Technology remains at the Forefront During & After COVID-19

No.PR-225 August 25, 2020 New Delhi Technology remains at the Forefront During & After COVID-19 As Covid-19 continues to disrupt the world economy threatening lives and livelihood of people across the globe and raises a number of unique challenges for industry, PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PHDCCI) organized third in the series, Webinar on “Leadership in Challenging Times” here today where business leaders deliberated on how to handle the current challenges facing different industry verticals and also shared best practices they have adopted for employee safety and business continuity. The speakers analyzed how the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered digital acceleration and the role that it will play in rebounding and building resilience in a fluid and evolving environment. Speakers also observed that it was clear that all sectors will have to work together to face the challenge posed by covid-19. It was mentioned that significant changes were required for navigating through the current situation and that it is important to focus on the guidance that is actionable for developing future plans. Earlier, welcoming the speakers and participants, Mr. Karan Gilhotra, Chair, Punjab State Chapter, PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that all businesses are facing challenges and require guidance from industry experts, hence conducting the webinar series to hear and benefit from the insightful thoughts of the leaders. Addressing the Video Conference, Mr. Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor, Chandigarh University said that currently the world is going through challenging times due to COVID-19 crisis which has resulted into massive job losses or salary cuts across the sectors which has also put an impact on education of the children. He added that the pandemic has put lot of psychological pressure on people but this difficult time also presents an opportunity to entrepreneurs to show their leadership skills. He said that to succeed a person should learn from his failures. He informed that to boost the confidence of his team, his university leveraged technology, started work from home system and initiated the culture of self monitoring. He further mentioned that their university launched a campaign for distributing food, sanitizers etc among the needy which helped in motivating and boosting the confidence of his staff. Welcoming the new education policy, Mr. Sandhu said that education in mother tongue will boost original thinking. He lamented that until now the country’s education system worked on ideas borrowed from other countries. He said that original ideas are important for human development and progress of the country. He stressed that the whole society will have to bring about revolution as the Government alone cannot bring about change. He exhorted the business fraternity to adopt value system and ethics in their working. He said that our country can make great progress if the CSR funds of companies are sincerely utilized for research and empowerment of people. He strongly advocated industry-academia interface for proper skilling of students and producing employable workforce. He said that for this purpose, industries should connect with the universities. He informed that Chandigarh University is running Incubation Centre for supporting new entrepreneurs and startups. According to Mr. Ankit Kedia, MD, Caremont the post covid-19 leadership will be data and empathy backed as while preparing business plans, businesses will always take into consideration ways to face challenges that have been thrown up by the present pandemic. He added that while innovation is important but there is no harm in importing technology and indigenizing the same as this serves as a catalyst and adds to the confidence of entrepreneurs. Thanking the speakers and participants, Mr. R S Sachdeva, Mentor, Punjab State Chapter, PHDCCI said that innovation and its patenting is very important. He informed that PHDCCI has set up a PHD Intellectual Property Facilitation Right Centre at Amritsar which will help entrepreneurs to patent their innovations. Ends Media Division PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry