Jammu: It was perfect ambiance and occasion too that probably had brought out "teacher”, hidden inside the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at the sixth annual convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Jammu on Friday.
In his close to 20-minute address, he, as the guest of honour shared tips on “managerial skills” with the outgoing students beside others in the gathering.
While extending his good wishes to the outgoing students, LG Sinha stated, “If I use “marketing” vocabulary, then brand recall value and brand repositioning have a great significance. In this backdrop, I’m convinced that IIM Jammu has a great brand value and it will help you a great deal. In your final year syllabus, there is a complete module on IT systems and Data Analytics. That is why I am asking about the role of (business) leaders in the fast-changing world. How will they transform the world with the perfect collaboration of digital tools and bring a turnaround in nation building? I passed out from BHU (IIT). But in the tech-scape of those days, there was no trace of Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
But there were possibilities (of AI), he said. How? To explain this, he quoted from Atharva Veda. This was his way to offer some tips to students as “management teacher” to excel by focussing on three key elements “curiosity”, “knowledge” and “Karma (action)” – which also underline India’s old “knowledge society”, all aimed at all-inclusive development, empowerment and a collective goal to achieve.
Effusively praising the “most tech-savvy” Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making out efforts to empower youth and inspire them to innovate and lead, LG Sinha also referred to his (PM’s) meeting with ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman on June 9 and his (PM’s) tweet welcoming “AI” technology and collaborations which would empower citizens of India.
Lieutenant Governor also reminded the students of the story of “Kodak camera” and “negative film.” He talked about Amazon’s stores in the US, operating without any human intervention; mentioned Cairo businessman’s “face-less and cash-less” store and even narrated about the steel-diplomacy of Porus to win Alexander’s friendship.
As he went on…with a splash of managerial tips and takes on cautious use of AI for the welfare of mankind while promoting business avenues, he was sounding like a “Management Guru”, who even talked about Hollywood movie “it’s a wonderful life” to elucidate his points.
Yet another important tip from LG Sinha was – intuition, inner-conscience are stronger than any algorithm (even Artificial Intelligence).
As he wrapped up, the Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, another guest of honour, too followed suit. “I wish I were a student! We were the prisoners of aspirations, you are not. For you the sky's the limit and everything is at your disposal. It’s just a game of ideas,” Dr Jitendra said. He profusely quoted his interactions with young, aspiring entrepreneurs running innovative start-ups, including a teenager (girl) from Sopore who qualified for IIT.
“My predicament is – that I’m called to address as a chief guest or guest of honour so there will be limitations. I hope they (IIM) will conduct an interactive session,” a teacher-enthusiast Dr Jitendra remarked.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was the chief guest, listened to them, in rapt attention.
Impressed as he was with the duo’s managerial skills, he threw prickly posers to the teachers of IIM.
“Professor(s) Sahib, have you ever thought of inviting LG (Manoj Sinha) Sahab to conduct management's True Credit points class? Have you ever thought to invite Dr Jitendra to run class on 'True Credit Points'? I'm talking about both of them (LG Sinha and Dr Jitendra). Both are my good friends, esteemed colleagues and big brothers and they have taken crucial decisions and managed them efficiently. Both have an enviable record of managing crisis situations in the last two years,” Pradhan said.
“During the pandemic, Dr Jitendra, as MoS PMO, helped in managing COVID, which had emerged as a national crisis, by becoming an integral part of the (COVID) management team, in an exemplary way," Pradhan said.
“Had my (outgoing) students of IIM spent six hours - attending one-hour class for six days with him (Dr Jitendra), they would have taken along a lifelong experience. That would have helped them a great deal," he said.
Referring to enviable managerial skills of LG Sinha, Pradhan said, "We (central government) abrogated Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Soon it will be four years. Hardly six or eight months after abrogation, Manoj Sinhaji reached here (in J&K as the Lieutenant Governor). Just imagine, a whopping Rs 1.50 lakh crore capital expenditure is being spent to build bridges, roads, different institutions and other infrastructure (under his leadership). Can you find any big professor (of management other than him)?" he again turned to the Chairman Board of Governors, IIM, Jammu Dr Milind Pralhad Kamble and the Director IIM Prof B S Sahay.
