Industry and Academia come together to open

Industry and Academia come together to open minds of young students at Krea Career Dialogues 2021

 

Krea University hosted their flagship event “Career Dialogues”, which brought together over 20 speakers from industry and academia on one platform.

The day-long virtual event featured 4 panel discussions, exploring various Careers in Psychology; Sustainability; Arts, Media & Sport; Analytics. The aim of the event is to open the minds of young school students about future careers across multiple industry verticals.

Career Dialogues 2021 kicked off with two spectacular key note addresses, by Mr Anurag Malik, Partner – People Advisory Services at Ernst & Young and Ms Neerja Birla, Founder & Chairperson – Aditya Birla Education Trust.

In his address, Mr Malik emphasised “Interwoven Careers is the future…The new-age student who sees himself or herself as a professional in the years to come should be ready for the change, as companies are today taking a 360-degree view on skills.”

Addressing the exam time and academic stress that students face, Ms Birla said, “While it is important to do well academically, it's equally essential to remember that grades don't define a student.”

 

Each panel discussion that followed, brought multiple facets of each subject. The conversation on psychology covered Criminal, Sports, Counselling and Clinical aspects of the practice. The discussion on Sustainability hosted practitioners and academics from across Conservation, Sustainability, Economics of Environment and Climate Change. Spinning a different track, the next panel highlighted Arts Managements, Sports Media, and emerging Media technology. In the Analytics panel, experts from Media, Marketing, Financial Risk and Behavioural analytics shared their insights.

 

20+ speakers representing leading organisations like Tiger Analytics, McKinsey & Co, The World Bank, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Foreseti Consulting, Sony Sports, ArtSpire and many more, shared their insights on future trends in their area of work and shed light on the kind of skills industry will demand from young graduates.

 

In his opening address, Mr. Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Professional Learning at Krea University, said, “Last year, the World Economic Forum came out with a listing of the top 10 skills that will be needed to align oneself to the new opportunities that will be presented in the post-pandemic world by various discipline and industry segments. These include analytical thinking, active learning, problem finding, problem solving, creativity, originality and initiative, technology use, monitoring and control, resilience, stress tolerance, reasoning ideation and flexibility.”

Career Dialogues, is an important endeavour by Krea University in partnership with industry, towards informing school leavers about their various career options, to encourage them to follow their interest, to allow them to apply look at the world of careers more laterally than as silo tracks.

 

L&T completes Divestment of the Electrical & Automation Business to Schneider Electric

“L&T completes Divestment of the Electrical & Automation Business to Schneider Electric”

Highlights:

1.       The divestment deal announced in May 2018 has been completed after receiving the requisite regulatory approvals and fulfilment of necessary conditions

2.       L&T continuously evaluates its business portfolio and takes capital allocation decisions from a long-term perspective

3.       Its exit from the Electrical & Automation Business is a part of the strategic portfolio review process

4.       About 5,000 employees of the E&A business will become part of Schneider Electric’s global family

5.       The manufacturing facilities of E&A in Navi Mumbai, Ahmednagar, Vadodara, Coimbatore and Mysuru in India and related subsidiaries in UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia and Indonesia are also being transferred to Schneider Electric

6.       The subsidiary in Saudi Arabia, L&T Electrical & Automation Saudi Arabia Company Limited (LTEASA), will be transferred to Schneider, once the requisite regulatory approvals are in place

7.       L&T, over the past five years, in line with its strategy to focus on the EPC and Services business, has exited several businesses. The divestment is in line with L&T’s stated goal of unlocking value for future growth and this deal with Schneider Electric will further strengthen the balance sheet

This strategic divestment is in line with L&T’s stated goal of unlocking value
for future growth

 Larsen & Toubro (L&T), India’s leading engineering, technology, construction and financial services conglomerate, today announced the closure of the strategic divestment of its Electrical & Automation (L&T E&A) business to Schneider Electric, a global player in energy management and automation.

The significant and complex divestment deal, one of its kind in India announced in May 2018 has been completed after receiving the requisite regulatory approvals and fulfilment of necessary conditions. The divestment is in line with L&T’s stated goal of unlocking value for future growth. L&T continuously evaluates its business portfolio and takes capital allocation decisions from a long-term perspective. Its exit from the Electrical & Automation Business is a part of the strategic portfolio review process.

