A webinar on ‘Digitalization: A Disrupter or an Enabler’ was conducted by Mr. Feroz Khan, Partner & Head - Digital and Emerging Technologies, KPMG India; Mr. Sandeep Goel, Marketing Head, India/South Asia – Enterprise, Commercial and Partner Ecosystem, IBM and Ms. Shweta Shrivastava, Head of Digital, Philips.
Mr. Feroz Khan talked about what students should learn and what the industry is moving towards. Sharing his views about the topic Mr. Khan averred that in terms of an operating model, digitalization is enabling us and in the business perspective it is a disruptor. He shared that there was a need to know the enablers and reshaping the digitalization to perform the tasks in the coming times. He stated that time has come that where we don’t go to office but carry our work with us and mobilization is a great enabler. He further averred that millennials that comprise of majority of the workforce has a different mindset and organizations need to evolve to engage and involve them. Emerging technologies too are reshaping the world and contributing to the digitalization era and how various digital levers are changing the paradigms of work. Mr. Khan also stressed on the usage of data to create a meaningful insight and use this data to create predictive insights.
Mr. Sandeep Goel averred that digitalization has evolved over a period of time blurring the boundaries between industries. He stated that there was a need to unlock the value of data that is the new natural resource. Infusion of data-enabled services in human lives will be one of the major effects of this pandemic and the need for industries to adapt to use of data for survival. There was a need for skilling ourselves to survive. He stressed on the need for using data with insights for business growth and pairing technology with the right human skills. He also laid emphasis on the need to have soft skills along with knowledge of hard skills in the future times. Mr. Goel also stated that it was important to learn from successes and failures alike.
Ms. Shweta Shrivastava stated that technology is a very important aspect driving digitization and digitalization along with consumer and customer behavior. She said that this era is of digital Darwinism where technology and society evolves so fast that it is difficult to adapt to it by businesses and its employees. Talking about consumers in B2C she averred that they have completely turned to the online medium; the channel share is showing the growth of online players; the need for the online players to open up their B2C stores; how digital has become a focus for all departments looking for digital talent and how consumers are becoming more demanding forcing brands to look at technology to cater to the growing demand. In B2B as well changes have come including increased consumption of digital content through webinars in various fields and rise of influencers on the digital medium. She stated that the coming times will see a rise in the demand for the digital skillsets.
GVC- Everything has to be looked from the IT and IT enabled services in the coming times.
A webinar on ‘Mental well-being in time of COVID’ was conducted by Dr Sameer Malhotra, Chief of Psychiatry, MAX Healthcare who shared that it’s a learning experience conducting such sessions. He shared that mental health includes thoughts, human behavior, emotions and perceptions. Another important aspect is judgement that is the ability to take the right decision in the right time. Orientation and concentration are the parameters of mental health and the mind extends beyond the brain. He averred that if the mind is relaxed and clear, it would reflect in building immunity as well. Dr. Malhotra talked at length about stress and its various causes and the various manifestations of stress including the biological aspect of it as well. He stated that there are two ways of looking at it, positive including drawing opportunity out of it or negative by giving up and shared that there is a parallel mental pandemic going on in the world right now. He talked about the concept of self and the ability to find a solution based approach to tackle stress. He shared that life is not about the destination but it’s about the journey you take and this was the time to look at things we can control and sort them out. He advised students to take care of their sleep and get ample amount of it as it helps in rejuvenation and also in building the immune system. He suggested students to follow the rhythms of the body in sync with the environment.
A lecture by Mr Vishal Chaudhary, Corporate Interface Manager, CLINI India was delivered on Scope in Clinical Research and Associated Domains. He averred that clinical research is a branch of healthcare science that determines the safety and effectiveness of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimes intended for human use. Clinical research is used for the assessment of new drugs; new use of existing drug; use of medical devices; new drug delivery system; vaccines and new surgical procedures. He further shared how India is a favourite destination for clinical research services because of disease diversity; availability of trained manpower; state of art hospitals and IT structure; lower cost; bulk drug formulation and wide range CRO. He also talked about the job opportunities in the field of Clinical Data Management that offers jobs in the role of Data Analyst or Data Specialist; Data Process Associate; Team Leader and Project Manager. Mr. Chaudhary also shared the job opportunities in the fields of Medical Writing and Pharmacovigilance and the critical role played by information technology in clinical research.