Webinar On Managing Businesses in Uncertain Times

School of Management Sciences, Varanasi organized a webinar on “Managing Businesses in Uncertain Times” on May 24, 2020, from 4 PM to 5 PM. The key resource person for this webinar were Mr. Vikas Anand FCL  Head Asia Pacific DHL Global Forwarding Singapore. Mr. Pradeep N. Dutta Business Head- Alternate Channel Panasonic Life Solution. Mr. Naveen Mishra Sr. Director Analyst Gartner Research and Advisory and Dr. Abhishek Mishra Associate Professor IIM Indore.

Prof. P. N. Jha Director School of Management Sciences Varanasi warmly welcomed the resource persons and participants nationwide. Prof. Jha stated that today’s business organizations had been heavily hit by this Covid19 and facing serious imprecations. The CARE rating agency has indicated that Indian GDP would be expected to be around one-percent during 2020-2021. Among all sectors, the job market been heavily hit, and organizations today are laying off to sustain themselves in the current market scenario. But in every bad situation, there exist immense opportunities for prospects and growth. These times should be used by the organization to look for a paradigm shift and go into self-introspection. Soon this all will be over, and we all be heading toward a new journey.

Mr. Anand stated in his deliberation about the short term impact of this Covid19, where in today’s market, the company will be facing bankruptcy and job layoff. Asset-based companies will be suffering more than other sectorial companies like the hotel industry, the tourism industry. A huge reliance on other countries will be reduced. Ones this lockdown gets over, there would be a mass crunch in the labor market as the gap which has already been created due to mass exodus of labors towards their home town. However, Big data companies would likely to get surge as most of the company would be adopting work from home policy. More and more companies would be looking towards online platforms both for acquiring skills and acquisition of talent management. Overall, Covid19 would be a game-changer for the Indian economy. Mr. Pradeep Dutta, in continuation, stated that this time is better for India to venture into various new things and get well skilled in it, areas that’ll be facing paradigm shift like the retail industry, health, telecom, FMCG etc. will grow at higher pace through online platform. Small retailers are also moving toward an online platform, where they are providing door-to-door service that saves customers much time. He also stated India should be ready to cater to the needs of those companies who are planning to shift from china, as India needs substantial investment in infrastructure to attract more companies. Mr. Naveen Mishra divided the whole Covid19 phase into four phases, where India is still into the second phase, where one should not be making a decision through his/her emotion, instead look towards datapoints like infection rate, consumption rate which gives a better understanding of the situation and helps in making right decisions. Phase three would be the phase where again demand and consumption will be on a rising trend, and we would be looking for a great rebound. Dr. Abhishek Mishra shared his view on Innovation and product development of companies and its impact due to Covid19, where he shared his thought on six uncertainties i.e., estate uncertainties, effect uncertainties, work uncertainties, technology uncertainties, and market uncertainties.

Vote of thanks was given By Dr. Amitabh Pandey Associate Professor School of Management Sciences Varanasi. This session was coordinated by Dr. Pallavi Pathak Associate Professor School of Management Sciences Varanasi.

Webinar On Relevance of AI and Machine Learning in Post COVID Era

School of Management Sciences, Varanasi organized a webinar on “Relevance of AI and Machine Learning in Post COVID Era” on May 23rd from 5 PM to 6 PM. The key resource person for this webinar was Dr. Pinaki Chakraborty Assistant Professor Netaji Subhas University of Technology, New Delhi.

Prof. P. N. Jha Director School of Management Sciences Varanasi warmly welcomed the resource persons and participants nationwide. He noted that global shocks have traditionally brought moments of reality to some businesses. They can change the business landscape and competition conditions quickly, often in ways that are not immediately apparent. But companies that make innovative steps during challenging times can take advantage of adversity. The earlier pandemic outbreak has been often credited with giving rise to the e-commerce industry, such as Alibaba and JD.com, Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 increased the shareholder value of companies like American Express and Starbucks. In this context, it is likely that COVID-19 is no different from other crises. This will intensify dramatically some global developments that were already well underway before the outbreak and will continue as businesses turn their attention to recovery. For example, businesses would incorporate more flexibility into their supply chains rather than focus heavily on sourcing and manufacturing at a few low-cost locations. Consumers are purchasing more and more products and services online. And there’ll be increasing numbers of people working remotely.

