Impressions

SYNAPSE ‘18

CORE TEAM

PROF. S. HARIHARAN PROF. B. CHARUMATHI

Synapse ’18 Convener Synapse ’18 Co-Convener

AMIT KUMAR

SAMEER KUMAR KUMAR ANADI MOHD. SHAFAQ
ANANT

PRATIK ANURAG ABHIJIT BRAHMA MOHD. ANAS

SHILPA. P SWETASHREE PAVITHRA AMITAVA SINGHA
PATTANAIK

Industry Institute Interface

Augmented Intelligence
“a posse ad esse”

(from possibility to actuality)

PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY

Pondicherry University was established under the Act of the Indian
Parliament by the Government of India as one of the two Central Universities of
South India. The President of India is the visitor and the Vice-President of India
is the Chancellor of Pondicherry University. The University is located in a
sprawling campus spread over 780 acres of land, facing the Bay of Bengal on the
East Coast Road. It is easily accessible from Chennai (168 km) and Bangalore
(300 km). Besides having on-campus teaching and research in Post Graduate
level, it is also an affiliating University with several colleges. The University is a
member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and has signed
Memorandum of Understanding with several foreign Universities/institutes.
Pondicherry University has been accredited by the National Assessment of
Accreditation Council - NAAC (An Autonomous Institution of the University
Grants Commission) with A Grade in 2011 for a period of 5 years.

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
STUDIES (DMS)

The Department of Management Studies (DMS) has the unique position in
the University of establishing the first MBA program of the University in 1984.
For the past 32 years, it has been catering to the needs of teaching MBA program,
management research, organizational development and training government
officials.

It is one of the major departments, fully funded and supported by the UGC
and recognized by the AICTE of the government of India. Its Alumni hold high
and coveted positions in industry, government and academia in India and abroad.
DMS has been consistently ranking among India’s Top B-Schools by reputed
magazines and survey agencies.

SYNAPSE - A BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Synapse, an Institute Industry Interface event of the Department of
Management Studies (DMS) Pondicherry University, was initiated by Prof. M.
T. Thiagarajan, Former Dean & Late Prof. S. V. Narayanan, Former Senior
Professor & Dean, Erstwhile School of Management, Pondicherry University.
This flagship event is a 25+ years old tradition which has been helping the
generations of DMS-ians.

Synapse is a platform wherein CEOs, Entrepreneurs, Leaders and
Corporate Honchos are invited to interact with young aspiring managers and
discuss recent trends and issues in their area of expertise. This interaction exposes
the youngsters to a gamut of knowledge and ideas. It also inspires them to become
successful leaders and entrepreneurs.

SYNAPSE’18 THEME

AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE

a posse ad esse (from possibility to actuality)

People losing jobs due to technological advances has become a growing
concern for quite some time. “Augmented Intelligence” in the face of Artificial
intelligence is considered to be an answer to assuage these fears. Augmentation -
A collaboration between humans and machines - a middle ground, addresses the
debate and unease of using hyper-productive artificial intelligence in the
workforce without giving it the full control of the output.

We would like the panellists to express their take on the above topic and also to
throw light on the following concerns:

• In this ever-changing business landscape, how does the use of Augmented
Intelligence serve to bridge the gaps existing across various verticals and
industries?

• How does it differ from Artificial Intelligence, and be used to our
advantage as future managers?

EDITORIAL DESK

With immense pleasure we present you a brand-new edition of
IMPRESSIONS, the official magazine of Synapse 2018, the industry institute
interface event of Department of Management Studies, Pondicherry University.
Synapse gives a platform for the young minds to know and get ideas from
corporate personalities. Going by this year’s theme of “Augmented Intelligence
– a posse ad esse”, the magazine covers various article penned by the young
minds of Department of Management Studies.

IMPRESSIONS also includes write-ups on various themes which would
be discussed in Industry Institute Interface mega event Synapse’18 during 27th
and 28th October 2018.

In the pages that follow, you will find honest attempt of the DMS family to
bring out a magazine with a difference. To the discerning eye, this magazine may
contain a few flaws but in the word of Scott Adams “Creativity is allowing
yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”.

Garnering the resources, compiling them and presenting it to you in the
present form needs a lot of effort and this has been only possible by the
contributors and interest shown by the DMS family for the magazine. We are
sure, reading the magazine will be an enriching experience for you!

EDITORIAL TEAM

CONTENTS

Content Page No.

Synapse '18 Invitation 1

PU & DMS Family 7

Inauguration 11

Panels 14

Strategy Panel 14

Finance Panel 17

Marketing Panel 20

Plenary on Creativity & Innovation 23

Human Resource Panel 24

Operations Panel 27

Entrepreneurship Panel 30

Valediction 33

Articles 35

Inaugural Function

October 27, 2018 Saturday (09:31 AM - 11:30 AM)
First Day

Registration
University Anthem

Welcome Address Prof. R. CHITRA SIVASUBRAMANIAN
HOD, DMS, PU

Scope of Synapse '18 Prof. S. HARIHARAN
Convenor, Synapse’18, DMS, PU

Special address Prof. G. ANJANEYSWAMY
Dean, School of Management, PU

Shri. E. MARIAPPAN
Additional Director General,
Press Information Bureau India, Chennai
Former ADG(M&C), IIS, Director - News
Doordarshan, Chennai

Keynote Address Prof A. P. DASH
Vice Chancellor, Central University of Tamil Nadu,
Thiruvarur

Inaugural Address Shri. RAKESH KUMAR
Chairman cum Managing Director, NLC India Ltd,
Neyveli

Presidential Address Prof. GURMEET SINGH
Vice Chancellor, Pondicherry University

Concluding Remarks Prof. B. CHARUMATHI
Co-Convenor Synapse’18, DMS, PU

Vote of Thanks Shri. AMIT KUMAR
Student Chairman, Synapse’18, DMS, PU

-1-

Panel Discussion

October 27, 2018 Saturday

Strategy Panel (11:46 AM - 01 :15 PM)

Focused Artificial Intelligence Strategy

“Explore, Excel, and Emerge”

Shri. ANAND PILLAI Shri. VEERABATHRAN DURAIKKANNAN
MD, Leadership Matters Inc., VP, Infiniti Software Solutions, Chennai
New Delhi

Shri. B. CHANDRAMOULI Shri. JITEN JAIN

VP, Accel Front Line Ltd, Chennai DGM, EBIX India, New Delhi

Prof. LALITHA RAMAKRISHNAN
DMS, PU, Karaikal

Finance Panel (02:01 PM - 03:30 PM)

Robotic process and automation

“Resource Optimization, Risk Minimization, Revenue
Maximization”

Shri. KANNAN GANESAN Shri. VAIBHAV GUPTA
GM, HUL, Mumbai Senior VP, HSBC, Chennai

Shri. ARVIND KUMAR Shri. CHINNSAMY GANESAN
Head North & East India, Senior Partner, M/s. CNGSN &
DealMoney Securities, New Delhi Associates Chennai.

Prof. B. CHARUMATHI
DMS, PU

-2-

Marketing Panel (03:46 PM - 05:15 PM)

Enhancing Marketing ROI with Technovation

“Clarity, Credibility, and Continuity”

Dr. P. SIVA KUMAR Shri. PARMESHWARAN HARIHARAN
Healthcare Consultant, esi Senior VP, Willis Tower Watson India,
MedTech Solution, New Delhi Chennai.

