Conference : SIMSARC

ABOUT SIMSARC :

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Pune, organizes its Annual International Research Conference, SIMSARC, with a view to provide an opportunity to researchers and scholars to participate, present or publish their research papers. The conference will provide a platform for the researchers to share their research ideas with academia and industry. It will also allow researchers to meet domain experts and other scholars to create a broad network with participants from various institutions across the globe.

SIMSARC will have separate tracks for doctoral students, post graduate students which will allow the budding researchers to present their research to eminent reviewers and experts . This year too, as part of the Faculty of Management of Symbiosis International (Deemed University), SIMS takes immense pleasure in announcing its 15th Annual International Research Conference; SIMSARC'24 on 16th - 18th December, 2024 in Hybrid mode. The theme of the conference is "Technology and Beyond : Business Solutions for One World, One Future".

SIMSARC logo 15th Years
SIMSARC 24 logo
Knowledge partner
Conference Partner
Taylor's University logo

Advisory Committee- Academic

Advisory Committee- Industry

Sr.No Name Affiliation
1 Meenakshi Tomar O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India
2 Dr. Pooja Sharma Gitarattan International Business School, Delhi, India
3 Dr.Neeraja DR.MGR Educational and Research Institute, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
4 Dr. K. Janaki Priya Alagappa University, Sivaganga Dist., Tamilnadu, India
5 Padma Nandanan Kariott St.Josephs University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
6 Dr. Meenu Mathur Symbiosis University of Applied Sciences, Indore, India
7 Dr Ankita Bhatia Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
8 Dr Sreelatha Guntupalli University of Mumbai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
9 Dr Rajeshwari Gwal Acropolis Faculty of Management and Research, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
10 Aditi Srivastava GL Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management, Delhi, India
11 Dr. Vinod M Lakhwani Faculty of Management Studies, Marwadi University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India
12 Dr. Shree Jyothi Koutha Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
13 Dr Bindu Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India
14 Dr Manisha Gupta School of Business Studies, Sharda University, Delhi, India
15 Dr Silika Dash Biju Patnaik Institute of Information Technology & Management Studies, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
16 Roopashree R Bangalore University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
17 Dr Bhadrappa Haralayya Lingaraj Appa Engineering College Bidar, Karnataka, India
18 Dr. Amrita Majumdar Amity University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
19 Dr. Jaya Chitranshi Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
20 Dr. Reena Lenka Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
21 Dr Vanishree Pabalkar Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
22 Dr Rashmy Moray Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
23 Sanjay Mangla Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
24 Dr. Naval Lawande Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
25 Dr Shanul Gawshinde Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
26 Tajamul Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
27 Dr. Sridevi. K.B Jansons School of Business, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
28 Bala subramanian R Rajagiri Business school, Kochi, Kerala, India
29 Dr. Chetan Chaudhari DY Patil Deemed to be University, Pune, Maharashtra, India
30 Prof. (Dr.) Bipin Chandra Pant Galgotias University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
31 Nilanjana Sinha NSHM Business School, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
32 Dr.S.Kannadhasan Study World College of Engineering, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
33 Dr Hirak Dasgupta Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
34 Dr. Poonam Arora St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
35 Kiran Sharma KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
36 Dr. Manisha Shukla Bharati Vidyapeeth's Institute of Management Studies & Research, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
37 Dr Vandana Khanna MBA Department, Sri Sukhmani Institute of Engineering & Technology, Mohali, Punjab, India
38 S.Sivakami Amrita Institute, Nagercoil, Tamilnadu, India
39 Dr Priti Pandey RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
40 Dr. Seema Pradhan Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
41 Dr. Manjusha C B Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT Nagpur), Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
42 Dr. Prakash Kumar Sarangi Vardhaman College of Engineering, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
43 Jyoti Budhia Bombay Stock Exchange, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
44 Dr.Pritesh Somani Balaji Institute of International Business Sri Balaji University, Pune
45 Dr. Radhika K P PSG college of technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
46 Dr. Saravanan. M Sri Kumara Gurupara Swamigal Arts College, Tamilnadu, India
47 Christo Selvan St. Joseph University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
48 Dr. Suyesha Singh Manipal University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
49 Sagarika Patna Women's College, Affiliated to Patna University, Bihar, India
50 Dr Pradeep Pendse Prin L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management (WeSchool), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
51 Dr Shaik Masood Pendekanti Institute of Management, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
52 Rohit Kumar Rawat University Of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
53 Dr Pravin Kumar Bhoyar Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
54 Dr. Ajay Kumar Sharma Geetanjali Institute of Technical Studies Udaipur, Affiliated to Rajasthan Technical University Kota, Rajasthan, India
55 Dr Prashant Gupta Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
56 Dr. Shruti Punj Mata Gujri Mahila Mahavidyalaya (Autonomous) Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India
57 Prof Dr J Satpathy Srinivas University, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India & Management University, Nairobi, Africa
58 Dr Senthil Kumar A. School of Commerce, Finance and Accountancy, Christ University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
59 Dr Kanesh Gopal Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology, Malaysia
60 Sukrati Jain Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
61 Dr. Rahul Waghmare Vishwakarma University, Pune, Maharashtra, India
62 Dr. Naim R. Shaikh Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
63 Dr. Sheela Upendra Symbiosis College of Nursing, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India
64 Dr. Pooja Bhandari Mittal School of Business, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India
65 Dr. Hiren R Raval Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujarat, India
66 Dr. Reena Agrawal Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
67 Dr. Lingaraj A. Hadimani KIT"s College of Engineering (Autonomous), Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India
68 Nilanjana Sinha NSHM Business School, Kolkata, India
69 Kelvin Lee Yong Ming School of Accounting and Finance, Taylor's University, Malaysia
70 Barun Mazumdar Gargi Memorial Institute of Technology, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
71 Dr.Kannadhasan Suriyan Study World College of Engineering, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India

Publication Opportunity
All papers presented in the conference will be recommended for publication to the following journals:
  • Journal of Service Management (JOSM) (SCOPUS & ABDC)

  • Conference Proceedings indexed in Scopus.

  • FIIB Business Review (SCOPUS & ABDC)

  • SIMS' bi-annual journal, Journal of Applied Management - Jidnyasa, ISSN: 0976-0326, indexed in IScholar, JGate & ProQuest

  • Student papers will be published in SIMSJMR (SIMS Journal of Management Research), ISSN:2582-0206

*Publication is based on further review and acceptance by the journal / discretion of Editor
  • For each author to be eligible for a conference certificate, they must attend each of the plenary sessions and their paper presentation track (hybrid mode).

  • A single author may submit a total of two papers (one as the principal author & the other as co-author).

  • FIIB Business Review (SCOPUS & ABDC)

  • Under no circumstances will the conference registration money be returned.

  • The author's name cannot be changed after the paper has been submitted.

  • The paper cannot be withdrawn under any circumstances after it has been approved and the author has registered.

  • Not more than five authors per paper.

  • Kindly follow the research ethics as suggested by COPE

  • All the shortlisted papers will undergo a double blind peer review process

Guidelines:
  • The author should submit a separate title page with author details along with full paper without author details to simsarc@sims.edu.

  • The paper should be submitted in word doc only (no Pdf will be accepted).

  • The allowed word limit for the paper is between 5000 to 6000 words (including abstract, keywords, and references).

  • Under no circumstances will the conference registration money be returned.

  • Please visit https://www.sims.edu/simsarc for detailed guidelines.

  • The paper cannot be withdrawn under any circumstances after it has been approved and the author has registered.

  • "Student paper" means all the authors are ONLY students of UG/PG level.

  • In case of paper in the doctoral category, the principal author should be a doctoral scholar.

  • All registered presenters and participants will get certificate.

Registration Details -

* Payment details and mode of payments are included in the registration form.
CATEGORY Registration Fee
PG Student Rs. 750
Doctoral Paper Rs. 1,000
Faculty/Academicians Rs. 2,000
Industry/Corporates Rs. 3,000
Foreign Delegates $100
Participation Only Rs. 750

* Inclusive of GST

Important Dates

Event Date
Last date of submission of full paper 31st August, 2024
Acceptance of full paper 31st September, 2024
Last date of registration 31st October, 2024

* Inclusive of GST

Registration fee includes admission to all the plenary sessions, editor’s conclave and paper presentation tracks.

Registration fee does not include publication charges.

Publication Opportunity
  • The author should submit a separate title page with author details along with a full paper without author details to simsarc@sims.edu

  • The paper should be submitted in word doc only (no Pdf will be accepted)

  • The allowed word limit for the paper is between 5000 to 6000 words (including abstract, keywords, and references).

  • Please visit https://www.sims.edu/simsarc for detailed guidelines.

  • "Student paper" means all the authors are ONLY students of UG/PG level.

  • In case of a paper in the doctoral category, the principal author should be a doctoral scholar.

  • All registered presenters and participants will get certificates.

Downloads

SIMSARC'24 Brochure - Click Here.

Contact Us
Brig. (Dr.) Rajiv Divekar,

Director and Conference Chairperson,
Dean, Faculty of Management, SIU SIMS, Pune,India

Dr. Komal Chopra,

Associate Professor,
Conference Convenor,
SIMS, Pune

Tel:- +91-20-2559-3246

Mobile:- 9890951451

Email:-chopra.k@sims.edu

Prof. Smita Mehendale,

Assistant Professor,
Conference Co-Convenor,
SIMS, Pune

Mobile:- 9970031142

Email:-smita.m@sims.edu

Mrs. Diplai More,

Organizing Secretary

Tel:-+91-20-25593228

Email:-library@sims.edu

Dr. Pravin Dange,

Associate professor,
Conference Convener
SIMS, Pune

Tel:- +91-20-25593282

Mob:-+91-9860687064

Email:-pravin.dange@sims.edu

ADDRESS:

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS) Range Hills Road, Khadki Pune – 411020, Maharashtra, India.

Phone No: 020 – 2559 3236 / 241 / 246

Archives

About SIMSARC’23

About SIMSARC’23

SIMSARC’2023 was held on 14th – 15th December 2023. The main theme of the conference was ‘Securing the Future Through Sustainability, Health, Education and Technology’.

The conference was conducted in hybrid mode where inauguration, panel discussions and valedictory session happened offline in SIMS auditorium and paper presentation happened online through MSteam. The real-time broadcast of auditorium session on SIMS YouTube channel was arranged where the broadcast link was shared with all registered participants and other dignitaries.

Conference various sessions were addressed by eminent guest speakers such as –

  • -Mr. Prashant Girbane, Director General at Maratha Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), Pune
  • -Prof. Kishore Kulkarni, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA.
  • -Prof. Rajendra Khandekar, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA
  • -Mr Naresh Pinisetti, President - HR & Governance, Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corp. Ltd.
  • -Prof. Pawan Jain, Interim Chair & Associate Professor, School of Business, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
  • -Prof. Ankit Katrodia, Professor, School of Management Science, North West University, Mmabatho, South Africa
  • -Mr. Ashok Joshi, Head of Vehicle Engineering, Mahindra Electric Mobility
  • -Himanshu Garg, Director, Global Business Engineering & Tech Experience (Razorpay)
  • -Mr. Subhamoy Chatterjee, Partner, Afluence, Risk, Compliance, Advisory.
  • -Dr Jeevan Deep Sehgal, Strategic Academic HR, Jio Institute.
  • -Prof. Justin Paul, Professor, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, USA & University of Reading Henley Business School, UK
  • -Prof. Brian Howieson, Acting Dean, CIIM Business School, University of Limassol, Cyprus.
  • -Prof. Anand Kulkarni, Research Professor & Associate Director, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, MIT WPU.

Conference received a great response with submission of 303 Research Papers from the researchers across the world. SIMSARC has three segments for submissions such as faculty, doctoral and student papers where we received 197 faculty paper, 83 Doctoral papers and 19 student papers. Only 157 of the 303 papers were selected to be presented at the conference after the double blind reviewed by 71 national and international reviewers on the conference review committee.

The conference received 15 international papers from countries such as Scotland, South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ongole, Turkey, USA, Oman, Russia, Dubai and UK.

The papers were presented over 2 days research conference. The conference was concluded with prize distribution to best papers all three tracks – Faculty, Doctoral and Student.

Inauguration

Inauguration

The conference was inaugurated by Mr. Prashant Girbane, Director General at Maratha Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), Pune.

The inaugural Session started with welcome address by Brig. Dr. Rajiv Divekar, Director, SIMS. He enlightened gathering with the theme of the conference.

The Chief guest, Mr. Prashant Girbane, Director General at MCCIA, Pune spoke about sustainability and climate change and its effects. He discussed the problems of social, economic and environmental sustainability where solution focus on technology, policy and behavioral changes. He emphasizes on the contribution that an individual can make at societal levels and reduce our carbon footprint. He also mentioned the problems related to health care system, education and technology in India. He discussed probable solutions and suggestions stating facts, figures and short stories.

SIMS in-house research “Journal of Applied Management -Jidnyasa”, Vol 15, Issue 2 (July-December, 2023) was release by the Chief Guest. The ceremony ended with the vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Pravin Kumar, Deputy Director, SIMS.

Plenary Session

Theme: "Securing the Future through Education & Technology"

Plenary Session

Eminent personalities from different fields such as Prof. Kishore Kulkarni (Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA), Prof. Rajendra Khandekar (Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA), Mr Naresh Pinisetti, President - HR & Governance, Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corp. Ltd, Prof. Pawan Jain, Interim Chair & Associate Professor, School of Business, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond participated in discussion.

