MMA-KAS Business Mandate (Nov 2022)

Collaboration with a purpose

People

and organizations thrive in an environment built on collaboration When organizations come together, they achieve their objectives effectively. Interdependence is essentially merging ‘the mindset of abundance’ with ‘the discipline of leverage’ It occurs where organizations are working collaboratively to achieve a common vision. Our journey to propagate the Management Movement started 66 years ago While our brand signifies our roots, our tagline vision, “Fountainhead of Excellence,” symbolizes how we have been striving to realise our aspiration for reaching new heights of excellence

In this context, I am delighted to share with you that MMA and Andhra Chamber of Commerce have been organising joint programmes for the past few years We are having our 100th joint lecture on 18th November at MMA Management Center Mr D Shivakumar, Group Exec. President Corporate Strategy

& Business Development, Aditya Birla Group, has kindly agreed to deliver the Special Lecture on the theme “On changing leadership expectations.” Do join us and watch the special event live.

AI has exceeded our expectations

AI is doing the unthinkable. At a time of evolving business models, AI enables businesses to re think strategies and adopt a more humane way of instilling enablement Every day examples of such enablement include automated cars, contextual robots, automated financial investments advisors, and even marketing.

In the hiring industry, AI is enabling a more equitable and humane culture It enables organisations to onboard candidates with higher intangible skills than just numbers. No major industry can claim being unaffected by the AI vision AI should be able to generate many new and surprising ideas. In this

Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM

context, MMA organised a National Management Students Convention on the theme “AI: Shaping Today and the Future” on 27th September 2022 at the IIT Research Park Auditorium. A galaxy of eminent speakers addressed the convention Around 1000 delegates attended the event, and over 25000 watched online. I am delighted to present an article on the convention in this issue with embedded videos Please read on and watch to get inspired

Sustainability is ideal for business as well as the planet

More and more organisations are expected to craft their business strategy with sustainability embedded in the design, now that evidence has piled up in favour of its business sense As pressure increases on businesses to meet the challenges of sustainability, a widening set of technological tools is emerging to help achieve ends consistent with a bequeath able planet. While the pandemic did throw us off Sustainable Development Goals, it is important for businesses, governments and societies to collaborate and get back on track. Sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’ it is at very heart to our existence and that of future generations.

In this regard, MMA in association with Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Trichy, celebrated the ‘sustainability week’ at MMA on 18th October 2022. A galaxy of eminent speakers addressed the delegates. I am happy to present to you an article on this special event with embedded video Please read on and get inspire And there has never been better time to start than now!

Gross domestic product ﴾GDP﴿

The mood in the global market has turned decidedly sombre. The emerging perception is that the

world is in the middle of a biting recession Various indications are already flashing red, suggesting that recession is round the corner. But the Indian economy stands out amid the global economic turmoil. The Indian economy is performing much better compared to the globe, even the IMF had pegged growth at 6 8%; for a large economy of our size, and it’s a respective number. Stability warrants as much attention as growth in these globally fraught times

In this context, MMA organized a discussion on the theme “Does GDP Growth Reflect the Real State of Economy?" on 27 October 2022. The article of the discussion is presented in this issue Please read and watch the live recording of the discussion

Water Futures

India's has 18% of world’s population with only 4% of its water resources, making it one of the most water stressed geographies in the world Climate change is likely to exacerbate this pressure on water resources. Ironically, India faces drought and flood at the same time in different parts The centrality of water in agriculture, business and human existence makes this scarcity and uncertainty difficult to ignore. Keeping this critical issue in mind, MMA organized a panel discussion in association with Policy Matter on “Water Futures, Tamil Nadu Pathways for Sustainable

 The centrality of water in agriculture, business and human existence makes this scarcity and uncertainty difficult to ignore.

Development” on 29th September 2022 at MMA Management Center

I am privileged to present an article on this important discussion in this issue with video.

Celebrating women who pave the way forward

Women in India contribute greatly towards India’s economic growth and prosperity. As per a recent report, there are 432 million women of employment age in India, out of which 343 million of are employed in the unorganised sector. It is estimated that just by offering equal opportunities to women, India could add USD 770 billion to its GDP by 2025 To celebrate women and their success stories and to inspire them to make a difference, a strong support system is crucial to the success of the women Women are no lesser than men and they must be given equal opportunities There will be challenges; however, the right attitude, approach and good education will help them overcome these issues. MMA WBF organises discussion every month on women achievers The event showcases women who have made a mark in the fields of entrepreneurship, education, social work, arts etc., We are delighted to present an online lecture by Ms Anuradha Das Mathur, Founder & Dean, The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women & Director, 9.9 Group on the theme “How Gender Benefits Men” on 15th November 2022 Kindly watch it online and share your feedback

The Mantra: Innovate or Perish

Disruptive technologies are sweeping the economic landscape The only way nations can ride out the storm and grow is through innovation. India must put innovation at the heart of its policies and business strategies for national development and economic growth It is the right time to focus aggressively on establishing an innovation led economy and creating

new avenues of digital opportunities India needs to leverage the innovation trend to accelerate its growth trajectory and innovate its way to power and prosperity.

In this context, CavinKare in association with MMA has instituted Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards to select and honour entrepreneurs from all over India who embody the 'dreamer,' 'innovator,' and 'ideator' qualities of this celebrated innovator, the late Shri R ChinniKrishnan The grand awards function was held on 22nd October 2022 at the IIT Research Park Auditorium, where three outstanding innovators were recognized The awards function was attended by over 1000 participants, and I am delighted to present article on the awards function with embedded video. Kindly watch and get inspired.

Digital Blockbuster

India is on course to have one of the fastest roll outs of 5G telecom networks. Possibly, some of the biggest gains will accrue to enterprises through Industry 4.0, Machine to Machine Communications on 5G networks are expected to over shadow human communications, leading to a paradigm shift in productivity

For a full 5G experience, bottlenecks now need to be reconciled on priority to achieve its objective.

As always, we would be happy to hear your view, comments and suggestions

Happy reading!

In the developed world, GDP linked growth is linked to 'social security', but in India, the government has flagged an early end to what is commonly branded as 'freebies ' . The Supreme Court too is now seized of the matter. The following participated in the discussion: Dr D K Srivastava, Chief Policy Advisor, Ernst & Young India; Dr Venkatesh Athreya, Adjunct Professor, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development ﴾RGNIYD﴿; and Mr KT Jagannathan, Business & Financial Journalist

Dr D K Srivastava Ernst & Young India

Thetopic, ‘Does GDP Growth Reflect the Real State of Economy,’ is both intriguing and challenging. It is true that making reference only to the magnitude of growth numbers can be quite misleading One has to be very careful in understanding and appreciating growth numbers which come out routinely as summary indicators of a country's economic performance I would argue that it is useful to appreciate growth numbers by placing them in a suitable context. For example, given the current situation, we can look at India's contemporary growth performance and prospects by placing it in a global context; or in the context of domestic economic challenges; or in a time perspective. Recently, the IMF has come up with its forecasts covering medium term prospects of India's growth in a global context; it is highlighting that India over the period from FY 23 to FY 28, which translates roughly to calendar years 2022 2027, will grow at an average above 6 5 percent If you

look at world growth, it is only 3.2 percent, which is to say that India is going to perform in growth terms, nearly double that of the global growth Advanced economies are going to perform much worse By the end of 2027, their performance would be less than 2% Japan at about 0.4%; Russia at 0.7% and China at 4.6%. So India is probably in a very significant phase of growth and prosperity



...Whatever growth rate India is able to achieve, it should be interpreted in the perspective of the global economic environment which is challenged by these mega threats which are unfolding.

Ten Mega Threats

But we must recognize the kind of turmoil through which the global economy is now passing through Nouriel Roubini, an Italian macro economist, who had correctly predicted the 2008 global crisis, has come out with his recent book in October 2022, titled ‘Mega Threats: The 10 trends that imperil our future and how to survive them.’ These threats include climate related environmental risks, risks pertaining to economic and financial global instability, geo political challenges such as the supply side barriers in the wake of the Russian Ukraine conflict, risks pertaining to pandemics and epidemics, risks from excess money supplies and debilitating country debt profiles which have rendered both monetary and fiscal policies ineffective globally. Thus whatever growth rate India is able to achieve, it should be interpreted in the perspective of the global economic environment which is challenged by these mega threats which are unfolding. Those also include technological changes including AI and robots, which

may throw the human population out of employment And India may not be immune to that. We are possibly going to go through one of the best phases of sustained, high growth But at the same time, these mega threats can be interpreted in two ways: One is that global growth even at 3.2% on average may be an overestimate, because many economists are now predicting that some of the large advanced and large emerging economies may crash shortly in the wake of these challenges. In fact, the US and the Chinese economies measure much lower growth than what is being predicted here The IMF may even be generous on this account. And, therefore, in that global context, India may do very well if we can sustain a growth rate of about 6 5 percent for five years or beyond But then, it is also imperative that we recognize these megatrends and build cushions and buffers against these challenges

The first quarter growth in FY 23 provides a very high real GDP growth estimate If you look at just one quarter, that growth is 13.5 percent. That's a very

excessively high growth In a normal year, this does not look to be that high In fact, the most problematic sectors trade, hotels, transport, etc have a growth figure of 25.7% in the first quarter. It is the contact intensive and employment intensive sector that had suffered the largest during Covid. This is a sector in which it is still showing negative growth as compared to the corresponding growth in 2021

This is why some people argue that India is getting a K shaped growth with some part of the economy shooting ahead and a large segment of employment / contact intensive sectors still suffering from unemployment and shocks suffered during Covid time So when we are able to emerge out of the immediate impact of Covid and assume a normal growth profile, then only this 6 5% IMF growth projection would have some promise

Let us take a much longer perspective and this will allow us to bring together a global as well as domestic set of constraints Let us say we talk about India's Amrit Kaal, which is 25 years from now or even beyond The outstanding feature of this period is very special for India because we have an emerging demographic dividend and that gives us an advantage as compared to most of our peer countries including China and other emerging markets, as well as the advanced economies.

Growth is yet to be determined and it will respond to the policy initiatives that will be undertaken during the period that is going to unfold. There are a number of perspectives that we can consider. First, we argued overall global growth is going to slow down and our exports also will go down We will have to depend largely on domestic demand and domestic growth dynamics. Whether we will be able to show that kind of growth through domestic growth dynamics is an open question

Capital Inflow

Another perspective that we can draw is that if everybody else is going to grow at a relatively subdued rate, then global capital will flow towards those countries with high growth and India would be one So with India's high growth prospects and a stable currency, we will be able to attract foreign investment and foreign capital into the Indian economy and we might then be able to enjoy the benefits of shifting supply sources, from our neighbouring countries to our domestic economy. Therefore, we may be able to sustain the possibility of a high level of growth Third, we can also question if technological progress takes place such that it becomes quite a challenge to take advantage of the burgeoning working age population that India is going to experience and employ them productively This burgeoning working age population can be employed only if we can educate and keep them in good health.

One outcome of growth, which was not so much of a constraint for many of the peer countries, is the fact that we have to be climate conscious. We have to go for a growth which is characterised by a non polluting set of characteristics One possibility is that we focus on service sector growth / exports which is less carbon emission intensive.



One outcome of growth, which was not so much of a constraint for many of the peer countries, is the fact that we have to be climate conscious. We have to go for a growth which is characterised by a non polluting set of characteristics.