Smt. LATA RAMASESHAN Shri. T. RAVI SESHADRI
GM, R K SWAMY BBDO, VP, Bharti AXA General insurance,
Chennai Chennai

Prof. S. VICTORANAND KUMAR
DMS, PU

Plenary Session (05:16 PM - 06:15 PM)

“Creativity and Innovation”

Prof. SHIVA SUBRAMANIAM
Chief Innovation Officer, IT Chennai

October 28, 2018 Sunday, Second Day

Human Resource Panel (09:01 AM - 10:30 AM)

Building Agile Workforce

“Transforming Talent, Technology and Ideas”

Shri. MADHU RAGHUNATH Shri. BHARATHAN PRAHALAD
COO - Dealership Businesses AVP - HR, Financial Software & Systems,
Group Head HR & OC, TVS, Chennai Chennai

Shri. VIJAYA SARADHI Shri. DANIEL JACOB
GM - HR, ITC, Secunderabad AVP - HR, EC Group Datasoft, Chennai

Shri. SHASHIKANTH JAYARAMAN
Director (HR), DISYS India, Chennai Founder,

HR Sangam, Chennai

-3-

Operations Panel (10:46 AM - 12:15 PM)

Workplace Automation
“Collaborate, Connect, and Captivate”

Shri. V. MURALIDHARAN Shri. K. UTHANDARAMAN

GM-JCT, Country Quality Head,
TBS India, Bengaluru Nexteer Automotive India, Bengaluru

Shri. S. VIJAYARAGHAVAN Shri. S. JAYARAMAN
Director, Manatec Electronics Senior GM, ACT Plast Paints, Chennai
Pondicherry

Prof. T. NAMBIRAJAN
DMS, PU

Entrepreneurship Panel (02:01 PM - 03:30 PM)

Stimulating Startups in Industry 4.0

“Innovate, Create and Develop”

Shri. SANJAY BHARTI Shri. SRIRAM IYER

India Head, Billions in Change Affiliate Head, Inthree Access,
New Delhi Chennai

Shri. DAYAL NATHAN Shri. HARISH SURI
Founder & CEO, Energyly, Chennai Founder & CEO,
Arknemesis Gaming India, Chennai

Shri. SIVAKUMAR PALANISWAMY
CEO, NABARD 's Madurai Agribusiness Incubation Centre,

Madurai

-4-

Valedictory Function (03:46 PM - 05:30 PM)

Welcome Address Prof. R. CHITRA SIVASUBRAMANIAN
Report of Synapse ‘18 HOD, DMS, PU

Prof. B. CHARUMATHI
Co-Convenor Synapse ‘18, DMS, PU

Special Address Shri. RANGARAJ PANDEY
Chief News Editor, Thanthi TV, Chennai

Keynote Address Shri. C. K. KUMARAVEL
Co-Founder & CEO, Naturals Salon & Spa, Chennai

Benefactor’s Address Prof. SANDEEP SANCHETI
President, Association of Indian Universities,
New Delhi,
Vice Chancellor, SRM Inst. of Science &
Technology, Chennai
Former President, Manipal University, Jaipur
Former Director, NIT Delhi & NITK Surathkal

Shri. A. K. PRAKASH
Finance Officer, Pondicherry University

Valedictory Address Shri. R. BASKAR BABU
MD & CEO, Suryoday Small Finance Bank, Mumbai

Concluding Remarks Prof. S. HARIHARAN
Convenor Synapse ‘18, DMS, PU

Vote of Thanks S. V. SUNETHRAA
Student Representative, I MBA, DMS, PU

National Anthem

-5-

Programme at a glance

27/10/2018 Saturday (1st Day)

09:00 am Registration
09:31 am Inaugural Function
11:30 am High Tea and Interaction
11:46 am Strategy Panel
01:15 pm Working Lunch
02:01 pm Finance Panel
03:30 pm Tea Break
03:46 pm Marketing Panel
05:16 pm Plenary on Creativity and Innovation

28/10/2018 Sunday (2nd Day)

09:01 am HR Panel
10:30 am Tea Break
10:46 am Operations Panel
01:15 pm Working Lunch
02:01 pm Entrepreneurship Panel
03:30 pm Tea Break
03:46 pm Valedictory Function
05:15 pm Group Photo Session
07:00 pm Business Dinner

-6-

PU AND DMS FAMILY

PROF. GURMEET SINGH
VICE CHANCELLOR

DR. SASI KANTA DAS
REGISTRAR

SHRI. A. K. PRAKASH
FINANCE OFFICER

PROF. G. ANJANEYA SWAMY
DEAN, SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

-7-

-8-

-9-

- 10 -

Inauguration

October 27, 2018 Saturday (09:31 AM - 11:30 AM)

Prof. GURMEET SINGH

Vice Chancellor,
Pondicherry University

Prof. Gurmeet Singh, is a renowned academic
administrator and an internationally reputed expert in
the field of corrosion science and smart materials, has
taken over as the Vice-Chancellor, Pondicherry
University. Prof. Singh began his academic career as Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the
Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, in 1976, rising to become a Professor about
twenty years ago. All through, his career has been distinguished by the successful manner in
which he has contributed to the administration University of Delhi and other public institutions
while maintaining a very high level of research output in terms of quality as well as quantity.
He has held the positions of Proctor (2005-2010), Head of the Department (2014-17), Member
of the Executive Council (2005-2010), and numerous other administrative positions in
University of Delhi besides serving as OSD (Principal), Deshbandhu College (1997-1999). He
had been on high-level committees of the UGC, DBT, CSIR, and several other public
institutions. These assignments have included positions of great sensitivity and responsibility
typified by his appointment as Special Observer for the West Bengal state Assembly Elections
by the Election Commission of India. During 2011-2012, Prof. Singh served as a Chair
Professor at Lunghwa University, Taipei, where he was specially invited to start collaborative
research. He was a visiting scientist to Hungary and Japan and has been on academic
assignments to Germany, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Korea, Thailand and Kenya. He is also
currently a Visiting Professor at Japan Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (JAIST),
Ishikawa, Japan.

An inspiring teacher and mentor of research, Prof. Singh has guided 14 M.Phil. and 50
Ph.D. scholars, several of the resulting contributions have received accolades and best paper
awards at international/national conferences. At the time of moving to Pondicherry
University, Prof. Singh was personally supervising 9 major R&D projects worth over Rs 7.5
crores. With about 150 research papers of which a majority are in high-impact international
journals, Prof. Gurmeet Singh is also among the most cited of the scientists in his field.

An oft-decorated academician, Prof. Singh has received, among other honors, the
Meritorious Contribution Award, the Annapurna Award, Membership of The Royal Society of
Chemistry, London, and Fellowship of SAEST and The Electrochemical Society of India.
Recently, Prof. Singh received FICCI Chemicals & Petrochemicals Award 2018 for his
contribution to Indian Chemicals Industry.

- 11 -

Prof. A.P. DASH

Vice Chancellor,
Central University of Tamil Nadu,
Thiruvarur

Prof. A. P. Dash, Vice Chancellor, Central University of
Tamil Nadu has started his career 43 years ago, as a biologist.
As a field biologist he worked amongst tribal in remote areas of
Orissa/Bihar border complex for nearly 5 years. Later, he joined
Regional Medical Research Centre, an ICMR unit at Bhubaneswar as an academician and
bench level scientist and spent about 15 years. Prof. Dash has spent almost 12 years as Director
of different research institutions under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and
Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. He was also in charge of other institutes
under ICMR like Centre for Research in Medical Entomology, Madurai and Desert Medicine
Research Centre, Jodhpur, where he introduced good research acumen.

Prof. Dash has devoted his career in developing various tools/technologies/strategies in
biomedical science. He has published more than 250 papers in reputed peer reviewed journals;
with high citation index, ‘h’ index and ‘i10’ index. Elsevier has recently reported in their
SCOPUS database the ranking of Indian Scientists from their publication for the year 2002-14
based on various evaluation parameters. Prof. Dash is rated as top rank in the subject area of
Immunology and Microbiology. He has guided many Ph.D. students and post-doctoral fellows
who have become successful scientists. A number of National and International seminars
and/or workshops have been organized by Prof Dash under the aegis of different societies and
academies. He holds membership in important committees both at International and National
Level.

After working in research and guiding Ph.D. for more than 35 years at the Institute of
Life Sciences and Indian Council of Medical Research, he joined the South East Asia Regional
Office of the World Health Organisation as Scientist and Regional Adviser and spearheaded
the programmes on neglected tropical diseases, climate change etc. at the international level.
After superannuation from the World Health Organization, Dr Dash occupied the
“Distinguished Scientist Chair” at the Institute of Life Sciences (Department of Biotechnology,
Government of India), Bhubaneswar since 11th May 2015.

- 12 -

Shri. RAKESH KUMAR

Chairman cum Managing Director,
NLC India Limited, Neyveli

Shri. Rakesh Kumar joined NLCIL as director (finance).
Prior to NLCIL, Kumar was director (finance) of Brahmaputra
Polymers and Crackers Limited, and has several years of
experience working with projects and assignments of national
importance, with exposure in various functions of management,
administration and finance.
Mr. Kumar is a nominated member of an Energy PSU Task Force formed by the Central
government to control the operational expenses relating to travel and insurance, among others
in PSUs under the control of Ministry of Coal.