Mr. Naresh Pinisetti, the moderator started the discussion with referring the potential of strategic management paradigms to pave the way for a sustainable future. The panellists addressed a number of important topics, including the need for organisations to demonstrate flexibility and resilience in the face of swift technology progress, globalisation, and evolving customer demands in order to remain relevant.

Prof. Rajendra Khandekar, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA, addressed the digital divide being a critical consideration for strategic managers. As societies become increasingly interconnected, the gap between those with access to digital resources and those without widens. Bridging this divide is not only a social responsibility but also a strategic imperative for businesses aiming to reach diverse markets and demographics. He further discussed Political will playing a pivotal role in shaping the strategic landscape. Governments influence industries through policies, regulations, and economic initiatives. Strategic managers must navigate the complexities of political landscapes to align organizational goals with broader societal objectives.

Prof. Pawan Jain, Interim Chair & Associate Professor, School of Business, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond emphasised on the disruption of industries being a recurring theme in strategic management. Industries face constant upheaval due to innovations, market shifts, and evolving consumer preferences. Companies that can anticipate and adapt to these disruptions are better positioned for sustained success. A notable example he provided was the Citadel Nanosecond Trade, showcasing how cutting-edge technologies revolutionize financial markets and trading strategies.

The panel thereafter addressed the students and their questions with regards to the topic.


Theme: "Role of Technology and Leadership in promoting business"

Plenary Session

Prof. Ankit Katrodia (Professor, School of Management Science, North West University, Mmabatho, South Africa) moderated a panel discussion featuring Mr. Ashok Joshi (Head of Vehicle Engineering, Mahindra Electric Mobility, Himanshu Garg (Director, Global Business Engineering & Tech Experience (Razorpay)), and Mr. Subhamoy Chatterjee (Partner, Afluence, Risk, Compliance, Advisory).

Professor Ankit Katrodia began the session with a discussion about the intersection of technology and leadership is pivotal in promoting business growth and innovation. Local vs global innovation dynamics highlight the importance of adapting technological solutions to both regional nuances and global trends. Effective leaders navigate this complexity by fostering an organizational culture that embraces innovation and tailor strategies to diverse markets. He explained how innovation in policy is a strategic driver, influencing the business landscape. Forward-thinking leaders leverage technology to shape policies that foster creativity, entrepreneurship, and sustainable growth. The willingness and acceptancy of technology within an organization are critical aspects. Leaders play a central role in cultivating a culture that embraces change, overcoming potential resistance.

Himanshu Garg gave an example of One Time Passwords (OTP) and the organizational resistance towards the same. Reluctance can impede digital transformation initiatives. Leaders must proactively address such challenges, emphasizing the benefits of technology adoption.

Mr. Ashok Joshi spoke about his experience of securing and ensuring compliance, particularly in the payment industry, is paramount. Leaders must champion robust cybersecurity measures and regulatory adherence to build trust among customers. Emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between technology and leadership is key to navigating the intricate landscape of business promotion, fostering innovation, and ensuring sustainable growth in an ever-evolving global business environment.

The panel thereafter addressed the students and their questions with regards to the topic.


Theme: Role of Research in Industry - Academia Collaboration

Plenary Session

Dr Jeevan Deep Sehgal (Strategic Academic HR, Jio Institute) moderated a panel discussion featuring Prof. Justin Paul (Professor, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, USA & University of Reading Henley Business School, UK), Prof. Brian Howieson (Acting Dean, CIIM Business School, University of Limassol, Cyprus), and Prof. Anand Kulkarni (Research Professor & Associate Director, Institute of Artificial Intelligence, MIT WPU).

The session began with the understanding of the collaboration between industry and academia plays a pivotal role in driving innovation, fostering research, and contributing to societal progress. In the United States, the principle of teaching freedom in academia allows researchers the flexibility to explore diverse areas of study, facilitating a dynamic partnership between academic institutions and industries spoken by Prof. Brian Howieson.

They further went to discussing the 7Ps of a business plan namely, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Processes, and Physical Evidence, by Professor Anand Kulkarni, wherein they provide a strategic framework for aligning academic research with industry needs. He stated that by incorporating these elements, collaborative efforts can address market demands, enhance product development, and improve overall business performance.

Professor Justin Paul spoke about the topic of the session and the impact of academic research on organisations. He stated that academic research has a profound effect on industry by generating knowledge, innovations, and breakthroughs. The synergy enables industries to remain competitive, adapt to market changes, and leverage cutting-edge technologies. Collaborative efforts result in a win-win situation, where academia benefits from real-world applications of research, and industry gains access to the latest advancements.

The moderator, Dr. Jeevan Deep Sehgal enquired about the inter-relation between academic research and industry, and spoke about how connecting to industry ensures that academic research is relevant and applicable to real-world challenges. Industry input guides research projects towards addressing current market needs, fostering a more seamless transition from theoretical knowledge to practical applications. This connection helps align academic efforts with industry trends and demands. He further went on to provide an example of Toyota. Toyota and Ford exemplify how incremental solutions can address monumental problems. Toyota's lean manufacturing principles, developed through continuous improvement and research, revolutionized the automotive industry. Similarly, Ford's implementation of assembly line techniques showcased the impact of incremental innovations on large-scale production. These examples highlight the role of research-driven incremental improvements in transforming industries.

Dr. Jeevan Deep Sehgal concluded the session by relating learning and innovation stating that learning and innovation go hand in hand in the industry-academia collaboration. Academic institutions provide a conducive environment for learning, critical thinking, and experimentation.

Industry, in turn, benefits from the innovative ideas, skilled workforce, and research outputs generated by academia. This symbiotic relationship fosters a culture of continuous learning and innovation. The role of research in industry-academia collaboration is integral to fostering innovation and addressing complex challenges. The alignment of academic research with industry needs, the infusion of teaching freedom, the incorporation of business planning principles, and the strategic hiring of interns contribute to a dynamic partnership. The collaborative efforts between academia and industry, exemplified by companies like Toyota and Ford, showcase the transformative power of incremental solutions. This collaborative approach propels learning, innovation, and positive outcomes for both sectors, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

The session was followed by a question-answer round, where the students asked about the importance of research in internships. This was answered by Professor Anand Kulkarni who stated that hiring interns for research projects is a common practice that bridges the gap between academia and industry. Interns bring fresh perspectives, enthusiasm, and the latest academic insights to industrial settings. This collaboration not only provides students with practical experience but also allows industries to tap into emerging talent pools.

Valedictory Ceremony

Valedictory Ceremony

SIMSARC’23, themed “Securing the future through sustainability, health, education and technology” concluded with a remarkable valedictory session on 15th December 2023, featuring Dr. Justin Paul (Professor, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, USA and University of Reading Henley Business School, UK, and Chief Editor of the International Journal of Consumer Studies). The valedictory session covered a spectrum of topics, ranging from Dr. Paul’s groundbreaking contributions to branding to the innovative CPP model for internationalization. His SCOPE framework for small firms and 7P Framework for International Marketing demonstrated his multifaceted expertise.

He delved into the impact of social media and the role of Artificial Intelligence in marketing strategies, product recommendations, and the ethical dimensions of marketing practices. The discourse extended to entrepreneurship, consumer ethics, the theory of dogmatism, shopping behavior, marketing campaigns, and the ethical implications of targeted advertising.

The valedictory session concluded with prize distribution to best papers all three tracks – Faculty, Doctoral and Student.

Special Session

The special session was held on 13th December 2023 and topic was “Bibliometric Analysis” by Dr. Preeti Mulay. The session was aimed to deepen understanding of the bibliometric tools and techniques crucial for academic research.

The session was held online on the Zoom platform and was attended by 62 participants. The session covered the essentials of bibliometric methods, their application in evaluating and enhancing the impact of scholarly work, and strategies to effectively utilize bibliometric data for academic and research advancement. It also emphasized the role of bibliometric analysis in the contemporary academic publishing landscape, highlighting how researchers can leverage these tools to align their work with current publishing trends and standards. The session was followed by the Q&A session which saw active engagement from the audience in regards to utilization and availability of the tools and various other advanced features to suit a researcher’s requirement etc.

The event was concluded with a vote of thanks by the Co- convener of SIMSARC 2023 Prof. Smitha Mehendale

Special Session
Special Session
Special Session

Special Session 1

Shri Sanjeev K Varshney

(Head- International Cooperation, DST, Govt of India)

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Varshney is a Scientific Officer with Government of India, working with Ministry / Department of Science & Technology, Government of India since 1990. Presently he is working as Adviser & Head, International Division of the Department and is responsible for facilitating bilateral, multilateral and regional scientific cooperation of India with partner countries.

He has worked as Counsellor (S&T) with Embassy of India in Moscow to facilitate bilateral scientific cooperation between India and Russia during April 2008 - June 2011.

He has been contributing to promotion of international scientific cooperation as well as scientific-industrial cooperation. Mr. Varshney is actively involved in financial planning of the group. He is Indian Co-Chair, Governing Body, Indo-German Science & Technology Centre, Member in Board of Directors, Global Innovation & Technology Alliance & he is member, Governing Councils: (1) Indo-US Endowment Fund, (2) International Advanced Research Centre of Powder Metallurgy, (3) US India Education Foundation. He is also Member, Board of Research Studies in Department of Geology, Aligarh Muslim University.

Mr. Varshney completed M. Sc. (Geology) in 1984 from Aligarh Muslim University and was awarded University Medal for obtaining first position. He also pursued research at University of Delhi during 1985-1990 on Himalayan river systems, sedimentation, diagenetic and tectonic modifications. He was awarded Dr DN Wadia Research Fellowship in 1986 for his research on Himalayan Geology.

He is Life Fellow of Geological Society of India, Bangalore; Nepal Geological Society, Kathmandu and member of International Association of Sedimentologists, Oxford. He also has numerous certifications to his credit. Mr. Varshney also taught at Kurukshetra University in 1990.

Special Session 2

Mr. S Ramakrishnan

(Former Director General Centre for Development of Advanced Computing(C-DAC))

Over the last four decades, Srinivasan Ramakrishnan has distinguished himself in government, R&D labs and industry in various areas of Information and communication technologies (ICT).

He was with Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Government of India handling telecom, networking and computing areas for over twenty-five years. He was Founder Project Director, ERNET, pioneering computer networking R&D work and roll-out of internet in the country for the first time. Later, he headed software development and broadband and convergence divisions, funding various R&D initiatives. He headed NCST, Media Lab Asia and, later C-DAC, as Director General for six years. His name figures in the list of ‘Icons of Indian IT’ published by Wisdom tree in 2018, along with 29 other eminent people in the field

Since superannuation from C-DAC, he has been an independent technology and management consultant working in the areas of e-Governance, Healthcare IT, ICT Standards and start-ups. He is a board member of GSTN. He is a B.Tech., and MTech., from IIT Madras and MBA from MDI, Gurugram.

Special Session 3

Shaveta Bhardawaj

(Co-Founder & CEO @SprintStudioAI)

Shaveta Bhardawaj is the Co-Lead, West (Quantitative), Sr Executive Director Co-Lead, West (Quantitative), Sr Executive Director. She worked with Insights by Kantar from Apr 2019 - Apr 2021 · 2 yrs 1 moApr 2019 - Apr 2021.

She was the Managing Director of Western RegionManaging Director - Western Region. Millward Brown India from Jul 2015 - Apr 2019. She was the Group Account Director of Millward Brown from Mar 2014 - Jun 2015 She was the Associate Director Client Solutions of The Nieslen Company. She also worked as Research Manager at Johnson & Johnson.

Special Session Workshop

Anubha Sethia

(Team Lead with the consulting research department, Euromonitor International)

An MBA graduate in marketing and operations with 4+ years of work experience in strategic consulting and market research industry.

She has worked on multiple large-scale as well as fast turnaround projects for high-profile clients in different industries to provide a future outlook to top management in terms of project launches, category and country opportunities, GTM strategies, marketing communication and distribution landscape.

Akriti Kumari

(Senior Research Associate, Euromonitor International)

They Delivered a workshop on the Euromonitor Database, how it can be used for research.

Chief Guest:

Mr. Amit Kalyani

(Deputy Managing Director, Bharat Forge Ltd)

Mr. Amit Kalyani is the Deputy Managing Director at Bharat Forge Limited, a part of the Pune based Kalyani Group. The Kalyani group operates in the sectors of specialty steel, hi-tech metallurgical manufacturing, automotive components and infrastructure along with specialty chemicals. Bharat Forge Ltd has a revenue of 1.4 billion dollars with a transcontinental presence across ten manufacturing locations, serving marquee clienteles across automotive, oil and gas, aerospace, defense, construction and mining sectors globally.

The Kalyani Group with revenues of approximately 3 billion dollars and a global marquee customer base was founded in 1966 by Amit’s grandfather, the late Dr. N.A. Kalyani. Currently, Amit’s father Mr. B.N. Kalyani is the Chairman of the Kalyani Group. Amit is a third generation member of the business. Mr. Amit Kalyani has been involved with driving the group’s strategy and in the execution of its diversification over the past decade. He is also responsible for finance and M&A. His key focus now is on nurturing talent and developing new skills within the organization, strategizing and driving growth in new areas and products. Mr. Amit Kalyani is a member on the board of various group companies like Bharat Forge Limited and Kalyani Steels Ltd to name a few and also chairs board meetings of BF Investment Ltd and Kalyani Investment Company Ltd. He has been a part of many committees of the Government of India on manufacturing, education, skill development and bilateral relations.