In order to understand the performance of growth and promise of growth, we have to be conscious of the context in which we are discussing this and in the emerging context for India, we have to go for a profile of growth which is much different from other countries It is going to be internally oriented It is going to be dependent largely on domestic demand and domestic growth dynamics. It is going to be dependent on service sector growth and it is going to take advantage only on service sector exports, whereas exports of goods may be highly competitive. The growth has to be climate friendly, which would mean that we have to aim for a lower growth than what was hitherto experienced by our peer countries.

of welfare for the population and focusing solely on some metric called growth or profits Profits or growth is not bad but are we going to take an uncritical attitude to growth?

The growth of the Indian economy in the 1980s that is the decade before the reforms was about 6% per annum. According to Mr Chidambaram, then Finance Minister, the rate of growth of the Indian economy from 1980 81 to 2013 14 was 6 1 percent So my first proposition is that there is no distinct increase in the rate of economic growth, post reforms. Six percent growth rate for about 30 years is very impressive and it is nothing to be dismissed but to pretend that liberalization was the magic potion that delivered fantastic growth will be misleading.

Dr Venkatesh Athreya Adjunct Professor, RGNIYD

Whatis the point of just some numbers of GDP growth without understanding its impact on the various sections of the population? What has high growth in the reform period meant for a vast majority of Indians? A very pleasant prospect of urban growth is pretty nice to hear. But I'm afraid that is not the entire picture. If you take a larger picture of Indian growth over thirty years and particularly over the last eight years, there's some very disturbing features of the growth, which is why the question arises: What is GDP growth on the one hand and the state of the real economy on the other? The state of the real economy is about how people, farmers, factory workers, service sector people are doing. We also have Zomatos and a whole new tribe of gig workers who have extremely precarious conditions of employment. We want to get rid of labour laws and let capital rule supreme. There is a tendency to abandon all regulations necessary for ensuring a minimum level

Reforms & the Three Arms

The reform period consists of three main elements: Deregulation (Liberalisation), Privatisation and Globalisation. Liberalization is a nice word. But the intent was not liberalization, but to remove all the regulations and let big capital domestic and foreign be free to pursue its profits.

 There is a tendency to abandon all regulations necessary for en‐suring a minimum level of wel fare for the population and focusing solely on some metric called growth or profits.

Privatization consists of two parts One is the disinvestment in public sector enterprises something which is continuing to this day and, in fact, with increased vigour under the present regime. But the other part of privatization, which is not often noticed, is that the state abdicated its responsibility for domains like education, infrastructure and health care, all of which was essentially commercialized. Privatization means commercialisation which made access to education, infrastructure and healthcare far more difficult for the poorer sections. That's a fact of life. Then finally we had globalization, which as an economist, I see it in two ways One is the trade We liberalized imports and exports. We have a huge merchandise trade deficit, year after year in the last 30 years That is the difference in the value of exports of physical goods from India, as against the value of imports of physical goods from abroad. We are partly managing it because we have a net earning of foreign exchange in the service sector, especially IT enabled services and tourism. We also have remittances into India by ordinary people working in the Middle East, sending what little savings they make and helping the families build a house or educate their siblings This has been a huge factor in helping us with our BOP, but it is hardly recognized as such in official circles. But even that is not sufficient So we still have a large deficit This year, the current account deficit (CAD) is likely to be of the order of about 2.5 to 3 percent of GDP. That's a huge amount. What does it entail? As a nation, we are desperate for constant influx of foreign exchange. Our survival depends on being able to attract Capital to the extent of about 2.5 to 3% of the GDP. That's also very important because it has policy implication that we will do anything possible to keep foreign Capital happy. Even if it is merely speculative finance capital that comes and plays in the stock or

commodities market and goes out, you don't want to offend them.

Three Macro Worries

There are at least three macro data sources which suggest that the growth that has occurred both in the longer span of 30 years and in the present ultra liberal, neoliberal regime The PLFS Survey done in 2017 18 or 2018 19 as compared with the 2011 12 survey shows a huge increase in unemployment. That's important because in India, unemployment is not an easy thing to deal with

First of all, ‘half our workforce is self employed.’ There's no social security. They have to survive somehow This segment of the population has done quite badly and the numbers have increased over this period. All these data are from the pre pandemic period. There are various components of the workforce. So the demographic dividend that is often talked about can be a demographic disaster as well, if we are not able to create employment adequately and quickly across the board. That's a challenge we face as a nation.

The second important report for the government is the consumer expenditure survey Between 2011 12 and 17 18, you have data from the consumer expenditure survey carried out by NSSO. It tells you

 As a nation, we are desperate for constant influx of foreign exchange. Our survival depends on being able to attract Capital to the extent of about 2.5 to 3% of the GDP.

that the per capita monthly household consumer expenditure declined in rural India by 9% Even in urban areas, the rise in per capita monthly consumer expenditure was only 2.2%.

The third aspect is the agricultural distress Large scale suicides of farmers reflect the sustained rural distress. These three aspects of the decline in household expenditures in general, the decline in purchasing power of our population during a period with a fairly high growth and agricultural distress brought some doubt about the growth numbers we have It also says something about the nature of growth That the market will take care of everybody is just not true for us. We need to question the model of economic growth we have had. As if all these were not bad enough, the present dispensation also added its own bit demonetization and the absolutely unprepared management of GST introduction. There is a prohibition of cattle trade, which has had an impact on assets of farmers in large parts of the countryside

GST Taxes the Poor

GST is basically an indirect tax and falls heavily on the poor That's more than 65 percent of total tax revenue paid in a large part by ordinary people including the poor. We come down on so called freebies but don't look at the concessions by tax cuts to the corporate sector We have not done any cost benefit analysis till this day, for the concessions given.

GDP as you all know is the annual value of output of goods and services produced in a given territory / nation Usually the period is a year Post 2014, the government made an important change, which was planned earlier. We moved from GDP at factor cost to GDP at market prices The present regime has repeatedly increased indirect taxes So the apparent

growth in the last 8 years is illusory What we need to do is to look at the nature of growth

One of the important consequences of all these is that we cannot have a large fiscal deficit. But we can live with a fiscal deficit for some time The US used to have a much higher fiscal deficit We are obsessed with the fiscal deficit because foreign Capital might leave. The consequence of this has been that our fiscal deficit management has been mainly driven by expenditure reduction and not by effective taxation of the rich. As a result, the government has had less and less to spend on key infrastructure We need to have a more balanced economy, where the government is able to spend on all activities which are more profitable to the private sector and for which government must raise resources from the rich and not from the poor It also means that we need to introduce some Capital controls and restructure our economic policies. We need to make sure that our market is accessible to the poor and the working poor because one thing we must remember is that the poor in India cannot afford not to work. The only people who can afford not to work is the rich. That is the reality of our economy

Mr KT Jagannathan Journalist

DoesGDP growth reflect the real state of the economy? There was a famous Indian Express ad line in those days It says that the truth lies somewhere in between This sums up the position of India in the global stage. More than anything else, the sheer size in terms of the population has compelled many to convince themselves to take a positive view of India. India indeed, has edged out the UK to become the world's fifth largest economy. A single number of

GDP figure alone cannot assure all of us a sense of comfort and calmness for people at the bottom of the pyramid, which is very huge in Indian context. When viewed with other numbers, which are even more critical for the ground level happiness, the excitement over the GDP figure just evaporates Retail inflation was five month high of 7.41 percent in September, disconcertingly above the upper tolerance limit of 6 percent fixed by the RBI The food inflation which has a political implication was 8.6 percent, which is even higher than 7.62 percent in August. The rising price hurts a common man more than anything else We have seen governments fall because of onion price escalations. The RBI is very keen on holding the price. Inflation is like the Aladdin genie. It is difficult to put it back into the bottle It is rather simplistic to assume that answers to the problem of inflation lie with the Reserve Bank of India and not the North Block, where the finance ministry sits.

Sliding Down the Hunger Index

Look at the other disconcerting numbers. India's rank in the global hunger index went down to 107 from 101 in 2021, out of 123 countries surveyed by the European NGOs Though we may keep debating these numbers, they tell us a significant tale. A single GDP number does not tantamount to all round happiness at the ground level In a rising inflation situation, the RBI has little option, but to increase the interest rate further. This will have a cascading effect down the line. The EMI for home loan and vehicle loan goes up There is considerable erosion in people’s disposable income and this will have a negative fallout on the demand for industrial goods and a multiplier negative effect on the economy as a whole India's drop in the rank in the global hunger index requires serious introspection The central stockpile of 44.1 billion tons of food grain at

the end of September 22 is down from 49.28 billion tons before September 2022. This depleting food grain stocks indeed raises a lot more concern

The Double Whammy

Indirect tax is the most regressive tax. Everybody knows that such a tax is collected from even the poorest of the poor GST is higher and there is inflation All these have a double whammy on the poor. With the new unfolding global dynamics, the rising fuel price is a significant factor of pain for a common man The visible impact aside, the invisible cost of fuel is also loaded on the common citizen, as it is passed down across the purchases, resulting in the prices of consumer goods escalating considerably

GDP just measures the production capacity and economic growth. It is an aggregate measure that improves the value of goods and services produced. GDP measures everything but it does not discount the value of forests they replace The Delhi winters are increasingly filled with smog. The Chennai streets are inundated with water during the rainy season. But GDP does not say anything about them nor can it explain all these. GDP is a flashy term that the common man may find it hard to comprehend. What a common citizen wants is a sense of happiness and a feeling of comfort It requires more than a robust GDP number to get him this privilege.

India's drop in the rank in the global hunger index requires serious introspection. The central stockpile of 44.1 billion tons of food grain at the end of September 22 is down from 49.28 billion tons before September 2022.

While climate change continues to wreak havoc, Tamil Nadu is not exempt from its ill effects The faster the urbanization in the state, the worse has been the plight. Issues relating to rising climate risks, climate mitigation and adaptation, vulnerability analysis, disaster management and livelihood resilience are as much applicable to Tamil Nadu as to other geographies

The Biosphere and Our Water Futures

Prof S Janakarajan

Wehave faced many micro issues, like the Chennai floods that bothered us, but there are macro issues and global issues which are related to these micro issues So I shall focus more on our biosphere and its condition and in that connection, about the water futures and the pathways for sustainable development We must appreciate three important themes:

• Learn more, listen more and understand more to act

• No more neglect

• Don't hide behind climate change for all human blunders

Three Parts of Biosphere

The Biosphere includes three components:

• The lithosphere, which is the landmass

• The hydrosphere, which contains water, and

• The atmosphere, which is a cover on the planet.

These three do not act in isolation and are very closely interrelated If we take the lithosphere, one third is the landmass Again one third of the landmass is covered with water and the rest is land. That water in the land is distributed over lakes, rivers, marshes, estuaries, creek, and river mouths and so on Though the landmass is covered with water, we suffer for want of fresh water. The wetlands are the world's most essential and valuable ecosystems, contributing to climate regulation, water, food and fibre, biodiversity and most importantly, sustenance for life system living on the land mass. In the lithosphere, land as well as fresh water is scarce They are decreasing in supply and are, at the same time, used more and more for unproductive purposes. Therefore, they are available

less and less, for all productive purposes. The atmosphere is very heavily stressed Four or five layers of atmosphere help to protect all the living organisms from genetic damage. But unfortunately, the atmospheric system itself is in a great danger and there are scientists who predict it may collapse in the course of another 40 to 50 years, thanks to all the emissions that we are making. In the hydrosphere, 97.5 percent is sea water, which is saline Of the balance 2 5 percent, 1 5% lies in the form of ice in the North and South Pole and we are left with only 1% of the total water. In that 1%, 50% lies below the ground and 50% on the surface. The water that lies on the surface is so polluted The prospects of the blue economy are therefore withering The basic function of water resources is climate regulation but nobody talks about it. What is the value of the water for climate regulation? For instance, the ocean generates fifty percent of the oxygen that we need. What is the condition and future of our biosphere? Man, because of his greed and power, destroys the earth and possess a huge threat

India's Statistics

We have something like 4,000 billion cubic meters of water That's about 141,240 TMC feet Though India occupies 2.4 percent of the total land area, we support 15% of the world’s population. We also have to manage

a lot of our livestock population India is a place with the largest livestock in the world 500 million plus Each one of these cows, buffaloes, goats and chicken need a lot of water. To generate 1 kg of beef, we need 50,000 litres of water You can calculate how much water is needed to feed our entire livestock population Unfortunately India's per capita surface water availability is declining. The availability in the years 1991and 2003 were 2309 and 1902 m3 These are projected to reduce to 1401 and 1191 m3 by the years 2025 and 2050 respectively.

