Rural Management Business Conclave – Abhivyakti

The Xavier School of Rural Management (XSRM) in collaboration with Rural Manager’s Association (RMAX) of Xavier University Bhubaneshwar (XUB), hosted its 5^th annual business conclave, Abhivyakti, on August 19th, 2018. The conclave aimed to provide the students of Rural Management (RM) a comprehensive view on “Rural Business: Impact in Digital Era”, which was the theme for the event.

The speakers for the first session of the day were Sasanka Sekhar Singh (Director, Sutra Consulting Private Limited), Balaya Moharana (Chief technical officer, DeHaat and Co-founder, DoVo Health) and Satyajit Kumar (Marketing Head-ESP Agri, Larsen & Toubro). The other speakers who graced the conclave included Vijay Sardana (Independent Director, Nabkisan Finance Limited and Chairman, ASSOCHAM Task Force), Emmanuel V. Murray (Senior Advisor, Caspian Impact Investment Adviser Private Limited and Director, Trimaz Machines Limited), and Sankar Sastri (Head of Credit and Risk, ADANI Capital Limited).

Prof. T. Kumar, the moderator of the discussion, opened the forum by stressing on the need for digitalization in rural business. Prof T. Kumar also added, “The RM Conclave is a conclave with a difference. We are the managers of transformation”. The first speaker for the first panel was Sasanka Sekhar Singh, who addressed the gathering on the issue of digital marginalization and how digital technology can be used as an infrastructure. He also stressed on the importance of how we need to think and act from a manager’s perspective, rather than from a marketing point of view. Balaya Moharana spoke next on the necessity to create a technology platform to bring farmers, financiers, and suppliers together in one marketplace. The last speaker was Satyajit Kumar, who vocalized on how 10 years back marketers held the upper hand, but in due course of time, the customers are equally informed due to the readily available internet resources. Farmers now take informed decisions and awareness is on the higher side. He also discussed on the significance of SEO in the digital world, how social media these days can easily make or break a brand’s image and the need for a human to human interaction.

The second-panel discussion revolved around the policies and rural business in the digital era. Mr. Vijay Sardana spoke in lengths about how rural economy has an inbuilt potential. The need of the hour is to connect micro markets to mega markets for equal distribution and commercialization of unique resources. The next speaker, Mr. Emmanuel V. emphasized on digital technologies giving a breakthrough to the rural economy. Mr. Alok Shukla concluded the panel discussion by focusing on the ‘Go Rural’ campaign. He also discussed about various insurances such as life insurance, health insurance and livelihood insurance and their scope in the rural sector.

The third-panel discussion centered on rural banking and financial services in the digital era. All the four panellists were esteemed alumni of XSRM. Gowrisankara Rao Alamanda discussed the broad areas where digitization disrupts the rural economy and focused on the challenges in the digital environment. Sankar Sastri spoke in lengths about his experiences in the financial sector. Manish Kumar Raj talked about how micro-finance is helpful for the rural population and how Ujjivan helps in disbursing micro-finance services to them. Praful Ranjan explained how and why small finance banks were introduced in the rural areas and discussed on their penetration into the rural market.

All the sessions were followed by an interactive and enriching Q&A round, that helped the students of rural management clear their doubts regarding the intricacies of rural business. This event also marked the release of “Abhigyaan”, a bi-monthly newsletter by RMAX. All the guest speakers were presented a token of appreciation. The conclave concluded with a vote of thanks by the student coordinator of RMAX, Abinash Sahoo.