Shri. E. MARIAPPAN

Additional Director General,
Press Information Bureau,
Chennai

Shri. E. Mariappan is the Additional Director General of the
Press Information Bureau (PIB), the 1990 batch officer, was
previously Additional Director General of PIB in Hyderabad and
Thiruvananthapuram. He is former ADG (M&C), IIS, Director, -
News Doordarshan, Chennai. He joined in Indian Information Service
through Civil Service Examination. Since then he has been working in Various Media units of
Govt of India like All India Radio, Doordarshan, & Press Information Bureau in various
capacities including Director in DD news. Officially visited Switzerland , Austria, UK, Cuba,
Peru, Australia, Romania, Belarus and Armenia.

- 13 -

Panel Discussion

October 27, 2018 Saturday

Strategy Panel (11:46 AM - 01 :15 PM)

Focused Artificial Intelligence Strategy

“Explore, Excel, and Emerge”

In this data driven business environment, the business leaders contemplate
the consequences and challenges of incorporating and implementing artificial
intelligence into their organizations. There is a common notion that implementing
AI lets the organizations enjoy a competitive advantage over the other players in
the market. However, the practical difficulties that exist in implementation should
be considered and contemplated before opting for it.

Shri. ANAND PILLAI Shri. VEERABATHRAN DURAIKKANNAN
MD, Leadership Matters Inc., VP, Infiniti Software Solutions, Chennai

New Delhi

Shri. B. CHANDRAMOULI Shri. JITEN JAIN
VP, Accel Front Line Ltd, Chennai DGM, EBIX India, New Delhi

Prof. LALITHA RAMAKRISHNAN
DMS, PU, Karaikal

- 14 -

Shri. ANAND PILLAI

MD, Leadership Matters Inc., New Delhi

Shri. Anand Pillai, Managing Director of Leadership
Matters Inc. graduated from Indian Institute of Science in the year
1982. He has done extensive research on cross cultural
relationships, Intrapreneurship & Innovation (Blue Ocean Strategy)
and is widely consulted on these globally. He has more than 34
years of rich experience in the corporate world with Reliance Industries, HCL, Tata Group,
Bay Networks and Hughes and was instrumental in the transformation of HCL Technologies
from a $700 million company to a $4.5 billion company using the Blue Ocean Strategy. He is
specialized in advanced applications of Psychometric instruments in Leadership,
Communication, Sales, Customer relationship, negotiations and Team building. Apart from
being one of the top 10 Social Media Influencers in India in the Corporate World for the last 2
years, he is also a member of the World Economic Forums Global Agenda Council on New
Models of Leadership 2011.

Mr. Anand Pillai is a distinguished speaker at the Fortune Innovation Forum in NY,
USA (the only non-American speaker to be invited), Fortune Global Forum, NASSCOM,
ISTD, CIO Summit -London, Great Places To Work conference -Singapore, World’s Most
democratic workplaces summit, World HRD Congress, TEDx, etc.

Shri. VEERABATHRAN DURAIKKANNAN

VP, Infiniti Software Solutions, Chennai

Shri. Veerabathran Duraikkannan, currently functioning as
Vice President at Infiniti Software Solutions Pvt Ltd, Chennai. He is
a man of vision and action, absolutely goal-driven and believes in the
immense potential of people to achieve great things. He started his
career with Aviation industry, worked with Indian Airlines, Jet
Airways, and Sahara Airlines and has 38 years of rich, rewarding, and multi- functional
experience and expertise in the aviation industry. He had worked in all the sections of the
Commercial Department like Ticketing & Reservation, Customer Service, Cargo, Airport
Handling, Load & Trim for Boeing, Airbus 300 & 320 and continued up to being the country
manager of Jet airways. Later, he served Hermes Technology (Portal) as GM and turned the
sluggish business into a vigorous one in India, now the brand is going international. He then
moved to ABACUS Distribution Systems (India) Pvt Ltd as Regional Manager and brought in
5 times growth over a period of five years.

- 15 -

Shri. B. CHANDRAMOULI

VP, Accel Frontline Ltd, Chennai

Shri. B. Chandramouli is currently serving as Vice President
of Warranty Management services at ACCEL FRONTLINE
LIMITED, a CAC holding corporation of Japan. He started his
career with Xerox in the year 1983. From Inception, he grew in the
company at various levels across Tamil Nadu, HQ Delhi and Bangalore. Then he had a short
stint in Oman Muscat as Business head, thereafter Joining the Telecom Company “RPG
Cellular”. He moved into Technology Company SIFY Technology was Heading Enterprises
Division for SMe/Channels. Thereafter he Joined HCL as General Manager and then an IT
services Company Frontier business services Ltd. He is passionate about music, social service
and travelling.

Shri. JITEN JAIN

DGM, EBIX India, New Delhi

Shri. Jiten Jain has a decade of experience in Healthcare
Industry. He is an expert in Strategic marketing, Business
analysis & reporting, Brand Management & Development,
Planning and Strategy Development and Process Improvement.
He has completed his education from Indian Institute of Foreign
Trade. Before joining DGM, EBIX India, He was worked with VIA Media Health as Sr.
Manager for Strategy & Business and Nutritionists Republic as Brand Manager.

Prof. LALITHA RAMAKRISHNAN

DMS, PU, Karaikal

Prof. Lalitha Ramakrishnan, Professor, Department of
Management Studies, Pondicherry University, Karaikal campus
has specialised in Marketing & Human Relations. She has large
number of publications in various reviewed journals, organized
and presented various papers in national and international
seminars, conferences, and workshops. She has co-authored a book titled “Organisation
Development” by Prentice Hall of India, a National Level Publisher. She is having international
exposure in teaching and research. She did the groundwork for signing a MOU with University
of Massachusetts and Georgia State University. She has also delivered lectures at the
University of Massachusetts.

- 16 -

Finance Panel (02:01 PM - 03:30 PM)

Robotic process and automation

“Resource Optimization, Risk Minimization, Revenue
Maximization”

In this competitive business scenario, finance sector is under constant
pressure to reduce cost, mitigate risk and maximize revenue. The advent of
Augmented Intelligence in the Financial domain, can improve cost efficiency,
increase accuracy and gain competitive advantage in the industry, while enabling
the workforce to concentrate more on the tasks which will add value to the
business.

Shri. KANNAN GANESAN Shri. VAIBHAV GUPTA
GM, HUL, Mumbai Senior VP, HSBC, Chennai

Shri. ARVIND KUMAR Shri. CHINNSAMY GANESAN
Head North & East India, Senior Partner, M/s. CNGSN &
DealMoney Securities, New Delhi Associates, Chennai

Prof. B. CHARUMATHI
DMS, PU

- 17 -

Shri. KANNAN GANESAN

GM, HUL, Mumbai

Shri. Kannan Ganesan is currently the GM Finance for Sales
and Customer Development at Hindustan Unilever Limited. He
has been working with Hindustan Unilever Limited since 2016,
and is now serving at Mumbai. He is a graduate from The Institute
of Chartered Accountants of India. He started out his career with
PKF SRIDHAR & SANTHANAM Article clerk Education of The Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India. He is an authority in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Business
Planning, Business Strategy, Financial Analysis Management Auditing, and Financial
Accounting.

Shri. VAIBHAV GUPTA

Senior VP, HSBC, Chennai

Shri. Vaibhav Gupta is currently working as Senior Vice
President and Region Head - Business Banking for HSBC in
Southern India. He has been working with HSBC for last 20 years
and has held various position in Commercial Banking and Retail
Banking across India. Vaibhav has done his post-graduation from
Aligarh Muslim University in Finance in 1998

Shri. ARVIND KUMAR

North & East India Head, Dealmoney Securities, New
Delhi

Shri. Arvind Kumar is currently working as North & East
India head with Dealmoney Securities. He was earlier Branch Head
with Karvy Consultants. He is graduate in Commerce and post
graduate in MBA. He was associated with Abhipra Capital Ltd. as
Asst. Manager (Business Development) from 1999 to 2002. He also
has various professional membership with NSE.

