With Prerana 2009, NITIE continues its tradition of providing students and the rest of the B School crowd a platform to benchmark their knowledge with the best in the country. The annual business conclave took off with the elite Prerana Business Meet which had industry stalwarts and visionaries deliberating over the topic:

“Demystifying the Reforms enigma: The How, Why and Why Not of Laissez Faire”.

This year’s speakers included luminaries like Mr. Gurcharan Das, former MD of Procter & Gamble Worldwide and a leading columnist; Ms. Meera Sanyal, Country Executive, Royal Bank Scotland India; Mr. Narayan Ramachandran, Country Head, Morgan Stanley India and Dr. H.B.Joshipura, Chairman & Managing Director, Glaxo SmithKline.

An effervescent welcome song and the inaugural Prerana light set the stage was set for what promised to be an enriching learning experience. Dr. Ashok Pundir, the convener of Prerana, set the tone of the event by describing ‘Prerana’ as the inspiration we expect to gain from the event. Dr. Sambandam, Dean (R&D), cheered up the entire gathering with his humble and witty remarks that included using vehicle tracking systems on the dashboard of the dignitaries’ cars to ensure everyone came on time. He also gave valuable insights on the current scenario of India’s services and infrastructure.

Mr. Gurcharan Das reiterated the beauty of the campus by describing the picturesque beauty of the “Moon over the Vihar Lake” at night during his stay at NITIE over the evening. In his views, temperance with humility was the foremost quality of a leader. Mr. Das expressed optimism about India’s growth story but also stressed the need of better governance. In his words, ‘Our economy grows at night when the government is asleep. The miracle of India’s success is that its grown is not because of the government, but in spite of the government’. Mr. Das expressed the need for judicial as well as economic reforms. Providing insights from his new book, Mr. Das drew parallels between the dharma of the Mahabharata and lessons for today’s government and society. Quoting insights from his book, he indicated the need of moving away from ‘relative prosperity’ in which an individual measures his wealth relative to another. Quoting a classic example, he said that in ancient Greece, very successful personalities were exiled from Athens for 10 years to soothe jealousy in the economy. Mr. Das was certainly in his element while narrating the many stories from his book to the audience listening with rapt attention.

As a parting quote from Oscar Wilde to indicate that goodness is one of the few things of worth in our world, Mr. Das said, ‘We are all in the dumps, but some of us are looking at the stars’.

Dr. H. B. Joshipura, a regular visitor at NITIE since his college days, talked about reforms in the healthcare sector. He pointed out the staggeringly low amounts spent by the government on healthcare- an issue that would surely gain prominence as the average age of India’s population increases. Drawing an analogy with the rapid development of the telecom sector, he said that proactive involvement in reforms in this sector was the need of the hour.

Ms. Meera Sanyal expressed affection for the name ‘Prerana’ as being a truly inspiring name. Ms. Sanyal talked about the need of diversified reforms across various sectors. Ms. Sanyal has been actively involved in social initiatives- from overseeing the financing of various reforms projects to contesting the elections as an independent candidate from South Mumbai. Delving into her personal experiences, she stressed the need for collective responsibility as a nation. ‘So long as there is a tear in the eyes of an Indian, every educated Indian is responsible’ were her motivational words for the audience. Differentiated solutions were the need of the hour and those used in developed countries would often not work in the Indian conditions due to the unique problems faced by India. ‘We have tremendous opportunity to join the dots in many different ways’ were her parting words.

Mr. Narayan Ramachandran enthralled the audience with his witty comments. Delving straight into the topic at hand, he refuted the argument that India was insulated from the rest of the world. This was because our current account is convertible and we have partial capital account convertibility as well. Hence, we are fundamentally exposed to global market movements. ‘Excessive gradualism’ was his term for growth decelerators in the country. He said that one of the learnings from the crisis was the better regulation of systemic risk i.e. the risks associated with individual firms. Another lesson was the better management of cross border risk. He however maintained that a source of stability for India was the relatively low exposure of liquidity to unregulated OTC markets. In summary, his views were that India needs to continue on the path of reforms in a reflective manner to ensure that it stays on a sustainable growth path.

One of the queries put forth by the students dealt with the issue of educational reforms in India. Another discussed the issue of consolidating values across the many classes in India. Getting back to business, the students asked questions about acquisitions in the banking sector. On the impact of ‘large government’, the panelists unanimously agreed that the situation today was better than a couple of decades back. Attempting to elucidate the kind of revolutionary reforms that are needed in some cases, Mr. Das gave an apt example of the educational sector. 98% of the money granted is given to teachers. Instead, if this were given as scholarships to students to enable them to choose their schools, each student would receive approximately Rs.8000. This would spur teachers too, since their salaries would depend on the scholarships paid as fees by the children.

Wrapping up the Business meet, Mr. Das delighted the audience by providing autographed copies of his latest book. The event concluded on a high note with Dr. Sambandam gifting mementos to the dignitaries and Dr. Pundir giving a fitting note of thanks to the panelists.

Source: NITIE Media Cell