SPJIMR Hosts World Class Conclave On ‘Innovation And Technology': The India Story

India’s top business leaders came together to discuss the country’s innovation culture at Bhavan’s S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) flagship annual Business Academia Conclave.

Addressed by the leading lights across industries the conclave was attended by select invited audience of business leaders, academics and influencers along with distinguished alumni and current post-graduate students. 

Dr SoumtiraDutta, Professor of Management at Cornell University, set the theme of the conclave in his opening academic keynote address. He dwelt on how innovation and technology drives business growth but success can be attained only when the society as a whole is advanced enough to embrace it. Dr Dutta touched upon the importance of India rising up the ranks of the Network Readiness Index and the Global Innovative Index. 

Ladakh’s social entrepreneur and engineer, Sonam Wangchuk’s social keynote address to conclude the event was met with rapturous applause and a minute-long standing ovation. Touching upon his life as a student in rural Ladakh, Wangchuk highlighted the abject failure of traditional educational institutions for local children.

Giving numerous examples of his own work and backed by data, Wangchuk espoused the cause for self-sustaining educational institutions which engender an environment of free learning. Besides, the inventor of the ice stupa, also implored the audience to adopt frugal lifestyles to aid the battle against the devastating effects of climate change.

The day-long event had four distinguished panels, each discussing a range of vital topics related to industry such as the ethical mining and actionable use of customer data, the challenges of adopting technology in legacy companies, changing business models of companies in the face of innovation, and the role of business leaders in inculcating an innovative mind-set among employees. 

The panellists featured were Aditya Swamy – Director of Google India, Shalini Kapoor - Director and CTO of Watson IoT IBM, Kavita Angre of L’Oreal, Sujith Ganguli - Head of ICICI Brand and Corporate Communication, Author and Corporate Advisor R. Gopalakrishnan from SPJIMR, Ramesh Ramachandran of Mahindra and Mahindra, Haresh Chawla – Partner at True North, Ajay Srinivasan – CEO of Aditya Birla Capital Limited, Bharat Puri, MD of Pidilite Industries Limited, VivekSundar – Swiggy COO, Harish Narayanan – CMO Myntra Jabong, Nikhil Arora – VP and MD of Go Daddy Inc India, Nischay AG – Director of Bounce, PulkitTrivedi – Director of Google Pay India, business leader Sanjeev Aga, Nikhil Oja – Partner at Bain and Company, Author and Senior Management Consultant, Chandramouli Venkateshan, Akash Banerji – Business head of VOOT, Viacom 18, AditiNamdeo of World Economic Forum India, and Dr.Ranjan Banerjee – Dean of SPJIMR.