Deep Tech
August 16, 2021
The COVID19 pandemic has led to many economic upheavals. At the moment, the Indian economy is contracting. This is impacting how finance professionals are planning their careers and future.
The current economic condition doesn’t look encouraging. Dr. Tirthankar Patnaik, Chief Economist at the National Stock Exchange of India, averred that the current economic plunge is probably the worst since the World Wars happened. “Even in World War 2, when the economy fell, only some countries were involved. But today, in this crisis, 93 percent of all global countries are involved. It is a very pervasive negative phenomenon. That explains the unprecedented solutions that the Central Bank has proposed now.” Economists are wavering between -10 to -16 percent of the negative economic outlook. Yet, it is probably the worse that we have seen in India’s independent history, and perhaps the worst we will see in a very long time, he added.
Many interpretations and prognosis-points were unraveled in this very candid discussion where minds of all stripes–from stock-market experts to professors and skill-developers had corralled. That led to many first-hand insights and some strong objective analysis. For instance, while the economy is struggling, technology-reach and digital-economy have sped up. Dr. Patnaik told why he is excited about technology’s impact. He cited how Internet-based trading is elbowing out institutional trading.
“I also see digital currencies as an interesting phenomenon. The extent of transactions that happen in a cashless way has significantly picked up. People are embracing digitization in a big way, even as some are thinking of going insular and in concentrated supply chains. The extent of interactions among people globally has seen a quantum jump. The world is getting globalized even more.” – Dr. Tirthankar Patnaik, Chief Economist, National Stock Exchange of India
Helping to understand the GST impact and political ramifications of this upheaval, Dr. Partha Ray, Professor, IIM Calcutta, also chimed in with his acute observations. Dr. Ray then noted how the global economy and digital money (GEDM) programme is apt for finance professionals to stay abreast of such developments?
“The global economy can get a rebound. One major trigger for this can come from a broader digital question. That’s when we thought of offering a specific programme integrating two critical areas–global economy and digital money. It’s the mixture of the sublime and the mundane. A lot of people can join in. The programme has an interesting arc from fundamentals to modules like Game Theory, Market Failures, Externalities, Macroeconomics in the Post-pandemic world along with facets like trade, foreign investment, Sovereign Debt, etc.” – Dr. Partha Ray, Professor, IIM Calcutta
To spend or not to spend–is the big question the world over, Dr. Ray stressed. He further added, “At the end of the day, money is an act of faith. It is a construct of civilization. So we need to understand the nature of money and trends of globalization in the post-pandemic world. We also cover new areas like cryptography, Blockchain, platform economy, and various topologies, money as a utility, and the poly-centric order. This spans the entire gamut from centralization to decentralization.”
The IIM-C and Talentsprint’s GEDM programme has six modules designed for current trends, and a Capstone project follows them.
Fight or flee
Dr. Santanu Paul, CEO, and MD, TalentSprint, who steered this discussion, also shared his perspectives.
“Digital commerce is replacing traditional retail in many ways. The Covid effect on automation, social distancing, etc. will help this trend even more. In many ways, there is a new form of state challenging the state–like the most powerful person in the US, as some believe, is not Trump but Zuckerberg.” – Dr. Santanu Paul, CEO and MD, TalentSprint
Paul explained how the program on GEDM is relevant in the current landscape for those looking to stay relevant and confident. Dr. Ray warned that senior finance professionals need to talk to the people they are engaged with–else they will be reduced to dinosaurs. “They will be hostage to the newer guys. That’s why we want to equip them with the right knowledge,” he added.
The world was already changing, but with the COVID19 crisis, these changes have sped up. If you are not reinventing your career to get on the bus of these changes, you will miss the big road. This GEDM course will get on that bus fast, concluded Dr. Patnaik. Dr. Ray also cautioned about avoiding the pessimistic bias. “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste–it means chaos, but to the right pair of eyes and brains, it is an opportunity,” as Paul wrapped it up perfectly.
Dr. Patnaik admired the outline of the programme. “It is amazing. I am sure it would be a significant jump in the knowledge repository for anyone who takes this course.” We have not seen the bottom yet, as Dr. Patnaik reminded us. But the sun’s rays are up for us to grab and hold on to.
TalentSprint
TalentSprint is a leading deep-tech education company. It partners with esteemed academic institutions and global corporations to offer advanced learning programs in deep-tech, management, and emerging technologies. Known for its high-impact programs co-created with think tanks and experts, TalentSprint blends academic expertise with practical industry experience.
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How digitally intelligent platforms are empowering the youth to pursue exciting careers of their choice
The way we shop (eg. Amazon), the way patients are treated (robotic surgery), the way we bank (UPI), or the way we travel (Uber, Ola) have all changed phenomenally over the last couple of decades. Each of these areas has been disrupted, thanks to technology. Technology companies have transformed into retail stores and banks rather than just traditional companies.
While this is the case with most areas, let us take a look at the education system. It may not be unfair to say that the system has not changed much over 1000s of years. Education continues to be traditional in most sense of the terms. There are 30-60 students in the classroom. Different faculty members come and deliver classes/lectures. The class is assumed to be learning at the same speed and they move in cohorts. However, the fact is, each student learns differently and at different speeds. It takes a phenomenal teacher (always in short supply) and small cohort size (major challenge to scale) to give any personal attention to the needs of every student.
