The visit began with the presentation and briefing by operations manager at the pipelines distribution centre about the functioning and operational aspects of the plant. The IOCLTerminals at Bijwasan and Panipat are strategic installations which monitors and controls the incoming and outgoing flows of Crude Oils, High Speed Diesel and Petrol, Aviation Turbine fuels(ATF) etc.  in different parts of the northern region of India. Some of the important pipelines, which are monitored round the clock are;

·            Mathura – Delhi – Panipat - Jalandhar pipeline

·            Mundra - Panipat pipeline, which is more than 1000 km long and supplies crude oil

·            Panipat - Bijwasan pipeline, which supplies aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to Delhi

·            Dadri - Panipat pipeline, which receives gas supply at panipat

·            Panipat Ambala - Una pipeline, which covers the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh part

·            Panipat - Bhatinda pipeline, which also caters to the need of Oil supplies in the Punjab region.

The operation team explained about the inward-outward movement of oil products, storage, 24X7 monitoring process, security system and checks undertaken at the control room. 

The industrial visit opened new areas of knowledge in logistics and distribution to the students. The students also asked pertinent questions related to receiving oil & gas supplies, fire safety measures, maintenance of pumps & pipelines besides ensuring availability in designated places.

Professor Kumar Biswas, Dr. Mayank Sharma & Dr. Shailendra Kumar Dube accompanied the students during the industrial visit.

The discussion was based on the following themes;

·         An Empirical Study on Entrepreneurial Intention and Entrepreneurial Orientation amongst Gen Z

·         A Recent Analysis and Understanding the Attractiveness dimensions of Shopping Malls in Orissa

·         Consumer Awareness and Perception about Cashless Transactions

·         Chatbot Technology in Education Sector – A Bibliometrics Analysis Using VOSviwe

·         Exploring Consumers’ Purchase Intention for Fashion Products: An empirical study based on Spirituality, Need of Uniqueness and Traits of Vanity

Some papers were presented by participants on the above themes in the track-2 of General Management and Marketing. Jury members of the session suggested points for improvement in their research work. The participants were from academia and industry. They discussed their points on literature review, modeling, objectives and applications of statistical tools etc. They asked queries which were based on statistical analysis.

Dr. Johari gave concluding remarks on the presentations on different aspects like objectives of the study, literature review, data collection and sampling procedure of the study. 

The summit commenced with the address by Shri Arpit Chadha, Honourable Vice Chairman, I.T.S - The Education Group. He warmly welcomed all the eminent speakers and shared his valuable insights on the focal theme with audience. He emphasized participants to take maximum learning from the vast experience and expertise of corporate veterans.

Honorable Chief Guest of the inaugural session Mr. Amit Sharma, Managing Director & CEO of Satin Housing Finance Ltd. spoke about the importance of preservation of environment and he quoted It with “Jaan Hai to Jahan Hai”.

Dr. Mahesh Uppal, Director, Com First, Delhi as Guest of Honour, addressed the issue of profit- making business culture, which essentially runs on a philosophy of Take, Make and Waste.

Mr. Nitin Gupta, Chief Financial Officer, Info Edge Venture as second Guest of Honour focused about difficulties for business to survive individually. He highlighted that sustainability is very important for all and for the circular economy all must adopt the strategy of use waste to make resources.

Dr. Prerna Kumar, Head of Public Policy Convergent; the Keynote Speaker, spoke about what are the challenges economy is facing and who are the ones who are majorly facing the brunt. She advised to focus on developing solutions such as inclusive- technology, creating sustainable business processes and compassionate leadership

Panel Session–I on theme ‘Innovative Business Models to Redesign the Future’ was moderated by Ms. Arti Khosla Founder and CEO Centre of Assessment for Excellence. She mentioned about increased complexities in the corporate world and businesses and also discussed about the implications of National Education Policy (NEP 2020) for rural areas.

Mr. Akash Sharma, President Finance - Bajaj Group brought in light the recent incidents happening in the corporate world by discussing the Hinderberg’s report and its impact on Adani group. According to him the report may affect the share price of the company in the short run.

Mr. Gaurav Malik, Chief Strategy Officer - Successive Technologies shared his thoughts about Cloud Computing and apprised the audience that cloud computing is a 40 years old technology which has gained momentum in the recent past.

Mr. Ambrish Ranjan, Executive Director - Asort talked about how offline retail stores will be affected by the growth of E-commerce and how helpful E-commerce is for both the customers and businesses. He also mentioned about Co-commerce i.e. community commerce where companies are aggregating with the local merchants and reducing the order receiving to delivery time.

Mr. Rajat Jain, Regional Sales Director - Dell International Services India Pvt. Ltd. talked about how Dell has improved its service quality and maintained better delivery to the customers. He also discussed about meeting the needs of their customers and the importance of service delivery in today’s era for businesses.