- 18 -

Shri. CHINNSAMY GANESAN

Senior Partner, M/s CNGSN & Associates, Chennai

Shri. Chinnsamy Ganesan, is the Joint Owner and Head -
Financial Reporting and Accounting Advisory, Trans Corporate.
He graduated from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
in the year 1987. He is presently the Senior Partner of M/s CNGSN
& Associates LLP, Chartered Accountants, Chennai and is a co-
opted member of the Board of studies of the Department of
Commerce of the University of Madras. Mr. Ganesan has presented
more than 850 papers and has authored many books. He has also
assisted over 55 companies on Ind AS (IFRS in India) transition. He is closely associated with
Accounting Standard Boards of ICAI, and many chambers of commerce like CII, FICCI,
Assocham, University of Madras, Annamalai University, Loyola Institute of Business
Administration, Madurai Kamaraj University and staff training colleges of RBI, C&AG and
other banks.

Prof. B. CHARUMATHI

DMS, PU

Prof. B. Charumathi, Professor of Management in
Pondicherry University with 25 years of teaching and
research experience. She is specialized in the areas of
Accounting, Finance, Banking and Human Resources
Management. She is a Recipient of UGC - Junior Research
Fellowship; Career Awardee of AICTE, Winner of Young
Commercists Award twice from Indian Commerce
Association and winner of Young Researcher Award from
Indian Accounting Association. She has published 3 books.
She has got more than 135 research publications with 81 international publications including
11 Scopus papers and has served as resource person and delivered numerous invited talks in
various conferences, workshops and seminars besides being a part of editorial boards of many
journals of repute in India and abroad. She has visited London, UK, Singapore and many other
countries for academic and research purpose.

- 19 -

Marketing Panel (03:46 PM - 05:15 PM)

Enhancing Marketing ROI with Technovation

“Clarity, Credibility, and Continuity”

In the fickle market landscape of today, the companies are leveraging the
use of Artificial intelligence and Augmented Reality to upgrade their means of
communication and to personalize customer experience. With the technological
advances, contextual marketing is becoming more precise, yielding better return
on investment of marketing strategies.

Dr. P. SIVA KUMAR Shri. PARMESHWARAN HARIHARAN

Healthcare Consultant, Senior VP, Willis Tower Watson India,

esi MedTech Solution, New Delhi Chennai

Smt. LATA RAMASESHAN Shri. T. RAVI SESHADRI
GM, R K SWAMY BBDO, VP, Bharti AXA General Insurance, Chennai
Chennai

Prof. S. VICTOR ANANDKUMAR
DMS, PU

- 20 -

Dr. P. SIVA KUMAR

Healthcare Consultant,
esi MedTech Solution, New Delhi

Dr. P. Siva Kumar has played various roles including
assisting the Medical Devices Industry, Academia, Healthcare
Professionals, and the Government in overcoming some of the
current day industry challenges and complexities, facilitating
the establishment of strategic partnerships with National Level
Distributors and Multinational Companies, mentoring the next
generation leaders in the healthcare organizations, mentoring programs to reinforce healthcare
enterprise performance, developing the necessary skills to thrive in the healthcare environment
and gaining exposure to newer ideas and ways of thinking and to establish processes and tools
to groom future leaders within the organization.

Shri. PARMESHWARAN HARIHARAN

Senior VP, Willis Tower Watson India, Chennai

Shri. Parmeshwaran Hariharan, is a Senior Vice President
in the global insurance broking giant, Willis Towers Watson. His
incisive intuition in marketing has developed over 30 years of
experience in various fields spanning across automobile, telecom,
IT and insurance. Having worked with esteemed organizations like
the Tata, Reliance, ICICI, HDFC, Shell, Chevron Texaco and TVS, he is well known for his
work in the RABG sector with specific reference to pioneering the introduction of RFID tags
for cattle in rural insurance along with IFMR. He has also received a lot of accolades for his
exceptional work ethic and performance in many organizations.

Smt. LATA RAMASESHAN

GM, Hansa InfoSource,
R K Swamy Hansa Group

Smt. Lata Ramaseshan, is a General Manager at Hansa
InfoSource of R K SWAMY HANSA GROUP. She is a Ph.D.,
MBA, and MA English by qualification. Having over 25
years work experience, specialising in business, economic and
social research, her expertise lies in gleaning critical insights from
available body of research and literature, analysing large volumes of data and presenting
credible and integrated research by sifting through quantitative and qualitative data and
research work.

- 21 -

Shri. RAVI SESHADRI

Vice President - Corporate Sales,
Bharti AXA General Insurance, Chennai

Shri. Ravi Seshadri T has over three decades of experience in
the General Insurance industry. He started his career with United
India Insurance Company as a Direct Recruit Officer where he served
in different capacities for two decades and is presently Vice President,
Corporate Sales, with Bharti AXA General Insurance for the past ten
years. He is a Fellow Member of the Insurance Institute of India and has a Distinction in
Advanced certification in Anti Money laundering from International Compliance association,
UK.
He was the Chief Compliance officer of Bharti AXA for six years. Over the years, Ravi
Seshadri has been exposed to International Insurance business. Ravi has delivered lectures in
major corporate and Government institutions and also is a visiting Faculty in B-Schools like
IIM Ranchi, BIM and IFMR. He is also well-known for being an avid quizzer.

Prof. S. VICTOR ANANDKUMAR

DMS, PU

Prof. S. Victor Anandkumar, Professor, Department of
Management Studies, School of Management, has got more than 21
years of work experience in the field of marketing. He has done
number of publications in many international journals and conference
proceedings. He has conducted many seminars, workshops, and
training programmes. He has got 6 Best paper awards in the last 3
years and Excellence award in the field of Management Education by Rotary International.

- 22 -

Plenary Session (05:16 PM - 06:15 PM)

Creativity and Innovation

Prof. SHIVA SUBRAMANIAM

Chief Innovation Officer, Gopalakrishnan – Deshpande Centre for Innovation
and Entrepreneurship (GDC) IIT Chennai

Prof. Shiva Subramaniam is the founder of the ‘the paper clip’ which aims to bring
creativity into daily life. He is a guest faculty at IIT Madras and IIT Tirupati. He is one of the
select few accredited Master Trainers in the world in Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats®
and Lateral Thinking™. He is also a Qualified Buzan Instructor (QBI) in Mind Mapping. He
has coached the Indian national cricket team on creativity. Shiva also worked with the Delhi
Daredevils cricket team in the IPL (Indian Premier League). His book titled ‘The Book of 11
Beliefs’, deals with the power of self-belief. He is also having more than 18 years of industry
experience at Tata Consultancy Services, where he was in charge of fostering innovation within
TCS. He was a member of the Tata Group Innovation Forum. Shiva was also a practicing
lawyer in the High Court at Chennai, India.

- 23 -

October 28, 2018 Sunday, Second Day

Human Resource Panel (09:01 AM - 10:30 AM)

Building Agile Workforce

“Transforming Talent, Technology and Ideas”

Today’s business environment is complex and ever-changing. In order to
survive in this competitive business landscape, the workforce within the
organization need to possess the skills and talent that will enable them to adapt
themselves in a rapidly changing scenario and thrive in a volatile environment.
The growing technology is viewed as a threat that will lead to the replacement of
human workforce. Augmented intelligence, however, is a factor, which favors
collaboration between technical and talent investments, hence enhancing the
process of value creation in the organization.