He is also on the advisory board of Cap Gemini, India & serves as an Independent Director on the board of Schaeffler India Ltd. Mr. Kalyani has been working with Bharat Forge since 1999, starting his career with manufacturing and moving on to IT and Finance and has been the group’s Executive Director since May 2004. Mr. Kalyani holds a BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. He is also a Harvard Business School OPM graduate and a YPO member. He is extremely passionate about manufacturing and technology and regularly participates in the World Economic Forum, Davos. Amit has a special interest in CSR projects and philanthropy. He strongly believes in giving back to society and uses his personal time and resources in projects related to education and healthcare. He especially loves to spend time with youths to guide and mentor them. It invigorates him and helps him with his ideations. Amit and his wife Deeksha founded The Kalyani School in 2015, which is a not for profit institution which provides high quality, modern education to K12 students. Amit is a family man and loves spending time with his three children, wife and parents.

Theme: New Realities Post Covid- Implications for Business

Prof. Rajendra Khandekar

(Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA (Moderator))

Rajendra (Raj) Khandekar, Ph.D.is a Professor of Management at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. He received his B.Tech (Honors) in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He earned his PGDM fthe rom Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and his Ph.D. in Business from the University of Kansas.

Raj has taught at graduate and undergraduate levels at institutions such as IIM Calcutta, University of Kansas, University of Colorado, and Regis University. His primary teaching interests are in the area of Strategic Management and Leadership. He has been a pioneer at MSU Denver in Online teaching since 1998, and has consistently received excellent teaching evaluations from both on-ground and online students. He was the first recipient of "Excellence in Teaching" award in the MBA program at the School of Professional Studies, Regis University, Denver.

Raj main research interests are in Strategic Management and Leadership. He has presented and published several research papers and cases in the field of Strategic Management. Currently he is working on his book on Strategic Leadership.

Raj has consulted with businesses as well as non-profit organizations. He has conducted strategic management training for small businesses, and diversity training in partnership with other consulting firms for large companies.

Dr. Pawan Jain

(Assistant Professor, West Virginia University, USA)

Dr. Pawan Jain received his Ph.D. in Finance from The University of Memphis in 2013 and a Ph.D. in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Wyoming in 2008. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) charter holder and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). He is also a Blockchain expert as certified by the American Institute of CPAs®.

Dr. Jain has authored several scholarly articles in leading finance and real estate journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, Financial Management, Journal of real Estate Finance and Economics, etc. He has won several awards and honors for his high-quality research and outstanding teaching. He has made over 200 presentations at professional meetings and has also been invited to present his research at several premier business schools, such as the University of Mississippi, Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore, Kolkata, and Indore), Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of Wyoming, University of Memphis, and Marquette University, among others. Dr. Jain’s research has been featured in popular press and he has been interviewed several times by the news channels for his opinion on stock market regulations, Blockchain, and high frequency trading. He has also been invited to present his research at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Reserve Bank of India, and National Stock Exchange of India. He was also invited to serve on the state of Wyoming's Blockchain Coalition.

In addition to being an outstanding researcher, Dr. Jain is an excellent teacher. He has been teaching online since 2005. He challenges and inspires his students to find their passion and attempt to become a World expert. His coaching goes well beyond the classroom lecture experience. He travels with the students to leading global events and student competitions on investment research where students apply the textbook knowledge at a level that can help them secure the best employment opportunities in the field.

Dr. Kishore Kulkarni

((Distinguished) Professor of Economics, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA)

Dr. Kishore G. Kulkarni has been the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, Colorado since 1989. As an Adjunct Professor, he has also taught at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Colorado State University and Colorado School of Mines

Prof. Kulkarni completed B.A. (Economics) (First Rank in Merit) and M.A. (Economics) (Second rank in Merit) degrees from the University of Poona, (now called Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU)) India. He migrated to the U.S.A. in 1976 and completed M.A. (Economics) and Ph.D. (Economics) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, before entering into his real passion of full time teaching in 1980.

His extra-ordinary teaching skills have brought him several teaching laurels including 2001 Outstanding Teaching Award by the Golden Key International Honor Society, inclusion of his biography in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (1998) and Best Teaching Award by Student Economic Society, 2014. His humorous, but educational teaching style has made him one of the most sought after professors. He was selected in the Spring 1994 voyage of the Semester at Sea Program, and he has also delivered many special lectures and seminars all over the world by traveling to around 30 countries.

Prof. Kulkarni has authored and/or edited (or co-authored and co-edited) ten books, some of which have become famous textbook adoptions in USA and Indian universities. Sixth edition of his Macro textbook is published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company in 2019, and he has co-edited a book on India in May 2020. He has authored (or co-authored) 160 refereed journal articles, all of which can be seen on www.researchgate.net . He serves as the Chief Editor of International Review of Business and Economics (IRBE) ( see www.irbejournal.com ).

For his numerous research activities, Dr. Kulkarni was recognized with Outstanding Faculty Researcher/Scholar Award by the Golden Key International Honor Society in 1997. In 2004, the Faculty Senate of the Metropolitan State University of Denver handed him “Distinguished Service Award”, it was followed by the “Extra-ordinary Service Award” by the University President in 2010. In 2012 the Dean of the College of Business, recognized him as the first “Distinguished Professor” in college of business. In May 2017 Non-Resident Indians (NRI) Welfare Society of India gave him “Pravasi Ratan” award. In March 2019 the Federation of Business Disciplines (FBD) recognized him as the “Outstanding Educator Award” recipient, together with GISR Foundation, New Delhi which offered him “Outstanding Overseas Academician” in 2019.

To carry out his research activities, he has held Visiting Research Fellowships and has received many research grants from several institutions such as Institute of Humane Studies (IHS), Arlington VA, National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Pune, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Mumbai, and Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai.

Prof. Kulkarni resides in Denver, Colorado with his wife Jayashree, (M.Com and MBA) an accounting professor, and their daughters Lina (an Orthodontics, www.kulkarniortho.com ) married to Dr. Nicolas Politano (an oral Surgeon); and Aditi (Business Attorney) married to Mr. Patrick Knight (an Engineer). His wife and Dr. Kulkarni have been regular tennis players at different levels for more than 42 years.

Theme: Global Leadership - Dealing with Change

Dr. Hory Sankar Mukerjee

(Principal- Education, Training and Assessment, Infosys, India)

Dr. Hory Mukerjee is award-winning, innovative, and highly focused leader with eighteen years of expertise across industry verticals and a progressive record of accomplishment in learning strategy and execution.

Here has

  • Extensive experience developing global talent development strategies

  • Experienced professional in nurturing global learning organizations

  • Experience leading internal and external global learning teams, both local and remote.

He is author of "Business Communication-Connecting at Work" and "The Gift of the Gab-The subtle art of communicating". He holds a PhD and M.B.A. His specialties include: Learning and development, impact of business strategy on corporate learning, digital transformation of learning, workforce readiness, Reskilling, Up skilling and employee experience.

Jovina Priyanka Madtha

(Director-Human Capital, United Health Group, India)

An Human Capital expert who focuses on crafting memorable experiences, She is an agile people leader with immense insights to people matters. In her previous roles she has partnered with business on mergers and acquisitions , organizational development initiatives, Talent management , Employee life cycle, performance management Architecture & Reward for performance culture .

She considers that her assignments have been enriching and insightful making it possible for her to make a difference in people’s life . She did her masters in social work and currently perusing Advanced Management Program with IIM Bangalore . Currently she is associated with United Health Care Bangalore as the “ Director – Human Capital”.

Theme: Global Business Strategy - Post Pandemic Challenges and Future

Mr. Naresh Pinisetti

(President, Corporate Governance, DFPCL)

Mr. Naresh Kumar is a Postgraduate in Human Resources Management with an Executive MBA from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and passed out his B L from College of Law in Andhra University and MA (Sociology) from the same University.

Naresh is currently associated with Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd as Group President – Corporate Governance after a long stint as Group President – Human Resources. Prior to this he was associated with Vestas as Director and Regional Head of HR for Asia Pacific Region. He was also associated with the multi-national Bayer Group in India as General Manager – HR. He has a varied experience of over 34 years in different facets of Human Resources Development and Industrial Relations moving from a strong Employee Relations role to a Corporate HR role over the years. He was also actively involved in handling the people related issues in mergers and acquisitions during his current stint as well as with Bayer and Vestas. His core competencies are in Leadership Development, Organization Transformation and Change Management.

He has widely traveled across Europe and Asia Pacific and is exposed to the latest international concepts in People Management. He is a certified Coach and is also a Hogan Graduate. He is conferred with the honour of being among 100 Most Talented HR Leaders across the Globe by ET Now. He is also a visiting faculty to some of the leading management institutes. He is also the Chairman of Board of Studies of Diploma in Training and Development offered by Indian Society for Training and Development.

Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran

(Associate Professor, University of Lethbridge, Canada)

Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran is an Associate Professor of Finance and Finance area chair at the Dhillon School of Business, University of Lethbridge. Dr. Baulkaran holds a Ph.D from Wilfrid Laurier University, an MBA, and a BBA majoring in Finance from the University of New Brunswick.

He is a CFA Charter holder. Dr. Baulkaran has published his research in the Journal of Corporate Finance, International Review of Finance, Joural of Real Estate Economics and Finance, Journal of Asset Management, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance. Multinational Finance Journal, Journal of Economics and Business, and Advances in Financial Economics. Dr. Baulkaran has received several external (SSHRC), FP Canada Research Foundation Grant and Internal University Research Grants. Dr. Baulkaran has presented his research at numerous finance conferences including Financial Management Association, Financial Management Association Europe, Northern Finance Association, Eastern Finance Association, American Real Estate Society, and Midwest Finance Association and acts as a reviewer for several academic journals. He was awarded the Wilfrid Laurier University Gold Medal for Academic Excellence and the E.D Maher Graduate Student Prize for the graduating MBA student with the highest CGPA at the University of New Brunswick.

In connection with his work with SEBI, he has attended programmes pertaining to the Securities Market in India, USA, UK, Canada and Singapore. The organisations visited by him include the World Bank, US- Securities and Exchange Commissions, the Financial Conduct Authority-UK, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the American University and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

He has been a guest speaker to several organizations such as at IIM Bengaluru, CBI Academy Ghaziabad, Maharashtra Police Academy Nashik, Enforcement Directorate Mumbai, the National Institute of Securities Markets, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. He was also a Speaker at the IOSCO–Harvard Law School Global Certification Programme for Regulators of Securities Markets Madrid- Spain, at a webinar on 'Insider Trading- Compliance and Beyond' by the CFA Institute, the Central Michigan University-USA and the Wyoming University-USA. He has also attended securities market related discussions on TV and Radio in India.

Currently, Mr Gupta is engaged in the Legal Profession relating to the Securities Markets. He is also a member of the Committees of a Stock Exchange as an Independent External Expert.

Chief Guest

Mr. Akshay Mehrotra

(Co-founder and CEO, Fibe India (Formerly EarlySalary))

A strategic planning & marketing wiz with an extensive 12 years of work experience with some of India’s biggest brands like Future Retail Ltd, PolicyBazaar.com, Big Bazaar, and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

Akshay is a role model for everyone at EarlySalary. Akshay oversees the implementation of the company’s product strategy and isfocused on building the business and building EarlySalary as a Financial Institution. His sharp business acumen, coupled with an unwavering passion for customer service makes him an exemplary leader and this fact have been credited by him being conferred the ‘Most Talented CMO of the Year’ award in 2013 – 2014 by CMO Asia.

Speaker:

Professor A. Parasuraman, University of Miami (USA)

Topic:

Personal Reflections on the SERVQUAL Research Journey: Implications for Impactful Knowledge Generation

Professor A. Parasuraman, University of Miami (USA) conducted a special session on “Personal Reflections on the SERVQUAL Research Journey: Implications for Impactful Knowledge Generation”. He is renowned globally for SERVQUAL Model and has also received numerous awards for his excellence. He currently serves as Mentor of the AIM-Parasuraman Center for Service Excellence at the Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSOM) in Bengaluru (India) and Pro-Chancellor (Academics) of Vijaybhoomi University in Karjat (Greater Mumbai, India).

During his insightful session, he focused on the journey of SERVQUAL, which included qualitative and quantitative research. He emphasized that impactful research need not be complicated, but a simple structure that is logical and produces robust results is desirable. He also mentioned that it is important to get funding for the research and this makes a huge difference. If the company is ready to give funds for research, it becomes much easier for the researcher to carry out research and focus on the research. He also talked about developing continuous knowledge in a particular domain that has a greater impact and hence he started with a broad overview before he narrowed it down to service quality. He then emphasized focus-group interviews, in-depth interviews of managers in companies and gave the analogy of the interviews of customers which focuses to know what good and bad quality service meant to customers.

He also gave suggestions & tips to researchers on choosing a topic, research colleagues, how to conduct research in multiple sectors, how to disseminate findings through different types of publication outlets and forums to reach a diverse audience. He talked on

  • Phase 1:- Qualitative-Conceptual Model of Service Quality-GAPS Model

  • Phase 2:- Quantitative – SERVQUALInstrument

  • Phase 3:- Qualitative and Quantitative –Extended GAPS model

  • Phase 4:- Qualitative – Nature and Service Expectations

Then he gave insights on pedagogical impact –books based on the GAPS model and SERVQUAL, practitioner impact, service quality perceptions relative to zones of tolerance by dimension.

The session ended with questions and answers with participants.

