Dr. Krishna Kumar, Director, IIMK, in his inaugural speech emphasized on social development, technological independence and enterprise as the key areas of importance for the development of India. Talking about economic development, he said that blindly following Western models of development would not produce desired results for India; what the country needed was models developed specifically for it, keeping in mind the factors that were unique to its dynamic external and internal environment. He also emphasized the growth of IIMK as a major learning center in the country and outlined ambitious future plans for the institute.

Air Chief Marshal (Retd) K C Kariappa, the first speaker of the day started by identifying Environmental Destruction and Terrorism as key factors, which may hinder India’s dream run. To drive his point across, he mentioned examples like PM Manmohan Singh’s idea of converting the Siachen region into a peace park and thus countering both terrorism and the problem of disturbance in the natural symbiosis due to human activity. Air Chief Marshall (Retd) Kariappa also said that the corporate world could play a major role in prevention of environmental destruction and stressed on the need for them to be more active in the area.

The event was also marked by the South India release of “When you are sinking, become a submarine”, a book on winning through wisdom and creativity, by Mr. Pavan Choudary, Star Coach & MD, Vygon India. Saying that there are two types of people in the world – those who care only about the ends (Viles) and the others who care about both the means and the ends (Naives), he explained that the book helps in understanding the working of a Vile’s mind and teaches a Naïve how to handle them.

Mr. Viju Parmeshwar, MD and CEO Freudenberg India, spoke about the rapid economic growth that India was witnessing and India’s increasingly significant role in the world of business. However, he said India was a country of contradictions because even when its economy continues to grow dramatically, it ranks far behind in socio-cultural growth. Emphasizing the need for inclusive growth, he stated methods by which these disparities could be reduced. He concluded by saying that the future rests on the shoulders of the youth of today and their high levels of confidence prove that India is all set to fly.

Day two of Horizons 2006 had as its first speaker, Member of Parliament and Editor, The Pioneer, Dr. Chandan Mitra. Addressing the delegates on the theme, Dr. Chandan Mitra said that the President’s vision of making India a developed nation somehow had faded away. To highlight the limited progress being made on crucial issues like education, health and infrastructure, he contrasted the achievements on various fronts with the set targets. He emphasized on quality governance being the need of the hour in order for the much-needed change to happen. He opined that the judiciary and media should leverage the autonomy and respect they enjoy to direct the actions of government and industry towards national development. Dr. Mitra also stressed upon the need to cultivate a sense of “nation” and pride in Indian culture and outlined the role of school education in the sensitizing youngsters about the same.

Dr. Rajeev Gowda, professor of Economics and Social Sciences at IIM Bangalore talked about the political leadership and vision required to make twenty first century an Indian century. An upcoming Congress leader, he emphasized on constructive steps that individuals and India Inc can take to turn around the political scenario. He stressed upon the fact that a politician needs to be backed by a dedicated team which can help him with raising funds, research, mobilizing people and managing campaigns.

Mr Naresh Ponnapa, CEO, Indecomm Global Services talked about entrepreneurship and its apparent ‘coming of age’ in the India context. Sharing his experiences as a core member of Unilever’s mergers & acquisitions team, he gave insights on what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. “An entrepreneur needs to be competent and score very high on leadership skills. One needs to invest in people and in quality.” He concluded by suggesting entrepreneurs to start young, as he felt that risk taking abilities do come down once one gets married and starts a family.

The gathering today was also addressed by Mr. Elamaram Kareem, Kerala’s Minister of Industries.Elaborating on the rise in Asia’s power and the ‘Chindia’ effect, he explained how India’s relatively large young population was an enviable asset in a graying world. With the rapid depletion of natural resources, especially water, he said, it was imperative to improve the management of such resources. Kerala, he said, had not yet fully engaged in globalization adding that while there was an increasing demand for FDI inflows, local industries must also be revived. He concluded by saying that the frontiers of education must reach and benefit every villager, quoting Mahatma Gandhi’s lines ‘India lives in her villages, not in her towns’.

The seminar ended with an engrossing talk by Dr Swapan Dasgupta, Former Managing Editor of India Today and a Freelance Columnist. He began the talk by going back to the days when India was living a ship-to-mouth existence, with severe shortage of essential items. But those conditions no longer exist, he said, and added that India has definitely become the ‘flavor of the season’. India’s demographic advantage with 60% of our population below 35 will help propel her in the right direction, he said. In his opinion, the biggest drag on India achieving its potential is the Indians tendency to ‘celebrate mediocrity’. The biggest fault lay in the mismatch between Indian aspirations and the political world, which acts as a drag to the country’s progress, said Mr Dasgupta. He concluded that the way forward is for the culture of the political class to change by having better people going into politics.

State Bank of Travancore was the Gold sponsor for the two day event with the other sponsors being Canara Bank, Kerala Builders’ Forum and Wipro e-Peripherals. The print media partner for the event was The Pioneer while the online media partner was Pagalguy.com.

For more details, please visit http://horizons.iimk.ac.in or call 9847943208(Narendra), or 9846570907 (Srivastav).
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Media Cell, IIM Kozhikode, [email protected]