VINC 2020

The two day International Conference on Sustainability, Governance, and Responsibility explored the convergence of all three mega trends towards the achievement of larger social goals. The conference witnessed the presence of many eminent dignitaries from academia and corporate as well as research scholars and faculty members who presented their research papers.

The report of this two-day event in the order of the way the sessions were held: –

Day 1 – Pre Lunch

INAUGURAL SESSION

“The inaugural session witnessed the presence of Professor K.K. Aggarwal as the Chief Guest. The session began with a warm welcome address by Prof. I.M. Pandey, Conference Chair. Prof. Pandey expressed his thoughts about dissimilarities and interrelatedness between the three themes. He also emphasized that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be met by sustainable consumption, which, should be embraced at international, national, government, corporate as well as individual level. Prof. K. K. Aggarwal, Chairman of NBA, and Founder Vice-Chancellor, GGSIPU, Delhi gave a multifaceted perspective by relating it to services like higher education and technology concepts like reliability. He further stated how sustainability wasn’t a separate discipline as self-sustainability was imbibed in our culture for decades.

The inaugural session concluded with the release of the conference proceedings published by Sun India Publishers which contained the outstanding contribution of various scholars, academicians and professionals. Prof. Rattan Sharma, Conference Co-Chair extended thanks to the Chief Guest and highlighted the significance of convergence of science and humanities in the education system.

PLENARY SESSION 1

Five eminent speakers at the Plenary Session 1 shared their experiences and views on the conference theme.

    • 1. Prof. Asad Mohsin, Associate Professor, University of Waikato, New Zealand talked about relevance of marketing services to the ageing population along with the challenges emerging due to ageing population in reference to healthcare systems, tourism and recreation. He also elucidated the conservative and brand loyal nature of baby boomers in contrast with the consumer behaviour of the millennials. He concluded his address by elaborating the impact of culture on services.

    • 2. Prof. Saudamini Das, NABARD Chair Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, provided an inclusive perspective on sustainability by delving deep into its concepts. She shared her wisdom on Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Millennial Development Goals (MDG). She also explained the 3 components of sustainability which lead to a sustainable growth model: Environment, Social and Economic components. Lastly, she emphasized on the relevance of Green Accounting and its elements.

    • 3. Dr. S K Gupta, MD & CEO, Insolvency Professional Agency of The Institute of Cost Accountants of India primarily focused on business models and sustainability. He asserts how Sustainable Production and Consumption are imperative for Sustainable Development. He also suggested practicing disclosure of sustainable relations, risk management, culture, oversight and CEO relation.

    • 4. Prof. J K Garg, Department of Natural Resources, TERI focused his talks on Sustainable Development. He further suggested Action and Education are the two main elements through which SDGs are attainable. He explained the hazardous effects of non-vegetarian food, environment pollution and land degradation. Prof Garg also asserted the use of advance satellite system for conserving the integrity of the ecosystem. He presented case studies of some companies operating on landmark business models like Calera, Puma, Dew Chemicals and Dutch baby stroller company Joolz.

    • 5. Prof. Anil Kumar, Associate Professor, SRCC, University of Delhi reviewed the fundamental principles of CSR and explained how a company is not just shareholders’ entity but stakeholders’ entity. He emphasized on corporates’ active involvement in societal upliftment while bringing up government’s limitations. He lastly emphasized on adapting a sustainable means to gain profit in place of contributing a proportion of profits.

Day 1 : Post lunch – PLENARY SESSION 2

    • 1.Mr. Rajeev Williams, Corporate Head (CSR), Jindal Stainless Ltd. Group shared his views on the future and most desirable approach for corporate social responsibility. He opined that corporates are consuming the resources of society so it becomes their responsibility to build relationship with the society. He believes that profit making companies should invest those profits back into the society to foster growth and building relationship. Earlier, the organisations used to follow CWP approach (Charity, Welfare, and Philanthropy) which didn’t help in strengthening relationship with the society. Mr Williams demonstrated some of OP Jindal Group’s CSR projects such as Agriculture Project, Educational Training & Sports, Women Empowerment and Entrepreneurship, Integrated Health, Environment and Stain Less Roads.

    • 2. Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Jha, DY GM, CSR, J K Lakshmi Cement began his presentation by illustrating the concept of sustainability through a case study of a Hydro Power Project of 900W in Nepal. He also emphasised on developing and implementing a stakeholders’ engagement plan by JK Lakshmi Organisation along with a culturally appropriate and customized GMS (Grievance Management System).

    • 3.Mr. Parthasarathi Changdar, Lead CSR at AkzoNobel India reiterated the significance of CSR by companies and shared insights into the mechanisms adopted by his company. He shared light on variousprojects through which his company took adequate care that it was not causing damage to the society.