Shri. MADHU RAGHUNATH Shri. BHARATHAN PRAHALAD
COO - Dealership Business, Group AVP - HR, Financial Software &
Head - HR & OC, TVS Division Systems, Chennai
of TVS & Sons Pvt Ltd, Chennai

Shri. VIJAYA SARADHI Shri. DANIEL JACOB
GM - HR, ITC, Secunderabad AVP-HR, EC Group Datasoft, Chennai

Shri. SHASHIKANTH JAYARAMAN
Director (HR), DISYS India, Chennai
Founder, HR Sangam, Chennai

- 24 -

Shri. MADHU RAGHUNATH

COO - Dealership Business
Group Head-HR & OC,
TVS Division of TVS & Sons Pvt Ltd,
Chennai

Shri. Madhu Raghunath is responsible for the entire
Human Resources function for the TVS and Sons group
comprising of 3 different entities namely Dealership business-
dealers for OEM's like M&M, Ashok Leyland, Escorts, JLG, Palfinger; Distribution business
- distribution of automotive parts for various OEM's like AL, M&M, Universal Component
Auto parts; MyTVS - Multibrand Car Services business and Emergency Assistance 24*7
through the JV of TVS AA and Extended Warranty through the JV of TVS TWG; The Job
involves managing the entire HR and OC functions for the group covering in all about 1600
managerial/executive workforce & about 6000 workmen. The HR & OC function is structured
as Organisational Capability mainly comprising of Compensation and Benefits, Learning and
Development, Organisational Development and Effectiveness, Talent and Performance
Management for the entire group; Employee Relations comprises of Corporate ER and
Business ER; HR business partnering for the various businesses; the HR Transactions team
which is the inhouse service provider to all the businesses and functions for all HR transactions.
Training - both Sales and Technical training is crucial to have a sustainable competitive
advantage in this business and hence this forms a separate part of the HR function. The
Operations role consists of managing all operations including managing infrastructure,
planning and management of facilities, insurance, fleets, safety, health, environment, CSR and
other initiatives. He also worked as an Assistant Expertise Marketing Consultant specialising
in helping clients choose select profiles for openings and has handled the setting up of the HR
department for one of the start-up companies.

Shri. BHARATHAN PRAHALAD

Assistant Vice President - Human Resources,
Financial Software & Systems,
Chennai

Shri. Bharathan Prahalad is the Assistant Vice
President, Human Resources with FSS. A HR Thought
Leader and Change Agent with more than 22 years of
experience, he has transformed the People Practice for
companies like Polaris, Satyam Computer services,
Standard Chartered Scope International and KLA Tencor. He is a Certified Leadership
Architect from Korn Ferry Lominger (U.S.A), Certified Situational Leadership Coach from
Ken Blanchard Institute (San Diego, USA), and Certified Change Management Expert from
PROSCI (Professional Sciences Institute, Colorado).

- 25 -

Shri. VIJAYA SARADHI. CH.

General manager – Human resources,
ITC Limited, PSPD division, Secuderabad

Shri. Vijaya Saradhi. CH. is General Manager - HR, ITC Ltd,
pspd division. He is an M.A., B.L. by qualification and holds more
than 32 years of industry experience. He started career with Standard
Organics Limited, later associated with M/s Grind well Norton
Limited, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited and Since 2008, he has been
associating with ITC Limited. He has introduced Good Manufacturing Practices, Productivity
Linked Incentive Scheme, Lean Manufacturing activities, TACT (Total Activity completed
Time), and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) concepts. He is passionate of social services,
heading Rotary Club, and honoured with numerous awards for his noteworthy contributions in
and around the industry.

Shri. DANIEL JACOB

Asst. Vice President – HR, EC Group Datasoft (P) Ltd.

Shri. Daniel Jacob, is the Asst. Vice President - HR at EC
Group Datasoft (P) Ltd. and Executive Director of “You are Loved”
Foundation. He is Ph.D. and MBA by qualification. With over 10
years of experience in HR profession, Mr. Daniel has been a bridge
between the employee and the employer. He is also hosts a web HR
Talk show called “HR Lens”, heads an NGO called “You Are Loved”
which works towards, empowering communities through Education,
Employment and Enlightenment, and has confronted so many Awards.

Shri. SHASHIKANTH JAYARAMAN

Director - HR, Disys India (P) Ltd
Founder - HR Sangam

Shri. Shashikanth Jayaraman, is the Director - HR, Disys India
(P) Ltd, and Founder - HR Sangam. Shashikanth Jayaraman or SK as
he is called, is a seasoned Human Resource thought leader with over
16 years of rich and varied corporate experience. SK holds a
bachelor’s in electrical & Electronics Engineering and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human
Resource Management with certifications in leadership development and PCMM. In his
various corporate assignments, he has driven the people function at ABN AMRO Bank,
Reliance Retail, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance and TVS Automobile Solutions Limited. He has
also been an HR advisor to start-ups, family run businesses and SMEs through his venture
called “Hex Advisory”. As the Founder of HR Sangam, he has built a forum to network and
enrich the capabilities of over 8200 HR practitioners over the last decade.

- 26 -

Operations Panel (10:46 AM - 12:15 PM)

Workplace Automation
“Collaborate, Connect, and Captivate”

Workplace Automation is expected to surge over the next few years. The
introduction of automation may lead to the orchestration of an entirely different
work environment in alignment to business strategy, and redefining the role of
human performance. In other words, automation will take over the routine day-
to-day tasks while allowing the employees to concentrate on tasks that require
innovation and creativity.

Shri. V. MURALIDHARAN Shri. K. UTHANDARAMAN
GM - ICT, Country Quality Head,

TBS India, Bengaluru Nexteer Automotive India, Bengaluru

Shri. S. VIJAYARAGHAVAN Shri. S. JAYARAMAN
Director, Manatec Electronics, Senior GM, ACT Plast Paints,

Pondicherry Chennai

Prof. T. NAMBIRAJAN
DMS, PU

- 27 -

Shri. V. MURALIDHARAN

General Manager - ICT,
TBS India, Bengaluru

Shri. V. Muralidharan is a Software Professional with 30
years of experience in various industry verticals. And over 14
years of international work experience in Malaysia & Saudi
Arabia with exposure to multiple facets of Healthcare
Engineering. He has successfully headed development and
implementation of numerous software projects such as Application, BI, Remote Healthcare and
so on.

Mr. Muralidharan is General Manager - ICT of TBS India, Bengaluru, an MNC from
Italy that has healthcare engineering services across India and Overseas. Currently he is
strenuously involved in the pilot testing of mHealth application, a remote healthcare
monitoring solution.

Shri. K. UTHANDARAMAN

Country Quality Head,
Nexteer Automotive India limited, Bengaluru

Shri. K. Uthandaraman, is currently working as Country Quality
head in Nexteer Automotive India limited, a US based MNC in
Bengaluru. He is a graduate of mechanical engineering from Madurai
Kamaraj University and holds Lean expert certification from Lean
School, US. He Started his career with TATA MOTORS, Pune as
Manufacturing Engineer. He has also worked with VALEO India Ltd, a
France based MNC, PRICOL, Coimbatore and WABCO India Ltd, a German based MNC.

Shri. S. VIJAYARAGHAVAN

Director, Manatec Electronics, Pondicherry

Shri. S. Vijayaraghavan started his career in the year of
1988. He has a work experience of over 30 years in his industry,
established with R&D, Production, Marketing and Services. He
brought all modern manufacturing and quality systems in the
industry. He is an expert in implementing ISO 9000, ERP and
TQM systems. He has also headed Operation for 15 years and
Marketing and services for 15 years.

- 28 -

Shri. S. JAYARAMAN

Senior General Manager,
ACT Plast Paints, Chennai

Shri. S. Jayaraman, dynamic professional with over 22

years of experience in production planning, product sub contract,
sales warehouse and operations. Presently he is the Senior
General Manager of operations in ACT Plast Paints. Previously
he was associated with Sundaram Fasteners Ltd, UCAL Fuel Systems Ltd and WABCO India
Ltd. He has achieved TPM Excellence Award, Consistency Award and special Award for
JPIM. He has got strong knowledge and experience in SAP. He is Lead Auditor for ISO TS
16949 and also a green belt in Six Sigma.

Prof. T. NAMBIRAJAN

DMS, PU

Prof. T. Nambirajan, Professor, Department of
Management Studies, Pondicherry University, is specialised in
Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, Quality
Management and Management Information Systems. He has won
numerous best paper awards and scholarships and has published
various papers in national and international journals. He has also
published a book on SCM. He is a life member of Society of
Operations Management and a member of Production and Operation Management Society
(USA)

- 29 -

Entrepreneurship Panel (02:01 PM - 03:30 PM)

Stimulating Startups in Industry 4.0

“Innovate, Create and Develop”

For the past four decades, there has been a growing trend of startup
companies overthrowing well established companies. Being ahead of their
competitors has helped these startups gain a monopoly in every sector. Advanced
robotics and predictive analysis have made an irreversible shift towards Industry
4.0, based on a foundation of connectivity and IoT. Therefore, a vast opportunity
has been created for the startups to thrive in the Industry 4.0 revolution.