Speakers:-
Professor Vikas Kumar-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Management
Professor Carlos Flavian-Editor-in-Chief, Spanish Journal of Marketing-ESIC

Professor Vikas Kumar, Editor-in-Chief, Head of Discipline and Professor in the Discipline of International Business at the University of Sydney Business School., talked about the Journal of International Management, which is among the top 5 management journals in the world. He presented the data of submission and publications timelines. He also highlighted the top three reasons for articles being desk-rejected.

He also talked about internationalization strategies employed by firms from emerging markets such as India and his research involves understanding the unique aspects of the institutional and cultural context of emerging markets and the influence context has on firm strategies.

He spoke on special issues like MNEs and Sustainable Business in Emerging Markets, Global Connectivity in a world of disruptions, qualitative comparative analysis, etc.

He concluded the session with a note “Leveraging the disconnect between received wisdom and new phenomena with the uniqueness of the context being studied”

Prof. Carlos Flavian, Professor of Marketing at the University of Zaragoza (SPAIN) and Chair of METODO research group, focused on the Spanish Journal of Marketing- ESIC. The word Spanish does not represent the origin of articles; instead, the journal is international in the true sense. He also spoke about best papers and open access articles. The research focuses on the analysis of people's interaction with new technologies, studying both the particularities of the technology (e.g. usability) and the perceptions, behavioural intentions, and actual behaviours of consumers (adoption, recommendation, eWOM, satisfaction, loyalty, etc.).

He gave suggestions on preparing a submission and managing the revision process, how to prepare a paper, how should be the introduction, background or literature review, model and hypothesis, methodology, highlighting the significant findings, interpreting the result, relating findings with previous studies, explaining how the study adds to previous knowledge, theoretical and managerial implications ( elaborating on the broader implication of the research) , limitations and future research lines (problems found that limit the study) , conclusions ( what have you learned from the study)

We would like to extend our gratitude to the editors for gracing the occasion.

Speakers:-
Professor Brian Howieson-Former Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Management Development
Professor Paul Jones-Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research
Professor Yogesh Dwivedi-Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Information Management

Professor Brian Howieson, Associate Dean for Business Engagement and Professor of Organisational Leadership in Stirling Management School, stressed on what journals expect in terms of rigor of literature, which should be comprehensive. He then talked about the broad spectrum of leadership including its history to the current state of the field and the developing contemporary models of leadership, particularly in the areas of mission leadership and empowerment. He spoke on data findings and discussion of findings, journal expectations with respect to rigor in research methodology.

Professor Paul Jones, Head of the Business Department at Swansea University's School of Management, talked about the Editorial process in his journal and the quality threshold reasons. Then he emphasized the reasons for desk rejections, entrepreneurship education which has become a very important research evaluation framework - 3 stars is international excellence, 2 stars is national excellence, and abstract has to meet the quality expected. He also talked about examples of types of journal study, RPF output criteria, and definitions- originality, significance, and rigor, the IJBER Editorial process.

He again pointed out entrepreneurial research in developing world contexts such as Africa, Asia, and southeast Asia.

Professor Yogesh Dwivedi, Professor of Digital Marketing and Innovation, Founding Director of the Emerging Markets Research Centre (EMaRC) and Co-Director of Research at the School of Management, Swansea University, Wales, UK, continued with the reasons for papers being desk rejection like duplicate and previously rejected submissions, plagiarism, lack of adherence to journal, inadequate research contribution, inadequate length, and language related issues, lack of fit with the journals scope, bibliometric analysis, descriptive review, meta-analysis, and data-driven research, etc. and mentioned that year 2021 saw many covid related papers, most of which were not up to the mark, hence rejected.

We would like to extend our gratitude to the editors for gracing the occasion.

Speakers:-
Professor Jay Kandampully -Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Service Management
Professor Raj Sethuraman-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Retailing

At the Editors’ Conclave session: 3 of SIMSARC’21, Professor Jay Kandampully, CTF International Fellow at the University of Karlstad, Sweden, emphasized on to rethink research - how do we create unique contributions & reasons. He then talked about his Journal of service management (JOSM) and the barriers in developing countries in terms of publication and research.

Raj Sethuraman, Marilyn, and Leo Corrigan Professor and Chair of Marketing at the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, focused on his Journal of Retailing, one of the oldest journals in the marketing domain exclusively focus on retailing. Then he gave his views on Indian research & publications with personal experiences. He then mentioned several marketing courses including marketing management, marketing research, customer insights, sales management, and database marketing, and his research that focuses on national brand-store brand competition, price-advertising strategies, and brand equity. He said that Indian researchers are getting prolific but we have to know how to write well and how to communicate well. He gave an example of one research paper where the title was not appropriate, he gave his input on how title can be written appropriately. Then he was talking about e-shopping, according to him, we should know the positioning. Becoming a good positioner is very important for which finding a good co-author is an important task. He talked about literature review, literature review should be pertinent to the topic. He said that theory is not essential for a research paper. We should develop a conceptual framework. He concluded by stating that following the format of the paper, avoiding spelling mistakes, read past research papers published in the particular journals.

We would like to extend our gratitude to the editors for gracing the occasion.

Chief Guest:

Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister, Road Transport & Highways, Government of India;

Guest of Honor
Mr. Vibhor Talreja, Managing Director, Everstone Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

The inaugural ceremony of SIMSARC’21 was conducted on December 21, 2021, in the esteemed presence of Chief Guest, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister, Road Transport & Highways, Government of India; Guest of Honour, Mr. Vibhor Talreja, Managing Director, Everstone Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. S.B. Mujumdar, Chancellor, Symbiosis International (Deemed University); Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, Pro-Chancellor, Symbiosis International (Deemed University); Dr. Rajani R. Gupte, Vice-Chancellor, Symbiosis International (Deemed University) were also present for the inaugural ceremony of SIMSARC 21.

The welcome address was given by Brig Dr. Rajiv Divekar, Director, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. He commended the Chief Guest for the ceremony Shri Nitin Gadkari for his foresight to build the nation.

The chief guest was also welcomed by Dr. S. B Mujumdar, Chancellor, Symbiosis International (Deemed University). He highlighted that the pandemic has taught us various lessons which include the importance of health and immunity, family relations, and spirituality. It has also taught us the importance of cooperation. He said, “You alone are not safe unless everyone around you is”.

Hon’ble Union Minister, Shri Nitin Gadkari said, “We strongly believe that society must focus on ethics.” He also emphasized how road transport and the new road developmental projects have changed the face of India along with giving a boost to the business sectors.

SIMS in-house research journal, JIDNYASA Vol 13, issue 2, was released in the presence of Chief Guest, Shri Nitin Gadkari.

Our Guest of honour, Mr. Vibhor Talreja, stressed that “we are on the forefront of living in the new normal. We are entering a new normal every three years. Infrastructure development plays an important role in the development of India. We are coming out of a dark area of pandemic life. We are entering a new normal every three years. We tend to enter into our comfort zone and do things like we were doing before but the new normal doesn’t allow us to do that. The industries are seeing a massive change in the business cycle due to covid.” UPI and adoption of mobile payment are exceptionally high in Asia and India and China are the major leaders. Cash is not used by the profitable consumers since the usage is in rural areas and the cash concept is disrupted. SIMS compendium, book of abstract, of the papers accepted for the presentation was released in the presence of Vibhor Talreja, with the vote of thanks being proposed by Brig (Dr.)Rajiv Divekar.

Topic: Education and Technology: Post Covid-19

Speakers:

Dr. Daniela Irrera, Associate Professor, University of Catania, Italy

Dr. Arun Upadhayay, Associate Professor, Florida International University, USA

Prof. Matt Glowatz, Assistant Professor, University College Dublin, Ireland Moderator: Dr. Hory Sankar Mukerjee, Principal- Education, Training and Assessment, Infosys, India At the Plenary Session 2, of SIMSARC’21, our moderator Dr. Hory Sankar Mukerjee, award-winning, innovative, and highly focused leader with eighteen years of expertise across industry verticals and a progressive record of accomplishment in learning strategy and execution, started the discussion by addressing the situation of the education system due to covid disruptions to which Dr. Daniela Irrera, (Ph.D. in International Relations, University of Catania) is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania, replied by stating the importance of adapting to the new normal and talked about blended education by sharing personal experiences. She emphasized finding the right balance in blended education. Then she mentioned that her simulation ‘Game of Peace’ based on conflict resolution and negotiation has won the competition on European teaching practices that enhance learning for international students (IMPACT Project).

The moderator also touched on the following topics of developing global talent development strategies, nurturing global learning organizations' internal and external global learning teams, both local and remote. Professor Matt Glowatz stated the challenges faced by academic institutions and the importance of innovative education technology. He also focused on augmented reality & the mental health of students.

After that, the moderator touched on the sensitive topic of digital inequality across the world to which Dr. Arun Upadhyay replied by stating some points about the digital divide and the poor investments from the government.

Topic: Business and Management: Adaptation to New Normal

Speakers:

Mr. Suresh Gupta, Chief General Manager (Retd.), SEBI, India

Dr. Pawan Jain, Assistant Professor of Finance, West Virginia University, USA

Dr. Ravi Seethamraju, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Business School

Moderator: Mr. Naresh K. Pinisetti

At the Plenary Session 1, of SIMSARC’21, our moderator Mr. Naresh K. Pinisetti, Postgraduate in Human Resources Management with an Executive MBA from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and passed out his B L from College of Law in Andhra University and MA (Sociology) from the same University, started the discussion by pointing out the elephant in the room: Digitalization, to which Dr. Ravi Seethamraju replied that companies should focus on benefits of new technology, rather than just focusing on challenges as changes are inevitable. He also stressed the fact of employees' well-being and the importance of flexibility in working hours. Mr. Suresh Gupta added by talking in the context of India, that the demonetization & easy availability of data before pandemic has mitigated a lot of hardship. After that healthy discussion on digitalization, the Panel speakers addressed the issue of supply chain disruptions all over the world. On which Dr. Pawan Jain, a Ph.D. in Finance from The University of Memphis in 2013 and a Ph.D. in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Wyoming, pointed out a plain solution that organizations had increased the short-term inventory but that is not sustainable. He then stressed regionalization & digitization in the supply chain (tracking primary and secondary suppliers on a common platform). He then spoke about several scholarly articles in leading finance and real estate journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, Financial Management, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, etc.

Moderator asked various questions to speaker which were answered by Speaker

Topic: Global Outlook: Life after Pandemic

Speakers:

Dr. Kishore G. Kulkarni, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Metropolitan State,

University of Denver, USA

Mr. S.C. Kalia, Executive Director (Retd.), Union Bank of India, India

Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran, Associate Professor of Finance, University of Lethbridge, Canada

Moderator: Mr. Anuj Ranjan, General Manager, RBI, India At the Plenary Session 3, of SIMSARC’21, our moderator Mr. Anuj Ranjan started the discussion on a light note by picking up some viewpoints on sustainable development and finance.

Mr. Anuj Ranjan, the moderator, pointed out one of the hottest topics prevailing, the impact on personal & professional life during the pandemic, to which Mr. S. C. Kalia replied by mentioning Covid-19 as the black swan event causing disruption having metamorphic implications. He also pointed out Lockdown & Supply chain Disruption. Mr. Anuj Ranjan, our moderator then brought the “Domestic Economy” situation along with the labour shortage, inflation, and supply chain issues in front of the panel. Dr. Kishore G. Kulkarni, replied, by stating that India is full of potential if we get control over the covid numbers. He continued by mentioning the dramatic changes and challenges that lie ahead that need different ideas to overcome. He then spoke about the economic crisis increasing inequality- Political stability & Central Banks – dual mandate – growth and Inflation should be in control, which should be prioritized.

Mr.Subhash Kalia said that Regulators exist as banks are there to regulate. If there are no banks whom the regulator is going to regulate.

Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran talked about the Pandemic acting as an accelerator for fintech. He then mentioned the customer demand, changing taste & the gap between advanced and developing economies. He then spoke about the pandemic- accelerated Fintech- Customer demand and taste. The gap between advanced and developing economies. The absolute gap- Vaccine inequality – Climate change & emerging economies.

Topic: Socio-Economic Transformation: World of Opportunity

Speakers:

Mr. Neeraj Kulshrestha, Chief Regulatory Officer, Bombay Stock Exchange, India

Mr. Arjun Chib, MD, Global Head CPBB, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore

Moderator: Mr. Mandeep Sibia, Capability Specialist, Xpheno, India The Plenary Session 4, of SIMSARC’21, was on Socio-Economic Transformation: World of Opportunity, which was moderated by Mr. Mandeep Sibia. He asked the panel members about their views on the IPO surge with the flooding of tech companies. Mr. Neeraj Kulshrestha talked about the tech companies, where about 58 Unicorns(start-ups) came this year for capital raising which shows that the risk-taking capability has increased.

He addressed the issues of price stability, balancing act, support growth, and needed accommodative stance. He then pointed out the growth revival and sustenance on a durable basis, nascent recovery, growth prioritized with a necessary stance on inflation, supply constraints, and the pent-up demand.

He then talked about the relationship between growth & high Inflation. Mr. Mandeep Sibia then asked about the possible merger of neo banks and commercial banks, to which Mr. Arjun Chib replied by stating some facts and questioning the profitability of neo banks. He suggested that we should think out of the box by giving examples, such as buy now, pay later.

He also addressed the topics of the Economy & the creation of climate-friendly jobs. Macro Policies, Health, education.

The session ended on a light note with remarks on IPO selection considerations, open ecosystem and data sharing, and enablement of APIs. We would like to extend our gratitude to our session speakers.