Day 2 : Pre Lunch – Technical sessions
Out of 80 papers submitted for the conference, extended abstract of 63 papers were published in the conference proceedings. 30 papers were presented in five technical sessions.

    • Technical Session I: HR Practices and Sustainability chaired by Prof. Punam Sahgal, IIM Lucknow. 5 papers were presented.

    • Technical Session II: Paradigms of Marketing for Sustainable Growth chaired by Dr. H K Dangi, Department of Commerce, University of Delhi. 6 papers were presented.

    • Technical Session III: CSR and Sustainable Practices chaired by Dr. Shyamli Singh, Indian Institute of Public Administration. 9 papers were presented.

    • Technical Session IV: Sustainability with a Financial Perspective chaired by Prof. Pankaj Kumar Gupta, Centre for Management Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia University had 6 paper presenters.

    • Technical Session V: Sustainability in Digitalization, New Technologies and Operations chaired by Dr. Subodh Kesharwani, School of Management Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) had 4 paper presenters.

The papers were evaluated on the criteria of Originality, Significance, Research Methodology adopted and Presentation by the author.

Day 2 : Pre Lunch – Technical sessions
Out of 80 papers submitted for the conference, extended abstract of 63 papers were published in the conference proceedings. 30 papers were presented in five technical sessions.

    • Technical Session I: HR Practices and Sustainability chaired by Prof. Punam Sahgal, IIM Lucknow. 5 papers were presented.

    • Technical Session II: Paradigms of Marketing for Sustainable Growth chaired by Dr. H K Dangi, Department of Commerce, University of Delhi. 6 papers were presented.

    • Technical Session III: CSR and Sustainable Practices chaired by Dr. Shyamli Singh, Indian Institute of Public Administration. 9 papers were presented.

    • Technical Session IV: Sustainability with a Financial Perspective chaired by Prof. Pankaj Kumar Gupta, Centre for Management Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia University had 6 paper presenters.

    • Technical Session V: Sustainability in Digitalization, New Technologies and Operations chaired by Dr. Subodh Kesharwani, School of Management Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) had 4 paper presenters.

The papers were evaluated on the criteria of Originality, Significance, Research Methodology adopted and Presentation by the author.

Day 2 : Pre Lunch – Technical sessions
Valedictory address was given by Dr. Rajendra P. Srivastava, Professor Emeritus Accounting and Information Systems, KU
School of Business, Lawrence, KS.

Prof. Srivastava touched a new area of research by beautifully relating text mining and textual analysis to corporate governance issues like CEO duality, independence of board, financial expertise of the board to name a few. This can be of help especially for policy makers and regulators all over the world to avoid corporate frauds and failures. Prof. Srivastava threw light on various readability indices and shared examples of various well known companies like Satyam, Wipro and Enrons. Lastly he concluded by emphasising on KIC (Knowledge, Imagination, and Creativity) for conducting future researches.

AWARDS – PRIZE DISTRIBUTION

Five awards were given for best papers in each technical session and first, second and third best paper presented at the conference.

Technical Session 1: HR Practices and Sustainability. Best Paper “Combining Mindfulness and EFT: A Novel Approach to Stress Management” by Ms. Elixir Sagar and Dr. Shikha N. Khera.

Technical Session II: Paradigms of Marketing for Sustainable Growth. Best Paper “Consumer Buying Intentions For Electric Cars: Is Green More Important Than Price And Accessibility?” by Prof. Vijay Kumar and Ms.Pallavi Khurana.

Technical Session III: CSR and Sustainable Practices. Best Paper “Understanding Sustainability Consciousness Through Mindfulness: A Study of Youth Studying in Colleges of Delhi NCR” by Ms. Parul Manchanda and Dr.Deepti Prakash.

Technical Session IV: Sustainability with a Financial Perspective. Best Paper “Analysing the Impact of Personal Traits of Credit Assessors’ on Credit Risk Assessment, by Dr. Sandeepa Kaur.

Technical Session V: Sustainability in Digitalization, New Technologies and Operations. Best Paper “Operations – Based Classification of Bullwhip Effect” by Prof. Anurag Saxena and Mr. Sachin Gupta.

Third Best Paper Award – “Operations – Based Classification of Bullwhip Effect” by Prof. Anurag Saxena and Mr. Sachin Gupta.

Second Best Paper Award – “Consumer Buying Intentions For Electric Cars: Is Green More Important Than Price And Accessibility?” by Prof. Vijay Kumar and Ms. Pallavi Khurana.

First Best Paper Award – “Analysing the Impact of Personal Traits of Credit Assessors’ on Credit Risk Assessment, by Dr. Sandeepa Kaur.

Mementoes and Certificates were presented to the Conference Team and Student Coordinators. The session was concluded by extending sincere thanks to Prof. Srivastava, Prof. Pandey and Dr. Bhardwaj on behalf of the conference team by Ms. Tanu Sachdeva, Conference Secretary.

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