However, we see some real impact of technology in the youth today. I was talking to a friend’s son recently. He is a very bright student and was a school topper in a very popular school in Chennai. He won various All India Science Competition awards. And only a few months back, he had surprised everyone, including his family and school management by joining a business degree (shunning both engineering and science) program. And recently, he decided to drop out of college, barely 6 months into the 3-year program.
While talking to him, at the request of his father to see what is happening, it was clear that his aspirations (and abilities) were far higher than what the education system could feed him with. He decided to learn online with the top universities while pursuing his startup aspiration. I felt he had a clear vision of the career he wanted to pursue. And the ideas he had, with regard to learning different streams (his list: design thinking, artificial intelligence, supply chain management, business finance, virtual reality) to come with a startup idea really stumped me. The best part was, he also knew what program he would do on which platform and why he is choosing the same.
At the same time, I end up meeting many other students (and their parents), who are lagging behind. Unable to cope with the curriculum in school and taking personal tuitions and struggling to make the grades.
Both happening at the same time in spite of having access to a similar type of schools, curriculum, teachers, study load etc. Technology has helped one to pursue the dreams and has not been of help for the other.
This made me wonder about how technology has changed the education system over the years. We are currently in the fourth wave. The flip class wave, eLearning wave, the MOOCs wave and the Intelligent System wave. I believe that the impact of each of them in the evolution is significant, though these have so far had only a negligible change in the complete education ecosystem. Let us look at each of them.
Focused on transforming traditional lectures to self-study and home-work (applying the learning) to the classroom. However, it was found that motivating students to learn on their own, in their own time with available resources was not an easy task.
Tried to make self-learning more interesting. A lot of audio-visual came into play and so were interactive videos. This format enabled motivated students to learn more effectively and the gamification and edutainment quotient made it fun to learn. Again, the beneficiaries were the motivated and talented students.
The eLearning moved to video, at a really huge scale. Technically, one can learn today from the top most institutions across the globe at a fraction or no cost. This was touted to be the game-changer. However, here again, the beneficiaries were self-motivated talented students. Though millions of students joined the platform, the program completion rate continued to be generally in the low double-digit numbers.
Building on all the 3 waves, the intelligent platforms are now evolving to be the next big thing in education. The key focus of these platforms are:
Enables one to start with the end in mind. This is very effectively used by today’s youth specifically for their dream education and jobs. Be it preparation of GMAT, GRE, CAT or Bank, Government Exams, one is able to fix a goal and work towards it. Much like a sports person working on achieving a goal (say 100m in less than 10 seconds) one is able to create a goal for self and work towards achieving it with the help of the platform.
One of the biggest issues of the education system is mass customization and painting all the students in a cohort with the same brush. Today’s Intelligent platforms have enabled extreme personalization. Each student gets a study plan which suits him/her, completely based on one’s readiness vis-a-vis the goals. With the power of AI improving every day, this is becoming a reality and the results are there to see.
Keeping in mind the dynamic environment, intelligent platforms are able to adapt to these changes and help with dynamic planning to cater to the changing needs. Hence, half the process of a typical PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is taken over by the platform with Planning and Checking being automated. A student has to only Do what he has set out to do and Act on the updates based on current preparedness.
With the power of AI and huge amounts of data, the trends in the market both in terms of what is hot and what is not and in terms of career opportunities and learning skills are getting better by the day. AI has the potential to map and predict demand and supply across various career opportunities and skills. Intelligent platforms are not too far off in exploiting these strengths of AI and bringing exciting careers to pursue for the youth.
A word of caution though. These 4 waves showed that while technology was able to help motivated good students, getting it widely accepted by those who need a well-defined structure and continuous support to stay engaged were left out, which is the majority of the students and youth. A combination of technology effectively used in a structured environment (like school or college) is waiting to be exploited.
The Rise of Online Interactive Learning
For a long time, online learning did not find enough resources and attention. Both instructors and learners shrugged its benefits under the assumption that it is only a stop-gap arrangement for those who cannot be physically present. But look around. No matter how challenging, the current crisis has been an eye-opener for many naysayers and online courses’ skeptics. Today, from schools to colleges, universities, and corporate training departments, everyone is leveraging the power of online learning.
It has been established that online can be an excellent medium for learning anywhere, anytime, and from anyone. But what has also been revealed is the substantial interactive and engagement value that only online courses are creating for many niche segments and learners.
Just rewind your memory to an offline course or a traditional classroom. Yes, it was a relief to have both the mentor/coach and students present in the same room. But here a few questions to ponder.
The chances are that, more often than not, these courses were one-directional monologues. However, what online learning does is inject a never-before element of two-dimensional interaction in the same course. It makes the class an actual dialogue. And no matter how many people are in there–the quality stays the same.
As walls get redundant, the cognitive walls also get crumbled when a course is offered online. Here’s what happens in well-designed, carefully constructed, and diligently empowered online courses.
