The sub themes of the program were Fulfilling Nation’s Aspiration through New Education Initiatives, Redefining Skill Ecosystem to Harness Demographic Dividend and Future of Higher Education in the Digital-first Economy. The program started with the welcome address by Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Education followed by Special Address given by Mr. Piyush Nangru, Co-Foundeer, Sunstone and Prof. Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC. Smt. Anandiben Patel, Hon’ble Governor, Uttar Pradesh was the Chief Guest of the day. The discussion was focused on infrastructure, skills, innovation, startups, ecosystem, digital economy, aganwari workers specially women workers, self resilience, technology, and collaboration with both academia and industry. The main dialogue was based on new education policy which is ready to implement at large in different aspects of education and development in the interest of stakeholders of the system. Overall discussion was focused on orientation in the areas of research, technology based education. The latest development at UGC was shared by chairman on inculcating the program structure at rural ground with the help of online education to migrant and poor persons. It was highlighted that the gap between academia and industry should be reduced with latest techno oriented apps and software in the system. The speakers and delegates were from academia and industry like bureaucrats, technocrats, policy makers and regulators in the summit.

Mr. Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, Coursera India & APAC presented his company’s new programs and structure with growth based on upcoming requirement of the market and new education policy. Dr. Prem Maheshwari, Business Director –South Asia D2L, presented his company profile on technology based products and software as per need of the new education policy and campuses for their growth at students and faculty level.

Overall program was very interesting and remarkable in the domain of education, skill, ecosystem and innovation for all the participants.                 

Speakers of the session were:

·         Mrs. LopamudraDewan, Associate Manager, Centre for Teaching and Learning at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

·         Dr. Shekhar Seshadri, A Psychiatrist, and Professor of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in NIMHANS, Bangalore, India.

·         Mr. S. Raghunath, Professor of Corporate Strategy and Policy. He is currently the Director at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore.

·         Mr. Chetan Subramanian, Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore.

Dr. Shekhar Seshadri, A Psychiatrist and Professor of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in NIMHANS, Bangalore, Indiasaid that Theatre is Powerful because of its Immediacy. He Quoted the Theatre of Augusto Boal as a great method of Theatre of the Oppressed. Cinema can also be used in the Intend – Content- Method-Process Paradigm. He also stated that he is going to start a Movie Club soon. This is to watch Curated Films but follow it with Discussion and Debate. This is how we Cultivate Taste.

Mr. S. Raghunath, Professor of Corporate Strategy and Policy. He is currently the Director at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore. Talked about How management is necessary for Cinema. And Cinema and Literature can certainly be used as a tool of research in the public policy sector.

The session was conducted at AIMA headquarters at Lodhi road. The objective was to launch the book “The Art of Management” written by the famous industry personality Mr. Shiv Shivakumar. Shiv as he is popularly known is one of India's longest-serving CEOs. He is currently the group executive president at Aditya Birla Group. He has worked across multiple industries and categories, and has handled over sixty brands in his career. He was CEO for Nokia in India and subsequently led the company's emerging markets unit; he was also chairman and CEO for PepsiCo South Asia. He is regarded as one of India's leading management and leadership thinkers and speakers. The book was released by a notable journalist Mr Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Print.

During the book launch Shiv Shivkumar discussed about how this book had taken this shape. He also discussed about the contribution of various industry experts who contributed to the book through their valuable comments. He also talks about the longevity of job and states that the time has changed. Earlier people join the company and plan to retire from the same company but not a day, the average stay in any organisation is 4 years and in America the average age of any CEO is 18 Months.

He further states that how things have changed over the period of time. According to him “The value of a degree done 20 years back is just a piece of paper” he further reinforces that people should work for their own and up-skill themselves on regular basis.

In the last he suggests young people to develop their abilities in solving complex business problems and developing creativity.

The complete SSP programme had 4 different sessions on the topics of Effective Time Management, Effective Teamwork, Effective Project Management and Career Development Guidance.

Session speaker was Dr. Manu Vora, President and Business Excellence, Inc., USA IIT(BHU)CHE,1968. And moderator of session is Prof Anil Kumar Agarwal Professor incharge, Training and placement Cell, IIT(BHU).

First Session: Effective Time Management: Dr. Manu Vora defined the effective time management through THE EISENHOWER MATRIX. The Eisenhower Matrix, referred to as Urgent-Important Matrix, helps you decide on and prior tasks by urgency and importance, sorting out less urgent and important tasks which you should either delegate or not do at all.

Second Session: Effective Team Management Prof Dr.Vora, explained the 8 steps to become more resilient in today’ scenario - Accept change. He also introduced the five stages of team development.

Third session: Effective Project Management: Dr. Manu Vora and Prof. Anil Kumar Agarwal moderator of the session explained the applications of project management- strategic plan deployment, managing transformation/ change, capital projects deployment, conducting research- academic and applied, improvement project deployment, software development, enterprise resource planning implementation, product development, construction of bridges and roads, building aircrafts and ships and solving the organization problems.

He also defined the project and its characteristics and given the great examples of successful projects by showing some monuments pictures- Pyramid, Taaj Mahal, bullet train etc. He also explained the project goals: performance cost and schedule.

