Around 50 Profs/Deans/ Directors/ VCs were present in the panel discussion in Delhi. The main attraction of the discussion was presence of international guests from 8 countries on the project and on the discussion for interaction. The session also provided opportunity to discuss collaborations with foreign bodies.

Revisiting HR Practices in the Current Scenario of Optimism The Department of Management organized a two days seminar titled Revisiting HR Practices in the Current Scenario of Optimism on 31st October and 1st November 2010 at I.T.S premises. Mr.Sanjay Diwan, Director –Strategy, AGC Networks was the Chief guest and Mr. Abhay Saxena, AVP-TQM and Training and Development , Hero Corporation was the key note speaker in the inaugural session. There were two technical sessions, followed by a panel discussion on the first day of the seminar. Mr. Sandeep Tyagi, Director – HR, Haier appliances,Dr. H.S, Sharma, DG, Lord Krishna Group, Dr. A. R.Dubey, Professor, Skyline University, Dubai, were the key speakers in the first technical session on Business Leadership while Mr.AviragJain, VP – HR, R. Systems, Ms. Indrani Nath, Reliance Communication and Mr. Himanshu Saxena, CEO and Founder, Maverik Consulting were the distinguished speakers for the second technical session on Empowering HR through ICT. The facilitator for panel discussion was Mr. Murlidhar Shyam, Director – HR, ATC while Dr.P. U.B. Rao, Senior Professor, Mr.Sunit Saxena, AGM-HR, Idea Cellular and Mr. H.S.Yadav, AVP-HR, DS Group were the other members of panel discussion. There was a paper presentation contest for faculty and students on second day. Compendium was also released during the seminar. Papers were presented and were examined by the senior academicians. More than 40 papers from various Business Schools and Universities were entertained which came from Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Delhi. The best papers were awarded with cash prize of Rs.10000, Rs.6000, Rs.4000/- to faculty members and cash prize of Rs.5000, Rs. 3000 and Rs. 2000/- to students.    

Honorable Shri Arpit Chaddha (Vice Chairman- ITS The Education Group), Director PR- Shri Surinder Sood, Director Management and the Conference Chair Dr. Ajay Kumar inaugurated the Conference jointly by lighting the lamps before the idol of Goddess Saraswati.

The conference had three sessions – the first was inaugural session and the second & the third sessions were marked for research paper presentations.

INAUGURAL SESSION:

This session started with the address by eminent speakers on the conference theme high lightening Globalization and its impact on India. Speakers talked about “New Ideas in Rural Finance”, “Measurement of Employment & Unemployment”,” Digitization” etc.

PRE-LUNCH RESEARCH PAPER PRESENTATIONS

The session started with a small presentation by one of the conference sponsors - Pearson - about their company and products.

A panel of four eminent academicians – Dr. Seema Singh, Dr. Ghulam Yashdani, Prof. B.K. Pattanaik and Dr. Vivek Kumar judged the research papers and the presenters who were in a competition to win the best paper award in different categories.

Glimpse of some of the notable papers which got jury’s appreciation are listed below:

Under General Management category different topics were taken up by the presenters under the theme- “Globalization: Prospects and opportunities for new India” such as Analytical Study of Traffic Building Techniques for e-Business, Flipped Classroom Approach: - a Student’s Perspective which included Digital Market, Built Better Relationship, SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Under Finance category, the research paper was presented by Ms. Manisha Gupta who talked about the factors affecting individual investment decisions in Indian Capital Market taking Delhi NCR region under study. She told about objectives of investor i.e. maximum return, minimum risk, hedge against inflation etc. and constraints such as liquidity, age, time horizon, need regulator income etc. The decision was affected by demographic factors, lifestyle, psychological, risk bearing ability and self image. The sampling design was of random sampling and the questionnaires considered were 42 out of 50 on which survey was done.