A Look at Tamil Nadu

Now let's look at some basic statistics for Tamil Nadu. Available surface water is 17.5 billion cubic metres (618 TMC Feet) Groundwater availability is 15 3 billion cubic meters (540 TMC feet) The per capita water availability is much less compared to even what is available at the all India level. Compared to the global level, Tamil Nadu's water availability is extremely low and it is in a very disadvantageous situation. There are17 river basins and on record, there are 61 major reservoirs; 39,200 irrigation tanks; and 0 3 million wells Whether these reservoirs are in good condition and are so many water bodies existing is a very big question mark. Because of the silt accumulation, the capacity of the all the reservoirs have been reducing In fact, the Mettur reservoir capacity is reduced by 1/3rd because of the silt accumulation. Tamil Nadu with a geographical area of 130 lakh hectares is ranked 11th in size among the Indian states.

The Context

Our economic activity is booming We are contributing 10 to 12 percent of the country's GDP, which means we use quite a lot of water for all the

 There are17 river basins and on record, there are 61 major reservoirs; 39,200 irrigation tanks; and 0.3 million wells. Whether these reservoirs are in good condition and are so many water bodies existing is a very big question mark.

commercial, industrial and agricultural activity. We must view this in the below context:

• Competitive politics; competitive populism and competitive markets.

• The whole economy, the polity and society must centre on growth and development We want to achieve 8 to 12% growth and would like to exceed other states. When India competes with other countries, a state like Tamil Nadu will compete with other states The net result is rapid urban expansion. Cities are expanding unendingly and there is massive industrialisation, uncontrolled rural urban migration and in the process, rural poverty is converted into urban poverty. Urban slums are expanding. There is enormous rise in the demand for land and fast diminishing of urban space

• The density of population is very high. In

Chennai, in 2011, it was about 25,000 per square kilometre. Today it is 34,000 per square kilometre This also means that the per capita drainage space is declining rapidly, which is also one of the main contributing factors for the urban flood. There is a mechanical and unscientific land use Urban land use planning is one of the most important issues that we all should be concerned with, because the land is extremely scarce

Heading Towards a Crisis

But what kind of urban planning do we have? Is it scientific, based on some vision? This is something which we have to talk about We have lost three fourth of the dense forests in the Western Ghats. For the green economy, forests are extremely important. This is the place where all the major rivers originate like Cauvery,

Krishna, Vaigai and Tamiraparani When the forest is disappearing, it will result in huge loss of biodiversity There is uncontrolled waste generation. On the whole, we are heading towards biodiversity crisis. The absurdity is the unsustainable growth and development In many forums, the UN Secretary General has made the very important point that growth and development and GDP must be maintainable. But unfortunately, our blue and green economies are stressed. Due to increasing pollution levels in the ocean, segments of oceans are now declared dead zone. We are destroying our rivers Rivers, river courses, water bodies and forests are disappearing The biodiversity crisis will result in oxygen depletion in the atmosphere. The earth is warming up very fast. Climate is changing; sea levels are increasing and we are reaching the tipping point as per the IPCC sixth assessment report. The tipping point indicates that the damages done to the biosphere and to the planet earth are irreversible

Maps and the Reality

If we look at the water body map related to Tamil Nadu (which have been prepared with data recorded in the GIS), in Thiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu Districts, there are 3662 water bodies. But do they actually exist? No We have lost many This is just an example and the picture is the same for the entire state. The drainage map for the same three districts tells us how the water was flowing from where to where, what are the links, the canals and the streams, the major rivers, macro drains and micro drains. All these are mapped but many do not exist today So we cannot complain about the flood without addressing these issues Looking at a chart of ground water usage from 1930 up to 2010, we can see that in 1930, it was very minimal because people were not

using ground water but primarily using the surface water Over a period of time, the surface water has come down drastically and on the other hand, groundwater has gone up quite steadily and has reached its peak today 65 to 70 percent of water used in agriculture is from groundwater 80% of the drinking water in the country and also in the state comes from groundwater. Industrial water primarily comes from groundwater Industries contribute to GDP and if there is groundwater depletion, it will result in desertification. Once that happens, the economy will collapse, affecting GDP, growth and development We must take adequate measures to recharge groundwater We need very scientific policy interventions.

Let me give you another example of the Cauvery Delta, particularly in the context of climate change. The lower elevation coastal zone refers to 10 metre and below. Most parts of the Cauvery delta including Nagapattinam in particular and Thiruvarur district fall under the low elevation coastal zone 82 villages along the coast are lying in extremely low elevations of three meters and below. We have already lost lots of land through erosion. The NRSC data (National Remote Sensing Centre) indicate that major parts of Nagore region have gone under the sea We have measured 242 points from Pichavaram to Vedaranyam area and we have mapped them. We could find that we had lost 4000 acres as their survey numbers and subdivision lie in the sea. The accretion is only 1500 acres while the erosion is much larger. The estimates show that if the sea level rises 2 mm per year, then in the next 20 to 25 years, most parts of Nagapattinam district are likely to go under the sea, given the fact that there is erosion, coastal flooding and coastal storm surges that are taking place

If we look at the Cauvery river, its major tributaries in Tamil Nadu are Bhavani, Amaravathi, Noyyal and Kodaganaru. We have around 9900 small and medium industries located in this Cauvery basin, and they generate huge pollutants that directly go into the rivers The Bhavani river in Erode is very heavily polluted. As per the Blacksmith Institute located in New York, Palar river is the fourth most polluted river in the world, thanks to the 33,000 crores of foreign exchange we generate from the leather exports we do. It is a poison river. Something like 22 kg of cyanide is going into the Palar bed every month as per the study carried out by the Asian Development Bank Even the ground water is so heavily polluted and not a drop of water available at the ground level can be used. Noyyal river is also heavily polluted because of the dying and bleaching done by the textile industries We need growth and development, but have we ever talked about greening our national accounts and about environmental accounting? We don't do that at all It is high time that we calculate the damages done to the eco system. GDP cannot be gross. It has to be really net of what we have lost in our nature capital

The Pallikaranai marshland in Chennai has reduced from 54 square kms to 5 4 square kms We have lost it thanks to the declaration that it will be part of the IT Corridor. The ecosystem valuation of this marshland is incalculable A huge surplus of the upstream tanks gets deposited in the Pallikaranai marsh. Such a kind of formation of the wetland is extremely unique and we have unfortunately lost it We can construct any number of buildings but not the wetland The latest IPCC report warns us that even by conservative estimates, the projected increase in temperature is going to be not 1 5 but 3 5 degrees in the course of the 21st century, which is really alarming The 3700 page IPCC report mentions that Chennai is declared as a

disaster area and parts of it can become submerged over the next few years

Need for 1.7 Earths

We need today 1.7 earths to maintain our current standard of living If we take India’s current consumption standard as the global reference, we need only 0.7 earth but taking the global consumption standard, we need 1 7 earths If we extrapolate with the US lifestyle for the entire world, we may need 4 earths and if we take Australia, we need 7 earths. If we maintain what the East and West Africa consume, we need just 0 4 earth This points out to the gross climate injustice across the countries The rich hide behind the poor. We have only one Earth and it has lost its regenerating capacity. The water futures and pathways towards sustainable development are in our hands The key stakeholders are the governments, the markets and the people. By people, I refer more to the upper middle and rich who are the primary consumers and primary movers of growth and development These three stakeholders have to really act swiftly. Lastly, let us not hide behind climate change for all our blunders. Even with a 50 mm of rainfall for 2 hours, we see that our streets are flooded and there is no point in blaming climate change for that. 

 If we extrapolate with the US lifestyle for the entire world, we may need 4 earths and if we take Australia, we need 7 earths. If we maintain what the East and West Africa consume, we need just 0.4 earth. This points out to the gross climate injustice across the countries.

Mainstreaming and Its Importance for India

Dr V Thiruppugazh

is the latest development jargon. Interestingly, we've been hearing about mainstreaming many things, and one among them is mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR). There is something called development jargon detector, which is a tool to trace how development jargons have changed over a period of time I traced how development jargons have changed for a period of 30 to 35 years and they are listed below:

Mainstreaming

• Bottom up

• Empowerment

• Grassroots

• Social Capital

• Sustainability

• Top down

• Gender sensitive

• Mainstreaming (which is currently in vogue)

The term mainstreaming has not been properly understood or interpreted, either by policymakers or practitioners. What was packaged as disaster risk management earlier is packaged now as mainstreaming! How to go about it? There are two approaches to disaster risk reduction:

• One is mainstreaming

• The other is Special Projects

What is the difference between the two? One is not opposed to the other. It is not that we can stop all the special projects and start mainstreaming disaster risk reduction It cannot be done that way Let me explain why In 2021, Chennai was flooded and 105 places were severely affected. Let us say that we have to reduce the impact of floods in the subsequent years, in these 105 specific places So you frame, formulate

and come out with new / special projects to look at reduction of flooding and taking up some mitigation measures in these select 105 places. This is the special projects approach. The risk exists, and you want to reduce the risk for which you must have special projects.

Mainstreaming

At the same time, we need to stop accumulation or creation of new risk. For that purpose, you have to mainstream, which means that the further development taking place should ensure that we do not create any new risk For that, development should incorporate disaster risk reduction principles. Our development should be risk informed and it should be risk sensitive. So special projects and mainstreaming are not two opposing approaches. We need both. This is not very much discussed anywhere so clearly. Till now, we have only been looking at special projects They have not seriously implemented disaster risk reduction through mainstreaming. How did this concept of mainstreaming develop?

• Earlier, we spoke about disaster resilient communities. The original meaning of the word resilience is the ability to bounce back.

 Mainstreaming is the internalization of risk awareness and incorporation of risk reduction measures into the overall policies and programs, within and outside the government.

If a society or community is affected by a disaster, they will be able to bounce back immediately. Now disaster resilience is used in a totally different way

• Disaster resistant communities: Can we not build the capacity of the communities in such a way that they resist disasters?

• Why should we resist the disaster? Can we mitigate the hazards? Thus evolved Sustainable Hazard Mitigation.

• The latest is Invulnerable Development Can we have development in such a way that there is no vulnerability? Disaster resilient infrastructure now means invulnerable infrastructure, which cannot be affected by disasters

The simplest definition is: Mainstreaming is the internalization of risk awareness and incorporation of risk reduction measures into the overall policies and programs, within and outside the government

One is to have risk informed planning policies and the other is implementation. Both should be risk informed. In creating massive infrastructure, the government should look at DRR And individuals too should look at it, even if they build a single story masonry house. Thus, it should be mainstreamed within and outside the government as well.

