14th July, 2014, Kolkata: The third edition of the annual post-budget analysis session, Budget Plus 3.0, was organized at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Kolkata. The esteemed discussion panel included Dr. Ranajoy Bhattacharyya, Professor of Economics, IIFT; Dr. Saikat Sinha Roy, Associate Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University; Mr. Akash Mansinka, Manager-Tax and Regulatory Services, EY and Mr. Pankaj Agarwal, Manager-Indirect Tax, EY. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Bibek Ray Chaudhuri, Assistant Professor of Economics, IIFT. 

Dr. K. Rangarajan, Professor of Strategy and Centre Head, IIFT Kolkata welcomed all dignitaries and stated how the budget is indicative of the direction of the Indian economy. He added that IIFT has invited academicians, faculty and industry experts to have a diverse discussion on the budget. 

Members of InFINeeti, the quarterly finance and business magazine, IIFT gave an enlightening presentation on the key highlights of the budget. It was a succinct overview, throwing light on the various schemes and initiatives taken by the Government. Dr. Chaudhuri started the proceedings and spoke on how he looked forward to the economy getting back on track with “higher growth, stable inflation and prudent policy system”, although the double-digit Consumer Price Index was still a major concern. 

Dr. Saikat Sinha Roy stated the economy has not been performing well for the past few years. The trust of the investors in the economy needs to be restored. According to him, the budget “is a document of intent”. The current government manifesto included the need for an overhaul of infrastructure. Conception of ‘100 smart cities’ is a step in this direction. According to him, the implementation of the flagship scheme of the previous government, MNREGA, needs to be relooked. 

Mr. Akash Mansinka discussed about direct tax and said that subsidies should be phased out “for the Indian economy to compete with other economies”. Although the current government is perceived to be industry friendly, yet retrospective taxes have not been removed. Mr. Pankaj Agarwal spoke on indirect taxes and enlightened the gathering on how Service Tax, though introduced only in 1994, garners the highest tax revenues for the Government. He also pointed out the initiatives taken to incentivize the use of renewable energy resources. 

Dr. Ranajoy Bhattacharyya took a different stance from the other panelists and remarked the Government had missed the huge opportunity. Having been elected with an overwhelming mandate, it was time to take few hard measures. According to him, the budget was “pure eyewash”. He questioned the transparency of the Government and its attempt to “surreptitiously reduce expenditure behind the scenes”, referring to the reduction in the expenditure in Agriculture, Rural Development and Social Sector. 

Dr. Chaudhari succinctly summarized key points of each speaker and connected them in context of the entire discussion. After all speakers had spoken, the floor was thrown open to the audience which comprised of students from IIFT. 

The soon-to-be-managers proved to be able listeners and had various questions ranging from the duration of the long term capital gains to increase in FDI in the defence sector. Panelists stated that such an increase would not have a significant impact due to the highly capital intensive nature of the industry. 

The discussion was concluded with the consensus that the budget did fall short of certain expectations but it presents an optimistic state of the economy. The impact of the budget can be fully gauged when we meet next year for Budget Plus 4.0!

By Mohd Zeeshan

Taj Bengal, Kolkata

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade has been a pioneer institute in the field of management education In India over the last fifty years. One reason for that has been successful national conclaves and symposia organized by the institute. After the hugely popular National Trade Symposium in 2012, IIFT Kolkata organized the National IT Conclave on 7th September, 2013 in association with the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council. The theme of the event was ‘Paradigm shift in the Global IT industry’ and eminent speakers ranging from government officials to honored academicians to senior corporate managers graced the occasion with their presence. The chief guest for the day was Dr. Chandan Chowdhury (MD India, Dassault Systemes).

The conclave was divided into four sessions, broadly - consulting, operations, e-commerce and HR apart from an inaugural session where the topic was introduced. Proceedings were started by the Centre Head – Dr. K. Rangarajan – who welcomed the guests and spoke about the growing importance of IT in today’s world while stressing on its importance to the MSME sector and subsequently India’s global growth. Dr. Chandan Chowdhury then spoke at length about the changing face of IT and its innovation driving capabilities. From the perspective of Dassault Systemes, he showcased how IT has transformed the workings and processes of sectors as diverse as automobile manufacturing, urban planning, life sciences and homeland security to name a few. The effect of advent of technologies like augmented reality, virtual modeling, fuzzy logic etc. in increasing profitability and efficiency by streamlining the prototype development processes was highlighted. Mr. Sanjeev Nandwani – Development Commissioner, FALTA SEZ, provided a government perspective. He gave an overview about the shift in IT from being a support industry initially to a solutions and consulting approach while underlining the fact that IT is today the prime employer –directly or indirectly in the urban sector while also being India’s biggest and most valued exports to the US/European markets. The session was rounded off by Mr. S. Radhakrishnan , CMD, Descon delivered a thought provoking speech on how the power sector was leveraging IT and also outlined the challenges faced by the IT industry going forward, such as employee attrition, business process transformation, how best to utilize and adapt to SMAC – Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud stacking technology.

Session 1: Consulting

The session on Consulting was thought provoking as it gave a perspective on how India, a traditional IT hub can be a consulting destination. Mr. Samrat Sen, Director, Cognizant Business Consulting enlightened the audience on the current challenges and trends facing the consulting industry. Mr. Arijit Chakraborty, Director, PwC, began with a heartening topic: “The Decade That Belonged to India”. He mentioned the current progression of IT will lead to the future of “Ubiquitous Consulting: A concept where computers are made to appear anywhere and everywhere”. Mr. Kaustav Ghosh, Advisor, KPMG, provided an informative session and drove the point on thought leadership and how it can transform the IT landscape. After the engaging session, there was a Q&A round which provided a platform for students to interact with these stalwarts from the consulting industry.

