Media Release

Mangaluru, Jul 23: The School of Management hosted the first online National Conference on Convergence of Management Practices in the Era of Industry 4.0 on July 22 and 23 under the guidance and encouragement of its director Prof Karanam Uma Maheshwar Rao.

There is an impending need in this era of Industry 4.0 to understand the convergence of the management practices in various functional areas of management to support the rapidly changing needs of the transformed business environment.

From its inception, the conference received an overwhelming response from premier educational institutions all over India including the IIMs, NITs, and the Manipal Group to name a few. The papers received were subject to a double-blind peer review and over 30 papers of quality were selected to be presented orally at the conference. The technical tracks of the conference are scheduled to be paralleled.

The inaugural session of the conference was presided over by Prof Pandurang Vittal, dean AA and IR, NITK Surathkal. In his speech, Prof Vittal opined that the pandemic had paved the way for advancements in education technology Dr S Pavan Kumar, head, School of Management, NITK Surathkal, welcomed the gathering. Organizing secretaries, Dr Bijuna C Mohan briefed about the conference and Dr Savita Bhat proposed the vote of thanks. The inaugural session was followed by the keynote sessions. The conference was graced by the august presence of three eminent personalities as keynote speakers. Dr Rashmi Uchil, Dr Suprabha K R and Dr Ritanjali, Majhi introduced the keynote speakers.

Prof Anandakuttan Unnittan, professor and dean Academic Affairs and Development, IIM Kozhikode spoke about Masstige Marketing and its relevance.

Murali Lakshmi Narasimhan, senior director- Technical at Seimens Industry Software enlightened the audience about digitalization driving Industry 4.0. Biju Balendran, MD and CEO, Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd spoke about managing an automotive plant in industry 4.0 Era.

Dr Bijuna C Mohan, Dr Savita Bhat, Dr Rashmi Uchil, Dr Suprabha K R and Dr Ritanjali Majhi from School of Management, NITK Surathkal coordinated the conference. Deeksha Shetty, a research scholar from the School of Management, NITK Surathkal compered the inaugural session.