Chief Guest - Mr. Sandeep Chaudhary- Chief Executive Officer, PeopleStrong, Indi

In the Valedictory Session of SIMSARC’21, the welcome address was given by Director Brig Rajiv Divekar. Welcoming the chief guest, he addressed the gathering and gave highlights about the SIMSARC 21.

“Only disability in life is a bad attitude” –Mr. Sandeep Chaudhary, Chief Executive Officer, People Strong, India.

Our chief guest started the speech by crediting their alma mater for his success and stressed the fact that Change is a necessary part of life. He stressed the fact that people need to be out of their comfort zone and gave a few examples that drive his point. Innovation creates new boundaries and new needs for humanity. He stressed on following 3 points-

  • Over-rely on planning and under-rely on preparation. We need to focus on preparation rather than planning in this VUCA world. Planning is about the past but preparation is about the future.

  • Only Disability in life is a bad attitude. He advised students to have a positive attitude if they want to succeed.

  • Deputy Director Praveen Kumar proposed the vote of thanks. He thanked all the guests, panel speaker and judges, Conference Convener (Dr. Arti Chandani), and co-convener (Dr. Komal Chopra). He congratulated all the researchers, academicians, and participants.

“Atmanirbhar Bharat is not just a vision but an economic strategy for self-reliance and sustainable growth for India” expressed Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Hon’ble Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India, while addressing the students of Symbiosis as part of a special session conducted by Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune (SIMSARC’20) held under the umbrella of the Symbiosis Golden Jubilee Lecture Series.

Going with the theme of the conference, “Achieving $5 Trillion Economy of India: Opportunities and Challenges”, Shri. Anurag Singh Thakur, said that “COVID 19 has disrupted the supply chain and hampered business models. For the strong revival of the Indian economy, structural reforms are a must”. He further elaborated the steps taken to stabilize all-important macroeconomic indicators – Annual Growth Rate, GDP, FOREX, FDI, Inflation, Employment, Total Savings, Technological Advancements, Fiscal Deficit; which will push India as the formidable force it is.

“India will see the year 2020 as a year of historic reforms, tectonic transformations and an opportunity in the wake of adversity”. The Member of Parliament also advocated the 4 pillars of the residing government which are ‘Reboot, Reform, Resurge, and Reset’ which will offer India the opportunity to become a global engine of power.

The talk was graced by Dr. S. B. Mujumdar, Chancellor, SIU, Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, Pro-Chancellor, SIU, and Dr. Rajani Gupte, Vice-Chancellor, SIU. Brig. (Dr.) Rajiv Divekar, Director, SIMS was the Conference Chairperson, and Dr. Arti Chandani was the Conference Convener.

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), a constituent of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune held its 11th Annual International Research Conference (SIMSARC) from 21st to 23rd December 2020 successfully. The theme for SIMSARC 2020 was “Achieving $5 Trillion Economy of India: Opportunities and Challenges.”

Dr. Rajani Gupte, vice chancellor of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) spoke of the need for a consistent growth in GDP to achieve the goal of $5 Trillion economy. She also spoke of potential for recovery of the economy amidst all the challenges posed by Covid-19. Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, the pro-chancellor of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) approached the theme with a common man’s perspective. She laid emphasis on healthcare and education as the pillars of development which ultimately, contribute to a nation’s economy. The chief guest, Mr. P Dwarakanath’s speech focused on two areas – healthcare and education in relation to economy of India tuned around – ‘the goal of achieving 5 trillion economy.’ Mr K. Padmakar, the guest of honour emphasized on the role played by the Oil and Energy sector in the future as well as the movement of the Indian government towards electrification. He also laid importance on India’s rich heritage of culture and art being a great opportunity.

Topic - Global Outlook: Revisiting Strategies

The moderator, Dr Khandekar started the plenary session by laying emphasis on importance of the theory of strategy in every activity to understand the changing surrounding environment as well as changes in the way of survival for both an individual and companies in present pandemic.

Dr. Kishore Kulkarni approached the effects of the pandemic at a micro level and spoke go the organizational adjustments made especially at university levels. He also elaborated on the changes that the US economy underwent along with the fall of economies in countries such as USA, India, Brazil, Mexico.

Dr. Daniela Irrera spoke of the changes happening across the globe as a result of Covid-19 and the various phenomena that are expected to happen after the vaccine comes into play. She also stressed on the fact that the education sector needs to be upgraded and better equipped to handle such situations.

Topic - Finance and Economy: Engines of Growth

The moderator, Dr. Hory Sankar Mukerjee began the session on a positive note stating that achieving $5 Trillion economy is possible for India. He spoke of the changes that certain government policies had undergone in recent years.

Dr. Pawan Jain focused on the challenges and opportunities to reach double digit growth in the economy with technology being a focal point for growth.

Mr. Suresh Gupta touched upon topics such as agriculture, government companies and banks and their NPAs. He mentioned that India has to achieve original GDP figures and agriculture will be the way to get positive figures of GDP.

Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran focused on the relationship between the administration of USA and India. He spoke of supply chain management as a challenge and its importance in the protection of economic policies. He also emphasized on the need for government policies against global warming.

Topic - Technology and Society: Developments and Disruptions

Mr. Anuj Ranjan, the moderator started the session with the development of technology and how it is an enabler. He was of the opinion that disruption is not necessarily negative and must exist in tandem with technology.

Dr. Ravi Seethamraju stated the role of technology to increase GDP. He addressed the new education policy as well and spoke of micro credentialing as an important aspect of looking at reducing unemployment.

Mr. Neeraj Kulshretha expressed concerns over the weakness of the electronic chip and that the government by itself cannot transform the nation even with the aid of technology. He also spoke of how mobile phones have empowered the population; however, privacy remains a concern.

Lt. Gen. S. P. Kochhar spoke of how citizens in the urban areas will be more connected 5 years down the line. He also expressed concern over the finance required for networks to reach the rural areas. He laid importance on ICT as the future.

Dr. Arun Upadhyay’s address focused on the increasing skills and training required for jobs created via technology. He was of the opinion that young entrepreneurs will bring in a lot of new techniques.

Topic - Business and Management: New Normal

The session was moderated by Mr. Naresh Pinisetti. He opened the session by addressing the current endeavours and vision of the Indian government for growth of the economy and reduction in unemployment issues.

Mr. S. C. Kalia opened the session by talking about the objectives of the manufacturing policy as well as the need for promoting the manufacturing sector. He spoke of investments in the private sector, banks and their NPAs along with the mergers of PSU banks.

Dr. Aditya Srinivas’ talk emphasized on the importance of AI and blockchain in the BFSI sector, however the implementation has been hampered by the pandemic. He voiced the need for the government support for the corporate sector and start-ups.

The chief guest, Mr. M.S Unnikrishnan spoke about the 3 stages of the economy. He briefly touched upon sustainability in organizations as well the challenges being posed in digitalization.

Mr. Nayan Mehta, the guest of honour underlined change as being the only constant with changes happening both in personal and professional lives. He was of the opinion that Covid-19 should be looked at as a period of learning and these learnings should be applied to the corporate world.

The awards for best papers among faculty, doctoral and student papers were presented in the valedictory function.

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), a constituent of Symbiosis International University (Deemed University), Pune held its 10th Annual International Research Conference (SIMSARC) on the 17th and 18th of December 2019. The theme for the conference this year is “Futurology: Managing Business in the age of Technological Disruptions”.

Eminent personalities from different fields such as Dr. Hory Sankar Mukerjee, Principal-Education, Training and Assessment, Infosys Ltd., Mr. Hrishikesh Deshmukh, Vice-President, BNY Mellon Technology, Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran, Dhillon School of Business, University of Lethbridge, Canada, Dr. Pawan Jain, University of Wyoming, USA along with Brig. (Dr.) Rajiv Divekar, Director, SIMS graced the conference Chairperson and Dr. Arti Chandani was the Conference Convener.

The inaugural ceremony started with all the dignitaries lighting the auspicious lamp.

Dr. Hory Sankar Mukherjee, the moderator for this session started off the discussion by taking a reference from a recent Price Water House Coopers(PWC) report which found that that Information Technology(IT) and Fintech companies formed the backbone of the Indian service sector. This report was based on data collected between January 2013 to October 2018. It found India has enormous potential to develop this sector by using new upcoming technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Voice-based-banking, Open Banking, API Platforms, Digi-Bank which has already been started by DBS, new payment systems, blockchain, cloud-based-solutions, etc. He also mentioned that our neighbor China has already taken several initiatives to develop this sector and is ahead of India. So, in a way we can learn from them.

Speaker, Mr. Hrishikesh Deshmukh spoke about how the cost of money is changing. Central or the Federal Government used to bear the cost of money but now due to the advent of digital currencies like cryptocurrencies the power and control to regulate the money supply is gradually moving away from the Government. So in a way there is democratization of currency as well. He further elaborated that once cross payments in wallet starts banks will further lose their significance but due to regulatory hurdles this mechanism has still not started.

Speaker, Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran emphasized on the fact that technology has always driven finance and financial institutions. But now, times have changed and today consumers drive technology. Collaboration is now the buzz word and not competition. Using Technology responsibly is another key element and is being practiced in various countries such as in Canada. In Canada, technology is being used for recruiting practices to match candidate profile based on merit and competence while eliminating all human biases. Also Gender biases are being eliminated using technology. So in a way disruptive technologies are also being put to good use and people at large are getting benefitted.

Speaker, Dr. Pawan Jain highlighted the fact that cost effective technology is what is driving industry today. The young generation around the world is more tech savvy. There is intense competition among all players in the industry. From the Indian perspective, the Government is supporting new and upcoming technologies by way of financial support and tax breaks. Technology is changing the job profile for everyone. Big data and Analytics are amongst the few new technologies that is driving Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Internet-of-Things(IoT), Virtual Reality, Drone Technology, etc. All of these disruptive technologies are driven by changes in customer tastes and preferences. So, every organization has to develop and design products keeping into mind the customer requirements and providing them with various options and convenience which is possible only through the use of technology.

The Plenary Session 1 was held on 17th December, 2019 and the topic of discussion was

FINTECH: FUTURE OF BFSI SECTOR

Dr. Hory Sankar Mukherjee, the moderator for this session started off the discussion by stating that the Government of India has started various social welfare schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Jan Suraksha, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), etc. He went on to say that implementation of all these schemes in a country like India would be efficient and effective provided new technologies are used. Using technology will lead to greater transparency, plug in the leakages and ultimately benefit the end customer. He also threw light on the various new digital payment platforms being used and how it is changing the BFSI ecosystem. Due to this ‘disruption’ brought in by the payments platforms, the banks are day by day losing their significance. However, the positive side of this so called disruption is the convenience of the people at large. Cybersecurity was another topic which was discussed by the moderator and emphasized that there are still plenty of challenges which needs to be addressed in this sector.

Speaker, Mr. Hrishikesh Deshmukh spoke about the Mutual Fund Industry and how the mutual fund managers are way behind in embracing new technology. He further reiterated that if they continue to do so, the Mutual Fund Industry will be dead in 10 years. However, Exchange Traded Fund managers have been embracing new technology and has become the new norm. He highlighted the case of ‘Zerodha’ which has an innovative business model based on advanced technology. Due to these factors, it has become the largest broker in India. He stressed upon the fact that the insurance sector is still at a very nascent stage in India and more penetration is required especially in the rural sector. In order to achieve high penetration into the rural market, the insurance sector can take help of Robo Advisory. Robo Advisory is one of the disruptive technologies and many investors are already using this technology and are being benefitted immensely in terms of returns on investment. Robo advisory is also being used by many fund managers for managing the portfolio of their clients and also helping them build a portfolio in sync with their short term and long term requirements.

Speaker, Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran spoke that gender biases are being eliminated using technology. New disruptive technologies are also being put to good use and people at large are getting benefitted. He stressed the importance to embrace new technologies such as Robo Advisory for future investment planning such as Children Education, Tax planning among others and various fintech companies have already implemented such type of advisory. Big data, Analytics and Artificial intelligence are used by fintech companies nowadays to integrate data.

Speaker, Dr. Pawan Jain spoke that the Government is supporting new and upcoming technologies by way of financial support and tax breaks. Every organization has to develop and design products keeping into mind the customer requirements and providing them with various options and convenience which is possible only through the use of technology. In the BFSI industry, Goldman Sachs has revolutionized the corporate and retail banking sector with branchless banking. State of Wyoming in US, is the only state which is tracking and developing Blockchain Technology. People need to also trust new technologies in order to embrace and use them. Data security is very important to win the trust of the people at large and for this decentralization of storage of data is very critical. He also advised students to learn about new upcoming technologies to stay abreast with the latest of the happenings and innovations in the technology domain. He also reminded of the fact that nowadays there is rise in the misuse of technology like that of spreading fake news, personal data of individuals being stolen as in the recent case of Cambridge Analytica. Many Countries such as Australia and the Scandinavian Countries are trying to develop various data protection laws in order to instill a level of confidence among people.

Topic - Technology and Society: Developments and Disruptions

Mr. Anuj Ranjan, the moderator started the session with the development of technology and how it is an enabler. He was of the opinion that disruption is not necessarily negative and must exist in tandem with technology.

Dr. Ravi Seethamraju stated the role of technology to increase GDP. He addressed the new education policy as well and spoke of micro credentialing as an important aspect of looking at reducing unemployment.

