Continuing the tradition of providing its students a platform to interact and learn from some of the most experienced and eminent personalities of the contemporary industrial world, the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi organized its flagship event, ‘Confluence – the idea series 2011’on 10th & 11th of September at Vishwakarma Bhawan, IIT Delhi. Confluence’11 is the annual seminar series of DMS, which attempts to integrate the corporate and the academia to throw light on the issues of current relevance and share the experiences with the larger audience. Confluence’11, the two day event, was divided into 2 sessions each over two days on Finance and HR.
The Day 1 had two Finance sessions, with the first session Chaired by Prof. Surendra S Yadav .The eminent panellists for the discussion were Mr. Pawan Agrawal, Director - Corporate Finance, Yes Bank, Mr. Tarun Rustagi, Head - Business Planning, Max New York life Insurance, Mr. Lalit Gupta, Head of Capital Markets, Futures First Pvt. Ltd, Mr. DVSSV Prasad, Managing Director, PNB Gilts.
The topic of discussion given was “AA+ Passing Perception or Failing Grade”, in relation to the recent AA+ rating given by Standard & Poor, the credit rating agency, to the USA, downgrading from its existing rating of AAA. Prof. Yadav delivered the opening address talking about credit rating agencies and the relevance of their ratings to countries and industries. Mr. Agrawal voiced his key note address, that from the investors’ perspective, these ratings do not matter much as all that the investors look at is the liquidity of the currency. Mr Gupta started his address with the statement that the rating given by S&P not being a surprise to the markets. He said that the main reason for the downgrade is that US has not been following austerity measures to keep its debt in check and also doesn’t have a credible plan for the future. Mr. Rustogi defined the two vectors on which a credit rating agency bases its rating, which is political environment or policy making uncertainty in a country and the debt to GDP ratio. Mr. Prasad pointed out that the degradation of the rating has more to do with the feeling of, loss of something that has existed since the beginning than any actual loss for US.
For session2, topic of discussion was: NBFCs -Reshaping the Indian financial sector. Mr. S. P. Sharma (VP, IFCI Ltd.), Mr. Avdesh Nagar (VP, SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd.), Dr. Ashok Haldia (MD, PTC India financial services) and Mr. Jaskirat Chadha (Associate Vice President, ICRA Ltd.) were the eminent speakers present at DMS auditorium to discuss on the topic. The session was chaired by Mr. Saikat Neogi (Editor - Financial express, the principal media sponsor of DMS, IIT D). The panel started their discussion with the Usha Thorat recommendations from the report on NBFCs. Mr. Nagar put forth the role of NBFCs in value addition towards the financial sector. Dr. Haldia then defined the NBFCs as a structure that do what banks don’t. He also accepted that the risk assessment for banks and NBFCs are completely different and that asset liability mismatch is a problem that NBFCs should address. Mr. Sharma then discussed on various aspects including the financial institutions becoming irrelevant in the 90’s post the liberalization.
The Day 2 of Confluence had the HR convention chaired by Prof. Kanika Bhal, and the elite panel which participated in the discussion were: Mr. Abinash Upadhyay, Divisional Head - Corporate HR, Apollo Tyres,Mr. Supreet Singh, VP HR, Kotak Mahindra Bank
Mr. Indra Yadav, VP HR, Orkash Services Pvt. Ltd .The topic for discussion was ‘The demise of lifetime employment’. Beginning the session with a key note address, Prof. Bhal stated that lifetime employment is something which neither the company nor the employee are expecting of each other. Mr. Upadhyay elaborated on the history of employment sources in India. Mr Singh spoke about what loyalty is and defined it as the goals of an individual aligned with that of the organization. Mr. Yadav brought a different perspective to the whole issue, that proper leadership is what should be the primary goal of the employer and that would take care of the other aspects.
For session 2, the topic of discussion was: Challenges of multi-generational and multi-cultural workforce integration. The discussion on this topic was attended by, eminent speakers from the industry with an extensive knowledge base and industry exposure. The panellists included Mr. Ashit Ranjan (VP HR, Tecnova India Private Limited), Mr. S J Raj (Senior VP HR, Newgen), Ms. Ritu Mehrotra (Director HR and Talent Management, Bristlecone), Ms. Meenakshi Sarkar (Training and Development head, Netambit) and Mr. Tarun Bhargava (VP, Netambit). Mr. Ranjan started the discussion citing examples from his personal experiences where he saw the nuances of diverse cultural traits and generation gap. Mr. Ranjan started the discussion citing examples from his personal experiences where he saw the nuances of diverse cultural traits and generation gap. Ms. Meenakshi Sarkar and Mr. Tarun Bhargava then presented a very interesting presentation showcasing the multi generational and cultural differences in daily life as well as at the work place, and engaged the audience in a very hearty discussion of the topic.