Online Panel Session-II on theme ‘Rethinking Opportunity: Payments and Circular Economy’ witnessed stimulating discussions from the international panelists, Mr. Punit Mehrotra Senior On boarding Manager Group International - HSBC Hong Kong addressed the gathering on issues like  Digital payment and banking systems which are critical components in any economy, that allow real-time access to transactions.

Mr. Amit Kumar Pandey, Director, Technical Program, Walmart Global Tech California, United States was the second speaker who focused on the issues of 50 million digital waste of which only 20% is recycled.

Dr. Ajay Sharma, Founder and CEO-ASR Ventures & Regional Director, Dimitra Technology, South Holland, Netherlands, the third panelist spoke on Hydrogen energy being the most recyclable energy and circular agriculture economy.

Prof. Roy Sembel, Co-Founder, Proud Media Group, Professor - IPMI International Business School  Jakarta, Indonesia addressed on Blue Economy and its features like Inspired by the nature, good impact on the world economy, and sustainability.

Mr. Sunish Sinha, Relationship Manager, Doha Bank, Doha discussed state efforts on circular economy in Qatar. In Qatar government is concerned about a circular economy and ensuring the same, successfully organized FIFA world cup.

The beauty of the summit was evident from the way the audience kept peppering the sessions with different questions to the panelists, speakers and their responses for the same. The conveners of Business Summit - 2023 presented plaques to all the eminent guests as a token of gratitude.

The “Budget Discussion” by AAZ TAK had the distinguished panellists which comprised Jayant Sinha, Former Central Government Minister & MP (BJP); Supriya spokesperson (Congress –I);Tax Expert Sameer Gogia and Alok Joshi (Journalist).

Jayant Sinha called the budget as balanced which caters to the need of one and all. In his view, it was a balanced budget, which is based on reality. He pointed out  twin factors- provision for high capital investment (CAPEX)  which will lead to growth in production and manageable fiscal deficit. Supriya told that budget didn’t spur savings. Sameer, tax expert, justified how the proposed “Tax slabs” in the budget would encourage the present youth towards tax compliance. On the issue of encouraging manufacturing and export sector, Sinha, elaborated that Government’s Profit Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme is already in action. He also allayed the concerns regarding growth and explained that increased CAPEX  would have a multiplier effect, which will ultimately increase employment and  bring down the logistics cost. The debate also touched upon rising trade deficit, disinvestment, digitisation, fiscal deficit, and others.

By attending such live programme, the students on exposure of how live debates are conducted on contemporary issues.

Honourable Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24. In the last full-fledged Budget before the general elections next year, the finance minister said that the Indian economy is on the right path and heading towards a bright future. In a boost to taxpayers and economy, finance minister announced major changes in tax slabs under new tax regime and a big boost for railways and capital expenditure.

This budget followed seven priorities as Inclusive development, Reaching the last mile, Infrastructure and investment, Unleashing the potential, Green growth, Youth power and Financial sector.

In this live budget session, students watched the budget announcements on big screen of auditorium and noted key takeaways of various sectors such as health care, infrastructure, agriculture, direct and indirect taxation, railways, defense, education, MSME, etc. The students appreciated budget announcements related to direct and indirect taxation, small saving schemes and capital expenditure.

The programme began with the opening remarks and welcome by Mr Arun Kumar Singh, CMD, ONGC, and President UN GCNI. This was followed by the special address (via video) by René Van Berkel, UNIDO representative and Head, Regional Office in India, where he held forth on the circular economy; take, make and recycle approach; and the replacement of the traditional 3Rs. Then Mr. Hindol Sengupta, Chief Economic Research Officer and VP, Invest India, explained the research done in this area, including the use of materials like bamboo. He also discussed how the circular economy is related to SDGs, using the acronym GST (Gender, Sustainability and Transitivity). The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Sivasubramanian Ramann, CMO of SIDBI. Mr Ramann spoke of the need for a bottom up approach, and how India has had a centuries old relationship with the circular economy. The inaugural address was given by Dr Rakesh Sarwal, CMD, National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation. He pointed out the relation between affluence, consumerism and waste, session ended with the vote of thanks delivered by Dr Ratnesh Jha, Executive Director, UN GCNI.

The inaugural session was followed by a session on the theme Business Commitment: Integration of Circular Economy Practices by Businesses to achieve SDGs.

The panelists of the session are:

·         Mr Ganesh Ramamurti, CEO, Auro Research;

·         Mr Prashant Choubey, Lixil;

·         Ms. Priyanka Tanwar, Leader Communications and Corporate Responsibility Asia, Lixil

The session was moderated by Dr Ratnesh Jha.

The deliberations centred on different aspects of renewable energy and how that played into the circular economy.

Session 2 had the theme Uncomplicate Technology: Technology as a Catalyst to integrate Circular Economy/Waste to Wealth into Business Models and to reach the last mile.