Disaster management is going in one side and development is going on the opposite side The departments implementing development do not bother about the disaster risk neither the upstream risk (which the project itself will be facing) nor the downstream risk (which the project will be generating).

If disaster managers interfere and recommend to modify or drop the project, then they will be looked at as enemies by the development sector On the other hand, disaster managers are afraid of allowing any development, because they are very sure that development proposed is going to be a vulnerable development and it will carry a lot of risk So

mainstreaming should have the bicycle model If the front wheel is development, then the rear wheel should be disaster risk reduction. Both should move together. Then only, real and invulnerable development will take place

Mainstreaming for India

Why is mainstreaming important for us in India?

• India is one of the most hazard prone countries in the world. We are among the top five countries mainly because of our geography 60 percent of our land mass is susceptible to earthquakes; 12% to floods; 68% to drought. Over 7600 kilometres long coastline makes us prone to cyclones as well as tsunami We have the risk of chemical, industrial and nuclear and a host of other disasters, mainly because 12 of our states are hill states in the north and northeast

• The other factor is the increasing number of catastrophic disasters. Scientists are debating, whether the actual number of disasters is increasing due to climate change

• We have new types of disasters like urban floods which we didn’t hear of before 40 years The latest is cloudburst For the past ten years, we have been hearing a lot about cloudburst. So, new disasters are emerging and the number of people affected and the economic losses are increasing We have been able to reduce the loss of lives in India and even at the global level, but the economic loss is increasing.

• A new category of risk is emerging We call it global catastrophes. The Tombola volcano in Indonesia erupted in 1815 and the ashes were thrown up in the sky as far as 45 kilometres

It clouded and blocked the sun The earth did not receive the sun's rays for one year The year 1816 is called the year without summer. As a result of that, agriculture failed all over the world There was famine in India, Ireland and England; food shortage in America; and everybody suffered. Today, we have a different type of global catastrophes emerging If there is a nuclear war, scientists say that there is a possibility of the sun's rays getting blocked for five years. The food stock we have will not last for more than three years If it exceeds three years, what will we eat? It may be another volcanic eruption or a novel pathogen or a new type of virus anything can create this There is a fully dedicated institute working for this.

• The setback in development: If a place is affected by disasters, then 50 or 25 or even 100 years of development is totally wiped out (especially when an earthquake strikes). It will take another 25 to 30 years to come back to normal life

• Our development itself is currently risk prone.

For all these reasons, we have to mainstream disaster risk reduction. We normally talk about four phases of disaster management: prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response, which consists of rescue, relief and recovery. If we mainstream disaster risk reduction, prevention and mitigation can be automatically taken care of, for future disasters When there is a major disaster like tsunami, we went for post disaster reconstruction in Tamil Nadu. If one had to undertake such a big reconstruction program, we can ensure that we build back better, which means that we take into account future risk and build in such a

way that the place is not affected by future disasters

To understand mainstreaming, you have to understand what disaster risk means. It is a function of Hazard, Vulnerability, Exposure and Capacity. It is normally said that Risk is equal to Hazard x Vulnerability x Exposure x Capacity but more precisely, it is a function of all these four. We have natural and man made hazards. I am of the opinion that all disasters are man made Hazards, can be natural and man made As far as natural hazards are concerned, we can't do anything about it. But in the case of man made disasters, you can always decide where you can locate a chemical factory in a thinly populated or thickly populated area. You can reduce the hazard by your decisions. You can restrict exposure in such a way that the population or the area exposed to disasters or hazards is reduced One of the main reasons for exposure is concentration of assets and people. So if you can reduce that, you can reduce exposure. Next is vulnerability, which means weakness

Types of Vulnerabilities

There are several types of vulnerabilities We have to understand each of them if we want to mainstream:

• Vulnerability of the built environment. Despite the fact that we have specific building codes for building in the hazard prone areas, we're not following it, as a result of which 80% of our built environment is vulnerable to disasters

• Poverty is one of the reasons why people are vulnerable to disasters. Poverty cannot be equated to vulnerability. It is one of the important factors contributing to vulnerability.

• Social, economic, political and cultural factors contributing to vulnerability Some

sociologists are of the opinion that disaster is a social construct It is not a natural thing The way we have created this society, creates disasters because the same disaster affects two people in two different ways It affects a billionaire differently than a poor man One is impacted and completely destroyed. The other is not at all affected. So the caste, class, race, gender divisions in the society matter Physically challenged people and aged people are socially vulnerable. People without sustainable livelihoods are impacted more Political vulnerability comes when people do not have a voice. That's the difference between dictatorial regimes and democratic regimes Cultural factors: Eg We have been doing something for 2000 years and it was okay. Now it is not working. One classic example is the shifting cultivation which is being followed in the Northeast It was okay before many years if you burn down the forest and start cultivating. Today, already, the rainfall in those areas is reducing Chirapunji is no longer the highest rain receiving place in the world. Not only that. You create additional disasters. Forest fires can result when you burn down for the sake of cultivation

• Population and economic processes: If you are having a factory and if you let out more black smoke, the mode of production is creating vulnerability.

• Marginalization: Economic marginalization; social marginalization; and geographical marginalization Look at who is staying near the areas which are in the margins. They are the vulnerable people.

• Under development and unplanned development

• Lack of regulation and enforcement. One is having the regulation The other is not enforcing it

• We don't have the financial capacity or human resources or technical capacity. If we have all the three, then we don't have managerial capacity

Disaster Management Framework in India

Before understanding and discussing mainstreaming in depth, we have to understand the disaster management framework and India. Till 1960 and 70s, our focus was on post disaster relief. The whole thing emerged in 1880s when India suffered from massive famines The British Raj set up the first Famine Commission in 1880. We had only relief manuals till very recently. The concept of disaster management plans is only 20 to 25 years old Strangely, disaster management does not figure as a subject in any of the three lists of the Constitution, namely, the union list, state list and the concurrent list Then why is it that state governments are made responsible? Many will not know the answer. The reason is, though the British Raj set up the 1880 Famine Commission at the central government level, when the provincial administration evolved in 1930s, this subject was

pushed to the provincial governments So today the legacy is still under state governments and they are doing relief administration. Earlier, famine was the biggest disaster. We did not suffer from famines after 80s in a very big way The agriculture ministry at the central government was in charge of disaster management till 2001, but three major disasters the 1993 Latur earthquake; 1999 Super Cyclone in Orissa; and 2001 earthquake in Gujarat showed the administration in poor light and immediate response became important. So the portfolio of disaster management, except drought, was shifted to Ministry of Home Affairs in 2001 We have the National Crisis Management Committee headed by the cabinet secretary. In 2005, the Disaster Management Act was passed and we created three new institutions: NDMA National Disaster Management Authority; SDMA State Disaster Management Authority; and DDMA District Disaster Management Authority We do not have any provision to declare anything as a disaster There is no way of declaring an event as a disaster. It doesn't say that if a certain thing happens, you can declare it as a disaster Only our newspapers and political leaders declare something as a national disaster. But legally, you cannot declare something as a national disaster. Disaster risk reduction has to be undertaken by all the ministries, at all the departments in government of India and at the state government level. What is the relevance of all these things for disaster risk reduction and mainstreaming? First of all, we view disasters as isolated events Development is taking place and once in five years or ten years, there is a disaster and disruption. Again, we start developing and after 5 or 10 years, there is another disaster So we are prone to viewing disasters as isolated events But they are not isolated events. The manifestation of risk may be an isolated event. You have been



Earlier, famine was the biggest disaster. We did not suffer from famines after 80s in a very big way. The agriculture ministry at the central government was in charge of disaster management till 2001...

accumulating risk for 20, 40 or 50 years and that is manifesting But risk manifestation does not mean that it is an isolated event. Since we think that it is an isolated event, we don't analyse it at all. Once the flood is over, nobody is going to talk about flood till the next flood occurs In the last 10 years, how many people would have spoken about tsunami resistant construction and about growing mangroves as protection from tsunamis? Nobody speaks about it Only when the next tsunami occurs, we will all talk about it.

Root Cause

We always seek solutions in technology. If there is a disaster, we never look at the root causes. If there is a flooding problem, we think more drainage will help or more of pumping out water will help A disaster is always seen as a temporary administrative failure. If there is a poor reservoir management, if more water is let out in the last minute, if many people suffer when areas are submerged, it is seen as an administrative failure. We catch hold of the Chief Engineer or a Deputy Engineer and issue a chargesheet or punish a couple of people and everybody is happy That is what is demanded also. But it is the failure of our development process. The moment you say it is a natural disaster, you can be absolved of all responsibilities and failures We are not responsible! When it comes to people's participation, we treat them only as victims. Always, the views are from top down. Our approach has been reactive after the disaster We are good in saving the lives of people and providing relief. That is how, life losses come down. And our objective is always to return to the situation before the event People, government and everybody wants to go back to the pre disaster situation. We don't wait for incorporating disaster risk reduction measures in the recovery

process. We have to change our perspective from the dominant perspective. What is the change which is required?

We should understand that disasters arise from the very process of development. So disaster risk reduction should become part of the normal process of development We should analyse linkages during normal times. During normal times, if a city is expanding, we are bothered about how much FSI we will get and if we will get some facilities, access to drain, access to buses, etc Who is bothered about disaster risk during normal times?

That should be done during normal times and we should emphasise on solutions that change the relationships and attitudes in the society That is the root cause of the problem. A poor man getting affected is the outcome. That is visibly seen. Why is a man so poor? Why should he build on the flood plains or near the solid waste dumps? Why are women affected more in all the disasters? Unless we change the relationships and attitudes in the society, disaster risk reduction is not possible And if we want to change that, mainstreaming has to take place and for which:

• We have to look at people as partners

• Follow a proactive risk reduction approach

We wait for disasters to happen and risks to be exposed. We never look at the underlying

 Always, the views are from top‐down. Our approach has been reactive after the disaster. We are good in saving the lives of people and providing relief. That is how, life losses come down.

risk In 2009, India's national policy was approved by the cabinet It clearly says mainstreaming of DRR must be done in the development agenda of all existing and new developmental programmes and projects

The first national disaster plan was prepared by me in 2016. I revised it in 2019 and clearly included a chapter on mainstreaming. Every department, state government and district must prepare a Disaster Management plan The DRR and Development plans should be integrated.

Steps to Achieve Mainstreaming

• Increase awareness at all levels

• Have risk informed/sensitive planning

• Proper land use planning

• Focus on risk transfer and risk sharing through insurance and re insurance.

• Having inclusive DRR

• Carrying out Disaster Impact Assessment like SIA and EIA

• Ensure legal framework and enforcement

• Intra governmental integration

• Analyse linkages during normal times (eg: Look at MNREGS, poverty alleviation schemes)

• Emphasis on solutions that change relationship and attitudes in the society

• Make DRR as part of regular schemes (eg: social housing, infrastructure development projects)

• Focus on vulnerability reduction

• Focus on sustainable livelihood (consequent vulnerability) Diversify livelihood options

• Need for reviewing institutional arrangements. Our experience after 17 years of creating many institutions for Disaster

Management tells us that more and more departments are washing their hands off, saying that NDMA should take care of DRR activities. This defeats the very purpose of mainstreaming If mainstreaming takes place, we do not need the special purpose vehicles.