Session 2: Manufacturing

The sector which forms the backbone of any economy, Manufacturing was the next topic of deliberation. Mr. Barun Lala, Director, HP mesmerized the audience with his knowledge and spoke on integration of IT across various other industries. He spoke on IT being underutilized in retail by quoting an example of Walmart where all items are RFID tagged. Mr. Akhil Agrawal, COO, Interglobe Technologies gave insightful examples to relate IT to manufacturing and services industry. He brought a new perspective by speaking on SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud) enabling innovation in manufacturing. Mr. Dharmendra Kapoor, VP, HCL Technologies gave a brilliant example of thinking out of the box in the Indian context. He succinctly drove the need for differentiation in the manufacturing policy of companies. Mr. Kapoor’s quote “Put Technology to Lead Business Innovation” formed the essence of the session. Mr. P.K. Biswas, an industry veteran of 30 years and Chief (IT), NHPC spoke on his personal experience of how IT had transformed the power sector. He provided key insights on ground-level realities and opportunities in the IT sector. The session followed a deluge of questions from students which were answered wonderfully by all panelists.

Session 3: E-Commerce

Another major topic of discussion was E-Commerce, a sector which has seen powerful growth in the last few years and promises to be an exciting domain in the future. Given the rapidly increasing rates of internet penetration and a largely untapped rural population, E-Commerce holds a promising future in India. Speakers for the session represented prominent names from the industry. Mr. Amit Sharma from Amazon Web Services discussed how Cloud Computing and Big Data would change the future of this domain. Technologies like Hadoop hold the key to better tracking of customers. He also discussed the importance of Fraud Management in an effort to increase the trust level of buyers. Another important topic discussed in this session was the stark difference in advertising levels in Indian and international companies. While a global player like Amazon spends 3% of its revenues on advertising the corresponding figure for an Indian company like Flipkart is around 20%. Mr. Rishen Kumar Mukherjee, Consultant and advisor to select organizations including CESC brought about a different perspective to the discussion. He raised widely shared concerns about the lack of internet penetration, high cost of customer acquisition and the small e–tailing market. He also questioned the absence of big players from this segment given its supposed growing popularity. IIFT alumnus Mr. Soumya Upadhyay, CEO, Workshop9 discussed his plans to launch a virtual incubator for better collaboration with customers for E-Commerce companies.

Session 4: Human Resources

Last, but not the least was the session on Human Resources. Mr. Dependra Mathur, C&B Head, Infosys BPO, inspired the students to consider careers in HR, by bringing out the importance that an HR professional plays in IT and the role transformation from being a ‘people manager’ to a ‘change manager’. The relevance of the same was further developed by Mr. Rohit Kapoor, HR Head, Dassault Systemes in his impassionate speech that, while advocating technology, also reinforced the importance of a human touch. It certainly cleared many misconceptions that people may have held about HR professionals. Ms. Atreyi Banerjee of Tech Mahindra highlighted the challenges that IT faces in integrating itself with changing technology- in particular the blurring of lines between the workplace and personal life and the resulting flexibility an organization must incorporate to smoothly manage the transition. Mr. Ayan Pal of IBM finally concluded the session with an entertaining and interactive presentation that showcased how social platforms could be leveraged to formulate innovative HR policies that empowered employees to unlock their creativity and potential.

Interaction among students and industry honchos didn’t end after the sessions and continued with informal discussion. The National IT Conclave was a grand success and the presence of eminent personalities from the industry showcased the brand appeal enjoyed by IIFT in the corporate sector. The event was a great success both in terms of the quality of knowledge shared with the budding managers and in terms of the participation by dignitaries from the corporate sector. The conclave also bears testimony to the rising popularity of the institute and it bodes well for the students who will be joining different sectors of corporate India in the years to come.

As Indian Institute of Foreign Trade entered its golden jubilee year, bi-annual conference on Empirical Issues in International Trade and Finance (EIITF) was held at IIFT Kolkata, which opened the planned series of events for the year. This conference was the third in series which was initially launched in 2008 at IIFT, Kolkata campus and is conducted alternatively in Delhi and Kolkata since then.

With the progress of globalization, a large part of trade and financial transactions now involve cross border flow. The theme of the conference revolved around understanding the intricacies of these flows for trade and financial transactions and its benefit for organizations as well as countries. There were lectures and technical sessions on Gravity model of trade which has recently completed its 50 years of use. The topic of Micro finance as a tool to address the financial requirements was touched upon as well.

The theme of EIITF was in sync with the rapid progress of globalization of the world and increased interest of researchers in the field. The main aim of this conference, which was to bring the scholars together working in this field so that they can exchange knowledge and gain from each other’s experience, was achieved.

The conference was inaugurated by Dr. C.Rangarajan, Chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Jeffrey H. Bergstrand, Professor in University of Notre Dameand Maitreesh Ghatak, Professor of London School of economics addressed the audience as special key note speakers.

The conference was then taken forward by faculty from various esteemed institutes across world as well as eminent personalities from industry. The sessions revolved around trade and development, finance, trade theories, stock market returns and India’s performance with special emphasis on international aspect. Discussions were enriched by industry insights from experts like Ganesha Wignaraja, Asian Development Bank, Jaijit Bhattacharya, Director-Government Affairs, Hewlett – Packard India Sales Pvt. Ltd and Renu S Parmar, Advisor, Planning Commission.