Proceedings: The two days event “Convergence 2012 – the 4th Annual International Conference” kick started on 11th Jan 2012 with the Inaugural function solemnized at Hotel Crowne Plaza in Electronic city, Bangalore in the benign presence of World fame Academicians, Industry experts and Corporate Leaders. The event started with lighting of lamp by the Chief guest Padma Vibhushan Dr. M.S. Valiathan, National Research Professor followed by a welcome address by Dr. B.P. Pethiya, Director IFIM Business School.
 

Convergence is a challenge and opportunity to people. In recent years there is a increase in public health in India which has achieved success in health care sector. Three important key aspects in district level committee is recognition, decentralization, integration. Under public private partnership scaling has been started. National medical insurance is less in India. There s a lack of innovative management and management community is ignored. CONVERGENCE would help the people to bring out their thought and also create opportunity for every sector of management”, the Chief Guest said.

“One of the Fastest Growing Economy .India will triple its Infrastructure spend to US$ 1.2 Trillion BY 2015.India will add 250 Million people to her cities by 2020.Aggressive Mechanization of Farm sector (target +4% YOY growth in o/p).GDP growth will attract large investments in Skill based manufacturing” replied the Guest speaker Mr.Manohar ,Director,Demand Chain,SKF India Ltd. when asked Why India Market is attractive?

Guest Speaker Dr. Rafiq Dossani, Professor, Stanford University spoke on CIO’s Challenges, SM(social media) for new & more reliable information ,SMPs that are widely used, especially ESMPs, Cases in which data supported hypothesis, Cases not supporting the hypothesis, CIOs still face significant challenges, therefore, in SMP planning and adoption etc
 

The conference was designed to discuss and deliberate on the service sectors which are fast expanding and gaining centre-stage in Indian Economy such as Retail, Health and Medical Tourism Financial Services, Education.

The Panel discussion on 11th Jan, started off with eminent personalities from the Indian retail industry discussing about the advantages and the disadvantages of allowing unrestrained FDI in the retail sector and come up with a feasible model for the execution of the decision and thus attaining higher economic growth on theme “FDI in Retail: Impact on Indian Economy”. Mr. Bijou Kurien, President, Reliance Retail played a wonderful role being the moderator for the panel consisting of experts from the retail Industry like Mr. Jonathan Yach, CEO, Mantri Square, Bangalore, Mr. Satish Puranam, VP, Max Retail Store, Mr. Shriram Sanjeevi, SBU Head - Lifestyle and Food, Indiaplaza.com and others.

The Healthcare panel discussion, chaired by Dr. Nanda Rajaneesh, Consultant in Gastrointestinal Oncosurgery, VP Medical Services, Nova Medical Center on theme “Healthcare beyond borders- Emergence of Medical Tourism” had debate on Opportunities like India as a favorite medical tourism destination & Concerns of this particular sector which included Ethics and legal issues from country to country, corruption, lack of transparency among the facilitators, lack of health insurance coverage and Standardized policy. Creating “Dualism” – Gap between the rich and the poor, Care and Cure and infection, Over the counter drug sales and, Holistic sync between the political, social and economic plan.

Healthcare going beyond borders is a culmination of science, technology, activism and altruism. Health care is no longer about treatment it is also about prevention and care. Disease is not limited to rich developed countries alone; in fact poor developing countries suffer from larger number of health care issues due to various socio economic factors, said Dr. Nanda Rajaneesh.
 

The second day 12th Jan 2012 started with much awaited discussion on Indian Education Sector – “Challenges and Opportunities ahead” chaired by Prof. R S Nirjar, Executive Chairman, IFIM Business School Bangalore.

Panel Discussion Experts included Prof. Joe Phillip, President, XIME, Bangalore, Prof. S Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, Prof Chandra Bhushan Sharma, Professor of Education, School of Education, School of Education, IGNOU, New Delhi, and Dr. M Chandrashekar, Dean, M S Ramaiah Institute of Management.

The Paper presentation in the education sector included Opportunities and Challenges in Education sector, New educational practices at IT-BPO services, FDI in Education, Role of foreign entrants in education sector, Impact of various training models at various sector, E-learning Management ,Educational issues in rural development, Innovative teaching methodology etc.

“Management Strategies in the Financial Services- A critical review” was the theme of Financial services panel which was chaired Mr. Sunil Damania - Editor of Dalal Street Investment Journal.
 

This Panel Discussion had eminent people like Prof. Prasanna Chandra. Director, CFM, Bangalore, Mr. Natarajan, Managing Director and CFO, Helion Venture Partners Pvt. Ltd, Mr. Deven Choksey, CEO K R Choksey Securities, Mr. Ambareesh Baliga, COO, Way2Wealth, Mr Anil Saxena - Group CFO Religare Enterprises, Mr. Muthu Kumar, M.D, Standard chartered and critically evaluated the relative resilience shown by the Indian economy and also aspects like management strategies adopted by the BFSI sector, role of foreign players and regulators, current approach to identify investment opportunities such as Financial depth from industry , Need for a single master regulator, Potential for financial product innovation which lead assurance of minimum returns to retail investors. On the other hand an interesting debate on the concerns such as Lack of financial Literacy – investor, Equity market to be made less risky, the corporate investors being very conservative.

Last but not the least was the valedictory function and thanks speech by Dr. Kavita Mathad, and Dr. M R Gopalan, Director Research. Convergence 2012 was an event of its own covered by highly reputed print and electronic media houses, a remarkable event and was a great success as commented by most of the delegates present during these 02 days.