Mr. Neeraj Kulshretha expressed concerns over the weakness of the electronic chip and that the government by itself cannot transform the nation even with the aid of technology. He also spoke of how mobile phones have empowered the population; however, privacy remains a concern.

Lt. Gen. S. P. Kochhar spoke of how citizens in the urban areas will be more connected 5 years down the line. He also expressed concern over the finance required for networks to reach the rural areas. He laid importance on ICT as the future.

Dr. Arun Upadhyay’s address focused on the increasing skills and training required for jobs created via technology. He was of the opinion that young entrepreneurs will bring in a lot of new techniques.

The Plenary Session 3 was held on 18th December, 2019 and the topic of discussion was:-

TECHNOLOGY: ITS IMPACT ON ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

Mr. Naresh Kumar Pinisetti, moderator for the session highlighted that technology today knows no bounds. Gone are the days when a smartphone or a fast network or the megapixels of a camera would hold one’s breath. Today technological disruptions are shaping the world to be more reactive. The world is talking about talking about AI, Machine learning, Analytics, Data science, Automation, Robotics, Internet of Things, Drones and UAVs, cryptocurrencies giving a boost to verticals such as agriculture, Construction, Management, Medicine, Education and even psychology to name a few.

Mr. Suman Bose spoke about some of the mega trends that will impact the economy in terms of technology. He spoke about India progressing with the world technologically, being one of the youngest countries, it has been imbibing technology at a great pace. He also spoke about the flip side of the story- The digital divide, i.e., form the monetary haves and have nots, we are treading towards the digital haves and have nots.

Ms. Aditi Sud spoke on the changes taking place in the hospitality sector, Ms. Sud spoke about the continuous transformation-that does revolve around adoption of new tech, but also its adaption. Technological/digital platforms are adapting and diversifying as can be seen with the case of Paytm and Google. There has been a mega trend of platform emergence and amalgamation. Today if one wants to scale up their business, they need to adopt and adapt to digital payment ecosystem.

Ms. Jacqueline Mundkur spoke about the retail industry and the fact that it might have a different trajectory in India V/s the West, i.e., in India the physical aspect of retail will continue, while individuals might compare online they still prefer buying from physical stores. The size of those stores might shrink, but relevance will continue to exist. A smart marketer will look for opportunities, as orgs we need to meet customer needs. When creating a project one needs to keep in mind that they are working on the same to solve a customer problem.

Dr. Pawan Jain spoke that there is where we need to introspect and ask - is that the kind of village we want? There will be more tech and that is inevitable, it’s the usage of tech that we need to take care of. Weapons are being created and deployed by AI today; when it comes to fake news, it’s not tech spreading it, its humans that are making use of tech to spread it. Therefore, it’s not technology, it’s us as a human who need to decide how to make use of what is available and what is going to be available in the near future.

The Plenary Session 4 was held on 18th December, 2019 and the topic of discussion was:-

INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: DRIVERS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

Dr. Kishore Kulkarni, moderator for the session spoke about how the consumers have become increasingly habituated to look for and want what’s new, best, fastest, more convenient, or more fashionable, and to tire of products much more quickly. In such a fast-moving world just being different is not enough. The mantra to be a leader in the market today has changed from just being the best to being the best consistently.

Mr. Abhishek Ranjan spoke about digital technology being the new form of democracy that has an equal access all. He believes that the pillars of digital technology are social media, mobility, AI, Cloud. All of this has created an environment where individuals have access to great content. There are so many examples of start-ups right from Byjus to khan academy that revolve around direct benefit transfer to their consumers- we need more stories like theirs and create value for customers. He stressed on the importance of sustainable growth via measures like carbon foot printing and committing to a carbon goal.

Mr. Shreenivas Kunte spoke and encouraged student managers to think whether they are ethical or not and to introspect on what they have always enjoyed doing.

Ms. Shilpa Sudame spoke on an alternate perspective, i.e., how the absorption of individuals was greater without technology, considering chores were done manually, and therefore they learnt much more than when tech swept in. She also spoke of identifying a gap and there on build on a vision for one’s idea.

Dr. Amitabh Dutta spoke on the idea of beginning innovation right from the first year of college, the same should be inculcated by universities, for instance, in Florida tech the innovation program encourages students to come up with innovative ideas that can be monetized. Dr. Amitabh also spoke of key important ‘dos’ for students and educators to excel in the world of entrepreneurship.

Mr. Amit Gupta spoke that it was innovation that has led to automation and the rise of new skill sets required for new profiles like data scientists. He believes that in this is world that is treading towards a rapid change, technology is not about the elimination of jobs, rather it is about the creation of new kinds of jobs. Therefore, we don’t need new people, we need new skills.

Valedictory Function

The valedictory function started with a welcome address by the SIMSARC team. SIMSARC’19 got an overwhelming response from the research fraternity as this year it received 207 research papers out of which only 71 were shortlisted for presentation. These research papers were reviewed and evaluated by respective session chairs and discussants. The winners were awarded in this session.

Thereafter, our director, Brig(Retd.) Dr. Rajiv Divekar delivered the welcome address. Our Director highlighted the purpose of conducting SIMSARC which is to provide a platform for the budding researchers and other scholars to showcase their talent and share with the audience their research findings. The Director thanked each and every speaker for being present at SIMSARC’19. He further elaborated that it is very clear that technology has to be embraced by one and all. The earlier we can embrace and eventually master technology, the better. The life cycle of upcoming technologies is reducing and the practicality of these technologies has to be kept in mind while developing them. Examples of upcoming technologies include data analytics, design thinking to name a few and how does one use these to their advantage is a challenge and needs to be addressed. In today’s ever-changing and dynamic world, if one has to stay relevant he / she, should constantly update and skill / re-skill themselves. Financial markets technology is going to be very important in the days to come. He also expressed that ‘Brick and Mortar’ concept will not disappear but its significance will be lost in future. The nature of jobs will change in the future and there is no possibility of being secure at a job unless one updates and re-skills themselves. He urged the audience that they need to step out of their comfort zone in order to stay relevant because technology disruption is affecting both our personal and professional lives.

Thereafter, the Director felicitated the Chief Guest for the Valedictory function, Mr. Srikanth Meenakshi, Founding Partner and Head, Platform & Technologies, PrimeInvestor.in following which a short speech was given by the Chief Guest. Mr. Meenakshi introduced himself to the audience as a Fintech Entrepreneur having started off his own venture in the year 2008-09. He narrated his experience of having visited various B - schools in India and abroad on invitation and realized that work and knowledge is more important in the long run than academic degree. He praised and congratulated all the scholars and participants of SIMSARC’19. The research papers were of high quality because the topics were very socially relevant and very much applicable to the Indian society. He requested the audience to identify their area of interest and strength and start reading the relevant research papers presented. He emphasized that building the future is totally in our hands i.e., it is we who are going to shape the future. Certainly one has to face the future and nobody can shy away from it. So being futuristic is the need of the hour. There are two options available now looking at the current scenario, first one being one has to adapt to the future and the second being one can create the future. Creating the future is what entrepreneurs do today and is a very challenging task. The key to being futuristic is possible only through innovation and product motivation. He suggested the audience who want to be entrepreneurs in the future to possess basic knowledge about accounts, marketing, operations and various rules and regulations applicable. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, a source of motivation and passion has to be there and this motivation and passion may be technology, money or others. He assured the audience that the fruit after all the hard work and effort will be sweet. During this journey many obstacles may come, but one has to overcome them. This will ensure that the future is all YOURS and YOU have to make it happen.

After the speech of the Chief Guest, a short video was played which captured the various moments and activities which had taken place throughout the 2 days of SIMSARC’19 event.

Following the video presentation, the Award Ceremony started and Dr. Arti Chandani, SIMSARC’19 conference convener announced and congratulated all the winners.

After the distribution of awards, Conference Convener, Dr. Arti Chandani delivered the vote of thanks and also announced the theme for SIMSARC’20 which will be “India: A $5 Trillion Economy”.

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), a constituent of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune held its 9th Annual International Research Conference (SIMSARC) from 17th to 19th December 2018 successfully

The theme for SIMSARC 2018 is '4C’s - Communication, Commerce, Connectivity, Culture: Implications for Business and Society'

Mr. G. Padmanabhan, Non-Executive Chairman, Bank of India. Mr. Tomio Isogai, Former MD, Sharp India Ltd., Dr. S. B. Mujumdar Hon’ble Chancellor, SIU; Dr Rajani Gupte Vice Chancellor, SIU were also present on the inaugural function of the conference. Brig. (Dr.) Rajiv Divekar, Director, SIMS was the conference Chairperson and Dr. Arti Chandani, was the Conference Convener.

The inaugural ceremony started with all the dignitaries lighting the auspicious lamp. The first speaker to be called on the stage was Dr. Rajani Gupte. In her short and sweet speech, she highlighted the importance of research and how research should be a part of every academic curriculum. She ended her speech by highlighting the importance of the topic in today’s context and importance of culture in today’s corporate world.

Dr. S.B. Mujumdar expressed happiness at the fact that the event SIMSARC is being organized in SIMS for 9 years. He talked about how personally he feels that there should be one “I” added to the 4Cs- Innovation. He further spoke about the importance of good research and how good research always leads to productive innovation. He talked about how there is abundance of research in India but not many platforms to practically apply the research. He felt that there is a need to provide a platform to researchers to practically apply their research and add value to the society.

The third speaker was Mr. Tomio Isogai, Former MD, Sharp India Ltd. He started his speech by showing different pictures of Japan and how India and Japan have similarities in their cultures. One of the prominent examples was the picture of the three wise monkeys. He asked the audience the name of the person who made the whole ideology behind the three wise monkeys popular. Among the crowd’s chorus of the name Mahatma Gandhi, he said that Japan had the whole concept 100 years before it came to India. Mr.Tomio further talked about Marketing 4.0, which he explained as the marketing approach that combines online and offline interaction between companies and customers. It blends style with substance. He moved ahead with his speech with a few words highlighting how Japan is moving towards “society 5.0” and how the focus of Japan is towards achieving excellence in STI- Science, Technology and Innovation. His speech concluded with him showing global competitiveness index 2017 in which Japan is in the 9th position and India is in the 40th position. He also showed the global manufacturing competitiveness index 2017, in which Japan is in rank 4 and India is in No.11. He ended his speech on a positive note with the projected ranking for India in 2020 in the global manufacturing index and mentioned that India has a huge potential and capability to reach the first position in the upcoming years.

Mr. G. Padmanabhan, Non-executive chairman, Bank of India started his speech by talking about how India is in a very critical point in history. We are becoming digital. As a result, Indian customers are becoming more demanding. At this stage, it is imperative for organizations to pay importance to customer centric innovation. He further talked about new age FINTECH firms and how they are bridging the gap between what customers want and what the FINTECH firms currently offer. They have offered a paradigm shift. The key to success of Indian FINTECH firms is that they are offering products that individual customers want rather than what the masses want. A lot of schemes have come up in India like Jandhan Yojana, Aadhar card, etc. and these are revolutionizing India. There are a lot of challenges which these firms face like lack of trust of customers and absence of regular capital.

He further talked about India being the first one to offer immediate payment service (IMPS) and how it has achieved around 400 million transactions, which is a mammoth achievement. Mr. Padmanabhan encouraged the students to choose their career wisely and create a positive work life balance.

The ceremony ended with DR. PRAVIN KUMAR delivering the thank you note.

The session began with the moderator Dr. M. Thenmozhi, NISM, speaking about application of AI, data sharing in business and society. The discussion began with, how communication is changing the business scenario and its future implications, which was directed to Mr. Amrish Goel, DFPCL, to which he responded, that even though the amount of data getting captured and processed is immense we are only seeing the tip of this enormous iceberg. So, a decade into the future communication is bound to run people out of jobs but will create many more than it will consume.

Mr. Deepak Bhatia, EXIM Bank, stressed on how IOT is omnipresent, he also spoke about how big data has begun to fill the gap between IoT and AI. He was quoted saying that “now is the time for machine to machine communication which will launch the right product and the right time."

Dr. Ravi, Sydney Business School, however expressed his concerns about the ethical implications of these technologies at the societal level. Mr. Molt, Bitcoin co-founder, agreed with Mr. Ravi’s opinion about how these technologies would affect the cohort over 45 years of age specifically voicing his concern over how data collection and AI are not, what we think they are.

The panel further progressed to discuss how these technologies are changing the industries. Mr. Deepak who is area specific to banking industry, said that certain risks must be taken into consideration and mused on how IOT enabled processes would eliminate internal finance department. Mr. Amrish goel, with rich experience in manufacturing further added on that manufacturing has been always an exact science with immediate results and a new wave of technology is going to usher in increased efficiency in supply chain management which will be closely linked to customers, bringing down response time and cost.

Mr. Molt gave his two cents about Bitcoin and how it creates balance and gives access to money anywhere in the world. The discussion further moved on to address the security concerns raised by such technology to which Dr. Ravi said that as the technology is advancing so are the ways to make the world more secure however, he stressed on the fact it is the misuse of technology that causes all the security concerns.

The closing statement was made by Dr. Ravi who emphasized on how a country's government plays an important role in a society beckoning technology friendly. He said how a government views technology will assess how a country refocuses its attention and resources towards development of technology.

The discussion concluded on how despite the several concerns posed, big data, AI, machine learning and IoT are inevitable in the long run, if not in the imminent future. It was an extremely engaging discussion which was enjoyed by participants, faculty, and the student managers alike.