Relationship between SDGs and DRR

Let us look at some of the goals in the list of UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2: Promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

We must mainstream DRR in each and every scheme and policy and every new programme. At the same time, we must have special projects for many years, running parallel to mainstreaming DRR. If we start implementing mainstreaming today, at least after 15 or 20 years, we can have full fledged mainstreaming Development can reduce or increase vulnerability. If we mainstream today, we can have invulnerability in the future. 

Bharathidasan Institute of Management ﴾BIM﴿’s Centre for Sustainable Development identifies and amplifies the best practices of sustainable living at the grassroots MMA collaborated with BIM to organize ‘Sustainability Week’ celebrations at MMA Management Center recently Mr Anshul

Mishra, IAS, Member Secretary, CMDA spoke on the theme ‘Sustainable Urbanism ’

Mr Anshul Mishra Member Secretary, CMDA

Whenwe talk about sustainability, it means that we consume something to the extent that it is enough for us and it should be left for the future generations too. How do we achieve sustainability in our lives and more so, in urban settings? Urban areas are the ones where we see a lot of consumption happening, which leads to unsustainability. It is not restricted to consumption of goods and food but everything including concrete The human behaviour is such that it is very difficult to understand the implications of such consumption. Most of the time, we adjust our consumption based on our income That is where the indifference curve of choice comes into play Three years ago, I bought an iPhone 8 when iPhone 10 was already there in the market. After that, I was tempted to buy a new IPhone but somehow resisted that Now recently, I bought an iPhone 14. You can look at this issue from many angles. IPhone 14 may have better features like higher

data storage and faster functionalities which are required for me at this stage So I migrated to that But we need to consider if we really need to upgrade and the amount of energy which goes into making iPhone 14 or any other products

"Wish we had 2.5 Earths!"

I finished my Masters one year ago from a US University They gave us an exercise to do on green cities There was software and we had to enter our consumption pattern like the mode of transportation, if we have a car, what we consume, what are our habits, etc The combined result suggested that if we consume the way we consume, then we need 2.5 Earths to live 60 or 70 years of life. So the consumption pattern and the way we consume goods and services define how sustainable the planet is going to be and how sustainable our lives are going to be. There could be many initiatives at the local level. We heard about how Auroville area is developed and how it functions in a more sustainable manner But local initiatives alone are not enough because the way urbanization is

happening and the rate at which urban areas are growing is incredible. We cannot stop it. We cannot ask people not to come to urban areas which are our growth centers. They give people opportunities for better quality of life, more employment and more income That's what human beings want To tackle this problem, we need to understand the concept of sustainable urbanism. Urban areas have more concrete, more buildings, but they drive economic growth that translates into increased personal income and more economic activities Urban areas support millions of people all over the world. Whether it is good or bad can be a different debate, but it is there and we need to manage it Making urban growth more sustainable is the challenge and it has many aspects; it just not just about the environment or ecology. Sustainability is also related to social, economic, ecological and health related issues of urban life We are worried about environment and ecology. We talk about energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption, making more energy efficient buildings, energy efficient transport systems and all that We are moving

towards battery operated vehicles, solar energy, wind energy and many other sustainable renewable source of energy

Promote Mixed Income Housing

But in the urban scenario, we must understand the social aspect of sustainable urbanism We have urban poor and the government tries to provide housing for urban poor. Most of these projects of urban housing are not equitable in many senses. They find a land to construct houses for the urban poor When the slum dwellers are shifted to that place, two things happen. One, the environment, which was present in the slum area, just gets transferred to another concrete slum There is no change in the quality of life The other thing is that the people who were living in the slums, were living very near to their workplaces. They are suddenly shifted 15 to 20 kilometres away So they lose their livelihood To address this problem, we must tweak the rules and regulations in such a way that we promote mixed income housing. So far, mixed income housing is not at all discussed in various platforms in

The Auroville Experience

Mr N Bala Baskar, IAS (Retd), Member, Board of Governors, BIM gave a presenta on on Auroville’s experience and challenges in ushering sustainable devel opment:

was designed as a city for 50,000 people, in a circle with a 5 kilometre diameter. The inner circle represents the city and the outer circle is fully dedicated to the green belt The word 'sustainable' was not fashionable when the project was launched. Auroville is a complex vision that came from the vision of spiritual guru Sri Aurobindo He was a poet and dreamer. But the doer of that vision was The Mother, who was Sri Aurobindo's spiritual partner She organised the Aurobindo Ashram and is the one who gave shape to Auroville. It was started in the 1960s with the objec ve that people should come there to evolve to the next stage of consciousness On 20 Feb 1968, Auroville was inaugurated. The soil from 27 states was brought to the site, was mixed together and placed in an urn there, to symbolise

Auroville

human unity and to realise the core dream of Sri Aurobindo It was an UNESCO supported project. It s ll supports the Auroville experiment. From a barren land in 1960s, it has now transformed to a lush green forest with over 2 million trees This is a great model for sustainable development. A lot of indigenous trees are there A banyan tree near the Matri Mandir is the geographical centre of the Auroville township. Roger Anger is the French architect who designed Auroville, based on a simple sketch given by The Mother Agni Jata is a house built in raw clay. Normally, raw brick is burnt and then used to construct the house But here, the house was built with raw clay and the whole house was burnt up. It s ll stands there. There are also avant garde houses. There is a Bharat Nivas which is part of the Interna onal Zone There is also a Tibetan Pavilion here, which is a sustainable building The human space is where the 'houses for living' is modelled It is almost a replicate of the Greek City model where the space is self contained and everybody

could meet each other. These are units of 5000 people, completely self contained Auroville runs a lot of businesses to sustain its own economy. There is an organic dying unit They follow their own educa on system There is a kindergarten, transi on school and law school. There is no passing examina on or cer fica on in any of these. There is a Centre for Scien fic Research Auroville generates solar energy to cater to a canteen that cooks food for 700 people. It was installed in 1977. At that me, it was Asia's largest parabolic solar concentrator Auroville's Consul ng division provides a lot of guidance to those who want to launch sustainable development projects / ini a ves There is a Sadhana forest that has become yet another lush green forest and is maintained by an Israeli na onal. There is a lot of demand from people to come and live in this forest There is also another forest on the outskirts called 'Aranya forests' developed by a boy and has a lot of bio diversity He has trained a lot of children to become friendly with the environment

India and most of the developing countries as well But developed countries, including the Western countries have policies to promote it. What we have to do is to incentivise the developer or the builder to promote and construct smaller houses in all the areas and not only limit them to far away areas If we develop smaller houses everywhere, many poor people or those who are above the poverty line would be able to access them One may argue that it is costly and people may not buy it. In that case, the government should preserve land near the core areas of the city to provide housing for the poor at a cheaper cost This is how we can deal with social aspect of urban sustainability

Going for Densification

When we allow our urban sprawl to spread all over the city and along the peripheries, the cost of transportation increases as cheaper houses are available only in the outskirts. Most people who work inside the city have to travel that much distance; every day, they have to invest time and money to reach their workplace. This is a big challenge and the economic aspect of sustainability gets hit. Again, we have to work on the rules regulation CMDA has come up with a proposal of densification within the core areas, along the growth corridors and along the metro line. This is an important new concept in India, but other countries have already adopted it By this, we ensure that there is connectivity between where people live and where they work. There is easy access to transport systems. We can reduce dependency on car The economic aspect has thus an inbuilt aspect of environmental sustainability. Dependence on cars leads to more congestion on the roads, more pollution and more consumption of fossil fuel So for sustainable urbanism, we need to address these problems in an urban setting.

Two New Mega Bus Terminals

CMDA has taken up this issue in a big way and announced two new major bus terminals in Chennai’s outskirts at Kilambakkam and Kuthambakkam

where we will go for net zero building. Large spaces will be available in the bus stand. They will have solar panels to ensure that whatever energy is required in the bus stand will be met by the energy produced by the solar panels. Another aspect of urbanism related to social life is about the accessibility of public facilities like park It should be accessible to every section of the society children, women and people of old age. It must be safe for women. Of course, the challenge is huge. Pollution is another major issue. Chennai is still better because of the nice breeze that we get in the evening, but in Delhi and many northern cities, it is really bad, so much so that the courts have come down heavily on pollution Overall, we see untimely and unseasonal rains and extreme weather conditions, like the 2015 Chennai floods. Everybody blames the government. But importantly, we need to address climate change

Shoreline Management

We are also working on integrated shoreline management CMDA has announced that it will take up the entire 50 km stretch of shore line in Chennai from the Ennore creek to the Kovalam beach and develop an integrated plan to renourish and revitalize the entire coastal line, ensure that it is conserved and protected properly ecologically and at the same time, there is accessibility for the public. We are going to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for this We want to ensure that there is always connect between the people and nature. 

Towards a Sustainable Human Behaviour

Mr Vishesh Gupta, Chairperson, Bharat Soka Gakkai (BSG):

BSG

engages in the fields of peace, culture and educa on, with a special focus on sustainability. It has a membership of 300,000 across India Most of them are voluntary members. Many of them are SDG professional experts, working for UN organisa ons like UNDP, TERI, etc. It has a task force of 12 people to find out how BSG can contribute to the achievement of SDGs by 2030 Here, the role of the government is very important. The corporates also must support the government It has launched an App to support the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Na ons This app is called 'BSG for SDG’ The app is

a one stop pla orm for all things related to SDGs The app serves as a pla orm to help adopt ‘Sustainable Human Behaviour’ as a way of life an essen al requirement to achieve the SDGs. BSG’s 3 step formula to achieve SDGs is:

o Learn about SDGs and share the learning with others

o Reflect on what should be done

o Empowerment and taking lead Take ac on BSG organised an exhibi on called, 'Seeds of Hope in Ac on,' to spread awareness about SDGs and make SDGs into reality, across many educa onal ins tutes across the country It also created SDG clubs in these ins tutes to sensi se students towards the cause of sustainability 

BIM & the TN CM's Fellowship Program

Dr Asit K Barma, Director, BIM, shed light on the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Fellowship Program (TNCMFP) and the state’s e up with BIM as its academic partner "Usually, the government es up only with the top notch IIMs. We are privileged that this opportunity has come to BIM this me and for which we thank the TN government I am also happy to share that the TN government is completely commi ed to this Fellowship program," he said He also explained the very tough selec on process followed in selec ng 30 par cipants from over 80,000 prospec ve applicants.

The world around us has changed, and this is equally true of society and industry This has also caused us to revisit and reimagine the nature of work, employee engagement, and workplace itself

Understanding the Employee Potential Harnath Babu

CIO & Partner, KPMG

Inthe Sixties, Arthur C Clarke, the science fiction writer, predicted that one day we would be able to do operation sitting remotely. He also said that the only magical thing that will happen to mankind is technology The last one decade has seen a very fast paced change in our lives due to two years of covid and the subsequent changes that it has brought in. We have been pushed into the future by almost 7 to 10 years

The idea of adoption of online platforms to online health care and remote working have happened quickly only because of the availability of technology. This is a changing landscape that we are looking at The environment that we saw in 2018 or 2019 has changed The customer has changed; the employers have changed and the workforce has changed. We see a lot

of gig economy. We hear of terms like the great resignation and moonlighting. The employee needs the flexibility to choose what they want to work on and where they want to work That's the biggest change

The next big challenge is the war for digital talent. Companies have realized that it’s not possible for them to sustain and stay resilient, if there is too much of human intervention in every process they are running That is why digital transformation is on the agenda of most companies. There is a gap of 55% between the digital talent required and available in organizations

Three Major Shifts & Challenges

Considering the newer dimensions, we must look at three things:

• The nature of work and business models is changing.

• People are becoming the most valuable assets in organizations.