Dr. Chakraborty elucidated his views on various topics like genetic engineering, genetic AI, anti-movement AI, He also shared about Shannon work which was on machine learning; in earlier days machines development were not as fast as human intelligence development, but with the passage of time Samuel worked on the learning process of machine and developed the machine which learns itself without the human intervention. This machine started learning the same as humans learn from their previous experiences and mistakes; a recent example of a machine that learns itself is Google cars, where no driver is needed to drive. Apart from this Dr. Chakraborty also mentioned his seriousness about today’s youth who have been addicted to social media than ever before. However this AI can be useful in tracking such distraction and can be put to use for increasing human productivity and efficiency.  Dr. Chakraborty also claimed that introducing artificial intelligence would be immensely useful in helping businesses respond to these developments. Advanced bots being capable of recognizing objects and handling tasks that previously required humans will promote the 24/7 operation of factories and other facilities in more locations with little additional cost. AI-enabled systems can allow businesses to better model live-work environments and build labour forces on demand. AI will help companies detect new consumption patterns and deliver “hyper-personalized” products to online customers via machine learning and advanced data analytics. The most successful cases will be those which blend AI with human judgment and experience seamlessly.

The end of the technical session was followed by the question-answer session, which was answered by the experts interactively after the end of the talks; Mr. Anand Prakash. Dube highlighted the key points of each talk, followed by a formal vote of thanks by Dr. Kamal Sheel Mishra Professor SMS Varanasi. This webinar was coordinated by Ms. Poorva Sanjay Sabnis Assistant Professor School of Management Sciences Varanasi.

Webinar on Reopening of Indian Economy- Issues, Challenges and Solutions

School of Management Sciences Varanasi organized a webinar on Reopening of Indian Economy- Issues, Challenges, and Solutions on May 22, 2020, from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM. This program was organized for PGDM students, where students themselves presented and shared their views on issues and challenges related to the opening of the Indian economy during this on-going pandemic era.

Discussion in this webinar revolved around the Indian economy, where students stated that Indians are facing a paradox during the Covid-19 crisis. The majority of them favour opening up of economy and businesses, but still, many others are nervous about leaving their homes for work and travel. Challenges related to Hotel Industry was also taken into consideration, whereby solution only which came in mind is that Hotel and restaurant chain can start their take away and allowing less stays with full and proper SMS (Sanitizer, Mask and Social Distancing) measure. Auto Industry can now use PPE kits as it is available cheaply in the Indian market for their employee working in the manufacturing unit and also for the consumer who is coming to test the car before buying. The agriculture sector should take care of social distancing; students also appreciated the government’s new measure taken to boost agriculture production and distribution. Apart from this, various other sectors like Travel and Tourism sector, Aviation sector, Railways, were also discussed, and solutions were provided by students, which can be part of the measure taken in the coming future.

The PGDM students who presented their presentation were Ayushi Rai, Mayank Dubey, Garima Goel, Nishant Gupta, Simple Singh, Gracy Singh, Harsh Singhal, Poorvi Kapoor, Tony Joseph Verghese, Vaishnavi Khanna, Shiv Shekhar, Pragati Rai, Mayank Phadke, Akansha Gupta, Vaishali Srivastava, Jaspreet Kaur, Pravesh Gupta, Kajal Jaiswal, Aquib Ahmad Khan.

This webinar was coordinated by Ms. Vaishnavi Khanna and Ms. Simple Singh of the PGDM –II semester School of Management Science Varanasi.

Workshop on Online Summer Internship Project Report Preparation(During covid 19 lockdown situation)

School of Management Sciences, Varanasi organized a workshop for MBA-II semester students on How to complete Summer Internship Project online in this covid 19 lockdown situation under aegis of CARD – Centre for advanced research and development. This workshop is devised to help students to do their summer internship efficiently in this lockdown situation. The entire session will take place online in which different tools of data analysis like google sheet, google form, MS excel and SPSS will be used.

The key resource person for this workshop is Dr. Raj Kumar Singh (Dean R&D), Chairperson CEISD and Mr. Kartikeya Singh (Assistant Professor, Course Coordinator, MBA). Resource persons guided the students about how to proceed in this covid 19 situation and motivated them to continue their studies and internship, they were also guided about the structure of report which they have to made once they complete their internship.

This workshop was coordinated by Mr. Kartikeya Singh Assistant Professor, School of Management Sciences Varanasi.