All the sessions ended, with the guests being gifted a token of appreciation for sparing their valuable time to be with the students and interacting with them on issues of which the students had a very limited understanding. The students had a positive feedback of and a lot of takeaways from, the sessions and wished to have more such interactions with the industry experts in near future.
The Day 1 had two Finance sessions, with the first session Chaired by Prof. Surendra S Yadav .The eminent panellists for the discussion were Mr. Pawan Agrawal, Director - Corporate Finance, Yes Bank, Mr. Tarun Rustagi, Head - Business Planning, Max New York life Insurance, Mr. Lalit Gupta, Head of Capital Markets, Futures First Pvt. Ltd, Mr. DVSSV Prasad, Managing Director, PNB Gilts.
The topic of discussion given was “AA+ Passing Perception or Failing Grade”, in relation to the recent AA+ rating given by Standard & Poor, the credit rating agency, to the USA, downgrading from its existing rating of AAA. Prof. Yadav delivered the opening address talking about credit rating agencies and the relevance of their ratings to countries and industries. Mr. Agrawal voiced his key note address, that from the investors’ perspective, these ratings do not matter much as all that the investors look at is the liquidity of the currency. Mr Gupta started his address with the statement that the rating given by S&P not being a surprise to the markets. He said that the main reason for the downgrade is that US has not been following austerity measures to keep its debt in check and also doesn’t have a credible plan for the future. Mr. Rustogi defined the two vectors on which a credit rating agency bases its rating, which is political environment or policy making uncertainty in a country and the debt to GDP ratio. Mr. Prasad pointed out that the degradation of the rating has more to do with the feeling of, loss of something that has existed since the beginning than any actual loss for US.
For session2, topic of discussion was: NBFCs -Reshaping the Indian financial sector. Mr. S. P. Sharma (VP, IFCI Ltd.), Mr. Avdesh Nagar (VP, SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd.), Dr. Ashok Haldia (MD, PTC India financial services) and Mr. Jaskirat Chadha (Associate Vice President, ICRA Ltd.) were the eminent speakers present at DMS auditorium to discuss on the topic. The session was chaired by Mr. Saikat Neogi (Editor - Financial express, the principal media sponsor of DMS, IIT D). The panel started their discussion with the Usha Thorat recommendations from the report on NBFCs. Mr. Nagar put forth the role of NBFCs in value addition towards the financial sector. Dr. Haldia then defined the NBFCs as a structure that do what banks don’t. He also accepted that the risk assessment for banks and NBFCs are completely different and that asset liability mismatch is a problem that NBFCs should address. Mr. Sharma then discussed on various aspects including the financial institutions becoming irrelevant in the 90’s post the liberalization.
The Day 2 of Confluence had the HR convention chaired by Prof. Kanika Bhal, and the elite panel which participated in the discussion were: Mr. Abinash Upadhyay, Divisional Head - Corporate HR, Apollo Tyres,Mr. Supreet Singh, VP HR, Kotak Mahindra Bank
Mr. Indra Yadav, VP HR, Orkash Services Pvt. Ltd .The topic for discussion was ‘The demise of lifetime employment’. Beginning the session with a key note address, Prof. Bhal stated that lifetime employment is something which neither the company nor the employee are expecting of each other. Mr. Upadhyay elaborated on the history of employment sources in India. Mr Singh spoke about what loyalty is and defined it as the goals of an individual aligned with that of the organization. Mr. Yadav brought a different perspective to the whole issue, that proper leadership is what should be the primary goal of the employer and that would take care of the other aspects.
For session 2, the topic of discussion was: Challenges of multi-generational and multi-cultural workforce integration. The discussion on this topic was attended by, eminent speakers from the industry with an extensive knowledge base and industry exposure. The panellists included Mr. Ashit Ranjan (VP HR, Tecnova India Private Limited), Mr. S J Raj (Senior VP HR, Newgen), Ms. Ritu Mehrotra (Director HR and Talent Management, Bristlecone), Ms. Meenakshi Sarkar (Training and Development head, Netambit) and Mr. Tarun Bhargava (VP, Netambit). Mr. Ranjan started the discussion citing examples from his personal experiences where he saw the nuances of diverse cultural traits and generation gap. Mr. Ranjan started the discussion citing examples from his personal experiences where he saw the nuances of diverse cultural traits and generation gap. Ms. Meenakshi Sarkar and Mr. Tarun Bhargava then presented a very interesting presentation showcasing the multi generational and cultural differences in daily life as well as at the work place, and engaged the audience in a very hearty discussion of the topic.
All the sessions ended, with the guests being gifted a token of appreciation for sparing their valuable time to be with the students and interacting with them on issues of which the students had a very limited understanding. The students had a positive feedback of and a lot of takeaways from, the sessions and wished to have more such interactions with the industry experts in near future.