Fourth Session: Career Development Guidance Session

In this interactive session Dr. Vohra discussed on how to succeed at the University and professional career. The following step success pillars were focused:-

·      Focus on planning

·      Focus on strength

·      Focus on softskill

·      Critical skills needed to succeed 21th century such as communication, leadership, team network , time management , problem solving, project management.

Overall all the sessions were very stimulating and motivating for the students.

The inaugural session was graced by Shri Narayan Tatu Rane, Honourable Union Minister for MSMEs, Govt. of India as the Chief Guest, with the Honourable Minister of State, Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, attending as the Guest of Honour. Among the foreign dignitaries present on the occasion were Dr Gholamhossein Hosseinina, Honourable Deputy Minister of Cooperative, Labour and Social Welfare, Iran and Dr Ali Chhegni, Ambassador of Iran.

Dr Sumit Shukla, Director General EDII, welcomed all to the summit and highlighted why MSMEs matter on a global scale for the economic development of peoples and regions. Sh. Narayan Rane stressed on the important role MSMEs are playing in the economic growth of India, while Sh. Bhanu Prasad Singh Verma spoke of the steps taken by the present government towards the development of this sector. Dr Hosseinina in his address pointed out to the similarities in the MSME story in India and Iran; Dr Chhegni referred to the historical linkages between the two civilisations in India and Iran, and how it was significant for the economic development of both nations. Dr Amit Dwivedi, Summit in Charge, laid down the plan for the interactions at the summit over the coming two days, before Smt. Mercy Epao, Joint Secretary, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India offered the Vote of Thanks for the inaugural session.

The format of the summit consisted of an interesting mix of invited talks as well as panel discussions on wide ranging topics. The invited talks featured entrepreneurs – many of them from different parts of the globe – speaking about their individual experiences and how it helped them in their growing their respective businesses. Several of them offered their viewpoints on the experience of the MSME sector and how it could pan out going forward. Among the panel discussions, which included dignitaries, experienced practitioners as well as academics and researchers, the diverse issues covered included role of conducive policies and non-financial business development services in MSME competitiveness; MSME challenges and opportunities in the era of Covid 19 pandemic and the role of incubation/acceleration in MSME growth; how MSMEs can work in consortia to achieve sustainability; and people, planet and profit in the light of development of the MSME sector.

All the sessions were highly interactive and rich in content as the assembled audience joined in with their own myriad experiences and insights on the issues at hand. The summit was a very well managed exercise as all participants came away with a lot of food for thought for further deliberations.

The FDP had various eminent resource person through the span of entire week who talked about various aspects of advanced research methodology. Content analysis, hypothesis testing, pre-requisites for High quality publications, tools and techniques including Hands- on session on SPSS and R studio were some major topics taught during the program. The session during the week were well- planned and the content was also extremely useful for enhancing better research prospects. Some of the speakers included Prof. (Dr.) Ravi Kumar Jain, Professor &Director, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Hyderabad; Dr. Suvendu Kumar Pratihari, Asst. Professor, Birla Global University; Prof. (Dr.) Uma Sankar Mishra, Professor and Head Central University of Rajasthan; Dr. Siddharth Misra , Asst. Professor, Birla Global University; Dr. Biswajit Acharjya , Asst. Professor, Birla Global University and Dr. Pradipta Kumar Sanyal , Associate professor, Birla Global University.

The FDP was very informative and discussed new and innovative ways of teaching learning. There were various resource persons aligned on various days covering multiple tools and innovative teaching pedagogies. The entire workshop was focused on enhancing teachers’ capabilities in the newly disruptive online education era. In this time, when the internet and technologies are greatly being used in teaching and education, the importance of using videos, movies and MOOCs courses to supplement classroom teaching was discussed. Participative experience of various platforms like Kahoot and Google classroom was also a part of the FDP. Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to the routine and monotonous teaching- classroom environment. 

On the other hand, Google Classroom is another platform that has become all-in-one place for teaching and learning. It is easy to use and secure tool and helps educators manage, measure, and enrich learning experiences.

The resource person for the entire faculty development programme was MS. Neha Maheshwari, The FDP course was of total 40 hours expanded over one week. The sessions were planned in morning and evening slots. The objective of the FDP was:

·         To develop skills to ask questions.

·         To Develop skills in listening actively and empathetically to others

·         To Learn what their non-verbal messages are convey others

·         To Enhance their ability to handle difficult situations

·         To Deal with situations assertively

·         To Identify common communication problems that may hold employees back

The resource person focused on developing assertive and persuasive communication and also highlighted the importance of such communication in the workplace. It also emphasized upon recognize different styles of communication and howto improve understanding and build rapport with others. The resource person also reflected on different methods of communication and how one can recognize and choose the best way/ method to go forward in communication. Importance of non- verbal communication was emphasized and effective message formulation was also explained in a very comprehensive manner.

The assessment of the workshop was based on daily post- session quizzes and assignments shared in Google classroom. Lastly, a case study-based project work was to be submitted for final evaluation. The workshop was very insightful and engaging.