Shri. SANJAY BHARTI Shri. SRIRAM IYER
India Head, Billions in Change, Affiliate Head, Inthree Access,

New Delhi Chennai

Shri. DAYAL NATHAN Shri. HARISH SURI
Founder & CEO, Energyly, Founder & CEO,

Chennai Arknemesis Gaming India, Chennai

Shri. SIVAKUMAR PALANISWAMY
CEO, NABARD’s Madurai

Agribusiness Incubation Centre, Madurai

- 30 -

Shri. SANJAY BHARTI

India Head, Billions in Charge, New Delhi.

Shri. Sanjay Bharti is a professional with a track record of
more than 17 years of successfully propelling business of Micro
finance, Solar leasing, Banking, Asset financing & Micro Insurance
with an emphasis on rural market. Sanjay has led some of the
prominent Start up and Scale up initiatives with strategic mind set.
He has experience in expanding rural businesses through Direct sales, Sales agents and
institutional channels comprising Microfinance Institutes (MFIs), Cooperatives, Common
Service Centres, NGOs, Corporate and other institutions. He has enabled multi-unit companies
like Satin CreditCare, ICICI Bank, Simpa Energy, Max Bupa, and Birla Sunlife Insurance to
achieve multifold growth in Indian rural market through a robust entry level strategy.

Shri. SRIRAM IYER

Affiliate Head, Inthree Access, Chennai

Shri. Sriram Iyer Pioneering Rural Fintech at Boonbox -
Hiring Product Managers with domain expertise in Payments and
Alternative Lending Mumbai Area, India. He is currently heading the
Affiliate Network for Inthree Access Services - a significant player
in Rural Commerce in India. He is the founder of AsureJewel – a
hybrid asset light business in Precious Jewellery. Previously, he was
heading Product Management for Reliance Capital's Gold and
Distribution Business.

Shri. DAYAL NATHAN

Founder & CEO, Energyly, Chennai

Shri. Dayal Nathan, is the Founder & CEO of Energyly,
an Energy Analytics Company to help reduce power costs for
Business Enterprises & Consumers. He is a Post Graduate in
Plastics Engineering with a Gold Medal from Central Institute
of Plastics & Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Ahmedabad.
He began his career with VIP Industries, Nagpur, and later
joined Nova Electro Magnetics, Chennai followed by Pentamedia Graphics, Chennai in 1995
and had various assignments before quitting as General Manager (Compact Discs & Animation
Business). He started “Ojas Digital Technologies” in 2003, an animation studio & in 2005, Co-
Founded Solar Compact Disc, South India’s first DVD manufacturing facility and exited in
2014.

- 31 -

Shri. HARISH SURI

Founder & CEO, Arknemesis Gaming India, Chennai.

Shri. Harish Suri is the CEO of Arknemesis Gaming, India’s
largest gaming house. A Marketing Professional who grew up
abroad, Mr. Harish has been an avid gamer from a very young age.
Very passionate and knowledgeable about video gaming Industry, he
has been successful in making his passion, his profession. He also
seeks to change the perception towards competitive and non-
competitive gaming in the country, from being just a hobby to being
a career option in Gaming or Game Design/Development or Graphics Design.

Shri. SIVAKUMAR PALANISWAMY

CEO, NABARD, Madurai
Agribusiness Incubation Centre, Madurai

Shri. Sivakumar Palaniswamy is a B.Sc. (Agri) graduate
with MBA from DMS, Pondicherry University. He worked with UN
Organisation (IFPRI & ICRISAT) for 3 years, Ministry of
Agriculture for 5 years, before becoming the CEO of NABARD
Agribusiness Incubation Centre. He is passionate about agriculture and promoting
agripreneurship across the country

- 32 -

Valedictory Function (03:46 PM - 05:30 PM)

Prof. SANDEEP SANCHETI

President, AIU, New Delhi

Prof. Sandeep Sancheti did his Ph.D. from the
Queens University of Belfast, U.K. in 1995. He obtained his
B.Tech in ECE from REC, Warangal (now NITW) and M.Sc.
(Engg) from DCE (now DTU) in 1982 and 1985 respectively.
He has more than 34 years of teaching, research and
administrative experience.

Prof. Sancheti is a known institution builder. Prior to being the Vice Chancellor, SRM
Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai he has served as President, Manipal University
Jaipur, Founder Director NIT Delhi, Director NITK Surathkal and Director In-charge of NIT
Tiruchirappalli, NIT Calicut, SPA Delhi and also Mentor Director of newly established NIT
Goa, NIT Puducherry and NIT Sikkim. He also served at MNIT Jaipur for 22 years and MBM
Eng. College Jodhpur for more than 6 years.

He has been Chairman CCB for AIEEE 2011, Chairman, DASA, Member of DEC,
Founder member of IUCEE, Member of Academic Advisory Board of Microsoft (India),
Member of MHRD Working Group on Technical Education for 12th Plan, Member of the
National Steering Committee TEQIP-II, Member JEE Apex Board, Member “Kakodkar
Committee” for Review of NITs etc.

Currently he is Chairman, BOG, MLVTEC (GoR) Bhilwara, Member GC, ESCI
Hyderabad, Member Executive Council AICTE, New Delhi, Member Court & Council, Indian
Institute of Science Bangalore, Member Governing and Advisory Boards of CBSE New Delhi,
BCCI Mumbai, SAI New Delhi and NCTE New Delhi, NIRDR&PR Hyderabad etc.

Presently, he is the President of Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi. He is a
Member and Fellow of many professional societies and bodies. He is also on the panel of
number of Academic Bodies, Planning & Governing Boards, Editorial Boards and Selection
and Advisory Committees of MHRD, AICTE, UGC, NAAC, NBA, DRDO, CSIR etc.

Shri A. K. PRAKASH

Finance Officer, Pondicherry University.

Shri A. K. Prakash is the Finance Officer of Pondicherry
University. He is also the Transparency officer RTI, Pondicherry
University. He has had a very rich and long experience in
University of Delhi before joining Pondicherry University. He is
known for his efficiency in administrator.

- 33 -

Shri. RANGARAJ PANDEY

Chief News Editor, Thanthi TV, Chennai

Shri. Rangaraj Pandey is originally from Buxar
district, Bihar state and later migrated to Srivilliputhur, Tamil
Nadu. He was influenced towards Tamil culture which made
him postgraduate MA in Tamil. Rangaraj Pandey was
interested in journalism from his young age and he had decided to take up journalism as a
career option. He joined as a writer in Dinamalar, daily Newspaper. After 11-12 years he joined
in Thanthi TV in 2012. His Television interviews with famous personalities on Thanthi TV
made him a popular person and now he is editor in chief of Thanthi TV. He is renowned for
his simple and spontaneous brilliant questions style of TV anchoring, though it invites a few
debates as well, mostly related to religious, communal and political issues. His prime-time
program, ‘Ayutha Ezhuthu‘, a news debate program based on current affairs being broadcast
on Thanthi TV.

Shri. R. BASKAR BABU

MD & CEO

Suryoday Small Finance Bank

Shri. R. Baskar Babu is the Managing Director and Chief
Executive Officer of Suryoday Small Finance Bank - a new age bank
that transited from a micro finance institution and has served over a
million customers as on date. Baskar had Co-Founded Suryoday
Micro Finance in 2008.Suryoday Small Finance Bank was launched
in Jan’2017. Baskar has more than 25 years of experience in banking
and financial services. He has worked in organizations like
Cholamandalam, HDFC Bank and GE Capital in various leadership positions, handling diverse
portfolios in Products, Quality & Operations. His dream has always been to create a world class
financial services organisation with a focus on best in class ‘employee and customer
experience’. Mr. Baskar Babu is a Mechanical Engineer from SRM University, Chennai with
a Master’s in Business Administration from the School of Management Studies, Pondicherry.

Shri. C.K. KUMARAVEL

CEO and Co-founder, Naturals Salons & Spa

Shri. C. K. Kumaravel was born and raised in the small town
of Cuddalore near Puducherry. Kumaravel, along with his wife K.
Veena, runs the chain of beauty salons that started in Chennai, and
now has 550 outlets across the country. They established Naturals in
2000 and have expanded its presence to various locations in Tamil
Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra and West Bengal. He strongly believes that “entrepreneurship is the ability to
think differently”.

