reach the last mile.

The panelists of the session are:

·         Dr Shilpi Jain, Professor of Data Sciences;

·         Mr Alok Lall, Customer Success Lead – IteS, Microsoft;

·         Mr Mohit Narain, MD, Environmentors Perpetuity Solutions and Services Pvt. Ltd.

The moderator was Ms. Sonia Duhan, AVP, Invest India. The discussion proceeded on how technology can contribute to the circular economy.

Session 3 was based on the theme Policy Framework, Governance and Financing to  strengthen the implementation of Circular Economy Practices.

The panelists of the session are:

·         Mr Ashwin Saxena, CEO, JSW Foundation;

·         Dr Ulac Demirag, Country Director and Representative, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD);

·         Ms. Shuva Raha, Head – New Initiatives Council on Energy, Environment and Water, CEEW.

The moderator for the session was Mr Vishvesh Prabhaka from Accenture, The discussion centred on policy initiatives in this space.

Session 4 had the theme addressing the Challenges: Best Practices and Global Trends in Circular Economy/Waste to Wealth Generation Practices by Businesses/Non-Businesses.

All in all, it was a very comprehensive examination of various aspects of the circular economy, with the practitioners and policy makers providing a ringside view of the thought processes in this field. 

The eminent speaker was Mr. Gunjan Dutta, Partner Manager at META Inc.

He talked about the advent of the instant messaging app WhatsApp on Smartphone and how it has completely revolutionised the way we communicate. It is very user friendly and therefore widely accepted as an important mode of communication by common people as well as business houses. He elaborated how business is carried out through paid WhatsApp by using features like payment, catalogue, etc. These features create an opportunity of ease of doing business all over the world. He further explained how companies like TATA, Hyundai, Reliance, PVR, Blinkit, Zomato and Swiggy have increased their sales by 33% to 54% through WhatsApp.

Towards the conclusion of the lecture, He welcomed intriguing question from students and answered them comprehensively. The session was coordinated by Dr. Shikha Arora.