12 May 2020|Noida | Amity University, Noida
Global Food Security and Future of work discussed during Webinars at Amity University
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A webinar on Global Food Security: Systems Recommendations was conducted by Prof. George Bird, Professor Emeritus, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, USA. “With the COVID 19 virus many unexpected events have occurred that need comprehensive monitoring system; appropriate management tactics and emergency safety nets. Food security impacts desirable quality of life,” shared Prof. Bird.
He further talked about Food security in a world of 7.7+ billion and how India had record wheat yields in India in 2019-2020. “Food is a fundamental right and Agriculture is humankind’s greatest invention,” he added. He further spoke about non-linear systems that are complex open systems with emergent properties not present in their parts, self-organization attributes, nestedness and subject to positive feedback bifurcation points with COVID-19 being a perfect example of it,” stated Prof. Bird. He further averred how food systems are complex non-linear systems that undergo three phases including growth; dynamic equilibrium and senescence. He also talked at length on the types of agriculture and the global scenario in agriculture.
A lecture by Mr. Venkat Sarma, CEO Pragma Advisor was delivered on ‘Enterprise Risk Management in relevance for COVID 19’. He shared how Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is different from traditional risk management and is an integrated holistic approach to identity, assess, measure and mitigate "key risks" facing an organization and is a way that is developed as a strategic planning tool. “ERM enables both financial and non-financial sector firms to address those risk which would prevent achievement of strategic objectives and faculties improvement in resource allocation, capital efficiency and return on equity. ERM is a top driven process which is initiated at the board level and seeks to not only mitigate key risks but seize opportunities. It involves understanding the firm's risk landscape; building a risk culture; setting a risk appetite and tolerance; drawing a risk charte; building governance and metrics around ERM processes and finally cascading ERM across the organization with accountabilities,” shared Mr. Sarma.
He further averred how proper management offer protection but can also create opportunity. “Every business regardless of the sector it operates in is exposed to risks. In a globalized complex world that we live in there are myriad risks including Event Driven risks- Natural Calamities, pandemics, geopolitical situation, terrorism; Regulatory risks- Environment, Health and safety, immigration and many more; Strategic risks- Digitization, Sharing economy, alternate energy, new payments methods etc.; Operational risks-Fraud, Cyber incidents, process failures and Compliance risk- Corrupt practices, KYC & Money Laundering etc,” stated Mr. Sarma. He further added that all these kinds of situations if not anticipated, planned for mitigated on an ongoing basis in a structured fashion can erode value and in extreme circumstances can create threats to existence.
A lecture by Mrs. Shweta Khurana - Director, Corporate Affairs - Intel India was organized on ‘Future of Work in the post Covid - 19 Era’. While addressing the gathering Mrs. Khurana said that according to the world economic forum, the 4th Industrial revolution can be described as the advent of cyber-physical systems involving entirely new capabilities for people and machines. The 4th industrial revolution represents entirely new ways in which technology becomes embedded with societies and even our human bodies.
She also shared how the 4th Industrial revolution will impact by Inequality leading to social instability; Winner takes all- Digital platform tend to grant outsized rewards to a small number of star products and services, which are in turn able to be delivered at almost zero marginal cost; and Job Erosion as the types of job being created in these industries tend to require higher level of education and specialized studies while those being destroyed involved physical or routine task
“2022 will be coming up with new set of skills like analytic thinking and innovation; active learning and learning strategies; technology design and programming; critical thinking; complex problem solving etc. No one can predict the future but we can prepare for it. We can see the need for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence as AI skills crisis; AI has a potential to boost the rates of profitability by an average of 38% and lead to an economy boost of USD 14 trillion by 2035 according to Accenture; AI fueled various opportunities to the world like disruptions across industries and data is new oil for AI. Government is creating national AI policies for future of work- building readiness and capacities. Re-skilling and up-skilling of next generation, workforce and government leaders is key government priorities,” shared Mrs. Khurana.