- 34 -

Synapse
Articles

- 35 -

A Reflection to Study the Impact of Disruptive Technologies on Future
Workforce of Industry 4.0

Dhruv Dutta, Ph.D. Scholar

‘Organizations’ are basis of modern world’s work life. They play significant role of
building blocks in today’s human civilization. Organizations provide collective value for
civilization and its functional processes (socioeconomic etc.). People are always a major
component of organizational concept, whether they are inside (as employee) or outside (as
clients, customers, or other stakeholders of organization). The advent of new technologies
always affects the organization-employee relationships. In today’s world emphasis of
organizations are moving toward the forthcoming technological concepts like Big Data,
Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Virtual Realities etc. The advancement of all these
factors will exhibit huge impact on all the spheres of organization and its stalk holders. This
will create new paradigm in world. The effect may vary from context to context. Therefore, the
study of impact of such technological advancement on organizations/employees becomes
matter of paramount importance. The rapid advances and the increased dependence on
technology raise the question of how it is changing the work and employment. It is highly
noticeable for researchers and professionals of organizational behaviour, human resource
management and organizational psychology (OB/HRM/OP).

The fourth industrial revolution and oncoming of the machine language has led to new
disruptive technologies emerging, even as many bit the dust in the last few years. A PwC (2018)
study some time back identified top disruptive technologies that matter now will have far-
reaching impact in the days to come viz. block chain, artificial intelligence, virtual intelligence
etc. The team tracked more than 150 discrete technologies and analysed for technologies with
the most cross-industry and global impact over the coming years. What is of interest to us is
all these technologies are closely associated with geospatial, either it directly benefits from
location data or technologies, or directly empower geospatial. In some cases, some of these
technologies converge with geospatial to deliver solutions and have long-lasting impacts.
Therefore, it is essential to investigate the effects of technology on work and organizations.
After reviewing of key breakthroughs in the evolution of technology, we should consider the
disruptive effects of emerging technologies on work life and spill over on personal life. Also,
we have to examine numbers and types of jobs affected by developments in technology, and
how this will lead to affect the organization-employee relationship. This could be done with
the selection of organizations occupied or evolved with forthcoming disruptive technologies
(e.g. Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Virtual Realities) in order to illustrate
technology’s impact on work, work systems, and organizations. This will provide insights
regarding what we know about the effects of technology. Also, we should consider the results
of researches from work analysis or study method. Also, there is a requirement to examine that
how the roles of different stakeholders are changing in the emerging world of technologies.
Such studies should have considerable impact on human resources (HR) areas supported by
relevant and anticipated outcomes. The studies should have profound implications both for
research and for practice, and providing guidance for future research or practical development
at all level.

- 36 -

RISE OF CYBORG AND FUTURE OF ROBO - ADVISING

Habeebu Rahman K.
Ph.D. Research Scholar (UGC-SRF)
Department of Management Studies

Pondicherry University

Robo-advisors are digital platforms powered by artificial intelligence to assist clients
make better investment decisions. Globally financial institutions are making Robo-advisors
integral part of their operation. Robo-advisors have billions of dollars of assets under
management and the figure is expected to grow much more. Robo advisors such as Betterment,
Personal Capital, Wealth front are occupying the investment advisory roles in financial services
industry. When machines occupy the role that human has been performing for years cause trust
issues with many clients. For instance, the navigation system we are using in our vehicles is
used by everyone now, but before a decade they were not used by everyone because of its
shortcomings. But now they have improved a lot and gained user’s trust.

Robo-advisors helps in active management of portfolios by making better allocation of
capital. It helps reshuffling portfolio whenever required. Greed and fear are the enemies of
investors during stock picking. Investors tends to buy overprices stocks in bull market and
suffer losses due to greed. They sell under-priced stock in bear market due to fear. As Robo-
advisors are unaffected by the trap of greed and fear, they make better decisions by following
investment strategy as per its algorithm. Robo- advisor are low cost alternative to traditional
advisors. They can offer services by fraction of the cost by eliminating human labour. Through
technology you can reach out to a much larger market. Services can be extended to those people
who were until now either not able to afford or have access to wealth advisor. We have
unavailability of adequate number of certified financial advisors and their services are limited
to high net worth investors and retail investors with lesser amount of money to be invested
cannot afford them. This is essentially the niche that Robo-advisors are operating in. They are
trying to serve young customers and

It outgrows financial inclusion in India where we are long way to go in terms of
financial inclusion. Robo-advisory start-ups such as Scripbox, Bharosa Club, FundsIndia,
Artha Yantra and Invezta have ventured into the sector and have steady clientele. Apart from
start-ups, some of the established financial advisory firms are also foraying into the territory
either through their own products or through partnership with leading fund houses.

The financial services industry is facing disruption due to technology advancement, and
machines are replacing human being in many roles and the question is whether Robo-advisors
replace human advisors. Robo- advisors have more, better, real-time and accurate information
and processing capacity than human being and it helps in better decision making. It will result
in replacing human advisors. But, some of the financial decisions are related to emotional
events in client’s life such as death, divorce etc and it may not be optimal decision to go online
to a Robo-advisor to manage the money. We still need human in financial services not an
advisor, but for storytelling to get the empathy going on. Success of Robo- advisor depends on

- 37 -

quality of advices and how customized it can deliver advices based on client’s needs. We need
human to explain us what the decision of the machine really is. Robo advisors are ill equipped
to deal with extra ordinary situations and unexpected crises. Here comes the need for
application of augmented intelligence in Robo-advising. Finding synergy of human element
and efficacy of robotic process is the future of Robo-advisory. When Robo-advising have
already found suitable for short term trading and investment, it is not suited for making long
term investment plans. When it comes to long term investing, need a hybrid model of human
with augmented intelligence machine. It helps in better understanding of client’s risk tolerance
and the investment objectives to make decisions accordingly. It is clear that the threat to human
advisors is not technology and robots, but technology augmented humans who bring together
the crucial relationship aspect of working with human being with the scaled benefit of
leveraging technology. The advisor of the future is not just robot nor human, but ‘Cyborg’. The
move by Betterment, the largest independent online investment advisor has come up with
hybrid services integrating the services by AI and team of Certified Financial Planners who
also monitor clients.

“No human is better than a machine, but no machine is better than a human with a
machine.” says Paul Tudor Jones, the legendary American hedge fund manager. The
advancement in augmented intelligence and making use of the same in Robo-advising
platforms will be a fintech revolution. Let’s keep our fingers crossed to see changes coming up
in the financial services industry which we have seen never before.

__________
References

1] Robo-advice: the future is now. (2018, March 20). Retrieved from
https://www.bankingtech.com/2018/03/robo-advice-the-future-is-now/

2] Sironi, P. (2016). FinTech innovation: From robo-advisors to goals-based investing and
gamification.

3] Kitao, Y. (2018). Learning Practical FinTech from Successful Companies.

- 38 -

AGILE WORKFORCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES THROUGH
AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY

Syamala D.
PhD Research Scholar (FT-URF)
Department of Management Studies

Pondicherry University

Universities and their workforce

India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world (after China and the
US). More the number of Universities, higher the competition. To become an outstanding
institution, the universities must be agile which in turn calls for an agile workforce. Every day,
every minute, every second we are enriched with number of new inventions, updates,
developments and automations by the name of technology advancements, enforcing the need
of the workforce to keep themselves updated and more agile to be on the train as it goes by the
words “Survival of the Fittest”. The recruiters today expect candidates to be up to date on
technological developments and current trends. They don’t prefer to waste money or spend
more on training their entrants from the scratch. To do this job of producing quality contenders,
the universities must have a workforce which is versatile enough and adaptive to the never-
ending updates and developments with a swift response. And this workforce includes everyone
from top management to the employees of all levels of hierarchy which covers the
administration, faculties and non-teaching staffs.

