Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday underlined the importance of sustainable development and said that the world needs business leaders who can look beyond short-term profit and work for long-term sustainability.

Inaugurating ‘Indian B-Schools Leadership Conclave’ virtually from Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas in New Delhi, the Vice President cautioned that our pursuit of development should not come at the cost of the environment.

Drawing attention to global warming and consequential increase in frequency of natural disasters, he said that this is impacting businesses as well.

The Vice President said that our B-Schools play a vital role in our economy and society because future managers, leaders and innovators are groomed and trained there.

Emphasizing that education must be socially relevant, he urged the young management students to visit nearby villages to study and identify rural India’s business & social problems and come up with viable solutions for the same.

Appealing to the young managers to have a larger vision of nation-building through businesses, Shri Naidu said- “Building character, imbibing values and inculcating empathy in budding managers should be the priority of our Business Schools for a better and happier world”.

On the issue of employability, the Vice President referred to India Skills Report 2020, which pegs the employability of MBA graduates at 54 per cent in the country.

Urging the B-Schools to think of ways of bridging this gap between enrollment and employability, Naidu called for increased interaction between academia and Industry so that students get exposure to real life situations and hands-on learning.

He also underlined the importance of enhancing the soft skills of students, which form an integral part of the overall make-up of a successful manager.

Noting that in the post-Independence era, US institutions like Harvard and MIT helped Indian B-Schools, Naidu expressed happiness over the fact that currently many of top management faculty members in US B-Schools were born and educated in India.

“I find this to be an excellent example of the interdependence between the two largest democracies of the world”, he said.

Recognising that COVID-19 is forcing educators and students to adapt to the virtual mode, Naidu said that this sudden shift towards online mode of interaction has also posed several challenges.

He advised the faculty of B-Schools to focus more on mentoring and guiding rather than lecturing and instructing. “Even in the virtual context, learners need to experience navigating their way in the new normal and learning critical thinking and independent decision-making skills”, he added.