The Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) Pune, strives to increase the intellectual capital of the student body through interaction with stalwarts from diverse backgrounds.
The Research and Scholastic Development Team (RSDT) of SIBM Pune organized its annual flagship event 'Budget Symposium', for the first time on an online platform. The event was held on the 7th of February 2021 and the theme of this year’s symposium was "Envisioning The Roadmap For Economic Revival".
The Symposium began with an enriching discussion on the Union Budget between Mr. Dhiraj Nayyar, Director, Economics and Policy, Vedanta Resources, and Ms. Alisha Sachdev, Business Journalist, CNBC-TV18.
The discussion focussed on the 6 pillars of the Union Budget 2021 and the idea of minimum government and maximum governance was highly appreciated.
This was followed by an illuminative panel discussion with industry stalwarts including Former IFS Ambassador Gautam Bambawale, Sr. Advisor, Ola; Ms. Aastha Gudwani, India Economist, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Global Research; Ms. Urvashi Prasad, Senior Public Policy Specialist, NITI Aayog; Ms. Arpita Mukherjee, Economic Policy Researcher, ICRIER; Mr. Abhishek Bisen, Sr. Executive Vice President and Fund Manager, Fixed Asset, Kotak Mutual Fund; and Mr. Satish Thimmalapura, Deputy General Manager, Electric Mobility, Bosch Ltd.
The panel was moderated by Ms. Radhika Merwin, Ex Associate Editor, The Hindu Business Line. The experts on the panel expressed their views on topics like health, agriculture, defense and financial markets.
The discussion began its course by stressing upon the fiscal math of the budget and how the quality of expenditure has increased. In regards to the health sector, a change of perspective was presented by stating it to be extremely critical and productive for the economy and not just a social sector. The discussion also was directed to the current trend of decreasing allocation to the defense sector as a percentage of the GDP and this needs to be reassessed considering the current live border issues India is facing. The pressing matters of the agricultural sector concerning MSP was addressed and availability of medium to motivate the farmers to shift from conventional to organic farming were clearly highlighted. Lastly, the importance of a shift from an oil-based economy to a lithium-based economy was discussed. A push in legislation to encourage consumption of electric vehicles and ease the adoption of EVs in the Indian market, was considered to be imperative to the automobile sector.
The panel considered the Union Budget 2021 as a transparent budget which will lay out a roadmap to what lies ahead and what happens between FY 21 and FY 22. Albeit hosted virtually, the event was engaging and helped augment the understanding of the budget for the students.
