FMS held its Annual Convention, 2006 on 3rd December at the J.W. Marriot. The Annual Convention has a rich tradition of 29 distinguishing years and has, over the years, provided excellent opportunities for leading policy makers, industry leaders, academicians, entrepreneurs and management thinkers to get together and deliberate on latest management trends and path-breaking innovations in the industry.

Some of the eminent luminaries who have graced successful Conventions over the years are:
Mr. Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group
Mr. Mahendra Swaroop, CEO, Times Internet India
Mr. Vivek Gupta, MD, A. T. Kearney
Mr. Ramesh Sobti, CEO, ABN AMRO
Mr. Ravimohan, CEO, CRISIL

The theme for Annual Convention 2006 wass "Emerging India: A Tryst with the Global Destiny". Kindly find below a comprehensive report of the proceedings of the Convention and the attached Pictures for your ready perusal.

FMS ANNUAL CONVENTION
"EMERGING INDIA: A TRYST WITH GLOBAL DESTINY"

"India is unbound, in its potential, power and dreams. Unleashing these potent weapons shall restore India to its rightful glory."

Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi, held its Annual Convention at the J.W. Marriot Hotel, New Delhi on the 3rd of December, 2006. The Annual Convention is the flagship event of FMS, dedicated to thinking, discussing and evolving solutions, the format being a series of Panel Discussions. Over the past 29 years, the Convention has provided excellent opportunities for leading policy-makers, industry leaders, academicians, entrepreneurs and management thinkers to get together and deliberate on latest management trends and path-breaking innovations in the industry.   

The Theme for Annual Convention, 2006 was "Emerging India: A tryst with Global Destiny." Today India is in the process of moulding not only the destiny of Indians but is in a strategic position to influence the world. India occupies an envious growth curve and an unbounded potential for growth, innovation and unlimited dynamism.

The inaugural address was delivered by Professor J.K. Mitra, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies. Professor Mitra highlighted the changing landscape of India by drawing on micro-level experiences such as the altered framework for Convention from its earlier format of a decade ago of presenting research papers by academia to the current day format of panel discussions. Professor Deepak Pental highlighted the need for building human capital as the key to a sustainable and viable growth trajectory. He stressed on the need for education in India to become more broad-based, inclusive and more importantly, qualitative.

The inaugural address was followed with the traditional lighting of the lamp which preceded the three thought-provoking sessions.

Session 1: Strategies for Survival and growth

The session focused on strategies that the corporate India needs to formulate that will help India sustain the competitive advantage in the global scenario.

The session was moderated by Monica Shatriya from STAR New. A self-proclaimed radical and anti-development journalist she stressed the importance of strategies that take forward the humanity at large and not just a few capitalists. The first speaker, Mr. Ashish Chowdhary is the Country Head (India) of Nokia Networks. He emphasized the growth story of India through the competitive market dynamics of the Indian telecom industry. He viewed it as a value chain where hyper competition within the sector, operators led to reduced cost of operations that not only increased efficiency but also improved the lives of the people living at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Mr. Ashish Kumar, the second speaker and currently the Director of IBM India and Relationship Executive, Bharti Account proposed innovation especially in the area of product designing as a strategy for survival and growth in the era of a flat world. Due to the massive economic and demographic shift his key points for India included innovation beyond services, external collaboration and the importance of innovation at the top.

The third speaker, Mr. Niru Mehta, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, AVIVA GlobalConnect Ltd., touched the right chord with the audience through his energy and dynamism. His 3 point perspective on the issue highlighted that the time is now right for the Indians to play a major part in the global scenario, the role of employees in emerging as a strategic resource and the need for employees to expand beyond the conventional wisdom to sustain the economic growth of India. He said, "It takes an entire village to raise a child" emphasizing that sustainable development cannot take place in isolation but with the support of the regional neighbors.

Session 2: The Second Session took the discussion a step further by discussing 'Financing the Great Indian Dream'. Various dignitaries and senior corporate representatives shared their esteemed views on the same by elucidating on the financial growth of the Indian economy.

Mr. Sandeep Soni, Chief Managing Director of Citifinancial started the panel discussion by sharing his views on the place of India in the changing world order and the growing demand and opportunity that lies in front of us as a nation. He also stressed upon the importance of holistic growth pertaining to the rural and middle class population. Ms. Priti Gulati, Vice President, DSP Merill Lynch, highlighted India's acceptability in the international financial space and the importance of leveraging upon this opportunity to go global. Ms Gulati also expounded the growth of the domestic capital market and the easy availability of capital which are in tune to the increase requirements.

The discussion was fortuned to have an economists perspective as   Ms. Renu Karnad, Executive Director, HDFC,  enlightened us with a factual description of the current growth scenario of the financial industry as well as the scope of booming sectors such as Retail, IT, Hospitability, Media and Property. The need for better execution of reforms was realised throughout the course of this informative speech.  

Mr. Bhal, Additional Economic Advisor, Department of Economic Affairs and Mr. Bhatt, Principal Secretary, Planning and Finance, Ministry of Finance, each explicated the urgent need to realize that Indian Financial sectors must push for growth of under developed areas and avoid lopsided growth to the maximum. Mr. Bhatt also talked about Social Entrepreneurship with reference to "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid".

The entire discussion was moderated by Mr. Shantanu Guha Ray, Senior Editor, Channel. A Full length discussion followed thereafter, with the panel establishing their views and perspectives on the financial aspect of The Great Indian Dream.

Session 3 dwelled upon "Marketing India to the world". Mr. Santosh Desai – President, McCann Erickson India with his 21 years of experience in marketing posed extremely thought provoking questions to the gathering. He asked the audience to ponder upon whether India is getting ahead of itself by means of a 'presumptive euphoria'. There is a serious danger of over marketing India and we need to check ourselves before letting optimism become illusory. Mr. R. K. Sharma, Head of Exports, South – Asia  Nestle India as well as Mr. A. Aggarwal, Country Marketing Manager, HP India focused on the diverse aspects of India which could be marketed such as tourism, investment destination, source hub and our unique cultural aspects. Mr. Venkatesh Kini, Head of Marketing India and South Asia, Coca Cola with his diverse experience in over 40 countries in Coca- Cola emphasized on the growing prowess of the Indian Diaspora, there was a palpable air of excitement about India with more and more westerners coming to work in the sub continent. However he did caution our excitement by bringing to note that we live in different India's and growth needs to become more inclusive.

The Convention witnessed enthusiastic participation from Management Students, Faculty, Corporate Sector, Government think-tanks and Alumni.