Panel discussions on ‘sustainability and disruptive drivers of change’ 

Noida: Picking up discussions from the day one, day two of the 20th International Business Horizon-INBUSH ERA-2020 conference saw panel discussions on ‘Sustainability and Disruptive Drivers of Change’ with deliberations shared around the ways to develop cultures of sustainability. Panelists averred that depleting natural resources, climate change and global warming are the challenges being faced by the humanity as the cost of development and sustainability has become an inevitable need.

Panelists in the discussion included Ms. Sangeeta Robinson, Head – Sustainability, PVR Cinemas who spoke about how PVR, a family-owned business had the foresight to make cinemas accessible to people with disabilities. Mr. Ashish Khanna, President, Tata Power shared how global CEO’s are embracing climate change. He also averred that the energy mix will change dramatically in the next two decades with solar energy playing a pivotal role in the future. While Ms. Upasana Choudhry, Sustainable Impact Lead-India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh-HP India, Gurgaon stated that technology is a great enabler to achieve sustainability and there is a growing demand from consumers for sustainable products now,  Mr. Anil Bhasin, President, Havells India said that seriousness was needed about sustainability and everyone should be prepared to handle changes in the coming five years.  Prof. Dr. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT, Guwahati stated that Green Research and Development is the future and educational institutions need to adopt and excel in it.

Further in the day, Amity Corporate Excellence Award was conferred upon Mr. Anil Bhasin, President, Havells and Mr. Ashish Khanna, President, Tata Power. An international partnership was also collaborated with University of Portsmouth, UK along with inking of an MoU.

The session on “‘Australia & India: Opportunities and Challenges for Fostering Partnerships in Higher Education” saw participation from Mr. Sebastian Raneskold, Vice-President & Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), Flinders University, Australia who spoke about strategic institutional level partnerships rather than individual associations for better collaboration between Australian and Indian universities. Professor Lawrence Pratchett, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students, Partnerships and International), University of Canberra talked about the difference in the number of universities in both the countries and how this difference in scale and the form of regulation in these universities made the difference in their performance and rankings. While Dr. Gregory Harper, Director, Research, Innovation and Commercialization, The University of Melbourne talked about capturing the next generations interest in big missions and direct the research to make an impact on contributions to the SDG’s, Prof. (Dr.) Srikrishna Deva Rao, Vice Chancellor, National Law University, Odisha      spoke about the multiple diversity in the Indian education system. Ms. Ravneet Pawha, Deputy Vice President (Global), CEO (South Asia), Deakin University, Australia talked about finding initiatives and encouraging researchers in Australia and India to work together on common problems.

Amity Global Academic Excellence Award was conferred upon Professor Colin Stirling, President & Vice Chancellor, Flinders University; Professor Lawrence Pratchett, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students, Partnerships and International), University of Canberra; Dr. Gregory Harper, Director, Research, Innovation and Commercialization, The University of Melbourne and Prof. Srikrishna Deva Rao, Vice Chancellor, National Law University, Odisha.

A session on ‘Women Leaders as Change Masters – Unleashing Possibilities, Transforming Generations’ was organized with participation from Ms Leena Nandan, IAS, Special Secretary to GOI, Ministry of Road & Transport; Ms Ratna Vira, Best Selling Author, Artist, TedX speaker; Dr. Simrit Kaur, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Principal, Sri Ram College of Commerce; Ms. Shweta Sharma, Founder, Director, TedShark Labs; Ms. Geetanjali Pandit, Business Inspiration Guru, TedX Speaker; Prof. Olha Illyash, Vice Rector, International University of Finance, Kiev, Ukraine and Dr. Dariia Doroshkevych, Professor, National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”.

Ms Leena Nandan, IAS, Special Secretary to Government of India , Ministry of Road & Transport spoke about gender discrimination being present at every level in the society and in various economic backgrounds. She further stated that now there was a lot of change and if women empowered themselves and their environment discrimination will cease to exist. Dr. Simrit Kaur, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Principal, Sri Ram College of Commerce talked about perception of male vs females being a mindset attitude and how leadership roles should not be made gender specific.
An IEEE International Conference on Research, Innovation, Knowledge Management And Technology Application for Business Sustainability was also organized simultaneously.

The three-day conference would witness discussions and deliberations by leading Academicians, Diplomats and Corporate Leaders from India and abroad including Ireland, USA, UK, Spain, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, Poland etc. on the theme of the Summit and making it a highly acclaimed annual Summit of any B School across Asia.