SMS Varanasi organized a Students’ Webinar on “Economic Stimulus Package – 2020”

SMS Varanasi organized a Students’ Webinar on “Economic Stimulus Package – 2020” on Monday, May 18, from 4:30 PM onwards.

The key feature of the webinar was that it was coordinated solely by PGDM students of SMS Varanasi.

Students, very energetically and candidly, discussed various aspects of the proposed Economic Stimulus Package as announced by the Union Government to help the economy with its diverse sectors fight the downward spiral caused by Covid 19 crisis and fend off any short or long term adverse effects.

The webinar was also attended by the PGDM faculty members. This webinar was coordinated by Ms. Jaspreet Kaur and Ms. Gracy Singh of PGDM, School of Management Sciences Varanasi.

Webinar on “Impact of Atmanirbhar Yojna Stimulus Package on MSME sector in India”

SMS Varanasi successfully organized a Webinar on the “Impact of Atmanirbhar Yojna Stimulus Package on the MSME sector in India” on 17th May 2020. More than 200 Participants across the country attended the webinar. The key resource persons for this webinar were Prof. Rakesh Raman Department of Economics Faculty of Social Science Banaras Hindu University. Mr. Vivek Mehra Founder & CEO Culinary Cart (P) Ltd& Trafin Technologies (P) Ltd Mumbai. Mr. Puneet Jetli Founder & CEO SensiWise Solutions Bengaluru. Mr. Rajesh Bhatia President Small Industries Association Varanasi.

Prof. P. N. Jha Director School of Management Sciences Varanasi heartily welcomed the resource persons and participants across the country. He stated that this natural calamity had brought immense problems in all walks of life, everyone is going under a paradigm shift, and the birth of a peculiar structure is taking place in our society. Two important points which he focussed on were social distancing and herd immunity. The economic sector has got the worst hit in decades where GDP has touched 2 percent, and further reduction been seen in the coming days. As MSME sector forms to be backbone and engine of our economy, it becomes imperative that this should be focussed firstly, which the Indian government has done by providing a bailout package for this sector.

Prof. Rakesh Raman shared his view on Atmanirbhar Yojna Stimulus Package on the MSME sector in India. He stated that the MSME sector gives around 21 percent of employment, 48 percent export in our country. Sixty-nine million MSME contribute 30 percent GDP, 31 percent of manufacturing trade, 33 percent of service trade. Hence giving a boost to the MSME sector helps to remove stagflation and falling supply in the economy and also boost the related sector. Mr. Jeli shared his practical view that agriculture and MSME gains a lion share in this stimulus package, and gave rating 60 to 70 percent out of 100. Mr. Mehra compared this stimulus package with the peer countries who have also given this same kind of package in their economy. As per him, this stimulus package caters to three main aspects in our economy i.e., supporting citizens, preserving their jobs, and helping companies to survive. Mr. Bhatia discussed the liquidity problem, how the factory to work as a labour crunch, and the market is not open in full swing.

This webinar was coordinated by Dr. Sofia Khan, Assistant Professor School of Management Sciences Varanasi.

Webinar On Covid 19: Opportunities and Challenges in Digital Era for India

SMS Varanasi organized a Webinar on COVID 19: Opportunities and Challenges in Digital Era for India on May 09, 2020. The key resource persons for this webinar were Mr. Sharad Dikshit Digital Journeyman Bengaluru. Mr. Rajeev Jain NASSCOM Certified Master Trainer Agile Coach Gurugram.

Prof. P. N. Jha Director School of Management Sciences Varanasi heartily welcomed the resource persons and participants across the country. Resource persons stated that this pandemic would bring a lot of opportunities in the area of banking, retail, taking India to a totally new platform, now people will be more inclined toward using technology in their daily habit like making payment.  OTT has already been found as substitutes of movie hall where people at their own place can enjoy; this phenomenon will not be rested with urban rather this ll also penetrate in the rural area where more market will be there for digital-based companies. Lots of Innovation ll be taking place again. In the education sector, there ll be challenges in the beginning, but with the passage of time, this ll be taken care of. As per the IIT Kanpur survey, it was found that course content will be uploaded for the student has not yet been downloaded by the majority of students since they face problems in downloading; these problems have to be taken into consideration.

This webinar was coordinated by Dr. Kamal Sheel Mishra Professor School of Management Sciences Varanasi.