The panelists of the session are:

·         Dr Shilpi Jain, Professor of Data Sciences;

·         Mr Alok Lall, Customer Success Lead – IteS, Microsoft;

·         Mr Mohit Narain, MD, Environmentors Perpetuity Solutions and Services Pvt. Ltd.

The moderator was Ms. Sonia Duhan, AVP, Invest India. The discussion proceeded on how technology can contribute to the circular economy.

Session 3 was based on the theme Policy Framework, Governance and Financing to  strengthen the implementation of Circular Economy Practices.

The panelists of the session are:

·         Mr Ashwin Saxena, CEO, JSW Foundation;

·         Dr Ulac Demirag, Country Director and Representative, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD);

·         Ms. Shuva Raha, Head – New Initiatives Council on Energy, Environment and Water, CEEW.

The moderator for the session was Mr Vishvesh Prabhaka from Accenture, The discussion centred on policy initiatives in this space.

Session 4 had the theme addressing the Challenges: Best Practices and Global Trends in Circular Economy/Waste to Wealth Generation Practices by Businesses/Non-Businesses.

All in all, it was a very comprehensive examination of various aspects of the circular economy, with the practitioners and policy makers providing a ringside view of the thought processes in this field. 

The eminent speaker was Mr. Gunjan Dutta, Partner Manager at META Inc.

He talked about the advent of the instant messaging app WhatsApp on Smartphone and how it has completely revolutionised the way we communicate. It is very user friendly and therefore widely accepted as an important mode of communication by common people as well as business houses. He elaborated how business is carried out through paid WhatsApp by using features like payment, catalogue, etc. These features create an opportunity of ease of doing business all over the world. He further explained how companies like TATA, Hyundai, Reliance, PVR, Blinkit, Zomato and Swiggy have increased their sales by 33% to 54% through WhatsApp.

Towards the conclusion of the lecture, He welcomed intriguing question from students and answered them comprehensively. The session was coordinated by Dr. Shikha Arora.

Student volunteers spoke about the various freedom fighters to make the children familiar with them. They also conducted few memory games for the children. This was followed by a session of Fundamrntal Right . Each of the volunteers explained the necessity and importance of the relevant rights for the citizens of the country.

During the celebration a Cultural Competition was organised in which interested kids participated. Children presented dance and patriotic poems. The best three performers were awarded with prizes.

The session ended with the distribution of refreshments.

The eminent speaker for the session was Dr Mukesh Sharma, from William Angliss Institute of TAFE, Melbourne, Australia.

The session started with a warm welcome and greetings by Dr. Timira Shukla, Director I.T.S School of Management, followed by words of wisdom and motivation by Dr. V.N Bajpai, Director I.T.S and Dr. Sunil Pandey, Director U.G and IT. 

Dr. Mukesh Gupta, distinguished speaker began the session by sharing his enriching life experiences from a law student to a marketer in the hospitality field. He highlighted the importance of knowing the customer needs first and then plan the product and service accordingly. He further said that contemporary marketing practices are not merely about attracting new customers but it also includes instilling customer loyalty and a sense of brand devotion. Then he shared some ways to make a healthy contemporary marketing strategies through relationship management, networking, promotions, advertising, digital marketing and business analytics. He gave insights about the "Pareto Effect" and also told how students can use this rule to solve their day-to-day problems. He told how important it is to pursue your hobbies to create work life balance. He also shared that learning   is a beautiful experience and one can learn anything from the University of You Tube. Lastly, he said that one should always practice humility to succeed in the journey of life. At the conclusion of the session, he welcomed intriguing question from students and answered them comprehensively.

The session was ended by presenting the memento as a token of gratitude by Dr. V.N Bajpai and Dr. Sunil Pandey. The session was full of learning and enthusiasm.

The eminent speaker for the Guest lecture was Mr. Subhankar Ghose, Vice President and Head – HR, Spice Money.

The session started with a warm welcome of eminent speaker by Dr. Timira Shukla, Director, I.T.S School of Management by presenting a plant sapling. Mr. Subhankar started the talk by the most captivating topic that is digital payments in rural areas under financial inclusion initiative by the government. He told that organization can create eye-catching possibilities of sales in rural areas in terms of digital transaction by creating awareness. Then he elaborated about the hybrid working culture tactics and the pros and cons where he explained employees have to adopt this change if they want to  become successful in corporates. He further added that organization may become cost effective in hybrid working culture but it can create the menace of moonlighting, technical issues, tracking performance etc. Then he gave beautiful insights about HR Practices to cope up with this culture  by promoting work life balance through giving health benefits, yoga sessions, flexible working hours. He also made the students aware about the importance of relationship building, networking and  knowledge sharing and how these helped them to carve their career in long run. Lastly he ended the session with a motivational quote, “Practice what you Preach”. Towards the conclusion of the workshop he welcomed intriguing questions from students and answered them comprehensively.

The session was ended by offering a memento as a token of gratitude to guest by Dr. Anusha Agarwal, PGDM Chairperson. The session was coordinated by Dr. Vivek Pachauri.