Intersection of USR in building an agile workforce

USR or University Social Responsibility is a concept whereby the institutions integrate
the TBL (People, Planet and Profit) concerns in their institutional operations and how they treat
their stakeholders. It includes identifying stakeholders, understanding the perceptions n
expectations of satisfaction and quality of services and establishing relationship with these
groups. The university stakeholders cover a wider range of people interested in the university
(Students/course applicants, Parents, Regulators, Grants, administration, Other universities,
Employment agencies n businesses, Owners, Investors, faculties, non-teaching staffs Alumni,
Government bodies), but wherein, here, we refer only a part of the stakeholder group
(workforce) relevant to our subject.

The university’s responsibilities towards its workforce stakeholder is imperative as the
administration and faculties play the vital role in building up the university which in turn aids
the universities to attain or sustain the top position in the university ranking lists, which
becomes a competitive advantage with a brand image.

Rena Angel in 2016 has stated that “If Stakeholders (Recruiters) find USR important
and if Stakeholders (UGC) insist on enforcing the same, to have trained and responsible
employees, USR would be appreciated, introduced and practiced by the Management and

- 39 -

Students (Internal Stakeholders). Credibility of Brand Image requires involvement of
Employees to live the examples (Strandberg, 2009), all which emphasizes the need of socially
responsible ethics of the staff and students (Internal Stakeholders)”.

A study by Warraas & Solbakk in 2009 has discussed how it is not sufficient that the
brand and its concept is known and understood only by the top management but is also essential
that even the employees should “live the brand”. And to live the brand, the employees or
faculties and staffs (workforce) should be trained and well equipped.

Augmented Intelligence facilitating USR on building Agile workforce

To make it clear and understandable, IA (Intelligence Augmentation) does not replace
people altogether. Augmented Intelligence (IA) is all about augmenting human intelligence. It
is just complementing the human intelligence through artificial intelligence (AI) than merely
replacing them. Cognitive computing is a technology platform based on the scientific
disciplines of AI and signal processing which is all into machine learning, natural language
processing, speech recognition, reasoning, planning, problem solving and human-computer
interaction for knowledge transfer. These designs would help the universities in providing
various services to the workforce stakeholders which include recruitment, training, appraisals
and manpower planning. The intervention of artificial intelligence into the stakeholder
management can make life easy for the institutions by solving more complications like human
bias, deficient candidate assessment, erratic performances and systems though it is the human
intelligence that controls the decision on designing and running the artificial intelligence.

The universities engage with their workforce through training, education (Knowledge
Transfer), and provision of services. As a part of the sustainable development strategy,
developing an agile mindset or training/ equipping the workforce on never ending updates is
obviously not an easy one-time process. Advanced computer technologies available today
facilitates this social transformation of learning, teaching, research and innovation in many
ways. Artificial Intelligence is evolving to be an intelligent assistant that can help the
universities fulfil their responsibilities towards their stakeholders. For example, Niles is an AI
model developed on learning slack conversations which answers common queries from the
customers. If Nile fails to answer, the user can update it with corrected answers (if they are
aware) so that Nile updates itself. The more we learn, the more Nile too learns from us and gets
things right. So, these kind of wikibots are made to learn and update by itself through the run
making the process much easier. Raytheon in a study, reports that only 7% of the learning
organisations invest in predictive analysis in eLearning which gives us the signal that already
7% of them are already in the bandwagon catching up with the AI interventions. To cope up
with the speed of the fast-moving world, the computer hardware and software help leverage
the human capital (which includes the workforce) the university and the advancing
technologies.

Arizona State University uses an adaptive learning platform that brings human
instructor and technology together for the best of workforce which is an efficient model for
reskilling employees on updated technologies. Augmented Intelligence when incorporated with
such adaptive learning platforms like Khan Academy makes the learning process more efficient

- 40 -

and easier to provide updated technology and services. Carnegie Mellon University with its
Open Learning Institute (OLI) has been working on AI based cognition tutors which would
facilitate teachers in updating themselves. AI would keep matching their expertise and
requirements and give intimations on the new concepts and developments and the teachers can
undergo the training sessions as and when they are free. Virtual assistants can tutor and guide
more personalised learnings.

AI helps in providing interactive training sessions which are customised by determining
each individual’s skill level based on their successive response which is more tedious and time
consuming to be done for each individual manually. Therefore, universities should use AI to
scale a customised training program or even a career development program for each individual
workforce. For this purpose, Block chains are used with AI to record the grades, qualifications
and expertise of the staffs in the university. AI can store the employee details and with regular
updates it can also use the details to reflect new positions, employment requirement and
training programs for the workforce whereas the recruitment and trainings will be handled by
the human intellects thereby augmenting the AI with the human intelligence.

All the universities can use Augmented Intelligence for providing services to the
stakeholders. As we all know, AI is capable of recognising faces, objects and even gestures
and therefore it can be employed to facilitate screenings, assessments, and scanning of all the
available workforce. On identifying the individuals, the AI can collect information, queries and
suggestions from the individual and would act as a point of contact routing them to appropriate
destinations avoiding traffic, confusion and wastage of time which would be caused by manual
intervention. AI chat box or chatbot is one of the quickest and effective way to assess
workforce. A chatbot is most useful in the Induction phase where it helps the new entrants in
making themselves comfortable with the new workplace by proving any and all of beginners
information through a free conversation with it though they are provided with a formal
induction by the HR management people thus augmenting the human intelligence through AI
One example is the IBM Watson used by Deakin University(first university worldwide to
implement Watson), Australia which is a combination of AI and analytics software that
answers the user questions. It replicates the human ability to answer questions. Technical
University of Berlin is more into developing such chatbots and intelligent agents.

In February 2018, Imperial College London president, Alice Gast predicts that higher
education institutions will follow global corporations in screening applicants(recruitments)
using AI-based algorithms. She also discussed how Unilever, since 2016 uses a recruitment
method involving a series of algorithms combining AI and social media to review and verify
candidates. Universities can adopt such methods avoiding any bias in the selection process
thereby giving the stakeholders the feel of fair recruitment practices which in turn brings out
the standard of the university.

Another important area in which AI’s significance can be felt is Employee
Engagement. An article on Pepperdine University about combatting employee disengagement
states that 71% of the employees feel unengaged or uninspired at work. Olansky and Walker
has identified the potentiality of AI to significantly benefit the eLearning sphere. Therefore, a
combination of deep learning and Artificial Neural Networks works for employee engagement

- 41 -

as it makes the workforce to keep updating themselves which develops self-interest among the
workforce. AI recognizes the more unengaged by having a check on the involvement levels of
the workforce in various activities and subsequently creates and administers a gamified model
or appraising model, motivating them for more participation in various activities cultivating
employee engagement.

AI can also be used in Scheduling by keeping a check and allotting time for the
interviews, work meetings, training and teaching sessions facilitating the efficient usage of time
as it is also capable of identifying the unproductive activities. Leevebot is another existing
model to manage the employee’s time off. Though all the schedules and time managements are
done with the help of artificial intelligence, finally it will be the management(human) to
approve it or conduct the scheduled program or training showing IA of human intelligence
through AI.

Correspondingly, IA can be used to facilitate so many responsible activities in Human
Resource Management to develop an agile workforce by understanding and satisfying the
workforce of the university, by establishing a smooth relationship with them and also by
retaining and incentivizing their own faculties enriched by the augmented intelligence thereby
creating and sustaining flexible, agile and responsive workforce. This in turn builds an agile
institution with a brand image attaining competitive advantage.

__________

References:

1] https://elearningindustry.com/employee-engagement-and-artificial-intelligence-
elearning

2] https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-will-use-ai-select-students-
says-alice-gast

3] https://www.inc.com/avi-savar/3-ways-that-ai-is-transforming-hr-and-recruiting.html
4] https://theconversation.com/five-ways-artificial-intelligence-will-shape-the-future-of-

universities-94706
5] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/artificial-intelligence-will-transform-

universities-here-s-how/
6] https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/17/niles-is-a-slack-bot-that-learns-your-teams-

questions-and-answers-them-so-you-dont-have-to/
7] https://qz.com/1285854/ai-in-schools-helps-with-high-tech-high-touch-learning-

according-to-south-koreas-former-education-minister/
8] https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2018/05/ai-future-workforce.html
9] https://www.aventr.com/blog/10-best-slack-hr-apps-to-build-an-amazing-team
10] https://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/8-examples-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-

in-the-workplace/

- 42 -