Another paper was presented by Ms Shrimoyee Ghosh on “Cross Border Merger and Acquisition: An Analysis”. She talked about Major International and National mergers and acquisitions taking examples of Tata Group, Airtel, and Hindalco etc. She also talked about major merger and acquisition failures and their solutions.

A research paper on “Evolution of growth and micro finance in India” was presented by Neha Roy where she talked about the provisions of financial services to the people who are just above poverty line and those who are below poverty line. She gave a brief of the salient features of micro finance for borrowers from low income group borrowing small amount for short duration, without collateral and high frequency repayments (more EMIs). Her survey highlighted the fact that 87% poor do not have access to credit that stands to $30 billion. She discussed the role and challenges of micro finance as well.

The fourth paper which got jury’s appreciation was presented by Richa Mishra on the topic “Micro Finance and Regional Rural Bank – Current Scene and The Path Ahead”. In this paper her objective was to study different age groups of rural customers of RRB’s and to study the thinking of rural population towards RRBs. She explained the methods to remove poverty by introducing micro finance. She emphasized the importance of such schemes in rural India.

POST-LUNCH RESEARCH PAPER PRESENTATIONS

Research papers presented in the area of marketing touched various topics. The different topics taken up by the presenters under the theme- “Globalization: Prospects and Opportunities for a new India” included Digital Marketing, Viral Marketing, Flipped Classroom Approach, Factors affecting sustainability of Startups and eNAM – the initiative by the government of India.

Highlights of some of the selected papers are as below:

Research paper presented by Ms. Priyanka Gupta was on “Digital Marketing – A Global Weapon to Overcome Customer Resistance to the New Product”. Her objective was to explore the challenges faced by consumers as well as marketers in launching the new product in the market. There were several hypotheses and the research was based on qualitative analysis. She talked about the various reasons of not adopting the product such as – Lack of Innovations, Risk, Traditional Barrier, Lack of Information (features, advantages and benefits of the product) and Lack of Role Model. She then talked about the overcoming strategies and need of personalization.

Another paper was on “Viral Marketing” where the presenter introduced the various techniques used in viral marketing that enhance the marketing effectiveness on the internet. Presenter explained how it is useful for various startups, students promoters, NGO’s etc. he made the comparison between digital marketing and viral marketing and its advantages over digital marketing.

Dr. Sunita Shukla, under general management category, discussed about Flipped Classroom Approach – A Student’s Perspective. She explained it as a blended learning approach in which the students are provided with the data to be studied beforehand and the classrooms are only for learning the practical aspects of it. She used empirical methodology and considered undergraduates and postgraduates under study through questionnaires. Her data figured that 98% student are comfortable in Flipped Classroom approach. She used ANOVA Test to reach to the conclusion – FLIPPED TEACHING + ACTIVE LEARNING = AMAZING EDUCATIONAL POSSIBILITIES.

The fourth paper talked about the factors affecting sustainability of startups. The several reasons of failure of today’s startups include copying from western culture, higher cost per unit, less revenue per unit, lack of vision and local market impact on customers. The challenges during these startups are fund raising, recruiting talent etc. The presenter gave the sustainable model of startups and the government incentives for startups and concluded the research.

The fifth presenters were Shiva Shah and Shreya Nand who gave the analytical study of eNAM- an initiative taken by government to improve the conditions of farmers. They gave reasons of gap between farm and non farm income such as industrialization, inequality in formation of policy etc. They talked about the Mission 2022 of government and the area of improvement such as Agri productivity, Industrialization, Govt. intervention etc. They studied the Action Plan of government and took into account the primary data collected from the village Karehda near Ghaziabad. They concluded with the benefits and drawbacks of eNAM and current status of the policy implemented.

Research paper in HR presented by Shikha Gupta was on “360 Feedback Method” which talked about supremacy of 360 degree over traditional methods.

Conference came to an end with a valedictory session wherein each winner was given a certificate and a citation for best paper in its category.

