Event Summary

The flagship event InfraBlaze 2023 organized by the Infrastructure Management Committee at Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD) on 14th,15th and 16th December witnessed the delegates from public administration and corporate. The event was conducted in the presence of Dr. Netra Neelam, Director, Dr. K Rajagopal, Deputy Director and Dr. Kedar Bhagwat, HOD, MBA – Infrastructure Development and Management at SCMHRD.

The 9th edition of InfraBlaze was themed around “India’s Vision 2030: From Blueprints to Reality”. The keynote address was delivered by Shri Anil Swarup, Former Secretary- Ministry of Coal & Ministry of School Education. He was the chief guest and keynote speaker for the event. In the keynote speech, Shri Anil Swarup spoke about the importance of Ethics in the policy formulation for India’s Vision 2030. To achieve this vision the ideas must be Politically accepted, socially desirable, technologically feasible, financially viable, administratively doable, judicially tenable & emotionally relatable.

The first session of Day 1 of the 9^th edition of InfraBlaze at SCMHRD was an insightful session by Mr. Aman Sinha, Director & cofounder of TechSCM themed around Transforming Supply-chain using Digitalization. This event was conducted in offline mode at the SCMHRD campus. The discussion included the complexities within the supply chain, highlighting the scale of operations as a crucial factor along with enablers of digitalization and the impact of digital transformation on supply chains.

The second session of Day 1 of InfraBlaze at SCMHRD was a panel discussion themed around Logistics Cost Reduction: A Comprehensive Analysis of the National Logistics Policy. The panelists who participated in this session were Mr. Rajendra Nimmagadda, Director- Gateway Operations, Delhivery Ltd, Abhijit Basu, Associate Director-Supply Chain Management, PepsiCo, Mr. Nitin Chandra, Director-Supply Chain & Logistics, CBRE. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Rajesh Dhake. The discussion revolves around the National Logistics Policy, emphasizing the significance of infrastructure, data analytics, and collaboration with stakeholders. They highlighted the impact of India’s diverse geography on logistics and the need to address inefficiencies. The importance of transshipment ports for revenue and lead time was also addressed along with the Hub and Spoke model for reducing costs and serving customers.

On the second day of InfraBlaze an offline panel discussion themed around “Role of Infrastructure Consulting in Building a $10 Trillion Economy by 2030” was conducted. The panelists who participated in this session were Mr. Hanish Babbar, Director- Energy & Infrastructure, PwC, Mr. Siddharth Kalra,

Associate Director, Real Estate Professional, Colliers, Ms. Isha Gupta, Associate Director-Energy, Infrastructure & Environment, Mazars, Mr. Sabyasachi Haldar, Executive Director, Infrastructure Advisory, Almondz Global Infra Consultant Ltd. This discussion started with the allocation of capital for Infrastructure Expenditure in the budget & its detailed bifurcation which emphasized the scope of growth for various sectors under the Infrastructure domain. Also, how Infrastructure consulting is an enabler for India to achieve its vision for 2030 along with the diversified role of consultants which includes various aspects such as management, financial, technical and strategy which indicates the complex nature of infrastructure consulting & the intricacies that are needed to be addressed now for India to become a $10 Trillion Economy.

In the first session of day 3 of InfraBlaze, Ms. Diya Sengupta, Lead, Global Strategy & Consulting-ESG Measurement, Analytics & Performance at Accenture Strategy spoke about the topic “ESG Trends and Practices”. This was a highly interactive session that gave valuable insights to the students. The speaker shed light on the integration of various disciplines for ESG and the influence of extreme weather events. She also addressed modern slavery and its link to corporate supply chains, using Volkswagen as an example. She emphasized the significance of ethical and competitive business practices in the context of ESG, stressing the need for transparency and standardized reporting to maintain stakeholders’ trust.

In the second session of day 3 of InfraBlaze, Mr. Abhay Yagnik, Senior Vice President & Head of Business Development, at JSW Energy Ltd. spoke about “Renewable Energy Target & Energy Transition”. The speaker discussed renewable energy, focusing on challenges and opportunities while highlighting issues with reactive power production for induction motors, the significant investment needed for energy storage, and challenges in green hydrogen technology. Solar power generation’s limitation to daytime is also addressed. This session provided valuable insights for students and emphasized the need for further study in individual areas of interest.