IIM Shillong holds industry-academia meet

From A Reporter

SHILLONG, Oct 8: IIM Shillong, in association with its HR club, usHR, organised the second edition of Kaleidoscope, the Industry Academia meet on Reequipping the tiol Workforce on Saturday.

The expert talks and panel discussions by industry leaders from the top echelons of industry focussed on the changing paradigms in technology and their impact on the workforce and bridging the gap between ever dymic industry and academia.

The event was iugurated by IIM Shillong Director Dr Amitabha De and followed by paper presentations, expert talks and panel discussions.

Talking about the impact of automation on jobs, Winston Derosario, Director - Head of People and Culture at Grant Thornton LLP, said, “Automation will be a journey of transformation and will shift us from mundane tasks to activities that matter.”

Dr qi Abbas, Associate Director, HR at Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, welcomed automation as it will elimite administrative roles of the HR and pointed out that automation is not scary as similar disruptions have happened in the past.

Rajesh Srivastava, Joint Executive President and HR business partner, UltraTech Cement, talked about the importance of artificial intelligence and smart systems in evolving the practices of HR.

Amika Awasthi, formerly Head of Learning and Academic Program at HCL Technologies, talked about the gap in learning that exists in the country today and how it impacts the prospects of a job.

Mani M Dan, Head HR - New Business Division at Godfrey Phillips India emphasized on picking up life skills and people skills along with getting the right mindset which is acquired by not just being restricted to attending fine universities.

Kamakshi Raman, Executive Director (HRD) at Magement Training Institute, Steel Authority of India Limited, shared her views with the students on the relevance of academic courses in the industry. Elaborating on capital, competence and the business challenges she said, “We have to go beyond customer and focus on customer’s customers.”