BEST PAPER AWARDS

Best Paper in General Management:

Dr Sunita Shukla, Ms. Radhika Jain & Ms. Aprajita Srivastava

Best Paper in Finance:

Ms. Richa Mishra

Best Paper in Marketing:

Mr. Shashank Srivastava

Best Paper in HRM:

Ms. Shikha Gupta

Conference concluded with the formal Vote of Thanks proposed by Dr. Rajeev Johari.

The speakers for the panel were Mr. Rakesh Sethi, Executive Director, Union Bank of India; Ms. Ratna Vishwanathan, Chief Executive Officer, Micro finance Institutions Network; and Mr. Anuj Pandey, EVP & Regional Business Head-North, Religare Finvest Ltd. The session chair was Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD. The Panel Discussion II was on ‘Enhanced Role of Technology & Applications in Banking and Financial Sector’. The panelists were Mr. Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM; Mr. Murli Mahalingam, Industry Director-Banking, SAP India Subcontinent; and Mr. Trilok Chandra, Director, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India; and Mr. Rajesh Dhuddu, Senior VP-Market Development, Quatrro Processing Service. The session moderator was Mr. Ravi Nawal, Country Head, Kapronasia in India. The Panel Discussion III was on ‘Financing the Infrastructure Gap: Role of Banks, Financial Institutions & Specialist Institutions’. The panelists were Mr. S.B. Nayar, Chairman and Managing Director, India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd.; Mr. K. Mukundan, CEO UTI Capital Ltd.; and Mr. Sidharath Kapur, President and CFO-Airports, GMR Group. The Moderator for the panel was Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Consulting Editor, The Mint. The last Panel Discussion IV was on ‘Structural Reforms in the Indian Financial Sector’. The expert speakers for the session were Mr. Deepak Chatterjee, Managing Director & CEO, IIFCL Projects Ltd.; Mr. Nikhil Sahni, Secior President and Country Head, Government Banking & Strategic Government Advisory, YES Bank; Mr. A.K. Choudhary, Chief General Manager, Department of Banking Regulation, Reserve Bank of India; Mr. Naresh Makhijani, Partner and Head-Financial Services, KPMG India; and Mr. Krishnan Sitaraman, Senior Director, CRISIL Ratings.

The session was chaired by Mr. Rajesh Srivastava, Chairman & Managing Director, Rabo Equity Advisors Pvt. Ltd. The speakers deliberated on the various aspects of financial institutions and how their functioning can be made more effective at a fair cost with benefits to all sectors of the society. The speakers also stressed upon the need for a greater role of Micro Finance Institutions and NBFCs as they work at the grassroot level so that they compliment the formal banking channels in reaching out to the bottom of the pyramid. There was also a release of the CII - CRISIL Paper on ‘Building India through a Stronger Financial System’ was released during the Summit. The faculty members found the Summit very informative and insightful.

That is the job of HR, no matter with what name we address it.’ With this interesting and easy to understand' proposition, the first day of the conference commenced that was scheduled for the paper presentation by the students in which total 9 teams presented their quality papers.

The second day of the conference i.e. 21st September, 2013, was scheduled for two technical sessions and one panel discussion in which experts from top industries shared their work-secrets, experiences, foresights and future strategies with the audience and participants.

In the inaugural session of the second day of the conference, the Chief Guest Mr. R. P. Singh, Director – HR & Legal, IFFCO, appealed for bridging the employability gap and advised exercises to keep the body and mind fit for bearing the work pressure. He emphasized that an efficient HR professional should know how to emotionally satisfy the employee and the employer both.

Keynote speaker Mr. Pankaj Bansal quite interestingly elaborated world-wide opportunities and challenges before the HR professionals today. He said that there are 30 HR companies listed in US but in India there is none. He gave an interesting and farsighted mantra to future managers – ‘Never under-estimate yourself in long term and never overestimate yourself in short term’ and advised sincerity, hard-work and attachment with the job.