Commenting on the closure of this divestment, Mr. A.M. Naik, Group Chairman, Larsen & Toubro said: “The closure of divestment of the E&A business is a key milestone in our stated long-term strategy. The challenge was to carve out a business of this scale, with minimum disruption to the sprawling customer base and do it all amid the constraints of a pandemic. We believe Schneider Electric is the right partner to grow the business, that L&T had nurtured and grown over decades. We truly believe that this deal with Schneider Electric is a win-win for our employees, business partners, and shareholders.”

Mr. S. N. Subrahmanyan, CEO & MD, Larsen & Toubro said: “This all-cash deal will help us create a much stronger balance sheet, thereby creating long-term value opportunities for our stakeholders by focusing on key aspects of business. The deal was a complex M&A transaction involving slump sale of the domestic business and share purchase transfer. This is in sync with our strategy to look at L&T in broadly three areas, EPC Construction & Projects, Manufacturing & Defence and Services.”

L&T’s E&A business with its wide range of low and medium voltage switchgear, electrical systems, industrial and building automation solutions, energy management systems, metering solutions and projects and services business are transferred to Schneider Electric. Schneider Electric will use related brand insignia for a specified period as the brand is very popular and has a strong brand recall in the switchgear market.

About 5,000 employees of the E&A business will become part of Schneider Electric’s global family. The manufacturing facilities of E&A in Navi Mumbai, Ahmednagar, Vadodara, Coimbatore and Mysuru in India and related subsidiaries in UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia and Indonesia are also being transferred to Schneider Electric. In view of the pending local approvals, the subsidiary in Saudi Arabia, L&T Electrical & Automation Saudi Arabia Company Limited (LTEASA), will be transferred to Schneider, once the requisite regulatory approvals are in place.

L&T, over the past five years, in line with its strategy to focus on the EPC and Services business, has exited several businesses. The recent divestment of its stake in ports, insurance, road concessions and other businesses have all unlocked value and this deal with Schneider Electric will further strengthen the balance sheet.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) Legal Advisors, Ernst & Young (EY) LLP and Arpwood Capital acted as advisors to L&T on this transaction. 

Edtech Superapp Ken42 appoints

Edtech Superapp Ken42 appoints startup evangelist
Sasi Kumar Sundararajan as Advisor

Sasi joins the edtech company after having held senior leadership roles at Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PwC

Edtech Superapp Platform Ken42 has announced the appointment of Sasi Kumar Sundararajan as their Advisor. Sasi will be based out of Ken42’s Bangalore office. 

Sasi joins Ken42 with over 23 years of experience in the industry. His extensive experience with PwC, Deloitte and EY as Practice Leader cover Public, Govt. and Private sector consulting in Growth, Restructuring, Investments, Technology and Capacity Building across several sectors in India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Middle-East and GCC. 

In recent years Sasi has also been a guide, mentor and advisor to Startups, Incubators, Accelerators, PE Funds and Universities in the areas like Future of Work, Industry 4.0, Big Data, Digital, Disruption, Startups, Mid-markets, Growth, Sharing Economy and Circular Economy. 

Talking about Sasi joining the team, Ganesh Raju, Founder and CEO, Ken42 said “Sasi’s extensive experience as a growth enabler for startups and ample knowledge about the startup ecosystem, makes him the ideal fit to lead the Ken42 team towards innovation, efficiency and improvement. It’s a privilege to have him on board and we are ecstatic to have him be a part of Ken42’s journey into cultivating a Superapp Edtech Platform for India’s vast education ecosystem.” 

Sasi has completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, went on to study Management from esteemed Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and Masters in Labour Law & Labour Welfare from Symbiosis Law College, Pune. An engineering and management professional by education and a successful career in big 4 consultancy prepared him for entrepreneurship. In 2017, Sasi became the Founder and Director of Fungised Solutions Pvt. Ltd. a start-up that works in the areas of FoodTech, Robotics, Automation and IoT. 

On his new role at Ken42, Sasi Kumar Sundararajan said “During the lockdown, the edtech industry has boomed, finally getting the limelight it has been vying for all these years. In these testing times, Ken42 has outshined the market tremendously and is aiming to become the one-stop-shop solution for education and all its stakeholders, which is no mean feat. I am excited to join the Superapp in the making and aid in its growth and success to democratize education across the country.”