• The idea of workplace is changing

A survey by Gallup has concluded that employees are truly productive only for a few hours in a day 85% of employees are not engaged in work. According to other surveys, 90% of the workers spend their time, at least two days in a week, on administrative tasks; 50% employees struggle with documents and content scattered across disparate applications and storage locations An average employee is productive only for 3 hours in a day If the organization is small, the problem could be smaller but in an organization spread geographically in different countries, ineffective communication channels can disrupt the whole organization Slowly, the cultural affinity towards the organization is coming down, as they start working morning to night from remote. There is job related stress In some cases, there is a hazardous working environment. So we can see that employees’ productivity is coming down because of administrative tasks; unavailability of trusted information; ineffective



A survey by Gallup has concluded that employees are truly productive only for a few hours in a day. 85% of employees are not engaged in work.

communication and lack of employee engagement If we analyze workplace productivity and put it as an equation, we can see that the employee potential is the sum of a) their current ability b) future aspirations c) adaptability to the changing environment and d) collaboration. Digital enablement results in productivity goals.

Anatomy of a Productive Workforce

• Employees need the right resources to deliver

• Both employees and employers must have a culture of learning and development. It is not limited to technical skill sets but includes

soft skills like emotional quotient

• There must be a collaborative work culture It must be in the DNA of the organization.

• Organisations must take care of employee wellness

• Employee engagement will continue to play a key role, because a disengaged employee can be highly unproductive.

• The important aspect is the X Factor, which is nothing but technology. According to a survey (Ultimate Software), 92% employees say that having technology that helps them do their job efficiently affects their work satisfaction. 53% of respondents in a CITO Research survey have said that having mobile apps improves business processes and productivity 46% of respondents in a Pew Research survey have said that they report increased productivity as a result of digital tool usage

Technology Trends

The technology trends that shape the new workplace are:

a) Smart and virtual office space

b) Collaboration & knowledge sharing

c) Automation & Internet of Things

d) Learning and Development.

Technology providers have moved from being mere service providers to those that add value They lead from the front They were considered as cost centre in the past. Now they are revenue generators. Therefore, it is very important for every organization on the planet to go digital, to ensure that they become more efficient as an organization 

The Future of Everything

Mr Suresh Raman Vice President & Regional Head, TCS Chennai

Ourexperience at TCS has been very different. We have 6 lakh employees across the globe and a lakh in Chennai We added about 1 5 lakh employees in India, in the last two years because of the tremendous growth and digital transformation initiatives taken by the global corporates We have to ensure that they get into the stream and make them learn, so we can leverage their potential.

I will touch upon four aspects:

• Future of work

• Future of workforce

Future of workplace

• Future of work tech

The future of work: It glorifies machines than humans. We are slowly getting into Industry 5.0 where we will put humans back as in charge Creative work and content will have to be done by humans. But Industry 4.0 will be the foundation on which Industry 5 0 will be constructed Many companies are now in 4 0 where we provide them with the ‘machine first delivery model.’ Industry 5.0 will be about ‘humans first.’ The type of work will be very different. In healthcare industry, for instance, doctors do some work and nurses do some work There is a missing middle. So the nurses will get upskilled. Doctors can focus on their core work. In between, automation will happen This will happen across many sectors including judicial system. There is now talk of low code, no code for which many platforms are available. For doing this, mere degrees will not help Computer science has to be a horizontal discipline across other

degrees To flip the coin in the other way, computer science will be the main degree, with some core engineering subjects as horizontals.

The future of workforce: There is a big demand for talent. At TCS, we look for talent that is fungible, available and more importantly, meeting the Gen Z expectations. That is why we see different models of hybrid working. There will be a mix of legacy technologies and emerging technologies We will see digital revolutionaries as well as laggards This is an area that schools and colleges need to address.

Apart from low code, no code, there will be lot of gig work and optioning type of work Flexi work contractors will come into play ‘Dear sourcing’ may come in, where friends and relatives might be asked to join. There will be blanket hours working where people can work at any time of the day, as long as they complete eight hours a day or 40 hours a week We need a set of people to ensure the business continues. Technology has embedded a culture of continuous and lifelong learning

The future of workplace: At TCS, we have created secure, borderless workspaces, so people are able to work from anywhere. By 2025, our plan is to have 25% of the people in campus, at any point of time But more importantly, everybody will have spent at least 20% of their time in the campus. Nevertheless, there will be projects and people who may work 100% in the office We have a concept of ‘location independent agile ’ We have created a lot of open agile workspaces for collaborative working, where people can book a seat and work in any place where it's available but it will take some time We have virtual work spaces In fact, with our ‘office on cloud,’ we work with 7 plus modes of secure access mechanisms. In all these, we must ensure blended and optimised social collaboration

practices. In person sessions will be there for intense discussions, ideation and design sessions. We have moved away from AR, VR to metaverse We have already conducted meetings on metaverse with some clients attending through their avatars.

The future of work tech: It is going to be about holistic well being Towards that, we have something called ‘Fit for Life.’ People register how many kilometers they run or walk. We also have the ‘circle for life,’ for contributing to sustainability Knowledge Management systems and learning tools will play a major role. Collaboration tools will get better and better. Now we have platforms such as Cisco, WebEx, Google Meet and so on Cloud and collaboration tools are helping us to achieve a lot IOT, Robotics and 5G are coming up in a big way. 6G and 7G will also come up and the world is going to be more connected.

Across all these, we must always have people connect initiatives Some of the areas that need consideration are:

• Use of gamification to make people learn

• There is a shift from work centric view to human centric view.

• We must ensure belongingness, create and foster a community of like minded professionals more than managers of departments or locations.

 Earlier, famine was the biggest disaster. We did not suffer from famines after 80s in a very big way. The agriculture ministry at the central government was in charge of disaster management till 2001...

• Contributory ownership of talent will be the new norm and there will be no exclusive owner of talent by any individual or department. This will pose a challenge to measurement of performance

• Developing empathy and sensitivity to working with global and remote teams.

• As more and more of digital happens, we must also ensure Cyber security

Today’s business world is being shaped by digitally savvy employees at all levels There may even be no mobiles. People will use metaverse through the glasses. Workplace technology is no longer a simply plug in enablement The expectation is that employers will not just provide computing and communication tools and a dumb physical workspace but a digitally powered workspace that is increasingly going to be smart, interactive, personalized and automated

Under the ‘Read & Grow’ series, MMA organised a discussion on the theme of the book “Atomic Habits An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" authored by James Clear Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy, Investment Consultant, Mr Dayanand, Former Managing Director, Reckitt Benkiser and Mr ISAK Nazar, Founder, Manna Foods were the panellists

Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy: Jim Rohn, the speaker and thought leader said, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” Every aspect of life is filled with examples of all of us trying something new but coming back to the habits that we are used to. If we want to grow, we have to give up some of the bad ones and imbibe the good ones ‘Atomic habits’ gives a template of how you can move into better habits. If you're able to become 1% better over one month, then over a 60 month period, you are a 60% better person than you were

Mr ISAK Nazar: In marketing, now there's a new concept called purpose marketing. You will have to find a purpose in anything you market, whether it is a product or a personality or a concept. Similarly, habits do not form just like that. You need a purpose. I

will give two or three examples. After my college days, I joined as a sales representative

From those days till I became Managing Director, I used to get up only at 7 am or 8 am till I was 35 years One day I watched an interview of a politician He said whatever time he got into bed, he would get up at 5 o'clock. It really struck me. From that day onwards, barring any kind of emergency, I get up at 5:30 in the morning Throughout the book, James Clear talks about a small habit, practicing it continuously and achieving scalable results

I had a great corporate career but something was telling me that I should be an entrepreneur. Pharmaceutical has been my background I was selling medicines and switched over to dealing with overhead conductors, underground cables and HDPE

bags But the pharmaceutical thing was on my mind and so I wanted to start a pharmaceutical company. We have a small group of friends and we would meet once in a month During our discussions, I said that my company’s name, the area and investments required were all finalised. But the wife of one of my friends who is a leading food technocrat intervened and said, “You're getting into a competitive area. Why don't you think of a futuristic proposal of getting into a food category that will offer healthy, traditional and natural food? You will be a category creator and you will not be one among hundred people.” It was a tough call. For the next 60 days, every day I thought about it and studied it I went and met people Finally, we launched the brand Manna. She also said, “If you want to get into this food

~ Mr ISAK Nazar

business, you should equip yourself.” So I went to CFTRI and joined an 18 day course in Food Technology as a regular student, stayed in the hostel with three other people and completed it So a small trigger like the politician’s interview and the suggestion by my friend’s wife can create a great impact. Reading books is a great habit and for me,

 ...a small trigger like the politician’s interview and the suggestion by my friend’s wife can create a great impact.

~ Mr Dayanand

nothing compares to reading a physical book. According to ‘Atomic Habits’ even small habits like how you walk, how you sleep, how you talk, how you dine and how you learn from others matter a lot.

Mr Dayanand: I completely agree that small steps, consistently done, give you a habit, good or bad. In 2002, I was in Mumbai, working for GlaxoSmithKline as regional manager Every evening at 5:30, a vendor would come and sell vada pav, which is popular in Mumbai. I developed the habit of eating vada pav at 5:30 and got addicted to it I could later on break it with a lot of effort James Clear talks about a model for making habits. In this, your identity is in the centre. There is a set of processes around it Then there is a set of outcomes around it Normally, we start with the outcome, for instance, I want to lose 15 kgs. The author suggests, start at who you want to be a fit, healthy, agile and energetic person who can play with the kids for the next 25 years. That's your identity If you can crack the identity, the process and then the result or outcome will follow. In 2016, I had an extremely bad knee injury. My doctor said that I can’t do cycling, jogging, even climb the stairs or play football

or tennis Everything is gone The only thing open for me was swimming When I was 20 years old, I swore that I would never put my toe in a swimming pool because I wasn't comfortable with water Two years back, at 52, I learnt swimming and now I am able to able to swim to the deep side of the pool. I want to be fit and agile and I had no other choice and so I learnt swimming

Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy: I joined a running group called Chennai Runners about 10 years ago I was not focussing on fitness until then because of my lifestyle I enrolled for the programme and on the first day, I met a senior and said that I wanted to run 10 km and asked him, “What's the most difficult part of the exercise?” He looked at me funnily and said, “The most difficult thing for a runner is the distance between his bed and the shoe stand If you can conquer that distance every morning at 5:00, believe me, you will be a great runner.” He also said, “Before you get started, make sure the previous night, you keep your running gear your shoes, socks, etc. ready outside so you will have the path of least resistance and you won’t change your mind ” That piece of advice really helped me

Mr ISAK Nazar: I have developed the habit of being at my office at 8.45 am every day, come what may. For any learning, the platform should be ready I keep my platform always ready to learn I have a five member strong team taking care of our core areas like finance, administration and marketing. This team has been there for 20 years since we launched the brand. In spite of other offers,

 James Clear talks about a model for making habits. In this, your identity is in the centre. There is a set of processes around it. Then there is a set of outcomes around it.

they continue with me for some purpose and reason Money alone does not matter There is something beyond money. My father told me that the best charity is not money or food but sharing of knowledge

Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy: What are some of the habits that one should imbibe when they are 25?

