07 NOVEMBER, 2022: Day One of Drishti 2022, the two-day business summit organized by students of the Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) at IIMB, got off to a start this morning with a workshop called ‘Birding Buddies’ conducted by Tej Vohra and Yogesh Marathe. They went ‘birding’ on the beautiful IIMB campus and helped the participants reconnect with nature. This was followed by a workshop on ‘Sustaining talent for the future conducted by Jude S, Senior Territory Manager Sales, Adrenalin eSystems Ltd., and Ambal Saravanan, HR Strategic Consultant, Intellect Design Arena Ltd. They pointed out that post-pandemic, the needs of the talent pool have changed, and therefore organizations need to significantly shift their approach to this pool.

Day One of the fest also saw the deciding rounds of five competitions — Finmoz, Markwiz, Revive, Sustainability Ninja, and Bizwiz. The preliminary rounds for these competitions were conducted over the last two months and drew as many as 1000 participants. Finalists were selected for a live presentation on campus. The winners will be announced soon so watch this space!

Key speakers

Padma awardee and well-known environmentalist Thulasi Gowda delivered the keynote in the presence of the IIMB Director Professor Rishikesha T Krishnan and Chairperson of the PGPEM Professor Allen P Ugargol. Known for her encyclopedic knowledge of trees and plants and hailed by forest-dwelling communities and environmentalists, Smt Thulasi Gowda said: “I spent my childhood planting trees and grew up in a nursery. I have planted lakhs of trees and urge you to contribute to society by taking that step not only on campus but in society. ”

In his address, Professor Rishikesha T Krishnan said, “I would like to congratulate the PGPEM team on all counts for taking this step. Sustainability is an issue that should be at the top of the agenda for companies. While there is a long way to go in this area, initiatives like these are encouraged. With regulations, reporting requirements, and company laws changing, I am confident we will see more changes in sustainability in the years to come.”

Professor Allen Ugargol said, “Today, a lot of socially conscious investors are looking at how we can enhance ESG compliance within organizations, which makes the theme for today highly relevant and I was happy to see the PGPEM batch take this step.”

The first keynote was delivered by Seema Arora, Deputy Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry, who has done remarkable work on Sustainable Development within CII. In her keynote, she spoke about her work on designing innovative products and frameworks to build the business case for industry to invest in Sustainability and CSR.

This was followed by an address by Srinivasa Bharathy, Managing Director and CEO of Adrenalin eSystems. He spoke on ‘Sustainability in HR’. The day’s events drew to a close with a panel discussion on ‘Different Dimensions of Sustainability’ by leaders from industries like mobility, consumer products, and logistics. The panelists included Kristy Drutman, Co-founder of Green Job Board, Ravi Arora, VP of Tata Sons, Professor Monto Mani from IISc, Thameem Kamaldeen, Managing Director of Signalling at Alstom, and Rajesh Mehta, Senior Consultant, TNO. The panel discussed various facets of sustainability and spoke of how their respective firms are working towards making green products affordable.