Plenary Session 2 was also organised on 18th December, 2018 and the topic of this session was :-

Culture: An indigenous way

The second plenary session started with Dr. Raj Khandekar, the moderator, setting the background for the whole discussion. He started his speech with the definition of culture. He defined culture as “everything people have, think and behave as members of society.” He talked about how he wonders about a question “what will people find when they excavate our remains in 3018, thousand years from now?” He answered the question in a very thought-provoking way that, these humans will find our ideas and the way we think, when they find our remains thousand years from now. He then mentioned a few examples of the cultural differences our society faces. On the prominent examples was of the attitude of people towards breastfeeding in society. Some societies believe that breastfeeding Is healthy for the baby and breastfeed the baby for more than a year and some societies believe that breastfeeding makes the baby dependent on the milk and thus they avoid breastfeeding them beyond a few months.

The first part of the discussion was on the different speakers’ cultures. Mr. Tomio talked about Japan’s culture where people have a “we together” attitude and how it is different from Indian culture where people have a “ME FIRST” attitude.

Mr. Naresh hilariously highlighted the attitude of Indians wherein we believe ours is a circular world, where “what goes around, comes around”. This attitude plays a huge role in our casual attitude like the fact that going late to meetings is acceptable in India. He also gave a lot of examples highlighting the fact that understanding of a countries culture is important and how not understanding a countries culture has turned out to be disastrous for many organizations.

Dr. Kenneth talked about his experience in India. He talked about how he learnt the importance of touching elders feet in India and how elders’ opinion in high regard in India. He hilariously also highlighted how people in India are accustomed to cutting lines

Mr. Naresh carried forward the discussion by highlighting the importance of job titles in India. He hilariously highlighted how job titles like deputy manager create confusion for foreign clients and how it is absolutely necessary for employees in India. The conversation moved on to the German culture where time is of essence and how the whole meeting room fills up sharply at the said time.

The discussion was carried forward by Dr. Tomio who enthusiastically highlighted that Japan’s best manufacturing facility combined with India’s “jugaad” would result in best manufacturing facility in the world.

The discussion ended on a positive note with students raising their questions on various topics like ways to end language barriers. The panel ended the discussion on the lines of how language barriers will always be there and the solution is to be willing to learn the new language and culture to mitigate these barriers.

Plenary Session 3 was organised on 19th December, 2018 and the topic of this session was:-

Connectivity: Backbone for development

Mr. Naresh Kumar Pinisetti, moderator for the session highlighted that technology today knows no bounds. Gone are the days when a smartphone or a fast network or the megapixels of a camera would hold one’s breath. Today technological disruptions are shaping the world to be more reactive. The world is talking about talking about AI, Machine learning, Analytics, Data science, Automation, Robotics, Internet of Things, Drones and UAVs, cryptocurrencies giving a boost to verticals such as agriculture, Construction, Management, Medicine, Education and even psychology to name a few.

Mr. Suman Bose spoke about some of the mega trends that will impact the economy in terms of technology. He spoke about India progressing with the world technologically, being one of the youngest countries, it has been imbibing technology at a great pace. He also spoke about the flip side of the story- The digital divide, i.e., form the monetary haves and have nots, we are treading towards the digital haves and have nots.

Ms. Aditi Sud spoke on the changes taking place in the hospitality sector, Ms. Sud spoke about the continuous transformation-that does revolve around adoption of new tech, but also its adaption. Technological/digital platforms are adapting and diversifying as can be seen with the case of Paytm and Google. There has been a mega trend of platform emergence and amalgamation. Today if one wants to scale up their business, they need to adopt and adapt to digital payment ecosystem.

Ms. Jacqueline Mundkur spoke about the retail industry and the fact that it might have a different trajectory in India V/s the West, i.e., in India the physical aspect of retail will continue, while individuals might compare online they still prefer buying from physical stores. The size of those stores might shrink, but relevance will continue to exist. A smart marketer will look for opportunities, as orgs we need to meet customer needs. When creating a project one needs to keep in mind that they are working on the same to solve a customer problem.

Dr. Pawan Jain spoke that there is where we need to introspect and ask - is that the kind of village we want? There will be more tech and that is inevitable, it’s the usage of tech that we need to take care of. Weapons are being created and deployed by AI today; when it comes to fake news, it’s not tech spreading it, its humans that are making use of tech to spread it. Therefore, it’s not technology, it’s us as a human who need to decide how to make use of what is available and what is going to be available in the near future.

Plenary Session 4 was conducted on 19th December and topic was :-

Commerce: Fuel for economy

The second session began at around 11:30 AM. The session was on “commerce as a fuel for the economy”. The moderator, Mr. Anuj Ranjan, began with setting the background for the discussion. The discussion began with the moderator talking about how transactions have increased in the recent years and how transactions have become electronic. But there are always challenges like the issue of confidentiality. For example, when we book air tickets, we immediately start getting mails about offers in different flights. This proves how someone constantly tracks our shopping behaviour.

The discussion went forward with the topic of dehumanisation and how we are losing connectivity and how interactions are reducing.

Dr. Dave explained the economic conditions in different countries. He focussed on inclusive growth and how we should work towards reducing inequality which is present across geographies.

Mr. Nayan Mehta spoke about the banking system and the various issued being faced by banks in India. The discussion moved forward with the fact that commerce aims at maximum utilization of commodities. For example, banks like SBI and HDFC sell their credit cards in a lot of places like malls which shows maximum utilization of space.

The discussion then shifted to SEBI where Mr. Gupta talked about how SEBI has been empowered to take regulations and SEBI takes actions when organizations violates these regulations. SEBI aims at protection of investors of security market and development of security market. It is imperative for SEBI to educate investors about the financial market, cheating by various entities and the presence of misinformation in the society.

The discussion ended on a positive note with the fact that India is on the verge of becoming a big efficient sustainable economy and bridging the gap between skills and the jobs available is imperative for India’s growth as a major economy.

The session began at around 4 pm. The director of SIMS, Brig. (Dr.) Rajiv Divekar talked about how SIMSARC, initially did not bring on stringent measures and all papers were accepted. After years, SIMSARC has become stringent as they are now being published in top class journals. He as the director of SIMS expressed immense pride in the whole show and hoped that the event will be remembered by the people for days together.

Mr. Rahul, President, BCG, the chief guest talked about the thread that connects the 4Cs- leadership. It is what that integrates the 4Cs. He further talked a few words about commerce and how commerce drives our present world. He further talked about connectivity. He talked about how we are very well connected in this present era. He hilariously mentioned how he as the speaker has to prepare the speech thinking about the possibility that this speech might go on Youtube. He reiterated his words that in the future there will be only two kinds of jobs, where machines tell people what to do and where people tell machines what to do. He concluded with the words that as students we have to make sure that we pick the highest value adding job and not the highest paying job. He advised students to make sure that they are connected to the 300 plus people around them and they will prove to be a great advantage in life as they are one of the most important connections in life.

The session ended with the prize distribution to the researchers who were evaluated on different parameters such as quality, depth, research methodology etc.

Dr. Arti Chandani, Conference convenor, delivered vote of thanks and she thanked one and all who were directly and indirectly involved in making this conference a successful one.

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS), a constituent of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune held its 8th Annual International Research Conference (SIMSARC) from 14th to 16th December 2017 successfully. The theme for SIMSARC 2017 is “Government Initiatives for Transforming India: Implications on Business and Society”.


Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Hon’ble Vice Chairman, NITI Ayog was the Chief Guest for the inaugural function on 15th December. Dr. S. B. Mujumdar Hon’ble Chancellor, SIU; Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar Pro Chancellor, SIU Dr Rajani Gupte Vice Chancellor, SIU were also present on the occasion. Brig. (Dr.) Rajiv Divekar, Director, SIMS was the conference Chairperson and Dr. Arti Chandani, was the Conference Convener.

Rajiv Kumar, Hon’ble Vice Chairman, NITI Ayog, the Chief Guest for the inaugural function wished SIMS on its 8th Successful SIMSARC Conference and added that he wishes the young research minds to contribute in transforming India through Govt. Initiatives that can be practically applied. He said Niti Ayog serves as an open action funnel with its mouth opened towards Society that takes suggestions and ideas from the society and includes all relevant ideas into the system.

Dr. S. B. Mujumdar Hon’ble Chancellor, Symbiosis International Deemed University presiding the event was very impressed by the topic chosen for the conference and said “If you want to know what Pune thinks tomorrow; you should know what Symbiosis thinks today” The government has launched an array of initiatives which are aimed at making India a better country to live in. These initiatives are in different fields and the focus of these initiatives is to bring the lower strata of society into the mainstream of India It would also foster the growth and development in the business world in terms of: increase in speed, improve in governance and ease of doing business through various technology and techniques. These initiatives present a plethora of opportunities but it comes with a host of challenges and SIMSARC’17 served as the platform where the opportunities, challenges and the solutions to meet these challenges were discussed by the delegates and dignitaries through their research papers publications and case studies. The objective was to provide a special forum to present and discuss management of business under the umbrella of the ‘Government Initiatives for Transforming India’ and to facilitate sharing of multidisciplinary research based knowledge amongst researchers, academicians and students. Over 151 papers were reviewed by the double blind peer review out of which 102 papers were shortlisted and presented over these 2 days of research meeting.

The two day deliberations were divided into four sub themes revolving around the central theme of the conference. These sub themes were specially selected as they have maximum impact on business and society namely: Energy & Environment, Rural India: Prospects and Challenges, Sustainable Infrastructure: Impetus for Growth, Capacity Building: the Future is Now. To give a holistic perspective on each of these subthemes an array of experts from Industry, Govt. , Society and academics such as Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Hon’ble Vice Chairman, NITI Ayog, Mr. Debasish Mallick, DMD, EXIM bank, Dr. Kishore Kulkarni, Metropolitan State university of Denever, USA, Dr. Rajendra Khandekar, Metropolitan State university of Denever, USA, Dr. Ravi Seethamraju, University of Sydney, Australia, Mr. Popat Rao Pawar, Hiware Bazar, Shri Rajendra Jagtap, CEO, Pune Smart City, Mr. Pradeep Lokhande, Founder & CEO, Rural Relations, Shiv Kumar Shukla, Assistant Director, FICCI, shared their knowledge and experience.


For Plenary Session 2 –

Rural India: Prospects and Challenges

The Moderator for the discussion was Mr. Anuj Mehra, MD, Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd , and Mr. Popat Rao Pawar, Hiware Bazar and Mr. Pradeep Lokhande, Founder & CEO, Rural Relations were the Panel Speakers.

Mr. Anuj Mehra talked about the need for giving home loans and ability to reach the lower strata of society so that they can also afford homes. He also talked about the fact that how rural India is a huge upcoming and potential market.

Mr. Popatrao pawar talked about how he transformed Hiware Bazar from a village which was suffering from lack of water resources to a green and prosperous model village with highest GDP in the country. The Hiware bazare gram panchayat, with Mr. Pawar as its sarpanch, won the first National Award for community led water conservation in 2007. Mr. Pradeep Lokhande talked about Rural relations- how to reach out to rural India and contribute to its development. he talked about how he has been able to do all that in his 20 years of association with this mission.He has personally visited over 4,000 villages in India, recorded their population, markets, education systems, consumer habits, etc. He has installed used computers in rural secondary schools, where the interest and curiosity of the students was very high, etc.


Plenary Session 3 saw discussions on

Sustainable Infrastructure: Impetus for Growth

By Mr. Rajendra Jagtap, CEO, Pune Smart City and Dr. Kishore Kulkarni, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA. was seen moderating the discussion. Mr. Rajendra Jagtap extensively talked about the Smart city project handled by him for Pune city. He said that an Investment of Rs.70000 crores is projected for Infrastructure Development alone. They expect the project delivery to get completed by 2030 especially for Urban Areas that includes Sewage, Mass transport, water, Solid waste, Open Green Space, storm water. They aspire to ensure future proof way of Infrastructure development. They have already accomplished Command and control by installing CCTV, WIFI, Environment sensors, Flood Sensors etc. He added that the sustainable environment features are built in and so the https://www.sims.edu/assets that are being created will have sustainability and proper usability in future as well. He said that the project involves inputs from the end users keeping in mind that ultimately they are the ones who are to use so the loopholes and gaps are being covered real time.


Plenary Session 4 involved Dr. Rajendra Khandekar, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA as the Moderator and Dr. Pawan Jain, University of Wyoming, USA and Mr. Shiv Shukla, FICCI as speaker on the topic

‘Capacity building: The future is now’.

Dr. Jain highlighted the Importance of Collaboration and he said there are enough resources all around if you stop being competitive and collaborate in order to have powerful research. He said Time horizons are getting shorter in the competitive world and you need to build up speed to reach your target so Collaboration is the key. He said we are still looking at huge Infrastructure that is Capacity and in order to be creative you need to build capacity. Dr. Shukla added that India needs to build huge capacity. He talked about Reskilling, Deskilling, Upskilling yourself. He said factors like media literacy, Intermigration, Job demand are going to change future course of hiring from B School. He talked about Mind mapping and said that students need to develop on their soft skills in order to get into a particular field in future. For all this, we need to be a good researcher and understand the changing dynamics. He talked about E commerce and digitalisation and said in all this one needs to be responsive, creative and collaborative.