So let us stop assuming that online learning is a temporary phenomenon like remote-working or online-meetings. The potential of online learning has now moved to so many new propositions. No wonder the online education market size in India is expected to grow by USD 14.33 billion during 2020-2024, as per TechNavio’s estimates. The drivers are high internet penetration, the crisis-led needs, the rise of smartphone usage, and the government’s initiatives towards digitization. But what is also essential to observe is, they are now more than standby options. They can add speed and shrink distance for sure. But they can also compellingly expand the learning outcomes. They break not just walls but many boundaries too.
Diversity and Allyship in the DeepTech Industry
In the #WhatIndustryWants webinar, Anjana Chiramel, Sr. Human Resources Manager, GSMO India, Microsoft, shared interesting insights on diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.
Do you know in which year women started coming to the Harvard Law School to the campus? 1953 is when the doors were opened for women. But these women had no restrooms to go to!
How many women CEOs do we have at large companies in India? Just five percent!
As unbelievable as these things may sound, diversity and inclusion have long suffered at the workplace. Many aspects of a particular gender, race, color, or orientation have been ignored, dismissed, or treated with disrespect because companies had paid no attention or importance to workplace diversity. It’s no secret that the tech industry in India has struggled over the years to build a socially equitable workplace. However, most global enterprises today are encouraging an overall inclusive work culture as diversity-hiring witnessed a 32 percent jump in 2020.
A recent McKinsey survey shows that while overall sentiment on diversity was 52 percent positive and 31 percent negative, sentiment on inclusion was markedly worse at only 29 percent positive and 61 percent negative. This encapsulates the challenge that even the more diverse companies still face in tackling inclusion.
Accountability and priority are vital factors that the tech industry needs to underline more and more. This factor is becoming imperative in the current geopolitical landscape, especially for globally connected companies. The global environment is complex, and exclusion can hurt a lot. It affects employees in many ways – like reduced intelligent reasoning, increased self-defeating behavior, reduced prosocial behavior, and decreased well-being.
Diversity pays
So what does diversity make an enterprise gain? Or is it just a social tick-box? Or just some cost that one needs to expend in today’s era of a vocal and aware pool of employees and customers?
It turns out that it is a worthwhile effort, after all.
The McKinsey 2019 data analysis finds that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to experience above-average profitability than peer companies in the fourth quartile. Also, the higher the representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance. Companies with over 30 percent women on their executive teams are significantly more likely to outperform women between 10 and 30 percent. These companies are more likely to exceed those with fewer or no women executives.
Lack of diversity – that costs too
Recall the Glassdoor survey, which says that 67 percent of job seekers consider workplace diversity essential when considering employment opportunities. Also, 50 percent of current employees want their workplace to increase diversity. In addition, in Glassdoor’s 2020 Diversity Hiring Survey, 76 percent of employees reported that a diverse workforce is an essential factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
It is worth noting how diversity becomes significant to under-represented groups. For example, about 32 percent of employees and job-seekers would not apply to a company with a lack of diversity among its workforce. This expectation is higher for Black (41 percent) job seekers and employees, LGBTQ (41 percent) job seekers, etc.
That’s why many companies have hired dedicated, full-time diversity professionals, to enhance their diversity and inclusivity efforts. As a result, there is an increased demand for roles that can blend HR, recruitment, and leadership responsibilities.
Step up. Now.
A 2021 study on gender equality in the workplace has noticed that the Covid-19 pandemic set workplace equality back by several years. Interestingly, the gender equality index has been projected to drop two points between 2019 and 2021 to levels below that of 2017.
This is a serious issue, and we cannot afford to put it on the back-burner again. In its latest #WhatIndustryWants webinar, TalentSprint also put a spotlight on what diversity and inclusion look like in the tech industry empowered by deep tech. Experts like Anjana Chiramel, Sr. Human Resources Manager, GSMO India, Microsoft, shared fascinating insights on this hot issue.
Yes, the world is diverse. We will better serve everyone by representing everyone on our planet. We will be open to our own biases and changing behaviors to use collective power in the right way. As cited by a Microsoft executive, we do not just value differences; we seek them out and invite them in. And, as a result, our ideas are better, our products are better, and our customers are served in a better way.
We need to address many questions in the new world we enter and build now. Like – Why are companies focusing on increasing diversity at the workplace? What is the proper representation of students irrespective of college, place, or gender? How can responsible industry players lead to the creation of a vibrant and supportive workplace? How to use technology to create a positive change in the workplace?
A strong ally-ship path can help remove unconscious bias and support practicing a true diversity-mind-set at work. Help can also come from Employee Resource Groups that foster diversity and inclusion in many ways – across the spectrum. We need such interventions and efforts – at corporate as well as individual levels. We need to open up our minds to differences. Learn from everywhere around you. Inclusivity is everywhere, and an open mind is a powerful way to make you a better person, too. You will also benefit from your career if you can learn from anyone because you will not have any horizontal limitations.
Can we afford to create a non-productive, unhappy, and under-optimized workplace because of lack of diversity? Or can we do the opposite? The choice is upon us. The choice is to be made now.
