IBPC celebrates 15th anniversary with award ceremony
Indian and Kuwaiti personalities honored for boosting ties between the two countries
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 2: The Indian Business and Professional Council Kuwait celebrated its 15th anniversary with a glittering well-attended award ceremony at the Radisson Blu on Sept 26, 2018. The Guest of Honour for the evening was Rajendra Pawar, Chairman and Cofounder of the NIIT Group, a global leader in skills and talent development and IT solutions. Indian Ambassador to Kuwait HE Sri K. Jeeva Sagar and Dr Khaled Ali Mohammad Al-Fadhel, Undersecretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry were present at the event.
The IBPC is a non-profit voluntary association whose membership includes leading members of the Indian business community, senior corporate executives and professionals from the private sector and also senior managers of Indian public sector undertakings in Kuwait. Besides promoting business ties between India and Kuwait, IBPC also strengthens cultural relations between the two countries. The highlight of the evening was the IBPC awards that honoured Indian and Kuwaiti personalities who have contributed to strengthening business and cultural ties between the two countries. Over the years, the IBPC awards have set standards and encouraged excellence in the work area and community service. This year, the Kuwaiti awardees were Marwan Marzouk Boodai (Jazeera Airways), Waleed Al Osaimi ( Ernst & Young), Dr Fouad Al Khadra (Dan Holding), Sheikha & Muna Al Arfaj ( Harmony House) and Saad Abdulaziz Abdul Mohsen Al Rashed. The Indians to receive awards were Tony Jashanmal (Jashanmal), Pradeep Handa (NBK), Rani Ravindran Nair (Al Sabah), Ashok Kalra ( Mughal Mahal), and Mohammed Saleh Burud.
At the event, the Ambassador of India HE K. Jeeva Sagar spoke of the warm relationship between the people of India and Kuwait based on mutual trust, and the need to strengthen the same through concrete efforts. The high point of the evening was the keynote speech by Rajendra Pawar who spoke on an interesting and timely topic ‘Information Technology and Education’. “The 21st century is the century of the human mind, and interestingly in this century the centre of gravity of economic activity has shifted to the East – to India and China,” he noted. “The century of the mind is India and China’s century because traditional societies that have retained their culture for thousands of years understand the mind best. The wisdom of the past is the power of the mind.” Pawar reiterated his belief in the phenomenal growth of India when he said, “This is an outstanding time for Indian youth to be in India. No other place in the world will give them the kind of opportunity that India can.” He hailed the increasingly strong role of countries like India and China, which have become the epicentres of economic development with their dramatic growth.
Rajendra Pawar, one of India’s leading business and thought leaders, touched briefly on history in the economic context, and the role of human action and interaction in that regard. He spoke of the beginnings of economic activity which centred around agriculture and the subsequent changes. “A millennia ago we were an agrarian society with land and manpower as the chief resource. The scientific revolution in the 16th century brought about a significant shift from agriculture to the industrial era. During the industrial revolution, man’s role was subservient to that of the machine,” he said. The post-industrial phase in the 20th century was the information era, and this he said was heralded with the invention of the transistor with the semiconductor device. “This was the first time in the history of mankind that a device which could store information was created, and this, in turn, led to the information revolution.” The information age which is dominated by the computer with its capacity to store memory and improved productivity has an interesting influence on society which has been farreaching. He emphasized the infinite nature of information with its capacity for regeneration. “The world still hasn’t recognized this change,” he observed. “From a world driven by a shortage of material we have entered an era where bits of information are unlimited in nature.” He went on to negate the popular perception of this age as one driven by computers and machine. “The raw material,” he reminded his audience, “that goes into the computer is information that comes from the human mind.” Pawar recalled the basic tenet of Renaissance humanism which considered man the centre of the universe, limitless in his capacities, when he said that, “In the third era, the focus is not on the computer, but on the human mind.”
He went on to draw attention to concepts such as ‘big life data’, ‘cloud computing’ ‘internet of things’ and ‘artificial intelligence’- transformational principles that drive digital technology and in turn influence human society. His thoughts on artificial intelligence, a principle that allows Man to build computers that emulate the human mind, on faster and more efficient track are thought-provoking. “When will we reach the point when the device we have created, becomes more powerful than the human mind?” he wondered. Herein, said the founder of NIIT, is the role of education which can shape the mind in this ‘Century of Mind’ to build a better future. “Education the oldest subject on earth has always been relevant, but it is very deeply challenged now because of the nature of changes in the world.” He urged for better reforms in the education, which in turn will rise to meet the challenges of an increasingly changing world.