The inaugural session was followed by technical sessions 1 and 2, in which senior HR professionals from top industries discussed the current HR scenario and different HR functions with an emphasis on traditional and service functions of HR.

The topic of technical session – 1 was ‘Current Scenario of HR’ that was beautifully carried forward by Ms. Harpreet Dutta, Executive Director & Chief People Officer, ABC Consultant, who addressed the participants in an interesting and interactive way. Starting with the questions on the basic functions of HR, she discussed total quality management and said that an HR professional should definitely meet the self-expectations. Mr. Manish Srivastava, Director, Emserve, raised a question – ‘Is your EVP equal to CVP?’ where EVP stands for Employee Value Proposition and CVP stands for Customer Value Proposition. He concluded that customer and employee both are important for any organization therefore the employee should have a feeling that the HR department of the company is responsive to them. Mr. N. C. Sharma, Head-HR, Country Inn, was another appreciated speaker of the first technical session who started with the primary functions of HR and said that the way your employee feels is the way your customer feels. He strongly supported the views of Mr. Manish Srivastava, his co-speaker.

The second technical session commenced after the lunch. The topic of this session was ‘Difference in HR functions: Traditional v/s Services’. Mr. Rup Kumar Sengupta, Director HR, PSI started the session with the comparison of traditional and service functions of HR and forecasted future expectations from HR. He advised tactical and proactive approach in all actions with the focus on need. Second speaker of the second session was Mr. K. R. Kaushik, Head – External Affairs, Gujrat Fertilizers, who initiated his address with the question if human is a resource or the controller of resources. He, after comparing traditional and service functions of HR, discussed the role of HR as facilitator in service sector. He advised no discrimination among employees saying discrimination brings disasters.

The two day National conference came close to the conclusion with the panel discussion on the ‘Nature of HR Function in 2020’, which was intelligently and interestingly moderated by the area chair Dr. P.U.B. Rao. The speakers in the panel included Prof. R. P. Ojha, IMI, Delhi; Dr. Subhash Masters, Advisor, Human Capital and Dr. M. S. Rau, Executive Director, ISTD. Moderator Dr. P.U.B. Rao started the discussion with the expected nature of HR function in 2020. He broadly pointed out that future will have more corporate psychologists but the basic functions of HR will remain same. He gave an interesting example of cars saying that we have sophisticated cars today but whether new or old, all cars have a steering, four wheels and a windscreen etc. The proposition put forth by Prof. Rao was followed by Prof. R. P. Ojha who forecasted that in future HR functions will shrink but opportunities will increase. He gave an example of emails which were warmly welcomed years back but are now considered as outdated because people now want instant response devices. Similarly, HR functions will also change and we need to prepare ourselves. Dr. Subhash Masters started with a relieving line that whatever may be the name but HR functions will always be there. He emphasized the need to understand the business models especially the beneficial ones. Dr. M.S. Rau shared his views starting with an interesting note that everyone should have some extent of HR in oneself. He expressed his disappointment for just fire-fighting contemporary functions of HR instead of post-mortems i.e. analysis of cause and consequences. He appealed for redesigning HR functions and refocus on customer satisfaction. This successful panel discussion not only presented eye-opening facts before the participants but also gave them a chance to get their queries and apprehensions answered by the experts.

Soon after the panel discussion, valedictory session of the conference took place in which best research papers were awarded with a trophy and a certificate. The first prize was won by the team of Rahul and Sneha from I.T.S Institute of Management, Greater Noida; second prize was won by Pradeep & Monika, the PGDM students at I.T.S, Ghaziabad whereas third prize was bagged by Jalhaj Auny Tawlatt of Stratford University, Delhi campus. Director-Management Dr. B. S. Hothi congratulated the winners, presented the conference overview and the formal vote of thanks. He also congratulated area chair Dr. Rao and the conference coordinators Dr. Puneet Mohan & Dr. Charu for the smooth and effective organization of the conference. And with this, the two day National HR Conference ‘Responsive HR’ ended meaningfully and successfully.