Mr Dayanand: It was 1998. I was working in GlaxoSmithKline and, ultimately, I spent 23 years with them. The first three years were brilliant. Around that time, I got married. I was Resident Manager of Karnataka, going from town to town I didn’t know Kannada then. I spent 16 extremely successful years in sales. I moved to the corporate office in Delhi I had to lead a cross functional team Three years into my career at GSK, my boss told me that I was not listening. He said, “Why don't you allow your team to express?” I tried to defend but he said, “Listen Just take this feedback and reflect on it.” I got the same feedback at home. There was an ego clash but I was thankful that I got that feedback much earlier in life and started working on it

The second thing I would say, is willingness to learn. Most of these multinational companies never allow you to settle down in a place for more than two or three years. So, we lived in about 12 to 13 cities in 25 years but every 2 or 3 years, I was thrown into a new environment and your past doesn't land you anything good You have to start afresh, see what is around you and learn. I became a general manager and managing director I knew nothing about Corporate

Finance but as a GM, I had to suspend judgment and be open to saying, “Look, I just don't understand this ”

Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy: It is great to have successful habits but you need to give up on some bad habits too. Before Diwali, I decided to go on a crash diet I went to get some clothes stitched for Diwali and I discovered that my tailor measured my waist and added 2 inches more. I was even angry with him, but that was the truth Soon, the entire sweet shop was inside my house as every relative, every friend gave sweets. I quickly gave up on my diet and continued my way. This book says that if you want to imbibe a habit or give up on a habit, then you must create an atmosphere that supports that. I needed to be in an environment away from sweets

Mr Dayanand: The author talks about four things in habit formation cue, craving, response and result. In my vada pav addiction, the cue was the vendor entering our office with a basket of vada pav I crave for that. I respond by eating and the result is satisfaction. To break that habit, I had to create the environment I kept a few fruits and a bottle of water on the table which I had

 This book says that if you want to imbibe a habit or give up on a habit, then you must create an atmosphere that supports that.

~ Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy

~ Mr ISAK Nazar

to cross to go and get vada pav I stopped eating for two days and ultimately, I overcame eating vada pav whenever I wanted.

Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy: Did you face any difficulty in forming or changing any habit?

Mr ISAK Nazar: Many things I knew only marketing before getting into the business and I struggled with it initially. I am a very bad negotiator The good point is I know that I am a bad negotiator So I leave it to the person who does that purchase. The balance sheets would come to me from the auditors at the last minute for review and approval In that urgency, I would go with whatever my auditor says. I realised that I was not doing a good job there. I have now left it to the professionals Reading is a great habit Unfortunately, even the newspapers are not read today. Supplements are read more than the main newspaper Reading newspapers helped me to develop my language While reading, you should read it with passion and with an intention to make a change in your behaviour I recently read the book, “Die Empty ” The author of the book says, “Don't keep anything here before you die. Give to others.”

Mr Babu Krishnamoorthy: Who are your inspirations and what are their habits?

Mr Dayanand: My inspiration has always been the common man or common woman. It was 2017 and I was in Accra, capital of Ghana, doing a market visit There was a young woman, in the early 20s. It was blistering hot, around noon. She was carrying a baby, maybe one year old In most parts of Africa, women carry the baby, tied with a cloth on their back. The baby literally clings onto the mother's back In the market, she was doing physical labour, carrying goods on top of her head and moving them. I was in the wholesale market for about one and a half hours, making calls, standing in front of the outlet and just watching the consumers The woman kept on working with complete commitment. I was an expatriate living in Nigeria who flew to Ghana I was paid well and yet I was complaining. I was inspired by that woman and her commitment. Sometimes you see a blind person walking and crossing our roads, tapping the stick in front of them We can help them for the next 2 or 3 minutes to cross the road, but after that, they smile and keep walking Do they know that the next step they take will lead to a manhole or not? Yet, they take the next step. They possibly have hope or trust in life that something else will hold them We are well paid, have good house, drive a car and yet, we complain about what we don't have. When I see them having so much hope in life, I realise how much hope I should have and stop complaining 

Reading is a great habit. Unfortunately, even the newspapers are not read today. Supplements are read more than the main newspaper. Reading newspapers helped me to develop my language.

Mr Rave Shankarr, Partner, DB Productions, gave a live demo of virtual production, which can make the audience experience any setting from anywhere in the world

Madras Management Association in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung conducted the 21st MMA All India Management Students Convention on Tuesday, 27 September at IIT Research Park Auditorium, Chennai The theme for this year’s convention was ‘AI Shaping Today and The Future.’

V Shankar, Convention Chairman & ctor, ACSYS Investments Pvt Ltd , gave verview of the convention.

Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, delivered the key note address, in which he stressed that students must have a deep foundation in Data Science & Programming to learn Artificial Intelligence (AI)

umugam, MD, Broadline gies, spoke about the evolution of quantum computing and its possible use in genomics and cancer cure.

Dr K Senthil Kum Tamilnadu Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Corporation (TUAVC), gave a live demo of a drone developed by them in Chennai with 80% indigenous components.

Mr Mithun Sacheti, CEO, CaratLane, spoke about how they have used AI for closely analyzing the customer’s footprints online and increasing the sales substantially

Mr Suresh Raman, President, MMA and Vice President & Regional Head, TCS Chennai welcomed the gathering.

Mr Subhashis Banerjee, Co Founder & CIO, Artpark spoke on the theme, ‘AI as a career.’

Mr Vijay Karunakaran, CEO, InGage Technologies Pvt Ltd , spoke on the theme, ‘AI transforming lives beyond work.’

Mr D Lakshminarayanan, MD, Sundaram Home Finance Pvt Ltd , delivered the welcome address for the valedictory function.

The grand finale of Chanakya The Mastermind competition to judge the best management student of the year 2022 Deepika Venkatesan of SSN School of Management was declared the winner.

"We probably had the first fax machine in Chennai. We were among the first of the industrial houses to move to SAP way back in 1997 We were among the first Indian companies to outsource IT in India We were very early in digitising our records We had robots at our foundry and engineering businesses fairly early We also adopted zero liquid discharge technology in our chemical plants where we work closely with IIT Madras," he said

Since AI has unmatched ability to process large amount of data, there is an opportunity for the manufacturing industry to be early adaptors of AI, Mr Vijay Shankar pointed out. He outlined the areas in which Sanmar Group has begun to use AI and the future areas envisaged by them for application of AI. "We are now using AI in the areas of energy efficiency and process optimisation; safety compliance; forecasting and inventory management; and predictive maintenance," he said He expressed the hope that we will use ethical AI that will impact the society at large in a positive way and ensure that the benefits of the technology reach all strata of the society

Mr Vijay Shankar, Deputy Chairman, Sanmar Group, delivered the valedictory address He spoke on how Sanmar Group embraced technology and been an early adaptor of technology.

Key note address by Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, at the 21st MMA All India Management Students Convention on the theme ‘AI Shaping Today and The Future.’

WhenI started teaching computer hardware architecture to my undergraduate students, some of them were not really interested in it and they just wanted to clear the course, as they thought it would never be used in management But understanding of engineering discipline, especially computer science in the context of AI and ML, is now becoming extremely important from a management perspective That's perhaps the reason why engineers become very successful management professionals.

Understanding AI through Chess

Today, as we look at the world, there are many disciplines which, once upon a time we thought we could handle using basic understanding of processing. For example, chess is a highly rule based game How do computers play chess with human beings? For every possible move the human makes, the computer has some K possible moves, let’s say K1 to K6. There can

be other set of possible moves from the human, for which there can be another set of possible moves by the computer. So if you look at six such possible moves between each, then the total number of the combinations will be K1 x K2 x K3 x K4 x K5 x K6 Just by sheer computing power, the computer will calculate the possible move by the opponent and for that every possible move, it will calculate what its own move would be Based on that, it can look 6 to 7 moves ahead, find out which move will be the best for it and then it will make that move. This is how the computer chess game evolved. According to older versions of chess, a level 1 player will look at three moves ahead; a level 2 player six moves ahead; and level 3 player 10 moves ahead. The amount of time the computer takes to respond to a move that a human being makes increases as you increase the level This was the first way by which intelligence was built into a game like chess but it is highly process oriented. There are rules

and we just have to follow those rules. The computer decides the best choice just by following the rules in all possible ways.When it came to things like rapid fire round, the computer also had a limitation in terms of the time it took to make the move The computer started sensing the pattern ‘Rather than looking at ten different moves away and making a choice, can I look at the pattern and make the best move?’ This essentially led to a transition from a rule based system to an intelligent pattern analysis based system And that is when real machine intelligence started building up. Today, we can have programs that will learn from themselves The evolution of chess is indeed a very interesting field to understand AI in its proper perspective.

Coming back to management, organizations are indeed going to become more and more digital in nature For every activity that happens in the organization, we'll have a sort of digital signature or a



Today, we can have programs that will learn from themselves. The evolution of chess is indeed a very interesting field to understand AI in its proper perspective.

digital trace When you recruit somebody with a certain degree from a certain institution, after the person joins the organisation, his performance appraisal is captured in a database. From this, if HR can predict the performance and progress of a person who is recruited from a certain institution, it can help them to decide to which institution they should go next and what sort of reskilling the people need to undergo at a regular

interval. You can learn many things by understanding the data, processing the data and identifying patterns in the data. Then you can quickly come to some conclusion. That is what we call business intelligence.

Use of AI to address NPAs

A much more interesting example would be the application of AI in the banking profession. Today, one of the important problems the banking sector is facing is NPA Non Performing Assets Is there a way to predict if I can get back the loan given, by doing a reliable credit appraisal while giving out the loan? This is a million dollar question If this question can be easily answered, then our economy would have been much better but it depends on many factors. The banks today have enormous amount of data that includes both positive and negative data Positive data point out that the money loaned out had been promptly returned and negative data point out that the money that was financed did not come back If a person cannot repay the loan, banks go for settlement to get whatever they could make out of that. We can start using AI for this most important problem of addressing the notion of NPAs A lot of things have evolved There are risk management systems that are put in place which look at the institution as a whole and not individuals, like

Basel’s Level 1, 2 and 3 If all these theories had worked properly, our state of economy should have been much better but they don’t really work. That is why AI is certainly going to play a very important role for the managers in the BFSI sector If you are always taught to think negatively, you will only think negatively That is true for a computer program. If I feed the computing system only with negative examples or patterns, for instance, of people who received the loans but did not repay, then the entire machine learning AI engine will look at these patterns and will always predict that every loan will not be returned, because it has only seen negative examples So when we try to build these types of AI engines to manage NPAs, we need to feed positive examples also. We call this ‘balance of data.’ We need to teach the computing engine that there are both positive and negative examples Based on that, the computer will aid the credit committee whether a loan could be given or not given; or if they should go for a settlement or not

Will AI replace human beings?

AI will definitely replace human beings in mundane and stupid tasks which the human being is not supposed to do. For example, in earlier days, a clerk in a bank could be promoted to the next level, if that person could count accurately 500 numbers of rupee notes accurately in a certain time Today, we have a counting machine, which automates this process. Counting notes is a mundane task and one will normally get frustrated if one keeps on counting notes in their job. When we evolve any manual process, that process will need a lot of innovation but over a period of time that process can become so well oiled that we don't need a human intervention Then we can automate it. This is precisely why AI is going to be here.

 We call this ‘balance of data.’ We need to teach the computing engine that there are both positive and negative examples. Based on that, the computer will aid the credit committee whether a loan could be given or not given; or if they should go for a settlement or not.