Valedictory Function

The Valedictory Function was chaired by Mr. Naresh Pinisetti. Mr. Naresh is currently associated with Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd as Group President Human Resources. The winner and the first runner-up were awarded cash prizes of Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5000 respectively. Winner: Dr. A.R. Nithya, Ms. S. Vidhya and Ms. L. Priyanka Paper Title: “An Empirical study on factors affecting work life balance among women entrepreneur and salaried women” Runner- Up: Mr. Amol Raiker and Dr. Vanishree Pabalkar Paper Title: “Consumer Ethnocentrism: attitude of Indian customers towards domestic and foreign products- A study of Automobile industry”


The conference was further addressed on the topics : Seven questions of leaders, IT/S in Manufacturing SMEs (Small and medium sized Enterprises) – Opportunities & Challenges, Make in India: Impact on BFSI and Financial Inclusion and SME Financing by eminent speakers like Dr. Rajendra P. Khandekar, Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver (USA) and Dr. Ravi Seethamraju, The University of Sydney Business School, Australia, Mr. S.C. Kalia, Senior Strategic Advisor and Chief Mentor, Yes Bank Ltd., Shri Pramod K Panda, Principal, College of Agriculture Banking, RBI and Mr. Abhishek Ranjan, Global head- Sustainability, CSR and BFSI Industry marketing, Brillio Technologies and Ms. Rima Marphatia, Chief General Manager, Exim Bank of India. The conference got huge success where in 120 papers were received in total which were shortlisted to 80 papers after double blind peer review process. These research papers presented were far ranging in their categories, papers of all the practicable specializations, be it Make in India, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, CSR, General Management or Operations. SIMSARC’16 was ennobled by a large number of participants from a multitude of locations from around the country. 5 best quality papers are already published in the SCOPUS indexed journal, Indian Journal of Science and Technology (INDJST) and 8 papers are published in indexed journal. The remaining papers will be published in the next issue of the journal.

Valedictory function of SIMSARC’16

The valedictory address was given by Mr. V Ravi, ED and CFO, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited (MMFSL). The conference was a much applauded affair with accolades pouring in for its solidarity and singularity from all sides. It was an experience by means of which the researchers and student managers assimilated a lot of critical concepts that undoubtedly added a great value to the already present potential in them. The objective of the conference is to stimulate and encourage research and to motivate the researchers, the 3 best papers were awarded a cash prize of Rs. 10,000, Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 3,000 for 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd prize respectively. The winners were announced by Dr. Arti Chandani and the chief guest along with director gave away the certificate to the winners. The conference concluded with the vote of thanks delivered by Dr. Pravin Kumar.

SIMS held its Annual Research Conference, SIMSARC’15 on 11th December, 2015.The theme of the Research Conference this year was-“Managing Business Globally – An Indian Way”. The event opened with the Brig (Dr.) Rajiv Divekar, Director SIMS delivering the welcome address. Shri. Ashwini Mehra, Deputy Managing Director, SBI was the Chief Guest for the conference. The conference in the Plenary session was further addressed by august speakers like

  • Dr. Kishore G. Kulkarni, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA.

  • Dr.Rajendra P. Khandekar, Metropolitan State, University of Denver, USA.

  • Dr. Ravi Seethamraju, University of Sydney Business School, Australia.

  • MR. Mukesh Kumar, Deputy General Manager, RBI.

SIMSARC’15 received an overwhelming response wherein 82 papers were received from research scholars from all over the world of which 64 papers were selected after double blind peer review process. The conference commenced with research paper presentations. under marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Operations and General tracks. The ceremony concluded with the prize distribution ceremony where prizes were given to the winners of each track. Dr. Pravin Kumar, deputy director pronounced the thank you note to the audience. The conference was a much applauded affair with accolades pouring in for its solidarity and singularity form all sides. All participants were enthralled with the flawless execution of the conference proceedings which ran as if guided by an invisible hand.

FLASHBACK: SIMSARC’14

The theme of SIMSARC’14 was “Transformational Leadership: Towards engaging Competitive Business and Social Harmony”. SIMSARC’14 began with lighting of the lamp and cast of SIMSARC Movie followed by inaugural address by Mr. Rabindra Kumar Behera, Chairman – RSB Group. Day 1 – December 13, 2014 (Saturday) The Conference further witnessed Plenary Sessions by eminent guest speakers like

  • Dr. Stuart M.Locke (Professor – University of Waikato, New Zealand)

  • Dr. Dilip K. Pithadia [Chairman – Pithadia Foundation, Texas (USA)]

  • Dr. Debbie Craig (MD-Catalyst Consulting, S. Africa)

  • Dr. Raj Khandekar [Professor – Metropolitan State College of Denver (USA)]

addressing the august audience. The day was concluded with Research Paper Presentations under HR, Marketing and General Management tracks.

Day 2 – December 14, 2014 (Sunday)

The Conference commenced with Research Paper Presentations under Marketing, HR, Finance, IT and Operation tracks. Further, the event was witnessed with Plenary Sessions by eminent guest speakers like

Mr. Rajendra Shivaraikar (Associate VP- Garware Wall Ropes, Pune) Dr. Ravi Seethamraju (Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney Business School, Australia)

Mr. Sarang Bapat [CEO – iBrand, N. Carolina (USA)]

The session concluded with Valedictory Address by Mr. Rahul Amrutkar (MD- Assent Group) and Vote of Thanks by Mr. Venkatesh Iyengar (SIU-JRF Research Scholar and SIMSARC’14 Conference Co- Convenor). Certificates to participants and Best Paper Prizes to winners were awarded. POST CONFERENCE RESEARCH WORKSHOP

A free Post-Conference Research Workshop was organised for all participants and faculty post lunch on 14 Dec and first half day of 15 Dec 2014, to benefit in understand ‘Research’ in the best interests of competitive business and social harmony as Transformational Leaders.

FLASHBACK: SIMSARC’13

The Theme of SIMSARC’13 was “Shaping the Future of Business and Society”. The SIMSARC’13 began with lighting of the lamp followed by the inaugural addresses by

Dr. Ann Murphy, Dean – MSU, Denver

Mr. Filip Vandenberghe, MD – Atlas Copco.

Day 1 – December 12, 2013

The Conference witnessed a plethora of guest speakers like

Professor Peter Stokes, Dy Dean – University of Chester (UK)

Dr. Kishore Kulkarni, Professor – MSU, Denver

Dr. Gautam Gawali, HOD-Dept of Psychology – Mumbai University

Dr. Mukul Madahar, MBA Welfare Director – Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK).

Day 2 – December 13, 2013

The Conference witnessed a plethora of guest speakers like

Dr. Swati Shirwadkar, Professor and HOD – Dept. of Sociology, University of Pune

Dr. Rajkumar R. Hirwani, Head CSIR-URDIP

Dr. Rajendra Khandekar, Professor – Management, MSU (Denver).

The valedictory address was delivered by Donald Salyards, Professor – Economics, Winona State University followed by Prizes Distribution.

December 13, 2012

SIMSARC is an annual Research Conference of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. SIMSARC provides an unparalleled opportunity to researchers and scholars to enrich their body of knowledge through their extensive research papers. SIMSARC also offers a platform to the researchers and scholars to share and publish their thoughts and ideas.

The seminar officially commenced with the lighting of the lamp followed by the inaugural addresses by Brig. Rajiv Divekar, Director, SIMS; Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, Acting Vice Chancellor, SIU; Dr. S. B. Mujumdar, Chancellor SIU and Dr. Debasish Chakaraborty, Director MBA Program, Central Michigan University, USA with regard to SIMSARC’s 2012 agenda “Inclusiveness and Innovation – Sustainable Growth Challenges in Emerging Economics”.Day 1 of the Seminar witnessed a plethora of guest speakers impart their views and ideas to the student managers and the highly revered multinational dignitaries. Dr. Mukul Madahar, MBA Welfare Director, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK discussed the “Inclusivity and Innovation Challenge” with regard to the education sector in India. He noted that private education Universities could be instrumental in shifting the educational paradigm with emphasis on potency of education.

Dr. Booshan P. Kelkar, Country Manager, IBM India, University Relation India addressed the audience on “Innovation and Intellectual Property”, elaborating on the patents procedure in India and the costs, time and the hiccups experienced while acquiring a patent. He presented his insight on how monopoly should lie with the inceptor of the idea and concluded that ‘India 2020’ might be a far-fetched vision for now.

Brian Patrick O’Donoghue, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism, University of Alaska, Alaska USA presented his dialogue on “Digital Tsunami: Implications of India’s News Media Approaching Confrontation with Mobile Information Storms”. He shed light on the shrinking market share of newspapers in India due to the digital age while the ‘digital tsunami’ in the United States has had only a slight impact on the newspaper’s market share.

Prof. Dr. Patthira Phon-ngam, Chairman of Doctoral Degree Program Faculty of Humanities and Social Science Loei Rajabhat University, Thailand spoke on “Innovation for Economic Development”. She stated that the youth of the India are its core strength and the nation is layered with innovative streak.

The first day concluded with a Culture Program by the Student Managers of SIMS showcasing vibrant performances by the Music Club – Sur, the Drama Club – Aks and the Dance club – Vibes.

December 14, 2012

SIMSARC – a knowledge extravaganza reconvened in the true spirit of learning after the success of day one. The day flagged off with an insightful address by Prof. Stuart Locke, Director MBA Program University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand, on “Corporate Governance: A Global Perspective” that enriched the audience on the pathway to attain sustainable growth and its additional value to stakeholders. He also identified the advantageous pattern of mixed ownership for public enterprises.

The august gathering was set in motion by Dr. Geeta Rani, Teacher Fellow in Dept. of Finance, University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand. She spoke extensively on how Indian corporates have been trying to diversify their talent pool to deliver additional value and how government enterprises should take a cue from this paradigm shift. She also emphasized on endeavours to bring in diversity in the corporate boards in order to strive for innovativeness.

In order to add to the research seminar, Mrs. Suparna Shankar, Senior Research Scientist, Sustainability Business Unit, Infosys Limited Bangalore offered her dialogue on “Inclusiveness and Innovation-Sustainable Growth Challenges in Emerging Markets and what it means to Business”. She emphasized on the essential attributes of innovation and inclusiveness as the business thrives on the aforementioned two aspects. Her interactive lecture brought forth various examples of the contemporary world adopting the two drivers of sustainable growth.

SIMSARC a two day affair of unabated learning and knowledge allocates prime importance to the research papers submitted by various luminaries who contributed immensely to the research conference. Out of 90 research papers, three research papers were awarded the certification of excellence in research. The prizes to the research winners were given by Dr D.M Deshpande, Deputy Director, SIMS. The winners are:

  • Girija Ningaokar on “A comparative study of India vis- a-vis China from Inclusive Growth Perspective

  • Ravi Kumar Gupta on “Social Security in Unorganised Sector: A case study of Rickshaw Pullers in Uttar Pradesh”

  • Geeta Nair on “Inclusiveness and Innovation – New weapons for Sustainable Growth”

The audience was enthralled by the Valedictorian Address delivered by Raj Khandekar, Ph.D., Professor, Management Department Metropolitan State College of Denver, USA on “Experiencing Diversity Upside Down”. He enlightened the gathering on the importance of an egalitarian culture in the corporate arena. He further elaborated on the humbleness, a prerequisite in the contemporary corporate world.

SIMSARC concluded with a vote of thanks by Prof. Dr. B. R. Londhe, Conference Convenor, Professor, SIMS.

FLASHBACK: SIMSARC’11

SIMSARC’11 was held on the 15th and 16th of December 2011. The main theme of the Conference was ‘Big India Breaching Boundaries: India By 2020’. The Conference was inaugurated by Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri Director, Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli who talked contribution of India in global economy and opportunities and challenges to Indian economy in years to come. It was then followed by an invigorating discussion on the various aspects of the central theme of the conference by eminent persons like Dr. Subhash Sharma, Director Indus Business Academy, Bangalore, Dr Ravi Seethe Raju , Professor, The University of Sydney, NSW Australia, Ian Smith Head, ACMA Centre for Technology, Pune and Dr. Prantik Ray Professor, XLRI, Jamshedpur, India The next day of the conference saw scintillating talks by Dr. Pallabh Bandyopadhayay Vice President, Human Resources, Citrix R & D India Pvt. Ltd., Valedictory function was chaired by Dr.Ashok Joshi, Dean Faculty of Management University of Pune. The research papers presented in the conference were also published in Conference Proceedings with an ISBN.

FLASHBACK: SIMSARC’10

SIMSARC’10 was held on the 17th and 18th of December 2010. The main theme of the Conference was ‘Myths and Realities of India Advantage: What Needs to be Done to Reach the Potential’ The Conference was inaugurated by Mr. Shashank Inamdar, Vice-Chairman & Co-Founder of Praj Industries who talked about India adopting World Class Standards for reaching the full potential. It was then followed by an invigorating discussion on the various aspects of the central theme of the conference by eminent persons like Mr. Bhushan Joshi (CEO, Kenersys, Kalyani Group, Pune), Mr. Rajesh Kamath (Principal Consultant, Learning & Development, Cerebrus Consultants, Pune), and Dr Anuj Paul Gosain ( Strategic Planning Manager, John Deere, IPL, Pune). The panel discussion was moderated by eminent academician, Consultant, and Public Nominee Director, Prof Pradeep Apte. The next day of the conference saw scintillating talks by Mr. Abhijeet Ranade (Regional Director, Consultancy, Price Waterhouse Cooper), Dr Ravi Seetham Raju (Professor, Sydney University, Australia), and Mr. Arun Wakhlu (Founder Director, Pragati Leadership Foundation).The Conference received an overwhelming 88 papers from which 52 were short listed and presented. These research papers were also published in Conference Proceedings with an ISBN.