IT Minister Keynote
By Asha

Leaders from business, government, think tanks, private equity, industry associations, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and academia from around the world came together at the two-day conference, One Globe 2012: Uniting Knowledge Communities, that kick-started in the capital Delhi on Feb 3, 2012. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) has a partnership with this event.

Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD & Communications and Information Technology, Government of India delivered the keynote address at the conference. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations along with Vikram Gandhi, Founder and CEO, VSG Capital Advisors spoke on the importance of innovation to ensure inclusive growth in a session moderated by Vikas Bajaj from The New York Times. Lt. Gen. A.S. Lamba, Vice Chief of the Army Staff (Retd), The Indian Army shared his views on role and importance of security in building knowledge communities. SEBI’s former chairman, M. Damodaran, spoke on role of healthcare in economic development.

One-of-its-kind in South Asia, the One Globe 2012 knowledge conference covers the holistic gamut of primary and higher education, vocational training, skills development, economic development, gender and education, infrastructure, urbanization, design, technology and innovation. The conference also deliberates on need for private equity/venture capital investments in higher education, and entrepreneurship, employment and economic growth.
 
Says Harjiv Singh, Founder and CEO, Salwan Media, who conceptualized this event, “India has a rich demographic dividend in the form of over half its population under the age of 25, but what we do with it depends on how, and how soon, we align our educational systems to realities of a networked world. Today, technology drives everything around us, from e-governance programs such as the UIDAI, to quality distance education delivered through Cloud-based universities, to even working remotely from home! Our curriculum needs to innovate and adapt real fast to this technology-driven environment to churn out students that don’t just have degrees but skills to get jobs in global companies. We also see an increasing trend of switching multiple careers in today’s generation, so our educators need a radical mind-shift to empower students with all-round development that helps them learn, unlearn and relearn quickly.”
 
Industry representation at the Conference includes Accenture, IL&FS, Dalmia Bharat Group Foundation, Centum WorkSkills, Sage Publications, Ranbaxy, Steria, Duranta Holdings, Aspire, Saviance Technologies, Educomp Solutions, Gaja Capital Partners, Kaizen Private Equity, Datawind, Microsoft, Tata Interactive Systems, The Parthenon Group, Ozone Networks, VSG Capital Advisors, and FutureWorks.