Deep Thinking

Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster and the former world chess champion, came out with a book called Deep Thinking One example that he gives there is that he goes into a room where there are 100 computers and he plays a rapid fire. He goes to the first computer and plays, then he moves to the next computer and plays; he goes on playing with 100 computers Now, the question is, ‘can we have one robot playing against hundred Kasparovs?’ If computers can replace human beings, can we make the opposite also true? If we have 100 Kasparovs with chess boards and one robot to move around, playing with those 100 Kasparovs, what are the types of problems that we will hit? The robot has to move around from one table to another It should first recognize the table, then the chessboard and the coins. It should properly hold the coin, lift it and keep it in another point This involves a complex problem to solve which, perhaps every discipline of every IIT must come together. Therefore, we can safely say that AI can only be an aid to human beings and it can never replace human beings, at least in the near future This is an important input that we get by reading books like the Deep Thinking.

Learn Data Science

Lastly, the most important foundation that management students need to understand data and then subsequently AI, which will help them build a career around AI, is data science A very good understanding of data science and programming is extremely important to build a worthwhile career where you can appreciate and make sensible use of artificial intelligence Data science is not just Excel sheets where you start plotting some pie charts. Data science involves deep mathematics; good understanding of statistics and probability theory; a

lot more understanding of Behavioural Sciences and many more things. The UGC has come out with a very good order which says that you can do two degrees at the same time provided your time tables don't clash. Management graduates must surely do a serious course on data science and try to get a degree in it There are now many online degrees IIT Madras offers a BS in Data Science program, which is available for all. You just have to pass a qualifying examination. There is no entrance examination Importantly there is no age bar Presently, students from the age of 17 to 81 have attempted at joining this course. We have seen father son; mother daughter; father daughter and such combinations of people doing this course

Exit Options

It has multiple exit options If you exit at the end of the first year, you get a certificate with an understanding of foundational aspects of data science. If you complete the second year, you get a diploma, which is much more advanced than what you have learned in the foundation course At the end of three years, you get a BSc degree and at the end of four years, you get a BS degree which is equivalent to any university degree across the world More than 15,000 students are now enrolled in this program at IIT Madras. You are also welcome to join and be a student of IIT Madras



Therefore, we can safely say that AI can only be an aid to human beings and it can never replace human beings, at least in the near future.

The 11th edition of CavinKare MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards was held on 22 October 2022 at IIT Research Park Auditorium, Chennai Mr Alok B Shriram, Senior Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, DCM Shriram Industries Ltd, was the Chief Guest He presented the innovation awards and addressed the audience

Inot only congratulate the winners of the awards but also the nominees. It is truly a case of ‘the best of the best ’ It is a tribute to the foresight of the management of CavinKare that they have instituted an award for innovation more than a decade ago. It is also a tribute to our government that they are encouraging youngsters to think out of the box to try and create new and disruptive products, services and technologies which are changing the face of not only business, but also how we live They also encourage people to fail and resurrect themselves Failure is no longer a blot but a stepping stone towards success of new and emerging ideas. The most important facet of innovation is perseverance to see the idea through to commercialisation, to accelerate growth trajectory and power India to prosperity.

Defining Innovation

Innovation has a very wide definition Innovation is anything that proposes an alternative to something that is done in a certain way, brings economic and behavioural benefits, solves problems, or makes

people's daily lives easier. It can be related to a product, service, process, market, means of production, technology, or anything else that brings about a change that becomes sustained. For innovation to take place, people and companies use the countless possibilities that technology offers Technology is the basis that supports and enables all types of innovation Without good tools, innovation can come at the wrong time and your business loses its potential to scale. Remember, to innovate is to go beyond and exceed the

 Companies need to become solution providers rather than solution acceptors and transform know‐how to know why.

expectations of stakeholders and the market For this to happen, you need speed, quality, and precision When a sector, segment, or brand decides to innovate, it contributes to the development of society as a whole.

Advantages of Innovation

In practical terms of a commercial organization, a company that innovates, mainly in its processes, gains many advantages, such as:

• Keeping processes organized: By being innovative in how you perform processes, especially if you use technology, you create standards and systematize the best work method. This is crucial for strategies to be successful, results to be achieved, and goals to be reached

• It develops creativity: With innovation, a company shows that it is open to changes and that employees can contribute with new ideas and see in practice the benefits new things can bring to the day to day.

• It helps increasing the business’s competitiveness: By adopting strategic resources, a company becomes more attractive to customers, partners and talents; and gains a competitive advantage in the market

• It helps in increasing productivity: Innovation proposes more effective processes, more production control, effective strategy, and more engaged employees

• It adds value to a product or service: When you innovate, you boost the marketing of products and services, because you bring something different and unique for your target audience.

• Finally, innovation helps in increasing profits:

With more productivity, a more attractive business, and more effective management, emerges. Your business will consequently see greater profits.

Three Types of Innovation

Companies need to become solution providers rather than solution acceptors and transform know how to know why Our innovators and scientists need to be catalysts; and businesses need to be the engine for translation. Essentially, there are three types of innovation: radical, incremental, and disruptive. They may vary depending on the niche, market, brand essence, services, and products offered If your company wants to innovate, it's important to know these varieties.

• Radical innovation, as the name suggests, really changes the circumstances of your company, whether in terms of market or of business dynamics It can occur due to a complete change in a company's positioning, work method, processes, services, and products offered, or how it relates to customers An example of radical innovation would be smart phones. When they were released, mobile phones already existed, but smart phones included features that changed the market and made it more popular ultimately pretty much eliminating simple mobile phones.

• Incremental innovation adds new features to a product, brand, or production methods without promoting a very drastic change. It is usually an evolution of an innovation already implemented by the brand that complements and offers improvements, be it to employees, customers, or features of a business. An

example of incremental innovation is Gmail, which was created with the purpose of sending emails quickly but over time, different features were added to improve the customer experience and make it more useful and competitive

• Technological and behavioural changes have favoured the emergence of disruptive innovation in recent decades This type of innovation follows the market more than a specific brand, product, or service. It can be leveraged by something a company has offered and, as a result, made their name, but, in general, it's a scalable change that reaches many people at the same time. Such disruptive technology such as EVs have changed the face of automobiles / transport The market value of Tesla is greater than the next three auto giants like GM, Ford and Toyota put together

Examples of Innovation

Product innovation brings something new to the market. Television, for example, was something innovative when it was invented, bringing image, sound, and entertainment into people's houses. It was a radical innovation that, with acceptance of the public, became disruptive and over time began to rely on incremental innovation The whole world followed the release of different kinds of TV: colour, cable, flat screen, and, today, smart TV.

Next is service innovation A visible example of service innovation is food delivery For a long time, in order to eat something from a restaurant, customers needed to walk into the place or order takeout. That's when the market innovated and offered delivery service, so that customers could order whatever they

wanted with just a phone call Over time, it became possible to order food on websites, and now we can order food on mobile apps at our fingertips.

Innovation in production processes Here it is interesting to highlight environmental awareness Many cosmetic brands, for example, innovate by implementing cruelty free processes that don’t involve animals Today many innovations for social causes are becoming businesses, such as reclaiming waste flowers from temples. The flowers are being recycled to extract oils for perfumes, the basic waste is used for agarbathis and final waste for fertilizer

Innovation in the business model is very common in startups. An example would be marketplaces. Virtual stores like Amazon mediate between buyers and sellers and change the way we shop Another example would be virtual banks. Today, there are many financial institutions with no physical facilities for customer service and whose transactions are all performed online

Technological innovation is the most evident kind of innovation. The advance of technology brings about many opportunities Thinking back a few centuries, the Industrial Revolution springs to mind as a good example. It changed production methods in companies, work methods, and even workers’ lives like the Ford / Toyota production systems In a modern context,

 We also need context. India must focus on use of technology for innovating in Rural India. If our farmers progress, we can feed the world.

though, the primary examples are the internet and smartphones, which revolutionized not only products and services, but also the society's behaviour. Technological innovation, as we see in the case of Industry 4.0 technologies, enables us to take steps that would otherwise be unachievable with human power alone.

Logistical innovation. For a long time, it would take up to a month to receive a letter by mail. For international products, it would take an average of three months. To change this, companies and distributors innovated emails, logistics, creating storage points and strategic distribution centers Today, there are apps to hire delivery services and even delivery drones!

Marketing innovation. Ways of acquiring new customers have evolved, and we're seeing more and more innovations in marketing Sometimes, the way you advertise can be innovative. With the creation of social media, for example, lots of brands innovated by advertising on those platforms instead of newspapers and television

Organizational innovation. Organizational innovation brings several other kinds of innovation. They concern structural changes and practices that improve productivity, services, products, and processes. Post covid, work from home is an example of organizational innovation, as are management software, customer service chatbots, and trainee programs, in which employees get to know all departments of a company before actually working in one of them Being innovative may seem like something unusual that requires you to be extremely lucky or a genius. But it can actually occur in any company, big or small, and in any sector. The stages of the innovation process are simple, and to innovate you must have a system and repetition

Innovation Stages

• Generation of new ideas: What are the opportunities in the field? What hasn't been done yet and would actually change a product, service, or company?

• Evaluation: What's necessary to put this into practice? Is it possible? and How do you make it viable?

• Experimentation: It's vital to test your ideas and identify what really works and what needs to be improved.

• Marketing: Has it reached the sweet spot? It's time to offer to customers what before was just an internal project

• And finally, follow up: Keeping track of what has been implemented is important to understand public acceptance, audience, and strategy To do that, feedback is essential

We also need context India must focus on use of technology for innovating in Rural India. If our farmers progress, we can feed the world. If food processing is pushed to Rural India, it will help prosperity and reduce urban pressure.

Just think of the biggest innovations that have happened over the ages: They may not sound so major but they were world changers, if you think about them in the context of the time period and the technology available. To name some of them:

1. Fire was a discovery but innovation which changed the way we eat/heat/ and developed industrial uses

2. The wheel changed the way we travelled.

3. Printing Press changed elite education to mass education

At the same time, innovations do not have to be high tech Two examples are: The wheels on luggage change the way we travel and the basketball net. Each changed the course of mankind in a totally disruptive way It made life better The innovators were criticised, but as the innovation gained acceptance they were heroes. However, innovation did not end with this first discovery.

It is only the start of transformation Improvements were continuously made What has changed is the speed with which new innovation is coming through. Also, now it is becoming more democratic The entry barriers are falling A few hundred years ago, when we were an agrarian society, then the changes were small and did not afford the chance of creating major wealth between a good farmer and average farmer In the industrial revolution it was better but still limited by capital and time.

Age of the Idea

Now, it is the age of the idea Here, the limitation of capital and time is broken down. The ability to create wealth for society in huge amounts is limited by ideas and creativity We see this now more than ever That is

why we see huge disruptions everywhere such as:

• Home delivery has changed the shopping & restaurant

• Fast food like Burgers / Pizza changed the way we eat.

• Uber the largest taxi service provider, which does not own a car

• AirbnB

• Battlefields without soldiers drones/cyber attacks

• Samsung and iPhone become the world’s largest camera makers

• Tesla and other EV car companies take on status quo of established carmakers.

• New age companies dominate the stock market valuation now.

• India’s use of IT to help the aam aadmi and administration has been applauded the world over IMF has lauded India for its welfare program powered by UID / Aadhar and technology

We need to harness the idea from solution acceptance to solution development Out IT professionals are coveted the world over They need to bring about innovation in India. It’s not good enough to have a good idea. You must believe in it and have the perseverance to see it through to market Then the trick will be scalability

With today’s enormous reach generated by the Internet it is possible, but the challenge is the clutter and short attention span of the customer Now, to become a wealth creator does not need a huge capital or asset base. All it needs is an idea, perseverance, and great use of technology. Innovation will rule the future. Don’t be afraid of failure and don’t sit on your past laurels. 