Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM), Gurgaon hosted its first international conference, “International Perspectives in Economics & Management for Sustainability”, a 3-day event participated by around 75 world-renowned researchers and representatives from the industry as well as the Government .
The conference was formally inaugurated on Dec 20 by Prof. Leila Dagher, Director of the Institute of Financial Economics at the American University of Beirut, and a renowned researcher in the areas of energy, environmental, and financial economics. The inaugural session was preceded by a keynote address by Dr. Amol Phadke, a Staff Scientist in the Electricity Markets and Policy Department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Senior Scientist at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California. Dr Phadke highlighted the urgent need for the energy sector, currently responsible for worldwide CO2 emissions of 30 giga tonnes per year, to radically transform itself, and spoke about a range of opportunities that exist in the energy, transport, and power sectors, in terms of exchanging conventional energy sources with clean energy: electric vehicles in place of internal combustion engines, solar / wind power to replace coal, etc. Subsequently, Mr. Mohan Lakhamraju, Chairman of GLIM, during his address, formally announced the launch of a Center of Excellence in Sustainability at GLIM Gurgaon. Dr Debashish Sanyal, Director GLIM Gurgaon took the audience through a journey of various achievements and accolades of GLIM Gurgaon, despite being one of the youngest business schools in the country. Dr. Sanyal also announced that in a year’s time, the next international conference on Sustainability would be hosted by GLIM Gurgaon. During her inaugural address, Prof Leila Dagher presented interesting insights gleaned from her research work: relating to possibilities of providing green power to individual households, and predictions of global oil prices in the context of financial shocks, especially in Asian markets.
A second track in the conference comprised 19 paper presentations by researchers across the country, on four themes – Economics, Finance, Marketing & HR, and Analytics. Each track concluded with a “Best Paper” award by the Session chairs in their respective themes. Mr Rahul Kumar (“CSR – not a substitute for ESG”), Dr Sneha (“Impact of COVID-19 on government workers in India”, Mr Sanjeev Kumar (“Interconnectivity and Investment Strategies among commodity prices”) and Nikhita Tuli and Harish Kumar (“Demystifying the engagement process: A BOP perspective towards social media app engagements”) were the recipients of the Best Paper awards.
A Fireside chat with Journal editors Prof. Justin Paul, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Consumer Studies and a Professor at the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, and Prof. Aviral Tiwari, faculty at IIM Bodh Gaya, and Associate Editor of Energy Economics journal, with Prof Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay of GLIM Gurgaon discussed how students and researchers should build up their skills and competencies to publish in renowned, peer reviewed journals, and improve their academic credentials.
The conference ended with an industry-focused panel discussion titled, “Environmental Efficiencies through Sustainable Practices”, with participants from the corporate sector, not-for profit sector as well as government of India. Panelists included Dr Manoranjan Mohanty from the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India, Ms Upali Nag from Group M (Motivator) and Mr Akash Sharma of economic think tank CUTS International who shared their insights into specific interventions being taken by them to take forward the mandate of sustainability across their spheres of influence. The panel, chaired by Prof Sanghamitra Bhattacharyya of GLIM Gurgaon also deliberated on ways in which various stakeholders can synergistically work together to collectively contribute to India’s sustainability goals and commitments.
With this conference, GLIM has signaled its intent to emerge as a leading academic and research institute in the sphere of “Sustainable business practices” and offer to industry not only competent and environmentally responsible management professionals but also intellectual capital in all spheres of sustainability.
